News and Analysis

Apparently no one got my letter that said we weren't allowed to have any more huge tech stories for awhile: The U.S. Justice department filed to block AT&T's takeover of T-Mobile which I figured was a done deal. Essentially it's an argument based on antitrust law.

Sprint shares jumped on the news, and AT&T said they'd bring back some jobs to the U.S. once/if the deal goes through.

So this isn't done, and this is a surprisingly aggressive stance from the government, the fallout from which should be interesting to watch. I expect that:

• This throws some unsurety into the mobile market.
• This means mobile companies may start figuring they're 'bounded' one way or another.
• Competitors will scramble to take advantage of AT&T's temporary disorientation.
• This may or may not come up in the presidential campaign.

Career:
Why you want to write a book to boost your IT career. Lots of good stuff here and of course I buy it.

Economics/Geekonomics:
Mass layoffs increased in July 2011.

Ecosystems:
Amazon is shipping a 7 inch tablet in October and a 10 inch in Q1 2012. Sounds like they want to lead in with a holiday competitor then bring in the big guns.

Sony has an updated eReader which sounds pretty slick. They do stand out for having library book checkout in the ePub format, though as the article notes it may not make a lot of difference. Interesting promotional tie-in with Harry Potter. Oh, and read more below . .

Sony's new tablets will play games from the PS1 era. I wondered what was up with that infamous emulator. Looks like they're marching erratically towards a kind of media ecosystem – not a full-bore one like Apple, but more entertainment-oriented. Keep watching – and of course send resumes to them (or their competitors).

Music:
It just. Does. Not. Stop. Now Facebook is launching a music service, which is mostly due to partnering. So it's not quite it's own music service, and I'd like to see more details (like, is it possibly a combiner with extant services, which might be welcome). Still music seems to be the must-have thing these days . . . much to my surprise. See what they're up to because at some point A) it seems music services are going to be universal, and B) not everyone can have a successful one, so there will be employment and opportunity changes.

Technology:
Google launches offline versions of Gmail, Calendar, Docs which doesn't surprise anyone. Oh and it works via Chrome right now. Continuing their steps to . . . well continued dominance. I actually am impressed they're going to support other browsers, which keeps mindshare and keeps a good disruptive strategy going. If they move more and more offline, you might want to be there working for them – or competing with them.

Bandwidth issues could screw up internet TV in Canada.

Video Games:
PSN is folded into Sony Entertainment which is one way to rebrand after their last embarrassment, and is probably a good idea.  May want to check opportunities?

Is it just me or is Sony pretty – and understandably active?

QUESTION OF THE DAY: So what do you think will happen with the AT&T/T-Moble merger?

– Steven Savage

A surprisingly slow day . . . except Groupon may be in trouble, and HP has just shafted suppliers

Economics/Geeokonomics:
We may not be facing a Double Dip Recession . . . because the old one never really ended. Well that's depressing.

Media:
CNN acquires Zite, a news app that does a familiar magazine-like experience on iPad. This could get pretty interesting as it suggests CNN is trying to roll with the times and then some. The magazine-like iPad experience appears to be growing, so it makes sense, and I remain curious about what it may turn into.

Publishing:
Barnes and Noble lost money, but Nook sales are up. So a loss, but some interesting gains. Watch this space to see if/how B&N leverages the Nook and digital for the future. Sales down 3% but Nook sales up 140% kinda shows the future.

Technology:
Some thoughts on the supposed lack of developers that points out multiple factors for the impression – and the fact it's probably not true.

HP further annoys people by leaving suppliers with useless inventory for the TouchPad.  Have I mentioned that if you work there, start looking for a job?  If not, START LOOKING FOR A JOB.

Innovid gets $9.5 million from Sequoia. They do video ads, and sound pretty interesting, if not overly exciting. Plus they raised nearly $10 million, so toss 'em a resume.

Guess what? Now people are saying the whole daily-deals thing is dead, which was predicted not that long ago. It seems everyone is doing them, Groupon is having issues, and people are leaving the space anyway.

Video:
Is Apple making a secondary TV? An interesting idea (considering the iPad is often a secondary computer). Something to think of considering their ventures – apple is an Ecosystem company and that includes hardware – this expands what they can sell and expands their ecosystem.  What else could they do . . .

Writing:
MediaBistro has it's Freelance Forecast survey. Things look positive, but some of the data dug up is interesting.

STORY OF THE DAY:Do you think Apple is going into TVs?

– Steven Savage