Posts tagged Kills
Dell Kills Its Public Cloud, Continues To Flail In Post-PC Era
May 21st
Dell is a computer company desperately in search of a new market as the desktop and laptop PCs dwindles. But the Austin-based company is finding that that an elusive target.
Public Cloud? That’s So 2011
Yesterday the company announced it was dropping Dell Cloud, its home-grown infrastructure-as-a-service public cloud service. It is also pulling the plug on its planned OpenStack-based public cloud service and online storage service before they even get off the ground.
Dell isn’t out the cloud game altogether, mind you – it will be reselling public cloud services through its new Dell Cloud Partner Program. And it’s still working on private cloud offerings.
Dell’s decision to drop its program after only two years isn’t terribly surprising – it was regarded as pricey compared to similar offerings from HP and IBM, and going head to head with similar services from Amazon Web Services and Google without good pricing and a very solid support system is tantamount to suicide these days.
Bring On The Dongles
But Dell is still on the hunt for new revenue. Reports out today indicate that the hardware maker will be releasing a new thumb-drive PC, codenamed Project Ophelia, this July for a reported $100.
PC World has revealed that the device will be based on Android and can be plugged into a TV or monitor via the HDMI port. File storage will be handled via Wyse’s PocketCloud.
Dell wants to get this device in the hands of telecomm carriers, who could use Ophelia to deliver streaming TV to customers who don’t currently have smart TVs or devices like Roku or Apple TV to pull in online content.
Developers will get their hands on the PC-on-a-stick first, in order to build Android apps and build up a collection of TV-friendly apps. Since there’s a lot of Wyse thin-client tech packed into this thing, presumably there will be some capability to have portability between home and work.
This is an interesting concept, save for the fact that there are already similar and cheaper devices on the market now. The concept of a dongle PC is not new, and to date, they haven’t really taken off.
The idea also ignores the very real trend away from vertical screen and keyboard/mouse devices to handheld tablets and smartphones. While Ophelia devices would give you portability, you still need a mouse, keyboard and screen to use these things… so the portability is constrained. And if I’m essentially recreating a PC-like portable work setup anyway, why not just use a laptop?
I suspect that’s why Dell is emphasizing the telecom angle when it pitches these things. Carriers could offer Ophelia with video and data plans, maybe. But it’s hard to imagine consumers buying these things off the shelf when there are other similarly priced set-top devices already on the market and proven to work.
Dell is clearly throwing a lot of things against the wall to see what sticks. Public cloud didn’t work, and it’s difficult to see Project Ophelia working out, either. Servers, however, aren’t doing badly right now. Perhaps Dell should stick to what it knows best.
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Google Kills Meebo Bar to Focus on Google+ Sign-In
Apr 29th
Google will discontinue the Meebo toolbar and hopes that users will switch to Google+ and its single sign on. Google acquired Meebo for about $100 million last summer. The Meebo Bar will stop loading on publisher sites on June 6.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Google Kills Instant Previews, Adds New Drop-Down Menu to Search Results
Apr 26th
Google Instant Previews, which gave searchers a sneak peek of a website by hovering over a magnifying glass icon, has been removed due to low usage. Now Google has added a drop-down to view Cached or Similar results, or Share a page on Google+.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Google Kills Blocked Sites Search Feature
Mar 25th
Remember Google’s search feature that let you block websites? The one that launched in March 2011, expanded globally in September 2011, and then vanished and became useless by January 2012 and forgotten soon after? It’s now officially discontinued.
View full post on Search Engine Watch – Latest
Twitter Kills Off Tweetdeck – R.I.P. Third-Party Clients
Mar 4th
The Twitter client end times are nigh. Well, to be fair, they’ve been nigh for a while now – so I guess now the end times are here.
In a blog post today, Twitter announced that it would formally discontinue support for TweetDeck’s trio of non-web apps, TweetDeck for iPhone, Android and AIR. The clients will be pulled from their app stores in early May, so you can expect considerable wonkiness thereafter.
Twitter, The Control Freak
The death of the TweetDeck trifecta marks a formal end to the heyday of third-party Twitter clients. Last year, as Twitter began to tighten its guidelines, the company effectively wrestled developers into a choke-hold. Along the way, many great clients and apps folded, deeming it too risky to pour themselves into projects that could be killed by Twitter at a moment’s notice. The three clients that Twitter will no longer support are all powered by its old API v1, which the company already announced plans to retire.
Power Users Left In The Cold
What are we left with? Well, acccording to its blog, Twitter will rally around the “modern, web-based version of TweetDeck – namely TweetDeck for web and TweetDeck the Chrome app. Neither option is atrocious in its own right, but it’s slim pickings for power users these days – many of whom remain loyal to the AIR version of TweetDeck, in spite of its quirks.
Twitter Is A Platform, Not An App
Twitter’s plan to evolve beyond a platform and into a suite of apps has been building momentum for years. Twitter acquired TweetDeck back in 2011 and casual Twitter client Tweetie before that, in 2010.
Still, the vestigial remains of half-abandoned clients are just as much of a mess than ever – and the fact that Twitter is keeping the TweetDeck branding isn’t helping. At its essence, Twitter is still more of a platform than it is an app. But as its development strangehold tightens, the ample customization of a thriving ecosystem will soon be the stuff of archived tweets.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
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Yahoo, Now A “Technology Company,” Kills Off Its Lamest Products
Mar 2nd
The Yahoo evolution continues – this time with a few more swings of the axe.
Friday, Yahoo announced that it would be sunsetting a handful of its products in a move consistent with CEO Marissa Mayer’s plan to aggressively prune the unruly conglomerate.
Out With The Old, In With The Cool
Yahoo will be terminating some of its more vestigial products, which is exactly what it needs to do. Cleaning out the old, rotten stuff will help rid the company of its unhip World Wide Web-esque vibe. These soon-to-be-dead products will join the ranks of some of Yahoo’s mobile apps, which are next for the chopping block. Here’s the list of what the big Y! will jettison:
- Yahoo! Message Boards website
- Yahoo! app for BlackBerry
- Yahoo! Avatars
- Yahoo! Updates API
- Yahoo! Sports IQ
- Yahoo! App Search
- Yahoo! Clues (beta)
- Yahoo! Updates API
It’s hard to say what, if anything, will be missed on that list. Yahoo’s Message Boards seem like they might still show some signs of (protozoan) life. But Yahoo Avatars might have been singlehandedly perpetuating the company’s out-of-touch, mid-1990s image. (Seriously, have you seen those things?)
On Yahoo’s Yodel Anecdotal blog (which I really wish had made the list), Jay Rossiter, the company’s Executive Vice President of Platforms, explains the culling with a shout out to recent updates on Flickr and Yahoo! Mail, two Yahoo products people actually use. According to Rossiter, Yahoo wants to hang onto only products that are a “daily habit that still resonates.” The goal is to sharpen the company’s focus on its brand new Mayer-era direction.
Yahoo Is Now A “Technology Company”
In another decisive move that bubbled up quietly Friday via an SEC filing, Yahoo now fashions itself as a “global technology company.” For the past few years, Yahoo had been resolutely calling itself a “digital media company,” so the change is a bit curious, though the timing isn’t. Here are the old and new Yahoo boilerplate excerpts, with the updated language highlighted:
Old: Yahoo! Inc., together with its consolidated subsidiaries… is a premier digital media company. Through our proprietary technology and insights, Yahoo! delivers personalized digital content and experiences, across devices and around the globe, to vast audiences.”
New: “Yahoo! Inc., together with its consolidated subsidiaries… is a global technology company focused on making the world’s daily habits inspiring and entertaining. We provide a variety of products and services, many of them personalized, including search, content, and communications tools—all daily habits for hundreds of millions of users, on the Web and on mobile devices.”
Between the quiet rebranding and these ancient products galloping off into the sunset, Yahoo is increasingly focused on the one thing that certainly needs the attention – the company itself.
Image of axe courtesy of Shutterstock.
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Say A Prayer; Google Kills Prayer Times
Aug 15th
About a year ago, Google introduced a new rich snippets for prayer times. That rich snippet has now been decommissioned due to lack of webmaster implementation. The purpose was to show useful prayer times for those who are searching Google for Islamic, Jewish or other prayer times in the Google…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
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Weekly Wrap-Up: U.S. Wineries Love Facebook, Microsoft Kills Windows Live Branding, Google Adds Shopping Results to Search and More
Jun 2nd
Most U.S. wineries have a presence on social media. Microsoft kills the confusing Windows “Live” brand. Google does more monkeying around with the search results page. Learn more about these stories and many more in the ReadWriteWeb Weekly Wrap-Up.
After the jump you’ll find more of this week’s top news stories on some of the key topics that are shaping the Web – Location, App Stores and Real-Time Web – plus highlights from some of our six channels. Read on for more.
94% of U.S. Wineries Are On Facebook, 73% on Twitter
A survey from ABLE Social Media Marketing found that most U.S. wineries are on Facebook and Twitter. The study covered both French and U.S. wineries, and French social media usage was not as widespread. To see the full study, and Richard’s observations, check out 94% of U.S. Wineries Are On Facebook, 73% on Twitter.
Giving iPad PowerPoint Presentations Just Got a Lot Better
Microsoft finally killed the confusing “Windows Live” branding it has used since 2005 as its primary online brand. It will now consolidate messaging around promotion of its biggest software brand, Windows OS, and an identity system, creatively called a “Microsoft Account.” To learn more about why its making the switch, read Why Microsoft Killed Windows Live.
Google Launches Full-Scale Shopping in Search
This week Google began offering additional options for advertisers who want to sell their products via Search. The changes come close to Paid Inclusion, but are clearly marked and Jon Mitchell feels that Google hasn’t comprimised organic search. Read more about Jon’s thoughts on this big change, and how the SERPs will change in Google Launches Full-Scale Shopping in Search.
More Top Stories
BlackBerry CEO Hints Research In Motion May Be Up For Sale
Research In Motion is a company in transition. It is going from a global-powerhouse smartphone maker to a struggling equipment manufacturer with too much company bloat, an aging operating system and a declining user base. In a letter to investors, CEO Thorsten Heins acknowledged that RIM had contacted bankers from J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital Markets to assist RIM in reviewing its financial stability and goals. In essence, Heins said that RIM, or at least parts of it, may be up for sale. More
Tim Cook at the D Conference: Between the Lines
Apple boss Tim Cook spoke Tuesday night at the D10 conference, his first major public interview since becoming CEO of Apple last year. His chat touched on everything from what he learned from Steve Jobs to his big-picture goal for Apple: to build great products, of course. But as always, when a big-company CEO like Cook speaks, the most interesting stuff is what he didn’t say. More
Facebook Can’t Have a Phone Until It Becomes an Operating System
One thing to realize about Facebook is that it is a platform. A platform allows developers and companies to build on top of it, build apps for it and interact with it through a variety of mediums. In that way, Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android are both platforms, but Android and iOS are also operating systems – complex sets of software that connect hardware to the platform. Facebook is a fine platform, but it is not an operating system. And that is going to make the company’s attempt at building a “Facebook Phone” extremely difficult. More
More Bad News For HP: The New Google Chromebook Compared to a Typical HP Laptop
On May 29th, Google announced two new computers, the latest Chromebook laptop and a new desktop machine called the Chromebox. After reading Jon Mitchell’s thorough review, it became apparent that there’s now very little difference in user experience between the Chromebook and a traditional laptop (for example, one from HP that runs on a Windows OS). Should traditional PC manufacturers such as HP – not to mention the world’s biggest software provider for laptops, Microsoft – be worried about this? You bet they should. More
Be sure to check out our Hangout video where we discuss the Chromebook and how it compares to a low-cost laptop.
The Flame Virus: Spyware on an Unprecedented Scale
Security researchers recently discovered one of the most complex instances of computer malware on record. Flame, which also goes by the names SkyWiper and Viper, has infected hundreds of computers across the Middle East and Europe. What does it do? Where did it come from? Who unleashed it? More
Brands Step Up Open Graph Efforts on Facebook
Brands are increasingly abandoning efforts to get users to “like” their Facebook pages and instead focusing their marketing efforts on Open Graph, the protocol Facebook uses to reflect third-party app use in a user’s social activity. More
Why Evernote’s Hello App Is Different on iPhone and Android
Evernote’s Hello app for iPhone and Android devices helps you remember people you meet. But here’s the rub: Each platform offers different features. In fact, the Android version, released on Wednesday, leapfrogs the older iPhone app with a bunch of cool goodies. Why not give the iPhone the same love? Evernote CEO Phil Libin explains his multiplatform strategy. More
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- Facebook Can’t Have a Phone Until It Becomes an Operating System
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StumbleUpon Kills Direct Links, iFrames Everything
Feb 1st
StumbleUpon, who happens to be one of the more popular and successful social media sites with over 20 million users (doubling from 10 million in about a year and a half), recently launched one of the biggest redesigns I can remember… basically changing everything about the site as a whole. Having…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
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Weekly Wrap-up: Cartel Kills Another Journalist in Mexico and More
Nov 11th
Another journalist was killed for speaking out against drug cartel, Las Zetas. Dan reviews the mobile apps released for October. Grove.io promises a better IRC experience. All of this and more in the ReadWriteWeb Weekly Wrap-up.
After the jump you’ll find more of this week’s top news stories on some of the key topics that are shaping the Web – Location, App Stores and Real-Time Web – plus highlights from some of our six channels. Read on for more.
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Top Stories of the Week
Drug Cartel Murders Another Blogger [Updated]
Journalism in Mexico is dangerous. More than a dozen men and women who report on the drug cartel, Las Zetas, have been savagely murdered. The most recent casualty of this war is Rascatripas. His body, hung from the same overpass as last month’s double murder of journalists, was adorned with a sign that said, in Spanish, “This happened to me for not understanding that I shouldn’t report on the social networks.”
ReadWriteWeb commenter iamdamian summed it up best:
New iPhone, iPad and Android Apps for October 2011
Every month, as a labor of love, Dan Rowinski puts together a list of the most interesting apps that were released, along with any updates you need to see. Check it out and give us your feedback.
Grove.io: Hosted, Searchable IRC Chat For Teams
IRC has some annoyances, but all in all, it’s a darn fine protocol that has served us well for years. Leah Culver and Jori Lallo, both of Convore, have created Grove which promises to remove some of the IRC hurdles, like hosting, so that we can continue to use this open protocol with ease.
ReadWriteWeb Commenter, David Yang is hopeful:
ReadWriteWeb Meetups Around the World – TUESDAY 11/15
Only a few days left before our ReadWriteWeb worldwide technology meetup on November 15! There are already some amazing meetups planned in Tokyo, Seoul, Vladivostok, Russia, Amsterdam, New Zealand, Boston, MA, St. Louis, MO, Washington, DC and more. Don’t see your city listed? Add it in one click!
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