David Lidsky's Blog, page 4563

iFive: Seabed Oil Leak Fears, Jobs Tops Power List, Vaccination Patch, Bloodhound SuperSonic Car, Paywall Accounting

While you were sleeping, innovation was sticking itself in what looks like a Blue Man Group's torture chamber, phoning a friend from his smartphone, and noticing that there are similarities between Apple's antenna testing facility and a vaccination patch.

1. Thad Allen, the man in charge of the BP leak, is worried that oil may be seeping out from the seabed, and has ordered BP to start thinking about reopening the cap to funnel oil to the surface. Not surprisingly, the firm's shares have

Rackspace's Open Stack Makes Cloud Storage Personalized

The cloud is coming--and to prove it's no smoke and mirrors trick (like so many Net phenomena) Rackspace, which already plays in the server-side of the cloud game, is due to offer an open-source solution so folks can host their own clouds.

Rackspace's new OpenStack system already sounds promising: It's open-sourced, which will appeal to the more free-thinking Netizens out there, and it's designed so that the end-user can build and host cloud storage servers (pretty automatically, according...

Leaked: Verizon 4G Set to Roll Out to 30 Cities This Year

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So, first things first: We have no idea if these documents are real. They're all plausible, if ambitious, and have the same layout as other Verizon documents we've seen. But we've had no confirmation from Verizon, so take everything here with a grain of salt. We've been hearing rumors about this forever, though, and these documents are consistent with those.

That said, let's get to it! Some Verizon documents leaked to Engadget last night showing Verizon's next-gen network plans. Verizon will...

Hulu Plus on PS3: The Best Hulu Experience for Your TV, Period

Hulu was always available to be streamed to a TV, but that often required either a hacked set-top box or a cumbersome home theater PC. Hulu even blocked their service from being used by software like Boxee (though Boxee did finagle a way around that, somewhat awkwardly). But Hulu Plus, played through a PlayStation 3, is here, and it's the first 100% usable way to get Hulu on your TV.

Interestingly, Sony's PlayStation 3 is the first device of any sort to be able to officially play Hulu Plus on...

Hands-On With Windows Phone 7 Shows Innovative Interface (and Worrisome Rough Edges)

Windows Phone 7 is a do-or-die situation for Microsoft. You can read why in more detail here, but for now, just believe me: If Microsoft doesn't knock it out of the park, they might be sitting on the bench for the entire smartphone game.

We haven't gotten all that many detailed looks at Microsoft's new mobile OS--when it was announced in February at the Mobile World Conference, the software was in early beta (or possibly alpha) and the hardware consisted of unbranded black plastic slabs. But

HTC, BlackBerry, and Nokia to Apple: Don't Drag Us Into Your Antennagate Mess

Antennagate (side note: the "-gates" are just getting more and more frivolous, aren't they? I'm talking to you, roommate responsible for ToiletPaperGate) has been a PR disaster for Apple, worse than they've seen in years. Apple's response on Friday has been decried as smug, unapologetic, and condescending--but that's nothing compared to the words of Apple's smartphone competitors.

During Friday's conference, Steve Jobs claimed that all smartphones inherently suffer from antennae susceptible...

Watch Out Spotify, iTunes Subscription Service Could Be Worth $1 billion

About 15% of U.S. iTunes users are willing to pay at least $10 per month for a music-subscription service, according to a new study by the NPD Group. The report, which concludes that between 7 million and 8 million users have a strong interest in a paid-plan with Apple, suggests that consumers are becoming more and more interested in streaming services and having Web or mobile access to their music libraries. And even though cloud-based Spotify has already built a hugely successful...

Ford Speaks: How to Sell Cars and Influence People

This interview is part of our ongoing series related to The Influence Project.

Scott Monty is the global digital communications chief for the Ford Motor Company, and full disclosure, a force to be reckoned with in The Influence Project. He currently ranks at number 43. He likes to say that Ford subscribes to a combination Woody Allen/Yogi Berra theory for social media where 90% may be just showing up, but what's critical is what you do when you get there. Monty talked to Fast Company about...

TEDWomen Conference to Focus On Female-Centered Innovation

TED, the nonprofit known for its conferences promoting "Ideas Worth Spreading", produces conferences--TED, TEDGlobal, the TEDx series--featuring quick, inspiring talks. But too many of TED's speakers are men, which is why the organization is launching TEDWomen, a two-day conference for female speakers and woman-centered ideas (the audience will be mixed).

The first TEDWomen, set to take place in Washington, D.C. on December 7 and 8 of this year, will likely have an impressive array of...

Repackaging TV: How Hulu Turns a Profit

Hulu's been a hot-to-trot media topic for ages--its got big, network TV partners, it's achieving success with consumers, and it might just be the model for future TV systems, so perhaps this isn't surprising. What is unusual though, is how its finances work.

Hulu licenses video content from over 200 suppliers. It streams this material over the Net, through its servers and wrapped in its own user-interface. The streams are accompanied by ad placements, and Hulu and its partners get revenues...