Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer has never been too modest about Microsoft’s sales numbers; in fact, throughout the Vista era he insisted that the news OS is doing great, selling better than any other Microsoft OS in history. Now, he claims that Windows 7 is selling even better, which we’re inclined to believe based on the fantastic preorder figures. Speaking at Microsoft’s shareholder meeting, Ballmer said Microsoft has “already sold twice as many units as any OS in a comparable time frame.”He then delivers on the grandeur that is expected from him, saying “Windows 7 is simply the best PC operating system that we or anyone else has ever built.” OK, Steve, it’s good, but I don’t think it’s revolutionary enough to be called “the best ever”. Vista was selling well, compared to its predecessor, simply because there were more computers around than there were when Windows XP was new. When you’ve got hardware vendors selling laptops and desktops with your new OS, you simply can’t do all that bad. But with Windows 7, Microsoft really seems to have a winner: the reviews were great, the market share is rising, users loveit, and everyone will probably soon forget about Vista, just as they’ve forgotten about Windows ME. Tags: Steve Ballmer, Windows 7
Google stole the tech and media spotlight today as it revealed a mountain of new details about Chrome OS, the company’s new operating system due in late 2010. It is a completely different type of OS (we provide a summary of how) that eliminates the desktop and focuses on getting you on the web quickly and efficiently. Now that we’ve had some time to digest Chrome OS and get information on all some of the details, it’s time to ask the big questions in order to understand if or how Chrome OS could change the world. What is Google’s eventual goal with Chrome OS? How will it affect Microsoft? And finally, what impact will Chrome OS have on the world?To explore those questions, it’s time to revisit the Google Revenue Equation.The Google Revenue Equation RevisitedSeveral months ago, I revealed what I believed to be the Google Revenue Equation. My argument at the time was that Google Chrome OS should not be viewed as a direct competitor to Microsoft Windows, but as Google’s biggest attempt yet to push the world onto the web more and for longer. The reason Google is pushing for society to use the desktop less and utilize the web more, I argued, was because of the Google Revenue Equation: Revenue = Amount of Time on the Web. After today’s announcements, I still believe that my equation is correct and that I hit the nail on the head with Google’s motivations. As Google’s Matt Cutts tweetedto me in a reply today, Google wants the web to succeed and will do what it takes to make even more functional, useful, valuable, and enticing to everyone (consider this the Cutts Corollary to the Google Revenue Equation). Chrome OS is the company’s biggest step yet towards fulfilling those goals.Google’s Key Goals with Chrome OSWith the Google Revenue Equation in mind, it’s easier to understand Google’s primary motivations for creating an OS based entirely off the browser. The more time we spend browsing the web, the more money Google makes. It’s that simple. Thus, Google’s primary goal is to get us on the web more.That’s exactly what Chrome OS does: its interface is 100% web, thus you are always browsing if you’re using Chrome OS. Every app is a web app. Plus, Chrome OS loads in seconds, getting you on the web faster.In order for Google to accomplish its goal of getting us on the web more, it has to eliminate time sinks and anything that distracts someone from surfing the web on the computer. Thus, one of Google’s goals is to destroy the desktop. There is no desktop on Google’s new operating system, but that’s only the beginning. Google may only be looking to launch on netbooks next year, but make no mistake: it hopes to have a strong presence laptops and desktops everywhere within the next five to seven years. Not only that, but it hopes that the influence of Chrome OS is powerful enough to push all future operating systems to be more web-centric. Microsoft Stands in the WayThe biggest obstacle standing in its way towards a web-centric computing experience is none other than Microsoft. The two have been locked in battle for years, but Google is now stepping onto turf that the technology behemoth has dominated for decades. Here’s the thing: Microsoft is well aware of the Google Revenue Equation. It also knows that Chrome OS and its price point (free) aren’t in its best interests. Thus, Microsoft won’t play to Google’s game, leaving Google with only option: to destroy or fundamentally alter Windows. This is equivalent to gutting Microsoft and leaving it to wither away into oblivion.Google is setting the stage for is biggest battle with Microsoft yet. The result of its Chrome OS bet will directly affect the fate of computing, the operating system, and the web.What Impact Will Chrome Have?Google’s intent is nothing short of a paradigm shift, one where the web is synonymous with the computer. It’s a process that will take years — decades in fact — but Google is patient and will wait for the Internet to become more accessible (and for Wi-Fi to be accessible in almost any location). The Chrome browser was a big push for a web-centric world, but Chrome OS is far more ambitious.Google cares more about the browser becoming the OS than it cares about Chrome OS being the OS of choice on the computers of the world. When companies and people adopt its standards, Google wins. It’s the same philosophy behind Google Wave: provide a free, open-source software and focus on changing how we think of communication. In the case of Chrome OS, the focus is on changing what we expect when we turn on a computer.It’s tough to tell if Google will succeed in its ambitious plan. However, it has a track record that cannot be ignored and, in our estimation, Google has already been instrumental towards society’s embrace of the web. Prepare yourself for the next era of the web, sparked by the fundamental philsophies behind Google Chrome OS.Reviews: Google, Google WaveTags: chrome, Chrome OS, Google, google chrome, google chrome os, microsoft
Oops, they did it again: popularFacebook games maker Zynga last month trademarked the name FishVilleand promptly launched the game by that nameless than a month later. This time Games.com reportsit could be pets the social games giant is going after next, with another trademark filing on the term PetVille.It makes perfect sense. In the same way that FishVille targeted rival company CrowdStar’s popular Happy Aquarium game concept, PetVille would neatly knock on the door of rival Playdom’s successful title Pet Society.Zynga is perhaps best known for its wildly popular game FarmVille, but is clearly not content to rest on its laurels and is aggressively building out social games with similar casual mechanics and a reportedly impressive revenue stream from in-game currency sales. Just how big is the social games space? Big enough to prompt industry-leading video game publisher Electronic Arts to snap up Playfishfor as much as $400 million.With shorter development cycles and growing revenue streams, it’s no wonder the traditional video games industry is taking notice, as sales data from consoles and software continue to plummet. For many of the same reasons, the industry should be worried about Apple’s iPhonetoo.Do you play casual games on Facebook? Have you ever spent real money on virtual goods?Reviews: Facebook, pet societyTags: casual games, facebook, farmville, fishville, petville, social games, Zynga
Twitter’s translation projectis rolling along rather quickly now. Earlier in the month Twitter launched in Spanish, and as of today, Twitter is now available in French.The company took to their blog and penned a post in Frenchto announce the news, which lets users switch their language to French from within the Settings area of Twitter.com.Here’s a translated version of what Twitter wrote of today’s news:“With the addition of the Spanish version of the site last month, many people have joined the conversations on Twitter. More and more people twittent outside the United States and we are now able to accommodate users of nearly 30 Francophone countries. It is now possible to change the language settings in French with the participation of translators who have helped turn Twitter into a platform for truly global communication.The French twitteurs golds can already track people and companies they are familiar. Whether you attended or @ @ Lepicerie lopera for your gastronomic outings, you read @ lemondefr way to work or you listen @ theteenagers on the way home or you’re a fan of @ CanadiensMTL, there is a wealth of information useful to discover at any time.To see Twitter in French, just check your settings and select “French” from the menu.”Reviews: TwitterTags: french, twitter
Speaking at an event in London earlier today, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone addressed Rupert Murdoch’s planto wall off his sites and prevent Google from indexingNews Corp’s online properties. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he characterized the plan as a bad idea, saying that the speed of change on the web meant it would likely “fail fast.”Instead of trying to “put the genie back in the bottle” and revert to an even more “ridiculously closed” model, Stone said Murdoch and co. ought to be thinking about how to make up lost revenue by embracing a radically new and open strategy. Co-founder of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman joined in with similar sentiments: “I am sure that during the transition from horses to automobiles there were some people bemoaning the loss of horse transport.”Them’s fighting words, and Murdoch would be wise to heed them. Do you think News Corp will go through with the plan to shut out the search giant? How do you think this will all play out?Tags: biz stone, Google, News Corp, rupert murdoch, twitter, walled gardens
As you may have heard, Oprah is scheduled to announce during tomorrow’s show that she will end her talk show, “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” in September 2011 to focus on her upcoming cable channel. The news came out earlier in the afternoon and it’s now spreading through Twitter at an astonishing rate.Not only does Oprah now dominate Twitter’s trending topics across multiple terms, which is quite remarkable given the volume of New Moon noise, but Trendrrhas alerted us to the fact that Oprah mentions, in just the first hour alone after the news broke, skyrocketed to more than 8,000 tweets.We’ve embedded the tweets per hour Trendrr graph below as we expect this to be an ongoing trend through tomorrow’s official announcement.Reviews: TwitterTags: oprah
Today Google finally unveiled its long-awaited Chrome OS. Although the OS won’t be appearing on commericial devices for at least another year, Google has already released the source codefor those willing to get their hands dirty and start playing with the project right now.Because I like a challenge, I decided to build my own Chrome OS image(using the invaluable build instructions) and then screencast the results. Chromium OS is most certainly a work in progress and is very rough around the edges. Some of the coolest parts of the video demonstration at today’s Google event either aren’t available in the current build or will only work if you are using specially optimized hardware (I was using a virtual machine). Still, it’s exciting to see what Google has already created.With that said, if you’re interested in seeing the OS in action in a non-flashy demo setting, check this out:Obviously, Chrome OS isn’t much to look at right now, but the idea of having everything in the browser is a concept that might just make low-powered, lightweight devices really pop as a new device category. The potential is certainly there for something very, very cool.Have you taken the time to compile and play with Chrome OS? What do you think of what Google is doing to try to redefine the operating system?Reviews: GoogleTags: Chrome OS, chromium os, Google, google chrome
Last week, after months of bickering and lawsuits, the Skype saga finally ended. eBay, which bought Skype for $2.6 billion in 2005, settled outstanding litigation with Skype’s founders. The result: Skype now owns all of its technology, the founders received 14% of Skype and two seats on the Board of Directors, eBay keeps 30% of Skype, and the rest is owned by outside investors.That was last week. Today, Skype CEO Josh Silverman announced that the Skype deal has closed. Here are the finalized details of the deal:1. Nothing has changed with ownership: eBay now owns 30% of Skype, outside investors (including Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board) own 70%. 2. Of that, 14% or so is owned by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the founders of Skype.3. The Skype deal values the company at $2.75 billion, which is a little higher than the price eBay paid for Skype in 2005.4. Joltid Limited is an investor in Skype. Joltid is owned by the Skype founders and was a major part of the legal dispute between eBay and the founders. The company held a key P2P technology that Skype now owns as part of this deal.Now it’s time to move on and see what this reinvented Skype can do.Reviews: SkypeTags: ebay, Joltid, Skype
The trend is simple and clear: video is moving more and more onto the web. Online video sites are growing, more and more TV shows are appearing on Hulu, movies now have their own destination site, and live streaming is booming with red carpet events and celebrity streams (the New Moon Premiere alone broke records).So maybe that’s why we’re absolutely, positively not surprised to learn that one of the world’s most famous shows has made its way onto live video. No, I’m not talking about the Emmys or the Grammys. Yes, I am talking about the 15th edition of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. If the American Music Awardsget their own live stream, why shouldn’t Victoria’s Secret?Here’s the truth of the matter: major events are realizing two things: that live streams can bring in huge audiences (ad revenue is catching up too) and that if you don’t have an online video component, your competitors will seize the opportunity and take the upper hand. Another interesting fact: Microsoft’s Bingis partnering with the fashion show and the afterparty (which will also be streamed).Here’s the live video (it begins at 6:30 ET) if you are interested:Let us know what you think of these video trends (or the models) in the comments.Reviews: BingTags: live video, livestream, Victoria's Secret
Back in August, The Huffington Post asked their readersto help identify the top game changers across 10 different verticals to “honor and celebrate people who are using new media to reshape their fields and change the world.”Today, after 1.7 million votes, the top 10 has been revealed, and our own Pete Cashmore has made the list for the “technology” category. Here’s what The Huffington Post has to sayabout our founder and CEO:“Changing The Game By: Taking social media mainstream. Cashmore, a college dropout and self-described “quiet type,” grew Mashable into a one-stop-shop social media hub. Mashable dishes up digestible bites of tech wisdom that appeal to both nerds and newbies, highlighting not only what’s new on Twitter, Facebook, and the social Web, but what to do with it. It also offers up the hunky Cashmore — nicknamed the “Brad Pitt of the blogosphere” — to Mashable’s readers, nearly 50 percent of whom are female. Mashable’s recent partnership with CNN is also mashing up new, social, and mainstream media, showing just how blurred the boundaries have become.”Thanks to all of the Huffington Post readers that cast their votes for our leader! While I’m not sure who gave Pete the nickname, I will do my best at making sure his face gets completely red by also suggesting you give his excellent and insightful (hey, it’s bonus season) column published today over on CNN a read: “Next year’s Twitter? It’s Foursquare”Reviews: Facebook, Mashable, TwitterTags: Huffington Post, mashable, pete cashmore, social media
Twitter announced it would be adding locations to your tweets back in August, and they’ve been making changes to their API to enable the functionality since late September. The geolocation functionality is now complete, and a number of developers of third-party apps who have been working on building location support into their applications should begin rolling out the new features soon.As we reported earlier, all of the location information is completely opt-in. To enable it and allow Twitter to attach geographic information to your tweets, head to the Account section of your Twitter settingsand scroll down to the location section. There’s a checkbox for enabling the geotagging, and a button that will allow you to delete all the historical location data from your tweets if you want to erase your tracks.Along with enabling the geolocation support, Twitter tweaked its privacy policyto explicitly include geotagging and to remind users that what they post to Twitter is (unless protected) public in nature. In a world where tweeting can get you robbedor sued, it’s a not superfluous reminder that we should participate in our own sensible privacy policies when using social media tools.Will you be turning on geolocation support for your tweets? Let us know in the comments.Reviews: TwitterTags: geolocation, geotagging, lbs, location, privacy, twitter
Just a few days ago we covered the Target and YouTube partnershiparound Holiday Solutions, a holiday-themed channel with brand sponsored content. We thought the idea made a lot of sense for both companies, and expected to see more brand partnerships develop on YouTube as a result.It appears that it didn’t take long to happen, as today the popular video sharing site has just announcedanother partnership and unveiled a new fully-themed channel for parents.This time around the channel goes by the name of For Mom, Kodak is the sponsor, and the goal is to ultimately serve as a resourceful video parenting sidekick. On first glimpse though, we’re also seeing For Mom content aimed at helping moms get a killer butt with a video on butt exercises by actress and mom Brooke Burke. Because all moms need a killer butt!All joking aside, we like the idea of a parent hub and the cooking, parenting, toys and games, health, beauty, and even butt tips and advice could prove to be the power mom’s preferred internet video spot. Of course the channel wouldn’t be complete without Kodak content, product information, and even a family video portrait contest.Given the quick fire release of Target and Kodak sponsored channels in the same week, we definitely expect to see more themed channels and partnerships with big brands in the near future.Tags: channel, Kodak, youtube
While Facebook’s userbase has been consistently growing for years, its monetary value has been less than consistent. Facebook stunned the world in October 2007 when a Microsoft investment valued the company at $15 Billion. The recession hit Facebook’s value hard though, dropping it all the way to $3.7 Billionin February of this year. Facebook’s value has been fighting back ever since. In July, its value reached $6.5 Billionafter a fresh $200 million investment. And now, according to Bloomberg, Facebook’s valuation has reach $9.5 Billion, a 42% increase in just four months.The $9.5 billion number is derived from the value of Facebook’s stock. While Facebook is a private company, stock of the social networking company is still getting exchanged. The value today is around $21 per share, a big jump from the price Digital Ventures paid in July: $14.77 per share.The rising value of Facebook makes complete sense to us. It now has over 325 million users and continues to gain new users at a clip of half a million every single day. Plus, with Facebook now cashflow positiveand exploring new revenue possibilities, its value will only keep rising.Reviews: FacebookTags: facebook, valuation
For some unbeknownst reason Google has offered Google News in a mobile-friendly version to BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and S60 devices, but has failed to provide the same experience to iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre device owners.Today, however, all that has changed, as Google News for mobile is now optimized for iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre users, providing them with the “same richness and personalization” on their mobile devices as they expect from their desktop.Accessing the enhanced Google News site is as simple as visiting news.google.comon your mobile device.According to Google’s announcementon the enriched mobile experience, “Our new homepage displays more stories, sources, and images while keeping a familiar look and feel. Also, you can now reach your favorite sections, discover new ones, find articles and play videos in fewer clicks.”For Google News addicts this is certainly a welcome change that should make the news reading and discovery experience faster and more tailored to your news needs.Reviews: AndroidTags: Google, google news, Mobile 2.0
