Actually, we're not really surprise with the findings of LaptopMag as to how well Windows 7 runs smoothly on the Eee PC 1000H. The fact that Microsoft recently demoed their upcoming OS using a netbook only goes to show the direction that Windows 7 will be going to once it is released next year. When Microsoft decided to demo Windows 7 using a netbook, it only means that the OS will be lightweight and less complex that Windows Vista. Although a bit powerful than Windows XP.

Anyway, going back to the test run done by Laptopmag using a demo copy of Windows 7 handed out during the recently concluded Microsoft PDC event, Joanna Stern has the following observations:

• it took the Eee PC 1000H 58 seconds to booth Windows 7
• Windows feels and looks like Windows Vista
• improved network manager, ideal for netbooks
• smooth video playback
• does not eat up to many system resources when running

Overall it was a pretty successful testing of the Eee PC running on Windows 7. And suffice it to say that it was just a pre-beta version. Hopefully Microsoft programmers would be able to iron out some kinks before Windows 7 is released next year. By then, we might be seeing new netbooks again, with most of them definitely offering the Windows 7 as an OS.

A post from the Asus Eee PC blog.

Surprise! Surprise! Windows 7 Runs Well on the Eee PC

<rant>

Let me tell you a story

Lid does a number of things around the Web, and sometimes I even find it hard to keep up. So I have a Google alert on her, so I can see what she is doing and what people are saying about her. That's my excuse anyways.

Last Friday I got an alert from Google with 3 references:

The references are:

1. Lid's ReadWriteWeb post about Social Media and who is doing it well from the Social Media Marketing Summit in San Francisco.
2. A post by Laurena about delicious and tagging which discusses and references Lid's article -just what the Web is intended for.
3. A post by Oggi' which looks remarkable like Lid's - it starts with the same 20 words - and even references her by name.

So who or what is Oggi's blog? Here is a screen shot.

Here is a breakdown of Oggi's blog:

1. 3 separate groups of Google advertising - two text based, and the third image based.
2. The title of the post which is the same as Lid's.
3. The content of the post is the same initial 20 words of Lid's post, then followed by Original post by Lidija Davis with Lid's name linked to her post on ReadWriteWeb.

Now the link on Lid's post is interesting in that it is not a direct link to the post on ReadWriteWeb, but rather an indirect link via Google's FeedBurner service. Here is the link:

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/nS1e6RgCjbw/social_media_for_business_who_is_doing_it.php

So what about the other posts on this blog? Surprise, surprise, they all reference other people's posts in exactly the same way. The same title is used, same first 20 words, and a link to the original post via FeedBurner.

Just to prove to myself that Google is still in fact indexing Oggi's blog, I did a site search for Lidija, and found two previous ReadWriteWeb posts.

So what is the point of Oggi's blog?

To hi-hack anyone who is searching for the title of noteworthy posts, so that if they click on the links, they will invoke 3 separate Google blocks of ads, with the user clicking through to the original article.

Now, who wins out of this?

1. Oggi - for the princely sum of a few fractions of a cent.
2. Google - for recording and charging the lucky advertisers for appearing on Oggi's blog - this too would be minimal; however, it is still money on the bottom line.

The individual amount of money changing hands is minimal; however, multiply this by the number of hapless visitors and it could get into the hundreds for Oggi, and multiply this by the number of Oggi clones out there and now you are getting into the thousands for Google. I must state that I have absolutely no clue as to the actual numbers, but I think I have underestimated both sets of numbers here.

So who loses?

1. The users of the Web for being distracted by useless profiteering
2. The advertiser.
3. The Web in general for being littered with content which has absolutely zero value.

So to recap:

1. I was sent an e-mail by Google alerting me to the existence of Oggi's blog, of which I was blissfully ignorant until then.
2. I visit Oggi's blog and find that I am reading a post of zero value to me, has zero content, well actually 29 words copied from elsewhere, and which is surrounded by 3 block's of Google advertisements.
3. The link to the original post is via Google's FeedBurner service.

The only thing which is not Google's is the blogging software, which is WordPress in this case. Otherwise, we would have had a clean sweep. Digressing a bit, we had a bit of fun last April fool's with this post on Google acquiring WordPress (remember this is not serious).

Now what Oggi is doing is cookie cutter stuff, so I can't see how Google cannot detect that the intent is none other than injecting a post in between the user and what they actually want to view and benefiting courtesy of Google ads.

But then the conspiracy person within me has a theory, and we all have one, just the degree varies (checkout ReadWriteWeb's very own post on Chrome)

Why aren't Google proactively purging such sites from their index, and thus alerts?

If they did then they loose money since ads are not being triggered.

I certainly hope this is not the case. I would expect that purging 100% of such sites from the index is actually impossible, but I think that low hanging fruit such as Oggi are simple enough for a group of 2-3 Googlers to solve - a few, ok, many, 20% days perhaps.

It maybe a long bow, but the theoretical dilemma is interesting, and no doubt finer minds than mine have discussed this to death.

I googled Google to see if you can report such blogs so this site is removed from the index, but the only thing I could find on the first page of the results, I am not a patient searcher, was a reference to reporting copyright infringements which requires me to mail in a letter (I kid you not).

I was expecting to find a report abuse' link one click away from the Google's home page, in About Google specifically.

With search being an integral part of everyone's online life now, and that given that googled' is now a verb, it plays a critical component of the Web, in that it potentially can control the pages which are viewed by users, thereby controlling the ads which are displayed, thereby controlling the potential revenue received by Google.

Google currently receives a lot of freedom in what they do, which they have rightly earned, but how can we be sure that this is not abused in the future?

How can we, the citizens of the Web, be assured that there is no conflict of interest between the search/index side of the business and the advertising side within Google?

Is there a common theme here? Checkout Michael Gray's view on Google's book search.

</rant>

At the Flash on the Beach 08 conference being held in Brighton, England, Adobe's Senior Director of Engineering, Paul Betlem, confirmed that a Flash Player is in development for the iPhone. The information was provided in answer to a direct question from an audience member during the Town Hall meeting sessions held during the conference, historically a good source of Adobe news.

Sponsor

Adobe's Official Word

According to Betlem, Adobe is working on the iPhone Flash Player, but the iPhone is a closed platform. In other words, it's entirely up to Apple as to if and when they will allow the player onto the iPhone.

You may remember it was only earlier this spring that Apple CEO Steve Jobs deemed the current version of Flash Lite, the scaled-down version of Flash for mobile phones, as not being good enough for the iPhone. According to Jobs, Flash Lite would spoil the iPhone experience. He also noted that the desktop version wouldn't work either as it would run too slowly on the iPhone. What he called for was the creation of a "missing product in the middle."

Apparently, Adobe has heeded that call and has been busy building that middle-of-the-road version. The only question now is whether or not it will be good enough. At this point, Apple may be feeling the pressure to make Flash work considering Microsoft's recent licensing of Flash and Reader LE on Windows Mobile.

When Will It Arrive?

As to when we will see Flash on iPhone, it's anybody's guess. However, according to AppleInsider, the iPhone/iPod Touch software will be updated next month to v2.2 beta 1. Included in the update will be a newer version of Safari, which has been redesigned to relocate the Google Search bar to the right of the Address Bar. Also in the update will be a new App Store which will feature a new categories page with large category icons and more spacing between each listing.

We suppose it's too much to hope for that the new version of Flash would be pushed down with this upcoming update as well, but Apple has been known to surprise us before.

POLL: What Do You Think About Flash On iPhone?

We're looking forward to having Flash on the iPhone, but we're curious what you think. Has it been difficult for you to use your iPhone/iPod Touch without it? Or do you think "good riddance!" having never liked Flash in the first place? Please take our poll and let us know your thoughts.

Does iPhone's Lack of Flash Bother You?
( surveys) Discuss

Today, Google, T-Mobile, and HTC came together to introduce the first phone running the Google mobile OS, Android, at a press conference held this morning in New York City. The overall message today was one that focused on openness. Will the future of the mobile internet be driven by open platforms? That's what Google is betting on with Android, but more importantly, it's what T-Mobile is hoping will stop the flood of customers leaving their service for AT&T's iPhone. What they presented today was a slick alternative to the iPhone. They want you to believe the G1 is just as good, if not better, thanks to the keyboard and its open nature. Now that we have all the facts, are you convinced?

Officials from all three companies took turns introducing various aspects about the new phone, now officially being called the "T-Mobile G1 With Google." Sergey Brin and Larry Page from Google even made a surprise appearance to talk about Android's importance. After some initial introductions and setup, they showed the phone and its features in a promotional video. What we learned from that video is listed below:

Features Demoed In The Promo Video:

• Touchscreen - You can swipe across the screen, use a long press to access more features, drag-and-drop
• Music - one-click ordering from Amazon confirmed
• Music player is built in - one long press lets you access more features, like song options
• Gtalk IM included
• Address book can take you right into Google Maps
• Google Maps: Directions/Traffic View/Street View; can do panning in Street View thanks to the touch screen
• In "Compass Mode" the scene moves as you do
• In the web browser, there are onscreen controls to zoom in
• You can open multiple web pages in Google's browser
• There's a search button on keyboard
• A long press lets you share a link (URL) from within the web browser
• For apps, there's the Android Market, complete with user ratings and OTA downloads
• Pacman!

Q&A From The Press

Q: Status of T-Mobile's 3G network?
A: Will be in 22 markets by commercial launch data (October 22nd) and by mid-November it will be in 27 markets

Q: Will the phone be available in Europe?
A: There are 30 million U.S. customers and 100 million customers in the European market, so yes, it will come to Europe. It will be in the UK in early November and will be across Europe by 1st Quarter, 2009

Q: Can you use the phone as tethered modem?
A: NO

Q: Can you buy just a data plan only?
A: NO

Q: Can you view office documents?
A: You can read Word, PDF, and Excel docs

Q: Will it work with Microsoft Exchange?
A: There is no Exchange compatibility, but this is an excellent opportunity for a 3rd party developer.

Q: Can the phone be unlocked and used on other networks?
A: No, the phone is SIM-locked

Q: Is email push?
A: Gmail is push/IMAP supported

Q: Will there be a desktop app?
A: NO

Q: Is there Wi-Fi?
A: Yes

Q: What's the marketing plan?
A: Google and T-Mobile are working together to produce both TV and in-channel marketing which will debut in October. It will be the biggest campaign ever for a mobile device.

Q: Is the browser Chrome?
A: No, it is Web-Kit, which is "Chrome-like"

Q: Who's the target demographic?
A: The phone has mass appeal, there's something for everyone, but it's more of a consumer device.

Q: Will it work with iTunes?
A: It supports standard music formats like AAC, WMA, MP3, but not anything wrapped in DRM.

Pricing and Availability

The phone is less expensive than the iPhone! It's $179.

Existing T-Mobile customers can order on the internet on a micro-site and have shipped to their homes. October 22nd is the commercial launch date when it will be available in stores. There will be 2 plans. One is $25 for unlimited web and some messaging; the other is $35 for unlimited web and unlimited messaging. (In addition to whatever voice plan is selected).

Note: Stay tuned. We'll update this post with some more video and images shortly.

"Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull."

Polaroid is dead, right? The iconic supplier of anonymous photo processing to a generation of pervs effectively shut up shop back in February, closing the factories that made its instant film.

The company began its attempt to claw back some customers with the PoGo, a portable Bluetooth and USB printer, but what we really want is a digicam with a built in printer. That would be the true successor to the Land Camera, and, happily, that's what we shall soon have.

Polaroid has teamed up with UK magazine Amateur Photographer to decide on the details of a new camera which will have a built in PoGo. The only confirmed news so far is the size of the prints. At 4x3 inches, they are both bigger than the existing PoGo's 2x3 inch prints, and also exactly the same size as the old analog Polaroid pictures. AP readers are being asked to suggest other features for the new camera. We would suggest a shake-to-wake feature to develop the pictures, but seeing as that never did anything anyway, you could always shake the new ones and achieve exactly the same effect.

Personally, I reckon that Polaroid should go kind of Lomo with this camera, and load it with some odd filters and other novelties. After all, if you aren't post-processing with a PC, why not build in some fun effects like those in Apple's Photo Booth application?

Photographers to shape Polaroid History [Amateur Photographer]

by Charlie Sorrel for Wired.com

When I first started this list, there were about 8 names on it, just about every day, I continue to add more names, and I've thus had to segment the list out by verticals. What is this list? It's a list of full time social media professionals at Enterprise size companies.

As noted in my recent research report, there are two main roles that are appearing, the social computing/media strategist (I count 54 folks on my list), and the community manager (I count 47 folks). When I wrote the report it was focused on interactive marketers, so it didn't include an R&D viewpoint, as such, I've now added a third category to the list of product managers that create social media products (no surprise they are all in the tech industry)

So what does this mean? What we're starting to see is that companies are putting actual resources (headcount, programs, budget) around social media programs, it's no longer a toe-dipping exercise that someone does part time in their role.

A while back Steve Rubel suggested that these skills will fold into everyone's role, and there will be no need for these single specific roles. In the long run, yes, he's right. We should note that there are currently web marketing managers, (web strategists) email marketing managers (called direct marketers), and advertising managers all of which are focused on being efficient in their mediums. So unless those specific roles go away, there is no indicator that these full time social media roles will go away.

So, if you're trying to indicate to your management or client that this movement is indeed happening, forward that list to them, and let them see the trending for themselves. Do note that many in the non tech industry will discount this as mainly as a tech industry thing', I've heard from multiple clients that when tech companies adopt new technologies, traditional companies like consumer goods, finance, will often retort yeah, but that's the tech industry, it's not reflective of our space. Quite possible indeed, but you should watch the tech industry in order to anticipate early adoption of technologies, and as it moves up the curve, you should be prepared to adopt.

Also, if you plan to submit, please carefully read the requirements, I screen each submission for accuracy, description, to ensure a solid, defensible list. Frankly, a wiki, just wouldn't result in the same vetting quality.

When I was a kid, one of my weirder hobbies was ventriloquism. I don't even remember why I got started, but I do remember that some people thought I was pretty good at it. In the short time that I was a ventriloquist, I won several local talent shows, and one time I even got to appear on live TV.

The TV appearance started off badly.

The crew sat me and my dummy in a chair in front of the camera, and soon afterwards the cameraman made some sort of hand motion at me. I had no idea what the hand motion meant, so I just sat there, assuming it was nothing I needed to be concerned about.

Then he did it again, and this time it was clear that I was supposed to do something. But I didn't know what to do, so I simply looked at the camera and said, what? He did it one more time, this time more forcefully, and again I said, what?

The cameraman, obviously displeased that I didn't grok his secret language, leaned forward and said, YOU'RE ON!

Oops. I'd just screwed up on live TV.

I nervously launched into my routine, which started off with a joke that mentioned something about having three pieces of candy. I was supposed to hold up three fingers when I mentioned the candy, but I was so distressed with how things started that I forgot to hold up two of them.

The one finger I held up was the middle one.

In slow motion, my eyes moved to the upheld digit, and a look of sheer terror crossed my face when I realized that I'd flipped off everyone watching. Doing that as an adult would've been bad enough, but it's infinitely worse doing it as a kid. The middle finger held a mystical quality back then, and raising it - even accidentally - was a very bad thing. I was pretty sure that raising it on live TV would mean a lump of coal come Christmas morning, and possibly even eternal torment in the place with the guy with the horns.

I have no idea how the show went after that I'm assuming I went into autopilot and finished the act, then quickly got the hell out of there.

To my surprise, nobody mentioned my one-fingered salute after the show, and I never got in trouble for it. But somewhere deep down, in the same place I store my guilt over setting off those stink bombs in third grade, I just know I'll eventually pay for flipping off my home town.

Kevin Maney adds: News yesterday of the departure of top Facebook exec Mark Cohler raised questions about why he'd go. If you weed through a lengthy and puffy transcript of the Q&A, you get to these comments from Cohler:

Yeah, if you look at the things that I've done in my career so far, such as his, it's really basically been about one core thing. Try and find really interesting companies, and try to help great entrepreneurs to help build companies that are going to last and can have a meaningful impact on people in the world. I was unbelievably lucky to do that with Reid Hoffman, who is a phenomenal entrepreneur and then I get to do it again with Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook. I always knew that that's the thing at the core that I'm most passionate about, is that process. It's something I want to keep doing for the foreseeable future. Mark and I talked about that as kind of a trajectory.

I probably talked about that before I even joined Facebook, so a few years ago. In terms of the specific timing, I wasn't thinking about leaving Facebook. I wasn't out looking at other things. I think Facebook still has a tremendous growth trajectory ahead of it, I love the people, I love the company and I love the product. I was just incredibly lucky that this came my way, and the timing on it, frankly, took me by surprise. It wasn't about leaving Facebook, it was rather more about joining Benchmark. It is an incredible opportunity, and for me personally, as Bill said earlier, when you are in a private partnership, the philosophies and the personalities and the values have to really resonate.