Apple has a dayus horribilus!

What an awful day Apple had today.

First of all they were forced to announce that they had some stock option granting irregularities a few years back (which tech company hasn't) and the slightly dodgy grants were offered to Apple deius supremo, Steve Jobs.

Now the reality is that Apple reported this odd behavior a while ago and, like Microsoft, seems to have behaved above the ball since then. So, on the face of it Apple seem to be OK. But, that's not the point, for their stoick nosedived 3% because anything that negatively effects Mr Jobs is a major baseball bat in the face for Apple - proving that the company is dangerously reliant on him.

Mind you, as if this options scandal was not enough, then the Frenchies decided to approve probably the daftest piece of anti-capitalist legislation ever created by saying that Apple must open up their iPod so that it can play any music service on it (and not just iTunes) and if they do not - they could get fined up to $700M!!!!

Or they have to get permission to run a closed system from the owners of the music!!! I know that the French government is desperate to raise money right now - but I mean, isn't this a little far fetched?

Mind you, if Apple walk out of the French market, they may at least trigger yet another revolution from the streets. Oh God, not more fires!

CNET on digital music player trends - check it out!

Check out this CNET article on digital music market trends.

Most interesting to note is that the market for buying music to own on your digital music player isn't teens but adults in their mid 20's to mid 40's.

Most of the younger generation have MP3 players - more than half the teens do, but they generally use their players to download music they already own on CD rather than buying new tunes from services like iTunes.

Oh, and funnilly enough Apple's iPods own nearly 80% of the US digital music player market. Of course that won't be the case in France much longer!

Orange launches its own push email service - what?

Orange, one of Europe's leading mobile phone operators owned by France Telecom, has decided to go it alone and launch their own answer to the Blackberry and Microsoft Mobile push email offerings.

They are rolling out their own propietary email push service for Orange users across all their European markets between now and the end of the year. They seem to be targetting the small and medium size business sector in particular, citing that only 10% of that market use mobile email.

The numbers I do not disagree with, but why Orange thinks they are best suited to meet these needs completely defeats me. After all, companies like Microsoft and Research in Motion (owners of Blackberry) have been at this stuff for ever.

Mind you, given that the French government have just stuffed things up for Apple's iPod, maybe Orange know something we don't. At least the technology is made in France, which means they may actually allow it to remain legal!

Flock launches social social networking browser

Flock, a Silicon Valley start-up, received a great deal of media hype last Autumn over their soon to be launched social networking take on a browser that would be designed to help us all with the coolest things you can do on the web such as uploading and sharing photos, making photo albums (no surprise) and blogging.

So far so cool! Unfortunately Flock then went extremely quiet and did not deliver their browser. Well, today they finally launched a Beta browser which you can download at Flock.com.

There are also a bunch of previews that are pretty good at telling you what key features the browser offers. The Flock team come from good pedigree, many debunking from Mozilla (makers of the Firefox browser).

So if you're into the social networking revolution going on in the Web (i.e. under thirty), then it could be hip to download Flock. For the rest of you, wait for it to get out of Beta and read the reviews. Which means keep reading TechBoard - sorry!

Google launches rival to PayPal and its called Checkout!

If you believe Reuters, the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal plus a legion of other tech news sites and worthy blogs, Google will finally today launch their answer to PayPal and its not called GBuy or GoogleWallet, its gonna be called Google Checkout!

Google said Checkout stores names, shipping and credit card information and eliminates the need for consumers to resubmit that data with each purchase. Google is responsible for processing the credit card payments and keeping data safe. Sounds like PayPal to me!

"We think we're making e-commerce a lot more efficient and easier to use," Salar Kamangar, Google's vice president of product management, told Reuters.

Google charges merchants 2% of the value of each sale plus 20 cents per transaction - a fee that early users said was in line with other options. The company rewards its advertisers by offering them $10 in free sales processing for every dollar they spend on its advertising program, AdWords.

Google plan to link AdWords with Checkout and Google Analytics so that you can trace the success opf your ads all the way through clicks, to ordering and through to the purchase.

Google Checkout may do more for website marketing and tracking than for e-payments - or at least at the beginning. If I was Ebay I'd still be nervous.

Why Blog cynics are short sited and sadly missing the point!

The world seems divided between those that are deeply cynical of the blogging revolution and those that are passionate that blogging will change the media world. Blog cynics rant about the fact that citizen journalism is merely a childish fad and one that will peter out as Internet users return to their senses and only consume traditional media content.

They argue that professional journalists cannot just be replaced by a vain horde of amateur writers seeking their one minute of fame through catchy and edgy digital posts. Of course many of these arguments are seeded by the professional journalists who have the most to lose from the blogging revolution proving them wrong.

And in the mean time another new blogsite is created somewhere in the world every second. Now there must be well north of 50M blogsites and, in America at least, the younger generation of newspaper readers are reading blogs as much as traditional newspapers.

So what's really going on here? And is there a real blogging revolution unfolding?

Yes, there is a fundamentally important media revolution going on, but not perhaps the one that everyone thinks. Because I do not see blogs killing media conglomerates anytime soon, but I do see us looking back at the user-generated content revolution and pointing to blogging as being the technology that got it off the ground.

And user-generated content is an undisputed media trend and possibly the most important shift in the creation, presentation and distribution of media since the Guttenberg Press.

But even more essentially, Blogging is the first step in an even more fundamental shift that is going on right under are feet and is all about anyone being able to become a technology entrepreneur.

For today anyone can launch a blogsite, but tomorrow anyone will be able to launch their own spreadsheet package or search engine with no technical skills whatsoever. The next Microsoft or Google could be created by a complete non-techie. Perhaps even by me!

So, Blog cynics throughout the world, that is the real revolution that blogging is kicking off. Get your teeth round that one!

Apple's new iPods delayed?

Those of you wanting the next generation iPod Nano or wide-screen video iPod will likely have to wait, cos according to American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu the new versions will now ship in the fourth quarter, rather than the third quarter, due to Apple's switch of suppliers.

At least this proves that Apple is as capable as Microsoft of product delays - after all you're not cool in the tech world unless you're fashionably late with hot launches.

Mind you at least it looks like Apple's delays mean that they will still hit the shelves for the key holiday season. And I was so looking forward to my new iPod. Mind you, they should have done a deal with Hollywood by then, so at least I'll get to watch movies as well!

How YouTube plan to go commercial!

The Wall Street Journal have just been given an interesting scoop by leading video site YouTube which demonstrates how the free online video business plans to make money.

And its alll about selling online ads alongside their free content. So YouTube want to become the Blockbuster of online, downloadable video. I guess that leaves iTunes as the worlds number one movie download retailer.

You use iTunes to build your digital video library as an asset you own and YouTube to watch the latest shows like a giant on-demand TV network. Nice one!

Time Warner sells movies online - its just the beginning!

Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. has made a deal to distribute movies and TV shows online via Guba's search engine and video-sharing community, Guba.com, in one of the first moves by a major studio to embrace user-generated content. Gube is a small but potentially powerful competitor to YouTube and MySpace.

Until yesterday, Guba displayed videos submitted mostly by amateurs, along with some professionally created material such as music videos posted illegally on the site. Now, the site will sell movies such as "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" along with TV shows such as "Babylon 5."

This move proves that the studios are embracing small rollouts of movies over the Internet. Once they feel comfortable that launches such as this one with Guba work, then they will embrace the prime time distributing movies through Google Video, Yahoo Movies, MSN Movies, iTunes and MySpace.

Expect deals with all the above sites to distribute online Hollywood movies within 12 months.

Is Google's launch of GBuy stalled?

Google is apparently set to launch GBuy this week. There has been a large amount of speculation about the entry of this new competitor to PayPal and the launch seems to be delayed which may prove that Google is finding it harder than expected to sign up their first bunch of marquis merchants.

Having myself launch Beenz, the leading Web Currency of the '90's, I fully understand their challenge, for e-payments systems are the ultimate chicken and egg business model. Until you have a critical mass of merchants you will never attain a critical mass of users.

And to get a critical mass of merchants they want to see a system tested ('cos its about getting paid!) and a critical mass of users!! Go figure that one out.

This time round Google will have to use all their goodwill and persuade their (AdWords) clients (merchants) to trust their new GBuy system and probably give it away from the getgo, plus they will have to convince them that Google users will adopt it.

This is one launch where they cannot just hang their technology out in the wind and hope it takes off. But, they have some innovative features - like linking GBuy straight into an ad so you can buy a product from the ad rather than switching to the site.

If Google do get this more challenging launch right - there's a big fat opportunity at the end of the rainbow - that's the beauty of electronic payment systems.

Intel starts restructuring and dumps mobile phone unit

Paul Otellini, CEO of Intel, promised a 90 day review of the company and a subsequent reorganisation. Well, I guess it has started because Intel have just announced dumping their mobile phone unit and selling it to Marvell Technology (no dummy, not the superhero dudes!) at fire-sale prices.

Intel will instead focus its communications market strategy on Wi-Fi and WiMax, which sounds wise. That leaves the mobile phone chip market to Qualcomm, TI, Broadcomm and Freescale.

Intel and Microsoft sure rule the PC, but are still struggling to make their technologies succeed on other platforms. I wonder whether larger acquisitions might not be a better way forwards for them.

Yep, that means Microsoft buying Sony and Intel buying TI. Ooooh, yeah!

Microsoft attacks office communications! Oh God!

Microsoft has decided that they are not diversified enough and have launched yet another business unit. This time they are going after Cisco's lunch 'cos they feel like pissing off another tech giant.

This strategic meander into corporate malfaisance will see them enter the office Internet telephony game. They are planning to work with telecomms equipment makers to launch Microsoft office phone systems that hook into your PC's and their (Microsoft - of course) applications so that at a click of a mouse (presumably a Microsoft one) you can add a colleague to a call.

They are also introducing a video confereencing device that will point at the latest voice to speak so entering you into the call with a movie pan! Nice one!

Cisco is doing a lot of this kinda stuff already, but Microsoft may for once in their life actually speed up convergence and interoperability in the office comms space proving at least that we can come up with long words here as well as anyone else.

Now this all sounds dandy but leaves me wondering yet again why Microsoft is heading off into another diversification jaunt when they seem to be struggling enough with the plethora of existing divisions. Oh well!

Intel finallly strike back at AMD - big time!

Intel has launched its opening gambit in a triple-play to win back market share from its biggest rival AMD, introducing its first chip based on a new architecture in five years.

The world’s largest chipmaker today released its dual-core Xeon Processor 5100 Series, formerly codenamed Woodcrest, which is targeted at the server market where AMD has made the biggest inroads into its business.

And they need it 'cos Intel’s server chips have underperformed those of AMD over the past two years and their market share has slipped from 95% to 78%, according to Mercury Research.

But the new architecture, which focuses on energy, or performance per watt (Zzzzzzzzzz...), will be rolled out this summer across over a hundred server types starting with Dell and then across PC's and laptops.

Intel had better cross their fingers that this move's gonna work and AMD had better go like mad to take their next technological leap! It would be a shame to see them lose momentum now - Intel need the competition.

It looks like the EU's about to rule against Microsoft

The EU's top antitrust regulator is poised to issue a formal ruling that finds Microsoft guilty of breaking EU competition rules. The ruling is likely to be accompanied by fines for the US software group of up to €2m ($2.5m) a day.

Oops, nice start to the week Microsoft. Its been coming for a while, but yet again leaves you wondering when Microsoft's shareholders will get some good news. I guess not for a while - or at least not until they do something bold like buy Yahoo!

Google launches free Internet movies supported by sponsors

Google is now becoming a driver in the move toward free online TV and movies as they launch a bunch of free movies at Google Video supported by advertising.

Videos now accessible for free include movies such as Charlie Chaplin classics that previously cost 99 cents, episodes of the Mr. Magoo cartoon series that had cost $1.99 and wrestling matches that were $4.95.

Small graphical ads for advertisers including Burger King and Netflix appear above the videos, with short video commercials for them at the end of featured video content. Google said that fewer than 10 advertisers were currently involved in the test.

But this will take off, so assume this is just the tip of the iceberg and the first steps in a world where in very short order online viewers will access most TV programs and movies for free, while watching ads. The sponsors will pay the fees, not us. Watch out iTunes!