Author Archive | Ed Oswald

Digg’s Problems Aren’t Going to Be Easily Fixed

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 9, 2008 at 11:16 am

There are stories on the Internets today about Kevin Rose’s talk in London during the Future of Web Apps conference. Specifically, Rose was tapped to to talk about the future of online news, and he was surprisingly candid about Digg’s problems while there.

A common critique of the site is that while it may sport some impressive user numbers — some 30 million per month, it only has a userbase of three million members. Of those, it’s likely that far less actually participate in “digging.” This means a fairly small number of Digg’s users are essentially driving what everyone else sees.

What results is a skewed sense of news, and has led to the criticism of the site, much of it warranted. It is also what led Netscape to create its own clone of the popular social news site (now defunct), and also gave birth to Yahoo Buzz.

Both those services did or have some editorial control over submissions. Digg has repeatedly refused to exert any over its own site, preferring to hand the keys over to Diggers.

Therein lies the problem. Rose is lamenting that the site needs to move beyond geekdom and get “real world relevance.” The way Digg is currently set up, that’s just not going to happen. When your user base is generally the same subset of online users, they are going to probably like the same thing.

Stories of a particular type will always rise to the top, while stories that may have relevance to others stay buried. Digg’s challenge is to start mixing it up, and giving other types of stories more visibility.

But that’s not just going to happen. Digg users aren’t going to start digging stories that are anathemic to their interests. In some cases they may need to be force fed them, which it is apparent that the company has no intention of doing.

Personalization may work, and from the reporting I’m seeing of the conference that seems to be the route Digg wants to take. But it still does not solve the problem Digg currently has, which is news filtered through folks with roughly the same exact worldview.

That’s not going to be fixed by redesigning your website.

No comments

Nearly One in Ten Teens Now Own iPhones

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 8, 2008 at 1:52 pm

Fortune reports Wednesday that finanical analyst firm Piper Jaffray has just completed its twice annual survey of teens and found the iPhone ranks high on their wish lists, with already a significant adoption rate in the device’s 14 or so months on the market here in the US.

The survey of 769 high school students found that 8 percent already own the device, with another 22 percent expecting to purchase the phone within the next six months.

Such data has to be music to AT&T’s ears, considering the carrier is the exclusive partner for Apple here in the US. Piper Jaffray did not ask which carriers the teens were using, so it’s a little difficult to judge how this would affect AT&T’s subscriber numbers, although I’d guess they would get a modest bump in the least.

But like everything else we’ve talked about lately, teen’s wants and desires may not necessarily match up with what their parents can afford. With the economy the way it is, its also quite possible many of those who want the device may not have the means to obtain it, at least in the short term.

In addition to the data on iPhones, Piper Jaffray also found that 84 percent of teens owned an iPod, up 2 percent from last year. And of the four in ten who download music leagally, 93 percent were using iTunes, up significantly from the last survey.

No comments

Will (and Can) Windows 7 Come In Many Flavors?

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 8, 2008 at 12:52 pm

As both WinHEC and PDC 2008 move ever closer, talk among Microsofties has increasingly turned to Windows 7. Specifically, talk among bloggers has begun to focus on whether Microsoft will continue what it began with Vista by segmenting Windows into (arguably too many) various editions.

Let’s look at Vista as is stands now. Five seperate editions round out the line — Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise. A sixth, Windows Vista Starter, is aimed at developing markets.

The launch of Vista changed Microsoft’s previous policy of having a single operating system for consumers, expanding it to three seperate editions. Microsoft’s decision became instant fodder for Apple, which used the somewhat confusing offering in its highly popular Mac vs. PC ads.

Was this a wise move? Probably not. If you picked the Basic version, you basically got a reskinned version of XP with security enhancements. In order to get the “full” Vista experience, the Premium edition was necessary. Microsoft’s own chart clearly shows how hobbled Basic is when compared to the other editions.

Continue Reading →

2 comments

Tech Stocks Aren’t Immune To The Market Meltdown

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 7, 2008 at 12:01 pm

There was a time when the market first became wobbly last year that market watchers commented on how well the technology sector was holding up: that time has come and gone. With Wall Street in a tailspin, tech stocks are no longer enjoying the immunity to the market’s problems. From Redmond to Cupertino, and Sunnyvale to Armonk, the pain is beginning to spread.

In fact, some are seeing years of progress wiped out as investors head for the hills. Among the top five tech stocks (in terms of market capitalization), all are down significantly, with most trading quite close to 52-week lows and in some cases multi-year lows.

Microsoft, the largest technology company, has seen its stock fall nearly 21 percent year-over-year as of Tuesday. This is especially frustrating for the company’s shareholders considering the stock saw an impressive run towards the end of 2007 where the stock peaked at $37.50 a share in early November. Since then, the stock has taken a precipitous decline, losing a third of its value and falling back to the levels it has been stuck near for much of the decade.

#2 IBM is also down 18.5 percent, and so is #5 Hewlett Packard, which has fallen nearly 23 percent during the pas year. The biggest drops among the tech heavyweights are Cisco and Google, both falling by more than a third.

Continue Reading →

3 comments

Apple iPhone Antitrust Suit Allowed to Proceed

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 7, 2008 at 10:17 am

AT&T’s stranglehold on the iPhone here in the US may be coming to an end, as a California federal court has allowed an antitrust suit against the carrier and Apple to proceed. In an order handed down October 1, the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that there was sufficient material to continue the case.

Nine iPhone owners (who, by the way, are AT&T customers) from California, Washington, and New York make are the plaintiffs, and accused Apple and AT&T of ten separate breaches of federal law.

The ruling seems to be pretty much a clear win for the plaintiffs. Judge James Ware denied AT&T’s motions to compel arbitration, stay discovery, and dismiss, while also essentially denying Apple’s similar motion to dismiss. Apple and AT&T will have until October 15 to file any amended complaint.

Still on the table in the case are a litany of charges against the two companies, including several Sherman Antitrust Act claims, Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act claims, and computer fraud and computer tresspass claims. One bright spot: Apple has gotten the courts to throw out the unfair and deceptive trade practices claims.

Continue Reading →

One comment

Got a Question for Swoopo?

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 6, 2008 at 8:16 pm

Technologizer’s seen quite a bit of traffic over the past few weeks regarding our initial take on Swoopo, the newest auction site here in the US. A lot of this probably has to do with our search engine position — we are the #2 result when searching for “swoopo” — which no doubt probably isn’t sitting too well with the folks at the auction site considering we were not all that complementary.

In the interest of fairness, we got in contact late last week with Swoopo to give them the opportunity to tell their side of the story and to answer what seems to be from commenters some concerns over its business practices. So, we’re opening the floor. Is there a question you would like to ask the company? Let us know in the comments. We will try to ask as many of them as possible.

The floor is yours.

51 comments

If Yahoo and AOL Merge, Will Microsoft Reconsider?

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 6, 2008 at 1:28 pm

The latest reports across the blogosphere seem to indicate that acquisition talks between Yahoo and AOL are intensifying, and a deal could possibly come as soon as this month. Under the current proposals, it appears that Yahoo would purchase just about all of AOL save for its ISP business.

That portion of the company would likely be sold off to a company such as EarthLink, which back in July expressed interest in such a deal. Yahoo would have no use for the Internet access portion of AOL: it currently has no ISP business and prefers to align itself with other companies to promote its core search and Web services.

A combined company may look very attractive once again to Microsoft, even though it has repeatedly said publicly that it has no longer any interest in Yahoo. In addition to its attempts to merge with Yahoo, the Redmond company as recently as late 2005 attempted to cozy up to AOL and get its then-MSN Search as the default search for its customers. Those plans backfired, and Google took a five percent stake in AOL.

With Yahoo and AOL together, it could make good strategic sense for Microsoft to come to the bargaining table once more. As VentureBeat pointed out last month, all three companies are desperate to do some type of deal, all for different reasons.

Continue Reading →

One comment

Apple Easily Surpasses 10 Million iPhone Goal

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 6, 2008 at 10:27 am

When Apple first made its lofty projections to sell 10 million iPhones during 2008, some thought the company’s projections were overly optimistic. That may not be the case anymore if research by Apple enthusiast site Mac Observer is to be believed.

The data compiled by the site’s “Apple Finance Board” have taken a look at the IMEI numbers of shipped iPhone 3Gs as a way to estimate the total number of iPhone 3Gs shipped and compiled them into a spreadsheet. IMEI’s are issued in an specific order and can be used to figure out how many phones have been produced.

As to how this works, I’ll let the report’s author explain it.

One 6 digit number, known as the TAC, or Type Allocation Code, signifies a particular build or set of iPhones being manufactured. The second 6 digit number is unique to each individual iPhone produced in that particular series—so that 1 million iPhones can be registered to a specific TAC.

Using this data, the Mac Observer team estimates that Apple may have sold as many as 9.2 million iPhone 3Gs: a staggering statistic. Even allowing for 1.5 million iPhone 3G’s to still sit unsold, some 7.6 million units would already be in consumer’s hands. This would mean Apple would have sold 10 million phones already when adding in first-generation iPhone sales.

Continue Reading →

No comments

Zune Features Headed To Windows Mobile

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 3, 2008 at 9:53 am

Okay so it might not be true Zune phone per se, but Microsoft does have designs to put Zune functionality in its Windows Mobile operating system soon. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made the comments to British IT magazine CIO when asked why the company had created the music player in the first place.

“We built the Zune hardware with the Zune software – and what you’ll see more and more over time is that the Zune software will also be ported to and be more important not just with the hardware but on the PC, on Windows Mobile devices, etc.”

This is the first time that I can remember Ballmer specificially admitting the company had some interest in developing some type of “Zune phone.” All his previous comments, as far back as April of last year, have indicated the company had no interest.

I’d be willing to be the widespread success of the iPhone has changed that, and now with other competitors such as Nokia also moving to compete, not at least attempting to compete may be a bad idea for Microsoft.

Let us be clear here though: Microsoft is not going to develop or manufacture this phone themselves. But if these statements are to be taken at its face value, it sees to indicate Redmond will not stand in the way of any manufacturer who may be interested in launching a Zune phone.,

No comments

Sirius XM Makes Good on A La Carte Promise

Posted by Ed Oswald on October 2, 2008 at 12:07 pm

The satellite radio operator on Thursday debuted its first “a la carte” capable radio, the Starmate 5 for Sirius, while also giving users the option to get the best of the other service without having to change radios in most cases.

The Best of Sirius package for XM includes Howard Stern, the NFL, NASCAR, additional college sports programming, and Playboy Radio. For Sirius customers, the Best of XM adds Oprah, the NBA, Opie and Anthony, the NHL, PGA, additional college sports programing, and XM’s public radio channel.

For either service, the monthly rate would be bumped up to $16.99, essentially meaning the additional channels would cost a little more than $4 to receive. Those interested can either sign up for the new plans from each service’s website, or call in to have a representative change it for them.

Continue Reading →

10 comments