The latest from TechCrunch
- Google: Chrome OS Still On Track For This Year Thanks To "Deep Bench Of Talent"
- The Supreme Court Punts On Business Method Patents
- Closing In On Chrome OS Launch, Key Architect Matthew Papakipos Jumps To Facebook
- AT&T Tricks Zuckerberg And Benioff Into Buying MicroCells; Promptly Fails
| Google: Chrome OS Still On Track For This Year Thanks To "Deep Bench Of Talent" | Top |
| Perhaps you’ve heard the news by now that Matthew Papakipos, the key architect of Chrome OS, is leaving Google to go to Facebook . While it’s not entirely clear what Papakipos will be doing yet at Facebook beyond joining the engineering team, this is massive news. This is the key component of Chrome OS leaving the company before its launch to join what can perhaps be seen as Google’s most important competitor going forward. So what does Google think about the defection? " Matt made great contributions to Google and Chrome OS, and we know he’ll do the same in his next endeavors. We wish him the best. We have a deep bench of talent and are very excited about the launch of Chrome OS devices later this year ,” a Google spokesperson tells us. So first of all, Google is confirming that despite the loss, Chrome OS remains on track for release this year. This echoes what Papakipos hinted at in his tweet : “ Now that Chrome OS & WebGL are in good shape, it’s time for something new. I’m going to work @ Facebook! Love the product and team. Woot! “ Still, while the product may be in “ good shape “, it’s still not released, so it’s just odd that he would leave before he sees his vision come to completion. I can only imagine Facebook made an offer he couldn’t refuse. Second, in their statement, Google refers to their “deep bench of talent.” That’s an interesting way of putting it. Basically, without saying it directly, Google is suggesting that Papakipos was expendable. They’re saying that they’re like a well-built basketball team. Even when they lose a star player, they can survive and keep winning games. Still, it’s nice to have that star player if you want to win the championship. That appears to be what Facebook is attempting to do . CrunchBase Information Google Facebook Google Chrome OS Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| The Supreme Court Punts On Business Method Patents | Top |
| Amazon and other holders of business method patents can breathe easy for now. (One of the most famous business method patents is Amazon’s One-Click shopping cart patent). In a ruling today, the Supreme Court basically punted on whether or not business method patents, in general, should be upheld. Instead, it ruled narrowly on the business method patent in question in the case, Bilski v. Kappos . That patent was thrown out. In that sense, it affirmed an earlier U.S. Federal Appeals Court ruling . But the Court also warned people not to read to much into its decision. As Mike Masnik at TechDirt explains: Basically, the court just said it would rule on this particular patent and not make any real statements on the overall patentability of business methods or software. So, in effect, it’s no real change on how the patent system works. The debate around business method patents revolves around whether or not business models or features of business models can be considered to be a “process,” and thus patentable. (Most software patents are also described as a “process” or “method” because originally patents were described in terms of mechanical inventions so they all get shoehorned into that language). At least one Justice, retiring Justice Stevens, concludes in a concurring (but not the majority) opinion that a “business method is not a ‘process.’” Most sane people would tend to agree. The other Justices in the majority, however, didn’t go so far. It looks like we are stuck with business method patents for now. Sigh. Photo credit: Flickr/ Jon Oropeza | |
| Closing In On Chrome OS Launch, Key Architect Matthew Papakipos Jumps To Facebook | Top |
| Google’s director of engineering Matthew Papakipos is leaving the search giant for Facebook, according to a Tweet he just sent out. Most recently, Papakipos started and led the Chrome OS project at Google. Papakipos also served as the Director of the HTML 5 Open Web Platform for Chrome OS and created and lead the Chrome GPU hardware project.. Prior to joining Google, he was the CTO and VP of Engineering for software development company PeakStream, which was acquired by Google in 2007. It’s certainly a talent loss for Google, which scheduled to launch Chrome OS in the Fall, and a huge talent win for Facebook’s engineering team. Facebook isn’t giving specifics on what Papakipos will be working on, but a representative did say that he would be a key player on the engineering team. Here’s the official statement from Facebook: Matthew Papakipos has indeed joined Facebook. Matthew is an accomplished entrepreneur and engineer, and it's wonderful that he has decided to bring his considerable talents to Facebook’s world-class engineering team. Facebook has also made another key engineering hire today, Jocelyn Goldfein , who was formerly a VP and general manager of VMware’s desktop business unit. Facebook said in a statement, “We’ve landed two accomplished, senior people to join the Facebook engineering team — Matthew Papakipos and Jocelyn Goldfein. Both are about as accomplished as they come and we can’t wait for them to hit the ground running as key players on the team.” Facebook also recently snagged Google’s senior Android Developer Eric Tseng to head up mobile products for the social network. CrunchBase Information Facebook Information provided by CrunchBase | |
| AT&T Tricks Zuckerberg And Benioff Into Buying MicroCells; Promptly Fails | Top |
| Oh, AT&T. I’ve already made my feelings on their MicroCell abundantly clear. Considering the quality of the carrier’s network in cities like San Francisco (which is to say, awful), it’s a good idea. But given the poor state of AT&T’s performance, they should be giving away the device for free to customers affected . Instead, they’re making those customers pay an extra $150 for the “privilege” of having working service. It’s a truly remarkable business model. Let’s call it: bait & switch & fix (for a fee). And it’s working. AT&T managed to rope in two of the biggest name in tech into their scheme: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff . So that’s great for AT&T, right? Two huge potential endorsers of their rip-off box. Well, not so fast — this is AT&T, after all. Benioff posted about his new MicroCell purchase on his Facebook wall yesterday. “ I hope my iPhone will work at home now ,” he wrote. This is undoubtedly the reason the vast majority of users have bought the device (instead of just, you know, leaving AT&T like regular people would do if their service doesn’t work). A lot of commenters on his post were curious to know how well it’s working as they suffer from the poor AT&T service as well. So how is it working? Well, according to the tech giants, it’s a mixed bag. “ I got one and it seems to work pretty well ,” Zuckerberg wrote in a comment under Benioff’s post. “Pretty well” isn’t exactly a rave review, but AT&T will undoubtedly take it from Zuckerberg. But Benioff had a different experience. “ Bought 2 AT&T MicroCells today. Installation won’t complete. Called AT&T. They said they are having a national MicroCell outage since Friday. It won’t work for 2 more days. Where is TrustAtt.com when you need it?, ” Benioff wrote on his wall. Other posts confirm AT&T acknowledging the outage. It’s another genius plan from AT&T. The network won’t work to make calls, so they get you to spend an additional $150 (on top of the $100+ a month you’re already spending with them for service), then that goes down, but only those wealthy enough to pay for landlines or other cellular phones on other networks (Benioff) are even able to call and complain. If both AT&T and their MicroCell service go down across the country, but no one can make a call to complain about it, did it really happen? In all seriousness, this is pathetic. And besides Zuckerberg and Benioff, reports across the country seem to be a mixed bag about the MicroCell. Some say it works, some say it doesn’t (even when the network is up). We can’t confirm either of these scenarios because AT&T won’t even sell us one . With the iPhone 4 selling 1.7 million units in the first three days, a whole new group of people are about to be exposed to the pleasure of AT&T. Hope they have $150 ready when/if that MicroCell network comes back up. CrunchBase Information AT&T Information provided by CrunchBase | |
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