Disney to Launch Cell Phone Service in Japan

Doron's Take:

Disney's announcement today that they're going to jointly develop mobile phones and content could have interesting implications for the wireless industry.

It's interesting because Disney has already halted its U.S.-based phone service. The company has decided to target their efforts only in Japan instead. Disney and Japanese mobile phone carrier Softbank Corp. announced that the two companies would jointly develop mobile phones and content. The cell phone carrier services will launch in Q1 2008. Disney took a $30 million charge last year when it shut down another phone service, Mobile ESPN, which it ran on Sprint Nextel's network. It will be interesting to see how this deal pans out long-term.

Google Doesn't Announce Google Phone

Doron's Take:

Google's announcement today of a new open software platform and an alliance of wireless heavy hitters was surprising for what it was missing. Sure, they formed a development community for the planned phones, but are the phones ever coming? On a conference call with analysts and press, Google did not really say 'no, we are not introducing a Google Phone.'

Google officially unveiled Android, the new mobile phone software. 34 companies have said they will join the Open Handset Alliance, a multinational alliance that will work on developing applications on the Android platform. Members of the alliance include mobile handset makers HTC and Motorola, U.S. operator T-Mobile, and chipmaker Qualcomm.

Google Announces Open Social Networking

On Nov. 1st, Google announced the release of OpenSocial -- a set of common application program interfaces or APIs for building social applications across the web -- for developers of social applications and for websites that want to add social features. In a move that was expected for the last few weeks, Google's news allows developers to build widgets that take advantage of personal data and profile connections on a social-networking site. But instead of limiting the project to its own social-networking site, Orkut, Google has invited other sites along for the ride--including LinkedIn, Hi5, Plaxo, Ning, and Friendster.

Google's move is in stark contrast to Facebook, the social-networking site that has been growing quite steadily for the last year or two and now has more than 53 million active users
and an average of 250,000 new registrations per day since Jan. 2007. Facebook made some noise back in May 07 when it announced the opening of its own developer platform in May but has kept developer activity restricted to its own service (and has since signed an exclusive ad deal with Microsoft in exchange for an equity investment). When other social networks began to announce their own "platform strategies" this fall, concerns were raised that developers would have to create a completely new application for each site. That could prove inefficient and costly, especially for smaller developers working on a limited budget.

Facebook may have to launch IPO sooner rather than later

According to Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, companies with more than $10 million in assets whose securities are held by more than 500 owners must file annual and other periodic reports. Since Facebook is now valued at $15 billion, it's safe to assume that the company will begin filing quarterly reports soon.

Facebook and Microsoft Expand Strategic Alliance

Facebook and Microsoft Expand Strategic Alliance
The Redmond giant just paid $240 million for a stake in Facebook. Microsoft values Facebook at $15 billion, the companies jointly announced. Industry insiders said Microsoft paid a premium but were willing to do so to keep rival Google from doing the same first.

Teen Frees iPhone from AT&T/Cingular Lock

A 17 year-old New Jersey teenager spent his summer coming up with steps on how to unlock the iPhone so users don't need to stick with AT&T/Cingular service but can choose whichever carrier they wish. Check it out here at George Hotz's blog. I can't imagine Apple or AT&T/Cingular are too happy with this teen's discovery or shall we say summer project.

Sun changes its stock symbol to JAVA

Wow, how unexpected. According to CNET, Sun will change its stock symbol form SUNW to JAVA starting next week. Jonathan Schwartz reported the change on his blog. Boy, a lot of investors will surely be very confused for a while.

Canada Attractive for Foreign Tech Workers

Canada is making it more attractive for companies to bring tech workers in. Companies like Microsoft can bring tech workers into the country in as little time as two to eight weeks. Canada has no H-1B visa cap like in the U.S. Microsoft said it decided to set up a new Vancouver facility, which is due to open in the fall, partly to help it "recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S." O Canada.

Silicon Valley Movers and Shakers

You have to read Dean Takahashi's blog post this week on the 10th Annual Software Development Visionary Awards held in Atherton, California.

Tech Bubble 2.0 List

Tony Perkins, founder of Always On is back at it again: The Always On Bubble Watch List. This list will consist of VC-backed startups that have attracted a reasonable amount of media attention, but that are now stumbling or close to possibly dieing. Perkins and his brother wrote the original Internet bubble. This list will be worth reading when it comes out..

Largest Canadian Province Goes Green

Everyday will be casual day in a big part of Canada this summer. Ontario's leader Premier McGuinty has urged government workers to dress down this summer to save costs on air conditioning. The province of Ontario (the U.S. equivalent of a state) is north of Michigan and New York. Interesting or do you think this proposal is a little bizarre? Did he do it to gain publicty? Well it worked, read here.

Cisco sues Apple

Cisco is suing Apple over use of their trademark for the name of their new iPod phone named the iPhone. Read about it here.

Virtual Player in Virtual World Becomes Online Millionaire

When you sign up at Second Life, a virtual world, you get assigned a character with $250 in virtual pocket money--each Linden dollar is worth about four-tenths of a real-world penny. To pump up your account, you could buy more Linden dollars using your real ones. You could sell products or services for Linden dollars. Recently, a Second Life user claimed to have become a millionaire based on her Second Life exploits.

Where Should Public Relations Go from Here?

The ICCO (International Communications Consultancy Organisation) World Summit is taking place this week in India. This conference is bringing together senior public relations people from around the world to discuss "next practices." One of the highlights from Paul Holmes (Holmes Report):

PR people should be used to dialogue, for reaching out to multiple stakeholders, to using a wide array of channels rather than a single communications vehicle -- all the characteristics of this new environment. In all, it's a great chance for PR to redefine itself as much more strategic in redefining the art of conversation as a marketing and communications vehicle.

Blogger Ruins Research in Motion New Product Introduction Surprise

If current customers or potential customers have knowledge of an amazing product coming out in 6 months, why would they bother buying the current one? This blogger is potentially squashing demand for their current offerings. Read about it here.

Is municipal Wi-Fi the right approach?

Looks like Boston is the latest North American city to jump on to the municipal Wi-Fi bandwagon. Boston will turn to a nonprofit corporation to blanket the city with 'open access' wireless Internet connections, under a plan unveiled last week. Click here to read Mark Evans' blog posting.

P2P keeps getting interesting...

The company behind Morpheus (the music/video downloading service), StreamCast has filed a lawsuit against Skype (recently bought by ebay). Read more about it here.

At the core of the complaint is the FastTrack P2P technology, which went from Kazaa to Sharman and eventually ended up in Skype. StreamCast claims that it had the first dibs on this technology, which they say is part of Skype. The whole suit begs the question of, how much, and how carefully, did EBay do their due diligence before their 2-4 billion dollar purchase?

Like Father, Like Sun?

Have Scott McNealy and Sun Microsystems been copying ads and pitches from his father's former company, American Motors Corp(AMC). In 1974, amid the decade's oil troubles, AMC promoted its Gremlin as the car to buy to "relieve the fuel shortage." And this year, with oil costing more than $60 per barrel, Sun has chosen to spotlight the energy efficiency of its T1 servers. "Sip energy, gulp data," one ad reads, while another pictures a server chained to a tree slated for harvesting. Read more here.

Sun's McNealy Recalls Expensive Dinner at McDonald's

Interesting piece on CnetNews.com on how Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy had to be wined and dined at a Silicon Valley McDonald's before he gave up his reluctance to help launch the workstation maker in 1982. He and the other Sun co-founders, Vinod Khosla, Andy Bechtolsheim and Bill Joy held a panel discussion at the Computer History Museum this week.