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To paraphrase Arthur Clarke, printing without wires is indistinguishable from magic. I mean, remember when you needed a big fat parallel cable to send documents from PC to printer? Now all you need is air (and a Wi-Fi router).

(Credit:
Brother)

JR.com has the Brother MFC-685cw, a seriously well-equipped multifunction printer, for $129.99 shipped. Among the highlights: compact design, a built-in phone with answering machine, and both wired and Wi-Fi network compatibility.

You can read CNET’s full review here, but I’ll summarize in case you’re in a hurry: It’s packed with features, but it’s also a slowpoke that produces so-so output. Of course, this all-in-one was designed with home offices in mind, where speed and pro-quality prints aren’t priorities. If you want printing, faxing, scanning, copying, calling, and more, all without wires, here’s your chance to get it on the cheap.

The company added that MySpace China, which it described as a “locally owned, operated, and managed company,” and MySpace’s joint venture in Japan won’t be affected by the restructuring.

Combining both layoffs, MySpace’s is cutting its total workforce from about 1,950 to 1,150–or by about 41 percent.

The company, which already announced a 30 percent layoff in the States last week, said on Tuesday that it will reduce its overseas staff from 450 to 150 employees and close at least four foreign offices. MySpace also announced proposed restructuring that will narrow its international focus to a “smaller number of territories.”

Social-networking giant MySpace is cutting 300 international jobs–two-thirds of its workforce outside the United States.

As part of the restructuring, London, Berlin, and Sydney will become the “primary regional hubs” for the company’s overseas business. “All existing offices in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, and Spain (are) under review for possible restructure,” MySpace said.

“As we conducted our review of the company, it was clear that internationally, just as in the U.S., MySpace’s staffing had become too big and cumbersome to be sustainable in current market conditions,” CEO Owen Van Natta said in a statement.

Technical collaboration
On the technology side, the two companies intend to develop smart-grid technologies, plug-in hybrid vehicles, and enhanced geothermal systems, where underground heat is converted into electricity.

Both Schmidt and Immelt said that the government needs to play a more active role in setting an energy policy that promotes diverse energy sources and environmental protection.

Immelt noted that the energy business typically spends about 1 percent of revenues in research and development, compared to 7 percent in health care.

Smart-grid technology lets utilities more efficiently manage electricity on the grid. And through smart meters and in-home displays, it lets consumers better understand and control home energy use.

(Credit:
Google)

However, wind farms are often placed away from the centers of high electricity use. To greatly expand wind energy, which now makes up less than 1 percent of U.S. power generation, more transmission lines are needed.

“GE and Google will be advocating in Washington for the new and smarter grid,” Schmidt said.

Last year, its Google.org philanthropic arm launched a program called RE<C (for renewable energy less than coal) to make clean energy more cost-competitive.

“Actually, this isn’t hard. The technology exists. It doesn’t have to be invented. It needs to be applied. It needs to be priced for carbon and things like that. This can happen,” Immelt said.

“I’m a lifelong Republican. I’m a believer in free markets,” he said. “I think we worship false idols over time. There is no such thing–in all the businesses we do–that government doesn’t play a role as a catalyst.”

Updated with link to Google.org blog and YouTube video of interview.

Right now, renewables other than hydroelectric power represent only a few percent of the overall electricity generation in the U.S. Immelt said that getting 20 percent from renewable sources by 2020 would be possible to achieve.

In the area of geothermal, GE and Google will create visualization software and power conversion technology. Google recently invested in an enhanced geothermal systems start-up, while GE does not have a large business in this area now.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt

General Electric and Google on Wednesday announced a collaboration to lobby for renewable energy policies and to jointly develop clean technologies.

“If we really want to drive renewables to where it could be, we are going to need more transmission capacity, and the government is going to have to (intercede) to make that happen,” Immelt said.

Similarly, the two firms will develop software to help utilities better control plug-in hybrid
cars, which can be used to deliver power onto the grid during peak times. A flexible power grid is important because some researchers have concluded that an onrush of plug-in vehicles could strain the grid and lead to construction of more power plants.

Google’s green gene
Although it’s not directly related to its core search business, Google and its top executives have been active in the renewable energy business.

Congress is currently debating measures to open up more oil and gas drilling off the coast of the U.S. this week. But existing tax credits for investments in renewable energy projects are set to expire at the end of this year, which energy executives say is slowing the industry and pushing renewable energy companies to other countries.

So far, Google.org has invested altogether tens of millions of dollars in wind, solar, and enhanced geothermal start-up companies. Last year, it filed a patent for a floating data center that would be powered primarily by wave energy.

GE, which touts its Ecomagination green-technology initiative, is heavily invested in energy, water, and energy financing.

But Immelt said that the renewable energy business needs a 10-year tax credit, which would serve as a catalyst for the industry and could then be phased out.

GE executives have lobbied regularly in Washington for the extension of the renewable energy tax credit. The company is invested in several different energy businesses, including natural gas, so-called clean coal, and nuclear.

Schmidt last week said there was “a total failure of political leadership” in addressing climate change, and on Wednesday said that government spending should target socially responsible programs.

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt

(Credit:
Martin LaMonica/CNET News)

Their policy partnership will call for beefed-up transmission capacity so renewable sources, such as wind, solar, and geothermal, can be further deployed.

Wind power is far ahead of other renewable energy sources in being reliable and cost-competitive with fossil fuel power plants, Immelt said. GE’s wind business, one of the largest in the world, will bring in more than $7 billion this year.

During the Google Zeitgeist conference in Mountain View, Calif., Google CEO Eric Schmidt interviewed GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt onstage about the maturity of renewable energy technologies and current policies.

Public-private line
In discussing policy and technology, Immelt and Schmidt said that the clean-energy field has been underserved.

Schmidt said that the two companies will push for government programs to modernize the electrical grid, which would enable broader use of renewable energy.

GE and Google will work on utility software to make the grid more efficient, and on software for home smart-grid equipment, Immelt said.

Yahoo will test the use of Google advertisements on some of its search pages, the companies said Wednesday, a move that raises the possibility of a significant departure from Yahoo’s present ad strategy.

“Yahoo will be testing Google’s AdSense for Search service, which will deliver relevant ads alongside Yahoo’s own natural search results. This is only a limited test, and does not necessarily mean that Yahoo will join the AdSense program,” Google spokesman Daniel Rubin said.

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The test is narrow in scope, Yahoo said: “The test will apply only to traffic from yahoo.com in the U.S. and will not include Yahoo’s extended network of affiliate or premium publisher partners. The test is expected to last up to two weeks and will be limited to no more than 3 percent of Yahoo search queries.”

The story was first reported Wednesday by The Wall Street Journal.

Carrying Google’s search-related ads would be a major departure for Yahoo, which has invested extensively in its own search ad system, called Panama. But there is no doubt that the company is evaluating serious alternatives, now that Microsoft has launched a decreasingly amicable attempt to acquire the company.

Microsoft was quick to raise antitrust concerns about a Google-Yahoo partnership. “Any definitive agreement between Yahoo and Google would consolidate over 90 percent of the search advertising market in Google’s hands. This would make the market far less competitive, in sharp contrast to our own proposal to acquire Yahoo,” Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith said in a statement.

The test caught antitrust attention in Washington, which already was on alert after Google’s acquisition of Internet ad company DoubleClick, which closed in March.

“We will be following closely the results of the short-term test alliance between Yahoo and Google. Should there be moves to make this agreement permanent, we will examine it closely in the Antitrust Subcommittee to ensure that it does not harm competition,” Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl, chairman of the Senate’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, said in a statement. “Following closely on the heels of Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick, this Google-Yahoo alliance would represent even further consolidation in the Internet advertising market.”

Yahoo indicated the Google test is part of its attempt to evaluate new business options, but offered cautious words about what the test might lead to.

“As previously announced, Yahoo’s board of directors is exploring strategic alternatives to maximize stockholder value, including exploration of potential commercial business arrangements. The company noted that the testing does not necessarily mean that Yahoo will join the AdSense for Search program or that any further commercial relationship with Google will result,” the company said.

The possibility of a Yahoo-Google ad partnership predates the Microsoft acquisition move in February, the Journal said. Citing people familiar with the situation, it reported that Yahoo already had begun talks to outsource its European Web search advertising to Google before the Microsoft move.

Yahoo lags Google both in search market share and in the ad revenue generated for each search, but it’s a major Web site that delivers millions of advertisements daily. Using Google ads could help increase the revenue generated by each ad, depending on how revenue is shared between Google and Yahoo. The Journal said Yahoo likely would keep a majority of such revenue.

With the prospect of a proxy fight looming after Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer gave Yahoo a three-week ultimatum, Yahoo shareholders are increasingly important to Yahoo’s future. This is especially true of institutional investors such as insurance companies that hold large numbers of shares.

Yahoo definitely needs to send strong signals to those shareholders, if it wants to persuade them that Chief Executive Jerry Yang’s position that Microsoft’s price is too low has merit. In a report Monday, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said that of a “limited sample of 20 institutional Yahoo investors, the majority suggest they prefer the current deal (with Microsoft) to no deal.”

Update 12:49 p.m. PDT: I added more details from the Journal story and some further context. Update 2:03 p.m. PDT: I made extensive changes to reflect the fact that Google and Yahoo confirmed the partnership. Update 2:21 p.m. PDT: Added comment from the chairman of the Senate’s Antitrust Subcommittee.

News.com’s Elinor Mills contributed to this report.

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–The technologists and businesspeople working to create the next generation of mobile computers know they’re going to have to play in the cloud.

Former Oracle executive Timothy Chou urged businesses to plan for the coming of the cloud.

(Credit:
Tom Krazit/CNET News.com)

About 45 miles down the road from the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, where cloud computing is enabling an industry, attendees at Sofcon 2008 on Tuesday morning are thinking about how to unlock all the data stored inside corporations and make it accessible by mobile computers through the cloud. Timothy Chou, author and a former executive at Oracle, thinks that as businesses adopt mobile computers, they’ll dramatically expand the need for cloud computing infrastructure.

“The deep Web is about 10,000 times the surface Web,” Chou said. He’s referring to the amount of data buried inside corporate networks, as opposed to the “surface” Web accessible by Google’s search engine, estimated at about 100 terabytes.

Extracting that data is going to require more than just Web servers, currently being added to data centers like Google’s and Amazon.com’s at a frantic pace. That build-out is extremely important, as truly mobile Web-surfing computers could produce billions of transactions a day, as compared with a typical 200 million transactions a day at Google, Chou estimated.

But it’s the tricky stuff–business models, privacy concerns, and bandwidth issues–that will dictate how quickly mobile computers are embraced by those of us who haven’t yet drank from the pitcher of iPhone/MID/smartphone Kool-Aid, Chou said. Few of those people were in attendance at the Santa Clara Convention Center, but they make up the majority of the U.S. population; people are still quite content to use their basic data-poor cell phones.

At some point, however, those folks will get it, as carriers and phone makers build smarter devices and faster networks with no data restrictions. Application developers inside companies should start to think about that steady growth as they design any new corporate applications. Before too long, those apps will need to interact with the cloud, and they’ll need to be usable on a small device, Chou said.

Update at 10:44 a.m. PDT: I added Google’s “no comment.” Update at 9:50 a.m. PDT: I added more details from the complaint.

Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.

(Credit:
Stephen Shankland/CNET News.com)

AttorneyHal K. Levitte has sued Google over ads that cost $136.11 but that allegedly didn’t yield any useful results.

The suit was first reported by InformationWeek.

Google placed 202,528 Levitte International ads shown in relation to parked domain pages–Internet addresses that have been registered but that have no Web pages–and 1,009 ads on error pages that can be shown when people type invalid URLs into their browsers, according to the report of the suit. From the ads, Levitte got 668 clicks from the parked pages and 25 clicks from the error pages, but no conversions from any of that into useful business leads.

“Google’s conduct is unfair because Google fails to disclose that customers’ ads are placed on parked domains and error page sites, and Google does not provide an effective means for customers to preclude those ads from appearing on these sites. In fact, until March 2008, Google provided no means at all for customers to exclude their ads from appearing on these sites,” the complaint said.

“Domain and error page ads accounted for approximately 16.2 percent of all clicks on plaintiff’s ads during his campaign, yet did not result in a single person completing the online form on the site, or contacting the plaintiff by phone or e-mail,” the complaint said.

Google has no comment until it reviews the complaint, said spokesman Jon Murchinson.

Levitte accuses Google of fraud, business code violations, and unjust enrichment in the complaint. The suit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., and seeks class action status.

The ads cost $136.11, part of a $887.67 Levitte ad campaign on Google that lasted from June 1, 2007, to August 18, 2007, the report said.

The suit seeks compensatory damages, an injunction prohibiting the practices under question, and reimbursement for legal expenses.

The Panasonic SC-BT100 will cost just under $1,000.

(Credit:
Panasonic)

Now that Blu-ray has secured its position as the one and only HD disc format, it’s only natural to see it becoming more of a standard feature on desktop PCs, laptops, camcorders, and–now–home theater systems. Samsung’s HT-BD2T has been available for months, while the Panasonic SC-BT100–which debuted at January’s Consumer Electronics Show–is scheduled hit stores later this spring. Panasonic has yet to confirm pricing for its model, but the unit has already popped-up on J&R’s Web site for $1,000 (give or take a nickel).

If the price sticks, it would appear to be a pretty good deal at first glance (plenty of high-style home theater systems can cost more than $1,000, despite being limited to playing back standard CDs and DVDs.) Indeed, the Panasonic model has a few advantages versus the Samsung model: it has a five-disc changer (versus the single-disc player on the Samsung), an SD card slot (for playing back digital media, including high-definition AVCHD video), and wireless rear speakers. It’s also said to be Profile 1.1 compliant, meaning that it can play the BonusView (picture-in-picture video content) found on some newer Blu-ray discs.

Unfortunately, there’s a pretty big list of caveats as well. The Samsung is a 7.1-channel system out of the box, whereas the Panasonic is merely 7.1-ready: you’ll need to invest in an additional set of speakers (and another wireless transceiver unit) to get to seven speakers. While Profile 1.1 compatibility is better than many of the Blu-ray players currently on the market, it’s already behind the curve compared with the state of the art Profile 2.0/BD-Live players already announced (Panasonic’s own DMP-BD50) or available (the PlayStation 3). Furthermore, the SC-BT100 is likely to have the same limitations found on the DVD-only Panasonic home theater systems for the 2008 model year:
iPod video playback is only available from the low-resolution composite output, and the skimpy connectivity (just one set of analog and one digital audio-only jack apiece). Those limitations are easy to shrug off on the $300 SC-PT660 and $400 SC-PT760, but become a lot harder to justify on a $1,000 unit.

You can have your cake (Blu-ray 2.0) and eat it too (7.1 home theater with plenty of inputs and outputs) for about $150 more than the SC-BT100’s asking price by investing in a $400 PS3 plus a $750 Onkyo HT-S908 home theater system. Still, compared with the $1,500 price of the Samsung HT-BD2T, the $1,000 Panasonic model comes much closer to justifying itself versus purchasing such dedicated components. As those prices continue to drop–and feature sets continue to improve–look for the reaction to such Blu-ray home theater systems begin to move from “why bother” to “why not.”

Related coverage
CNET TV hands-on video: Panasonic SC-BT100
CNET review: Panasonic SC-PT660
CNET review: Panasonic SC-PT760
CNET review: Samsung HT-BD2T
CNET @ CES 2008: Panasonic’s new Blu-ray player goes Profile 2.0
Crave: PS3 firmware with BD-Live support now available

I’m not kidding when I say Penzu is the most realistic re-creation of paper I’ve seen on the Web. The service has a serious leg up on its pulp-born competition with a slick looking college-rule that holds all your thoughts (intelligent or not) and saves them to the cloud. When it comes time to print them, they’ll come out just like they look like on the page, sans rulings of course.

One thing Penzu does a little better than other Web-based note takers is structure your docs like a diary, and stack each entry as its own page. You can hop back and forth between them with relative ease, and Penzu is smart enough to put the most-recently created docs on top. Also integrated are images, which you can upload from your computer at up to 5MB a pop. They’ll sit in the margin and out of the way of the text. A simple mouse-over will let you see them in full resolution.

Up until a week ago I would have found this little service to have a nice leg up on Google Docs, which I usually use to jot down notes when I’m in meetings or interviews with start-ups. In those situations I’m usually not in need of Google’s more advanced editing features, and want something that will simply retain my notes in case of hardware catastrophe.

However, if you’re looking for some really basic necessities like indentation, hyperlinks, and a way to search through your past work, you might want to stick with one of the more complex tools like Gdocs or Zoho Writer.

(Via Ehub)

Write simple journal or diary entries with Penzu. Whatever you jot down it will save in the cloud for later retrieval.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

commentary

After Arsenal’s blistering defeat to Tottenham last week, I figured it would be a test of their mettle to see how they responded against Newcastle, which put up a good fight against Arsenal earlier in the season. Despite a slow start, Arsenal has clearly moved on.

I would have liked to have seen Fabregas and Walcott score, as neither has been confident in front of goal. Walcott played reasonably well today but couldn’t get rid of the ball fast enough when he was anywhere near the goal. Very disappointing.

Diaby played better, and Senderos was good enough. Adebayor…? He played very well and is starting to earn my confidence, though I really would have liked to have seen him pass the ball to Eduardo on his second goal. Yes, he ended up putting it in, but Eduardo was clear to his right before Adebayor shimmied his way over to the right before taking the shot.

(Credit:
BBC)

Bendtner didn’t play and that’s fine with me. His arrogance is starting to wear on me (and, apparently, on the other players). He’s a good player but needs to learn his place. This is what led to his bust-up with Adebayor. He’s still the junior man on the totem pole and needs to remember that. It was nice to see him warm up and then sit the bench. He needs that lesson in humility.

As for Eduardo…what can I say? He is turning out to be an exceptionally astute signing by Wenger. His first bending ball into the post set up Adebayor’s goal. The only surprising thing about his play today is that he didn’t score in his typical slow-motion/time-stops-while-he-slots-the-ball-home signature moves.

All in all, not a great display by the Gunners but a good enough response to their defeat at the Spurs’ hands. My one big dilemma is whether to cheer for Manchester United or Tottenham tomorrow. I’d like to see Tottenham get put back in its place, but I’m also aware that beating Tottenham will be easy compared to beating Manchester United should they meet up later in the competition. Decisions, decisions.

Second only to Moore’s Law as a source of story ideas for pundits in the computer industry, Rambus was back in the news again last week.

This particular verdict was favorable to Rambus, but it wasn’t the final word, nor was it exceptionally important. CNET News.com didn’t even publish a news article about it, though Tom Krazit did write a pretty good blog post on the subject and it inspired a good post on intellectual property development from former Rambus exec Steve Tobak on his blog. Rambus has been involved in a great many lawsuits. Some of them work out in the company’s favor, some don’t, and I can’t begin to predict what’ll happen in the future.

I’ve written about Rambus many times, including this editorial for Microprocessor Report back in 2000. As I said there, I think Rambus should have disclosed what it was working on while it participated in the JEDEC standards organization.

But that’s more a statement of ethics than law. JEDEC didn’t require such disclosure at the time– it does now!– and other companies had allegedly done what Rambus did. Last week’s court decision held that Rambus acted within the law at JEDEC, reinforcing the company’s claims that it is owed licensing fees for its patents.

So I guess there are three things for which we should thank Rambus– developing advanced DRAM technology, causing us all to think about the role of intellectual property in our industry, and providing work for professional bloggers.

Thanks, Rambus.