Top Items:
Jason Busch / SpendMatters:
Vista, Office and Outlook 2007 are a Nightmare — Hey, category managers in charge of IT spend. Want to make yourself a friend of the business for life? I've got a secret for you: don't rubberstamp your CIO's decision to upgrade to Vista or Office 2007. In fact, tack on a big "reject" to the request or the requisition.
Discussion:
Global Nerdy, jkOnTheRun, Software as services, A View from the Isle, Venture Chronicles, Between the Lines and AccMan
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Chris Pirillo:
Windows Vista: I'm Breaking up with You — No, seriously. When I know I have time, I'm "upgrading" from Windows Vista to Windows XP. — I stand by my original assertion that the shipping version of this OS is late beta, at best. I realize that other enthusiasts are leaving Windows altogether …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Ning: let '000 Social Nets Bloom — Ning, thanks to the pedigree of its co-founder, Marc Andreessen, has been under close scrutiny by the Silicon Valley cognoscenti. The Palo Alto-based start-up has played its cards close to its chest, a move that has left many scratching their heads and wondering what is Ning.
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Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Ning In Full — I have to hand it to Ning - it took them well over a year after their initial beta launch to fulfill their promise of allowing "anyone" to create social applications, but they've done it. Ning relaunches tonight with new functionality and an interface that allows …
Daniel Terdiman / CNET News.com:
Integrated voice coming to 'Second Life' — Second Life users who want to chat up those cute avatars across the virtual room can soon try to lure them over with voice rather than text. — Next week, Second Life publisher Linden Lab plans to unveil a small beta trial in which, for the first time …
Discussion:
Ministry of Tech
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Business Wire:
Carl Icahn Invests $50 Million in Motricity — Funding Fuels Motricity's Continued Growth and Expansion — DURHAM, N.C.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Motricity, a leading provider of mobile content services and solutions, today announced the completion of $50 million in equity funding from Carl Icahn …
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Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:
Creating Engaging User Experiences — Adobe's holding a special product preview summit today called Engage, focused on Adobe's new tools for creating engaging user experiences. I love Adobe's framing of "engaging user experiences" as a touchstone for the web going forward.
Discussion:
The Universal Desktop
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Sony:
SONY'S CHARMING CYBER-SHOT DIGITAL CAMERAS BECOME THE LIFE OF THE PARTY — Sony is introducing a line of slim and stylish Cyber-shot T-series cameras that are destined to be the fashionista crowd's favorite party companion. — The 8-megapixel DSC-T100 camera is a showstopper …
Kelly Hill / RCR Wireless News:
Verizon Wireless to launch Vcast Mobile TV March 1 — Verizon Wireless will begin offering mobile television on March 1, according to coverage maps on the carrier's Web site. — No further details were offered, and the maps offered the caveat that mobile TV would be available only in "select markets" on March 1.
Discussion:
InformationWeek Weblog, MoCoNews, StartupSquad.com, broadbandreports.com and Phone Scoop
Joe Wilcox / Microsoft Watch:
How Ultimate Is This? … I was poking around Microsoft's support lifecycle page for another blog post and observed some oddities, one being that Windows Ultimate support ends on April 10, 2012. Windows Vista Business and Enterprise both receive Extended Support, which means five more years—or April 11, 2017.
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Iljitsch van Beijnum / Infinite Loop:
Final version of Parallels Desktop released as free update (updated) — Is it a sad commentary on our zeitgeist that the actual release of a piece of software, rather than a new beta, feels slightly disappointing? We're so used to running beta software these days (yes, I'm looking at you …
BBC:
Burgers paid for by mobile phone — Visitors to fast food outlets in Japan will soon be able to pay for their burgers with their mobile phones. — Japanese mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo is teaming up with McDonalds to offer electronic payments and special promotions for mobile users.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Gizmo 3.0, Voice for all IMs — JUST RELEASED: How do you make Gizmo Project better? Add free calling to other IM clients to the service. And that's exactly what SIPphone, the company behind Gizmo Project, has done with the just-out-of-oven Gizmo Project 3.0 soft client.
useit.com:
Life-Long Computer Skills … I recently saw a textbook used to teach computers in the third grade. One of the chapters ("The Big Calculator") featured detailed instructions on how to format tables of numbers in Excel. All very good, except that the new Excel version features …
Sony:
SONY INTRODUCES ENERGY LINK USB PORTABLE POWER SUPPLY AND ADAPTOR — Today's growing mobile market can now power up most portable, USB-compatible electronics devices virtually anytime, anywhere thanks to Sony's new USB portable power supply, which, when fully charged, can give hours of play time.
Amy Gahran / E-Media Tidbits:
Startling New News Technology — Yesterday, I found it in my driveway and brought it inside. I thunked it down next to my husband, who was tapping away on his laptop. "Check it out," I said, "It's a different kind of news delivery technology. It's called a news-paper."
Jeff Atwood / Coding Horror:
Why Can't Programmers.. Program? — I was incredulous when I read this observation from Reginald Braithwaite: … The author he's referring to is Imran, who is evidently turning away lots of programmers who can't write a simple program: … Dan Kegel had a similar experience hiring entry-level programmers:
Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
Kazaa's Creators Do Latest Venture by the Book — Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis made names for themselves as renegade Internet entrepreneurs by taking conventional tasks like talking on the phone or listening to music and giving consumers an unconventional — and free — way to do it.
