May 2011

Senate hearings become Apple witch hunt.

May 11, 2011
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Apple and Google took a drubbing from the US Senate yesterday over location based services.  At issue — Apple’s use of GPS data collected on iPhone in order to improve the accuracy and speed of location fixes. As I wrote in July 2009, iPhone (and I’m sure all other mobile handsets today) uses assisted GPS, [...]

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Google loses Belgian copyright case

May 11, 2011
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Apparently Belgium newspapers don’t want to be part of the internet.  The Belgian appeals court has said that Google infringes their copyrights when it publishes excerpts of what they write on Google News.  The company now faces a fine of approximately €25,000 per day until it comes into compliance.  In addition, the suit asks for [...]

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Relaunching Saunderslog.com

May 11, 2011
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In July of last year Saunderslog.com moved into the Calliflower web site.  My writing “assignments” were too varied and complex. I was writing on the Calliflower site, the Voyces blog, and here. I felt I wasn’t doing a good job on any of them, and thought that by combining two of them, I could perhaps [...]

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Why is Steve Ballmer excited about Skype?

May 10, 2011
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Microsoft and Skype just wrapped up the official press conference announcing the merger.  Steve Ballmer led the discussion, followed by Tony Bates from Skype, and then Microsoft CFO Peter Klein talking about the deal. Microsoft is understandably enthusiastic about this deal. They’re getting a great company, and a great brand with 170 million users, all [...]

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Does Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype change anything?

May 10, 2011
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So Microsoft has acquired Skype for $8.5 billion.  Whew!  It’s a breathtaking sum, especially for a company who’s bread and butter is the prepaid telecom business. Of all those rumoured to have been in the hunt for Skype, however, Microsoft was the suitor most able to take advantage of Skype’s network, ecosystem, and technology.  Their [...]

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