[WEB2] Microsoft fires its CIO
[WEB2] Facebook Ads makes a flashy debut in New York
NEW YORK--Standing in the front of a room packed full of corporate executives, journalists, and representatives from Madison Avenue's biggest advertising companies, on Tuesday afternoon Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg formally announced the social-networking site's new advertising initiative, an ambitious program deeply rooted in viral trends and "trusted referrals." Called Facebook Ads, the new program is threefold: advertisers can create branded pages, run targeted advertisements, and have...
[WEB2] Sony: Pricier notebooks sell best
Sony customers like different, but not too different. Though Sony now offers midrange notebooks, the higher-end VAIOs are selling much faster, according to Mike Abary, senior vice president of Sony's IT products division. (Credit: Sony) The options for colors and limited-edition designs from artists helped push a lot of VAIOs out the door in the last quarter. Those artsy laptops also come with higher price tags, and for that reason, don't expect Sony to get into the low-end laptop rac...
[WEB2] AMD gives Dirk Meyer a seat on the board
Dirk Meyer's ascent at Advanced Micro Devices has reached the upper echelons of the company. The company announced that Meyer, currently president and chief operating officer of the chipmaker, now sits on the company's board of directors, joining fellow executive and chairman of the board Hector Ruiz. Meyer seems the clear heir apparent to Ruiz at some point down the road, and will now get some experience as a director to add to his resume.AMD's Dirk Meyer(Credit: AMD) Meyer brings serious chi...
[WEB2] Brace yourself for Adobe's Photoshop overhaul
Adobe Systems wants to transform its flagship Photoshop software with an interface customized to the task at hand, a potentially radical revamp for software whose power today is hidden behind hundreds of menu options. A new user interface will help Photoshop become "everything you need, nothing you don't," said Photoshop product manager John Nack, describing aspirations for the Photoshop overhaul on his blog Monday. "We must make Photoshop dramatically more configurable," Nack said....
[WEB2] Live.com e-mail addresses up for grabs
The wait for Microsoft's Live.com e-mail addresses is over. Microsoft is now taking sign-ups (or at least it was a few minutes ago) at get.live.com. The company released the final version of Windows Live Hotmail a little while back, but has held off on releasing the Live.com domain for a while, though some folks did manage to snag a few addresses before now. What worked for me was going to that Web site (make sure you are logged out of Windows Live), clicking Hotmail, and then signing ...
[WEB2] FCC chairman supports Google's Open Handset Alliance
Federal Communications Chairman Kevin Martin on Tuesday threw his support behind Google's Open Handset Alliance. On Monday, Google officially unveiled Android, its new mobile phone software. It also announced the Open Handset Alliance. Thirty-four companies have said they will join the alliance, which will work on developing applications on the Android platform. Members of the alliance include mobile handset makers HTC and Motorola, mobile operators T-Mobile and Sprint-Nextel, and chipmak...
[WEB2] Facebook decides to bastardize its community
Facebook on Tuesday announced its new advertising offerings. They seem pretty cool from a marketing perspective but have an underlying creepiness that should make users feel uncomfortable. As CNET New.com's Caroline McCarthy writes: Called Facebook Ads, the new program is threefold: Advertisers can create branded pages, run targeted advertisements, and have access to intelligence and analytics pertaining to the site's more than 50 million users. Partners can participate in all thre...
[WEB2] Fast-growing First Solar announces deals and plants
First Solar, those cadmium telluride oddballs, is on the move again. The company said this week that it has signed a deal to supply Babcock & Brown with solar modules in a deal that will bring it a $1 billion in revenue between 2008 and 2009. Overall, First has contracts to install over 3 gigawatts of power through 2012. (Credit: First Solar) To meet demand for the project, the company's board has approved a fourth manufacturing plant in Malaysia. Two are under construction, and ...
[WEB2] Attention eBay sellers: Gussy up your photos
Bling It lets people spruce up product photos to help online sales.(Credit: Vertus) Imaging-software company Vertus announced software Tuesday to more easily add pizazz to photos of items you might want to look better for an online sale. Bling It helps users substitute a bland background from an original photo with something more flashy. It also can be used to sharpen images, add drop shadows, logos, and text, and reduce image size for Web site publication. The company is aiming the soft...
[WEB2] ABC: Target stores won't sell 'Manhunt 2'
It's fun for me to think about a room full of Target executives sitting around and making a decision about whether a video game is too violent for it to sell. According to ABCNews.com, the giant retailer has decided not to carry the recent Rockstar Games gorefest, Manhunt 2, almost certainly because it has been at the center of the latest kerfuffle over the content of one of the publisher's titles. "All video games and computer software sold at Target currently carry ratings by the Enterta...
[WEB2] Sony Ericsson unveils new phones for North America
Sony Ericsson W380a(Credit: Sony Ericsson) Sony Ericsson dropped three new cell phones today, including a new Walkman handset for North America. The W380a has all the usual Walkman phone accouterments and it offers a high-resolution camera, stereo Bluetooth, and an FM radio. The flip design is interesting, though I'm going to have to see it in person to give my honest verdict. On the front face is a camera lens and what appears to be touchy-feely music control, but the external display seems ...
[WEB2] New advertising strategy is a big gamble for Facebook
NEW YORK--When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg spoke to a room full of reporters shortly after announcing the company's new Facebook Ads initiative, it became clear that this move is a risky one. Facebook Ads, with its focus on "trusted referrals," is heavily rooted in viral distribution tactics. And it's well-known by now that while a viral phenomenon can reach soaring levels of popularity, it can also become synonymous with in-your-face annoyance. Zuckerberg was insistent that Facebook use...
[WEB2] Now on Google Earth: Map where Congress spends your tax dollars
New Google Earth layer is designed to shed light on the location of multimillion-dollar congressional pet projects. Politicians are famous (infamous, some would say) for setting aside billions of federal taxpayer dollars each year to bankroll pet projects in their home districts. Now it's possible to map precisely where at least some of those funds may be headed. The Sunlight Foundation on Tuesday released a downloadable Google Earth layer that plots what it says are some 1,500 ...
[WEB2] Hot deal: Amazing floating house for $4 mil to $5 mil
The ultimate mobile home(Credit: Underwater Vehicles) With housing prices what they are in the San Francisco Bay Area, many of our readers may be looking for other options. Don't move out of town--stay in the bay...literally...in this awesome floating house. Underwater Vehicles, maker of commercial subs, portable decompression chambers, and the like, has a series of beautiful, highly impractical, semi-submarine dwellings by Italian naval architect Giancarlo Zema. They all feature space-age...
[WEB2] While Shi Tao rots
Tom Lantos' very public upbraiding of Jerry Yang and his legal consigliere was every bit the Washington kabuki stage show I expected. The California Democrat was at his overdramatic best, raining torrents of verbal brimstone on the chastened heads of the Internet execs testifying before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Tuesday morning. Going into today's hearing, Yang and Yahoo's General Counsel Michael Callahan had to know that they would be forced to dodge one salvo after the ot...
[WEB2] Microsoft unwraps Windows Live desktop suite
Microsoft's Windows Live services are living up to their name by going live, losing the "beta" label and becoming available as a free, Windows suite of six Web-connected applications. The suite includes Windows Live Mail, which integrates with Hotmail and supports POP and IMAP. Among the other complete, desktop services are Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Writer for composing blog posts. Windows Live Photo Gallery manages picture albums that can be uploaded to Microsoft Spaces, M...
[WEB2] Alibaba IPO eclipsed by Yahoo's bad day at Congress
Tuesday should have been a day of celebration for Yahoo founder and Chief Executive Jerry Yang. Alibaba.com, a business-to-business site of which Yahoo owns nearly 30 percent, went public on the Hong Kong market and nearly tripled in price. And Yang turned 39. Instead of partying in the halls of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo, Yang, and Yahoo General Counsel Michael Callahan were in Washington, D.C. getting called moral "pygmies" in a hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives. T...
[WEB2] Mass production kicks off for XO laptops--finally
Workers at Quanta Computer's manufacturing plant in Changshu, China, begin mass production of the XO laptop.(Credit: One Laptop per Child) Following a number of delays, the One Laptop per Child Foundation's much-awaited XO laptop for needy kids has finally gone into mass production. Early Tuesday (local time), Taiwan's Quanta Computer started producing the green-and-white computer in its new Changshu manufacturing center, two hours northwest of Shanghai. The commencement of mass product...
[WEB2] Live from New York, it's Founders Club--with M.C. Hammer
(Credit: NBC Universal)"It's been a year of surreal moments for me," Digg CEO Jay Adelson said to me, "and the big one was when I met M.C. Hammer." The funny thing is, Hammer himself was standing right next to us. I was talking to Adelson at Tuesday night's edition of the Founders Club, a gathering of NYC-area digital-media and tech folks from both start-ups and major corporations who meet every few months to drink martinis, socialize, and drink more martinis. And before you start thinking ab...