I wouldn't pay $30 Billion, never mind $44 Billion

What you'll have heard is that Microsoft, the lumbering dinosaur business of the 1980s, have finally stopped pussy-footing around and launched a hostile takeover bid for Yahoo!, AOL's contemporary from the infamous DotCom bubble.

AOL bought Time Warner in the heady days of the DotCom bubble using its inflated stock as currency. Ted Turner and his buddies fell for the false allure of the internet hook, line and sinker. Michael Eisner then Chairman and CEO of Disney, balked at the idea of AOL buying Disney or Warner even back then without the benefit of hindsight.

He might have been a flawed leader later in his tenure, and maybe he did lead Disney down another internet blind alley in the form of Go.com, but he can be commended for seeing that AOL was, in terms of core value, worthless.

The bottom fell out of the DotCom bubble shortly thereafter. AOL Time Warner's stocks plunged, AOL itself became increasingly a non-issue. Yahoo!, a major player in the key search market, also suffered.

And then, came the internet's pimp. Google went from strength to strength whilst Yahoo! floundered. A bewildered and confused Microsoft continued futile attempts to leverage its Windows dominance to sell users on their own internet services. Users turned over and yawned.

And so it has been ever since. Yahoo! continues to flounder, now valued at roughly $22 a share. Microsoft, increasingly aware that it is propped up by Office and Windows and even these products are facing problems, is using money to expand rather than innovation. The company is too big, too widely spread and ultimately too IBM to do anything else.

Microsoft lacks a true creative visionary, never mind leader. It's cash-rich and has many global brands it's failing to leverage. Somewhat like the beleaguered Apple of the mid-90s. And the newly empowered CEO is looking outside to plug the holes in the business.

When Apple bought NeXT from Steve Jobs and co., they did not just move NeXT's resources into Apple. What was Apple was removed. In a startling reverse take over, funded by Apple, the Old Apple gave way to what has been called The New Apple, the second Jobsian Apple.

But here's the thing, there already was a new Apple. It was called NeXT. All Apple had done was make the new Apple, Apple. What was in it for NeXT? After all, they already had the new Apple. Well it was the word "Apple". Steve Jobs made it clear, Apple's main asset is its brand.

So Ballmer is looking to acquire Yahoo!, Microsoft has lumbered down a blind alley and needs guidance out and Yahoo! needs a back door into more users to compete with Google.

So what's going to happen? I'll give you a hint: say good bye to Yahoo! and Microsoft. Oh sure, the names will stay. But Yahoo-Microsoft will see which management team has the best leadership vision and follow it. For both Microsoft's products and those of both Yahoo! and Microsoft.

Meanwhile, we hear that Amazon has bought Audible. Apple would have been well-advised to stop this. Audible would have been a good by for them too, allowing them to sell Audiobooks on iTunes in a more direct manner. It's not a huge loss for Apple, but Amazon is rapidly spreading outwards into new realms. Someone needs to worry.

Hey, maybe they can use their inflated stock to form Amazon-Apple Yahoo!-Microsoft Time Warner (AOL Time Warner is seeking to divest itself of the worthless AOL, hence their name would be dropped).

Jens Out

Telephone

Well, I bought the phone. There were only 3 left and 2 had fairly beat up boxes. But I got one and it's sitting on my desk right now, just waiting for me to grab the necessary box to connect it to the VoIP network.

I'll be doing a review just as soon as I have it set up. I'll be releasing it initially on All Your Disney, but I might reprint it here with a tighter focus on telephony rather than the phone.

Phones are a really interesting area right now. Between Apple's iPhone and the OpenMoko project, mobile phones are going through their long-awaited revolution. Meanwhile, VoIP is making "landline" telephony simpler and better - both through cheaper services and great ideas like GrandCentral.

And all the while, the conventional landline operators are making efforts to move outward - BT for example is launching an IPTV service - and their new competitors are moving in on their territory - BSkyB offers Broadband now..!?

Yes, it's truly a time of change for telephony.

And meanwhile, the allegedly advancing television sector continues to diapoint. Between lacklustre uptake of HD broadcast and slow changes to aging systems, TV has lost a lot of its wonder.

A lot of the problem is that companies are failing to see the bigger picture. The internet is the obvious venue for expansion, yet the companies with the power continue to limit the expansion of TV into the internet. BT Vision has internet, but it's a sandbox.

iTunes TV Shows is great, but the broadcasters are being jerks.

BBC's iPlayer is hideoulsy crippled.

4OD makes me feel sick just thinking about it.

Come on TV companies, get your heads in the game.

Jens Out

MTV Ditches Microsoft for...REAL?

You couldn't make this shit up. CES 06, Microsoft and MTV launch this "amazing new" digital music store, to compete with Apple's dominant iTunes offering. Named, horrifically, Urge, it was the flagship store in the PlaysForSure family, and thus Microsoft's flagship store.

Then, in an uncharacteristic act, Microsoft ditch the platform system they had used for years (Think Windows PCs) and moved to the Apple, vertically integrated model, with Zune. Zune is top-down Microsoft. Store, software and the hardware player.

Basically, they'd screwed MTV over.

So now, MTV - presumably smarting over this snub - have decided that Urge is no longer in their best interests either.

They've hopped into bed with Real and its lacklustre Rhapsody store.

I mean, seriously...Real? You might as well just sell a 3 by 5 card with "MTV Music Download" written on it for all the use it will get and sales you'll make.

Media executives are idiots.

Jens Out

PS: Should any Disney executives be reading, you are excluded from the above statement. First into bed with iTunes. Good move. By the way, I have an extensive knowledge of your company and an uncommon skill at business. If you need someone to run something (Especially something in the UK) and don't mind taking a risk, look me up ;)

Joost

This is a landmark. 20th post. That's commitment for you - noone's reading this.

After finally getting into the Joost Beta (After finally just asking for an invite - my application didn't work right), I've been playing around with it for a while.

Yeah, the rumours are true. It's pretty okay, I guess. The thing is, as "yeah, that's pretty cool I guess" as it is, Joost is a window to the future.

This pre-release version of Joost might be simply something cool to watch when bored, or put in the background to web browsing, but I can see in it the potential that in the future, this is what TV will be.

The playback system is a little primitive (Playlists of videos), but in the culmination of the Joost idea, more old-media style broadcasting will be available too (Not instead of, just as well. Playlist TV is a medium that has potential so long as it's done right)

So, Joost. Touch the future as it's not even in the oven yet.

In other news, Super Mario Galaxy is out on the 1st of June over here in the UK according to IGN. This changes EVERYTHING. I was going to buy Twilight Princes and/or Red Steel around that time, but with Super Mario Galaxy coming out, my path is clear.

I'm-ah coming Mario!

Feel good,
Jens

PS: Don't trust the Trusted Computing. As FSR tell us, they don't just want it around to stop looting.

The future

I'm noticing some worrying precedents being set. This is a modern, electronically connected world. You should know that, here I am - a freelance journalist - communicating with you via an entirely internet-based publication medium. And yet, we live in a world run by people who don't understand. The future is on computers; efficiency, progress, technology and liberalism are the ways of the future.

And yet, those with power who are in touch with the digital wave of the future, are too hung up on protecting old media and monitoring our activities. I don't trust Trusted Computing, because I see no need for it. DRM creates markets with no competition.

The internet is anarchy. In the future, anarchy will reign offline too. Unless, of course, governance changes. Proponents of the free media movement recently rallied around the idea of starting their own country (A movement spearheaded by one of the most prominent players in the Bit Torrent medium).

If things don't change, civil unrest will rise and civil war can't be far behind.

Peace out,
Live Connected,
Jens