Warning: There is absolutely nothing in this post about the Apple iPhone (except for this sentence... oh and this one, too). In fact, this may be the last thing you read for the next few weeks that doesn't have some iPhone news/hype/speculation stuck to it. Enjoy it while you can.
Fire when ready. Gateway has issued a recall of 14,000 blazin' hot notebooks, thanks to some fire-prone Samsung batteries. Most companies might be embarrassed by this admission, but I imagine they're probably happy to get any press at all. When's the last time you saw the words “Gateway” and “blazin' hot” in the same sentence?
Seoul of the machine. A robot named “Tiro” has presided over a marriage in Daejeon, South Korea, last week – a new first for the robot-happy country. The $200,000 digital deacon declared the happy couple husband and wife, then dismantled the wedding cake, mistaking it for a bomb.
From Redmond With Love. Want to order a new system with Office 2003 on it, not Office 2007? Better act fast. MS is apparently pulling the plug on OEM copies of '03 at the end of this month. It's going to be strictly 007 from then on, Mr. Bond.
Sly like a Fox? Working from his secret lair inside a volcano, Master of the Universe Rupert Murdoch has apparently offered to swap MySpace for 25 percent of Yahoo. That's a bit like saying I'll give you a hubcap for a one-quarter interest in your car. Sure, MySpace now claims 185 million members, but after you scrub the spammers, scammers, strippers, and sex offenders, the number drops to about 2000, give or take a few zeroes. Not exactly worth $8 billion to $12 billion. Apparently Murdoch thinks we'll believe anything.
Goo Goo Achoo. Surprising probably even itself, Microsoft has agreed to alter Vista's desktop search mechanism in response to anti-trust charges from Google. After Vista Service Pack 1 ships later this year, consumers will be able to select other desktop search apps besides Microsoft's. However, there's no truth to the rumor Microsoft is launching a new, Google-killing search engine called.... AlterVista. (Sorry. That was bad even for me.)
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Posted by Robert X. Cringely on June 22, 2007 07:43 AM
