READING COOL TEA LEAVES
Geeks across the blogging universe are eagerly awaiting some rabidly rumored services by some cool companies:
1. Tablet PC and ultraportable enthusiast JKontherun points to this recruitment ad by Apple for handwriting recognition software engineers. Looks like we may have a 
successor to the Newton, this time under the guidance of Steve Jobs, no less. Although I was a fan and owner of every version of the Newton, it was a technology way before it's time.
It may even be a worthy competitor to the whole array of Tablet PC offerings around Microsoft's ambitions (I've posted on this before here, here, and here).
Note that Apple has also long been expected to enter the cell phone market in partnership with companies like Motorola and others (see my earlier posts here and here).
2. Both Google and Yahoo! may have Internet Telephony offerings to go head to head against Skype shortly. In particular, John Battelle (via Fred Wilson), the author of the new book on Google, had an update post on this today.
The speculation has been at a particularly hyper-ventilated pace for Google, on what it's going to do with a fresh $4 billion burning a hole in its pocket.
As an aside, in my humble opinion, the main reason Google raised this money, was that it could, at an attractive price, following one of the oldest rules of thumb in business: raise all the money when you can, not when you need it.
Om Malik broke a story in Business 2.0 a few days ago about Google potentially working on a Wi-fi network offering, then picked up by the mainstream media folks like the New York Times.
Of particular interest is this excerpt from a New York Times article yesterday, on what Google may do next:
"Indeed, largely overlooked last week in the glare of the $4 billion stock announcement was Google's acquisition of Android Inc., a start-up founded by a former Apple hardware designer, Andy Rubin. The move did not go unnoticed, however, by Silicon Valley cognoscenti.
Mr. Rubin, who also worked for General Magic when it was in its start-up phase, went on to be a co-founder of Danger Inc., maker of the Sidekick smart phone, a combination cellphone and personal organizer that is sold by T-Mobile. Mr. Rubin is being joined by Andy Hertzfeld, another Apple and General Magic veteran. General Magic developed a handheld device in the 1990's.
The Sidekick was an early favorite of both Mr. Page and Mr. Brin, who wore the units on their belts as all-purpose voice and data communicators several years ago.
A Google-branded smart phone has long been a pet project of Mr. Page, and earlier this year Google invested $2 million in a project by Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the M.I.T. Media Laboratory, to develop a $100 wireless laptop. The smart-phone idea, which the company has not talked about publicly, would be a way to extend Google's reach and give it a more extensive connection with its users by offering Google on a multipurpose mobile device.
Google has also attracted wide attention in other communications fields, both with its purchase of fiber optic cable capacity and with several quiet moves it has made in experimenting in wireless technologies.
Recently the company has discussed public Wi-Fi networks with Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, who is leading an effort to develop a city-backed wireless data network infrastructure."
What's most interesting about all this, is not that Google and Yahoo! will likely compete and/or buy Skype...that has been all but given for some time.
Much more interesting is that Google and Apple may shortly become competitors.
Why?
Well, if one reads all the tea leaves, BOTH of them could potentially enter the market for a gadget AND attached service that offers some combination of internet telephony/PDA/cell phone/wireless broadband access and a complement to the average person's computing experience both on their PCs and the web.
This would mean two of the companies that are currently viewed as the "coolest of the cool" favorites by consumers, media, and Wall Street (chart via Yahoo! Finance), would be going head to head against each other.
The two stocks certainly have been trading closer together than a tango dancing couple.
If you think you're seeing a media frenzy around Apple and Google separately now, you haven't seen anything yet. Let the real hyper-ventilating then begin.
I suppose Google might buy T-Mobile USA...
Google Talk and VoIP over WiFi - Geeking with Greg
http://glinden.blogspot.com/2005/08/google-talk-and-voip-over-wifi.html
Posted by: Dimitar Vesselinov | Wednesday, August 24, 2005 at 05:04 PM