Philippine President pushes for electric tricycle

Another effort to help greening the environment and at the same time to help the country's dependence on fossil fuel. If all Filipino's will see this as a positive options (as i believe this is more long term solution to the problem on oil price hike), we will support this program and invest on this. Introducing something new will always have its own disadvantage and will have a lot of criticism, but i encourage everyone to study first the program before giving your negative insights. This time, let us try to see the positive impact of this program and let us give this a chance.

Repost from Yahoo News Philippines
– Fri, Apr 15, 2011 9:53 PM PHT

MANILA - The Philippines wants to replace millions of petrol-powered tricycles with electric ones as part of efforts to clean up the nation's polluting mass transport system, President Benigno Aquino said Friday.
The government will initially replace 20,000 tricycles that ply minor streets across the capital Manila and eventually expand the project throughout the country, Aquino said in a speech to government employees.
It is hoped the scheme will save the impoverished country tens of millions of dollars annually.
"The (project) is an ambitious multi-year plan to wean public utility vehicles from the use of gasoline and diesel and to encourage them to shift to alternatives like natural gas, electricity and hybrid engines," he said.
"I would like to see the day when nearly all public utility vehicles... run on alternative fuel, freeing the public transport sector and commuters from the threat of unreasonably high oil prices and unhealthy levels of air pollution."
Aquino did not give a definite timetable of the programme, which was launched this week when 20 so-called "e-tricycles" hit the streets of a Manila suburb.
Manila-based Asian Development Bank, which is funding the initial stage of the project, said transport sector emissions accounted for 30 percent of all pollution in the Philippines.
In Manila, vehicle emissions account for 80 percent of all pollution, it said.
"A sizeable proportion of vehicle emissions are attributable to inefficient public transport, particularly from tricycles, jeepneys and buses," it added.
Jeepneys are colourful small buses that make up the backbone of the country's chaotic mass transport system, locally assembled using second-hand truck engines and transmission systems imported from Japan.
Sohail Hasnie, an energy specialist at Manila-based ADB, said more than 3.5 million tricycles operated in the Philippines.
These emitted more than 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and burned nearly five billion dollars of fuel yearly.
"Every 20,000 e-trikes that are introduced to Manila's streets will save the Philippines 100,000 litres of foreign fuel imports each day, saving the country about 35 million dollars annually," Hasnie said.
Though the electronic tricycles, which use rechargeable lithium ion batteries, are costlier, older petrol tricycles are more than twice as expensive to operate in the long run, Hasnie added.
The carbon footprints of the e-trikes, which are locally produced, would be less than a quarter of conventional tricycles, the ADB said.
ADB officials said the Manila-based lender was now in talks with the Philippine government on supporting the expansion of the project.

Super-fast 'Superbus' could transform your commute

This is awesome! Aside from providing ease and comfort for the commuters, this will also reduce the number of vehicles on the road and at the same time reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions. With this, 23 passengers will be transported meaning 22 vehicles will be reduce.

I hope that corporations will think of investing on this technology.

Repost from CNN

By Matthew Knight for CNN

April 13, 2011 -- Updated 1339 GMT (2139 HKT)

(CNN) -- With its gull-wing doors and 15-meter long (50 feet) chassis, the Superbus looks like the result of an amorous automotive liaison between a DeLorean and a stretch limo.
But rather than catering for champagne-quaffing party goers, its Dutch developers at the Delft University of Technology are aiming to transform the humble commute in the 21st century.
With a top speed of 155 mph (250 kph) and capable of carrying 23 passengers, the six-wheel Superbus attempts to marry the convenience and flexibility of traveling by car with the speed and comfort more often associated with rail journeys.
"The strength to the concept is that the Superbus can drive everywhere where a normal bus can drive. It has adjustable height, rear-wheel steering and a turning circle of roughly 10 meters," general manager of the project, Wubbo Ockels said.
Furthermore, Ockels imagines a network of "super tracks" -- essentially dedicated two lane highways linking one city to another -- running alongside traditional road networks enabling the Superbus to switch between the two, depending on the destination of passengers.

A prototype of the electric vehicle recently went on show at the 2011 World Exhibition of the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) in Dubai in the hope of attracting investment for development of a test infrastructure.
"At the moment we have a prototype. The next phase is an industrial prototype and the third level is the actual implementation," Ockels said.
He's hopeful that Dubai, with what he calls its "visions of sustainability" will give the green light to a pilot project.
So far, it's been a long and expensive road for Ockels and his team. The project started in 2004 and has cost around €13 million ($19 million) to date using technology developed in Formula One racing and the aerospace industry.

But a production model would be considerably cheaper, Ockels says, costing around €2 million ($2.9 million).

HTC unveils Sensation 4G smartphone

It seem that HTC smartphone is going to be the biggest competitor of Apple's iPhone. The unit is now becoming popular because of its fast processor and other impressive features. The same way it gives customer the same level or even higher level of satisfaction. I think the only edge of iPhone is that they came first in the market and has they has able to established a solid market but given enough time I believe that HTC can also find it's niche...now im wandering what to get, HTC 4G smartphone or Apple iPhone? What do you think?

Repost from CNN

By Doug Gross, CNN April 12, 2011 -- Updated 2058 GMT (0458 HKT) | Filed under: Mobile

The HTC Sensation 4G, unveiled on Tuesday, features an updated version of the multimedia system Sense.

(CNN) -- HTC on Tuesday unveiled its newest smartphone, the HTC Sensation 4G, calling it a "multimedia superphone" with a focus on entertainment.
The phone runs Google's Android operating system and will be exclusively available on T-Mobile in the United States. It will be released sometime this summer, according to a written release from the company.
Prices have not been announced.
The Sensation includes the HTC Watch video feature, an app that provides access to a library of recent movies and television shows. The app's technology lets users begin watching a video without having to wait for the entire file to download, according to HTC.
The feature also lets users buy or rent videos and play them across multiple HTC devices.
The Sensation -- which had been widely referred to as the HTC Pyramid while it was in development -- also features HTC's Sense system which, among other things, lets users program their "lock" screen to show social-media updates, photos, weather and other media.
"Consumers have quickly transformed smartphones into consumer lifestyle hubs that are pocket-sized entertainment centers that enable people to take their favorite multimedia content with them wherever they go," said Peter Chou, HTC's chief executive, in the release.
Sense is already available on the HTC Legend and HTC Inspire phones, but the version on the Sensation is updated with new features.
The phone has a 4.3-inch widescreen display, an 8-megapixel camera and a dual-core processor.

Early reviews have been largely positive. PC World, which got a hands-on demo, called it a "beautiful, dual-core beast" and CNET's Bonnie Cha writes that, by the end of a demo, she was "trying to think of ways to distract HTC so I could run off with the smartphone."

Amazon offers cheaper Kindle -- with ads

I think this is another hit especially those who loves to read. I found this gadget really cool and handy especially when you are always on travel. Having a kindle is like bringing a library of your favorite books. So either you are at the beach, in the mountains, or in break during meetings and conferences you can always turn on your library and select the book you want to read.  And now that Amazon is giving discounts on the item, surely it can capture a lot of customers. I just wonder how the ads will appear :-)

Repost from CNN

By Julianne Pepitone, staff reporterApril 11, 2011: 6:54 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Would you buy a Kindle with on-screen ads in order to knock $25 off the price? Amazon hopes so.
The company announced its new "Kindle with Special Offers" on Monday, which will begin shipping May 3. Pre-ordering is available immediately.
The ad-festooned Kindle will sell for $114, which is $25 less than its ad-free counterpart, Amazon's $139 Kindle Wi-Fi. The Kindle 3G is available for $189.
The Kindle's "special offers" and ads will appear on the e-reader's screensaver and at the bottom of its home screen. Amazon plans to mix together advertisements from launch sponsors including Buick, Olay and Visa with daily-deal style discount coupons.
Some of the discounts Amazon plans to offer in the initial weeks include a $20 Amazon gift card for $10 (a deal that was a monster hit when Amazon offered it earlier this year through LivingSocial), plus discounts on Amazon MP3 albums, Audible books and Kindle bestsellers.
Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) is also introducing an app called AdMash, which will let customers vote on potential future sponsored screensavers.
Amazon has never revealed sales figures for the Kindle. Price cuts late last year brought the most basic version down to $139, and Kindle apps are now available for a wide variety of devices -- including the iPhone, iPad as well as BlackBerry and Android phones.
But the Kindle seems to be doing well despite competition from e-readers including the Barnes & Noble (BKS, Fortune 500) Nook, the Sony (SNE) Reader and Kobo from Borders (BGP), as well as Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) multipurpose iPad.
Analysts expect the e-reader market to really catch fire when the price tag for the device drops below $100. Amazon implied that it's trying to get there.
"We're working hard to make sure that anyone who wants a Kindle can afford one," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a prepared statement.

Apple's three biggest weaknesses

Here are some of the things that Apple should look at in order to remain competitive with other tablet.

Repost from CNN
(Business Insider) -- Apple and CEO Steve Jobs have celebrated a string of huge hits over the past several years, including the iPhone, the iPad and the MacBook Air.
Reviews have been mostly glowing, sales have been strong and investors have cheered, sending the stock up 40% over the past 12 months. Apple, which was struggling a decade ago, is now the world's most admired and highly valued tech company.
But Apple is not perfect. In fact, the company has several weaknesses to address:
1) The cloud. Apple has been bragging about how the iPad 2 is a "post-PC" device, but you still need to plug it into a computer to activate and sync it. The easiest way to get photos off your iPhone is to email them to yourself. You still can't sync your iTunes music over Wi-Fi or 3G. This is a shame.
Apple needs to think about the cloud the way Google does -- as the future of mobile services. You shouldn't be tied to a USB cord to access files. You shouldn't need a PC to use a "post-PC" iPad. You shouldn't have to email a map link from your computer to your iPhone.
Perhaps this is part of Apple's new version of iOS, due sometime this year. (See our list of suggestions for iOS 5 here.)

The company has a huge new data center in North Carolina and can't be blind to the fact that other companies -- Dropbox, Amazon, Google, etc. -- are doing very cool things with the cloud.
But for now, Apple is still weak here -- MobileMe and Apple's iOS push notifications not withstanding.
2) Social. Apple has tried to do "social" a bit with Ping, its social network based around iTunes music, and GameCenter, its social gaming service. They aren't huge hits. Apple has not been able to go as deep integrating Facebook or other social networks into its products as some Android devices or Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 have.
Some of this could be to reduce Apple's dependence on other companies, so the iPhone is more reliable. But it seems that Apple and Steve Jobs don't really get social, and don't see its value. That could burn them in the long run.
Or perhaps, again, this could be addressed in the next version of iOS. For instance, Apple could go a long way by making the iPhone's built-in Photos app more social, like the popular Instagram app. And Apple's marketing boss Phil Schiller is all over Instagram. So it's not like the company isn't highly aware of what's out there.
This isn't to say that Apple should replicate Facebook, or even try to build its own general-purpose social network. But integrating your existing online social connections could be useful for many of Apple's products, ranging from the iPhone's address book to the App Store to photo sharing. So it's time for Apple to do more here.
3) The living room. The new Apple TV just got a small upgrade, in the form of live video streaming for MLB and NBA games. But it's still the weakest of Apple's products, with a relatively limited selection of video. And it's definitely not something TV companies like Comcast or DirecTV are worried about.
Apple could improve Apple TV with an app store within the next year or so -- gaming could be big! -- and more video content sooner. But it's a challenge, because this is a situation where Apple has to decide between being a good platform -- and allowing rival companies like Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon to thrive -- and being a dominant content seller by keeping an iTunes monopoly.
The good news for Apple is that no one else is really putting up a fight here yet. Google TV isn't a big success, while Boxee, Roku and TiVo Premiere haven't caught on with mainstream consumers. So Apple can take its time. Heck, Apple may even come out with an actual television someday.
Also, these are all areas where Apple is relatively in control of its destiny, and can make improvements.

There are some other areas where Apple is vulnerable, such as the threat posed by Google's Android system, and possible production problems because of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. But that's a different list.

Toyota and Microsoft announce technology partnership

Isn't it amazing? If this plan will push through then I can really say, "Toyota, I love this car!"

Repost from BBC News

Microsoft and Toyota have announced plans to work together to bring internet services to Toyota vehicles.

The world's biggest carmaker and the world's biggest software company are investing $12m (£7.3m) in Toyota Media Services, a Toyota unit which handles digital information services.
The aim is to provide features like GPS, power-management and multimedia services.
Toyota's 2012 hybrid vehicles will be the first to get the services.
The carmaker hopes to be able to offer them to customers worldwide by 2015.
The services will use Microsoft's "cloud computing" - the remote storage and handling of data - system called Azure.
"This new partnership between Microsoft and Toyota is an important step in developing greater future mobility and energy management for consumers around the world," Toyota president Akio Toyoda said.
Microsoft has been involved in the auto industry for several years but has so far focused on working with Ford.
It designed Ford's Sync entertainment system, which was rolled out in 2007 and allows drivers to make phone calls, listen to text messages and use GPS.

iPhone 5 release date: Big buzz, few facts

Whether its true or just publicity I'm sure that apple fanatic will surely await for its release. For the meantime, I think there is still no confirmation on the release date, so lets wait and see.

Repost from CNN
(CNN) -- It doesn't take much to get the tech world talking about the iPhone.
The internet has swirled with speculation in recent weeks about a release date for Apple's iPhone 5, and even whether the company will update its iconic smartphone at all this year.
Now, the most tenuous of news reports has ramped the talk up again.
A South Korean news site reported this week that Apple plans to release the phone in the fourth week of June. According to a translation by the MacRumors site, ETNews.co.kr reported that "Apple has confirmed" that time frame.
There are a few problems here:
It seems highly unlikely that the typically tight-lipped Apple would have confirmed a release date. The report also says the phone will be released in South Korea the same day it goes on sale in the United States.

Possible. But, for comparison's sake, the iPhone 4 was released there about three months after its U.S. debut.
And, for what it may or may not be worth, the South Korean report appeared on April 1.
But as Western news outlets jumped on the report, excitement spread.
The words "iPhone 5 release date" were briefly at the top of Google's Hot Topics list Tuesday morning, and multiple U.S. blogs were following up the MacRumors report -- albeit skeptically, in most cases.
The original iPhone, the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4 all had June releases. The iPhone 3G was released in early July. But reports have said that Apple plans to focus specifically on software, not hardware, at its Worldwide Developers Conference, scheduled from June 6-10 this year.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
One X-factor here could be the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
Earlier this week, comments by Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer suggested that his company is making a camera sensor for the new iPhone. He said sensors for Apple will be delayed because of damage to 15 of Sony's plants in Japan.
It's also hard to know how Apple CEO Steve Jobs' medical leave of absence has impacted development of the newest version of the phone.

So the only thing that seems certain about when Apple will release the next version of the iPhone is ... that nobody in the tech media really knows.

How to land a job at Facebook

If you want to join Facebook, here is an interesting news and tips on how you can land a job at Facebook :-)

Repost from CNN
(Mashable) -- So you want to work at Facebook, one of the world's hottest companies -- what do you have to get your foot in the door and get noticed?
It's not going to be easy -- you have competition.
Facebook received 250,000 job applications last year and is consistently rated as one of the best places to work. And with Facebook's IPO around the corner, the competition for jobs is only going to heat up.
There are plenty of ways to get noticed and stand above the crowd, though. I chatted with Thomas Arnold, head of recruiting for the social network, on what the company looks for and what it takes to get a job at Facebook.
What jobs are available at Facebook?
Ever since Facebook announced it was moving to a bigger office and raised $2 billion in funding, it has been ramping up its hiring.
While there are many openings in legal, communications, HR, marketing, online operations, business development, IT, design, user experience and internationalization, the company is especially looking for technical talent, especially software engineers and product managers.
The Facebook interview process
I actually went through the entire Facebook interview process in 2008, before I joined Mashable as an associate editor. And while it's definitely changed since I applied for a job on the company's User Operations team, the basic format has remained the same.
The first step is almost always a recruiter phone-screening -- Facebook will begin exploring your resume, asking you about your previous work, especially about what you've built and what leadership roles you've had in the past. Sometimes there's a second screening, depending on the role.
If you pass the screening, the company will fly you out to its Silicon Valley headquarters for a series of on-site interviews with the hiring manager (your potential future boss) and a group of your peers -- in other words, you will be interviewed by the members of the team you're hoping to join.
As Arnold explained to me, these interviews are designed to determine whether you have the skills for the job and whether you're a cultural fit. The group then makes "a collective decision on whether you're a great fit" for the position.
The process itself greatly varies from group to group -- expect more technical skill challenges if you're applying for an engineering job. Oh, and one extra piece of advice from me: Always put the user first in any scenario or interview question.
Standing apart from the crowd
With more than a quarter of a million applicants, how does Facebook whittle down the applicant pool?
"We're primarily looking for builders," Arnold says. He explains that Facebook has an entrepreneurial spirit and is a flat organization, and thus it's looking for people who can thrive in that environment. Employees need to be self-starters who don't need a lot of direction, so autonomy and self-motivation are highly valued.
Builders -- especially engineers who like to build projects on their own and have cool, working products or apps they can show off -- are sought after by the Facebook team. If someone builds a unique application and/or solves a problem in a way that hasn't been done before, he's going to get Facebook's attention.
Strong applicants to Facebook also "just get the social space," Arnold says. They not only understand the product, but can see the company's vision. Even more important is that they're active users of the product.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but Arnold says his team finds a lot of applicants who haven't used their Facebook accounts in weeks or even months. And that is a very clear sign to Facebook that the person won't be a good fit.
Finally, it's very helpful to know someone at Facebook who can vouch for you -- this was true even when I interviewed with the social network three years ago. While I got special consideration due to my unique history with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, I still had a Facebook reference.
Final thoughts
While I ultimately failed to secure a job at Facebook, you don't have to let that be the case for you. For those of you applying to non-technical roles, be sure you're active users, understand the company culture and have a resume filled with leadership and "builder" activities.
It's more impressive if you launched an organization or product than if you simply took it over.
For technical talent, the best thing you can do is build something. If you build a really impressive iPhone application that gains some traction, you're going to get noticed. If you are a major contributor of open source code to various projects, you're going to get noticed.
In the end though, the big filter is cultural fit. There isn't really much you can do to prepare for that -- the Facebook team simply knows if you're going to mesh well with them or if you're not going to be able to keep up.

And as I said before, be sure to have an employee refer you. Otherwise, you're going to have a really difficult time just getting the phone screening.

Windows 8 Coming Soon

Technological war??? Gadgets and other technological advances are sprouting like mushrooms, and one has to compete well. The release of Windows 8 is smart move by microsoft to cater the increasing market of tablets. Let's see what can it offer.

Repost from CNN
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- While most of the world has yet to upgrade to Windows 7, Microsoft is gearing up to launch the next version of its PC operating system.
Web forums lit up last week with the news that PC manufacturers had just gotten their hands on a new Windows 8 test build. Several analysts reported that equipment makers had received "early beta" test versions of the operating system, after trying out much more rudimentary "alpha" versions earlier in the year.
Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) declined to confirm anything about Windows 8, but it's customary for the software giant to release its future operating systems in multiple test stages.
Considering that Windows 7 has been on the shelves for just 17 months, what's Microsoft's big hurry?
Tablets. Or "slates," as Microsoft likes to call them.
Windows 8 will operate on the ARM microchip architecture, the technology that powers most of the world's smartphones and tablets. In the past, Windows has always required devices to have a processor built on the x86 platform, which Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) or AMD (AMD, Fortune 500) designs.
Analysts expect Windows 8 to feature enhanced graphics, 3-D support, facial recognition, instant-on capability, and a Windows app store.
You know, all things that the iPad and other tablets and smartphones can do now.

0:00 /4:04Why Microsoft struggles to innovate

Though Windows 7 works on a very small handful of tablets running Intel's Atom processor, ARM compatibility will open up Windows to a far wider range of devices. Getting Windows 8 on ARM-based devices means Microsoft may finally be able to develop some semblance of a tablet strategy.
"Microsoft cannot act fast enough for a tablet," said Neil MacDonald, a Microsoft corporate strategy analyst at Gartner. "They are already two generations behind Apple and Google."
Analysts predict Microsoft will release Windows 8 to the public sometime between this summer and the first quarter of 2012, with a tablet-compatible version likely to come in the summer of 2012. Dell (DELL, Fortune 500), for instance, is rumored to be working on a Windows 8 tablet, codenamed Peju, which won't be ready until the middle of next year.
"Windows 8 could be available as soon as this holiday season, but Microsoft won't be able to get its ARM version out that quickly," said Trip Chowdry, analyst at Global Equities Research.
Though the tablet play is most crucial, analysts note that Microsoft is also desperately trying to get its customers off outdated versions of Windows. About 54% of PCs currently run the 10-year-old Windows XP, and 11% are on the five-year-old Vista, according to Net Applications.
Many businesses skip one cycle between their Windows updates. For those that took the Vista bait but sat Windows 7 out, Windows 8 could entice them to upgrade off the widely panned Vista.
Releasing another version of Windows could also help convince many of those XP laggards to finally update their systems -- not a bad idea, considering they'd be three releases behind after Windows 8's debut.
"Not every customer deploys every release, because some customers may not need the specific new capabilities of that release," said Al Hilwa, analyst at IDC. "So I don't see an issue of having too fast of a development cycle."
Still, Microsoft is being unusually secretive about Windows 8. The company is typically is unafraid to discuss or even release beta versions to the public, but this time it's working quietly. Some experts suspect that that the company doesn't want to impede the success of Windows 7 in any way.
Microsoft hasn't even confirmed that the name of its next Windows iteration will be "Windows 8." Internally, Microsoft refers to it as Windows. Next, but many Microsoft employees on LinkedIn refer to the new OS as Windows 8.
One amusing twist: Windows 8 is likely to actually be Windows 6.2.
Microsoft discontinued naming its operating systems after version numbers following Windows 3.1. But officially, Windows 95 was version 4, Windows 98 was version 4.1, Windows 2000 was version 5, Windows XP was version 5.1, Windows Vista was version 6, and Windows 7 was version 6.1.
Or, as many view it, version "mopping up the Vista mess." That could end up being the best feature of Windows 8: It will move Microsoft one version further away from its Windows nadir.

What Google's +1 means for Facebook

Seeing or hearing about Google's +1 have created some questions in me but I do realize that it has something to do with its marketing tool to battle with Facebook's Like button. I think this is a smart move of Google but this has to face a tough battle over facebook as I believe Like button has been becoming more popular.

But yes, at the end of this battle both of them will surely win :-)

Repost from CNN

At Wednesday's announcement of Google's +1, the company was coy about comparing its experimental product to the longstanding Facebook Like button. But in the two companies' ongoing battle for ad dollars, +1 is a clear shot across Facebook's bow.
Let's follow the money for a moment. Both companies get most of their revenue from advertising. They pitch their ad services based on their ability to serve highly targeted ads that get good results for brands and businesses. They are able to target ads based on the data they gather about users.
But here's the main difference: Facebook gathers data based on user-submitted profile information. Google has to rely on roundabout ways to get data for ad targeting. And some of those methods, including cookies that track browsing behavior, are coming under fire from citizens and governments.
As you can see from the chart below, Google has a lot to worry about when it comes to competing with Facebook for ad dollars. Google commands 12.6% of the annual $10.1 billion U.S. online ad spend; Facebook trumps that figure by nine full percentage points.
New user acquisition
Google's +1 buttons will soon appear in Google Search, one of the most widely used services on the Internet. And clicking them will require the user to have a Google profile.
As Google's Manager of Global Communications Jim Prosser told us in an email, "We think it's important for users to know who they are seeing +12 s from, which is why we have the upgrade or creation of a Google profile as part of the flow of a user's first +1."
Facebook profiles are more or less de rigeur for anyone with an Internet connection. Meanwhile, Google Profiles -- and most of Google's other social products, such as Hotpot and Buzz --have mostly remained in the rarefied domain of the digerati.
Making a Google Profile a requirement for those addictive little +1 buttons is a smart move on Google's part. It may not match Facebook's 500 million-strong membership when the feature rolls out to all users, but it has a good shot at vastly increasing levels of profile adoption.
Facebook's critical mass of users has been one of the things that's allowed it to succeed in capturing more ad spend that Google. Even though it is a closed, unsearchable system, Facebook has the sheer number of users and amount of behavioral and demographic data to sweep up ad dollars no matter what.
Data gathering for ad targeting
If Google's +1 does lead to a larger number of Google Profiles, Google will have even more personal and demographic data than it currently does about web users.
Right now, Facebook has the ability to offer extremely highly targeted ads because of the kinds of data it gathers about its users. It knows whether you're single or not, it knows your gender and sexual orientation, where you work, where you live and a great deal more. Advertisers are very excited about being able to narrow their campaigns' scope by such finely tuned variables.
If Google could get more profiles, it could increase the accuracy of its targeting beyond keywords and browsing data, potentially matching Facebook's level of personal relevance. With the push toward Do Not Track features, including a new privacy bill introduced in the U.S. Congress, who knows how long cookie-based browsing-data gathering will last?
In short, Google needs other ways to gather data to target ads, and it needs huge amounts of this data very quickly. What better way to do this than by introducing a compelling search product with a social prerequisite?
Whether better-targeted ads from Google will positively impact clickthrough rates and inspire further advertiser confidence remains to be seen. Currently, clickthrough rates for Google AdSense and AdWords campaigns vary widely, with around 30% of advertisers in a SearchEngineRoundtable survey reporting rates of 1% or less. Facebook ads might be underperforming the industry standard of 1%, as well.
Socially driven recommendation engines
Facebook Likes are already recognized by brands and businesses as a measurable marketing tool, and Facebook itself has been embraced as a legitimate marketing platform. Likes can act as a social recommendation engine between friends, and these recommendations count a lot when it comes to making purchase decisions.
In fact, in a recent survey from Nielsen, 90% of respondents said they had some degree of trust in a recommendation from a friend or family member. Those recommendations count more than consumer reviews or branded websites. In other words, a Facebook Like could count for more than a banner ad when it comes to moving product -- and the Like is free media.
Once Google has its +1 wheels in motion, the feature stands to become a social recommendation engine, as well, but a more targeted one. On Facebook, you see Likes for brands, photos, and posts that have nothing to do with you. But on Google, you see personal recommendations for products and places you're actively seeking out. It's a powerful concept, and advertisers will surely want to optimize for that situation.
Prosser notes, "While we can't speak to what other products are doing, we think there's a great deal of value in surfacing personal recommendations and endorsements where they're most valuable, in search ... We've really focused on relevance. When you +1 something, you know your friends will find it in search, but you won't be pushing a notification to everyone."
As DeepFocus CEO Ian Schafer told us Wednesday, "When someone is searching for a piece of information about a product, a review, or insightful commentary, it is typically a very insular activity," says Schafer. "But being able to place a 'seal of approval' next to a search result may have the effect of making a typically insular activity more collaborative -- hopefully improving the 'algorithm' through the quality of your connections."
Search algorithms
The other interesting piece of the puzzle is the SEO question. Google came at search in the 1990s with an algorithmic approach that put it head and shoulders above contemporary UGC engines.
Now, it's turning back the clock and allowing user feedback to drive search results once again. Does this mean algorithmic web search has failed? Will user-driven search data be just as gaming-prone as algorithms are?
Google communications manager Jake Hubert wrote to us in an email, "We rely on a fundamentally algorithmic approach to search quality because this is the most scalable way to answer more than a billion search queries each day, many of which we've never seen before, in more than a hundred languages. Google's algorithm is constantly evolving and improving. For example, in 2010 alone we experimented with more than 6,000 changes and launched 490.
"Google will study the clicks on +1 buttons as another ranking signal. As with any new ranking signal, we'll be starting carefully and learning how the signal is related to quality."
As users begin to see these +1s from friends and others as recommendations in search results, the results will likely become more personalized and hopefully more relevant. And when it comes to search, Facebook Likes -- an unindexed piece of data in a closed network -- don't count for a hill of beans.
Who will win the war?
Which company will end up with the most users, the most data, the best targeting and the most profit? The answer to that question largely depends on whether +1 can successfully change the game, whether this innocuous little button is actually Google's first killer social product.

But regardless, online ad spend is hardly a zero sum game, and both of these companies are setting themselves up for a long-term, multilateral tug of war to capture as much of that market as possible.

How Amazon beat Google and Apple to the music cloud

This will absolutely solve the problem on hard drive space, putting our files on the cloud. I once attended an international conference and they been discussing the future of cloud drive. Amazon have taken the right direction at the right time...

Repost from CNN

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Amazon on Tuesday launched the Amazon Cloud Drive, an Internet service that lets customers store music and other digital files on the company's servers and access them on computers, smartphones and other devices.
Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) will give customers 5GB of Cloud Drive storage for free, and if users buy an MP3 album through Amazon, they'll be upgraded to 20GB of cloud storage for a year. The Cloud Player works on PCs, Macs and Android devices.

The move means Amazon is officially "to the cloud" with music -- beating Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) and Google's (GOOG, Fortune 500) years-long attempts to do the same.
Analysts say that's because Apple and Google have been waiting for record labels to get on board with licensing agreements. Amazon decided to skip the niceties and simply take the plunge.
"For Amazon to try to sidestep all of this, the consequences are a big question mark," says Paul Verna, senior analyst at eMarketer. "It's the first shot across the bow, which is refreshing, but you can smell the lawsuits coming."
Indeed, a Sony Music spokeswoman said Tuesday that the company is "disappointed that the 'locker service' that Amazon is proposing is unlicensed by Sony Music. We're hoping that they will resolve the situation by moving to a licensed model. We are keeping our legal options open."
Cloud music services are "sort of a legal gray area," Verna says. "Music licensing rules are arcane, and [labels] don't yet know how to handle the cloud. Amazon has leapt to the front of the line, but this is not going to be a smooth ride."
Music streaming services like Spotify have grown rapidly in Europe thanks to simpler licensing rules -- but they can't crack the U.S. market.
The problem is that technology is evolving faster than business models. Major music companies have been slow to embrace streaming or subscription models because the monetization plan isn't clear-cut -- and they think they're not getting the appropriate value for each piece of content.

To the cloud! Wait, the what?

"Streaming music through the cloud doesn't conform to their traditional view of a product; this is something entirely different," Verna says. "And if Apple and Google are waiting for record labels to come on board, it might be an endless wait."
Indeed, the two companies have sat on their music-in-the-cloud acquisitions, while the labels drag their heels. Google snapped up iPhone streaming music app maker SimplifyMedia last year. Apple bought Lala in late 2009 and shut it down a few months later.

Amazon's iron-clad infrastructure

Amazon has another advantage in the race to the cloud: Indomitable infrastructure.
While Google and Apple are working quickly on the back-end technology to support music in the cloud, Amazon has spent years creating and refining an "elastic" model called EC2.
EC2 is designed to scale up automatically to handle giant traffic spikes -- the kind Amazon gets every year during the December e-commerce rush. The company has so much spare server capacity, in fact, that it enjoys a revenue stream hosting other websites, including the parts of The New York Times, Second Life, the Indianapolis 500 and the Washington Post.
"The EC2 service is the poster child for this kind of technology," says Chris Weber, managing partner at security outfit Casaba LLC. "There are competitors out there, but Amazon has a massive jump on it. Every new startup uses EC2 to get going."

0:00 /2:40Your online life lives in the cloud

Weber says Amazon's free 5GB of storage is a smart way to "rope people in. We have so many gadgets now, and it's solving a real problem. Once you're in the cloud, why would you want to move all your data around manually?"
If Amazon's Cloud Drive takes off, the company will be well positioned in the digital content space. It's made multiple media announcements in 2011 so far -- including its own Android Appstore and an instant movie and TV show streaming option for Prime users.
Verna, the eMarketer analyst, thinks Amazon is trying to put itself at the vanguard as media moves from physical to digital goods.
"Amazon positioned itself as the go-to place for deals on physical products," he says. "They need to continue to be a one-stop shop for books, movies and TV -- and as those products become digital, Amazon will have to evolve along with them."

No iPhone 5 coming this June?

For apple followers, you might not be happy to receive this news but I think this is will give you more time to use your existing gadget :-)

Repost from CNN
(Wired) -- Apple has traditionally debuted new iPhones at its annual software developers conference, but this year's event in June will be 100 percent software news, according to a report.
Citing anonymous tipsters, well-sourced Apple blogger Jim Dalrymple claims there will be no iPad, iPhone or Mac hardware introduced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, which kicks off June 6 in San Francisco.
Apple's press release announcing the event doesn't give much hope for any hardware announcements.
"At this year's conference we are going to unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "If you are an iOS or Mac OS X software developer, this is the event that you do not want to miss."

Apple will likely give details on the next-gen Mac operating system, OS X Lion, and the next version of its mobile OS, iOS 5.

New cloud-based features will likely be included in iOS 5 (think online storage, or a "music locker" service). It may not be released until fall, according to a TechCrunch report. That means an iPhone 5 would probably release in the fall timeframe with the launch of iOS 5.

Skype Launches a Dedicated Network for Teachers

This is an awesome idea and will facilitate easy transfer of information even teachers are miles away. I hope that Philippines will utilize this venue to improve the country's education system. Connecting with other teachers from other country to share and exchange experiences will broaden their perspective in different teaching methodology.

Repost from Yahoo News
Teachers already use Skype to connect with other classrooms around the globe, bring in guest speakers without asking them to travel, and take virtual field trips. Now, Skype is making it easier for them to do so.
The company launched Skype in the Classroom, a dedicated teacher network, on Tuesday. Using the platform, teachers can create profiles that describe their classes and teaching interests. They can also search a directory of teachers from all over the world by student age range, language and subject.
Since the beta version launched in December, about 4,000 teachers have signed up. Many of them have used the network to coordinate Skype projects with other schools. Teacher Kara Lornejo, for instance, used the directory to find five partner classes for a "weather around the world" unit she was coordinating for her fifth grade class in Missouri.
"We use Skype all the time in my classroom...I always had to find teachers over Twitter or some other resources," she said in a video about her experience. "Now to know that Skype has their own directory is awesome."
A "project" tab in the new version of Skype in the Classroom allows users to post and search for projects that, like Lorenjo's weather project, require collaboration. A map that shows teachers by location is also a new addition to the site.


Accommodating teachers is a natural move for Skype. Several independent sites have already established Skype teacher phone books, class collaboration directories and virtual language exchange programs to accommodate the growing number of educators who are using the videoconferencing platform as a learning tool.
"We saw that growth, and we wanted to find a way to support that community," Skype spokesperson Jacqueline Botterill says. "There are a number of online platforms that were trying to galvanize those communities, but they're quite fragmented and disparate, so we're trying to create one place where teachers can come together."

Nobody needs a tablet. So why are we gobbling them up?

I remember when a friend from Belgium learned that I bought iPad. She told me that she's been planning to get one but is not really decided until she has ask me, so what do you do with your iPad? and How is it different from a PC.

To answer the first question, I told here since i travel a lot (because of my work), having an iPad will definitely lessen my hand carry luggage and I can use iPad during presentations (provided that i loaded my powerpoint or excel and word document and provided that I have an office to open it!). Further, i can easily check email (if there is wi-fi connection). On the second questions, i told her that i think i can't compare iPad to PC because the former to me is "a gadget", a very fancy gadget. It adds value to your personality and to some extent on your status quo. So, do I really need a Tablet? ...perhaps I do :-)

Repost from CNN

 

On tablets like the iPad, the most frequently downloaded apps are in the games,

entertainment and utilities categories

(WIRED) -- Apple's iPad is just one year old, and more than 15 million customers have voted with their wallets. The tablet is officially mainstream.
But just what is a tablet good for? It's not a complete replacement of a PC and it's not a necessity for anyone who carries around a notebook or a smartphone. At best, it's a "tweener" device.
For a product category that didn't exist (except in niche form) a year ago, it's surprising how well the tablet is doing. It's as if a mainstream product appeared out of nowhere. Indeed, most tech experts underestimated how many iPads would sell in year one.
If it's not a necessity, doesn't do many things as well as a notebook and lacks the portability of a smartphone, what's the key to its success?
Perhaps the best gadget to compare with the iPad is the microwave oven, says tech writer Matthew Guay. Succeeding the conventional oven, the microwave oven could heat food faster and use less energy. Even though it wasn't as good at cooking as an oven, and it wasn't obvious why anyone would want a microwave, the microwave became a staple in practically every home, because people kept finding new ways to use this technological wonder.
It seems like the same thing is happening with tablets.
"Everyone thought the iPad needed traditional computer programs to be successful. After all, if you can't use Office, what's it good for?" Guay wrote.
And then customers bought them, took them home, and something special happened. They realized that reading eBooks or browsing the internet from their couch was nice on a tablet. They found things they would have never thought to do on a computer were fun and simple. Apps that never made sense on computers with keyboards and mice, like GarageBand and finger paint apps and eReaders, suddenly found life on a 9.7-inch slate of glass and metal.
Indeed, it turns out that a tablet needn't do everything that a more powerful PC can, according to multiple research studies on iPad usage. Rather, the tablet's main appeal lies in the approachable touchscreen interface that just about anybody at any age can pick up and figure out.
As you might expect, the top three things consumers have been doing with iPads are surfing the web, writing and checking e-mail and playing games, according to a study published last year by NPD Group. iPad owners are also watching video and reading e-books, and the device's light weight and portability make it a real crowd-pleaser, NPD found.
"While lots of choices and compromises go into the development of any product, especially something as different as the iPad, these results indicate that most consumers are satisfied with their purchase and are increasingly finding ways to interact with their iPad," NPD wrote.
Additionally, a casual poll conducted by Gadget Lab on Twitter asked the question "What do you do with your iPad?" and the majority of respondents said they used the tablet for browsing the web, reading (books and/or news articles) and social networking.
The minority of respondents to Gadget Lab's poll said they used the iPad for special purposes such as recording music, writing poetry and teaching in class from book notes.
"Read, use it to teach from (presentation notes in iBooks) and email," said iPad owner Josh Smith, in a Twitter reply to Gadget Lab. "Occasionally write up posts in bed w/ silent keyboard."
As for apps, the most frequently downloaded apps are in the Games, Entertainment and Utilities categories. However, TruVoipBuzz looked closely at the numbers and found that those top three categories only account for 46% of apps that attracted the most downloads.
The rest of the pie is divided into smaller slices: People are downloading apps from a wide variety of categories, including photography (4%), books (4%), social networking (7%), business (3%) and others.
That's the genius of the blank slate -- with nearly 400,000 apps that allow the iPad to become a toy, a TV, a medical tool for doctors, a notetaker for students and more, it caters to an extremely broad audience.

The truth about the iPad is that there is no dominant group of "joe schmos," creative customers or professional customers buying it. And if you look at it that way, the fact that 15 million iPads sold in one year isn't completely surprising, after all.

Google's online magazine: Think Quarterly

Interesting stuff! I may not understand fully what is the benefits of this online magazine but for sure techie people will surely appreciate it to keep them updated on the net world. The magazine can be downloaded for free. The first magazine, a 68-pages article, talks about Data can be downloaded on this site http://thinkquarterly.co.uk/#top

Repost from CNN

(Mashable) -- Google has quietly launched its own full-length online magazine, a quarterly publication whose aim is to create a "breathing space in a busy world."
The first edition of Think Quarterly, based out of the UK, is a 68-page dive into the world of data and its impact on business.
The first thing most people will notice is that it's a visually stunning piece of work. It's a rich Flash app with Google's quirky sensibilities and the in-depth writing you might find in BusinessWeek or Salon.
Google's quarterly magazine is edited and designed by creative agency The Church of London.
The articles themselves are thought pieces about major business and technology topics from a variety of freelancers and contributors. Google was able to snag Simon Rogers (editor of The Guardian's Datablog), Ulrike Reinhard (editor of WE Magazine), and other journalists for the project.

Many of Think Quarterly's articles feature interviews with Google executives and technology leaders. Some of the people featured include Vodafone UK CEO Guy Laurence, Google Chief Economist Hal Varian and famed psychologist Peter Kruse.
"At Google, we often think that speed is the forgotten 'killer application' -- the ingredient that can differentiate winners from the rest," Matt Brittin, Google's managing director of UK & Ireland operations, said in Think Quarterly's introduction. "We know that the faster we deliver results, the more useful people find our service."
"But in a world of accelerating change, we all need time to reflect. Think Quarterly is a breathing space in a busy world. It's a place to take time out and consider what's happening and why it matters."
It's unclear whether the new online magazine is another sign that Google is entering the media business or whether it's just a project to feed the company's intellectual curiosity.
Google doesn't describe its newest project as a magazine or a publication. Instead, Google calls it a book on its website and a "unique communications tool" on its Twitter account.

Regardless of what you call it, Think Quarterly is an interesting and informative experiment by the search giant.

BlackBerry PlayBook Available for Pre-Order Today for $499

...and the battle is on between Apple's iPad and BlackBerry Playbook. But at the end of this battle the two giant companies will still be the winner!

Repost from Yahoo News

BlackBerry PlayBook, RIM's foray into tablet territory, is now available for pre-order in three different versions, starting from $499.99.
PlayBook has a 7" 1024x600 WSVGA capacitive LCD touch screen, a 1 GHz dual-core CPU, 1 GB of RAM memory, a 1080p HDMI output, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a 5-megapixel camera on the back, as well as a 3-megapixel one on the front for video chats. The aforementioned $499.99 will get you the 16 GB variant, and you'll have to dish out $599.99 or $699.99 for the 32 GB and the 64 GB model, respectively.
In the U.S. the PlayBook will be available at AT&T, Best Buy, Sprint, Verizon, Office Depot, Cbeyond, Cellular South, Cincinnati Bell, RadioShack, ShopBlackBerry.com, Staples and BlackBerry from Wireless Giant. In Canada, the list is even longer, and includes Bell, Best Buy and Costco, among others.

Galaxy Player vs. iPod Touch: Specs compared

Apple seems to become the "standard" for the latest gadgets. Here is another comparison of Samsung Galaxy and iPhone Touch which guide buyer in choosing the right gadget that fits their need.

Repost from Yahoo News
The iPod Touch has owned the personal media player market since its introduction in 2007, and with Microsoft allegedly yanking the Zune from the market, it’s time for the new kid in town to challenge Apple’s media player. We have high hopes for the Samsung Galaxy Players, which we found out yesterday will finally be coming to the US. They have all the makings of a good iOS rival: running Android, built by a respectable company, and an existing following for the Galaxy branding.

Bear in mind, Samsung hasn’t released full details of the device quite yet (including one very important one: pricing), but we’ve taken it upon ourself to draw up some initial impressions of how the two media players will compare.

Kindle adding page numbers for e-books

This might be just a slight improvement on Kindle but will surely help readers in marking what they are reading :-) Repost from CNN

By Doug Gross, CNN

The Kindle page number feature is not available for older models of the e-reader "at this time," a spokesman said.

(CNN) -- Kindle users who dislike the popular e-reader's lack of page numbers are getting some relief.
Amazon has added a virtual page number feature on new Kindles that let users pull up numbers that match up with print editions of the book they're reading.
The feature was part of a recent software update and is currently available for the latest generation of Kindles rolled out in August and on Kindle apps for the iPhone, iPad, PC and Mac.
This week, Amazon announced that it's added the feature on more than 10,000 books, including the top 100 sellers in theKindle store.
Because the amount of text on a Kindle page is different than that on a printed book, and can vary more depending on the font size the reader is using, tracking page numbers was difficult.
Users had complained that the lack of numbers made it hard to refer back to something they'd read earlier or to talk about a book with others.
"We wanted to be able to display real page numbers that have value and are useful for those who need to cite a specific passage in a book for class, follow along with their friend in a book club, or simply point a friend to a favorite part of the book," Amazon said in a blog post.
An algorithm was used to create the page numbers, and the data is stored on Amazon's computer storage network. They numbers only appear when the reader presses the "menu" button on the device.
"We want you to lose yourself in the reading," Amazon said on why the page numbers aren't always visible.
An Amazon spokesman said that, "at this time," there's no way to get the feature on older Kindles.

Amazon sold an estimated 8 million Kindles last year, making it the leader in the e-reader market. Last year, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the online bookseller sold more e-books than hardbacks

Blackberry's PlayBook for fighting Apple and Google: Special Report

How can we catch up with the fast turn around of this technologies! Now Blackberry's Playbook will soon be available to the market. To give an idea what is in store in this gadget i tried to look for its specification. Find list below and read this special report to give you better idea of the latest gadget.

Full list of specifications are as follows:

• 7-inch LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
• BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
• 1 GHz dual-core processor
• 1 GB RAM
• Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD video recording
• Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
• Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
• HDMI video output
• Wi-Fi – 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
• Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
• Ultra thin and portable:
• Measures 5.1"x7.6"x0.4" (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)
• Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)
• RIM intends to also offer 3G and 4G models in the future.

Repost from Yahoo News
By Alastair Sharp

WATERLOO, Ontario (Reuters) - Once upon a time, BlackBerry was king. Then came the iPhone, followed by Android. And BlackBerry seemingly lost its way -- if not quite its throne.
Research In Motion is holding on to profit growth and impressive margins. For all the consumer appeal of Apple products, BlackBerry is still dominant in corporate mobile communications and RIM sells millions of its workaholic devices each quarter to a growing global audience.
But the attention of investors, analysts and developers is drifting elsewhere and the Canadian company, in the midst of a major platform and product transition, is seen possessing but a small window of opportunity to reinvigorate itself and match the momentum of rival mobile monarchs Apple and Google.
The PlayBook tablet computer, due to launch within weeks after a six-month pitch, is RIM's first product to use an industrial-strength operating system based on QNX, a powerhouse microkernel (rather than the typical monolithic kernel) which RIM bought last year and aims to incorporate into its future smartphones.
QNX -- which also runs nuclear power plants, medical instrumentation and Cisco's core Internet routers -- is the brains behind many of the infotainment systems shipping in new cars, and RIM plans seamless interaction between those dashboards, its PlayBook and its range of BlackBerry smartphones.
The PlayBook is a multitasking behemoth in a petite package, able to stream a high-definition video to a television screen via a HDMI cable while a user simultaneously edits a presentation or plays an immersive game on the 7-inch device.
It is also a minor revolution for a myopic company that has long been intolerant of risk, insiders say.
"The Playbook shows that RIM has lost some of its collective fear, but only because it's a proven moneymaker for other companies who have already blazed a path for RIM to take," said one former RIM software engineer.
Those who know him best say Mike Lazaridis, the engineer founder of Research In Motion, never believed a tablet computer was the right fit for the BlackBerry maker.
"Mike is a purist. He sticks to his main theme," said Robert Fraser, an early wireless pioneer and RIM partner whose concept of a personal communicator was eventually embodied by the BlackBerry. "One of the reasons RIM has been so successful is because they haven't deviated."
That theme was wireless email, sent via a server network that compresses and encrypts messages and guarantees delivery, vital for business in a world of limited radio resources.
Part of RIM's solution, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, sits behind a corporate firewall and ties closely to proprietary back-end systems. The whole operation is managed by massive data centers run by RIM, which also enable the free BlackBerry Messenger service so beloved by teenagers.
RIM's BlackBerry service, launched in 1999, was an immediate hit with white-collar workers and politicians, and today there are more than 250,000 of its enterprise servers installed worldwide.
That overwhelming success, however, coupled with a lawsuit that almost shut the whole operation down, bred intense caution that could ultimately threaten the company's future as it shies away from betting on risky innovations.
SOMETHING CHANGED
As far back as 2005, when it became feasible to display a browser on a wireless device, Fraser was pushing his friend Lazaridis to branch out to a larger screen, to no avail.
Yet a year after Apple's iPad captured imaginations and made the long-possible tablet computer a market reality, RIM is about to follow suit, with its smaller, more business-friendly version, the PlayBook.
"Something changed his mind in the last two years," Fraser said. If it was the iPad's runaway success that forced RIM's hand, Lazaridis ain't admitting it.
In several interviews with Reuters in recent months, executives including Lazaridis and his salesman co-chief Jim Balsillie have painted the PlayBook as a gilded object blessed with perfect timing and pedigree.
"For me, it's all about mobile computing and always was. And it's about always choosing the right moment, the right time, the right technology," Lazaridis said.
That's why RIM took the painful decision to delay the project to ensure it packed Texas Instruments' dual-core processor at launch, which is expected within weeks.
"We decided the tablet market was still in its infancy, it hasn't really taken off yet," Lazaridis said, dismissing the headstart of Apple, which pocketed $9.5 billion from sales of almost 15 million iPads in 2010, three times most initial forecasts, and this month unveiled an updated version.
It may be in its infancy, still dwarfed by both smartphone and laptop sales, but it is growing fast and a verdict on the viability of PlayBook and its QNX centerpiece is expected by year-end.
"Let's not make any bones about it, they're trying to fulfill this transition during an incredibly hectic time and one where they're seeing a huge amount of competition externally," said Geoff Blaber, an analyst at CCS Insight.
"It gives them the framework, it gives them the opportunity to compete," he said in reference to QNX. "What is uncertain now ... is how they're going to deliver that beyond the tablet."
Then he adds a hedge: "History has taught us to be very careful of writing RIM off. By the end of this year I'd expect to see a pretty big change in terms of what they're offering."
BUSINESS ALTERNATIVES
Perhaps the biggest threat RIM faces is the impression its secure enterprise solution can be easily replicated or even dismissed as unnecessary, allowing employees to use their own device and handily saving corporations the cost of providing and managing a fleet of BlackBerrys.
Business software company SAP is certainly not waiting on RIM to move on its own mobile computing strategy. It has bought 3,500 iPads for internal use as it advises its more than 100,000 corporate customers that there is life beyond BlackBerry.
"There will be a need for one system that supports multiple devices," says the company's chief technology officer, Oliver Bussmann.
And SAP has one, called Afaria, which promises device-agnostic security and application management for Apple's iPhone and iPad and Android devices from Samsung. "Other device makers are catching up on encryption and how to share information without storing it on the device," he said.
RIM's Waterloo neighbor Open Text, a leading provider of software to manage enterprise content and workflows, recently bought a company that builds app platforms on any device.
NO VISIBILITY
There is perhaps no other technology company on the planet, no other established company in any sector for that matter, whose future prospects elicit such determined variance of opinion as Research In Motion.
Its fiscal 2011 results are due by the end of the month, with analysts expecting the company's earnings to have grown by 44 percent to $6.33 a share. Yet for the next twelve months, expectations range between $4 and $8 a share.
"The PlayBook is a great example of where we don't feel like there is any visibility whatsoever," said Tim Caulfield, head of equity research at Franklin Templeton's Bissett Investment Management. "It's extremely intriguing but it just leaves me with so many question marks."
Bissett exited its position in RIM by late in 2007 -- around the time RIM briefly became Canada's most valuable company -- after building it since early 2005.
They sold because the price "was discounting not only a bright future but an incredibly bright future in a scenario that would have required flawless execution and zero competition to come true," Caulfield said. RIM has had neither.
IT'S AN APP WORLD AFTER ALL
RIM is facing two distinct and powerful forces in its life-or-death battle for relevance as smartphones straddle corporate and consumer markets.
In one corner is Apple and the cult of Steve Jobs, a man who brought the computer company back from the brink by revolutionizing portable music, redefining what phones are for and reinvigorating a tablet market that lay dormant for years.
RIM, like much of the mobile phone industry, was blindsided by the popularity of Apple's first iPhone, which burst onto the scene in mid-2007 and was immediately set upon by a voracious developer community building small applications, now universally known as apps, to improve the experience.
The smartphone, once the domain of RIM and its addicted white-collar workers, had gone mainstream.
"RIM didn't expect iPhone to take off the way it did because it was so badly flawed from day one," the former RIM employee said. "They believed that users wanted great battery life, great security, great mail handling, minimal network use, and a great keyboard experience. They never expected users didn't care."
In the other corner stands Google, the darling of the first commercial wave of the Internet, a search engine machine that targeted mobile and within two years leapfrogged the U.S. smartphone market share of both Apple and RIM.
It gives its Android operating system away to all and sundry, its scale in turn refreshing the fortunes of the likes of Motorola and allowing once low-end manufacturers like HTC to play in the big-time.
Another giant of the pre-iPhone world, Nokia, has succumbed to the pressure, discarding its Symbian operating system to throw its lot in with Microsoft.
Both Apple and Android nurtured what are now thriving ecosystems around their products, populated by energetic third-party developers. RIM has many more coders writing for its BlackBerry platform but most work on proprietary programs that never see the light of the app store day.
"RIM dramatically misjudged ... they completely missed the rich user experience end of the market which is the driving force of smartphones today," said Chris Albinson, a Silicon Valley-based Canadian whose Panorama Capital has plowed half of a $240-million fund into companies working in mobile.
With the PlayBook, RIM has lowered the barriers to developer entry by offering many more coding tools, dropping (first temporarily, now permanently) the entrance fee it charged and the requirement of a notarized identity, and incorporating a unified system to deliver payments collected via advertising, credit card and carrier billing.
The development environment RIM has built for QNX is similar enough to Android that coders can easily rewrite their applications for the PlayBook.
Albinson, who says RIM should open its Messenger and enterprise servers to the world to avoid irrelevance, is doubtful it's enough. "Every single venture capitalist in Silicon Valley is telling their companies to focus on Apple and Android," he said.
While most developers will make the choice to engage or shun RIM based on a perceived return on investment, one outfit started by a University of Waterloo graduate had that choice imposed on it by legal writ.
KIK'D IN THE TEETH
Ted Livingston learned a little too much from his time at RIM, at least as far as the company's lawyers were concerned.
In a lawsuit filed late last year, RIM accused Livingston and his startup Kik Interactive of infringing patents relating to its BlackBerry Messenger platform to create what quickly became a popular cross-platform alternative to one of the unique consumer selling points of BlackBerry.
The move had a chilling effect on Jason Braverman, whose company Blue Planet Apps was working on similar software.
"They would have shut us down and then they would have sued us and probably gone a little crazy trying to figure out how we did it," he said. "But that's all history at this point because I dropped the project. And not only did I drop the project, I dropped RIM as a developer because it was just not worth it to develop for them anymore."
Braverman, who is also building a biometric scanner for Android and Windows platforms, said manufacturers using these platforms are forced to focus on improving their hardware offerings to be noticed, and RIM is struggling to keep up.
"There's no indication the company is doing anything interesting going forward, the stuff they're showing is ancient history at this point, the PlayBook isn't a really impressive device anymore compared to what's coming out," he said.
And Kik? It just scored $8 million in series A venture capital funding and added group chat and picture sharing to its offering, which has close to 3.4 million users.
MEANWHILE, ELSEWHERE...
All is far from lost for RIM, however, especially in emerging markets outside of North America where carriers are much less likely to subsidize device costs, users are much more likely to prepay and smartphone penetration is much lower.
Nokia and RIM are frontrunners in the race to convert billions of feature phone users into data-wielding smartphone customers. And the Finnish company just gave itself a handicap with its Microsoft partnership unlikely to produce a refreshed product until late in 2012.
These are not trifling funds in play, either: the total North American market likely had handset sales of $35 billion in 2010, the rest of the world around $115 billion.
RIM retains a strange mix of pricing power and prestige branding in emerging markets, especially useful in countries with massive populations, rising economic power and expanding middle classes such as India, Indonesia and much of Latin America, especially Argentina and Brazil.
In such price-sensitive markets, RIM's ability to crunch email down to one-fifth its weight on competing devices and to use up to two-thirds less bandwidth to browse the web is a major drawing card. Add in BlackBerry Messenger as a free alternative to texting which can now be used to transfer airtime and other goods and the package is compelling.
"We have decidedly taken a different approach than some of our competitors and contemporaries. We decided to work closely with our carrier partners because we understand the physics and the economics" of their operations, Lazaridis said.
In early 2002, RIM was carried in around ten countries. Three years later it was in forty. By early 2008 its phones were sold by more than 350 carriers in 135 countries and by early 2010 it was 580 carriers and 175 countries.
Lazaridis is dismissive of suggestions the company he built right next to the university he attended is in any way deficient when stacked up against Californian competitors six and ten times its size.
"Just because the rest of the world wants to go one way doesn't mean it's the right way and we will continue to chart our own course," he said. "Don't let the hype cloud the truth."
(Editing by Jim Impoco and Claudia Parsons.)