FocuSoft Tech Blog |
- SolarCity charging stations on Highway 101 give Tesla owners a little more time in the sun
- Exclusive Interview With Steve Ballmer: Products, Competition, The Road Ahead
- Liftopia Raises Another $1 Million For Variable Ski Resort Ticket Pricing
- Google Threatens Cyanogen Android Hacker With Cease-and-Desist [Android]
- Ask Engadget: What’s the best business phone out there?
- Spaberry Portable Hot Tub: A Kiddie Pool In Which Seduction Is Legal [Hot Tubs]
- Alienware Aurora ALX announced, melts faces with speed
- Implant can help sleep apnea patients not frighten their partners
- “Ballmer says they screwed up with Windows Mobile. Wishes they had already launched WM7." [Blockquote]
- Google hits Android ROM modder with a cease-and-desist letter
| SolarCity charging stations on Highway 101 give Tesla owners a little more time in the sun Posted: 24 Sep 2009 10:55 PM PDT
The California-based solar installation firm has created four Tesla charging stations along Highway 101 between Los Angeles and San Francisco, with a fifth coming online next month. The (apparently free) chargers provide a 240V charge at 70 amps, blowing away Eberhard’s RFMC rapid charger and bringing the cars to full capacity in only 3.5 hours. Why, that’s just enough time for a nice lunch and a bit of shopping. Sadly the plugs only work with Teslas, but will be retrofitted once some other suitable EV comes along in suitable numbers. Filed under: Transportation SolarCity charging stations on Highway 101 give Tesla owners a little more time in the sun originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Exclusive Interview With Steve Ballmer: Products, Competition, The Road Ahead Posted: 24 Sep 2009 09:54 PM PDT Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer visited Silicon Valley on Thursday for his annual meeting with top venture capitalists to talk about Microsoft product strategy. This was his first visit to Silicon Valley since announcing the search partnership with Yahoo in July. I had a chance to sit down with him just after that event for a hour-long one-one-one interview. In the first 10+ minutes of the interview Ballmer gives his high level thoughts on major Microsoft products and strategies (including Windows, Windows Mobile, Internet Explorer, Bing, Azure, Mesh, Natal and others), competition, the future of search and search marketing, Microsoft’s “three screens and the cloud” strategy, the recent acquisition of Interactive Supercomputing and, yes, even his thoughts on Twitter. A few interesting points from the video interview:
He also says that Microsoft obviously won’t be the only player in the new market, and joked that some people “for whatever crazy reasons don't want to be on windows, might want to be on linux:”
- On search innovation: Ballmer says that search innovation, both as a product and a business model, has largely stagnated over the last five years. He also thinks competition will drive more innovation in the future. “I think if you look out the next 10 years we're going to see more innovation in search,” he said. - On Why Microsoft won’t build a branded phone, as they have with the Zune and Xbox: Smart phones, like desktop and laptop computers and televisions, are “non-niche devices,” which he defines as 300 million or more units per year. These markets are large enough that there will be multiple manufacturers, and it’s unlikely that any single vertical vendor will dominate the market. It makes sense, he says, for Microsoft to be a vendor of the platform and services for these types of devices. So, don’t expect a Microsoft branded phone.
- On Microsoft’s acquisition strategy: Microsoft acquired 15 companies in FY2009. Ballmer says to expect roughly the same level of activity in the future. “I'm guessing we're gonna want to buy about 15 companies again next year,” he says. He says most of those will be smaller transactions ranging from $50 million – $400 million. And those companies will have to “really fit well with our technology platforms and distribution,” he added. - When I half-jokingly asked if Twitter fits well with Microsoft’s technology platforms and distribution, he responded “Twitter would be great, yeah. I mean, not that we're talking about buying Twitter…” And he then went on to say that he thinks the Twitter guys are “fiercely committed to staying independent.” For the rest of the interview we took a deep dive into each of these topics, and over the next few days we’ll have a few follow up posts on each area of discussion in detail. There is some absolutely amazing content to come. The full transcript of the video is below. Full Transcript: Michael Arrington: This is Mike Arrington, I'm here with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, hello Steve. It's been a year since I've had a chance to sit down with you, you're back in Silicon Valley – what brings you here? Steve Ballmer: We do an annual event where we bring together venture capitalists, and try to make sure they understand where we're going, and we understand where they're going, cause there's going to be opportunities for us to partner with their portfolio companies, try to get their portfolio companies to build on and alongside of things that we do. There'll be chances for acquisition, and we do that once a year, and we happen to be doing that today. I'm down in the valley probably 7 times a year, and this is sort of more of a valley day because we're with the VC community. MA: The last time you were in the valley, is that when you did the yahoo deal? SB: Last time I was down here probably was the announcement of the yahoo deal. I've had kind of a quiet two months of travel since I was down here at the end of July for that. MA: I have a couple questions about that but we can hit those later. You guys have a lot of new product initiatives, I think some are big ideas, big new businesses, possibly some are what you call an enabler, something like that. You've got big buckets – Bing is out, Windows 7 is coming out, Azure, I think you guys have said by the end of the year, Mesh is there, Project Natal, and others. How do you feel about big buckets and all of these products – your babies? SB: Well, it's great to have a year where you have a lot of stuff that you can kind of be excited about, if you lead a company like ours we have a lot of very exciting products for the consumer and frankly for the enterprise customer, although that tends to get a little less press attention I would say, but it's a fun year. It also is a good year to say then that it's a good year to go build business and it's a good year to lay the seeds for the next generation of businesses that can be good, and whether it's what we're trying to do with Bing, or do with Natal, the next 12 months is shaping up to be very promising. MA: One of the big things you talk about is something you call "three screens and the cloud." I'd love if you could dive a little bit into what that means from a business standpoint but also from a user standpoint and what they're going to get out of this when it finally comes together. SB: Yeah, the reason I like the little phrase "three screens and the cloud" isn't just that it's true and it's what we started talking about it at CES but I kind of like the alliteration (?) of "Three Men and a Baby." Every time I say it I think, "Three Screens and the cloud," "Three Men and a Baby" if you remember the movie, but I think what it really refers to is a fundamental shift in the computing paradigm. We used to talk about mainframe computer, mini computer, PC computing, client server computing, graphical computing, the internet; I think this notion of three screens and a cloud, multiple devices that are all important, the cloud not just as a point of delivery of individual applications, but really as a new platform, a scale-out, very manageable platform that has services that span security contacts, I think it's a big deal. You lay natural user interface technologies on there, and platforms on there, and then you start revitalizing the UI platform. What you're seeing on phones and TVs, people want more than what's called the classical graphical user interface: touch, voice, camera, gestures – all of that stuff whether it's Natal or the touch stuff, in iphone or Windows 7 or whatever it is. It is the next big generational shift in the computing platform. And people are going to want applications, I'll call them that, or services, depending on whether you like old fashioned words or new words, but they're going to want things that service them across those environments. So when I'm away and just have my phone with me I still may want to check in on the action – my favorite xbox competition, or I may want to play games with somebody who's in a different environment. We're sitting watching television, and we want to share with somebody who's not physically present – we want that to work to somebody who might be a family member, who's on their PC in a hotel room traveling tonight. So you got to think about it as one integrated computing infrastructure. Now, whether it will all come from one company, and what are the standards, and what are the points of proprietary differentiation, all of that's going to get kind of played off. Now in our own case, you know we're going to try to share technologies, so that we get kind of synergy from a developers perspective. Windows on the phone, you know, Windows PCs controlling TVs, the Windows PC of course itself, Windows Azure in the cloud, so we have a lot of work that's trying to share technology, but obviously you don't want exactly the same experience on a little screen and a very big screen and a mid-size screen. MA: Ok, you talked about Azure in the cloud, but does it work if somebody's using Amazon web services or something like that. Although we're talking more about the developer side now, but are you planning to interoperate as much as possible. SB: As much as possible implies that infinite complexity's a good thing. Of course, it's unreasonable to say that you're going to completely support only your own three screens and only your own cloud. I wish that it were true. We have to make our screens and our cloud first and best, but clearly there are going to be people for example who don't want to be in the cloud, that want to be on premise, that for whatever crazy reasons don't want to be on windows, might want to be on linux, for gosh sakes. MA: Yeah, crazy. SB: For me, I'm allowed to say that. And we need to interoperate, but we do need to be first and best in support and in integration of our own platforms. MA: Ok, fair enough. Search. Congratulations, Bing is now one of the major services, they're saying Bing has now achieved 10% of the market share, up actually quite a big percent over 8, 8 and a half – that's a big percentage jump, and it seems to be pretty quick, and it seems to be steady and sticking. So congratulations on that. SB: Thank you. MA: But, search. Bing is clearly, I think everyone agrees, Bing is a good step forward. I think people who thought they would test them out, a lot of them are sticking, but looking forward 5 years from now, search innovation over the last say, 10 years has been somewhat interesting but will the next 10 years of search innovation be more interesting than the last 10 years? SB: Let me say something dramatic – I think the first five years there was innovation in business model, there was innovation in approach, give credit to competition, the last 5 years there's been some, quote, innovation, which is really things like digitizing, maps and books, or whatever the case may be, adding the larger content base to the corpus of information. But in some senses the UI, the approach, the algorithms have changed less in the last five years, then more … so I think if you look out the next 10 years we're going to see more innovation in search. And, of course, that'll be best served by good competition in the market and, y'know, at this stage, hopefully with the government approval of our deal with Yahoo, the good competition better come from us. Otherwise I don't think we'll see some of that innovation. But whether it's natural language, visualization, change in the UI, change in the business model… Business model on search is making life tough for other content providers, makes life tough for some of the merchants… MA: yes SB: We're not an incumbent, we can play with user interface, we can play with business models, we can do some things that maybe the incumbent can't do. MA: Yes SB: And the incumbent does some things pretty well too, and we're gonna have to hustle to catch up, and they have a lot of years of tuning those relevance algorithms, and we've got a lot of work to do. MA: Though you talk about UI, you know, and sometimes it seems like people talk about search problems as, first of all, the search engine understanding the query, and I think that's where you're talking about UI. SB: Well, that's where I'm talking about natural language, MA: Right. SB: Actually, UI I'll talk about the presentation of the results MA: Literally, the sort of… visual presentation of the app. SB: Ya, and I think it matters, actually, search isn't unlike every other application; the way you present things actually does matter. MA: What will your market share be in 10 years, on search. SB: Oh, I don't know. I mean, making forecasts is sort of not, not a sane practice. A lot more than we have today! MA: It would be great for me if you answered, but… (Steve laughs) MA: The Zune HD: A hit. Seems to be a great device. Still haven't had my hands on one. Do you have one on you right now? SB: I don't actually. MA: It seems like a lot of people really like the Zune HD, it's selling out. When you look at the Zune and the Xbox, you seem to be more than capable of creating, successful end consumer devices that are hardware tied to services. When do we get our Microsoft phone? I know you guys keep saying “We will not build a Microsoft branded phone…” SB: Well let me ask you a question. I'm going to answer your question with a question. Which is to say, look, lets just break hardware devices into two broad categories. Really high volume, and more niche. And I'll call anything that's under about 50 million a year niche. And I'll call anything that's north of 300 million a year non-niche. PC's are not niche devices. Part of the reason I think they're non-niche devices is, multiple people can manufacture them, they all interoperate, they work together, etc. TVs are not niche. You know, there's more than well over 300 million of those sold a year. They interoperate in that case mostly based on standards, but with some innovation. Phones are not niche. The categories where, I think, a single player can control a large percentage of the volume are the smaller categories. What does Apple sell every year of iPods: 30 million, order of magnitude, something like that. What is the whole video game market is maybe 30 or 40 million in units a year. But when you get these categories that are 300 million, 500 million, a billion, a billion-five a year, the truth of the matter is you're gonna want multiple points of manufacture, with a lot of innovation around it whether its supply chain, for geographic diversity, and our basic play with our software is to try and be super high volume. So I think you can have an Apple in the phone business, or a Rem, and they can do very well, but when 1.3 billion phones a year are all smart, the software that's gonna be most popular in those phones is gonna be software that's sold by somebody who don't make their own phone. And, we don't wan't to cross the chasm in the short run and lose the war in the long run and that's why we think the software play is the right play for us for high volume, even though some of the guys in the market today with vertically oriented solutions may do just fine. MA: You just bought Interactive Supercomputing a couple of days ago now. Why? SB: Well, one of the big pushes for us, we, we're in the server business, if you .. if you look at all the things people do with servers today, we do pretty well at most of them. The two areas in which we have, are least successful are web, where about half the web servers are Windows and half are Linux, we're competing, and workin' at it; and the other one is high performance computing. Scientific supercomputing-like applications. And the truth of the matter is, this is never about price, it's always about, have we done enough to solve problems, compared with what you could do with the roll-your-own of Linux and Open Source. We took a look at it and said, no, we really want to be in the high performance computing, super computing space, and we're gonna get after it. We're gonna get after it with infrastructure, we're gonna get after it with tools and applications, and as part of that strategy, we made the, uh, deal to acquire Interactive Super Computing. MA: Okay, great. And you've bought fifteen companies in fiscal 09 – I think, is that right? SB: Yeah, about right, yeah. MA: Does that stay steady? Increase next year? SB: I'm guessing we're goning to want to buy about 15 companies again next year, if, just sort of a guess. Most of the things we buy are smaller. We probably pay some place between 50 million and 3 or 4 hundred million. And then occasionally we'll do something bigger. But most of what we buy, it'll probably be about the same order of magnitude, it'll probably mostly be companies that have 50, 100 to 200 employees, And really fit well with our technology platforms and our distribution. MA: Would Twitter fit with your technology platforms and distribution? SB: Twitter'd be great, yeah. I mean, not that we're talking about buying Twitter… I mean, the Twitter guys want to stay independent, that's great. Using – making Twitter an asset to one of our businesses, that would be the real question for us, how does it fit, but obviously, yknow, they've got a lot of kind of buzz and interest at this stage, but, no, I think they're fiercely, uh, committed to staying independent, which, which I respect. MA: Great, thanks. Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors Read more:
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| Liftopia Raises Another $1 Million For Variable Ski Resort Ticket Pricing Posted: 24 Sep 2009 09:34 PM PDT
Liftopia allows ski resorts to offer variable pricing for tickets based on much how traffic they anticipate seeing on the slopes — in other words, resorts can lower their prices if they think they’re going to have a slow day the same way an airline does if a flight might not fill up. Some resorts have been able to do this to a limited extent with ‘peak season’ tickets (a ticket for Christmas time would cost more than one a month or two later), but up until now they haven’t had a good way to adjust their pricing on a daily basis. Liftopia gives them this option. From the consumer’s standpoint using Liftopia is easy, and will be familiar to anyone who has ever purchased a plane ticket online. Pick a region, a resort to look at, and a date range, and the site will present a list of tickets, some of which are discounted as much as 60% (there’s also a flexible date option). The site launched back in 2006, but initially saw slow growth due to industry skepticism. Since then things have been picking up — by last spring the site had grown to include around 65 resort partners, and Liftopia will have over 120 in time for this season. Among the new resorts to sign on this year:
Liftopia seems to be really picking up steam, and it’s a win/win for skiers who get to save money as well as for resorts, who can boost sales when they need too. There’s one small caveat for now though: because few resorts have finalized their pricing for this year, Liftopia’s inventory will be limited for the next few weeks, so you may need to check back later to book your tickets. Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 See original here:
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| Google Threatens Cyanogen Android Hacker With Cease-and-Desist [Android] Posted: 24 Sep 2009 09:30 PM PDT
See, Google’s cease-and-desist specifically states that Cyanogen should stop passing around Google’s closed-source apps like Google Maps, Google Talk and Gmail, because those are only supposed to be used on Google Experience Android devices like the G1 and MyTouch 3G. That makes sense, except for one thing: Cyanogen only works on the exact devices those closed-source apps were designed for, like, well, the G1 and MyTouch 3G. So what’s the point of trying to stop Cyanogen? Engadget suggests that maybe Google just wants to discourage rooting of their devices in general, which seems awfully contrary to the Android open-source philosophy. Truth is, we have no idea why Google would want to stop a thriving and well-received modder, but Cyanogen says he’s trying to open up some communication with the big G, so hopefully we’ll get an explanation soon. [Android and Me via Engadget] Read more from the original source:
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| Ask Engadget: What’s the best business phone out there? Posted: 24 Sep 2009 09:27 PM PDT
 We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Jimmy, who’s making it his business to find out what phone currently on the market is best for business.
We’ve a feeling you started something Jimmy, and we’re not so sure we’re going to like the outcome. At any rate, we’d ask the dear readers to chime in here with a little help, and if you really had “iPhone 3GS” on the tip of your tongue, feel free to list it anyway — but your reasoning better be really, really good. Filed under: Ask Engadget Ask Engadget: What’s the best business phone out there? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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| Spaberry Portable Hot Tub: A Kiddie Pool In Which Seduction Is Legal [Hot Tubs] Posted: 24 Sep 2009 09:00 PM PDT
To be fair, these do look a lot more durable and well-built than a kiddie pool: They hold 125 gallons of water and seat two adults comfortably. They’ve got massaging jets, LED mood lighting, and drink holders, which basically means you’re getting laid (seriously, take a look at the risque PG-13-rated ads on their site). While they are “portable” they also weigh 240 pounds without water, so you can’t exactly drag it inside when it rains. On the plus side, you’ll look way less trailer-trash lounging in one of these with a beer than you would in a kiddie pool. The SpaBerry retails for $5000 in a variety of berry-inspired colors, including SnowBerry and SlateBerry which are not actual berries, I’m pretty sure. Giant stickers with palm trees and sunsets and rainforests cost $400 extra. [SpaBerry via CoolHunting]
Here is the original:
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| Alienware Aurora ALX announced, melts faces with speed Posted: 24 Sep 2009 08:59 PM PDT
Hot Hardware gave it a spin and it came in with some extremely impressive benchmarks. Most impressive was a record breaking 75.6 FPS on Crysis. Remember, this is the game that many people felt was written for hardware from the future, not the CPU’s and GPU’s that were available at the time. Well, the future has arrived. Of course with Alienware, there’s always that other shoe that drops. You know, the price? Well, the Aurora ALX comes in at a wallet-plundering $4074, as tested. Ouch. Go here to read the rest:
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| Implant can help sleep apnea patients not frighten their partners Posted: 24 Sep 2009 08:30 PM PDT
CPAP masks are uncomfortable, unattractive, but are sadly necessary for many to live through a night. The implant works by electronically stimulating the nerve, and causing the passage that respiratory passage to open again, allowing the person to breathe. The implant is placed in the patients neck, and then controlled by an external programming device. It also requires charging, since the implant is applying an electrical current. Now I wonder if you can run Linux on the implant. Maybe Moblin? Original post:
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| Posted: 24 Sep 2009 08:30 PM PDT
Twitter user Beninato quotes Ballmer in saying “This will not happen again” and “We’ve pumped in some new talent,” and Pjozefak gives the blockquote in our headline: Microsoft screwed up with Windows Mobile, and it should have already launched. We’ve seen a few promising bits previews of Windows Mobile, notably the browser in the Zune HD (it’s not perfect, but it bodes well), but Windows Mobile has been a stinker for years now and Microsoft had better bust out the big guns to get it right with WinMo 7. [Twitter and Babbling VC via WMPowerUser via MobileTechWorld via Engadget]
Go here to read the rest:
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| Google hits Android ROM modder with a cease-and-desist letter Posted: 24 Sep 2009 08:26 PM PDT
 So this is interesting: apparently Google’s hit the developer of the Cyanogen modded Android ROM with a cease-and-desist letter, asking him to stop distributing the closed-source Google apps like Gmail, Maps, and YouTube. What’s a little strange is that Cyanogen is targeted at “Google Experience” devices like the G1 and myTouch, so it’s not like Google is really protecting anything here — leading us to wonder if they’re just using the copyright argument to shut down a popular mod that’s tempted over 30,000 users into rooting their phones. That’s just speculation on our part, though — the dev says he’s trying to open a dialogue with Google, so perhaps we’ll find out some more answers soon. [Via Android and Me] Filed under: Cellphones Google hits Android ROM modder with a cease-and-desist letter originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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- On Microsoft’s “three screens and the cloud” strategy: Ballmer says it’s a “fundamental shift in the computing paradigm.” He added “We used to talk about mainframe computer, mini computer, PC computing, client server computing, graphical computing, the internet; I think this notion of three screens and a cloud, multiple devices that are all important, the cloud not just as a point of delivery of individual applications, but really as a new platform, a scale-out, very manageable platform that has services that span security contacts, I think it's a big deal.”
![b578923523evice1.jpg Google Threatens Cyanogen Android Hacker With Cease and Desist [Android]](http://www.focusoft.biz/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/b578923523evice1.jpg.jpg "Google Threatens Cyanogen Android Hacker With Cease and Desist [Android]")
This is a weird one: Google has just slapped Cyanogen, maker of the biggest and most successful Android ROM mod around, with a cease-and-desist letter. But Google’s reasoning doesn’t make any sense, and we’re wondering what their game is.![7bc077801dcimage.jpg Spaberry Portable Hot Tub: A Kiddie Pool In Which Seduction Is Legal [Hot Tubs]](http://www.focusoft.biz/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/cc6a192b3dcimage.jpg.jpg "Spaberry Portable Hot Tub: A Kiddie Pool In Which Seduction Is Legal [Hot Tubs]")
![Spaberry Portable Hot Tub: A Kiddie Pool In Which Seduction Is Legal [Hot Tubs]](http://www.focusoft.biz/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/226ac3e48deus.gif.gif?eui=2226 "Spaberry Portable Hot Tub: A Kiddie Pool In Which Seduction Is Legal [Hot Tubs]")
Alienware announced some new systems recently, including their latest desktop box,
Sleep apnea sufferers have long had to use the dreaded CPAP mask, but there may soon be an alternative. Medical researchers have discovered that a small implant, attached to the hyperglossal nerve, is capable of ending your sleep apnea… and probably saving your marriage.
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