David Lidsky's Blog, page 4554

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Partners Revealed: HTC, Samsung, Dell, Asus, and LG

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 launch is an incredibly exciting smartphone launch, maybe even more exciting than the iPhone 4, since this is a totally new platform from a major company. It's also a huge bet for Microsoft, but they've been giving us more and more hints as to what Windows Phone 7 will eventually look like, and it is, for the most part, promising. Check out impressions of the new OS here.

We didn't get a full look at the new platform's software capabilities, mostly because it...

Major Flaw in Apple's Safari Browser Gives Hackers Access to Personal Information

Apple may have a reputation as a security leader, but it's not entirely accurate. Its OS can be hacked like any other (at hacking conventions like Def Con, Mac OS has not proven significantly more secure than Windows), and now, blogger and white hat hacker (the good kind) in Apple's Safari browser.

The flaw originates from Safari's unusual auto-fill system. In most browsers, when you fill in an address, phone number, name, or other common bit of...

Microsoft Announces Record 4th-Quarter Revenue, Over $16 Billion

Next up in the parade of quarterly earnings is Microsoft, reporting both its quarterly and fiscal yearly revenue, which ended on June 30th. And it's good news for the giant, despite all that talk about Apple passing them in market cap. Microsoft showed a quarterly revenue of $16.04 billion (up 22% from the year-ago quarter) and a yearly revenue $62.48 billion (up 7%), both of which are records.

Microsoft sold a whopping 175 million Windows 7 licenses to date, although interestingly, 7% more...

Dell to Pay $100 Million to Settle SEC Fraud Case

The story: Texas-based Dell and its CEO, Michael Dell, have been under investigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission for five years on a fraud case.

During the recession, many (non-Apple) tech companies suffered, especially those that, like Dell, cater in large part to business customers. Yet Dell remained quite solvent throughout the last few years. It turns out that Dell had been receiving huge payoffs from Intel to ensure Dell's computers shipped only with Intel chips, rather...

Nissan's Interior Design: Trading Safety, Fuel Efficiency for Spa-Like Comfort?

Nissan's just released information about a new concept for its cars designed to generate a "comfortable" and "healthy" environment for drivers and passengers. Is this viable, in our eco-conscious energy-saving era?

The overall goal of the "Health and Well-Being" design is to "reduce stress and fatigue of drivers and passengers" by "providing body and mind" with all the comfort needed to produce an "optimum" driving experience.

Boil this market speak down to something digestible, and what do...

Barnes and Noble Takes Nook E-Reader Library Mobile With Android App

Barnes and Noble's e-reader experiment, the Nook, has been from the start a disruptive and evasive fly buzzing around Amazon. Now the Nook e-books ecosystem's taking another big step, and launching as an Android app.

B&N notes that the new Nook app is a move to "consistent Nook branding" across all the B&N e-reader experiments, and the app itself is a "fun and easy-to-use" way to access B&N's stable of digital books on Android devices. It also highlights that that the app is the only e-reader...

Interview: Giles Corbett, Disruptive Innovator at Orange Vallee

If ran Facebook, you get the feeling that there wouldn't be any of those privacy issues that have been dogging Mark Zuckerberg for most of 2010. Born in London, he gained a degree in Politics and Economics from the London School of Economics and did as a stint at INSEAD, the grande école that is the de rigeur finishing school for the French political class. He is currently in charge of "disruptive innovation" as the head of the ON project at Orange Vallée, the "skunk works...

The Most Interesting Man Once Threw a Party So Exclusive Even He Wasn't There

You know who he is. Right now, he's probably luging Mount Everest or quail hunting in Tunisia. He is the only man alive able to tweet 141 characters. Once, he saw a quadruple rainbow and hiked on, unimpressed. He is...The Most Interesting Man in the World. And last night, he threw a party.

As legend has it, the Dos Equis frontman "jettisoned his belongings" after his personal aircraft malfunctioned during a "routine circumnavigation of the world." Of course, it is "well known that the Most...

Mainstreaming Green: Motel 6 Gets LEED Certification

LEED certification: it isn't just for high-end apartment buildings, giant office complexes, and swanky hotels. Motel 6--yes, the famously low-rent motel chain we all know and love--expects to get Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification for its newest franchise, located Northlake, Texas. According to Motel 6, this will be the first economy hotel in the country to become LEED certified.

The motel's laundry list of green features include thermal solar water heating, a...

SunChips' Compostable Bag Not So Compostable? [Updated]

 We were more than a little excited when SunChips announced a plan earlier this year to roll out the world's first 100% compostable chip bag. A bag that breaks down entirely after 14 weeks in a compost bin? It has to be the beginning of some sort of packaging revolution, we thought. But maybe not.

Over at the anotherkindofdrew blog, Drew Odom has been documenting the SunChips bag compost process. So far, the experiment isn't going as smoothly as Frito-Lay might like. After three weeks, the...