AOL; Microsoft and Yahoo! are joining forces in order to (attempt) to challenge Google’s on-line advertising dominance.
In a word: Yawn…
From the Guardian UK: http://goo.gl/vFLJM
Based on the fact that consumer e-books sales (within the first 5 months of 2011 overtook all adult hardback books sales) the American Publishing Industry (although they report that it’ll ultimately wind-up differently) looks to be going the (route) way of the Music and Newspaper Industries (e.g., dying painfully slow deaths to put it bluntly / mildly).
From the Economist: http://goo.gl/weufZ
Skynet (no; not the main nemesis in the Terminator movie series that become ‘self-aware’) is actively seeking the assistance of idle home PCs in order to process / sort through astronomical data…
For more information… actually, it is a good thing that the previous reference is / was still only the stuff of science fiction… otherwise, it’d already know how to contact any given citizen, right?
From the BBC: http://goo.gl/NjrDR
Apple is clearly staying on offense in / with their on-going litigation against pretty much any firm that challenges their smartphone supremacy (as they’re adding ‘Googlorola’ to the mix now).
From Ars Technica: http://goo.gl/vC1kE
A lot is far too often made about ‘what’s not being done.’ Perhaps we’d all be well-served to focus on what is actually being done (e.g., doing what we can… with what we have… starting right now).
From PC Magazine: http://goo.gl/dgoKi
The ridiculous AOL / Yahoo! merger talk (over the past few days) would essentially equate to two dinosaurs trying to turn the clock ‘back to the future.’
Yahoo! walked away from a roughly $50 Billion (outright) purchase by Microsoft (which has long since been a dead-deal… 2008 is an eternity ago… that will in all probability never be revived…)
Conversely; AOL did purchase The Huffington Post (which aside from the big cash windfall of the principle-owners) could be viewed in retrospect (given the firm’s continued downward slide) as the beginning of their end (to quote Churchill)… as early 2011 until this point in time hasn’t turned the parent firm’s fortunes around (in any significant way… other than perhaps give them a bit of a reprieve…)
The two together: meh… comes to mind as perhaps the first-blush response as it’d essentially amount to nothing more than most likely just forestalling their (seemingly) inevitable (and respective) demise(s).
From the Atlantic Wire: http://goo.gl/OZUXh
For those aficionados; pundits and/or laymen who are betting on the battle for Smartphone supremacy coming down to a two-firm race (between Apple and Samsung) Motorola has seemingly upped the ante (which most likely means that HTC will do the same via their next releases) in and as far as features; functionality; bells and whistles, etc.
Lots of tech-geeks and consumers the world-over who like to make an ‘impression’ with how cool their latest and greatest handset is have got to be chomping at the bit over the Droid Bionic… which is all fine and well if one is into that sort of thing… Nevertheless, it is still a phone and as is the (on-going) trend in technology… look to another company to release a model that (real and/or perceived) will triumph this one (in short order).
From IBT: http://goo.gl/jRcPH
Losing a prototype iPhone one-time; plausible (aside from the draconian manner in which the aftermath was handled). Said incident happening again… questionable at best…
From MSNBC: http://goo.gl/7Mkkg
Apple isn’t the only firm that’s being (legally) aggressive within the (on-going) battle for ‘Smartphone supremacy’ as the firm counter-sued Apple via patents that they purchased from Google (supposedly within the last week!)
From Bloomberg: http://goo.gl/JgrMD
Sprint’s lawsuit whereas the firm is quote: “Sprint opposes AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile,” Susan Z. Haller, VP of litigation at Sprint, said in a statement. “With today’s legal action, we are continuing that advocacy on behalf of consumers and competition, and expect to contribute our expertise and resources in proving that the proposed transaction is illegal” – whilst sounding noble in nature is actually tragically laughable.
Think about it for a moment… the reason why it is laughable is that it took the company this long to get around to filing the suit in the first place (which meant that all the reasons why it supposedly filed it didn’t just appear as a result of this position that they’ve now taken… they are / have / were and will be there regardless of this noble-cause that they’re now taking up!?)
In sum; this is a classic example of everything that is wrong with America and a major reason why the country has found itself in some of the myriad of challenges that it is facing (currently). Hint, hint: Greed and a focus on the profit-motive vs. actually doing the right thing (which if this lawsuit was actually the ‘right thing’ to do, Sprint would have filed it months ago… as would have other concerned citizens be they corporate and/or private…)
From Information Week: http://goo.gl/bvR0b
