Palm Pre is impressive: Too little too late for Palm

The Palm Pre unveiling stands in my memory as one of the most refreshing moments in modern history. Palm had done it—they had created a great phone Nokia would kill for. But today, that's just not enough. As Palm teeters on the brink of either ruin or acquisition, let's take stock of what they did right:
• They abandoned an entrenched but aging platform for something new an innovative, and they didn't half-ass it: Palm OS was dead, WebOS was here.
• WebOS was actually good. If you discounted the lack of apps at launch, it was arguably more capable than anything else on the market.
• The Pre was totally buyable. It's one of the few smartphones I'd consider buying, and would also recommend to the rest of my family. And the hardware didn't suck.
• They got huge buzz, and they earned it.
Sure, their app ecosystem was slow to develop, and their TV ads were underwhelming at their best, and creepy at their worst. But that's not what really matters, right? Palm accomplished something with the Pre, and we could all see that. The Pre's spell was such that it made everything else feel old. Palm made something different—and it was something we would have paid obscene amounts of money for just a year prior. More than anything, Palm succeeded wildly at reinventing its products, its company and its image, by its own standards and by ours.
The problem is, it's not 2006 anymore. Those standards don't apply. There was a time when it was enough for a company like Palm to release a fantastic phone, and for years, that's exactly what they focused on. But today, to fight in the smartphone wars is to fight against multi-platform giants. And the rules of engagement have changed: It's no longer phone vs. phone, or mobile OS vs mobile OS. Today there are apps, and even if a phone maker nails that ecosystem, they have to integrate it into the company's other stuff: desktops, tablets, the living room, the workplace, the bathroom, the car—not to mention all the music, movies, TV and other media consumption any given human expects to be able to tap into on a new device.
The era of the standalone smartphone company is over. To say it plainly: If you want to make the best smartphone these days, it's just not enough to make the best handset, or even the best OS. Pour one out for the indie phone makers—I, for one, am sorry to see them go.

Microsoft soon to release Zune Phone

To anyone who has looked at Microsoft's highly rated Zune HD portable media player and wished it were a phone, your prayers have been answered. Yesterday, at Microsoft's press event for MWC 2010, the long-rumored "Zune phone" was finally thrust into the spotlight and treated to approving nods by many in attendance.

To be fair, the Windows Phone 7 Series is more than just a Zune HD with a phone slapped in. We're finally looking at a portable device that melds some of Microsoft's most successful products, including Windows Mobile, Zune, Xbox, and Microsoft Office. But make no mistake, there's a whole lot of Zune in the Windows Phone mobile OS. Everything from the touch-screen keyboard to the "twist"-style user interface looks and behaves just like Microsoft's latest Zune HD portable media player.

As a longtime fan of the Zune player, software, and services, I have mixed feelings about the Zune's evolution into Microsoft's flagship smartphone OS (I felt the same sting when the iPod gave way to the iPhone). The standalone Zune media player is no longer the center of the Zune story, but rather, the prologue.

Mostly though, I'm relieved. I've always felt that one of the biggest stumbling blocks Microsoft has faced trying to market a portable media player geared around sharing and social music features was the fact that there weren't a whole lot of other Zune users out there to share with. If nothing else, the inclusion of Zune services on Microsoft's latest smartphone software will mean an explosion in the population of registered Zune users. The Social may finally become, well, socialized.

In fact, lost in the shuffle of all the Windows Phone 7 Series announcements is the fact that the Zune's music and video services will suddenly be available internationally once the supported phones are available around the 2010 winter holidays. Currently, aside from some limited international exposure of the Zune Video Marketplace for the Xbox 360, Microsoft's Zune software and music services are strictly confined to the United States. Microsoft's Cassey McGee wouldn't disclose exactly which countries will receive Zune services, but definitely indicated that the Zune music and video service will be available outside the U.S. "...in all countries where Windows 7 Phones will ship."

It still remains to be seen whether the international availability of Zune software and services will translate into Microsoft selling its Zune HD portable media player overseas. Unlike the parallel tracks Apple has established with the iPhone and the ever-popular iPod, Microsoft could choose to pull up its stake in portable media players, acknowledging that the future of portable entertainment is entirely in phones.

If Microsoft decides to continue selling and developing the Zune HD hardware, it will be interesting to see how it answers the inevitable pleas from Zune HD users to update the product with Windows Phone 7 Series features, such as Xbox Live integration and broader mobile app support.

Apple may replace Google With Bing on the iPhone

According to two people familiar with the matter, Apple could make Bing the default search engine on the iPhone, BusinessWeek reports.

Microsoft and Apple have been in talks for weeks about replacing Google with Bing.

It's all part of the new rivalry between Apple and Google. Says a BusinessWeek source: "Microsoft is now a pawn in that battle."

Google wouldn't be wiped off the iPhone altogether. Instead users would have to adjust settings to make Google search a default for Safari.

As Microsoft becomes more willing to pay for search, and Google stomps deeper into Apple's turf, a Bing-iPhone partnership is more likely than ever. As long as Bing delivers a good user experience, and it's willing to pay extra, we don't see why Apple wouldn't at least consider it.

However, even if Bing becomes the default engine, sources tell BusinessWeek Apple has a "skunk works" looking at its own search engine for mobile, because "Apple isn't going to outsource the future."



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6 Years Old...Facebook Surges To 400 Million Users

It’s been six years to the day that Facebook launched, and the company’s massive growth is showing no signs of slowing down. Minutes ago, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a note to the site’s blog celebrating the milestone. In it, he says that Facebook will cross the 400 million user mark this week. And it’s been less than five months since the social network hit 300 million.

To celebrate, the company is holding its own version of a party — it’s Hackathon time. That means all of the company’s engineers are about to embark on all night coding seessions. Previous Hackathons have given birth to things like Facebook Video and its new HipHop PHP converter. Zuckerberg also says that we’ll be seeing some new product launches tonight.

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