Archives: September 2005

Does This Mean the End of the World Wide Wait?

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 30, Categories: file-sharing

Well, probably not. But Kevin Werbach notes the demise of the leading file-sharing network eDonkey, which accounted for fully a third of the Internet's entire traffic. Of course, that traffic...

Inside "Dell Hell"

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 29, Categories: Dell, Personal Computers, Tech Spending

My colleague Louise Lee's new story digging into Dell's customer-service challenges won't come as a surprise to the many folks who commented on a post that asked for people's experiences...

Separated at Birth?

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 28, Categories: Barry Diller, Search, Transitions

Thanks to dg for noticing the resemblance between IAC's Barry Diller and the erstwhile mascot for his recently acquired search engine, Ask Jeeves. Perhaps Mr. Diller didn't want anyone...

Quick and Easy Polish for iPod Nano Obsessives

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 28, Categories: Apple Computer, iPod, iPod nano

This won't fixed cracked screens, but a $4 can of Brasso apparently does wonders on those scratches vexing iPod Nano owners, according to intrepid blogger Todd Dailey. Via tech.memeorandum....

But How Many Americans Have *Working* Broadband Access?

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 28, Categories: Internet, broadband

"Two Out of Every Five Americans Have Broadband Access at Home," says a new study to be released Wednesday by Nielsen//NetRatings. "90% of those Americans have bought a second wireless...

A Mash-up Matrix

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 27, Categories: Power of Us, Web 2.0, mash-ups

Via O'Reilly Radar, here's a link to a new matrix of Web mash-ups. It's a great guide to the programmable Web from (naturally) the programmableweb blog written by John Musser....

Goodbye, Jeeves!

Posted by: Olga Kharif on September 27, Categories:

InterActive Corp.'s Barry Diller will be taking Jeeves out of AskJeeves.com. That's, perhaps, indicative of confusion at Inter-Active Corp. over what to do with that site. What a waste of a perfectly good book character!

JBoss vs IBM spat--an opening for Microsoft

Posted by: Steve Hamm on September 27, Categories: open source software

JBoss CEO Marc Fleury is spittin' mad these days. His target: IBM. For five years, Fleury has seen his company grow rapidly by selling support and other services around JBoss...

eBay Debuts Member Reviews and Guides

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 27, Categories: Amazon.com, Power of Us, Wikipedia, eBay

The online marketplace today rolled out a test site for member reviews and product guides. Good idea. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has browsed eBay for...

Our New Design and Innovation Blog

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 26, Categories: blogs

Bruce Nussbaum joins the roster of blogs on BusinessWeek Online with NussbaumOnDesign. He'll be looking at the business of innovation and design. Like the rest of us, he aims to...

Gotta Dell, Dude? Tell us about it

Posted by: Peter Burrows on September 21, Categories: Personal Computers

If you've got a Dell and have had a recent experience, good or bad, we'd like to hear your story.

Learning to Work with Wikis

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 21, Categories: Power of Us, Social Software, Web 2.0, Wiki, Wikipedia

A few weeks ago, I suddenly realized I would need a better way to collaborate with BusinessWeek's other writers and editors on our Best of the Web list than simply...

Meet the Lone Bear on Apple's iPod nano

Posted by: Peter Burrows on September 20, Categories: Apple Computer

"All I said is that sales of the nano were were ‘good, but not great’,” says Wu. “And I’m getting lynched for it!”

Podcasters For Hire

Posted by: Olga Kharif on September 20, Categories: podcasting

The era of amateur podcasts could soon be over. A slew of start-ups are offering to professionally read your podcasts, to write your script and to edit your video and graphics.

The iPod nano Watch

Posted by: Peter Burrows on September 19, Categories:

So is Apple's iPod nano hot or not? I've heard mixed reports, but this bit of anecdotal evidence seems compelling. My bureau's crackerjack FedEx guy, Craig Yamamura, says he and...

Will Higher Gas Prices Spark More E-Commerce?

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 19, Categories: Amazon.com, Google, Yahoo, e-commerce, eBay

Shmuel Gniwisch, the CEO of the online jewelry store Ice.com, thinks so. He doesn't have hard evidence that the cost of driving to stores will drive people online, but he's...

Best of the Web: The Results

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 18, Categories: Best of the Web, Power of Us, Web 2.0

I've been so busy getting the Best of the Web package done that I forgot to mention here that ... it's done! We got a great response on the reader...

College tech recruiting surprise

Posted by: Steve Hamm on September 16, Categories: Microsoft

BusinessWeek published a huge cover story package this week about internal problems at Microsoft. This involved months of reporting by Seattle Bureau Chief Jay Greene. Microsoft refused to grant interviews...

HP Won't Fold its Bet on Itanium, says HP Labs Chief

Posted by: Peter Burrows on September 15, Categories: Chips

We're doubling down on Itanium," said [HP Labs chief] Lampman.

Seagate's Mirra Acquisition: Smart Move

Posted by: Olga Kharif on September 14, Categories: storage

Seagate has just widened its consumer storage product line by acquiring a company called Mirra. That was a smart move, says BusinessWeek Online's Arik Hesseldahl.

iPod nano: Will small size mean big sales?

Posted by: Peter Burrows on September 13, Categories:

Shaw Wu of American Technology Research says initial demand for the just-released iPod nano is "good, but not great."

Nokia Does Good

Posted by: Cliff Edwards on September 13, Categories: wireless

As if Research in Motion didn't have enough headaches, it looks like smaller rival Good Technology is teaming up with big fish Nokia to try to finally bring the Canadian...

Intel Helps Katrina Evacuees

Posted by: Olga Kharif on September 13, Categories: Chips

Yesterday, I went to a refugee center in Portland, Ore., where local and state agencies help New Orleans evacuees get settled in Portland. I was very impressed by the assistance that chipmaker Intel has provided to the evacuees.

Cash Goes Online

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 12, Categories: Amazon.com

For all of e-commerce's success, there's one corner of conventional commerce it hasn't managed to touch: the cash economy. On Tuesday, Amazon.com and Coinstar hope to start changing all that....

Remembering Lew Platt

Posted by: Peter Burrows on September 12, Categories:

We've been getting lots of nice comments from Hewlett Packard employees past and present today, about a tribute we posted this morning to former HP CEO Lew Platt, who died...

Why eBay Is Buying Skype

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 12, Categories: Skype, VOIP, eBay

Here's my quick take, below, an edited version of which will appear in a few hours at businessweek.com. CEO Meg Whitman & Co. gave an impassioned rationale for the deal....

eBay Buys Skype After All

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 12, Categories: Skype, VOIP, eBay

Well, eBay did it. It's buying Skype for $2.6 billion. Here's the press release and one of the first stories. I'm getting on the conference call shortly, so will have...

Here Comes the eBay Announcement...

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 12, Categories: Skype, VOIP, eBay

Just got a notice from eBay of an "investor conference call" at 5 a.m. Pacific time, on an announcement to be made two hours earlier. Very unusual practice for eBay....

VoIP Hype: Could It Lead to a Bust?

Posted by: Olga Kharif on September 11, Categories: telecom

Investors seem willing to shell outs billions for VoIP companies. But are these outfits, like Skype and Vonage, worth it? Chances are, the answer is no. And today's irrational exuberance over VoIP companies could lead to a bust.

eBay Buying Skype? I'm Scratching My Head

Posted by: Rob Hof on September 08, Categories: Skype, VOIP, eBay

Another day, another report about the Internet voice startup Skype maybe getting bought for billions of dollars. But eBay? It sure seems a stretch to me, as it does to...

Ruminations on the ROKR

Posted by: Peter Burrows on September 08, Categories: Apple Computer

Jobs clearly saved his reality-distorting powers to talk up the amazingly small iPod nano, but was less than mesmerizing while unveiling the iTunes-equipped ROKR made with partner Motorola.

Should Skype Migrate Away From Its Proprietary Technology?

Posted by: Olga Kharif on September 06, Categories: telecom

PC-to-PC calling service Skype has been wildly successful so far because it uses a proprietary technology. But would Skype need to standardize on Internet Protocol to do well long term?

A new wrinkle on outsourcing

Posted by: Steve Hamm on September 02, Categories: outsourcing

Earlier this year, when I was gathering info for what turned into a cover story about IBM, I asked CEO Sam Palmisano whether IBM would consider handling other companies' sales...

Cisco's Contribution to Reestablishing Communications in New Orleans

Posted by: Peter Burrows on September 01, Categories: Internet

Thousands of people in the path of Katrina are finding out that cell phones are not as wireless as they thought. Since cell calls are switched over to fiber-optic networks...

Intel Responds to AMD

Posted by: Olga Kharif on September 01, Categories: Chips

Intel just filed a response to AMD's lawsuit. One of Intel's claims? It's never fallen behind AMD in technological leadership.