Netizen

A Politician In Redmond

Mark Penn (Photo credit: jdlasica)

Mark Penn is a familiar name. The guy was a pollster during the 2008 election. He was on the other side! His new assignment makes sense to me. Politics is war by other means. Business is politics by other means.

Mark Penn, Microsoft’s New Strategist, Hopes to Boost Bing

a new corporate strategy role reporting directly to Steve Ballmer ...... is assembling a “SWAT team” to work on thorny strategy questions ..... corporate vice president of strategic and special projects. ..... politics and technology have been my two passions since I was about 12 .... the Microsoft boss was intrigued with Mr. Penn’s comparison of the marketing challenge of Bing to pitching a political candidate ..... Penn said more consumers need to be convinced to use Bing. .... “Diehard habits can be questioned, just in the same way that people drank Coke and then realized Pepsi was just as good if not better” .... Mr. Penn said he will continue to work from Washington, D.C., though he plans to spend time in Redmond

This hire speaks to Ballmer's tenacity.

Steve Jobs had innovation nailed down. Ballmer has tenacity nailed down.

Motorola To The Rescue

Image representing Larry Page as depicted in C...

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Google Says Patents, Tech Were Less Than Half Motorola’s Price

$5.5 billion of the $12.4 billion price tag was attributable to “patents and developed technology.” .... would strengthen its patent portfolio and help legally insulate its Android mobile phone software from infringement lawsuits..... The acquisition would “supercharge Android,” Chief Executive Larry Page wrote then. .... Google said Motorola contributed some $1.25 billion in revenue, though the new unit also posted a $233 million operating loss. ..... Oracle sued Google for alleged patent and copyright infringement by Android in 2010, though a related trial earlier this year resulted in a victory for Google. .... $2.9 billion of the purchase price for Motorola was attributable to cash acquired, $2.6 billion was related to goodwill, $730 million for customer relationships and $670 million for “other net assets acquired.” ... the synergies expected to arise after the acquisition.”

For a software company like Google to want to do hardware in house is a big move. For a culture driven company like Google to nearly double its workforce size from one acquisition is not an easy move, not easy to pull off. For a young company like Google to buy Motorola which has a deeper bench of patents is wise, but it is a package deal. For Google to want to defend Android is very understandable.

iPhone 5

Image representing iPhone as depicted in Crunc...

Image via CrunchBase

It is expected to sell really, really well. Okay, so the screen size got bigger, but still not big enough. What else?

Apple’s Upcoming iPhone: What We Know

a thinner screen .... all the major carriers are expected to begin selling the iPhone at launch..... The screen will also be larger, measuring at least 4 inches diagonally .... iOS 6, which Apple says comes with 200 new features, including enhancements to “voice assistant” Siri; a new 3-D maps service with turn-by-turn navigation; integration with Facebook; a “Do Not Disturb” feature to avoid unwanted messages at night; and a new app called Passbook organizes loyalty cards, tickets and boarding passes to display the right card when needed..... 65% of those planned to make an iPhone their next smartphone, and of those 51% said they were waiting for newest model

I guess iOS 6 is the big item here.

The Enemy Knows

Arab Spring [LP] (Photo credit: Painted Tapes)

How Pro-Regime Forces Use Spyware to Target Arab Spring RebelsHow Pro-Regime Forces Use Spyware to Target Arab Spring Rebels

pro-regime forces have been using fake messages to install malware on activists’ computers that would allow them to monitor keystrokes and other activity .... “off the shelf” surveillance products for governments and law enforcement .... Fin Fisher could be installed by “sending fake software updates for popular software.” ..... “Compromised Skype accounts of trusted friends is very popular,” he said, as activists have looked to the Internet telephony service because they don’t trust the state phone systems. ..... “It pays to be especially cautious when downloading files over the Internet, even from links that are purportedly sent by friends”

It is not surprising that the authoritarian regimes would get sophisticated in their use of information technology. After all they have much resources at their disposal. But this just adds to the sort of training the pro liberation forces should subject themselves to. Easier said than done. In countries like the US that are more literate, it is hard to get people to not click on suspicious links.

The regimes use way more sophisticated stuff than this one. Surveillance tools at the disposal of the Chinese authorities, for example, have been manufactured by some of the biggest names in tech.

Just like companies used to be barred from doing business with the apartheid regime in South Africa, tech companies ought to be barred from selling stuff to authoritarian regimes that get used to suppress dissent.

Hello Apple, Hi Samsung

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This fight has to be taken out of the courts and put back into the market where it belongs.

Apple v. Samsung Electronics: The Patent War Claims, Uncut

The gloves have emphatically come off ..... dozens of suits and countersuits around the world involving these two smartphone giants ...... The broad themes of the accusations on each side are well known by now. Apple complains Samsung is a copycat, stealing the product designs and user-experience programming in the iPhone and later the iPad. Samsung replies that Apple is claiming ownership for ideas it may have modified, but certainly did not invent. ...... In February 2006, before the claimed iPhone design was conceived of,Apple executive Tony Fadell circulated a news article that contained an interview of a Sony designer to Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive and others. In the article, the Sony designer discussed Sony portable electronic device designs that lacked excessive ornamentation such as buttons, fit in the hand, were square with a screen and had corners [which] have been rounded out. Ex. 18(DX 649). Immediately after this article was circulated internally, Apple industrial designer Shin Nishibori was directed to prepare a Sony-like design for an Apple phone and had CAD drawings and a three-dimensional model prepared...... As Mr. Nishibori has confirmed, his Sony-style design changed the direction of the project that yielded the final iPhone designs. ...... When Apple was developing its campaign to promote the first iPhone, it considered – and rejected – advertisements that touted alleged Apple ―firsts with the iPhone. As one Apple employee explained to an overly exuberant Apple marketer, I don‘t know how many things we can come up with that you can legitimately claim we did first. Certainly we have the first successful versions of many features, but that‘s different than launching something to market first.‖ See Ex. 4 (DX 578). In this vein, the employee methodically explained that Palm, Nokia and others had first invented the iPhone‘s most prominent features.