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Pink RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Verizon Wireless has released a pink version of the RIM BlackBerry Pearl 8130, making for a nice little mate to the silver model. We first caught wind of this blush-colored smartphone at CES 2008 when RIM, perhaps without Verizon’s knowledge, showed it off at their booth, but all is rosy now. You can grab the pink Pearl starting today for $149.99 with a two-year contract and after discounts and rebates. We suspect Sprint’s red BlackBerry Pearl won’t be too far behind.

(Credit:
Verizon Wireless)

Paul W. Klipsch founded the company that bears his name in Hope, Ark. in 1946. And incredibly enough, the Arkansas plant is still building the company’s higher-end speakers.

Klipsch may be one of the oldest American speaker companies, but that doesn’t stop it from manufacturing
iPod, computer, stereo and home theater speakers, along with a full line of professional cinema and music speakers.

It’s a serious rock and roll animal, built to handle dynamics and power like ultra high-end speakers that retail for many times the price of the P-39F. Bass is meaty and solid, yet as clear and concise as the mid-range and treble. Oh, and before you get the impression these bad boys have to be played at lease breaking volume to sound their best, I found them exceedingly accomplished at hushed, late night volume as well.

The 165-pound speaker rests on an aluminum and steel plinth/base; which reminds me, the P-39F’s speaker cable connectors are stealthily concealed within its bottom panel.

The Audiophiliac and the P-39F

I found the new boldly curved speaker’s “boat tail” shape distinctive as all get out and it’s not just for show, the rounded cabinet’s interior quells resonance that would muddy the sound. Those curved sides are made from seven ply, constrained layer, composite laminate wood panels, and the front baffle is reinforced with steel.

It’s a large speaker, 56 inches tall and 24.75 deep, but it doesn’t seem as imposing as some statement designs. The Palladium’s zebra grain veneers come in your choice of three finishes, natural, merlot, and espresso (the wood is sourced from protected forests).

I reviewed Klipsch’s new flagship speaker, the Palladium P-39F ($20,000/pair), for Home Entertainment magazine, and I had a blast. The new speaker forgoes Klipsch’s traditional, square-edged aesthetic; for the Palladium project the company enlisted the talents of BMW DesignworksUSA in Los Angeles, Calif. They did a great job.

When I reviewed the P-39F tower speaker it was the only Palladium available, but in New York last week Klipsch showed the P-17B bookshelf speaker ($4,000/pair), P-27C center channel ($3,500), P-27S surround speaker ($4,000/pr) and P-312W subwoofer ($4,000). Complete Palladium 5.1 channel systems start around $16,000.

Brightcove, the Internet-video syndication and services company, announced on Monday that video content from its customers will appear on social-networking sites: Bebo, Meebo, RockYou, Slide and Veoh.

Brightcove helps media companies display their video over the Internet and offers varying services for managing video including publishing, distribution and advertising.

CEO Jeremy Allaire has amassed a customer list that reads like a who’s who of media conglomerates, such as CBS, HBO, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and 20th Century Fox.

The new deal means that Brightcove customers will have access to the combined 300 million monthly visitors of the social networks.

At this point, AOL looks far more attractive to Microsoft than some may believe. And although the chances of it acquiring the online firm are low, it wouldn’t be a bad idea and one that’s certainly worth considering.

That said, it’s still an attractive company from Microsoft’s standpoint and all of its properties account for a boatload of pageviews each day, which could easily translate to an advertising revenue stream that is not only controlled by Microsoft and thus blocked from Google, but highly lucrative.

After today’s announcement that AOL has acquired Bebo for $850 million in the hopes that it will be able to capitalize on the upswing in social networking, I had a thought. Knowing that AOL is trying to get a deal done with Yahoo and the company owns some solid properties, why doesn’t Microsoft forget about Yahoo for a while and acquire AOL?

Now, I’m sure some would try to make the argument that Microsoft only wants Yahoo for search, but I’m not so quick to agree. If that’s true, is all of Yahoo’s “extras” just a bonus of acquiring the company? Microsoft has made a number of statements in the past saying that it wants to do more on the Internet and offer more compelling services and acquiring AOL is the first step in doing just that.

All the while, Ballmer and company could scheme to find ways to continue its proxy fight and install a board that’s far more likely to accept a sweetheart deal from Microsoft. In the process, Microsoft could walk away with both companies. Just don’t expect it to happen overnight. In fact, I would guess that an AOL deal would put Yahoo on the back burner for about a year.

Reason 1: Complementary services

Let’s face it — even though the company has the kind of cash to acquire Bebo for $850 million, AOL is in rough shape. It’s in a transitional phase that it’s having a hard time breaking out of and it has made a number of poor decisions that have hindered its growth.

As it stands, AOL now owns Weblogs, Inc.; TMZ.com; Bebo; Quigo, an advertising firm; Third Screen Media, a mobile advertising firm; and a slew of other advertising companies that could have a major impact on the business going forward.

And considering the fact that Microsoft would probably be willing to pay about half as much for AOL (about $22 billion), Yahoo would certainly worry that its time is up and it lost its chance to court a serious buyer.

The Microsoft-AOL deal would probably look quite similar to its pledge for Yahoo and an offer would be made where half of it is payable in cash and the other half would be offered up in Microsoft stock. And considering the fact that AOL is probably about half as valuable to Microsoft as Yahoo, there’s no reason to suggest it wouldn’t offer about half as much. Of course, that number would probably rise into the $30 billion to $35 billion after negotiations were complete. That said, that figure isn’t too bad of a deal for Microsoft and one that would conceivably bear fruit almost immediately given the fact all of AOL’s properties (aside from its advertising ventures) are running on all cylinders.

And although the company is operated by Time Warner, which has done all it can to make the merger worthwhile, the online firm is somewhat independent from its owners (Google also owns a small stake) and offers a wide array of services that have been neglected by Microsoft.

There’s no debating the fact that Google will never acquire Yahoo and I’m of the opinion that Microsoft never will either. That said, Yahoo wants to be acquired by a company and although it has said numerous times that it actually feels quite opposite, I think it’s full of hot air.

Sound crazy? If so, consider the fact that AOL has quickly become one of the largest competitors to Microsoft in its attempt to acquire Yahoo and at the same time, it’s barely standing on the backs of sound editorial content from Weblogs, Inc. and now, social networking — two areas Microsoft currently has no influence in.

In essence, the deal for AOL would be a good one for Microsoft and could actually help it in its negotiations for Yahoo. Here’s why:

Reason 2: It makes Yahoo worry

For the first time, Microsoft could be a major player in the social networking space with Bebo and have sound editorial content turning a profit. Aside from that, AIM, which is the most popular IM’ing tool in the US, will be a great tool for Microsoft, considering MSN holds that title pretty much everywhere else in the world.

At face value, a deal between AOL and Microsoft may not look like the match made in Heaven some are calling the possible Yahoo deal. But when you take a slightly more comprehensive view of what’s really going on, your opinion might change.

A Microsoft acquisition of AOL would throw Yahoo off its mark and send panic through the entire company. In just one day, Yahoo’s stock price would sink to an unprecedented low and Jerry Yang would be forced to come out for damage control.

Reason 3: AOL will come cheap

“I believe the outcome of this and similar moves without appropriate repercussions in giving credit to developers who are coming up with innovative ideas will ultimately result in the discouragement of such developers and a diminish(ed) effect on innovative thinking,” Ariana continued. “I know change cannot be stopped, but along the way giving credit to the little people underneath will be a key to success against competition.”

“This new feature and its functionality is suspiciously identical to the application I released for Facebook six months ago (albeit with limited resources),” developer Amin Ariana said in an e-mail to CNET News.com, “but it gives no credit to the original author.”

Update March 31, 5:07 AM PDT: The post now reflects additional commentary from Amin Ariana.

Friendmates isn’t exactly SuperPoke or Zombies. The application has only 238 daily active users, which amounts to 9 percent of those who have installed it.

But Ariana said in an e-mail that he’s not formally a Microsoft employee. “I only contract with them as a software design engineer to make money to support my own small projects, which are not supported by Microsoft in any way,” he wrote.

And here’s some irony: Ariana, as well as Friendmates co-creators Steve Dill and Sean Erle Johnson, are all members of the Microsoft network on Facebook. Microsoft, as you probably know already, has a $240 million stake in Facebook.

Additionally, business social-networking site LinkedIn has operated a feature similar to Facebook’s for months now.

The creator of a Facebook application called Friendmates doesn’t seem to be too thrilled with the social-networking site’s new “People You May Know” feature, which launched earlier this week.

Facebook has asserted that if developers apply to its FBFund grant program, there’s no guarantee Facebook won’t come up with something similar to their business plans. Ariana said that he did not apply for a FBFund grant for Friendmates. Facebook representatives could not comment on whether this also applies to existing platform applications.

It also doesn’t look that similar to “People You May Know.” Friendmates allows you to see which friends have the most friends in common with you, tag Facebook members whose faces you recognize, and hear from those who have recognized you. And it invites users to manually tag their friends with how well they know them in order to assess other members whom the users might know.

Amin Ariana maintained that he sees peculiar similarity in the two. “Essentially both apps are technically using common friends to extrapolate (or suggest) potential friends,” he said. “The ’suggestion engine’ behind them…is the exact same.”

I admit this argument would hold more weight if Google and Yahoo allowed users to rate search results. But I believe that eventually they will (beyond current limited experiments), and then we’ll have another problem: feedback confusion. How will users determine which service they are rating a result for when they decide to provide feedback?

Rating Google results for Wikia Search.

You can now get a browser search bar for the open-source Wikia Search engine: Wikia Evolution. A search bar is pretty much a requirement to put an engine in front of users’ faces, so this is an expected move by the Wikia Search project. But Wikia Evolution moves the concept into new territory.

(By the way, Wikia Search is really improving. I’m not using the Evolution toolbar, but I have added Wikia Search as an option to my
Firefox drop-down list of search boxes. I like it.)

Another example of this is Twinkle, which is building its own social network, in part on Twitter; if you to use the Twinkle
iPhone app as a Twitter client, you must also get a Twinkle account. And as much as I like it, I feel FriendFeed also skims the cream off the top of the networks that feed it (again, Twitter, but also blogs).

Mashing sites and content together is the grist for a lot of Web innovation. But taking results from one service and building a direct competitor out of them is not quite kosher, in my book.

Via the Evolution toolbar, Wikia adds a feature to Google and Yahoo searches: It displays rating stars and an “add” button after each result. Clicking on these links adds info into the Wikia Search index, to refine its searches when you use that engine.

As in evolution, parasites can, over time, strengthen their hosts–or lead to very interesting and robust cooperatives. But they do run the risk of being squashed before they do very much.

It smells. Wikia’s Jimmy Wales makes a big deal about how his rating system and open engine are superior to closed systems like Google. Yet this tool asks users to rate Google’s own results in order to improve Wikia’s. It works, and it’s a very clever way to build on the work of others, but it essentially appropriates Google’s crawler results for another engine.

See previous review: Wikia Search launches the hackable search engine.

(Credit:
Canon)

Canon has released a new firmware update to its EOS 40D 10.1MP DSLR. The firmware update, v1.0.8, fixes a phenomenon in which Image Stabilization operation emits a sound when certain buttons are pressed, with the EF-S 55mm-250mm f/4-f/5.6 IS lens attached to the camera. It also fixes a phenomenon in which the Image Stabilization operation emits a sound from the lens when IS lenses are attached to the camera, as well as remedying another in which a part of the image looks unnatural when reviewed on the LCD. Finally, tt also corrects errors in the Spanish and Norwegian menus.

We generally recommend installing the latest firmware updates for your camera, so you can get the most out of your gear. For more information on firmware updates for a specific camera, visit the manufacturer’s Web site. Before installing any firmware upgrade, always take the time to read through all of the documentation and follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully.

One rung down from having a friend call you to get out of a bad date is SlyDial, a new service that lets you send people voice mail messages without actually having to call them. Yes such a feature exists if someone legitimately leaves you a voice mail (giving you the option to leave a voice mail reply), but SlyDial lets you skip that first step by simply sending them the message as you would an SMS message. It’s tricky, it’s evil–I love it.

Related:
Gmail’s Custom Time April fools.

To stay afloat, there are short advertisements before your calls are connected. I found it to be a little annoying, but not nearly as in your face as the ones on 1-800-FREE-411.There’s also no sign-up required, you simply have to call 267-SLY-DIAL (759-3425) and have the number of the person you’re calling on hand. In the future, the service plans to offer a software application that can take advantage of your phone’s contact list to save you from having to remember people’s numbers.

SlyDial is currently in “private beta” until June, and is for U.S. and Canadian phone customers only, although I no few problems getting it to work.

Maybe the best part is that it works on all the carriers. In my testing, I got it to work with AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, although it seemed to choke on my T-Mobile digits despite calling them from a number not my own (it’s hip to you trying to call yourself). The only other hiccup was with CallWave, which Rafe uses. He was tipped off to my call because CallWave lets you know when someone’s calling your voice mail in-box.

But, Clancy probably saw the opportunity to get a massive amount of money up front and some substantial additional payments for the next few years and figured that there wasn’t much downside. As noted above, Ubisoft is a major-league organization and has done well with its Clancy properties, so it’s not like this will water down the Clancy brand.

French video game giant Ubisoft said Thursday that it has agreed to buy all “intellectual property rights to the Tom Clancy name, on a perpetual basis and free of all related future royalty payments, for use in video games and ancillary products including related books, movies and merchandising products.”

Of course, Ubisoft has already been publishing a series of Clancy-branded games, such as the Ghost Recon series and the Rainbow Six series, but those were done under royalty arrangements.

Video game giant Ubisoft has agreed to purchase Tom Clancy’s name for use in video games and other media products. Previously, Ubisoft had licensed the Clancy name.

To me, this is just bizarre. Maybe I’ve missed previous such deals, but I don’t recall ever hearing of someone like Tom Clancy out-and-out selling his name like this. I won’t liken it to selling his soul to the devil, because I’m sure Ubisoft is a perfectly nice organization, but it’s an unusual situation to be sure.

With that in mind, then, I suppose I’ll have to consider selling the rights to my own name. I doubt I’ll command millions of euros, but you never know. Let me know if you’re interested, and we’ll talk turkey.

“On the basis of past performance of Tom Clancy-branded video games, and excluding any potential contribution coming from sales of ancillary products,” the company wrote, “the royalty savings generated by this acquisition are estimated to have an average positive impact on Ubisoft’s operating income of a minimum of 5 million euros per year.”

Ubisoft didn’t release the financial terms of the deal, though it did say in a press release that it expects to have a net cash position of 130 million euros ($201 million) at the end of fiscal 2007-2008, versus 150 million euros ($232 million) prior to the deal.

So, strictly speaking, Clancy, the author of megahit books like Patriot Games, The Hunt for Red October, and The Sum of All Fears will get to continue to use his own moniker in his personal life. And even on his books.

But when it comes to video game properties based on his work, and even, apparently, most other media, well, Ubisoft is his daddy.

In addition, Ubisoft said it will make additional payments to Clancy in fiscal 2008-2009 and 2009-2010.

Tom Clancy has sold his name.

(Credit:
Ubisoft)

I was going to write something up about this announcement “Sun Microsystems and Intel Break Million-Messages-per Second Barrier for Thomson Reuters Market Data System” and relate it to how Twitter could leverage some design principles from financial services for scalability.

Then I clicked on the link to the Sun webpage for FinServ only to find out they had announced nearly the same exact thing two years ago.

A million-messages-per-second is still very impressive, but this is hardly news. Where is all the news about Sun’s SOA, Cloud, or MySQL efforts?

UPDATED JULY 9, 2008:
The fine folks at Sun’s financial services group have provided some clarity on the two RMDS benchmark announcements.

We should have articulated more clearly the differences between the two benchmark results. If we used the exact same configuration for the old benchmark, we have actually broken 3.05 million-messages-per second. This information was buried in the bullet points in our press release.

Our new benchmark with the one-million-messages-per second result was actually based on a different product–Source Distributor–that is under the same RMDS product suite. Sun and Intel was actually the first platform to have broken the one-million-messages-per second benchmark for the Source Distributor product. This information was also buried in the bullet points in our press release.