Rumor: Palm CEO Rubinstein May Get Boot in Restructuring

It seems as if these days, every story I’m writing on Palm is a negative one, and this one is no different. With the potential list of suitors for the ailing company dwindling, its list of distributors shrinking, and the company quickly burning through what money it has left, executives are getting restless.

In the last week alone, the company has lost two of its high-level executives, software senior vice president Michael Abbott (who went to Twitter), and now carrier marketing vice president Caitlin Spaan, one of the company’s most tenured employees. Not exactly sure here, but this unease at the executive level could be contributing to the latest rumor.

Erick Schonfeld at TechCrunch reports on an “imminent” management shuffle and restructuring which may end up with the dismissal of Jon Rubinstein as the company’s CEO. Rubinstein was brought over from Apple to work on development of Palm’s newest devices and was elevated to the position of CEO in June of last year.

Rubinstein has been able to do little about Palm’s continued slide into near-irrelevancy, and has had a hard time finding a buyer for the company. Some are suggesting that his background in hardware and not management may make him unsuitable to lead Palm right now, and it may require somebody with a little more marketing know-how.

I’d argue that its not a matter of knowing how to market the company, it may just be that Palm has little value period. Its time may be long gone and without any marketable product, the value may be solely in the intellectual property it holds. If that’s the case, the $1 billion or so that the company is said to be looking for may be drastically more than anyone is willing to pay.

Silicon Valley Police Involved in iPhone 4G Investigation

Police in Silicon Valley have launched an investigation into the lost iPhone prototype that made its way in to the hands of Gizmodo, CNET reported late Friday. Law enforcement officials told the site that criminal laws may have been broken as a result of the transaction, but did not provide much more in the way of detail.

CNET’s source claimed that Apple had been contacted, and it was thought that a computer crime task force from Santa Clara County (where Apple is headquartered) was heading up the investigation. Everything is preliminary, and the investigation will only see if enough evidence exists to press charges.

It is not known if the investigation directly targets Gizmodo, the person who found the device, or both. Some legal analysts have said in the least that Apple may have a case against the prototype’s finder, and possibly Gizmodo as well depending on the facts.

Pressing charges against the site may not be as straightforward as some think: as I wrote Tuesday Apple does share some culpability in the matter, and due to First Amendment issues and past Supreme Court decisions, it’s much harder to criminally prosecute the press for leaks.

However, those cases did not deal with confidential information obtained in the manner that Gizmodo did, so it’s unclear how much those decisions would apply here.

Got Any Questions for John Battelle?

John Battelle is an interesting guy: the author of The Search, an excellent book on Google and its predecessors and rivals; the proprietor of the indispensable Searchblog, one of the sites that inspired me to blog; the coproducer and cohost of the Web 2.0 Summit and Web 2.0 Expo conferences; the founder of the old original Industry Standard and one of the first editors at Wired before that; and the founder, chairman, and CEO of Federated Media, the company that sells advertising and other marketing programs for scads of blogs, one of which is–full disclosure!–Technologizer.

He’s also being interviewed on Thursday, April 29th at 4pm ET in a live Webcast. The topic: “New Marketing in the New Normal.”

As with earlier Webcasts in this series, I’ve been invited to watch and tweet my thoughts as I do. You can do the same if you like–the Webcast interface has a built-in Twitter interface. And if you have any questions for John right now, you can leave them here as comments (or tweet them, using the hashtag #HPIO). We’ll round them up for the event.

(Further full disclosure: The Webcast is sponsored by HP and hosted at its site–hence the @HPIO hashtag. Photo of John Battelle by me, taken at last week’s Chirp conference.)

Where’s Facebook?

Hey, Facebook is down right now–for me, at least, and for a lot of folks on Twitter. It may be imperfect, but generally speaking it feels like one of the most robustly reliable of the humongous online services…

(UPDATE: It’s back!)

Danny Sullivan on the Opt-Out World

Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan is fed up with the way Google and Facebook are rolling out new services with major privacy implications with the default settings opting you in–and it sometimes being tough to figure out how to opt out.

Hulu Wants You to Pay for Internet TV. Would You?

Over at All Things D, Peter Kafka is reporting that Internet TV megasite Hulu wants to try a $10/month “Hulu Plus” premium subscription option. He’s not so sure about the idea–it’ ll be hard to come up with an offering that sounds like it’s worth ten bucks in a world of plentiful free online video, doesn’t muck up the good thing which is Hulu’s free version, and makes enough money to make it all worthwhile.

I actively like the idea of Hulu–or someone–coming up with a for-pay Internet TV option that’s so compelling that I’d dump cable for it. Here’s what would get me excited:

• One fee for a service that’s available on PC, smartphone, TV (through something like a Roku box), and iPad
• Not just prime-time entertainment but news, too (sports would also be a plus)
• A treasure trove of episodes of old shows–including stuff they don’t play on cable and don’t put out on DVD

I’d pay $10 a month for that–heck, I’d pay a lot more than that if it were the TV service of my dreams.

How about you?

YouTube Opens Up Rental Store

The streaming rental industry is getting ever more crowded, and now it’s going to have to make room for at least one more. YouTube has seemingly launched an streaming rental service, offering movies and television shows for anywhere from 99 cents to $3.99. Content would be viewable in a 48-hour window following purchase.

While most of the content available appears to be from independent, small studio and Bollywood sources, I spotted several Lionsgate movies in the list. Recent hit Precious and Brothers are currently being featured, and the service had a few catalog titles, including the Saw movies and 3:10 to Yuma.

Television show content does not appear to come from any major American network. YouTube has not officially announced this service as of yet, and it may just be that the weak offering here could be a result of this merely not being ready for prime time.

YouTube had previously experimented at the beginning of the year with $5 rentals of Sundance titles. The offering did not do so well, likely making the site much more than $10,000 or so in rental fees.

As I mentioned earlier, any offering from YouTube runs into the reality of a small yet increasingly crowded market. If the service wants to be successful, it’s going to have to ramp up its offerings quickly, as Netflix is currently king in this space. That said, the extreme popularity of YouTube itself works in the service’s favor.

We’ll have to watch this in the coming months to see the site’s next moves, and if it begins to strike hardware deals to bring the service off the computer screen and into the living room. After all, who wants to sit in front of a computer screen for two hours to watch a movie?

Verisign: 1.5 Million Facebook Accounts Up for Sale

Verisign’s iDefense Labs has discovered a website which lists some 1.5 million compromised Facebook accounts “for sale.” The selling price is $25 per 1,000 accounts with ten friends or less, and $45 per 1,000 for those accounts with more than ten friends.

While the accounts themselves do not contain enough personal information to commit outright identity theft, some social engineering could produce enough to possibly compromise more sensitive online services the account holder may use. Another avenue is the spreading of malware through the compromised user’s friend network, researchers said.

The information was found on a forum in Russian, posted by a hacker going by the handle “kirllos.” Based on the most current available number of users provided by Facebook — some 400 million — the accounts comprise about four tenths of a percent of the entire user base.

It may seem like a small number, however Facebook is not able to estimate how many more accounts may be compromised by other hackers, eWeek’s Brian Prince reports. Spokesperson Andrew Noyes did add that the social networking site is continuously monitoring for suspicious activity and taking action where neccessary.

When an account is compromised and detected by Facebook, the user’s account is suspended. That user must then take steps to confirm the account is secure, including changing the password.

Users should always be wary of adding friends who they do not know directly, and ensure that their privacy settings are set so that personal information is protected. I’ve already found this out the hard way, and have taken steps myself to prevent the possible misuse of my personal information.

I guess the best advice is to just double check that you haven’t let anything slip through the cracks, and stay away from the shady stuff on Facebook!

Reuters: Lenovo Leading Candidate to Acquire Palm

Reuters is reporting that its sources have said that Chinese PC brand Lenovo is now the leading candidate to buy Palm. This follows HTC’s apparent decision to pass on the US device maker following a look at Palm’s books, the story reads. It’s estimated that Palm could sell for about $1.3 billion based on the current market, a bargain considering its once mighty position in the industry.

This would not be the first time Lenovo was involved in cellular phones, however. Several years ago, the company sold that portion of its business to focus on PCs, however it bought it back last year. It has one smartphone which is currently available in China.

Google to Mac Users: Ditch Safari and Firefox, Use Chrome

I’m not sure if this is new, or it’s just the first time I’ve noticed it: When I go to the Google home page on my MacBook Pro in Safari, I’m getting a little ad for Google’s own Chrome browser:

I started to wonder if it was a skirmish in the Google-Apple wars, but probably not: I’m getting the same ad in Firefox. (Not in Opera, though–I guess there aren’t enough users to make trying to lure them to Chrome worth the effort.)

Continue reading this story…

Google Strengthens Local Business Services

Google has taken a big step forward in providing local businesses a way to reach out to customers by beefing up Google Local Business, now known as “Google Places.” The search giant hopes that the stronger offering draws more local businesses to use Google to promote their services.

“One out of five searches on Google are related to location, and we want to make sure that businesses are able to be found and put their best foot forward,” Google Maps vice president John Hanke said.

Having used Google Places myself for my side job at a ski shop here in Reading, Pa., these changes are pretty exciting. For many small businesses — especially new ones like ours — the quickest way to get on the map and attract customers is through the Internet.

Service and home-based businesses will benefit through the ability to define service areas, allowing customers to more accurately find businesses that serve them. Additionally, home-based businesses that don’t want to make their home addresses public can hide them from the listing if they so desire.

In select cities, the company is offering free photo shoots of the interior to supplement the exterior photos already on the Places pages of the business. While the company says a business owner could do this themselves, the Google photographers will come with panoramic and fish-eye lenses to photograph the business, something the business owner may not have.

Finally, the company is taking advantage of QR code technology, giving Places pages users the opportunity to print out their own QR code to post in their windows (here, try the ski shop’s on the right). A customer can scan this, which then would take them to a mobile version of the Places web page.

The company had started to use these in a “Favorite Places” campaign it launched last December to 100,000 of the most searched for businesses nationwide on Google: it has now expanded that to an additional 50,000 businesses on top of offering the service to all who choose to use it.

Google’s latest changes to Places follow some others that have been introduced over the past few months, including the ability to post real-time updates — useful for promotions, sales, and the like — and coupons, which the business owner can even format for the mobile phone.

iPadmania!

A 99-year-old lady from Lake Oswego, Oregon–an early-1930s graduate of Reed College, which Steve Jobs dropped out of around forty years later–loves her new iPad:

MLB.tv Rounds the Bases With PS3 Support

Starting today, Playstation 3 owners can watch live Major League Baseball in high-definition with an MLB.tv subscription, an offer to which I’ll probably succumb as the season heats up.

With Sony partnership in hand, MLB has basically pulled a Netflix. The service is on at least one device for every screen: There’s the iPhone for mobile phones, the iPad for tablets, the PS3, Roku and Boxee for your television and of course the computer, where it all got started. Clearly, MLB gets the idea that the more devices you’re on, the more enticing your service becomes.

Other sports are catching on. Earlier this week, Boxee got support for streaming National Hockey League games. The NBA is moving a bit slower, offering playoff highlights on Roku boxes, but it’s a start. I’m not sure what the NFL is doing to get live streaming on lots of platforms. I’m hoping the buzz over today’s MLB/PS3 deal will get the other major sports to wake up and realize this is what people want.

That’s not to say MLB’s plan is flawless. Blackout restrictions apply for all games, so you can’t watch your favorite team if you live in the same market. It’s all about the contracts between local broadcasters and the league, but I don’t know a single baseball fan who thinks this is a good idea. Fortunately, I’m a Yankee fan in Los Angeles.

Also, what’s the deal with charging $15 for the MLB iPhone and iPad apps, and then releasing a new app every year costs even more money? None of the other platforms cost a dime, and I’d think the $120 per year MLB.tv subscription would be enough to throw in the apps gratis.

Gripes aside, baseball’s been the blind spot in my quest to be sufficiently entertained without cable. I’ll probably jump on when the $25 monthly price drops below the annual subscription cost.

McAfee Meltdown

Ed Bott reports on a McAfee mess-up that caused major headaches for some of the security company’s business customers yesterday.

Opting Out of the People-Centric Web

Here’s a good post on how to opt out of Facebook’s new Web-wide features. As it shows, if you try to shut off outside services’ access to your data, Facebook attempts to convince you you’re making a terrible mistake. It reminds me of Microsoft Bob’s impertinence circa 1995.

The Web–and tech in general–won’t be truly people-centric until software and services simply comply with our requests rather than second guessing them…

Facebook Tries to Facebook-ize the Web (Plus: Technologizer Gets a Like Button)

“L’État,” Louis XIV famously said, “c’est moi.” I sometimes think that Facebook has a similar attitude about its relationship to the World Wide Web.

At its F8 conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, the dominant social network announced an array of new features designed to spread little bits of Facebook around the entire Internet. They include Google Friend Connect-like widgets for injecting social stuff like comments and activity feeds into any site; a new Like button that any site can add to any piece of content; and what Facebook says are much easier options for integrating other sites with Facebook than those offered by the existing Facebook Connect (a name which is going away). It’s also allowing third-party sites to hold onto data they receive from Facebook (previously, they were only allowed to cache it for a day).

The new features are already live in examples such as Microsoft’s Docs.com and an upgraded version of Pandora that plays music from artists you’ve liked on Facebook and lets you see what your friends are listening to. Facebook also says that its new pan-Internet Like button showed up a billion times in the first 24 hours after its launch.

Continue reading this story…