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Ralph de la Vega, head of AT&T’s wireless unit, told the Journal he has reviewed the technology closely and is “confident it is something we are going to want in our portfolio.”

Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile signed on as part of the consortium, but AT&T and Verizon Wireless, the No. 1 and No. 2 operators in the country, had not committed to using Android.

LAS VEGAS–AT&T’s top wireless man told the Wall Street Journal at the
CTIA tradeshow here this week that the company is considering using Google’s Android handsets.

That said, it’s not surprising that AT&T has expressed interest in Android. Verizon executives have also said they are looking at Android for their consumer branded phones but, like AT&T, they are not willing to commit to Android. Still, Verizon’s newly launched open device program would allow device makers to use Android. My guess is that if a handset maker comes up with a compelling phone that uses Android, Verizon and AT&T will surely offer them on their networks. But for now, it’s hard to say what those phones will look like since no manufacturer is actually selling Android handsets yet.

This is good news for Google, which benefits greatly from having as many carriers and handset makers as possible using its new operating system.

When Google announced it was developing the open-source, Linux-based Android platform last year, the company also announced the Open Handset Alliance, a consortium of handset makers, carriers and chip designers that will work to implement Android.

While there’s been a lot of hype surrounding Android, the reality is that Android is simply an operating system just like Windows Mobile and Symbian, which are operating systems designed for smartphones. Operators also use dozens of other operating systems on their regular phones. This has turned into a bit of a problem for operators because it’s difficult for developers to come up with new applications and services quickly. Arun Sarin, CEO of Vodafone, the biggest cell phone company in the world, addressed this issue during his keynote at the CTIA show. And he urged the industry to work with fewer operating systems.

Google’s Android is one of many Linux-based operating systems designed for mobile phones. But because the software is backed by Google, it might actually have more legs than other versions of the software. Ultimately, Android’s success will be determined by what phone manufacturers and application developers do with the software. After all, consumers don’t buy operating systems. They buy cool devices that can do really cool things.

Whether that model would fly for corporate accounts is very uncertain to me. I know that I personally would have no interest in a Dell feed, or a Microsoft feed. I’m trying to think of a company whose feed I would willingly subscribe to–and read–and I’m coming up blank.

Until I saw what the Twitter Japan site looked like, I wasn’t at all sure how ads would work. But after seeing an image of the site, which Ito posted on his own blog, I think it’s actually a pretty light implementation, and one which users of the English-language site would be hard-pressed to get up in arms over.

But if ads ever do come, and they’re just on Twitter.com pages, well, I’m going to cut the company a little slack.

That’s mainly because one of the biggest questions–or maybe concerns is the proper term–about the main, English-language version of Twitter is that, because it’s ad-free and free to use, it has no obvious business model.

Ultimately, then, the lesson here may be: Get ready to deal with ads on Twitter, in one form or another. I could well have this totally backwards, but I’m guessing not. Where Twitter loses me, however, is if they push ads into associated services like Twhirl.

I don’t mean to sound alarmist, or to be an apologist for the ad model. But again, after seeing the Japanese site, I just can’t see how having ads on Twitter’s pages here would be all that much of an imposition. Sure, it would ruin the simple, clean, innocent feel of the site, but that can’t last forever, can it? Google’s home page still doesn’t have ads, but its search results pages sure do.

“Ads are important,” Ito told me. “It’s always harder to add ads later. So we’re launching with them in Japan.”

Digital Garage invested in Twitter as part of the localization arrangement.

Another interesting thing, meanwhile, about the Twitter Japan ad model is that it launched with spots from Toyota, which link to an opt-in Toyota Twitter feed.

As Twitter Japan gets going upon its launch Tuesday night (California time), one of the things that observers are going to be most closely watching is whether or not Japanese users accept the ads that are on the new site.

Now, I’m not a proponent of ads. I love free online services. But as an editor of mine said this evening, it is sometimes hard to fathom how angry users get when someone tries to put ads on free sites. “How dare they try to make money,” seems to go the thinking.

(Credit:
Joi Ito)

But I think the Twitter Japan ad experience is going to be very closely examined, because if people in Japan aren’t put off by the ads, it’s going to be hard to make the argument that people here would be, even though we’re used to the ad-free model.

Well, there’s more to it, of course. Obviously, many implementations of ad-supported sites are horrible. But meanwhile, Twitter is rolling along, building a user base of people who are becoming more and more dependent on it, and there doesn’t seem to be a dime coming in, at least not from the public site.

I’m not sure exactly what would come through that feed, but it’s not clear to me how receptive the audience will be to corporate marketing coming through feeds. On the other hand, there are already some examples of that here, at least in the form of political marketing, like that of Barack Obama’s Twitter account.

The question may eventually come down to whether people would rather have Twitter with ads or no Twitter at all.

If Twitter Japan is successful with its roll-out of ads, it could become a model for the English-language version.

In an interview, venture capitalist and Creative Commons CEO Joi Ito–who helped create Digital Garage, which was largely responsible for localizing Twitter for its Japanese version–explained that it was thought that implementing ads from day one was the way to go there.

And certainly, there have been rumblings here or there about ads coming. But an Internet truism seems to be that you simply can’t add ads to a site that hasn’t had them. There is no better way to chase away your users than to do that.

Yet even as word of the urban strife, seemingly led by those posting to Twitter, spread next around the world on news networks like the BBC, NPR, and the Times, CNN remained mostly mute. Even when the network’s Internet site finally posted a story late Saturday, the network’s first “story highlight” was, “Ahmadinejad plans rally after winning second presidential term.”

(Credit:
Twitter)

Even as Twitter became the best source for rapid-fire news developments from the front lines of the riots in Tehran, a growing number of users of the microblogging service were incredulous at the near total lack of coverage of the story on CNN, a network that cut its teeth with on-the-spot reporting from the Middle East.

Increasingly, Twitter has become the go-to source for breaking news about any kind of notable event, be it an earthquake, terrorist attacks in Mumbai, or post-election riots in Tehran. Yet many Twitter users found CNN’s lack of attention to what could end up being one of the biggest stories in years appalling.

And it wasn’t long before word of CNN’s theoretical reporting failure began to make its way into more established media. Under the headline, “Dear CNN, Please Check Twitter for News About Iran,” the popular blog ReadWriteWeb blasted the network for its failure to cover the clearly massive story in the Middle East.

While word of riots in the streets of Tehran spread like wildfire on Twitter, CNN stayed largely silent on the story, surprising and dismaying many.

As the Iranian election aftermath unfolded in Tehran–thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to express their anger at perceived electoral irregularities–an unexpected hashtag began to explode through the Twitterverse: “CNNFail.”

And to the thousands on Twitter posting to the #CNNFail thread, this story should be a no-brainer for the network that managed to have the only reporters on the ground when the United States began bombing Baghdad in 1991 at the beginning of the Gulf War.

“Hours after Iranian police began clashing with tens of thousands of people in the street,” ReadWriteWeb wrote late Saturday night, “the top story on CNN.com remains peoples’ confusion about the switch from analog TV signals.”

“CNN just loops the same stories endlessly, while ignoring the biggest story,” posted Twitter user MediaButcher.

Others used the opportunity to applaud the work of other networks while indirectly criticizing CNN. “Might I point out to all of those tracking #CNNFail that there’s a corresponding #NPRWin good coverage @ www.npr.org,” opined Twitter user Nickbernstein, referring to the Twitter convention of using “hashtags,” or pound-signs before keywords to indicate Twitter search terms, in this case a reference to the suggestion that NPR had done a good job covering the Iranian riots.

“CNN needs to talk about the important things like Ms. California and who Paris Hilton is (sleeping with),” wrote Twitter user ArchivalQuality.

One would think, then, that when the idea began to percolate around Twitter that CNN was missing out on a major, historical story like the one developing in Iran, the network would have noted the discontent and done something about it.

To be sure, it’s too early to tell if the events unfolding in Terhan will have such a lasting effect. But in Iran, there haven’t been such vivid pictures of popular anger at the government since the revolution there in 1979 that toppled the Shah and led to the current religious fundamentalist leadership.

It’s odd that CNN would be so late to this story, especially given the criticism it’s getting from the Twitterverse, and given how clued in the network is supposed to be to Twitter. It was, after all, only two months ago that CNN’s Twitter account barely missed out–to actor Ashton Kutcher–on being the first to accumulate a million followers.

For most of Saturday, CNN.com had no stories about the massive protests on behalf of Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was reported by the Iranian government to have lost to the sitting president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The widespread street clashes–nearly unheard of in the tightly controlled Iran–reflected popular belief that the election had been rigged, a sentiment that was even echoed, to some extent, by the U.S. government Saturday.

But even as the sun prepared to rise in the eastern United States, CNN’s Web site was still focusing on Ahmadinejad’s victory and not the fact that massive riots in the streets of Tehran might be a world-changing moment, potentially on par with the failed 1991 coup in the Soviet Union that led to the collapse of the authoritarian government there.

“The Obama administration is determined to press on with efforts to engage the Iranian government,” The New York Times cited senior officials as having said Saturday, “despite misgivings about irregularities in the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.”

Yesterday, U.K. music download provider Omnifone announced a forthcoming program, MusicStation Max, that will offer cell phone buyers unlimited free music downloads. Of course, “free” is never free, and in this case, Omnifone is enlisting handset makers to subsidize the estimated cost of the downloads and pass that cost along to you in the form of a higher up-front price for the phone. So far, LG Electronics is the first cell phone maker to sign up for participation in the program. No confirmation yet on carrier partners, but the service builds on Omnifone’s existing MusicStation subscription-based music download program, which has more than 30 carriers signed up worldwide, including Vodafone in the U.K. (No U.S. providers, however.) It’s supposedly due out in the first half of 2008.

But that’s the big question: will people like the idea? With both services, there’s an expiration period after which customers either have to buy a new phone to keep using the download service (although they will be able to keep the songs they’ve bought), or move to a monthly fee. Similarly, songs will be playable on phones and PCs only, and won’t be burnable to CDs or transferrable to other types of devices.

Regardless, though, both Nokia and Omnifone are taking important steps toward the only logical future business model for the music industry, in which the cost of unlimited “free” music is subsidized by pooled payment from customers to some third party, be it ISPs, hardware manufacturers (PC, portable music player, cell phone, flash memory stick, whatever), or music software companies. That’s the only economically sensible way to compete with piracy.

MusicStation Max will give carriers some leverage against Nokia’s forthcoming Comes With Music service, which is due out late this year. That is, if people like the idea of paying a bit more (how much?) up front for free music downloads, carriers will be able to offer them phones from other handset makers, and won’t be locked into Nokia’s hardware, service, or prices.

(Credit:
Omnifone)

So the success of such a service depends on whether people are truly ready to make their cell phone their primary source of and playback device for music. I know that people live on their phones, but I think an Internet-connected computer’s hard to beat–you have nearly infinite selection and pricing competition, immense flexibility once you’ve gotten the music onto your computer, and the ability to hook it into all sorts of playback hardware for better sound quality.

Later this year, MusicStation Max will offer unlimited free music downloads to LG handsets.

When Google launched its MyMaps feature last year I was pretty excited about the potential for creating things with it. Growing up in a house that required giving very complex directions because Mapquest would deliver people to the other end of our neighborhood I looked forward to making simple, personalized maps that could be shared easily. While the big G has done a great job adding a directory of special layers, the tools for creating your own maps have not seen that same advancement.

Map creations can be embedded, which I’ve done after the break. You can also share them via e-mail or with a simple URL.

(Credit:
CNET Networks)

[via Lifehacker]

To answer that call Quikmaps, a third party tool that plugs into the same Google Maps data, is a far simpler solution letting you simply doodle on the map. In some cases this can be far more useful than Google’s straight line tool like when you’re creating turns and arcs (not all streets are straight). The best part is that the results will scale when you zoom in and out. Still included is a straight line tool, but between the two Google actually has a stronger effort since it shows the distance between each segment.

Draw on your maps with doodles and more using Quikmaps.

I just can’t wrap my head around this development–not because it’s so big, but because it’s so tiny.

Structure of a cell.

The nanoneedle is designed to penetrate the membrane of a living cell for the targeted delivery of one or more molecules into the cytoplasm or the nucleus. In addition, it can be used as an electrochemical probe and as an optical biosensor.

This is because it helps deliver, detect, and track individual fluorescent quantum dots in a cell’s cytoplasm and nucleus. The quantum dots can then be used to study the molecular mechanics and physical properties of cells.

The nanoneedle was created with a rigid, but resilient, boron-nitride nanotube. The nanotube is then attached to one end of a glass pipette for easy handling. It is coated with a thin layer of gold.

To put this in perspective, it turns out that the thinnest human head hair is about 10,000 times thicker than this new needle. Obviously, the majority of us won’t find any use for a needle of this size. However, this is a breakthrough device with applications for biophysical research.

Researchers at the University of Illinois have developed a “nanoneedle” with a diameter of approximately 50 nanometers–about half the size of previously reported nanoneedles.

(Credit:
mtandao-afrika.net)

When a researcher wants to place a substance inside a cell, molecular cargo is then attached to the gold surface with the help of “linker” molecules. When placed in a cell’s cytoplasm or nucleus, the bonds with the linker molecules break, freeing the cargo.

Other than delivery, according to Yu, the nanoneedles can also be used as electrochemical probes and as optical biosensors to study cellular environments, stimulate certain types of biological sequences, and examine the effect of nanoparticles on cellular physiology.

According to Min-Feng Yu, a professor of mechanical science and engineering and a researcher at the Center for Nanoscale Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems, nanoneedle-based delivery is a powerful new tool for studying biological processes and biophysical properties at the molecular level inside living cells.

This is truly amazing. What is more amazing, however, is the fact that Apple is able to convince people that its iPod Nano is so “tiny.”

A Texas Instruments processor is the brain inside the Palm Pre

(Credit:
Palm)

And Sprint Nextel executives said Monday that the launch of the Palm Pre on Saturday hit a new sales record for the company. More good news for TI.

The TI chip in the Pre is a superscalar design based on the Cortex-A8 core from U.K.-based ARM. The 3430 features “a dedicated level-2 cache and execution of up to twice as many instructions per clock cycle” over previous chips, according to TI documentation. It also integrates a Powervr SGX 2D/3D graphics accelerator.

And Apple is in the business, too. Though Apple would like it if the
iPhone remained a black box (it doesn’t matter what’s inside, it’s the Apple brand on the outside that matters), it is involved in the design of the processors inside its iPhones, according to analysts. The processor inside the iPhone is supplied by Samsung, but branded as an Apple chip.

Texas Instruments raised its outlook for the second quarter Monday, as analog chips and processors for high-end smartphones like the
Palm Pre drive sales.

Though analog chips are the biggest driver of sequential growth, TI is also seeing a bump in sales of its application processors that go into smartphones such as the Palm Pre. TI’s 600MHz OMAP 3430 processor is the brain inside the Pre. The chipmaker also supplies power management, audio, and USB silicon for the Pre.

“Orders were strong in April and May,” said Ron Slaymaker, vice president and head of investor relations at TI, in a conference call on Monday afternoon. “We see strength in smartphones–the high-end segment of the market,” he said.

In a “scheduled update” to its business outlook for the second quarter of 2009, TI said Monday that it expects revenue of between $2.30 and $2.50 billion, compared with the prior estimate of between $1.95 and $2.40 billion. Earnings per share is now expected to be between $0.14 to $0.22, compared with the previous estimate of between $0.01 and $0.15.

The competition to get silicon into the latest and greatest smartphone and mobile Internet device is severe. TI vies for silicon real estate with Samsung, Qualcomm, and Marvell. And the field is getting increasingly crowded: PC industry heavyweights Intel and Nvidia are focusing their considerable resources on the market. Intel, the largest chipmaker in the world, clearly wants to be a major player in the smartphone market by 2011.

The results of our first annual (maybe) smartphone survey are in, and thanks to everyone who left comments on One More Thing or Crave and t o those who flooded my inbox with responses. Yes, I know we should have a survey tool, but we’re working on other stuff right now that’s more important. (You’ll have to trust me on that one.)

Between the comments and the e-mails, we received 159 responses. I must note that this is not a scientific study; we’re not going to be putting market research firms out of business anytime soon. But I thought it was time for a look at what some of our readers are using, and I was surprised at some of the results. Find out more here.

If readers are any indication, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile has a better base of support than one might think, but all the winds are blowing toward Apple.

Apple may be looking at an open-source solution as a way to get around Adobe Systems’ Flash technology.

But the basic idea would be that Apple and its software development partners could build richer “desktop-like” Web applications for
Safari on either the
iPhone or the
Mac without having to license Adobe or Microsoft’s plug-in technology. This could also allow Windows developers to create Web applications that resemble Mac applications.

SproutCore gets around that lock-in by letting more of the Web application run inside the browser, rather than in the plug-in. Apple apparently used SproutCore to build the Web applications unveiled last week as part of the new MobileMe service, which replaces the aging .Mac service.

Web applications are big these days, and developers are continuously looking for ways to improve the performance and sex appeal of their applications. To that end, they often find themselves using frameworks like Adobe’s Flash or Microsoft’s Silverlight technology to save time and take advantage of flashier graphics. But once you choose to develop a Web application for one of those standards, you’re essentially locked into the browser plug-ins for that one particular standard.

Check out Roughly Drafted or a similar article from Appleinsider for more details on how SproutCore works for Web developers; I’m not going to be able to do the topic proper justice without a few Web development courses.

Roughly Drafted was able to find a developer willing to talk about last week’s Worldwide Developers Conference sessions, which are supposed to be confidential. But these things have a way of coming to light, and one session on Friday apparently covered a technology called SproutCore that could give Apple a way to get its Cocoa development frameworks into the hearts and minds of Web developers.

So, here’s a significant opportunity for Red Hat with Spacewalk: Foster a community around it that includes a wide range of commercial open-source companies. Convince the world to build on the Red Hat standard.

Yes, Red Hat has traditionally been a difficult partner. But that has changed, and can change further. The benefits?

Now consider the power for Red Hat if its Spacewalk actually served as a gathering point - an integration point - for the commercial open-source community? Powerful.

Why? Well, because in some ways the commercial open-source community increasingly fragments as it matures financially. What is the first thing that MySQL and JBoss did to add value to their support subscriptions? Build networks. What, presumably, will be the first things that other open-source companies do? Build networks.

Red Hat has been talking about open sourcing its Network for well over a year. Today, it finally did it.

However, code by itself is only moderately interesting. What we need now is a thriving community around “Project Spacewalk,” as Red Hat calls the Network project.

Red Hat establishes itself as the center of the open-source ecosystem;
The open-source industry consolidates around a service-delivery network standard, thereby increasing integration between commercial open-source projects and value to customers;
Red Hat scores points with its commercial open-source peers by providing a shortcut to develop products that many of them will otherwise want/need to develop from scratch;
Red Hat will see its RHN code improved by a wider range of companies with diverse interests and experience, which will make it better suited to a Red Hat future that includes things like databases, applications, etc., which might well make integration of other products easier for Red Hat to digest as it grows beyond the operating system.

We haven’t bumped into the problem yet because the open-source industry is still in its infancy, and there have been few mergers and acquisitions. But as Sun, Red Hat, IBM, and others acquire commercial open-source vendors, it would be nice if they could focus on the value of the companies they acquire, and not on integrating incompatible network products.

commentary

This is an awesome opportunity for Red Hat. Will it take up the mantle of leadership?

What is the result? A swamp of incompatible service-delivery networks.