Creative Strategies

A number of news outlets say they have confirmed that Amazon.com is on the verge of releasing an updated version of its Kindle e-book reader. And, rumors say, Amazon will change its focus from mass-market books to the education market.

Tim Bueneman, an analyst with McAdams Wright Ragen, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that Amazon sees a major opportunity for the Kindle with college students. He also told the paper that Amazon is planning several new versions of the device.

Reports continue to flood in from U.S. iPhone 3G users about problems with 3G connections and speeds. The problems tend to come from large metropolitan areas, but one informal survey points to the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles.

The problem may be faulty firmware in a communications chip supplied by Munich-based Infineon. A report released earlier this week by Nomura Securities analyst Richard Windsor pointed to the firmware.

Patch May Be Imminent

Reports continue to flood in from U.S. iPhone 3G users about problems with 3G connections and speeds. The problems tend to come from large metropolitan areas, but one informal survey points to the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles.

"I'd estimate that I see the 3G icon on the phone less than one-third of the time in so-called 3G areas that I frequent in the Bay Area and Austin (Texas)," reported a resident of Santa Clara, Calif.

Reports continue to flood in from U.S. iPhone 3G users about problems with 3G connections and speeds. The problems tend to come from large metropolitan areas, but one informal survey points to the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles.

The problem, BusinessWeek reported Thursday, may be faulty firmware in a communications chip supplied by Munich-based Infineon. BusinessWeek said its confidential sources backed a report released earlier this week by Nomura Securities analyst Richard Windsor that pointed to the firmware.

Patch May Be Imminent

Motorola's mobile-phone division has been bleeding money since the start of 2007, reporting losses of $1.9 billion and falling to third in global sales. The company moved to turn things around Monday with the announcement that it is hiring a top executive away from Qualcomm to run the mobile-phone business.

Last month, Apple announced that its new iPhone 3G would cost just $199 for the 8GB version and $299 for the 16GB version. AT&T confirmed that pricing Tuesday, but clarified that those prices are only for certain users -- buyers of any iPhone before the iPhone 3G goes on sale July 11, new AT&T customers, or subscribers eligible for an upgrade discount.

In a move that should send "cold chills down the necks of broadcast network executives," Google will unveil this fall an Internet-only animation show from Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane.

So this is really goodbye? Bill Gates' last day at Microsoft is Friday and tech-watchers around the globe are assessing the impact of the man responsible for the dominance of the PC, DOS, Windows and the "Evil Empire."

Such an assessment seems almost impossible. Gates and Microsoft have not only dominated the PC industry, they often dictated the computer and software choices for the home and, more importantly, defined the computing environment for businesses around the world.

The next version of Apple's OS X operating system will include breakthroughs in programming parallel processors, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told The New York Times in an interview after this week's Worldwide Developers Conference.

"The way the processor industry is going is to add more and more cores, but nobody knows how to program those things," Jobs said. "I mean, two, yeah; four, not really; eight, forget it."

The next version of Apple's OS X operating system will include breakthroughs in programming parallel processors, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told The New York Times in an interview after this week's Worldwide Developers Conference.

"The way the processor industry is going is to add more and more cores, but nobody knows how to program those things," Jobs said. "I mean, two, yeah; four, not really; eight, forget it."