Business Center Blogs

Today was Microsoft's final Patch Tuesday of 2009. Microsoft released a total of six new security bulletins, the most urgent one affecting a zero-day flaw in Internet Explorer for which exploit code already exists.

Barring any urgent security issues or exploits circulating in the wild to force an out-of-band update, the total number of security bulletins for 2009 is 74--a 5 percent drop from the 78 security bulletins released in 2008.

The day has finally arrived. Let the trumpets blare and confetti rain from the sky. With three weeks to spare, Google has met its self-imposed deadline and the beta version of its Chrome Web browser is now available for the Mac OS X and Linux operating systems.

The Google Chrome Web site will autodetect the operating system you are using when you visit and offer up the options appropriate for that platform. So, don't bother visiting from your Windows system to try and download the Mac version.

Seagate jumped into the SSD (solid state drive) market today with the unveiling of its Pulsar drives. SSD drives have been a growing segment, but Seagate adds significant credibility and opens up new possibilities for the nascent technology.

There are dozens of players in the SSD market, but none of them have the name recognition and instant credibility of Seagate.

Michael Arrington's original vision for his CrunchPad remains compelling. It's just that the device, renamed the JooJoo and introduced by Fusion Garage, is way too expensive. That doesn't make the idea bad, just the product a failure.

Some will say those of two sides of the same coin. Yet, by ratcheting back its ambition--not to mention screen size and price--the JooJoo could yet become something approaching a success.

Maybe it was just Michael Arrington's way of getting his name off a project whose final outcome was going to be a dog?

The bowser in question being Arrington's CrunchPad tablet computer, that came in at a mere 250 percent of the selling price originally promised.

The story of the CrunchPad device just won't die. Last week TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington announced that the project was over and the CrunchPad is dead. However, this morning the CEO of Fusion Garage held an online press conference announcing that it plans to move forward with the device, but rebranded as the JooJoo.

After months of anticipation, and speculation that the development and manufacturing costs might be spiraling out of control, Arrington summed it up by saying "the entire project self-destructed over nothing more than greed, jealousy and miscommunication."

Intel's decision to indefinitely delay its Larrabee graphics processor is a setback for the Linux community, delaying improved performance for users of open source operating systems. Competitors Nvidia and AMD, however, saw their share prices rise following the news.

To the Windows and Mac world, the end of Larrabee may not matter. They have plenty of advanced graphics options. That's not true for Linux users, who rely upon Intel's integrated graphics for the vast majority of their needs.

Google announced that it is expanding personalized search results. Google will provide tailored search results customized based on individual search history. It has potential benefits, but may also exclude newer Web sites or companies, and limit the diversity of search results.

Tailor-Made Results

The 2010 product roadmap for mobile device maker HTC has been leaked. The detailed product specifications and gallery of device photos makes me wonder whether it's a "leak" or just buzz marketing. Regardless of how the HTC 2010 roadmap became public knowledge, it looks like HTC is fully embracing the Android platform.

The HTC 2010 roadmap includes a variety of Android-based offerings. Five of the eight devices getting most of the attention are built on Google's Android operating system. Three devices, the only three in the Productivity device category, are based on Windows Mobile 6.5. There is no mention on the roadmap of Windows Mobile 7.

Yahoo's new Ad Interest Manager, now available in beta, may in its present form create more questions than it answers.

From the information it offers, users may have a hard time figuring out what information Yahoo has, what it does with it, and how that impacts the ads that a user sees. It also may or may not work with their browser.