Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on February 12, 2008 by CyberNet.

And the saga continues… yesterday we reported that Yahoo officially turned down Microsoft’s offer to acquire them for $44.6 billion dollars. Yahoo said that the offer undervalued them, and so they weren’t interested (typical corporate response for a first offer).  Microsoft has now responded to Yahoo and the story gets more and more interesting. The first few lines of Microsoft’s press release reads:

It is unfortunate that Yahoo! has not embraced our full and fair proposal to combine our companies. Based on conversations with stakeholders of both companies, we are confident that moving forward promptly to consummate a transaction is in the best interests of all parties.

We are offering shareholders superior value and the opportunity to participate in the upside of the combined company. The combination also offers an increasingly exciting set of solutions for consumers, publishers and advertisers while becoming better positioned to compete in the online services market.

 

Around the web, I’ve seen a few people mention that this was going to be a “hostile takeover” and now I can see why. Microsoft has set their sights on Yahoo and they are not going to be looking away any time soon.  If there was any question on whether or not Microsoft was going to turn to the shareholders, there shouldn’t be any longer.  The last line of the press release states:

The Yahoo! response does not change our belief in the strategic and financial merits of our proposal. As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!’s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.

Watch out Yahoo shareholders! Microsoft is coming after you and will probably do whatever they can until you realize the “inherent value” in their proposal. Is Yahoo fighting a battle that they can’t win? Perhaps anti-trust issues will pop-up and “save” them from Microsoft, but then what will happen to their stock? Before Microsoft announced that they were interested in Yahoo, their stock was trading at nearly 52-week lows. Post-announcement, their stock shot-up. It’s clear that Yahoo needs and probably wants to do something drastic and there are options out there. I just don’t think at this point they’re confident on which direction to take. If you were Yahoo, what would you do?

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What if video-game consoles were bigger? Not just retro-70s-technology bigger, but make-Godilla-stop-and-take-notice bigger? Building-sized bigger, in fact?

Then they’d look like these fantastic fantasy concoctions from photographer Joseph Ford and 3D artist Antoine Mairot. Made for the French-language Amusement magazine, these giant consoles rise up in monolithic communist concrete and capitalist glass-and-steel.

They’re wonderful. While the PS3 (surely not far off the real size) rearing up in Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz fits right into the high-rise district around it, my favorite has to be the tank-like NES pictured above. Its squat, menacing form stares out over an empty wasteland. I can’t tell if it, too, is in Berlin, but it could almost be a genuine piece of East German architecture from the time before the Wall fell.

The third image, of the Nintendo DS, is wonderfully constructed but a little too Doctor Who for me: it’s fun, and looks good to begin with, but if you give it a second’s thought the illusion evaporates and the impossible reality is revealed. I love that the D-Pad looks like a helicopter landing-pad, though.

Gallery: If I Were President [Amusement via the Giz]

Yesterday, the international iBooks stores were almost empty. In Spain, there was a single, dusty volume on the shelf: “Les vies encloses” by Georges Rodenbach. It was in French.

Today, the shelves are groaning under the weight of dull, beige-covered tomes from Project Gutenberg, all of which are available free. To see and download these e-books, you’ll need a copy of Apple’s iBooks application for the iPad, only available from the US, and then you’ll have to switch your iTunes Store account to the country of your choice. Hardly worth the bother right now, as these titles are all available free in the US store, too.

The difference, of course, is that the international stores are carrying foreign-language versions of these public-domain books. If you’re reading this post, though, then you probably have good English skills. Add to that the fact that most of these titles are translated from the original languages and it seems pointless right now.

It’s nice, though, to see the rumblings as Apple starts to turn the cogs for the international rollout of the iPad, especially as it has managed to sign up publishers from so many countries in such a short time.

See Also:

• iBooks Store Loaded with Project Gutenberg Titles at Launch …
• How to Transfer Your Stanza E-Book Library to iBooks for iPad …

Lord knows what travelers in then olden-days found to fill their huge trunks. There were no gadgets, no need for power adapters and not even a pair of oversized, padded sneakers to take up space. Even a bustling crinoline could, I’m sure, be collapsed for efficient storage.

These days, though, it’s common to pack two cases: one for clothes, and one for all the technical gubbins essential for a bearable vacation. Despite its name, then, the Mayfair Steamer Secretary Trunk is more suited for the modern day than the cruise-trips of the past, with space for a desktop computer along with enough shelves, drawers and cubby-holes to store everything else.

In reality, the $3,000 trunk is probably useless for actual travel. You’d need two or three servants just to lift the thing down the front doorstep, and the famously delicate iMac screen would be a pile of shattered shards as soon as you hit the cobbled street on those tiny casters. As a home office, though, this handmade, brass-nailed and cigar-leather unit is wonderful: there is even cable-management behind the canvas-covered panels.

It could all get a little Alice in Wonderland, though. Close this up and you’ll see a giant suitcase, complete with handle, standing at over six-foot-four. May we suggest keeping a small bottle of Bourbon secreted in one of the many drawers, labeled, of course, with the legend “Drink Me.”

Mayfair Steamer Secretary Trunk Vintage Cigar Leather [Restoration Hardware via Uncrate]

Google TV, the new Android-based OS for the big screen, will power Logitech’s new set-top box, the still-not-properly-named Google TV companion box.

The sleek black Apple TV–sized box will run on a 1.2-GHz Atom processor with 4 GB memory, 802.11n Wi-Fi, dual HDMI-out ports, Dolby 5.1 surround sound and a pair of USB ports. If you hook up a webcam, you can even video-chat at 720p.

The box, which will launch in the fall, will at first be U.S.-only. It will hook up to your TV and then pull in content from cable, satellite and compatible DVRs. In short, you can Google the entire internet plus your home for TV shows and watch them wherever they may be.

Even the remote controls are exciting. While there will be some regular RF controllers available, you will be able to install an app on your iPhone or Android phone with a keyboard and a touchscreen D-pad. These will control not only the Logitech box but compatible TVs and set-top boxes, right from the phone.

Next to the Google TV, the Apple TV is starting to look less like a “hobby” and more like an embarrassing habit Apple is trying to quit. Video content is one place where more is better. Sure Apple TV can grab most things from the iTunes Store, but with a built-in Chrome browser, Google TV will grab content from anywhere that puts video on the web. The closest rival Apple has right now is probably the iPad. Maybe this is the kick in the pants Apple needs to finally update its own set-top box to something nearing useful.

Google TV companion box [Logitech]

Logitech’s Google TV companion box includes smartphone apps [Engadget]

See Also:

• Google Introduces Google TV, New Android OS
• Report: Google Working With Intel, Sony on TV Project
• Google TV: Google, Sony, Intel Team-Up to Make Television
• Google, Dish Network Reportedly Test Android-Based Satellite TV