Nokia Siemens Closes $975M Acquisition Of Motorola Solutions? Wireless Network Assets

Nokia Siemens has closed the acquisition of the wireless network infrastructure assets of Motorola Solutions today. The company reports that it paid $975 million in cash for the assets and approximately 6900 employees will transfer to Nokia Siemens Network from Motorola. The finalization of the deal come after China regulators approved the acquisition a last week. The full release is paste below. As of April 30 2011, the company says that responsibility for supporting customers of Motorola Solutions? GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, WiMAX and LTE products and services transfers to Nokia Siemens Networks. Part of the approval is due to the fact that Motorola reached an agreement with Chinese manufacturer Huawei over a pending patent lawsuit relating to the assets being acquired. In January, Huawei filed a lawsuit to prevent Motorola from giving Nokia Siemens Huawei's IP information.

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Blog Post: Troubleshooting Tip for Debugging Crawl Issues in SharePoint 2010

I recently came across a very nice troubleshooting methodology when I was trying to debug some authentication issues that were occurring during a SharePoint 2010 crawl.  I was getting some errors and also having difficulty getting the information I needed out of the crawl log to some other issues that were occurring.  Strangely enough, enter Fiddler to the rescue (www.fiddler2.com).

 

I’m sure most everyone is familiar with Fiddler so I won’t bother explaining it here.  The trick though was to get it to capture what was happening during the crawl.  I found a very slick way to do this is to configure Fiddler as a reverse proxy for the crawl account.  The instructions for configuring Fiddler as a reverse proxy can be found here:  http://www.fiddler2.com/Fiddler/help/reverseproxy.asp.  The way I used it was as follows:

 

1. Log into my crawl server as the crawl account.
2. Configure Fiddler to be a reverse proxy as described above.
3. Start Fiddler
4. Start a new crawl.

 

I had isolated my trouble sites into a separate content source.  So once I followed these steps I was able to see each request from the crawler to that content source, how it was authenticating, and what was happening.  Overall it proved very useful in understanding much more clearly what was going on during the crawl of those sites.

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Operating Planning Advice, "Small Bites Chew Fast"

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Tonnerre Lombard, Andr� Rebentisch (FFII) Talk on Software Patents

A new talk and an older one about software patents and the GPLv3

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Amazon to South Carolina: We?ll Show You!

Online retail giant Amazon has tussled with state tax agencies before so this ain’t a new fight. But it might very well be an escalation of the beef… Reports are circulating that Amazon has decided against opening a new distribution center in South Carolina because lawmakers won’t go along with the retailers attempt to gain [...]

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Behind The Scenes: Record Label Demands From Amazon

Amazon defied the record labels by launching an unlicensed personal cloud music service. (Disclosure: I'm CEO of competitor MP3tunes.) Music companies immediately expressed their dissatisfaction and Amazon public stated they would discuss licenses with labels. Since then considerable speculation has swirled about regarding licensing discussions Amazon, Google and Apple are having with the 4 major record labels. Dominating the discussions is the labels concern that personal cloud services will exacerbate piracy and erode their business even further. Consequently they want to impose substantial restrictions on any such service, but each labels has different concerns and demands. Below are examples of the startling limitations major labels wish to impose on such services. Universal Music Group is concerned that users will load pirated songs into lockers. Average MP3 players house more than a thousand songs and UMG believes that many were unpaid for. They do not want to see the billions of songs that came from P2P system laundered (think drug money) in a cloud service and become legitimate.

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Drone Ships To Run On Sediment Sucked From The Sea Floor

Drone warships may soon be sailing under their own power using sediment sucked from the sea floor. How does it work? Well, the batteries create current by using the natural fuel sources in the water and from sea bottom dwelling animalcules.

Office of Naval Research just did a patent on making energy with a combination of seawater and organic material at the bottom of the ocean. If this can work in large quantities, you can see an unmanned vehicle out there simply burrowing down into the bottom of the ocean trying to recharge. ? It?s unmanned systems [like that] that offer tremendous versatility and tremendous reach.

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CrunchDeals: A Kindle And A Free $25 Gift Card For Your Muddah

Hello Muddah! Hello Faddah! Here I am at Amazonia. Buying Kindles. For a limited time if you buy a Kindle 3G/WiFi for $189 (or a DX, but Mom doesn't need one of those) you get a $25 gift card for Mom to use on Nicholas Sparks books.

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Gigabyte?s Touch BIOS Makes Changing Memory Timings Fun And Easy

If you've put together your own PC before, chances are you've had to dip into the BIOS to change a few things around, switch the boot priority, things like that. But as essential as the BIOS tools are, the UI has always been a bit daunting. Keyboard navigation of an 80s-style ASCII interface isn't something you expect in this modern age. So Gigabyte has gone ahead and given their BIOS a shiny new touch-compatible layer, for those of you rocking all-in-ones or touchscreen monitors. Practical? Not really. But hey, why not?

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Leveraging your iPhone development expertise to build Windows Phone 7 applications

Assuming you are a happy coder, the joy of developing software all comes down to a few things:

• Building something cool that users will enjoy
• Getting rewards from users and recognition from peers
• Learning how to solve new challenges and build novel features.

Even if you have a solid expertise on a particular platform/language, I think it is essential to be a “polyglot” developer. In other words, you might have a native or preferred language, but opening your mind to others can be very stimulating and will bring considerable value to your abilities and your resume.

Jumping from one platform or language to another can introduce breaking changes in your habits, but ultimately change is very stimulating and will expand your opportunities.

If you are a .NET developer, learning Windows Phone development is not really “change.” Instead, it is more of a continuum, where you just add new features to what you already know. If you are an iPhone developer, new to Windows Phone (and .NET), yes this is different. But don’t worry. The learning curve is not as steep as you would imagine.

How can you leverage your iPhone development expertise to build Windows Phone 7 applications?

There’s no magic wand that will do the work for you, but we have put together a great package to help you get started. It’s available at http://windowsphone.interoperabilitybridges.com/.

The package consists of:

• a NEW iPhone/iOS to Windows Phone 7 API mapping tool (see details below)
• a 90+ pages “Windows Phone 7 Guide for iPhone Application Developers” white paper, organized in 8 chapters, and growing
  
• a series of “developer stories”, in which developers share on video their experience porting iPhone applications to Windows Phone and explain why and how they did it.
  Here is one with Whurley from Chaotic Moon:
  
  A short version is also available here, and many other stories are available here,
• and a compilation of the key resources you need to get started.

New API mapping tool: iPhone/iOS to Windows Phone 7

Launched today, the iPhone/iOS to Windows Phone 7 API mapping tool helps developers find their way around when they discover the Windows Phone platform. Think of the API mapping tool as being like a translation dictionary. For example, let’s say that you’re planning a vacation to France. Since you don’t speak the language, you’ll bring a pocket travel dictionary. Having this tool will surely help you to get some idea about what you are ordering from a restaurant menu but you’ll have no idea what the actual recipe is -- nor will you be able to have a conversion in French with the server! But that’s a great learning tool to make the first steps.

With this tool, iPhone developers can grab their apps, pick out the iOS API calls, and quickly look up the equivalent classes, methods and notification events in WP7. A developer can search a given iOS API call and find the equivalent WP7 along with C# sample codes and API documentations for both platforms. Give it a try!

The code samples allow developers to quickly migrate short blobs of iOS code to the equivalent C# code. All WP7 API documentations are pulled in from the Silverlight, C# and XNA sources on MSDN.

What sort of applications does the mapping tool address?

Taking a step back, the iOS APIs can broadly be classified into the following categories: Audio / Video, Data Management, Graphics / Animation, Network / Internet, Performance, Security and User Interface

For current mapping, we started with 3 popular categories (Network / Internet, User Interface and Data Management) and mapped them to Windows Phone 7 API. Don’t expect a mapping for all of the APIs, simply because the platforms are built upon different architectures and user interfaces. For this first round we focused on identifying the one-to-one mapping when it exists. In the following versions we’ll expand the scope and anytime the concepts are similar enough, we’ll do our best to provide the appropriate guidance.

What’s next?

Of course, this is a work in progress, coverage will expand and more iOS APIs will be mapped soon. So, please consider using the mapping tool in your porting efforts, and provide feedback on the dedicated forum, where you can also suggest new mapping APIs to include: http://wp7mapping.uservoice.com

And before you ask, yes we are planning to provide similar guidance and tools for Android.
Stay tuned!

Jean-Christophe Cimetiere, Sr. Technical Evangelist – Interoperability
@jccim - blogs.msdn.com/interoperability

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Free calendar app from Microsoft for Admin Professionals Day

For Administrative Professionals Day on Wednesday, Microsoft is giving away a Calendar Analytics application for free.

The free PC software helps analyze where you're allocating your time, based on Microsoft's business intelligence software PowerPivot. The software creates a dashboard summary based on calendar information from Microsoft Exchange.

Microsoft said in a news release that it is making the software available to show how easy it is to use business intelligence software, often called BI, such as PowerPivot.

You will need Windows 7, Excel and PowerPivot to run the application.

This sounds more like a gift for bosses who want time management reports than for administrative professionals. Administrative professionals who work for bosses who download this tool can add "collect Calendar Analytics reports from all team members" to their to-do list.

Managers usually buy flowers for administrative professionals on this holiday.

Here is where you can download the calendar analytics software for free. Microsoft also made a video about it.

Here is where you can buy flowers for your administrative professional: QFC.

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Is Creationary A Lego Boardgame? Yes. Yes It Is.

At first blush a game called "Creationary" may sound a bit anti-science but it is, in fact, just Pictionary with Legos. It costs $34 and is for ages 7-12 and apparently you can build your own die and then pick cards to tell each player what to build. You can make vehicles, buildings, or items from nature (there's also a nebulous "things" category) and it's for 3 to 8 players.

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My Experiences with UCrew ? Golnaz Alibeigi

Golnaz Alibeigi is a graduating senior at the University of California Irvine studying Film and Media Studies. She has been a member of Windows UCrew for 2 years and feels that it is one of the greatest opportunities she has ever had. Her job is to teach and inform her peers about the benefits of Windows 7. If you run into her in the street, feel free to call her by one of her many nicknames G-naz, Nazzy Naz and DJ NAZ NAZ.

Golnaz Alibeigi is a participant in Microsoft’s UCrew program, and receives Microsoft software, hardware, and financial compensation as part of her participation in the program.

Hi Blog World! My name is Golnaz and I am a graduating senior at UC Irvine studying film. I am also a Windows UCrew Representative. Basically my job entails expanding student awareness about Windows 7. I teach my fellow peers how to stay connected with the world through Windows Live Messenger and Windows Live Hotmail, while staying creative and finishing school projects with PowerPoint and Word. I love my job! And it has great perks! I am one of 400 Reps nationwide. But another amazing and hilarious rep named Janelle and I have been chosen within our Windows UCrew program to show Microsoft Leaders how we use our Windows 7 PC's and how we teach our peers.

This last weekend, Janelle and I attended a Microsoft conference and it was amazing. We took the stage for 7 minutes and demonstrated our favorite features, showing everyone projects we are working on and how we like to stay connected with friends and family. I focused on discussing the creative aspects of Windows Live with Movie Maker and Photo Gallery (which are part of Windows Live Essentials as a free download) since most of my college projects are creatively driven. One short film that I discussed in my presentation was "My Persian Family." A project I created for my production class. It's a short 6 minute documentary about my family and how they immigrated to America and their feelings towards being Iranian in America. I was able to make this film with my HD video camera and my Windows 7 PC. With Windows Live Movie Maker I was able to export my film to YouTube within minutes allowing my family from all over America as well as my family in Iran to see it with the click of a button.

I have learned a great deal from visiting Microsoft and being given the chance to speak in front of so many amazing and important people. There are countless opportunities in a technology company and I learned that a woman of minority straight from college has a voice to be heard. I would like to thank all who have taken their time to listen to what I have say, and I would like to thank Microsoft for introducing me to all the inspiring people I have met so far.

Sincerely,
Golnaz

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Upcoming Events for Startups and Entrepreneurs in Seattle

Upcoming Events for Startups and Entrepreneurs in Seattle:

Next Seattle 2.0 Event: Seattle 2.0 Awards 2011 on May 5

			Recurring
FRI	April 29
SAT	April 30	iBBQ & a Performance of The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs (Seattle)
SUN	May 1
MON	May 2	Assembling the nuts and bolts of entrepreneurship -- Silicon Valley Style (Bellevue)
TUE	May 3	UW Tech Trends & Education Open House and Panel, May 3 (Seattle)	Seattle Startups Open Coffee (Seattle)
WED	May 4		Seattle Lean Coffee (Seattle) Eastside Startups Open Coffee (Redmond) TechFoam: Eastside Startup Meetup (Bellevue)
THU	May 5	Seattle 2.0 Awards 2011 (Seattle)	Hops & Chops Happy Hour (Seattle)
FRI	May 6
SAT	May 7
SUN	May 8
MON	May 9
TUE	May 10
WED	May 11	Get Funded! -- Winning Strategies for Courting Angel Investors (Seattle)
THU	May 12	Northwest Startup DEMO ? Spring 2011 (Seattle)

More Startup Events in Seattle...

Don't see your event? Submit your Startup event to our calendar.

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Geeks Wanted at the FBI

Gas prices are going up again, not one single Gordon Gekko-lyte has been held accountable for the financial meltdown of recent years, and most of us are just now sobering up from a tax filing hangover. So if you're looking for another reason to complain about the government, here it is: Reports are that 13 out of 36 surveyed FBI agents lack the skills to deal with cyber crime. Sounds like a job opportunity!

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Mobile developers prefer Apple and Google over Microsoft, survey says

While interest in building apps for Windows Phone 7 is building, Microsoft is still far behind Apple and Google's smartphone and tablet platforms, according to a private survey done by mobile development platform Appcelerator and research firm IDC. The two companies jointly surveyed 2,760 developers in April.

Based in Mountain View, Calif., Appcelerator helps Web developers build mobile apps, but does not support building for Windows Phone 7. The survey asks developers about their plans independent of whether they plan to use Appcelerator's services.

Most developers who were "very interested" in building for the iPhone, representing 91 percent; 86 percent were very interested in building for the iPad; 85 percent were interested in building for Android smartphones; 71 percent were interested in building for Android tablets; and 29 percent were interested in building for Windows Phone 7.

Here is a chart that shows the findings.

One of the interesting trends was a falloff in interest in building for Android tablets, after the Consumer Electronics Show in January. "Now we're in the shipping wave of Android tablets. That's where things start getting experienced. Now we get the first set of reviews, they are coming up with fair to, say, mixed reviews," said Scott Schwarzhoff, vice president of marketing for Appcelerator. "What we hear from our developer base on this is that Microsoft has a window of opportunity in exploiting the issue that Android tablets are seeing today."

The survey asked developers what they saw as the biggest threat to Windows Phone 7, and 59 percent said the biggest threat is that Microsoft is too far behind Apple and Google. The next biggest reason was that developers have their hands full with developing for Apple and Android.

Here is a chart that shows those findings.

Developers said Microsoft's partnership with Nokia could give it the greatest chance of competing against Apple and Google, the survey said.

Here is the chart showing those findings.

Schwarzhoff says the survey is both good and bad for Microsoft. "The good news is strategic partnerships. The good news is with Android there's an opening on the tablet and fragmentation. There's an opportunity to walk the middle line between not being closed like Apple and not being too chaotic like Google," he said. He said seeing what has happened with Android tablet so far, it's not a bad idea for Microsoft to develop its tablet strategy without rushing to market. " It's no longer sufficient to rapidly get to market. You have to get to market and compete on user experience but you also have to compete on price and value," he said.

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Apple comments on iPhone location storm, software update soon

Apple has finally commented on the iPhone and iPad location logging controversy that erupted last week, saying that a software update would be available soon. Apple provided a Q&A page with the answers to 10 questions about the situation (shown below), but noted that the company did not transfer any of the location data gathered by people's devices back to the company. The software update, expected to be available "sometime in the next few weeks," will reduce the size of the location database cached on the iPhone, will stop backing up the cache to people's computers, and will delete this cache entirely when Location Services is turned off.

Read the comments on this post

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Links 29/4/2011: Linux 2.6.39 RC 5, Slackware 13.37

Links for the day

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Microsoft and Nokia Sign the Definitive Agreement

Many of you may have already seen the news announced earlier this morning, Nokia and Microsoft signed the definitive agreement for a strategic partnership between the two companies. You can get more information on this announcement from a joint blog post by Kai Oistamo, Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer at Nokia and Andy Lees, president of Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business. You can also head to the Microsoft Press Center to see the press release, or you can watch this video with Waldemar Sakalus from Nokia and Matt Bencke from Microsoft.

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Microsoft pay raises expected to boost local economy

This story ran in the print edition of The Seattle Times on April 22, 2010. -Sharon Pian Chan

In the midst of a slow-going economic recovery, economists say the unprecedented pay raises Microsoft announced Thursday are a harbinger of hope for the Puget Sound area's economy.

Every new dollar earned by each of the 40,000 employees who live in the region will generate another dollar in car sales, restaurant meals, sales of flat-screen televisions and maybe even housing sales.

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Thursday in an email to all 88,000 employees that the company is making "the most significant investment in overall compensation we have ever made."

Ballmer said the company is making this investment to attract and retain employees, who might otherwise be lured away by tech companies such as Google and Facebook. "The changes we're rolling out today will help ensure Microsoft continues to be the place that top talent comes to change the world," he wrote.

The company declined to give specific numbers on how much it will invest or how much wages will rise for the average employee. The raises will not take effect until later this year. And while Microsoft says the compensation changes apply across the board, employees will see different wage increases. Research-and-development jobs, middle managers and certain areas will see bigger bumps.

"This is exactly the kind of positive news that encourages me about the prospects for our state's recovery," said Washington state Chief Economist Arun Raha. "I expect this to have an impact in the areas surrounding where Microsoft employees live in every kind of standing -- cars, consumer goods, houses."

As part of the new compensation plan, Microsoft employees will receive higher base salaries. More employees, 80 percent instead of 50 percent, will earn the full amount of their cash bonuses. Some of employees' stock awards will be awarded as cash instead of stock.

The stock is a sore subject with employees and investors alike because it has moved little over the past 10 years. In the early days of Microsoft, employees wanted stock options because the share price was rising so quickly. In 2003, the company began giving stock awards instead of options.

Raha said the changes will spur employees to shop. "Any time you take money that's unsure and you make it sure, that's positive," he said. "The ability to recruit and retain top talent is a plus for the state."

And, he said, other companies competing with Microsoft will likely raise their wages.

The changes Microsoft announced do not include contractors. Contracts with third-party service companies were cut 10 percent in early 2009, and many of those companies passed the cut to their employees.

The average wage for a computer programmer in Washington state as of March 2010 was $91,631, according to state employment data. And while Microsoft declined to say how much average pay would rise, competitor Google gave a 10 percent raise to all employees earlier this year.

Dick Conway, co-publisher of the Puget Sound Economic Forecast, gave a hypothetical estimate.

Theoretically, he said, if the average local Microsoft employee makes $100,000 and receives a 10 percent raise, that would create another $10,000 per 40,000 Microsoft workers in the Puget Sound region, for a total of $400 million.

"Now typically -- and this is based on models that we use for forecasting and simulation -- if you create a dollar in income in the region, the multiplier effect will be equivalent to another dollar," he said.

He expects new money would go toward consumer spending, would create jobs in retail, trade and services, and could potentially decrease the number of layoffs in the state's public sector because of the revenue that would be generated by retail sales-tax income. Conway does not expect the wage increases to have an impact on the housing market.

The hypothetical 10 percent raise would represent 0.7 to 0.8 percent of the total salaries of all Puget Sound workers in 2011, he said.

"That number might sound small, but it certainly is significant," Conway said. "This is the kind of boost that we've been looking for to get us out of the recession. Technically the recession ended almost two years ago, but in fact we've seen very little employment growth and very little income growth. So this is the kind of thing you hope to see to get the show on the road again."

Microsoft also announced a major change to how it reviews employee performance. The new system will grade workers on a rating scale from one through five, with one being the highest score.

In 2006, Microsoft went to a rating scale that divided employees into three percentile groups: 20 percent considered "outstanding," 70 percent considered "strong" and 10 percent considered "limited." Before 2006, Microsoft ranked employees on a numerical scale between 2.5 and five. Both of the previous systems graded employees on a curve and forced distribution of bonuses and raises. Microsoft declined to comment on how raises and bonuses would be allocated across the new ratings scale.

Mini Microsoft, an anonymous blogger who writes about working at Microsoft, said Thursday in a post: "So we have a new review model. And a rework of our compensation. With cash, cash, cash. Forget that Microsoft stock because it's dead in the water and today's Microsoft employee is all about the paycheck."

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Blog Post: Boys and Girls Club kids get their tech on!

Last Thursday and Friday, April 21-22, more than 60 kids participated in the  CyberSummit, an annual event hosted by Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, and open to clubs in and around Boston, that enables kids to learn about and interact with new technologies. Now in its 11^th year, CyberSummit includes hands-on workshops with cutting-edge technology, as well as team building opportunities and challenges from creating digital music, to building 3D scale models, and filming and editing an original video. 

 

“What I think is so great about CyberSummit is that it brings learning to life for kids.  Children learn about concepts in the classroom, but with this event they are able to have a hands-on experience with things like technology and video music production, architecture and engineering,“ said Joshua Kraft, Nicholas President and CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Boston. “Providing kids with interactive experiences makes it exciting and really leaves an impression. This year was especially successful – the kids were more engaged than we’ve ever seen.”

 

Microsoft volunteers ran sessions including Game Making with Kodu, and a Windows Mobile workshop. Additionally the kids participated in an internet safety workshop where they learned how to combat cyber-bullying.

 

This was Microsoft’s third year sponsoring the event and the Boston office is pleased to be part of such an important initiative. “We’re so grateful for everything Microsoft does to make CyberSummit happen,” Kraft noted. In addition to the financial and volunteer support provided, Microsoft donated a flat screen TV with Kinect for Xbox to Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, and also Zune and mp4 players for raffle.  Check out some pictures from the event below!

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Users Will Download 44 Billion Mobile Apps By 2016

There's no doubt that there's been both an explosion of growth in mobile app downloads and app stores. While Apple's App Store has dominated in terms of number of apps and downloads, Distimo just released a study that projects the Android Market will become the largest store in terms of number of applications in about five months from now, passing the App Store. Today, ABI research is reporting that the app industry is on its way to achieving 44 billion cumulative downloads by 2016. Similar to Distimo's findings, ABI reports that Android and Windows Phone 7 are steadily catching up with Apple in terms of downloads.

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The Final Shoe Drops: Apple Now More Profitable Than Microsoft Too

Just about a year ago, when Apple passed Microsoft in market cap, the Redmond loyalists were out in full force: that means nothing ? look at the revenues! When Apple passed Microsoft in revenues last October, it was: who cares ? look at the profits! We were looking, and we projected that this quarter just ended would be the one in which Apple passed Microsoft in that regard too. Sure enough, they have. Easily. Microsoft has just announced their Q3 2011 results. The numbers appear to be good, beating analysts' expectations. But with net income now at $5.23 billion, Microsoft now comes in well behind Apple, which had a net income of $5.99 billion last quarter.

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Sony unveils Android tablets, the new ultimate remote?

Building on its relationship with Google, Sony revealed two new Android-based tablets the company will begin selling this fall.

The "Sony Tablets" are based on Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" and will have 3G and 4G wireless capability. They have distinctive curved cases and what Sony calls an "off-center of gravity form factor" that "offers stability and a sense of lightness."

Two models will be released - a traditional 9.4-inch slate and a funky folding model with dual 5.5-inch displays.

Displays on the folding "S2" model can be used as a single large screen or to display content on one screen and use the other as a keyboard or for email. It looks like a replacement of the clutch-like Vaio P "lifestyle PC" that debuted in 2009 and is now being marked down by Sony.

What may make the devices stand out are the Sony online entertainment services that the devices are designed to access, including the PlayStation mobile gaming service (if the network is restored by then ...) and digital books distributed through Sony's Reader store.

Sony's also giving the devices infrared technology so they can work as universal remote controls for A/V devices including its Bravia TVs and video components. They're also DLNA compatible so they'll be able to select content on a home network and output to large screens and wireless speakers, Sony said in its release.

The release quote from Kunisama Suzuki, senior vice president and deputy president of Sony's new consumer products and services group:

"Sony Tablet delivers an entertainment experience where users can enjoy cloud-based services on-the-go at any time. We're aiming to create a new lifestyle by integrating consumer hardware, including Sony Tablet with content and network."

I wonder if these devices will also work as consoles for the next generation of Google TVs made by Sony. What would really be cool, though, is if Sony started bundling one of these tablets with new TVs, similar to the way HP tried bundling a tablet with printers.

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Reason #17 to attend the Seattle 2.0 Awards: Check out the startups showcase!

Yes, we have some amazing finalists at the 2011 Seattle 2.0 Awards; we have the phenomenal Mark Suster coming to speak; we have an A-List of attendees (some B-list as well); we’ll have great food & drinks, but here is the reason you might have been looking for: Check out some of the great startups demoing their product on the Startup Showcase.

This year Startup Showcase is sponsored by Twilio and they are supporting all these startups.

Take the time to check them out! 

Arc Computer
www.smartkeyboard.co/ | @ArcComputer
Arc Computer is presenting a pre-production Wingz wireless SmartKeyboard for iPads and Tablets. Wingz is a high performance mobile device combining a multi-touch display running smartphone apps with a sleek ergonomic design.

CoCollage
www.cocollage.com | @cocollage
CoCollage is a place based social network that is connecting people in the real world using their mobile phones and large displays. We are merging the virtual with the physical and in the process making digital signage more engaging.

ContexTV
www.contextv.com | @ContexTV
ContexTV is an online video semantic platform which allows content owners enrich their videos by linking with other web-based or rich media content. With easy to use tools content owners can define the engagement layer and deliver the content to audiences anywhere. ContexTV captures the audience behavior in real-time, allowing dynamic adjustment of the editorial context to keeps audiences engaged.

CupidsPlay
www.cupidsplay.com
CupidsPlay is a new online dating network that helps members initiate relevant contact with others using social games as shared topics of conversation. Members invite others to join games and receive real-time updates when potential dates need help for in-game challenges. All these provide ample opportunities to “break the ice,” and help bring people together through common interests. Meeting someone on CupidsPlay is more natural, fun, and social. 

Deal Springer
www.dealspringer.com | @DealSeattle
Deal Springer empowers anyone to share deals instantly (using a smartphone or computer). When they want, how they want, at the price they want. Snap a photo, enter text, hit "spring", done! Deals are instantly promoted to local mobile devices, Facebook, Twitter, emails, scannable window stickers and search engines.

Giant Thinkwell
www.giantthinkwell.com | @giantthinkwell
Giant Thinkwell builds playful social and mobile games and utilities that bring celebrities and their fans closer together. Our customizable tools engage fans in a kick-ass way that opens a new revenue stream from Twitter followers, Facebook fans, or YouTube subscribers

Glacier Peak Technology
www.glacier-peak.net | GPT_LLC
Glacier Peak Technology is a software development & consulting services company. Our rapid application tool, EvoLucid™, brings bio-inspired AI engineering to software development and management. It enables us to create intelligent software with efficiency and accuracy. EvoLucid-produced applications self-maintain, continuing to learn and optimize as they are used.

LazyMeter
www.LazyMeter.com | @LazyMeter
LazyMeter makes task management quick, simple and rewarding. It filters your overwhelming to-do list into a today list so you know what to do, when you’re done, and how you did each day. We’re ending procrastination and forgetting, and restoring the satisfaction that comes from a hard day’s work.

MediaPiston
www.mediapiston.com | @mediapiston
MediaPiston is the easiest way to get high quality content, on-demand. Our quality control process, highly skilled content creator community and streamlined review tools makes it possible to tackle large-scale content projects that were previously expensive and often too complex to manage.

ReadyPulse
ReadyPulse | @readypulse
ReadyPulse is an online social benchmarking solution to measure your brand's performance on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. You will get a quick view on how your brand is doing against your competition via a simple dashboard that delivers information in real-time. ReadyPulse is launching soon.

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Recent Job Posts in Tech & Startups

Recent Job Posts in Tech & Startups:

• Java engineers - Lockerz.com [Tech Startup]
  Location: Seattle
• Operations Engineer - DataSphere Technologies [Tech Startup]
  Location: Bellevue
• Software Design Engineer - DataSphere Technologies [Tech Startup]
  Location: Bellevue
• Software Design Engineer - DataSphere Technologies [Tech Startup]
  Location: Bellevue
• Senior Program Manager - DataSphere Technologies [Tech Startup]
  Location: Bellevue
• Engineering Intern (Seattle) - Redfin
  Location: Seattle
• MBA Intern - F5 Networks [Tech Startup]
  Location: Seattle
• Mobile App Developer - Code-It LLC [Tech Startup]
  Location: (virtual)
• Technical Program Manager-Business Analyst - Tableau Software
  Location: Seattle
• Graphic design internship available with marketing startup - Fanvertise
  Location: Redmond
• Social Media Marketing Campaign Manager Internship - Zooppa
  Location: Seattle
• Internship ? Program Management - Deep Intel [Tech Startup]
  Location: Kirkland
• Internship ? Business Administration - Deep Intel [Tech Startup]
  Location: Kirkland
• Linux/Windows System Engineer - Tableau Software
  Location: Seattle
• Senior Network Engineer - Tableau Software
  Location: Seattle
• Symfony Developer - [Tech Startup]
  Location: (virtual)
• Technical Co-Founder, Architect, Dev Lead - [Tech Startup]
  Location: Seattle
• Project Manager-Technical User Support (Contract) - Tableau Software
  Location: Seattle
• Sales Area Manager ? Existing Business - Tableau Software
  Location: Seattle
• Sr. Front End Web Developer - Teegwen [Tech Startup]
  Location: Redmond
• Looking to add ASP.NET / MS SQL Developers - Greenvelope [Tech Startup]
  Location: (virtual)

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