The big music label cabal membership shrinks to three. EMI has been sold in pieces to Sony and Universal. Look for more lobbying to make back catalog copyrights immortal with few new releases outside formula pop. Expect the indie market to grow even a little faster as the old school record deal will be all but dead.
Patent insanity: Microsoft gets some DOJ scrutiny after abundant coaxing from Google and B&N. While Android device makers continue to bear the brunt of Redmond’s royalty rustling, Google is accused of violating the Linux GPL in Android. Meanwhile back in the troll dungeon, Righthaven gets another well deserved flogging.
If tablets really are consumption devices, then content is king. The $200 tablet wars appear to be confirming this before new devices even ship. This could spell much bigger trouble for the fruit cult than it’s 66% price premium.
More fodder for new wave of class warfare agitators? Apple and Oracle dominate in tech’s highest executive salaries. Naw, these companies tend to lean left, so they’ll get a pass. Will these over the top salaries cause a shareholder revolt? That’s not likely either.
New life for Moore’s Law: Changes in transistor geometry could push chip density even further.
With the dramatic reduction in the number of movies being shot on film, camera manufacturers have responded. Is it the end of moving images on reels? I don’t think so. While digital has matched and gone beyond the old analog capabilities, the main issue is the greater speed and efficiency demanded by the movie business. With all of its advantages, digital lacks the look and feel of film, along with the slow deliberate process it requires. Like music and still photos, I think the movies will find a growing subset of artists who will gravitate towards the analog medium and keep it alive. That could give totally new meaning to the phrases film school and film festival.Having said that, analog projection is toast. Film will be scanned for digital presentation.
Is there a war looming between Google and Microsoft?A few new fighting words emerge from the mouth of Google’s normally stoic Larry Page.
With so much of public school’s focus going to theoretical pseudo science like man made global warming, it’s great to see the Girl Scouts step up to help fill the real science void. Kudos, ladies!
Congressmen Barton and Markey are worried about Amazon spying on Kindle owners via it’s Silk broswer. Funny thing. These two arrogant elites are among the many Congressional hypocrites that enthusiastically advocated for unconstitutional spying by the feds.
Teachers Union fails to block free online classes. This is one to watch carefully. As the interwebs take exclusive dominance from the traditional classroom, one of the nation’s most powerful lobbying groups will attempt to limit free information (AKA free speech)
The MicroSkype hookup is final. Skype will continue as a separate on at least the near term. In the past, most MS acquisitions were tightly integrated. Doing that would most likely be harmful to Skype. Is it possible Ballmer’s marketing savvy is finally overshadowing the conventional Gates way of doing things?
Has the bubble popped? Facebook shares sputter on the second market.
Android everywhere: Boeing’s new flying plastic cattle car uses Android to power its entertainment systems.
Defending Android: Google buys 1023 patents from IBM.
Juniper pushes edge router speeds to 3.8TB, promises even more soon. Backhaul capacity for 1GB broadbend connections was really never a problem after all.
AT&T powers up LTE Sunday. Pretty much a non event unless you are willing to pay large for a small bucket of bits.
Time to switch on the BIOS virus protection / write protect: Rootkit for BIOS found in the wild.
FCC announces a public test of White Spaces. It’s only a test and there’s no word of it being made public going forward. Leave the cork in the champagne bottle, but it may be OK to chill it and hope.
Now that Google owns Moto patents, Apple wants a truce. Advice to the Searchzilla: sue with prejudice until they the fruity kids call a truce with every Android device maker. Then go after Microsoft.
Verizon jumps into the prepaid biz with a $50 unlimited plan. Watch for AT&T to use this as “proof of a competitive market” without T Mobile. It could be a trojan horse as prepaid rates can be raised or lowered at will. If V sticks to this for the long haul, look for the second tier to move unlimited below $40. Even at that price wireless will continue to be phenomenally profitable.
Windows 8 preview scores half a million downloads in 12 hours. It’s free to try, but at $150 or more to buy, I don’t think there will be so many easy takers.
Intel’s Atom gets some Android love. This late in the game no one may even care. A significant number of device makers have no other relationship with Intel that it can leverage. That will make getting any market share difficult.
Conventional wisdom has it that if you want to sell a tablet or smartphone Apple will probably sue you. It’s a dirty game of the world’s most valuable company trying to control the market for a device that is almost entirely composed of prior art invented elsewhere that no one owns the right to.
Most often hit by Apple’s copyright trolls are second tier Android device makers that can’t afford lengthy battles. It’s a way to block Google’s business without directly doing battle with a company that can afford to defend itself. In a new turn of events, HTC has decided to sue back, using Google held patents.
HTC employed nine patents that originally came from Palm, Motorola, and Openwave Systems, which Google bought within the past year, Bloomberg said, citing U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records. Google transferred the patents to HTC on September 1.
The latest lawsuit marks Google’s strongest show of support for its Android partners. Apple has levied multiple lawsuits against Android supporters including HTC, Motorola Mobility, and Samsung Electronics in a bid to halt their momentum in the increasingly cutthroat smartphone market.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20102903-94/htc-sues-apple-using-google-patents-report-says/#ixzz1XKTHDnMF
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