GigaOM
Sun May 9 22:32:27 EDT 2010
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Weekend Project: iPad Productivity in the Cloud - Thanks to iPad's connectivity and cloud services like Google Docs, you can be pretty productive -- if you have the right software and workflow. In this weekend project, I'll show you my current solutions which are working well enough for me to leave the notebook behind.

Mo’ Money: Life Is Good for Cloud Vendors - Put simply, life is good for cloud computing and big data vendors because there’s plenty of money to be made. Whether it’s from VCs, big IT suitors or (gasp) customers, someone wants to invest in your vision. Want evidence? This week offered plenty.

Open vs. Closed: Google Takes on Amazon and Apple in e-Books - The e-book industry is dominated by Amazon and Apple, but the game will change later when Google launches its online e-book service, Google Editions. The company will allow users to download books in multiple ways, opening another front in the ongoing war of Open vs. Closed.

Android This Week: Mint Lands on Android; Encipher in the Works - Popular financial service Mint extended its mobile support to the Android platform this week, and SlingPlayer Mobile also entered into a private beta for Android handsets. Meanwhile, a touch tablet running atop the OS is being readied for market by Nigeria-based Encipher.

Facebook vs. Zynga: The Turf War - Zynga and Facebook have had an extremely symbiotic relationship to date, but after Facebook tried to use its weight to hold Zynga captive the social gaming company is mad as hell. Zynga is reportedly moving forward with efforts to launch its own social gaming network.

Verizon Customers Want iPhone, Can’t Have It - According to survey respondents to a ChangeWave Research survey of over 4,000 customers, more than 40 percent of Sprint/Nextel and T-Mobile customers would seriously considering buying an iPhone were it available to them, as would just over a majority of Verizon customers.

Reclassifi –What? 2 Video Guides to the FCC’s Broadband Regulation Efforts - If reading about regulating broadband isn't your thing, I've included two videos that can get you up to speed in no time on the wonky and complicated issue of broadband reclassification, and how the FCC found itself unable to exercise its authority over broadband pipes.

Netflix Moves Into the Cloud With Amazon Web Services - Netflix is expanding its use of cloud infrastructure, moving some of its customer-facing and back-end operations onto Amazon Web Services (AWS). After using AWS for more than a year, a number of the most visible portions of its website — including member movie lists, Netflix search [...]

Did You Hear It? That Was the Sound of a Silicon Valley Wake-up Call - The major stock markets' massive plunge on Thursday rattled investors, obliterating almost a trillion dollars in value at one point. But did it get the attention of the Silicon Valley bulls waiting for their favorite startups to IPO? Or will they dismiss it as a glitch?

The Great Open Database of Place Pages in the Sky - Every web portal would love to be the dominant and trusted provider of information about local businesses. What are the chances of an open collaborative database for places? According to industry experts, such a database is a long way off.

CBS Will Have Full Slate of Web Video on the iPad - CBS may have the most aggressive plans to enable viewers to watch web video on the iPad, but so far, that’s all they are — plans. The broadcaster has made only a limited number of promotional clips available for viewing on the tablet device, along with [...]

For a Look at Why We Need to Beef Up Our Broadband, Head Down Under - The government of Australia has committed $38.9 billion to build an open, fiber-to-the-home network that will serve 93 percent of its citizens, with those in rural areas guaranteed service of up to 12 Mbps. The U.S. can't replicate that effort but it can learn from it.

New Handset Chargers Aren’t Quite Smart, But Power Phones 50 Percent Faster - T-Mobile introduces three new handset chargers that boast a faster recharge time -- between 20 and 50 percent. The devices all support the Micro USB standard and each provides a second USB port to recharge other personal consumer electronics that use USB for power restoration.

Honeywell Goes Open Source, Grabs Akuacom - Building automation giant Honeywell has acquired demand response player Akuacom, which sells technology based on Open Automated Demand Response (OpenADR), the Berkeley Labs open source system for automating the way utilities do demand response. The smart grid moves closer to open source.

BookRenter Lands Netflix Co-founder as Board Member - BookRenter.com, a textbook rental service for students, has landed a big fish for its board: the startup said today that Netflix co-founder and former CEO Mark Randolph has joined as a director. BookRenter called the addition of Randolph an endorsement of its Netflix-style service for textbooks.

iPhone and Android Fueling Worldwide Smartphone Growth - Sales in the smartphone market far outpaced that of feature phones in the first quarter of 2010, with each of the top five handset makers registering sales growth. As to the handset makers that gained market share -- they all used one of two platforms.