Paul's Blog

OK, speaking of odd buy-outs... why in the heck did eBay buy Skype? I can understand if a company like Google, or Yahoo, or even AOL or Microsoft bought them, but, eBay?

I'm attempting to assertain the synergistic logic behind the merging of an online auction and a proprietary VoIP calling tool. Maybe there's some value with merging the PayPal components with the auctions and the VoIP service so buyers and sellers can talk their way through settling up on their sales and buys?

No-one usually comments here when I ask (expect the blog spammers *shakes fist*), but I'm going to ask anyway... What does everyone else think about this?

One of these days I'll write my story about how and why I switched to a VoIP carrier - if anyone is interested? Maybe Verizon, AT&T, and some others might keep their eyes open to why? Who's doin' a technorati search, huh?

Reminder by: [KCTs Digital World]

Oracle Corporation, In another major acquisition of a rival software maker on Monday September 12th, said it will buy up Siebel Systems in a deal valued at over $5.8 billion. Siebel, a maker of customer resource management (CRM) software, will provide Oracle with 4,000 new customers and 3.4 million CRM users.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said the deal was intended to give Oracle an entire ecosystem of enterprise application software, and was pushed by companies such as General Electric who only wanted to deal with a single vendor.

Didn't Oracle just buy PeopleSoft? How many billions in acquisitions has Ellison done this year? I mean, just those two buy-outs were worth $16 Billion! I obviously should have invented a database company a long time ago!

Via: [Betanews]

It seems that the bloggers have been talking about the latest findings of the insides of Apple's iTunes 5. They've been using their tools to peer into the resources DLLs and EXEs and have found that an image resource within iTunes 5 that suggests Apple has future plans for a video store. It seems they've found three buttons with the terms "Gift Video," "Buy Video," and "Add Video," along with text string references to "protected MPEG-4 video file" in the iTunes 5 code.

This was all said before, and the rumors have been circulating around the Internet in recent months, about Apple finally having plans to create a video store as well as a video-enabled iPod. The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple had mentioned a video iPod to music labels back in July. In May, Apple started selling music videos with some of its music tracks.

Via: [BetaNews]

Here's a really neat piece of hardware. The portable Fastora ExBoot USB drive. It's a 40GB drive that can hold a full back-up of your notebook PC (provided your PC doesn't have more than 40GB of stuff on it), and should your internal drive fail, just set the USB drive to boot and you're back up and running in a flash - so to speak! The selling price is $230.00USD.

I don't often use this forum for this type of message, but this is one that deserves mentioning, always:

Let us not forget those who were senselessly lost on this day, 2001. To those families who have lost loved ones, there is nothing I can say that could mean enough, but please believe me when I say that my heart and prayers are with you.

In a press release from AuroOne Systems, who is a privately funded digital multimedia storage, transport, and delivery company which is headquartered in San Jose, California, they announced that it would be forming a technology alliance and strategic partnership with Aphelion Communications. Aphelion has developed a unique patented sequential ultra RF multi-hopping technology that piggy-backs on existing 802.11b/g and 802.11a technologies. This is a fairly revolutionary breakthrough which allows traditional LAN-based short range wireless technologies to achieve greater distances without degradation. When combined with WiMAX, it's an ideal way for service providers to boost signal strength. Service Providers will now have a way to wirelessly offer triple-play solutions to every device in the home.

AuraOne's expertise revolves around its patent-pending ADR (Anywhere Data Retrieval) technology that enables consumers to instantly access digital content in real time over wireless. The company has also developed a revolutionary media archiving file structure, which, when combined with ADR, revolutionizes the distribution of digital content, whether it be voice, video, or data.

Via:[AuraOne Press Release]

In Houston Texas, on August 30th, the internet website Tagomatic.com introduced their latest software tool for music lovers: Tagosaurus! Tagosaurus allows Internet users to automatically search their MP3 collections to find similar, recommended, bands stored in the Tagomatic recommendations database.

Tagomatic.com is a free community-based service that allows users to "tag" similar entities of entertainment media. People who love music, movies, books, and web sites can tag their favorite items with whom, or what, is similar to them. The information is searchable and allows the public to find new types of entertainment that is similar to something they already enjoy.

Their Tagosaurus application runs in the browser and has two important features for MP3 music file users. The main purpose of Tagosaurus is to search a user's MP3 collection, gathering band names, and return an interactive list of similar bands that the user might also like. This feature automates the usage of the Tagomatic search engine, which is also searchable on the Tagomatic web site, allowing a user to find music recommendations in bulk. The second feature in Tagosaurus acts as an automatic genre playlist creator. This feature can create playlists from the user's MP3 collection, consisting of groupings of all similar bands. The playlist feature will make a playlist of the "web" of bands that are related to one another through the "tagged" relationships of similar bands. Tagosaurus can be found on the Tagomatic web site in the Music section.

Via: [Hardwarezone.com]

On the "ummm..." list, today, is the latest in concept car design ideas from Mazda. With the new Sassou Hatchback concept car, Mazda has decided that it would include a USB flash drive "key" instead of the traditional design we're all used to - you know, the kind you get ground at the hardware store and if you drop it, or run it through the wash, it probably won't break?

In an article reported by Forbes, it claimed that at least one of the upcoming Motorola iTunes will "...underwhelm analysts and Apple fans” because of a 25-song storage cap.

“A person who has seen a version of the phone says it was designed to accommodate just 25 songs, which would be ‘sideloaded’ from a user’s computer using iTunes,” the report says. “The phone was equipped with a 128MB Sandisk TransFlash memory card—just one-quarter the capacity of Apple’s smallest iPod, the 512MB shuffle.”

“While it should be possible to swap out the memory card on the new iTunes phone for one with more capacity, the person who has seen the handset says the phone’s software appears to artificially cap song storage at 25 songs, regardless of how much memory the phone has.”

One of my favorite iPod accessory companies, Digital Lifestyle Outfitters, has announced that it's now shipping its DLO Mini Fling fashion cases for the iPod mini. Each case is priced at $34.99 and come in 12 really interesting styles; including a metallic pink and a "faux crocadile blue" - and since I haven't seen any blue crocs, I'm guessing "faux" is the right term for this color. The cases feature a removable wristlet with charm, an elastic loop for earphones or lipstick storage, and a flip-up cosmetic mirror. So, obviously, this is a chick thing... and I'm guessing that iPod Minis are probably more purchased by women, than men. I should do a comparison poll to find out!

“The Mini Flings embrace today’s fashion trends and styles and are DLO’s first cases designed specifically for the ‘fashion conscious’ iPod mini owner,” says DLO. “The Mini Fling’s material and color choices perfectly match the iPod mini colors.”