The chief executives of Friendster and two similar networking Web sites are commonly thought of as friends. All three–Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn, in Mountain View, Calif.; Marc Pincus of Tribe.net, in San Francisco; and Jonathan Abrams, of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Friendster–invested early in Friendster, and all began their various networking sites with the understanding that the market would be big enough to let each specialize and not compete with one another directly.
Friendster was to be the purely social site where friends could introduce one another, match make and date. LinkedIn, which on Wednesday is expected to announce a Series A funding round of $4.7 million led by Sequoia Capital, would cater to professionals looking to network and hire. And Tribe.net was meant to integrate a classified ads model with a personal network.
Now that venture capital money and influence is raining on the start-ups, the friendly atmosphere among the three entrepreneurs is beginning to deteriorate.
As Friendster was hammering out details of its most recent cash infusion–a $13 million Series D investment led by Benchmark Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers–Pincus and Hoffman formed a limited partnership without Abrams, in order to purchase the so-called “Six Degrees” patent for $700,000. [CNET News.com]
Cablevision adds VoIP to broadband menu
Cablevision said Tuesday that it now offers Internet phone service to all of its cable broadband customers, giving it one of the largest potential markets for commercial voice over Internet protocol service in the United States.
As of Tuesday, the company’s $35-a-month Optimum Voice dialing plan is available to 1 million high-speed Internet customers in the lucrative New York market, which the company claims is the most widely available so-called VoIP plan in the United States. Cablevision launched Optimum Voice on N.Y.’s Long Island in September. [CNET News.com]
YATR
Yet another Treo review…
In his first review for Mobile Burn, Marcelo Lopez gives us the low-down on one of this year’s hottest devices, the Handspring Treo 600. While not quite perfect, it addresses many of the Treo 270/300’s issues. [Mobile Burn]
Having my cake and eating it too…
I believe I’ve mentioned how much I want the Treo 600…
One issue I have, is that in order to get it with T-Mobile (they have a great $20/all you can eat data plan) I will have to get a different phone to start out with in time to maintain my existing mobile number which I am planning on porting over when the clock flips. Even if T-Mobile confirms service with the Treo 600, it is likely that there will be a few delay in shipping…
This actually works out for me… I am planning to get the Sony Ericsson T610 phone which will actually enable me to have a bluetooth data connection to my laptop as needed… not sure how much I will want to do that once the Treo is in effect, but it might be my only way to connect on the go with Lotus Notes. All this will be possible with the flip of a SIM which both devices support.
There are two rebates of 100 bucks each from Amazon and T-Mobile…which make this phone free! Gotta love it.
Are you sure your shows don’t just suck?
NBC Faults Nielsen for Reduction in Viewers
NBC asserted that the falloff in young male viewers this television season was caused by new participants in the Nielsen survey who are not following the right procedures. [New York Times: Business]
NBC claims that adding Hispanics to the survey has had a negative impact on ratings as they (Hispanics) participate differently with the special remote you get from Nielsen to track what you watch. Um. right…
I’m sure that adding quality shows like Coupling (cancelled!) and Whoopie really helped get that younger male viewer they were looking for and the ratings really are correct… it’s just being counted wrong. I’m also sure that videogames and online usage also had nothing to do with where the younger male demographic spends free time.
Microsoft does Friendster…
Microsoft Research is looking at how to leverage blogs, RSS feeds, Wikis and other social-networking tools. [Technology News from eWEEK and Ziff Davis]
…Wallop doesn’t seem to fit into any one existing software category. While part of the application is a blogging tool, it also includes other “social networking” software.” It builds off of several existing Microsoft Research prototypes, including Sapphire, technology for simplifying and unifying data storage/retrieval; Stacks, technology for organizing photos; Personal Map, technology for organizing contacts; and MS Connect and Point-to-Point, which show connections between people (via Active Directory), as well as between individuals and groups.
All of these projects look at how to make use of metadata and organize information around clusters, Cheng says. “We’ve also been influenced by the Longhorn team’s thinking around how programming databases influences end-user experiences,” she says.
Looks interesting. I wonder if this will be real (not private beta) before Longhorn eventually arrives.
FCC: Number-switching rules apply to all
The agency issues an order that requires all landline phone companies to allow customers to transfer their numbers to cell phones when signing up for new services. [CNET News.com]
The FCC has required porting for several years, but the telephone industry has managed through lawsuits and other tactics to delay any firm deadline. Monday’s order clarifies the remaining questions that carriers had on the policy and is expected to silence the last gasp of protest from landline phone companies.
“By firmly endorsing a customer’s right to untether themselves from the wireline network–and take their telephone number with them–we act to eliminate impediments to competition between wireless and wireline services,” FCC Chairman Michael Powell said in a separate statement issued along with the ruling.
Commissioner Kevin J. Martin said he was disappointed by the order’s timing, which arrives two weeks before the deadline for carriers to implement it. “The commission has an obligation to minimize the burdens our regulations place on carriers, and I wish we had provided the guidance in this order considerably sooner,” he said in a statement.
I like how the Commish, claims there is not enough time when they have clearly been playing games trying to push off the inevitable. There is a reason MCI wants back in the wireless game, which is that once you cut the cord, there is no going back. The long distance wars may be over, but the war for your handset is really just beginning.
It will be very interesting to track the offers and bundles carriers create to maintain and attract us.
MotionApps for Treo
MotionApps has a set of utilities for Treo Smartphones….
Look good – I’ll definitely want to try these out when I eventually get the Treo 600.
20th Anniversaries
Is it a coincidence that the 20th anniversary of the computer virus and Microsoft Windows are so close?
Tips for Portability
Verizon posted a press release with tips and some expectations…It’s Verizon focused but does have some good general info.
Yet another bad, Big Media idea
Sony plays new copy-protection song
The company touts a forthcoming CD technology that prevents users from copying songs to file-sharing sites but lets them make copies for themselves. [CNET News.com]
I’m sure this won’t be the last time digital media is encoded with single player player capability, but it just seems ridiculous to me that a) if you use a Mac, you get no play and b) people want DRM protected pre-cut digital music on the CD.
In Sony’s mind, this is a reward for buying protected albums. Too bad they are not the major player in the digital music player space. Good try with a bad idea. This is exactly the reason why people try and (do) defeat these techniques.
Sony’s Personal Video Player is a reality
The Giga Pocket PCVA-HVP20 Personal Video Player has a 3.5-inch LCD screen, a 20GB hard drive, and play Windows Media, MPEG1, and MPEG2 video files (where’s support for MPEG4 and DivX?). [Gizmodo]
Looks good… hopefully will make it to the US. I’d love to see larger drives available as well. Wonder what kind of DRM is on this…
Carriers not ready??
Are the carriers really not ready for Wireless Portability or is this a decided passive aggressive protest. I’ve seen two reports now – one from cellular news and the other from eWeek suggesting the carriers are not ready.
As you may or not recall, there was little if any penalty for not meeting the e911 deadline which seemed a bit more high priority – considering human safety. Given the lack of penalty from our wondrous FCC, it’s hard to accept that there will be a penalty here if we are met with technical glitches or delays.
Both articles referenced above recommend waiting until March of 2004… a nice full quarter and financial period later than the expected deadline. I’m still planning on making the switch ASAP, as my corporate coverage for Nextel expires this month anyway. Hopefully I’ll really get to keep my number.
RealNetworks in a Venture With Comcast
Comcast Cable is set to announce that it will offer the Rhapsody online music service from RealNetworks to its nearly 5 million subscribers. [New York Times: Business]
Intense Spam…
I’ve been clearing out quite a few spam messages allegedly from a site called cardercrew which is being abused as a joe job. Here’s a list of what you might consider buying from these guys…
- Heroin, in liquid and crystal form.
- Rocket fuel and Tomahawk rockets (serious enquiries only).
- Other rockets (Air-to-Air), orders in batches of 10.
- New shipment of cocaine has arrived, buy 9 grams and get 10th for free.
- We also offer gay-slaves for sale, we offer only suc h service on the NET, you can choose the one you like, then get straight to business.
- Fake currencies, such as Euros and US dollars, prices would match competition.
- Also, as always, we offer widest range of child pornography and exclusive lolita galleries, to keep out clients busy.
I’m not recommending any of this of course… just find it amazing that mail like this continues to be sent.
Top 10 Digital Photography Tips
Good stuff from Derrick Story at O’Reilly on taking better shots.
You’ve heard this before: Digital cameras do all the work. You just push the button and great pictures magically appear. The better the camera, the better the photos. Isn’t that right? Heck no!
Steve Jobs on Longhorn
They’re hoping in 2006 to be where we were in Jaguar, basically. That’s what they’re hoping. Obviously we’re going to have a few more releases before 2006 so we’d be way ahead of them by then. But that’s what they’re hoping for, and maybe they’ll do that. They have a lot of people to work on it, but it’s a rough row to hoe. [SeattlePi via anil]
Lunar Eclipse
Spent some time checking out the lunar eclipse tonight… Fortunately we had a great view right from our window on this crisp fall evening. The shots are far from my best work (as if I was a pro), but give a good sequential overview of the events.
Scripting Mac OS X
As an administrator, when you think of automating tasks, you naturally think of scripting. James Reynolds shows you how to apply a variety of scripting languages to automate your workflow on Mac OS X. [O’Reilly MacDevCenter.com]
Vegas Airport to roll out RFID tag system
The process starts at the check-in desk, where a baggage tag with an RFID chip and antenna imbedded in it will be printed out and attached to each bag. Each tag will carry a unique identifier and will be read while the bag is transported on conveyors through the appropriate explosive-screening machine and onto the plane. If the bag fails to clear the explosive-screening machine, it will be sent to a special facility to be checked by hand. [ComputerWeekly.com]