Facebook is battling a lawsuit filed by a New York man who claims he owns 84 percent of the social-networking company.

Paul D. Ceglia of Wellsville, N.Y., claims in a lawsuit (see below) that he entered into a contract with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2003 to design and develop a Web site that would ultimately become the social-networking giant. The contract entitled Ceglia to a $1,000 fee and a 50 percent stake in the final product, which eventually launched as TheFacebook.com, according to the suit, which was filed in the Supreme Court of New York’s Allegany County on June 30.

The suit also claims Zuckerberg agreed to pay Ceglia an additional 1 percent stake per day until the Web site is completed, giving Ceglia an 84 percent stake in the company as of February 4, 2004.

Judge Thomas Brown issued a temporary restraining order blocking any transfer of assets earlier this month after Facebook requested the case be dismissed.

Privately held Facebook dismissed the suit as frivolous.

“We believe this suit is completely frivolous and we will fight it vigorously,” Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said in a statement.

The company, which has nearly 500 million users, is estimated to be worth $6.5 billion after receiving a $200 million investment from the Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies in 2009. Zuckerberg’s fortune was estimated by Forbes magazine earlier this year to be $4 billion.

In 2009, New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo obtained a restraining order against Allegany Pellets, a western New York wood pellet company owned by Ceglia and his wife Iasia. Cuomo accused the company of defrauding consumers by taking $200,000 in orders but not delivering any products or issuing any refunds. That case is reportedly ongoing.

Ceglia did not immediately return a call requesting comment.

Ceglia v. Zuckerberg complaint

I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.

First, there’s “Open”.

Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.

Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.

Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android’s browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft’s uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers.

Second, there’s the “full web”.

Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.

Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.

Third, there’s reliability, security and performance.

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?

Fourth, there’s battery life.

To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.

Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.

When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads.

Fifth, there’s Touch.

Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?

Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices.

Sixth, the most important reason.

Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices.

We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.

Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.

Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins – we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.

Conclusions.

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 200,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.

New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.

Steve Jobs
April, 2010

PayPal Mobile 2.0 [iTunes link] appeared in the App Store on March 15 with an array of new features, including the ability to “bump” money to friends. PayPal worked with the developers from Bump Technologies, the company that makes the Bump iPhone app, to make the process of sending money faster and more fun.

PayPal Mobile 2.0 for iPhone is just part of PayPal’s growing focus on mobile technologies. Last November, PayPal launched the PayPal X Developer Network to help developers integrate the company’s backend technology with mobile and web applications. Some of the early fruits of the program were on display at DEMO last month, with the announcement of the first winners of the PayPal X Developer Challenge.

In addition to the new iPhone app for consumers, PayPal also has an iPhone software development kit (SDK) in private beta, which allows developers to plug into the PayPal ecosystem with their own apps. PayPal also has plans to bring an SDK to the Android and BlackBerry platforms.

Have you used the new PayPal iPhone app? What do you think?

Gaga’s music videos hold three spots in the 65-video 100 Million Club — one for “Poker Face” (374,606,128), one for “Just Dance” (272,941,674) and one for “Bad Romance” (360,020,327). Add them up and you get just over one billion views. She won’t occupy the club alone for long, though; the Twilight saga is close behind with 980 million and Soulja Boy is at 860 million.

Gaga is primarily a hit on Vevo and YouTube; 25% of Vevo’s visitors only have eyes for her. The pop star has attracted Internet attention elsewhere, too. A Facebook group of more than 100,000 people initiated National Lady Gaga Day about a month ago, and her latest Internet hit is her “Telephone” music video with Beyoncé.

The point is, you can’t escape Gaga on the Internet. She’s everywhere right now. We welcome speculation as to exactly why the web loves her so, so let us know in the comments if you have any ideas.

In the meantime, here are Gaga’s three 100 Million Club hits.

Poker Face

Bad Romance

Just Dance

Many personal tools have business applicability. For instance,Facebook enables you to connect and share with the people in your life. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with others. People can add friends, send them messages, and update their personal profiles to notify friends about themselves. However, in a Business 2.0 context large organizations can connect all of their employees, or members, with Facebook. Some are finding an added advantage of using an internal, secure version of Facebook.. This has helped organizations to dramatically increase their internal networking and collaboration. Ask yourself, “Could we use Facebook, or our own internal version, to get people to collaborate at a higher level?”

Twitter is a bit different, as a micro-blogging service that allows friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of short, quick answers using no more than 140 characters per message. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or co-workers. Users can receive updates via the Twitter website or other social networking sights such as Facebook. Many young people use Twitter for answering the question: What are you doing? Business users could change that question to: What problem are you trying to solve? Several companies have used this as a fast way to solve problems. Hotels, airlines, and airports are using Twitter to pitch services, travel updates, and respond to travelers needs. Business users should ask themselves, “Could we use Twitter to solve problems faster with our organization or our customers?”

Wikipedia has been around for a while. A free online encyclopedia, anyone can use Wikipedia to find information on virtually any topic. Anyone can edit the content as well. A large manufacturing company with engineers in locations around the world increased problem solving and collaboration by creating an internal, secure version of Wikipedia for sharing information on parts and service offerings as well as repair and maintenance instructions. Retailers and suppliers could create a version of Wikipedia to foster education and training as well as enhanced information sharing.
YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view, and share video clips. Businesses are posting humorous commercial videos to generate interest in their products with great success. The more entertaining it is, the more people watch it. Business partners could create a YouTube like channel for the purpose of educating and training.

Digg is a social news website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the internet, by submitting and accessing links and stories. Voting stories thumbs up or a thumb down is the site’s cornerstone function, respectively called digging and burying. Many organizations have found this to be a good way to track the most interesting advances in technology or the most useful business news. Large organizations can create their own internal version for sharing what employees consider the most useful information. Similarly, Delicious is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. It uses a non-hierarchical classification system in which users can tag each of their bookmarks with freely chosen index terms. Business users can share their most useful websites with co-workers or business partners. If a customer purchases a product, sellers could share relevant bookmarks that keep the customer coming back for more information and hopefully more products.

Still, there are some tools built for exclusively Business 2.0 purpose, such a Wiki-a collaborative web page or collection of web pages designed to enable anyone to create a quick web page that allows visitors to search the Wiki’s content and edit the content in real time, as well as view updates since their last visit. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. On a moderated Wiki, owners review comments before additions to the main body of the topic. Additional features include calendar sharing, live AV conferencing, RSS feeds, and more.

LinkedIn is a business-oriented professional networking website for exchanging information, ideas, and opportunities. There are over 35 million registered users spanning 170 industries actively networking with each other. For example, large insurance companies use LinkedIn to foster networking with their independent sales representatives. HR professionals from all over the world could use LinkedIn to share best practices. Could you use LinkedIn to expand your organizational network for enhanced knowledge sharing?

Cloud Computing is a sometimes confusing term referring to, where some or all of the storage, software, IT processes, and data center facilities you use can exist on your provider’s server, which is maintained and cared for by your provider, giving you 24/7 access from any device anywhere. The cost of upgrading hardware and software, maintenance, and associated IT labor costs can be dramatically reduced or eliminated. Currently, the ideal organization would be any size company that’s facing big investments in computing and communications infrastructure. For example, Amazon.com can give you an entire e-commerce back end. Software as a Service (SaaS) such as SalesForce.com has a CRM package, SciQuest has a spend management package, and Google, Microsoft and others have a suite of offerings. It’s possible your business could use cloud computing and SaaS to streamline your IT needs.

By reframing the use of social networking technology, companies can increase communication, collaboration, problem solving, and competitive advantage with little cost. Remember, many of these tools are free or nearly free, making them accessible to even the smallest of businesses. Therefore, the sooner you embrace Business 2.0 and put it to work for you, the faster you can penetrate new markets and win the lion’s share of business.

We are continuing to deliver on that vision today with two new announcements. First, we’re proud to announce the public beta of LinkedIn for Outlook, which will enable our millions of Office 2010 Beta users to connect the OSC to a public network for the first time. Second, we’re excited to announce partnerships with Facebook — the most popular social Web site in the world, and MySpace — a leading social platform connecting people through expression, content, and culture.

LinkedIn for Outlook brings together the most popular professional network with the world’s leading professional Inbox. Here are some of the things you can do today by downloading the beta:

• Connect to your LinkedIn account to view your colleagues’ status updates and photos next to an e-mail message they sent you.
• Your colleagues’ latest contact information from LinkedIn automatically updates his or her Outlook contact. Whenever someone changes a phone number, e-mail address, or other contact details, it’s automatically updated in Outlook — you are always up to date.
• Synchronize your mobile phone with Outlook to stay up-to-date — you don’t have to worry about keeping track of new phone numbers and contact info — contacts’ information from the Web is synchronized to your mobile phone.
• Grow your professional network directly from within your Inbox — add colleagues with one click.

We are proud to continue partnering with LinkedIn and we want to congratulate them on a job well done. With this beta, our customers are able to stay connected to their network without leaving the Outlook Inbox.

Our vision for Outlook (and the OSC) is to provide a communications hub that is vital to both professional and personal communications; by integrating with both Facebook and MySpace, Outlook 2010 enables you to connect not only to co-workers and colleagues, but with all of your friends and family within your Outlook Inbox.

Facebook for Outlook

You can view friends’ activities, photos, and status updates within Outlook — as well as grow your network by adding friends from the same view. Both Facebook for Outlook and MySpace for Outlook will be available later this year as our official release of Office 2010 approaches.

Finally, its important to mention that with multiple professional and social networks available for the Outlook Social Connector, the design of the OSC is such that your privacy and permissions settings on each of the networks you use are represented and respected within this experience. For example, if your profile photo and job title are publicly listed on a given network, then OSC users will see your photo and job title when receiving an e-mail from you (if they use that same network). Similarly, if you choose to restrict profile access on a given network, the OSC will respect that privacy. The goal of the OSC is not to create another social network or set of privacy settings for you to manage, but rather to bring the networks you already value and use to the Outlook experience.

To recap, here is what you can do today to get started with the Outlook Social Connector.

1. Download the Office 2010 Beta at www.Office.com/beta
2. Download the latest beta version of the Outlook Social Connector from the Microsoft Download Center.
3. Get the LinkedIn download for the Outlook Social Connector at www.LinkedIn.com/outlook.
4. Keep watching the Outlook team blog for availability of the Facebook and MySpace download for the Outlook Social Connector at http://blogs.msdn.com/outlook/.

Note To use LinkedIn for Outlook requires the latest version of the Outlook Social Connector, which supports the 32-bit English version of the official Microsoft Office 2010 Beta. The beta of the Outlook Social Connector is provided as-is, is subject to change without notice, and does not include formal product support from Microsoft.

Now there is a new clock that shows the percentage of new apps approved within the last seven days as well as the percentage of apps updated approved within the last 7 days. Right now the percentages are locked in at 99% for updates and 98% for new apps.

This shows that Apple is striving to improve the developer experience after some bad press received from the review process.

Imagine it: Get all of Condé Nast and every New York newspaper in your pocket for five years. For the low, low price of $10,000, we’ll also throw in a free Apple iPad!

He explains on the Joe Zeff Design blog:

Love it or hate it, the iPad remains the publishing industry’s best chance at resurrection, but only if enough consumers buy in. The price tag is the biggest obstacle — $499 for an iPlane Jane model or $629 plus monthly service for 3G-powered Pad. But what if the publishing industry helped to defray that cost, bundling an iPad with a multi-year subscription to hundreds of newspapers and magazines? It’s a short-term investment that could pay off handsomely, and one of many options that should be considered in order to lure a new generation of readers to a new world of possibilities.

As Zeff notes, this is actually an old-school model.

Maybe it’s time for Sports Illustrated to bring back the sneaker phone. That’s what it took in 1991 to get people to subscribe to SI, and it might be what’s needed to sell a tablet version of the magazine two decades later.

Watch the original SI commercial for the sneaker phone.

Google has just announced the news that it’s joining the long list of companies that will no longer support IE6. Once Google begins phasing out support for the archaic browser, Google Docs and Google Sites will be the first to go, but we should expect most Google products to become much less functional in IE6 in 2010.

Google writes:

“Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet ExplorerInternet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We’re also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites. As a result you may find that from March 1 key functionality within these products — as well as new Docs and Sites features — won’t work properly in older browsers.”

For a more in-depth look at why IE6 is a problematic browser, take a look at this post and then read up on a few more key reasons — think security and the fact that various governments are anti-IE .

Consumer sales of Windows 7 buoyed Microsoft to report record earnings, even after deferrals were figured in. Microsoft reported net income of $6.66 billion, or 74 cents a share, on revenue of $19.02 billion, which included $1.71 billion in Windows 7 deferred revenue for the quarter.

As part of that announcement, Microsoft reported that it has sold more than 60 million Windows 7 licenses to date. The combined Windows and the Windows Live division had operating income of $5.39 billion on revenue of $6.9 billion, compared to the year-ago quarter’s operating income of $2.71 billion on revenue of $4.06 billion.

Business sales of Windows 7 — unsurprisingly, given typical enterprise sales, testing and deployment cycles — have yet to kick in for Windows 7. That isn’t because business users are waiting for Windows 7 Service Pack (SP) 1, which is widely expected to ship some time this calendar year, Microsoft officials said. In fact, Microsoft is seeing more business activity around upgrades to the latest version of Windows than it has with previous launches, according to Microsoft’s new Chief Financial Officer Peter Klein.

“People want Windows 7 on all devices on all form factors,” said Klein during today’s call with Wall Street analysts. (In case you were wondering, that question wasn’t prompted by a question about the Apple iPad. Nobody asked about it during the Q&A session.)

Klein noted that netbooks currently comprise about 11 percent of the PC market and Windows is currently on 90 percent of these machines. Windows 7 is more than half of that base (XP, and to a much lesser extent, Vista) are on the rest of the Windows netbooks.

Yes, Office is still the other big Microsoft cash cow (with revenues of $4.74 billion for the Business DIvision this quarter), and that unit ended up really kicking in for Microsoft when the economy and Vista sales were down. But in Q2, But Business Division revenues and operating income were both down, compared to the year-ago quarter. Microsoft officials attributed the decline, in part, to the imminent arrival of Office 2010. (Office sales comprise more than 90 percent of the Business Division’s revenues; Dynamics products are the other 10 percent.)

(Detailed breakdowns for each division can be found in Microsoft’s latest 10-Q, filed on January 28.)

Server and Tools held its own (revenues up two percent, primarily because of Enterprise Client Access License (CAL) suites, System Center and SQL Server). But services/consulting revenues were down two percent, or $32 million. The Online Services Division (the search/advertising unit) is still in the red. Online access (dial-up) continues to plummet, and online advertising was off. In Entertainment and Devices, gaming console and game sales were down, but Xbox Live revenues were up.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown by division of revenue and operating income (click on the image below to enlarge).

Microsoft cut 800 jobs in the second quarter of FY 2010 and spent $59 million in severance payments. No analyst on today’s call asked whether there would be more layoffs planned for this year. The Softies did say they planned to continue to keep a tight rein on costs. While the Windows division spent more than usual on sales/marketing because of Windows 7 launch-related activities and ads, other divisions cut back on not just headcount, but also sales and marketing, as well as research and development expenses.

If my friends who work with or for Apple and in the press hadn’t built it up as mind blowing it wouldn’t have been disappointing, but this was a case where expectations got too big and what showed up didn’t meet them. Come on, no radically new way to interact? No Flash? No full OS? No Camera? No Verizon?

I was expecting a 10.0 and an 8.7 showed up.

But if you compare it to what I would have given Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer at CES (I would have scored that a 4.9, mostly because they showed clips of a really cool new Halo coming later this year) then it blows away the competition (which I expected when I wrote about Steve Ballmer’s Tablet bumbles last night).
.

Watch Financial Times’ first hands on video and you get a sense of why it is so much better than Microsoft’s tablets, though. Apple delivered a consistent and deep touch experience.

But, now, where does today’s announcements leave Google and Microsoft?

I had Google’s Don Dodge (developer advocate) over to watch the Apple announcements today, and I saw several places where Apple was trying to limit Google’s ability to grow. Maps, calendar, Keynote (presentation software) and email on the iPad are all very pretty (we’ll see how good they are when we actually are able to use a device for more than 10 minutes) and compete very effectively against Google’s current offerings.

And against Microsoft I now see that Apple has just eviscerated Microsoft’s mobile strategy with a family of products that will be hard for Microsoft to compete against. But the damage to Microsoft goes further. I see Apple now going after the Xbox and putting a wall around Microsoft’s home entertainment dreams so it won’t be able to grow much further.

Many peoples are using iPhones to play games and watch videos more and more and the iPad will continue that trend. It’s clear to me, though, that Xbox has largely tapped out the home console market and will see slowing growth over next year or two and I know Microsoft has built a team around Zune to go after mobile entertainment (IE, a portable Xbox).

If Microsoft doesn’t get that shipped soon Apple will use the iPad to shore up its leverage with developers like Tapulous, who are building games for iPhone, and will ensure a whole range of games will only show up on Apple’s mobile devices and not on anything Microsoft will do. Microsoft must be very concerned by that.

Back to Google. I think the Chrome OS will prove very interesting as Google comes back against Apple with a device that costs less (Chrome OS is cheaper on hardware than Apple’s OS is, and also is cheaper in licensing fees, so I expect to see Chrome OS-based devices for around $200, instead of the $500 that Apple’s iPad starts at.

That’s where I expect to see major clashes over the next year as Google and Apple try to lock up movie, books, magazines, newspapers, and other media to make their systems better than the others. My predictions of how Google will respond? Look at Chrome OS and watch for new devices that compete with Apple head on. Look at Google Voice to be built onto. Look for Google Maps to even further extend their lead in the industry. Look for Google to come out with a microblogging competitor to Twitter and Facebook that will wrap up everyone’s experiences. Finally, look for Google and Apple to get into bidding wars over companies like Siri (wait until you see what they’ve done next week).

So, we’ve seen how Steve Jobs is setting the trends for the industry. I can’t wait to see how Google puts together its machine to compete.

One hint? There was no talk of wireless synching between iPhone and iPad. Why not? Compare to when I got my Google Nexus One phone. I entered in my email address and all my apps magically appeared. THAT gives you a hint of how Google is going to hit at Apple.

Oh, and one other weakness Apple has? Apple is clueless about social software. Google isn’t all that great either, but it is a world ahead of Apple. So, look at Google to make some major social networking moves this year to make its ecosystem a lot more interesting to the Facebook generation.

Onward, now that all the hype is done and you’ve seen it, any other ideas? I’m off to meet with iPhone game developers to get their reactions, talk to you later after I get home.

To answer Michael Gartenberg’s question, I see Microsoft as a solid loser in today’s announcements and a decent pitch has just been thrown over the plate in Google’s direction, so we’ll see if they can hit it out of the park or will Google whiff it?

Pat Robertson released a statement on his CBN website stating that the comments were taken out of context. The entire 700 Club episode has been added below so that you may hear the comments as they were delivered during the episode. The first comment began at 2:56 and the comments regarding Haiti’s pact with the devil begins at 6:29. You can listen to the full episode and hear the comments in context and then decide.

The statement released on the website said that Pat Robertson was speaking about Haiti’s history and the 1791 slave rebellion led by Dutty Boukman at Bois Caiman. There is a link to the Boukman ceremony as it pertains to the history of Haiti.  The statement also indicates that Pat Robertson’s compassion for the Haitian people is evident if you listen to the video in context. According to the video, Pat Robertson believes that Haiti has been cursed due to the Dutty Boukman treaty that sparked the Haitian Revolution and that is evidenced by the nation’s abject poverty. Here are links to more information regarding Dutty Boukman: Wikipedia Dutty Boukman (check eternal links)

Similar comments were made by some in the Christian Right movement following Hurricane Katrina. Former president George Bush’s wife, Barbara was called to task for comments that she made in a similar vein, stating that those who survived Katrina would be better off after the storm.

“What I’m hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.” Barbara Bush

On September 12, 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, Pat Robertson made comments that indicated the wrath of God had fell upon America due to legalized abortion.

“I was reading, yesterday, a book that was very interesting about what God has to say in the Old Testament about those who shed innocent blood. And He used the term that those who do this, ‘the land will vomit you out.’ … But have we found we are unable somehow to defend ourselves against some of the attacks that are coming against us, either by terrorists or now by natural disaster? Could they be connected in some way?” – Pat Robertson

Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson after 911

Today is the day you will witness the longest solar eclipse of this century take place. The annular solar eclipse would be visible in most parts of India but only the southern fringes of the country will see it as an Annular eclipse. For the rest of the country, it would be a partial solar eclipse.

The best places to see the eclipse in its annular from would be Dhanuskodi town near Rameshwaram. If you are already there, wait for the show to begin! The eclipse will last for over 10 minutes in mainland India and can go up to a maximum of 11 minutes 8 seconds in parts of the Indian ocean thus making it the longest solar eclipse of this century. The eclipse starts a at 10:44 am IST and will end at 2:29 PM (IST). This is not the total duration of the eclipse but the range of time different places would see the eclipse happen.

Also, it has been reported that The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch a series of rockets from its two centres to study this solar eclipse and its repercussions. These were supposed to be sent out from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh and Thumba in Kerala.

Annular solar eclipses occur when the Moon is too far to cover the Sun entirely. Therefore, when the eclipse reaches totality, you would see a ring (Annulus) around the moon and hence the name annular.

Please do exercise caution while watching this eclipse. DO NOT look directly at the Sun during the eclipse for it might put your eyes at risk even with your cool sunglasses. Also, do not try to use binoculars or telescopes and point at the eclipse directly without sufficient protection as you run the risk of being blinded.

Here are a few live feeds of the solar eclipse:

As with every major incidents, the 2010 solar eclipse seems to be slowly becoming a much talked about topic on Twitter. As of now, it hasn’t started trending. That might happen once the eclipse reaches more countries. That said, people from various countries have already posted pictures of the eclipse.

You can get more details on the eclipse on the official NASA website.

Video feed courtesy: Ustream

Multiple Internet news organizations are reporting that the lamb was born in a Turkish village. It was dead at birth. A veterinarian was the first person to notice that the lamb’s snout resembled a human face.

Village locals burned the goat’s body before biologists had a chance to study the rare mutation.

Here are some ways to help:

•Heart to Heart International: People can donate to Olathe-based Heart to Heart by going online to www.hearttoheart.org or by calling 913-764-5200.

•The Red Cross: The Greater Kansas City chapter of the Red Cross said contributions from the area could exceed $1 million.

The organization’s cell phone fundraising effort has raised $5 million so far. People can donate by texting the word “Haiti” to 90999, by going online to www. redcross.org or by calling 800-REDCROSS (800-733-2767).

•The Salvation Army: People can make $10 cell phone donations by texting “Haiti” to 52000. The charge will appear on the donors’ cell phone bills.

Credit card donors should call 800-SAL-ARMY (800-725-2769) or go to www. salvationarmyusa.org. Send checks designated “Haiti Earthquake Relief” to 3637 Broadway, Kansas City, MO 64111.

The Salvation Army is also helping people find relatives in Haiti through its SATERN locator system at www. satern.org.

•The United Way: United Way Worldwide is focusing on long-term relief in Haiti rather than short-term emergency aid.

To donate, go online to https://volunteer.united- e-way.org/uwwwdisaster/donate; send checks to United Way Worldwide, P.O. Box 630568, Baltimore, MD 21263-0568 (with “Fund” in the memo line); or text “HAITI” to 864833 (UNITED).

•Habitat for Humanity: The group’s goal is to provide shelter for displaced Haitians. Donate online at www.habitat.org.

•Take care: As with any disaster relief effort, officials warn donors to be cautious about where they send money. Sticking with well-established agencies is recommended.

“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti,” Robertson opined on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s 700 Club on Wednesday. “They got together and swore a pact to the Devil.”

“They said, ‘We will serve you if you get us free from the French.’ True story. And so, the Devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ And they kicked the French out,” he went on. “You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after another,” Robertson said.

Robertson’s tasteless and seemingly insane comments on the Haitian earthquake have left no few people furious, including the Haitian ambassador, Raymond Joseph. He quite snarkily responded by saying “what pact the Haitians made with the Devil, has helped the United States become what it is.”

White House adviser Valerie Jarrett said on Good Morning America she was simply left “kind of speechless” by Robertson’s demented remarks. “That’s not the kind of attitude that expresses the spirit of the president or the American people, so I thought it was a pretty stunning comment to make.”

We just wonder when someone is finally going to gift Pat Robertson with a nice, snug straight-jacket and haul him off for a long (hopefully permanent) stay in crazy town.

In the immediate aftermath of a 7.0 earthquake that caused an unbelievable amount of destruction to Haiti’s capital, Google has been asked by relief organizations and users to show images of what’s actually happening on the ground.

In partnership with geospatial imagery company GeoEye, Google has just released a new layer for Google Earth showing post-earthquake devastation. Haiti was first added to Google Map Maker in response to hurricanes that wreaked havoc on the country more than a year ago. Read on for before-after pictures and details.

The Red Cross has stated that as many as 3 million Haitians have been affected by the earthquake, with as many as 100,000 deaths likely, according to Haiti’s prime minister. Since the quake’s epicenter was right off the capital city, Port-au-Prince, most of the official buildings, from government officials’ residences to jails and hospitals, have been significantly damaged or completely leveled. Google’s imagery shows exactly that:

Haiti on Google Earth
	Gadgets powered by Google

You’ll have to install the Google Earth plugin if you haven’t already to see this layer.

You can download the KML layer or open the file using Google Maps.

In a post just published by Googlers Dylan Lorimer and Jessica Pfund, they write, “We hope that Google Map Maker can also play a role in disaster relief efforts…Today, we have made this Map Maker data for Haiti available to the UN in its raw form for the earthquake relief efforts. If you have any local knowledge to share, please help us continue to build a better map of Haiti with Google Map Maker.”

For a list of ways you can donate money to help suffering Haitians and stay informed on Haiti-related breaking news, check out this post we published earlier today on resources, charitable organizations and news outlets.

Today’s announcement by Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft is a good example. The two tech giants announced a partnership today that is valued at $250 million.

Why are these ventures getting such an influx of revenue? If content is king, then infrastructure in the castle in the cloud.

The reality star turned aspiring pop singer is the subject of a People cover story about her new plastic surgery “obsession.”

Montag revealed to the magazine that she recently underwent 10 hours of cosmetic surgery, including a nose job revision, a mini brow lift, bigger breast implants and buttock augmentation.

“For the past three years I’ve thought about what to have done,” Montag said. “I am absolutely beyond obsessed.”

The castmate of MTV’s “The Hills” said that when she first moved to Los Angeles as a teen from Colorado she felt “flat and insecure” surrounded by so many women with breast implants. In 2007, she opted for breast augmentation and a nose job.

But those tweaks weren’t enough, and accompanied by her husband and fellow reality TV show personality Spencer Pratt, the 23-year-old ventured to the plastic surgeon again.

“I was made fun of when I was younger, and so I had insecurities, especially after I moved to L.A.,” Montag said. “People said I had a ‘Jay Leno chin;’ they’d circle it on blogs and say nasty things.”

Now that Montag wants to find fame as a pop singer, her looks are all the more important, she told People.

Check out the story at People.com

“I’m competing against the Britney Spearses of the world — and when she was in her prime, it was her sex appeal that sold,” Montag said. “Obviously, looks matter; it’s a superficial industry.”

Montag said she was pleased with the results of her surgery but is already planning more, including increasing her breast cup size from the current DDD.

Since first appearing on “The Hills,” Montag and Pratt have worked hard to stay in the spotlight. There was speculation their 2008 wedding was a publicity stunt, and the pair appeared on the reality show “I’m a Celebrity … Get Me out of Here!”

In 2009, she performed her song “Body Language” during the Miss Universe Pageant in the Bahamas.