Between the Lines

Apple CEO Steve Jobs shows off the latest redesign of the company’s smallest iPod line at its September 2010 music event Wednesday in San Francisco. Finger controls are back by popular demand to go along with voice over and playlist features.
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Ping: Apple should leave social to Facebook, Twitter
Is the new iPod Nano the smartwatch [...]

The Federal Communications Commission said it was seeking comment on two “under-developed issues” on net neutrality following the joint Google-Verizon policy proposal penned last month.

Bill Gates had a vision for a smartwatch nearly a decade ago. Will it be Apple, with the new iPod Nano and maybe a case with a strap, that brings the idea to life?

Ping, a social network described as Facebook and Twitter meeting iTunes, was launched today. But will people really go to iTunes to be social?

Cisco’s push to be a smart grid player continues via a partnership with Itron, a leading smart meter vendor.

Alcatel-Lucent is trying to buy its way into the mobile applications development market with the acquisition of OpenPlug, which makes mobile software development tools.

Target is betting that Facebook Credits gift cards will be a holiday stocking stuffer. Will Facebook gift cards sell?

Salesforce.com showed off the fruits of its Jigsaw acquisition with the integration of business data and customer relationship management tools. Will you pay for crowdsourced contact data?

The overall printer market saw revenue surge 14 percent in the second quarter to $13.3 billion, according to IDC. Hewlett-Packard continued to gain share.

Remember that old Joan Jett song, “I Hate Myself for Loving You”? That about sums up my relationship with my new Mac.

Why would Sony make such trade-offs between touch and connectivity for its e-readers? Sony is playing a global game and perhaps 3G and Wi-Fi just doesn’t matter as much to folks in China and Spain.

Sony will update its e-reader line with touch-screen navigation across all three devices—Reader Pocket, Touch and Daily Edition. The catch is that Sony’s line carries higher price points relative to rivals Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

For the first time ever, Apple will stream one of its live events—as long as you own an Apple product.

Apple reportedly will team up with Netflix to offer streaming videos to Steve Jobs’ ongoing hobby. Big deal. Netflix is already in your entertainment center.

A year ago today, I flagged a Yahoo Mail search bug. The bug apparently can’t be fixed judging from my inbox of complaints from frustrated Yahoo users over the past year.

Hewlett-Packard and Hynix will jointly develop a next-generation memory chip and bring it to market.

At the VMworld conference in San Francisco, VMware CEO Paul Maritz anticipates the changing role of the operating system. Maritz says that, increasingly, hardware coordination and software abstract services are moving to virtual layers and that the traditional OS is becoming just one component of the virtual framework.
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Follow up: Northrup Grumman said that it is committed to restoring the information systems behind key state of Virginia services and supported a thorough post mortem.

VMWare CEO Paul Maritz talks about the changing forces caused by virtualization, including the potential to improve security and the shift away from the OS as the center of innovation.

Speaking at VMworld’s opening keynote in San Francisco, VMware CEO Paul Maritz said innovation in the tech industry will revolve around IT as a service.