If you thought the saga surrounding HP’s decision to cease production of webOS devices was over, you may be mistaken. All Things D reported that key executives — specifically Todd Bradley of the currently-in-limbo Personal Systems Group and former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein — weren’t informed of the move until Sunday night. The blog’s inside sources say the two plan to remain at their posts for the time being, however, that could change dependent on what happens next with webOS. Those sources also noted that Rubinstein wasn’t exactly thrilled about the timing of the TouchPad’s release, saying CEO Leo Apotheker had failed to make good on a public promise to ship the tablet only when it was “perfect.” So will they stay or will they go?
Wednesday Google launched Magnifier, a “cousin” to the company’s Music Beta service which went live back in May. Unlike the latter which serves as cloud storage, Magnifier is a blog edited by Tim Quirk – Rhapsody’s former senior vice president and the current head of global content programming for Google Android – and focuses on music discovery, offering video of live performances, free music downloads and artist interviews.
“Magnifier is basically Music Beta’s cousin who lives in England, except that we don’t actually live in England, and you don’t have to wait weeks for new packages to arrive via air mail,” Quirk said in a blog. “Because we’ll bring you new free music each and every day. Sometimes it will be songs you haven’t heard of by artists you have. Sometimes it will be new artists we think deserve more attention. And sometimes there will be video interviews and live performances.”
Magnifier will feature a different artist each week. To kick things off, My Morning Jacket is the first featured artist offering two free tracks including an exclusive live performance of “The Day is Coming.” In addition to the featured artist, Google will also offer a new music track every day which can be dumped right into a Music Beta account without having to download and re-upload the file. And as always, all tracks can be streamed to Android devices and Google TV for free.
Unsurprisingly, Magnifier also ties into Google’s social website, Google+, by way of the +1 button. Users can’t directly share music tracks on Google+, but by pressing the +1 button on a blog hosting free tracks, the two sites are indirectly connected to the music. What’s missing is a sharing feature within Music Beta itself which would essentially allow users to store the tracks in their locker and then share samples on Google+.
Still, despite all the free music, Google’s Music Beta is simply an online locker. What it lacks is the ability to purchase, store and stream music all in one place. The blog adds a nice “discovery” touch, but Amazon and Apple will always have the upper hand. Still, Google is suddenly offering loads of new music… perhaps we’ll soon see an actual online store?
The last time we heard of HP, they acquired Palm, invest big in Palm and their WebOS, even had 3 products based on it, and finally threw it into the dustbin for good, all in one year.
HP last night confirmed that it planned to acquire Autonomy, an information management software firm based in the United Kingdom. The company utilizes a combination of technologies borne out of research at Cambridge University for its development of a variety of enterprise search and knowledge management applications. If all goes according to plan, it will soon become HP’s latest acquisition.
Speaking during a quarterly results conference call, HP President and CEO Léo Apotheker said that the company hopes the acquisition of Autonomy will help “accelerate” HP’s enterprise software business. The deal, expected to close by the end of this year, is worth $10.3 billion, which equals $42.11 per share for Autonomy. According to PC World, Autonomy and it’s 2,700 employees will operate as a business unit within HP and will continue under the leadership of current CEO Mike Lynch.
The news comes at the same time as HP’s announcement that it’s axing its TouchPad and Pre lines of tablets and smartphones. The company acquired the Pre line and WebOS when it bought Palm last year. HP paid $1.2 billion for the company during former boss Mark Hurd’s reign as CEO. At the time, Hurd caused quite a stir when he said he “didn’t buy Palm to be in the smartphone business.” Just a day later, Hurd went back on his initial statement and insisted that smartphones are part of the company’s WebOS plan.
“When we look at the market, we see an array of interconnected devices, including tablets, printers, and of course, smartphones,” he said. “We believe webOS can become the backbone for many of HP’s small form factor devices, and we expect to expand webOS’s footprint beyond just the smartphone market, all while leveraging our financial strength, scale, and global reach to grow in smartphones.”
Did Apple manipulate more photos in its legal proceedings against Samsung? Earlier this week, a report from Dutch website Webwereld accused Apple of doctoring a picture of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to make the size and aspect ratio look more like that of an iPad. The image in question was submitted as evidence in an intellectual property suit filed in a German court. Now, the company is accused of altering more than one image.
What you see below is a picture that was submitted as part of an IP suit in the Netherlands. It shows the iPhone and Galaxy S (far left and middle, respectively) looking almost exactly the same size. However, in reality, the Galaxy S is both taller and wider than the iPhone, as evidenced by the phone on the right. The Galaxy S measures 122.4 x 64.2 mm, while the iPhone 3G measures in at 115.5 x 62.1 mm.
Cupertino has not yet commented on the photo (nor has it said anything about the photo earlier in the week, which actually altered the aspect ratio of the Galaxy Tab, not just the size). Apple and Samsung have been caught up in this IP litigation for months now, but this latest revelation, along with the photo from earlier in the week, reflects extremely poorly on Apple. Especially when you consider the fact that the company has not even denied accusations that it altered the images. The company suffered another setback earlier this week when the injunction it had been granted to prevent Samsung importing Galaxy Tab 10.1 units into the country was lifted.
You know you’ve made it when you’re featured on your country’s stamp.
Though it’s suffering through some tough times, the BlackBerry is often credited as the smartphone that started it all, and it’s still incredibly popular among business people and the textually active crowd that can’t get enough of BBM. It’s also got its own stamp now.
Canada Post is honoring Canadian inventions with a ‘Made in Canada’ series that sees the electric oven, the electric wheelchair, the pacemaker, and, of course, the BlackBerry featured on stamps.
“While smart phones and other communications devices, as well as technologies such as push email and mobile apps, are commonplace now, they were nearly the stuff of science fiction in 1999, when Research in Motion founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie introduced the now iconic BlackBerry,” Canada Post said in a statement today. “Their invention freed information workers from their desks and changed the way the world communicates.”
Canada Post’s website indicates that there are only 2,250,000 of these booklets (featuring two of each stamp) available, so get them while you can.
Things have really been heating up this week in terms of iPhone 5 rumors. Rounding things out in time for the weekend is a report that an AT&T bigwig is telling employees to expect the iPhone 5 (and a serious busy period) in early October.
Boy Genius Report cites one of its AT&T sources as saying one of the company’s vice presidents has informed employees that the iPhone 5 is expected to launch in early October. This VP also told staff that the next 35 – 50 days are going to be very busy and they should ‘prepare their teams accordingly.’
The iPhone 5 is widely expected to debut in September or October of this year. Apple usually reveals the latest model of its smartphone in June, at WWDC, and ships the device in July. However, this year’s WWDC came and went without any mention of the new iPhone. There was no ‘one more thing’ at the end of the keynote speech, and there was no mention of an upcoming launch. Apple has said nothing to indicate it will unveil a new iPhone next month, but, as we all know, the Apple rumor mill is a powerful machine.
Microsoft just took the wraps off of its new developer blog, “Building Windows 8,” which will serve as the Windows’ team’s outlet for sharing new features and innovations for the next big operating system.
Windows president Steven Sinofsky penned the blog post, where he recognized that Microsoft has been fairly hush-hush on Windows 8 thus far.
“We’ve heard people express frustration over how little we’ve communicated so far about Windows 8. We’ve certainly learned lessons over the years about the perils of talking about features before we have a solid understanding of our ability to execute,” wrote Sinofsky.
Fortunately, there is now an official blog channel for Windows 8, which the development team hopes to use to reach all sorts of users and stakeholders of the next big version.
“We know people who care a lot about networking want to know our plans there. We know people who are invested heavily in storage want to know what is new in that area. Many want to know about performance and fundamentals. We know developers, IT pros, and gamers all want to know what’s new for them.” Sinofsky continued, “There is so much packed into Windows 8 and there are so many unique and important lenses through which to view Windows 8, and so we want to be sure to take the time to cover as many of these topics as possible, to build up a shared understanding of why we’ve taken Windows where we have. So in the next weeks we will just start talking specifics of features, since there is no obvious place to start given the varying perspectives. From fundamentals, to user interface, to hardware support, and more, if something is important to you, we promise we’ll get to it in some form or another.”
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