Can Larry reboot Google?

Can Larry reboot Google?: Bill Gates got to this point with Microsoft, tried to re-whip the intelligence of his early days, failed, and went on to be a philanthropist.

Steve Jobs was fired before Apple could get to this point. He spent years in the wilderness, came back and somehow got Apple to turn the corner. Probably because he had no reason not to fire the losers who accumulate in BigCo’s. There was a huge purge at Apple in 1997 and 1998.

Larry Page and Mark Zuckerberg are there now. Neither of them has made it over the hump. Will they be Steve or will they be Bill? Or something else. [Something else… if anything.]
Source: Scripting News

Google’s reaction to Kindle Fire

Google’s reaction to Kindle Fire:

You’re not the licensee Droid is looking for. Google’s reaction to Kindle Fire speaks volumes about its goals for Android. Kindle Fire is based on Android, and will run Android applications. Android has been struggling in the tablet space, so you’d expect that Google would be delighted to have Amazon on the Android bandwagon. But you’d be wrong. Let’s look at the press release Google issued today to welcome Amazon to the Android family. Wait a minute, there is no press release. Okay, so let’s look on the Google blog. Nothing at all. Maybe a tweet from Andy Rubin? Dead silence.

&

Slouching toward Bethlehem. One revolution I’m sure is coming is the remaking of the print publishing industry. As I’ve said before (link), once about 20% of the reading public has electronic devices, an established author can make more money bypassing print and selling direct through e-readers. I think the new Kindle line, and especially the entry-level Kindles at $99 and below, will finally push us past the 20% threshold. It will take a couple of years to play out, but this will force the long-awaited restructuring, or destruction, of the traditional book publishing industry.

[Book publishing is not entirely about the medium, although everyone likes to talk as if it is. It’s really about author services.]

It’s the Content Providers (or not)

It’s the Content Providers:

The Angry Drunk:

While the Netflix changes are certainly annoying, and the
messaging was less than stellar, we need to make sure to remember
where the blame ultimately lies  —  with the content
providers. Until they decide to get with the program content
distributors like Netflix and Apple will always be at their mercy
and customers will continue to suffer.

and

The answers to these ques­tions, and I believe the dri­ving force behind the Netflix changes all involve one group: the con­tent providers. The tech press some­times seems to think that dis­trib­u­tors like Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Redbox, Blockbuster, etc. just pull this con­tent mag­i­cally out of their asses. They ignore the fact that there are pow­er­ful movie stu­dios and record labels that are obsessed with main­tain­ing con­trol over their prod­uct dis­tri­b­u­tion and are scared shit­less over dig­i­tal dis­tri­b­u­tion. How soon we for­get that a major Netflix con­tent provider, Starz, recently told Netflix to piss up a rope and took their ball home.

[It’s complex and battle between the content providers is always more complex that it seems on the outside. Amazon is getting into publishing, publishers are getting into selling retail. What if Amazon decided to start producing some of the products they sell (besides the Kindle et al)? It is also easy to decide that the content providers are screwing everything up for you and me… it’s never that simple.]
Source: Daring Fireball

The Cloud’s My-Mom-Cleaned-My-Room Problem – Alexis Madrigal

The Cloud’s My-Mom-Cleaned-My-Room Problem – Alexis Madrigal:

Netflix, Twitter, and Google make unasked-for, unanticipated, and unstoppable change in their products, which also happen to be our work and play spaces.

and

But the freedom of usage that defined personal computing does not extend to the world of parental computing. This isn’t a bug in the way that cloud services work. It is a feature. What we lose in freedom we gain in convenience. Maybe the tradeoff is worth it. Or maybe it’s something that just happened to us, which we’ll regret when we realize the privacy, security, and autonomy we’ve given up to sync our documents and correspondence across computers.

[The thing to remember is that we do not have to give up one to have the other. We can have document syncing etc. without living “in our parents house” simply by paying for the services. We can have our privacy and our freedom. But it has a cost.]

IDEO: Big Innovation Lives Right on the Edge of Ridiculous Ideas

IDEO: Big Innovation Lives Right on the Edge of Ridiculous Ideas:

“Those skeptics are in every walk of life. You can certainly combat it with the experimenter role. Show people it’s possible, don’t just tell them. It’s always been the seemingly improbable, boundary-pushing ideas that have created this world around us and none of that would have been possible if they’d listened to all the people who said it never would have worked. We’d still be living in caves if we relied on the skeptics.”

Also see: From Ridiculous to Brilliant: Why We Play at Work

Cringely Called It

Cringely Called It:

Cringely, back in February:

Then there’s Meg Whitman, who expected at this point to have
resigned from the HP board to spend all her time running
California as governor. But that didn’t happen, so now what is
she to do? You can only get so many pedicures. She’ll eventually
get around to hip-checking Apotheker and taking his job.

Can’t get more accurate with a prediction than that.

[Good one!]
Source: Daring Fireball

FaceTime calls are encrypted, HIPAA compliant

FaceTime calls are encrypted, HIPAA compliant:

This isn’t the issue from last fall, but Apple addressed questions regarding FaceTime security to ZDNet. An Apple representative assured the site that the FaceTime conversation stream is encrypted from end to end, and each FaceTime session has unique session keys for each user.

What this does is make FaceTime HIPAA compliant as long as the wireless network being used utilizes WPA2 Enterprise security with 128-bit AES encryption. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is the U.S. standard for electronic health care transactions designed to keep these records secure and protect patient privacy. With the protocols being followed, those in the healthcare industry can apply for grants for Apple gear since HIPAA compliance is required.

[For Lisa…]
Source: The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Google gave ‘the ultimatum only a monopolist can give’

Google gave ‘the ultimatum only a monopolist can give’: For me, the testimony of Yelp’s Stoppelman and Nextag CEO Jeff Katz was the most compelling, because it came from Web-based entrepreneurs who know all too well how the game is played.

Here’s the crux of the story Stoppelman told the senators: 

“The experience in my industry is telling. Google forces review websites to provide their content for free to benefit Google’s own competing product, not consumers. Google then gives its own product preferential treatment in Google search results.

“Google first began taking our content without permission a year ago. Despite public and private protests, Google gave the ultimatum that only a monopolist can give: In order to appear in Web search, you must allow us to use your content to compete against you. As everyone in this room knows, not being in Google is equivalent to not existing on the Internet. We had no choice.”

Google softened its stance, according to Stoppelman, only after the FTC announced an antitrust investigation, the states’ attorneys general took notice, and the Senate antitrust committee proposed this hearing.

The text of Stoppelman’s written testimony is available here.

[The usual mess…]
Source: FORTUNE: Apple 2.0