Web 2.0 for beginners

Web 2.0 isn't always easily understood by ordinary people. I think the following presentations do a very good job, though, of clarifying some of the "new" concepts on the web.

RSS feeds


Social networks


Wikis


Social bookmarking

Nokia vs. Apple ... the story

Although large, with the weekend coming up, I can recommend reading this article from Michael Mace's blog about the upcoming battle between Apple and Nokia.

Apple event - news

Steve just presented a few new things. I followed it on the Engadget site. Check it out, as it has some nice pics to show off the new stuff. To sum it up, this is all news:

• You can now create ring tones with iTunes, for $0.99
  
• New colours for the Shuffles.
• New iPod nano. It is the fat one we have seen pics of before. This is a really well done device: new form factor and new interface.
  
• Renewed iPod Classic. It has lots of memory and the same interface as the new Nano. Too much memory if you ask me, for the screen size it has.
  
• New iPod Touch. Basically it is an iPhone without the phone features and a little thinner. It has wifi and the Safari browser too. The addition to this, though, is the iTunes wifi music store: you can buy straight from the iPod - they will also make this available to the iPhone.
• Not sure I should mention this, but they have entered into some strange deal with Starbucks. When you come close to a Starbucks you can see what music they are playing and download it - accessing its wifi network.
  
• 8GB iPhone will start to sell at $399 (versus the $299 for the 8 GB iPod Touch).
  

Foleo goes into hibernation

Personally I liked the concept of the Foleo, and am a bit sad to see that Palm has put that project on a hold. An instant-on, equipped with full qwerty keyboard, weighing 2lb, wifi-enabled device sounds attractive to me - disregarding for a second the whole software part of the device.

Admittedly, not many people were charmed by it, and I can see why they have decided to do this right now. Also it is clear that Palm needs to focus the (little) energy they have left on something that will be successful. The Foleo did not look good in that respect.

I wish them luck and look forward to hearing more about them in the future.

Linux makes large strides into important markets

Linux is really gaining momentum in many different markets, as you can see from the following examples. I believe it has a bright future and it will really add to consumer/business choice.

Palm has played (and a little more than just playing) with the idea of working with Linux for their next gen devices. For quite some time we saw no news, but finally they revealed the Foleo. I know not everyone likes the concept - I do, by the way - but it is good to see this concrete step and the possibilities it offers. Very recently they have also revealed their new entry-level Treo, called the Centro. Although not certain, it may well be running on Linux as well (speculation at the moment). I like the possible prospects of it.

More generally, Palm Infocenter, regaring some research from ABI Research, writes that Linux-based platforms are expected to be the fastest growing Mobile OS. With the current low market presence, this should be no surprise, but 31% in 2012 is a very respectable number.

It is not only limited to mobile phones though: HP is following Dell and will start bringing Linux to the desktop (currently only Australia). Considering that Linux OS is normally for more advanced users, it is promising to see that the two main PC manufacturers will pre-install Linux. In terms of volume, it is still peanuts, though.

Novell is another company with an aim of making money from Open Source platforms. According to CNET they are now starting to make money. In fact, "in a quarter when Novell saw anemic growth in most of its businesses ... Novell's Linux business grew last quarter by 77 percent more than its size in the third quarter of 2006". In this business we are talking about larger deals though. Take for example this recent deal: "a German state has signed a major contract with Novell for the supply of Linux server and desktop products to 33 universities."

I am not even talking about TVs and the like, because some are running Linux as well. In any case, I think it is clear from these recent developments that Linux has a bright future.