New iPhone On June 9th?

Gizmodo has posted that Apple will announce the second-generation iPhone at its Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco on June 9th, citing the ever popular "someone very, very close to the 3G iPhone launch,". According to this CBC article "Apple has sold more than 5 million iPhones so far and in the year since its U.S. launch has grabbed 28 per cent of the U.S. market in smartphones, or devices that offer data capabilities such as e-mail and web surfing." The launch of a next gen iPhone has long been expected and the rumors have been rampant with the recent news of first gen iPhone's being in short supply. We in Canada have suspected that the 3G iPhone was on it's way since Rogers announced a deal with Apple to finally bring the device north of the border.

Google Health Goes Live

After a year and a half in development and a 2 month trial at the Cleveland Clinic, which quickly attained it's limit of 1600 patients, Google is taking the wraps off Google Health. Available at http://www.google.com/health the service offers patients the ability to control personal health records on the Web. The patient has the ability to login to their record and make updates that they can send to their care giver of choice (doctor, clinic, pharmacy, etc.) or keep completely private if they so choose.

If you have a gmail account simply navigate to Google Health and login using your gmail address and password. You will be presented with a couple of agreements, that upon acceptance, will grant you access to your Google Health account. The site then allows you to import medical records, complete a comprehensive patient profile including known conditions, medications, allergies, procedures, test results, and immunizations. According to the Cleveland Clinic the trial was oversubscribed and C. Martin Harris, the Cleveland Clinic’s chief information officer said “It positioned our personal health record more into an activity that they use every day,” Time will tell whether or not the public is truly going to embrace the idea of personal medical information in the hands of a corporation, but it looks like Google is on to something.

NY Times article here.

Shadow Caddy - Robotic Golfing Assistant

An Australian company has created a robotic caddy that allows you to be free of carrying, pushing, or pulling your golf clubs around the golf course. For those golfers who still enjoy walking the course the Shadow Caddy may just be what they are looking for. The Shadow Caddy is a "hands free", three wheel electronic caddy that precisely follows you, and the clip on transmitter, around the golf course. The companies website indicates that it is currently only available in Australia and is for hire at a number of golf courses in that country. There is no mention of a purchase price and the "for hire" statement leads me to believe that it is purely a rental item at the moment. Check it out at www.shadowcaddy.com.au

A Facelift For Facebook

Facebook is set to undergo a facelift, the first major redesign of the social site since it launched. The big problem with facebook is the success of the 3rd party applications and the cluttered affect they have on the user's profile pages. I am often annoyed at the nonsensical messages from applications such as booze mail, that eat up the real estate on my screen. Facebook's answer is to split the main profile into five separate pages, all accessible through tabs at the top of the page. Thankfully, the BBC is reporting that it is likely "Applications like games and quizzes will also be moved on to their own dedicated page." You can read the entire story here.

Microsoft - Yahoo Back On Again?

In the statement on Sunday, Microsoft announced it was “considering and has raised with Yahoo an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo.” According to the New York Times, "The timing of Microsoft’s new approach may seem opportunistic. Yahoo has been racing to complete its own partnership with Google and was expected to announce a formal agreement as early as this week. A Yahoo-Google partnership, which is likely to face antitrust scrutiny, could make Yahoo a less desirable partner or takeover candidate for Microsoft." Yahoo is also said to be facing a great deal of pressure from it's shareholders, some of whom are said to be furious that the board didn't work harder to strike a deal to sell the company to Microsoft.

Google Treasure Hunt Contest Announced

Put your geeky knowledge to the test, Google has announced a treasure hunt on its' Australian site. If you think you have problem-solving skills in computer science, networking, and low-level UNIX trivia you might like to give it a try. There are new puzzles posted every week for three weeks and and if you submit correct answers to every question you will be in the running to receive a prize. Check it out at http://treasurehunt.appspot.com/

The Un-branding of AOL

Time Warner Inc.'s AOL has long been synonymous with dial-up Internet connections, if you where around in the early days of the Internet you probably cursed your mailman every time an AOL disk filled your mail box. The brass at AOL are finally seeing the age of it's brand is not doing them any favors when it comes to eyeballs on websites. The AOL brand is becoming less relevant, particularly with the younger demographic and the company is allowing it's brand to take a back seat on some of it's new properties. According to reportonbusiness.com "AOL figures that to grow its audiences — and draw additional advertising the company crucially needs to offset plunging revenue from its shrinking base of Internet access subscribers — it must break from a one-size-fits-all model and let its specialty sites set their own designs and editorial tone, shedding the AOL brand when necessary." As AOL's parent, Time Warner Inc. has put it in a regulatory filing: “If AOL cannot effectively build a portfolio of alternate brands that are appealing to Internet consumers, AOL may have difficulty in increasing the engagement of Internet consumers on its Web products and services. AOL believes that the ‘AOL' brand is associated in the minds of consumers with its dial-up Internet access service.”

It's interesting to see how those properties that have been around for some time now are adapting to a maturing landscape on the Internet, one where the rules keep rewriting themselves and businesses need to be agile in order to remain relevant...

Spanish Police Arrest Hackers

Five hackers being described as "being among the most active on the internet" have been arrested by Spanish police. The BBC is reporting that "Police say they co-ordinated attacks over the internet and hacked into 21,000 web pages over two years." Two of those arrested are said to be 16 years of age. The arrests took place in Barcelona, Burgos, Malaga and Valencia, the result of an inquiry that began in March after a Spanish political party's site was disabled.

CRTC Tells Bell To Prove Traffic-shaping Is Necessary

After turning down the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP) appeal for interim relief of Bell's practice of traffic-shaping earlier this week the CRTC has now put the ball back in Bell's court. The CRTC has now ordered Bell Canada to provide "full rationale and evidence" to support its claim that 95 per cent of its users were negatively impacted by peer-to-peer traffic and to describe where congestion is occurring, according to the Globe and Mail. "CAIP looks forward to providing the commission with additional information regarding the impact of traffic shaping on our customers and the other types of applications that our customers have indicated are being negatively impacted," CAIP spokesman Tom Copeland said in a statement. While a Bell spokes person said Bell is looking forward to dealing with the application and "getting the facts out on the table." Circle the wagons, the net neutrality debate is heating up in Canada.

CNET To Be Acquired By CBS

It's not quite Microsoft / Yahoo! but it's the largest acquisition of a web company in some time. CBS announced Thursday that it would pay $11.50 a share in an all-cash tender offer for CNET. The deal is worth $1.8 billion and vaults the company forward in it's vision of becoming a bigger Web player. "There are very few opportunities to acquire a profitable, growing, well-managed Internet company like CNET Networks," CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves said in an interview. The deal is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year. The LA Times has more here.