DeWolfe was fielding a few questions in an interview at the TechCrunch50 event in San Francisco with co-host Mike Arrington, who started off the interrogation by asking DeWolfe if he was dating Paris Hilton. The gentlemanly DeWolfe declined to answer the question.

MySpace plans to integrate Google Gears with its platform, according to the social network’s co-founder Chris DeWolfe. Users will be able to access their profiles offline using the Google Gears APIs, but the feature won’t be available for a few months.

Michael Arrington talks with MySpace's Chris DeWolfe at the TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco.

He did talk about the new music service launching this month that will partner with the major labels, offer free streaming, and include some original content from its audience of 120 million members. DeWolfe said that MySpace is very focused on making the new service a success, with more than 70 people, including top MySpace management, working on the project. He was asked if Amazon was providing the downloading capabilities, but declined to answer. MySpace has a strong music foundation, and may be able to make some inroads into the Apple/iTunes territory.

The rebate deal (PDF) runs through the end of October, so you’ve got plenty of time to research the Eee before buying. I’ll admit this is a very attractive price point, but I’d still be more inclined to pay $400-500 on a full-fledged notebook. Agree? Disagree? Inquiring cheapskates wanna know.

Find more deals, coupon codes, and bargains on CNET’s Shopper.com.

(Credit:
Asus)

In case you’re not familiar with the Eee PC, it’s one of the new breed of “Netbooks” that have become incomprehensibly popular in recent months. I say that because I’m not a fan–I prefer a full-size screen and keyboard, and enough processing power to do more than just check e-mail and cruise the Web.

Are you looking for a lightweight, ultraportable PC that’s easy on the wallet? Mwave.com has the Asus Eee PC 900 20G for $294 (after a $65 mail-in rebate). Ground shipping will run you about $11.

commentary

Open sourcing Faceted Search does not, of course, prevent lock-in to the core of Sharepoint but it does make the periphery more valuable. That’s a good strategy for Microsoft, even if it isn’t an obviously good strategy for its customers. Still, I think this is a step in the right direction for the Sharepoint team.

Perhaps it will allow Sharepoint users to tweak their implementations of Faceted Search to better respond to their particular content. Perhaps it will also lead to others studying how Microsoft has developed this functionality and creating alternative, non-Sharepoint approaches to the same problem on other content platforms.

It’s not clear how anyone could use this open-source code beyond Sharepoint, thereby limiting its utility, but I still think it’s a step in the right direction for Microsoft.

In an interesting twist on its Sharepoint strategy, Microsoft has released its Faceted Search webparts (add-ons) under an open-source license. As Microsoft notes, Faceted Search is a “set of web parts that provide intuitive way to refine search results by category (facet).” Faceted Search is designed to overcome the limitations that traditional content categorization and search mechanisms (full-text search or category-by-category browsing) have provided:

A good solution to these problems involves exposing the facets in dynamic taxonomies so that the user can see all of the refinement options at any time. The user can easily switch between a search based approach vs. metadata browsing, using a familiar terminology while recognizing the organization and vocabulary of the data.

Laptop manufacturers were quick to adopt the new platform, and many took the opportunity to significantly revamp their laptop lines. For your convenience, the first five major announcements, which describe a few dozen new laptops, are linked below:

Over the coming weeks, stay tuned to Crave and our laptop reviews page as we highlight and review even more systems that feature Centrino 2.

Lenovo announces small-biz laptops, updates ThinkPads
Fujitsu launches LifeBooks with Centrino 2
Sony unveils four new VAIO lines
Toshiba’s Centrino 2 offering: 3 business laptops
Lenovo adds color to IdeaPads

(Credit:
Sony)

Last night, while the East Coast was crawling into bed and the West Coast was tucking into dessert, Intel was officially launching its new mobile platform, Centrino 2. In addition to new processors, the platform includes an 802.11n wireless card and new integrated graphics with support for high-definition content. The platform also supports graphics switching, which lets you choose between integrated graphics (for longer battery life) and discrete graphics (for better performance).

Like all other USB devices from STT, the Pico D series is backed with lifetime warranty. The series will be available for purchase sometime this week for about $40.

The new Pico D USB drive.

Though tiny in size, measuring only 1.4-inch in length and weighing less than 0.2 ounces, the new Pico D series are shock- and water-resistant.

According to STT, these drives can transfer data at speeds up to 30 megabytes per second. Like the Cosair Flash Voyager Mini, the Pico D achieves the miniature size by using chip-on-board technology. However, the Pico D series offers storage capacity up to 8GB, twice that of the Flash Voyager Mini.

(Credit:
Super Talent Technology)

Maybe he’s right about that, though I’m more interested in a different question. While Yahoo’s hire-wire drama plays out to its final end, what’s in it for the user? Nobody seems ready to seriously talk about that one. Nobody in a position of management authority at any of the companies figuring in the Yahoo sweepstakes has fully articulated why any of the proposed (or rumored) combinations will enrich our computing lives.

This is wallpaper available for download on Electronic Arts' Web site for 'The Godfather' The Game. But where are Yang, Ballmer, Murdoch, and Schmidt?

Will this improve the user experience on Flickr, MSN, or any of the various e-mail clients operated by the respective companies? The same question applies to any of the me-too services that attract millions of people to the respective Web portals each day. Could be there are solid benefits but I still don’t have a clue how the user is going to make out. And that leaves me suspicious about how this all is going to end up.

The latest twist–but hey, it’s only mid-morning on the West Coast so who knows where we’ll be by lunch hour?–has AOL and Yahoo discussing a hookup where they would merge their respective Internet operations. At the same time, Microsoft is said to be talking with Murdoch about making a joint bid. The upshot: Microsoft’s MSN and News Corp.’s Fox Interactive Media unit, which oversees MySpace, would wind up under the same roof as Yahoo.
Don’t forget Google’s Schmidt, sending a steady stream of “we’ve got your back” e-mails to Yang. On Tuesday, the companies announced a limited test of Google advertisements on some Yahoo search pages.

In the end, it may turn out that it was Barzini all along.

At a memorable point in the first Godfather movie, Clemenza inadvertently demonstrated his talent for Wall Street deal-making when he offered this sage advice to Michael Corleone:

In the Yahoo drama, the stand-ins for Clemenza, Tessio, Sonny, Michael, and Tom Hagen feature Jerry Yang, Steve Ballmer, Rupert Murdoch, and Eric Schmidt. The common motive in both? How to screw the other guy before he screws you.

What should we make of all of these hyperventilating suits running around as if their pants were on fire? In a way, I’m impressed by their energy. It’s been a while since Yahoo’s brass appeared so engaged. And now we know how much Schmidt resents Microsoft for making his life miserable at Sun and Novell.

Fred Wilson had an interesting piece up earlier in the day where he offers the delish observation that “all these machinations” are making him ill. But Wilson is coming at this novella from the perspective of a venture capitalist, arguing that the tech industry needs “a new path for liquidity.”

If you understood all that, you’re doing better than most.

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

Listen to the entire debate here.

At a Churchill Club event at the Computer History Museum in San Jose on April 3, Hasso Plattner, co-founder and chairman of SAP, and Marc Benioff, co-founder and CEO of Salesforce.com, debated the future of enterprise software. The debate was moderated by Quentin Hardy of Forbes.

Plattner talked about the need for immutable Web service interfaces. “The most important thing to learn when using services is that we cannot really modify them.” The future is building on top of services and meshing services with each other. He also noted that the new software paradigm will allow developers to monitor and see what users are doing.

Via ZDNet

Following is a video clip from the event. Benioff describes the new era of enterprise software, which “look to the functionality of the past but to values of the consumer companies like Google, eBay, Amazon and Yahoo, who have become massive companies serving millions of users with tremendous complexity but through a new technology model.”

So while were we all fairly impressed with Acer’s plans to introduce new form factors with its upcoming 16-inch Acer Aspire 6920 and the 18.4-inch Acer Aspire 8920, we didn’t expect much of a mainstream consumer push. After all–if U.S. buyers know Acer for anything, it’s probably the company’s overpriced Ferrari-branded laptops.

Earlier this week, we dropped by an Acer news conference in New York where the company made a pitch for getting into the U.S. market in a big way. We’ve heard big talk from Acer before, and they’re a huge player globally (made even bigger by merging with Gateway), but not the first name you think of when shopping for a laptop domestically.

So imagine our surprise to pick up the New York Times the next day, and see a full-page advertisement for the new Gemstone Blue laptops, right in the middle of the “A” section and specifically touting the new CineDash media console (basically some touch-sensitive media buttons arranged somewhat like a traditional remote control). Even better, Friday’s New York Times also had a full-page Acer ad (different image and copy, but for the same laptops).

Who says print is dead?

(Credit: Bandai)

Bandai Press Release

Via TokyoMango

Bandai Noodle Slide

Noodles are serious business in Japan, but that doesn’t mean that the whole family can’t enjoy Bandai’s new somen-making toy that is basically a waterslide for “nagashi somen,” thin somen noodles that are served in a stream of water. The noodles come out of a little house at the top of the slide and end up in a strainer at the bottom.

(Credit:
John Newton)

commentary

It only takes one…to create many converts. There is simply no credible reason to hold back on adopting the Mac anymore. It’s perhaps the best open-source development platform for those who want the power of Unix/Linux with the ease of use of Mac OS X. It runs Windows, if that’s your thing.

In that little room I believe we’re seeing the future of the desktop. If you don’t believe me, check out this little room. It’s called a classroom. And it’s awash in Macs. Many, many Macs.

I talked a few weeks ago about how Alfresco has gone from Dell to the Mac in the space of one year (and dragged along Zimbra and other
Mac-friendly applications to make the process more enjoyable). Two years ago, we had only one Mac (mine). Today, we have a majority of Macs.

Alfresco embraces the Mac