rafe

Next year will probably see new tablet computers from Apple and maybe even Microsoft. What do these companies know that our panel does not? Featuring Ryan Block and Harry McCracken.

Reporters Roundtable # 5: Tablets' uncertain future

It's the obligatory Tablets edition of the Roundtable, this time with even more great and smart tech journalist entrepreneurs from Gdgt (Ryan Block) and Technologizer (Harry McCracken). Watch or listen for the content. Click to the full story to see the notes we used when recording.… Read more

Rafe wonders what could possibly go wrong with Comcast monitoring its users to protect them from malware. In the process, Rafe makes a few comments that have us wondering whether he'll return home to any Internet service at all. Barnes and Noble is rumored to be rolling out an Android e-book reader, while Steve Ballmer claims that the PC is the best e-book reader.

B&N e-book reader reportedly in the works http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10371468-93.html

PCs are … Read more

There's a little panic over the fact that Bing's market share dropped last month, but you have to remember, folks, Bing is young. Rafe puts it in perspective for us. Also, Kindle gets a price cut and goes worldwide, yo. That's big. What is also big is the keylogger network that's hijacking everyone's Web mail accounts. We can help you out with that, a bit.

Another Kindle price cut…and it goes wireless internationally http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/10/06/financial/f210208D88.DTL&tsp=1 … Read more

Viacom may have found a smoking gun in its billion-dollar case against YouTube, but on the other hand, we speculate YouTube may have a smokinger gun. Also the FTC wants you to disclose all that money you've been paid to blog about cleaning products. Or whatever. Even if you just posted on Facebook. You need to make yourself aware of these rules.

Android handsets to Verizon http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10368202-265.html

Microsoft’s Windows phones hit the market http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10367699-56.html… Read more

Should you launch your product at a trade show like Demo or CES, or should you try to drum up interest on your own? This week on the Roundtable, Revision 3 CEO Jim Louderback and Stage Two Consulting's Jeremy Toeman discuss successful and doomed strategies for introducing new products to the market.

Today, we're talking about product launches. The reason we're doing this show now is that the Demo conference just ended, a week after the TechCrunch50 conference. One hundred and twenty products were launched at these shows. Is that smart? Is this how products should be launched? Is there a better way? To talk about this issue in some depth, I have two great guests....

As usual, watch or listen to the podcast for the content. The notes below are for those keeping score at home.

… Read more

In the U.K., you don't have to be in the presence of someone to serve them with legal papers. So now Twitter has become a way to get served. We also are happy that the U.S. government is taking cybersecurity seriously, but maybe they could lay off with the cyber prefix a little. And we try to care more about the Palm Pixi. We really do.

Vista/IE market share slide, Win 7/Firefox/Chrome surge http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=5700… Read more

Or perhaps we should call it OLPC. One laptop per criminal. The idea of letting prisoners use computers is good, but fraught with peril. Also, we start a new PSA campaign where Billy learns that e-mail can be dangerous. And that's one to grow on.

PSP Go arrives, Sony launches 100 games http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=105D7C9D-1A64-67EA-E402F9BD3FAEBCDC

Google Wave First Look http://lifehacker.com/5370738/google-wave-first-look

Google Wave invites for sale on eBay http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/10/01/google-wave-invites-for-sale-on-ebay/… Read more

While the Apple Tablet is much more fashionable to hype, the Microsoft Courier turns out to be very hype-worthy. We also find out, once again, that Rafe knows where he works. And the U.S. has relaxed its grip on the Internet. Good thing? Bad thing? Irrelevant thing? Or over-hyped thing like an Apple tablet?

Everything we know about Apple’s touch-screen tablet http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/apple-tablet-everything/ http://gizmodo.com/5370252/apple-tablet-aiming-to-redefine-newspapers-textbooks-and-magazines

Microsoft’s Courier tablet details emerge … Read more

This week, I'm joined by CNET security expert Elinor Mills in a discussion with Mint CEO Aaron Patzer, whose personal finance site is being acquired by Intuit. We grill Patzer on why he sold the company, the future of Quicken, and the security of online financial data.

I really enjoyed recording this podcast. We had the start-up CEO of the moment in to talk about why he sold his personal finance company, Mint, to Intuit--the company he built Mint to compete with in the first place.

Also, Elinor grills Patzer on the security safeguards in his system. Patzer tells us getting access to Mint data is like initiating self-destruct on the Starship Enterprise: You need three people to give their individual passwords at the same time or no go. Play the podcast for the full content, and for our show notes, including some bonus content from a post-show discussion, keep reading. … Read more