Monday Evening Links

But for all the video services, and there are many, Hulu easily stands above the rest and provides us with the best programming and experience. Call me a cynic, but watching the junk on YouTube or the ridiculous garbage on Funny or Die just doesn't do it for me. Instead, I prefer to enjoy professional programming in a way that has never been allowed before.

But the beauty of Hulu goes far beyond programming. Hulu is real proof that the entertainment industry is slowly coming around to the idea of embracing the Web and not being afraid of it, and proves a point I've been making all along: most people are honest and are more than willing to do the right thing to enjoy their favorite shows.

Hulu is the first example of how to overcome the debilitating crossroads that we're now standing in and has shown with each passing day that where there's great programming and a free service, people will flock.

Hulu's programming may not be perfect, but it certainly eclipses any other video service on the Web. Where else can you find legitimate episodes of The Office, Battlestar Galactica, Family Guy, and Law & Order without needing to drop a few bucks or search through a programming guide to find out when it's coming on again?

With just a few simple clicks of your mouse, you're able to watch the show you missed last night (in most instances) and only sit through a handful of short commercials to do it. Now that's what I call a bargain.

A month after Apple launched its App Store online, the iPhone-maker is reporting eye-popping results.

Users have downloaded more than 60 million programs for the iPhone, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Even though most of those applications are free, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told the Journal his company sold an average of $1 million a day in applications. That's a whopping $30 million in the first month.

Some quick math suggests Apple could haul in at least $360 million a year with its latest revenue stream if sales continue at this pace. Apple keeps only 30 percent of the revenues, which the company says covers its administration costs. Developers keep the remaining 70 percent.

"Phone differentiation used to be about radios and antennas and things like that," Jobs told the Journal. "We think, going forward, the phone of the future will be differentiated by software."

Guest post: Jean-Louis Gassée looks into Apple's MobileMe launch misfire and whether Apple can run a worldwide wireless data synchronization service for tens of millions of users. The essay was originally posted on Monday Note.

As Apple found out last month with the MobileMe launch misfires, the lofty promise of "Exchange for the rest of us" translated into a user experience that was neither simple nor easy--in a highly visible way. Four weeks later, the service appears stable but doubts linger: is Apple able to run a worldwide wireless data synchronization service for tens of millions of users?

What happened and what does it mean for MobileMe's future?

Just as it has taken years for RIM (founded in 1984), the BlackBerry (launched in 1999) creators to polish what is the best-selling synchronized smartphone. Details, details and more subtle mistakes and special cases found and fixed. The BlackBerry got its stardom from truly delivering the Simple, Easy, Invisible proposition referred to in the beginning of this essay.

MobileMe aspires to deliver a similarly invisible level of synchronization for people who don't have an Exchange server, hence the "Exchange for the rest if us" slogan. But seeing the launch glitches, I wonder how many people at Apple stooped to using a BlackBerry with an Exchange account.

In the most recently concluded tests, Motorola claims its geolocation-based technology got high marks for avoiding interference with existing spectrum holders, while a field test of spectrum sensing technology at a major sporting venue proved that that technology is not up to snuff in avoiding interference with broadcast-based microphones.

Over the weekend, spectrum sensing prototypes were tested by the FCC at the FedEx field in Maryland prior to Saturday's game between the Washington Redskins and the Buffalo Bills. Shure, a microphone manufacturer said in a press release issued Sunday that the spectrum-sensing white-space devices caused "harmful interference to wireless microphones" during the live event.

"Simply stated, the prototype devices were unable to consistently identify operating wireless microphones or distinguish occupied from unoccupied TV channels," said Mark Brunner, Shure's senior director of public and industry relations. "More troubling, the devices failed to detect the presence of wireless microphones when switched on--an occurrence that takes place multiple times during any NFL game."

Motorola, which uses a totally different method for avoiding interference, agrees that sensing technologies don't always work appropriately. That's why the company uses GPS-based geolocation technology and an FCC data base of known spectrum license holders to pick and choose when white spectrum is available.

Google said in a policy blog last week before the microphone test at FedEx field that the sensing technology may not work as well as some had hoped.

The FCC is currently compiling results from its testing, and it's expected to release a full report of the results within the next few weeks after it concludes all field tests of the current technology.

said by Inquirer :

Alarmed insecurity experts warned the patch could be exploited to redirect Internet traffic

Citigroup said on Monday that Amazon.com Inc's Kindle electronic book reader appears to be selling much better than expected and could double a previous estimate for units sold this year, sending shares in the online retailer up 9 percent.

"Turns out the Kindle is becoming the iPod of the book world," Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney wrote in a note to clients. He kept a "buy" rating on the share.

Mahaney estimates Amazon will sell up to 380,000 Kindles in 2008, up from a previous forecast of 190,000, noting that adoption rate would be similar to the first year of sales for Apple's media-playing iPod. He sees Amazon selling up to 150,000 Kindles in the fourth quarter alone.

Mahaney also expects Kindle and related revenue of more than $1 billion by 2010, compared with a previous view of $400 million to $750 million.

said by Dogfather:

I think I would rather spend about the same amount of $$$ on one those Asus micro-PCs and not be forever tied to Amazon.