Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Wolff outlines top management for "new" Clearwire

Ahead of the finalization of its joint venture with Sprint Nextel's Xohm unit, Clearwire Corp. provided details about its top management, and said its chief financial officer was leaving the company. 

In an SEC filing, Ben Wolff, Clearwire's CEO, said that Barry West would be the company's president and chief architect, and that Atish Gude would serve as the chief marketing officer of the mobile WiMAX company. In the filing, Wolff also said that CFO Jon Butler would be stepping down to "spend more time with his family."

Both West and Gude will relocate to Clearwire's offices in Seattle.

Clearwire announced in May that it was merging with Sprint's Xohm unit to create a new company, and the joint venture has received billions of dollars in capital investment from Google, Comcast, Intel and other Internet and technology power players. Wolff said he expects to have all staff positions finalized by Oct. 31.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

OpenTV and Adobe Collaborate To Advance Rich Television Experiences

Integration of Adobe Flash onto OpenTV Middleware To Enable New Applications and User Interfaces

SAN JOSE, Calif. and AMSTERDAM — At IBC2008 OpenTV Corp. (Nasdaq: OPTV), a leading provider of advanced television services, and Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE), today announced that they have agreed to integrate Adobe® Flash® Lite™ software onto OpenTV middleware as an additional application environment, complementing OpenTV’s standard and HTML offerings, further enhancing Web browsing capabilities and strengthening the development of rich applications and user interfaces.

The agreement is based on a longstanding relationship between the two companies. OpenTV is also joining the Open Screen Project and will be working with Adobe and other members of the initiative to define the TV profile and Open Screen requirements to help enable great user experiences on television screens. Announced in May 2008, the Open Screen Project brings together industry leaders to deliver a consistent runtime environment across desktops, televisions and mobile devices by leveraging Adobe Flash technology and Adobe AIR™software.

“This collaboration is significant in that it brings two market leaders together to provide the best solutions for consumers of digital television,” said Tracy Geist, OpenTV’s senior vice president of Market Development. “By combining our technologies, the authoring and development benefits of Adobe Flash with the digital TV experience and technology of OpenTV, we’re opening the door to a host of new service possibilities for operators and developers worldwide.”

“Together, Adobe and OpenTV can push the boundaries of digital TV application development and bridge the gap between various sources of content, such as Web and television,” said Gary Kovacs, vice president and general manager, of Mobile and Devices at Adobe. “By combining the rich graphical effects of Flash technology with the advanced features of OpenTV’s Core middleware, we’re enabling developers of digital television services to leverage the best technologies for the delivery of advanced services to consumers worldwide.”

Extending OpenTV middleware to support Adobe Flash technology will be yet another key platform differentiator for OpenTV’s customers, allowing them to easily combine web technologies such as HTML and Adobe Flash to deploy new, rich services faster and readily generate time-sensitive applications such as advertising and other enhanced TV applications.

Availability

The first commercial deployment of OpenTV Core2 middleware with integrated Adobe Flash support is expected to be targeted at the Japanese market in the second half of 2009.

About OpenTV

OpenTV is one of the world’s leading providers of advanced digital television solutions and is dedicated to creating and delivering compelling viewing experiences to consumers of digital content worldwide. The company’s software has been integrated in more than 111 million devices around the world, and enables enhances program guides, video-on-demand, personal video recording, enhanced television, interactive and addressable advertising and a variety of enhanced television applications. For more information, please visit www.opentv.com

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information - anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com .

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

The Story behind Google Chrome


Google Chrome is an open source web browser developed by Google (named after the user interface frame of web browsers). It builds on components from other open source software, including WebKit and Mozilla, and is aimed at improving stability, speed and security, with a simple and efficient user interface.

The beta for the Windows version is due to be released September 2, 2008. Google will host a conference press that day at 18:00 GMT. Mac OS X and Linux versions are under development and will follow the Windows version.

New LOGO


Google launches Google Video™ for Business

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) today announced Google Video™ for business, a new application in Google Apps™ for sharing video in an organization in two easy steps -- simply upload a video to Google Apps, and then invite others to view it. With Google Video for business, anyone can upload a video -- on anything ranging from executive communications to product training to trip reports -- and share it securely with individuals or the entire company. Google Video for business is now available as part of Google Apps Premier Edition at no additional cost.

"YouTube™ has enabled millions of consumers to easily capture and share video at an unprecedented level, yet corporate video has remained expensive and complicated," said Dave Girouard, president of enterprise, Google. "With Google Video for business, our customers get the ease of YouTube combined with the simple and secure sharing of Google Apps."

With Google Video for business, companies can leverage the power and intimacy of video to communicate all flavors of corporate information including:

* Leadership communications such as business updates and corporate announcements
* Training and how-to videos to share product knowledge and business expertise
* Customer insight derived from site visits, interviews, or focus groups
* Social videos that evangelize relevant activity and initiatives across an organization

"Productivity and other improvements driven by the telephone over the last hundred years, and email within the last 20, will now continue with broad use of video in the business environment," said Manesh Patel, chief information officer and senior vice president of IT, Sanmina-SCI. "Cost and complexity have until now limited the effective use of video to improve business functions. The integration of video into Google Apps, combined with continuing improvements in video devices and network infrastructure, provides significant opportunities for innovation and saving throughout our global teams."

Sharing video is as simple as clicking "browse" to find a video and "upload" to start sharing. Google Apps gives video owners multiple controls for sharing videos such as:

* share videos with individuals, groups, or the entire organization
* add descriptions and tags
* embed videos in any internal web page, including Google Sites

Viewers across the organization can:

* search for any video to which they have access
* view high-quality video from popular browsers (including Safari on iPhone)
* submit ratings, comments and additional tags
* optionally download videos for viewing offline or on portable devices

Google Video for business is available now in English to Google Apps Premier Edition accounts at no additional cost. Each Google Apps Premier Edition domain gets 3GB of Video storage per user account. Existing Premier Edition administrators can enable Google Video for business immediately from the Google Apps control panel. A version for Google Apps Education Edition customers that allows faculty and staff to upload and share videos with students will be available on September 8 for free trial until March 9, 2009, at which point it will cost $10 per user, per year.

Google Apps brings simple, powerful communication and collaboration tools to organizations. With Google Apps, users can use tools such as Gmail™ webmail service, Google Talk™ instant messaging service, Google Calendar™ calendaring service, Google Docs™ program, Google Sites™ web application, the Start Page for creating a customizable homepage, and now Google Video for business on their own domain to work together more effectively. To sign up for Google Apps or learn more, please visit www.google.com/a.

About Google Inc.

Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.google.com.

Google, Google Video, Google Apps, YouTube, Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and Google Sites are trademarks of Google Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.