Miscellaneous
06 December 2011
The Rise of Google, the Ascent of Facebook and the Decline of Everyone Else AllThingsD
If you pay the slightest bit of attention to Internet advertising, you know this. But it's always good to see it spelled out: Look how ginormous Google is!
05 December 2011
'Yahoo hasn't done anything in the past 10 years to set the internet alight' The Guardian
Why would anyone want to buy Yahoo? Such was the question posed by one of my Twitter followers as Thursday's bid (from private equity groups Blackstone and Bain) crossed the wires. "It's a zombie company," he said.
Mini-masts in the home to beat Wi-Fi signal overload The Observer
The drive for universal mobile phone coverage has seen masts hung from every street corner and disguised as fir trees, clocks and even church windows. Now miniature versions could make their way into living rooms, under plans being drawn up by Virgin Media.
02 December 2011
Australia's High Court extends ban on sale of Samsung's tablet The Australian
The tables have turned in Australia back towards Apple in its global tablet war with Samsung Electronics, with the country's highest court extending a ban on the sale of Samsung's device for at least another week.
21 November 2011
Mixed Results as Google Enters Microsoft's Turf New York Times
... What's happening at Journal Communications is one small win for Google and its cloud computing challenge to Microsoft's lucrative Office division, maker of Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. But more than 4 1/2 years after Google Apps for business made its debut, the question remains how much of a dent Google is making in Microsoft's business.
There are no free lunches on the internet The Observer
Twitter users will eventually discover - as users of Facebook and Google already have - that there is no such thing as "free" on the web
20 November 2011
Wikipedia hosts India conference amid expansion push BBC News
Hundreds of people are gathering in Mumbai for India's first Wikipedia conference.
11 November 2011
HTML5: A Look Behind the Technology Changing the Web Wall Street Journal
... The technology allows Internet browsers to display jazzed-up images and effects that react to users' actions, delivering game-like interactivity without installing additional software. Developers can use HTML5 to get their creations on a variety of smartphones, tablets and PCs without tailoring apps for specific hardware or the online stores that have become gatekeepers to mobile commerce.
10 November 2011
Yahoo! Searching for a future The Economist
If Yahoo! had its own personal profile on Facebook, its relationship status on the social network would read "It's complicated". Two months after booting out Carol Bartz, its chief executive, the internet giant is flirting with a number of investors and firms that would love to get their hands on some or all of its assets. At the same time, Yahoo! is still keeping the option open to go it alone. On November 8th the company struck an online-advertising alliance with Microsoft and AOL, another web firm, in its latest bid to bolster its fortunes.
08 November 2011
The Hidden Infrastructure of the Internet The Atlantic
The Internet is more than just a series of tubes, but how many people can actually describe the physical structure of the networks we use every day? Andrew Blum argues in "Tunisia, Egypt, and Miami: The Importance of Internet Choke Points" that the hubs that connect this "network of networks" are incredibly vital, and vulnerable, whether located in Egypt or the U.S.
01 November 2011
Daniel Bennett provides communications under fire for Australian Defence Force in Middle East The Australian
Daniel Bennett knows his role as the Australian Defence Force's commanding officer of the force communications unit in the Middle East differs from most other technology leaders.
27 October 2011
A Bleak Picture for TV Makers: as more people download and stream video, the television is becoming just another screen Wall Street Journal
For decades, the television was the flagship of any consumer-electronics product line-up. Of all the gadgets in the home, the TV garnered the most prominent real estate in the living room, cost the most to buy, and carried the biggest brand cachet. And for the Asian consumer-electronics makers who manufactured them, selling TVs was a good business.
25 October 2011
The deification of Steve Jobs is Apple's greatest marketing triumph to date The Guardian
... The truth? In many ways Apple is just another very profitable company, which in July announced that its revenues were $28.57bn, up 90% year-on-year, with profits of $7.31bn, up 124% year-on-year. It is visionary in its products and marketing techniques, but conventional in its working practices and goals. It is, like most world-munching corporations, a feudal hierarchy. There is nothing visionary in transferring the manufacture of your products from the US to China, and subcontracting the work to other companies, thereby circumventing labour laws, as Apple did 10 years ago. The working conditions of those who manufacture the products are appalling and ill paid.
Big projects demand workers highly skilled in telecoms The Australian
Telecoms may become the sector of choice for highly skilled technical candidates, with the National Broadband Network proving a major drawcard, recruiters say.
22 October 2011
Europe's first Galileo satellites lift off BBC News
Europe's first satellite-navigation spacecraft have been sent into orbit.
21 October 2011
Galileo sat-nav set for new launch attempt BBC News
Another attempt will be made on Friday to launch the first satellites for Galileo - Europe's version of GPS.
Viasat broadband 'super-satellite' launches BBC News
One of the most powerful satellites ever built has been put in orbit by a Russian Proton rocket.
20 October 2011
Microsoft, Others Work on Yahoo Bid Wall Street Journal
Private-equity firm Silver Lake Partners is working with one of its investors, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, and Microsoft Corp. to put together a proposal to buy Yahoo Inc., people familiar with the matter said.
18 October 2011
Benefits of the cloud are getting through The Australian
Substantial investments by service providers and growing interest from customers is morphing cloud computing from a technical novelty into a mainstream business strategy.
17 October 2011
Google In China 2.0: New Strategy Avoids Censorship Showdown WorldCrunch
Some 18 months after clashing with Beijing authorities, Google seems to have found a major new way to break through in China. Not only does it avoid web censorship dilemma, its new strategy opens an opportunity for Google to capture the booming online advertising market.
14 October 2011
Google makes advances in battle with Facebook The Guardian
Google defied the global economic slowdown last night by posting a 26% rise in net profits for the last quarter.
11 October 2011
Cutting the cord: how the world's engineers built Wi-Fi ars technica
In the 1980s, even before connectivity to the Internet became commonplace, people realized that connecting a group of computers together in a local area network (LAN) made those computers much more useful. Any user could then print to shared printers, store files on file servers, send electronic mail, and more. A decade later, the Internet revolution swept the world and LANs became the on-ramp to the information superhighway. The LAN technology of choice was almost universally Ethernet, which is terrific apart from one big downside: those pesky wires.
06 October 2011
Yahoo! shares surge 10% on Microsoft takeover rumour BBC News
Shares in the internet portal firm Yahoo have leapt 10% on rumours that Microsoft is considering a second attempt at a takeover.
04 October 2011
Yahoo Has a Crowd, Wants a Voice New York Times
One company dominates online news, sports and finance. It has more visitors to its news site than the runner-up in the category, CNN, more in sports than ESPN and more in finance than Dow Jones, owner of The Wall Street Journal.
03 October 2011
Amazon: Walmart of the web - The internet giant's new tablet computer fits its strategy of developing big businesses by charging small prices The Economist
A couple of years after it launched its website in 1995, Amazon was the subject of an unflattering report entitled "Amazon.Toast". The pundit who penned it predicted that the fledgling online bookseller would soon be crushed by Barnes & Noble, a book-retailing behemoth which had just launched its own site.
