8 September 2008 Hot Topics in Tech Industry

New E-Newspaper Reader Echoes Look of the Paper —  The Plastic Logic reader, left, has a screen the size of a sheet of paper for a copy machine.  Center, Sony’s eReader; right, Amazon.com’s Kindle.  The Plastic Logic device, which is yet to be named, can be updated wirelessly and store hundreds of pages of documents.

RealNetworks to Introduce a DVD Copier —  People have been avidly feeding music CDs into their computers for years, ripping digital copies of albums and transferring the files to their other computers and mobile devices.  —  This has not happened nearly as much with DVDs, for both practical and legal reasons.

DVD ripping goes legit with RealDVD —  RealNetworks will soon let users rip DVDs to their hard drives—legally.  The company will be unveiling the RealDVD software at Monday’s DEMOfall conference in San Diego, but CNET got an early look at the software.  Our hands-on impressions follow:

Apple admit Briton DID invent iPod, but he’s still not getting any money —  Apple has finally admitted that a British man who left school at 15 is the inventor behind the iPod.  —  Kane Kramer, 52, came up with the technology that drives the digital music player nearly 30 years ago but has still not seen a penny from his invention.

A Web OS?  Are You Dense? —  People are calling Google Chrome a “Web Operating System” and a “Cloud Operating System”.  Some are even calling it a Windows killer.  —  I think it’s time to nip this horses**t in the bud, before it gets out of hand.  —  How Does Arringtons Know What Operating Systems Is?

Web 1.0 Job Sites Have New Competition: PaidInterviews —  At DEMO08, a new type of job web site launches today: PaidInterviews.  Unlike today’s traditional (ahem, boring) job sites like Monster.com or HotJobs, PaidInterviews combines social networking with a more sophisticated job matching algorithm …

Paper tale —  The future of paper is starting to look a little less certain, says Bill Thompson  —  The UK launch of the Sony Reader has sparked another round of frenzied speculation over the future of the printed book in a world of screens, networks and digital data.

Esquire October 2008 E-Ink Issue! —  Yep, I got one!  In hand, fresh from the newsstand.  For the October issue of Esquire, they decided to release 100,000 issues with the world’s first E-Ink magazine cover.  The E-Ink display is the same technology used in the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader.

The Omnigoogle —  “Some say Google is God,” Sergey Brin once said.  “Others say Google is Satan.”  —  The confusion about Google’s identity may not be quite that Manichean, but it does run deep.  The company, which today celebrates the tenth anniversary of its incorporation …

Rick Sanchez Debuts Twitter on TV —  Today at 3 p.m. EST, CNN’s promiscuous social media adopter Rick Sanchez debuts a TV show called Rick Sanchez Direct.  —  This may be of some cultural significance, in that that the program appears to be about/from/in/around [insert your favorite preposition] Twitter.

Deflating IT —  The Economist recently profiled Sridhar Vembu and called him ‘a dangerous man’ refering to his thoughts on letting a lot of air out of the corporate IT balloon. … The complete article is available here and is a great read.  It also talks about Zoho …

iPhone app gleans healthy grub nearby —  If you’ve got an iPhone and a desire to maintain a healthier diet, the folks at a start-up called WebDiet may have your order.  —  The company, founded by Wendell Brown and Craig Gold, veterans of previous ventures like Teleo and eVoice …

DEMOfall 08: Qtask shows off collaboration software —  DEMOfall 08 always has a new web collaboration company.  Qtask is the latest to make its pitch on stage.  —  The company boasts a unified collaboration environment for businesses.  As the newest entrant in project and portfolio management …

Say Where brings voice recognition to iPhone apps … If you’ve spent any time using iPhone apps, you probably have gotten a hint of the fact that they may well be the hottest thing going and, in some ways, the future of software.  —  That’s largely due to the fact that, especially with iPhone 3G …

• “Scarcity brings clarity,” says Marissa Mayer, the blonde cyborg who runs Google’s search engine
• Last weekend, around 60 entrepreneurs under age 35 flew to Cancun for a retreat informally dubbed Summit Series.
• The Most Stupid Web Feature of 2008
• Current.com’s “Remember Me” doesn’t work.
• Making Facebook Safe Against Spam
• Google has been quietly laying off staff and up to 10,000 jobs could be on the chopping block according to sources.
• Even Google is Focusing on Costs. You have to focuse too.
• Facebook Needs a new CEO
• Google has released a new web site to help simply and centralize information about voting locations and voter registration.
• Henry Blodget, the former stock analyst who kicks himself every day for still being a Yahoo shareholder, notes that Yahoo spent $37 million on advisory fees in the third quarter.

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