5 O’Clock Roundup: Wal-mart wireless, AdWords for newbies, Windows 7 love
Straight Talk wireless phones go on sale Sunday at Wal-marts nationwide– Tracfone’s Straight talk phones start with a $30 per month plan, which operates on Verizon’s network. An unlimited data plan is only $45 per month, compared to $70 monthly for an iPhone contract. Boost Mobile, Leap Wireless and MetroPCS will all need to respond competitively. The Wall Street Journal reports that Sprint and T-Mobile have already been hurt by customers switching to lower-price brands, whereas Verizon and AT&T haven’t had their businesses eaten by cheaper phone plans.
Skype founders trying even harder to halt sale — Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis have filed a motion in court to block the $2 billion sale of the company to a group of investors that includes Andreessen Horowitz, the firm run by Netscape billionaire Mark Andreessen. The Skype boys are angry. Their previous lawsuit accused former colleague Michaelangelo Volpi, better known as Mike, of lying and stealing. On Wednesday, the two asked the court to keep Volpi and his insider info away from the potential owners:
“This action arises out of the acts of a faithless fiduciary, defendant Michelangelo Volpi, who, despite being the chief executive and Chairman of Joost, embarked on a systematic scheme to breach his fiduciary duties and promote his own self-aggrandizing campaign to become the next chairman of internet telephony leader Skype Inc.”
Michael Dell says you’re going to love Windows 7 — He wants to make sure that 80 percent of business customers don’t skip Microsoft’s latest operating system upgrade, as happened to its predecessor, Windows Vista.
“You will love your PC again,” Dell said to a Churchill Club crowd in Silicon Valley on Tuesday night. “We have not been able to say that for a long time.” It wasn’t just that Windows Vista flopped, it was also that Dell sold underpowered computers as Vista-compatible, when their graphics hardware was too limited to run Vista’s slick Aero interface.
The New York Times creates a guide for small businesspeople on using Google AdWords – Bookmark this article. It’ll get you started on using Google’s ad system effectively.
Wi-Fi Direct technology will turn gadgets into Wi-Fi hotspots — Starting next year, the new tech will be built into consumer electronics devices, enabling them to serve as Wi-Fi routers. Wi-Fi routers are a billion-dollar business now found in 30 percent of American homes. But they’re still not automatic enough. Wi-Fi Direct will change that a lot, making Wi-Fi connections more like Bluetooth — they’ll set themselves up rather than requiring a technician to configure them.
If Digg was a newspaper — The SF Weekly’s web team turns on its own kind.
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About the Author, Paul Boutin
Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.