VentureBeat

Were you considering holding off on getting Apple’s new iPhone 3G until you saw what Google would be offering with its Android platform? Well, hopefully you can afford to wait a while.

Though it’s still technically the 2nd half of 2008, Google is now indicating that delays will push the first phones based on its Android platform into the fourth quarter, a member of Google’s corporate communications team confirmed with us.

The reasoning for the delays is telling. While many are quick to jump on Apple for having a comparatively closed system for its phones, Android’s more open approach is leading to headaches with both carriers and developers, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Because Google is providing so many of its resources to T-Mobile to ensure it has a phone ready to go by the end of this year, a Google Android phone from another carrier, Sprint, is likely pushed until next year. Likewise, China Mobile could see a launch of its first Android phone pushed into 2009.

Both Sprint and China Mobile are also said to want to make their own branded version of the platform, something which will take more time and resources. Sprint also is unsure about whether to push forward with a device that works on a 3G network, or simply wait until the 4G networks are ready to go.

That is not a good sign.

Then there are the developers, some of which are said to be frustrated by the constant updates to the still-a-work-in-progress Android platform. This has meant multiple code rewrites for applications such as the one The Weather Channel hopes to make.

So perhaps the earlier report of Android delays by The Street’s Gary Krakow wasn’t so crazy after all. Of course, he also indicated that Google was still working on its own physical phone, the mythical Gphone, something which seemed to be ruled out when Android was revealed last year.

Eventually, maybe Google will find it to be in its best interests to make its own phone. At least it could avoid some of these headaches.

Here’s the latest action:

The AP tries to set a new standard, doesn’t follow it — The Associated Press wants bloggers to pay it for quoting excerpts of its stories, and is threatening to sue if they don’t. Of course, that position is kind of hard to take when you yourself don’t abide by such standards, as the AP didn’t when it lifted a quote from TechCrunch on the matter for one of its stories. Arrington rightly noted how ridiculous this was and contacted his lawyers about retreiving the $12.50 the AP would owe him under its ridiculous system. The hypocrisy runs deep.

Tesla looking for another $100 million — The electric car maker’s plan is to push production up to 150 cars a month by the end of the year, according to VentureWire. To do this it needs more cash. It will likely get it. Enough said.

One former Yahoo finds a home — While his former colleagues at Yahoo continue to jump ship, Jeremy Zawodny has found a home: Craigslist. No word on his official title, but he will start in July.

An EA bigwig leaves to start his own company — Neil Young, a veteran of the gaming powerhouse Electronic Arts will leave to start an unspecified “new project,” according to Newsweek’s Level Up blog. During his 11 years at EA, Young worked on projects such as the alternate reality game Majestic, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Sims 2, Medal of Honor Airborne and Boom Blox (which is perhaps my new favorite game).

FCC gives Sprint more time to give up part of its airwaves — The regulators agreed to push out a deadline for Sprint to vacate a part of the wireless spectrum it controls that the government now wants to use for public safety networks. Sprint will now have until July 1, 2009.

NVIDIA chip to match AMD’s manufacturing process — The Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ is made on a 55-nanometer process, according to CNET. This is the same process that most of AMD’s graphic chips now use, an upgrade from the 65nm process.

The Japanese love/hate the iPhone — A recent survey indicated that 91 percent of Japanese buyers would not purchase an iPhone. A headline like that makes it sound awful, until you consider, as Silicon Alley Insider does, that even 9 percent of Japan’s market would mean 9.3 million potential new iPhone customers, which is huge when Apple had been shooting for just 10 million worldwide by the end of 2008.

The Huffington Post goes local — The fast-growing web site, The Huffington Post, run by pundit Arianna Huffington, is planning a massive expansion across the U.S. The first of these local versions of the site will be run out of Chicago. Huffington is said to be looking for a third round of funding to support such an expansion.

Fake Beijing earthquake news spreads malware — Botnet operators in China are using fake reports of a 9.0 earthquake to spread malware, according to The Register. Classy.

Netflix shuts down profiles feature — Users will no longer be able to have seperate queues for movies as a result. The system was simply too complicated to maintain, Netflix contends.

Updated

Well, TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld certainly isn’t pulling his punches. Last week, while most reporters (including me) were writing enthusiastically about the new partnership between Sprint and Clearwire to build a mobile wireless network using WiMax technology, Schonfeld slammed the deal as “a disaster waiting to happen.” Then he followed up on Friday with even more reasons why the deal is a bad idea.

So did I jump the gun? Was I (along with Eric Schmidt, chief executive at Google, which invested in the deal), “snookered”? I’m not convinced, nor were a couple wireless experts VentureBeat spoke to. Schonfeld certainly does a compelling and thorough job of outlining the many risks and unknowns involved in the deal, but he may be missing the bigger picture: Despite the risks, the deal is a calculated gamble that could pay off.

Schonfeld’s biggest argument is that WiMax has until now been a “fixed” wireless technology (in other words, it provides wireless service in your home and office), rather than mobile, and it hasn’t proven itself as a workable business in that field, either. For example, Clearwire’s network will be the heart of the new partnership, yet Clearwire lost $727 million last year. Also, in order to work, WiMax chips must be installed on laptops and cell phones, which hasn’t happened much yet.

These are all fair points, but I’d argue that collectively they mean the fate of the partnership is unclear, not that it’s a guaranteed failure. For one thing, it’s a mistake to assume that Clearwire and WiMax’s history are good predictors for how this new company (which will also be called Clearwire) will perform. After all, the deal brings plenty of new players — such as Google, Intel Capital, Comcast and Time Warner, who are all investors — into the mix, not to mention $3.2 billion of fresh funding.

“[Schonfeld is] assuming that Clearwire’s current model will be the one going forward, which is highly unlikely,” says Paul Grim of SunBridge Partners. “The name on HQ may be Clearwire, but the $3.2 billion raised suggests the other parties may have a say in how things play out.”

It’s also worth noting that WiMax may be relatively unproven, but the new company will still be deploying ahead of the competing LTE technology, which is a smart move. As Intel Capital’s Arvind Sodhani told us, “We can’t wait three years.” (Keep in mind that Sodhani has a horse in the race, since Intel is a leading provider of WiMax chips.)

Finally, as Rich Wong of Accel Partners told us, the investment makes sense as a calculated gamble as part of Google’s efforts to ensure open mobile networks.

“Consider that one of their alternatives would have been to try and build a complete network off of 700 Mhz spectrum,” Wong said. “This is a far more cost-effective way of driving to this form of open standard.”

So, yes, that’s a lot of money to pour into an unproven technology. But there are plenty of reasons to be excited too, and I’ll wait for more warning signs before joining in TechCrunch’s doom and gloom.

Update: It’s worth noting that Clearwire (the old Clearwire, not the new company that will be formed by the partnership) stock has been rising for most of today (May 13) — as of 1pm Pacific, it’s up around 5 percent from the opening price of $12.81. Now, there may have been some other Clearwire-related news yesterday (like, say, the release of decent Q1 financial data), but until someone can prove otherwise, I’m taking full credit. [Image from Marketwatch]

Sprint and Clearwire have confirmed yesterday’s reports that they’re teaming up to create a new wireless broadband company. The new company, which will also be called Clearwire, should be the first to create a national mobile network using Intel’s WiMax technology, delivering broadband Internet at a much higher speed than existing 3G networks.

Intel, Google, Comcast, Time Warner and cable company Bright House Networks will invest $3.2 billion in this new company, while wireless veteran John Stanton’s Trilogy Equity Partners will invest directly in the new Clearwire’s common stock, which has a target price of $20 per share. Sprint will own 51 percent of the new Clearwire, existing Clearwire shareholders will own 27 percent and the strategic investors will collectively own 22 percent.

As we wrote yesterday, this looks to be a big win for all companies involved — particularly Sprint, which has been struggling, and WiMax, which is competing with rival technology LTE. (Others, however, argue that the situation risks becoming a “too many cooks in the kitchen” fiasco.)

The new Clearwire plans to cover between 120 and 140 million customers in its network by 2010.

The announcement includes a bunch of related partnerships between Sprint, Clearwire and the strategic investors. Google, for example, will work with Clearwire to develop Internet services, and Google applications like Google Maps and Gmail will now come preloaded on Sprint devices. Comcast, Time Warner and Bright House have made wholesale agreements with Sprint and Clearwire, and the two companies have also struck wholesale deals with each other.

Google Product Manager Larry Alder says his company invested $500 million, and he touts the deal’s potential for more open network policies, such as an open Internet protocol for mobile broadband devices.

Here’s the latest action:

Sprint and Clearwire to join forces for WiMax venture – The telecom companies, along with Comcast, Time Warner, Google and Intel, are about to announce a $3.2 billion investment in a new wireless Internet company using WiMax technology, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal reports that the new company, which will also be called Clearwire, is valued at more than $12 billion. It will launch two years ahead of competing offerings from AT&T and Verizon. The combination of that head start and the formidable lineup of backers should make this quite a coup for Sprint, which is the driving force behind the partnership.

The result: Everyone wins. The Wimax camp needed some help to counter a competing technology LTE, Clearwire needed some money and the carriers get to split up the financing burden among themselves. Google’s role, though, is new. It’s just the latest move by the Internet search giant to push into the wireless communications arena, and comes as it is pushing it new mobile platform, Android.

USA Today reports that Trilogy Equity Partners also put $10 million towards the venture. Trilogy is a VC firm started by John Stanton, who helped found McCaw’s first wireless venture.

Sun previews app platform JavaFX – Sun’s software chief Rich Green gave a demonstration of JavaFX, which should compete with platforms like Adobe AIR for developers of hybrid web-desktop applications, at the JavaOne conference today. Green showed off a JavaFX application that runs Flickr and Twitter feeds in Facebook, then dragged the app onto the desktop. The same application ran on a Java-enabled phone. Rather inauspiciously, CNET reports that the application kept breaking, although the problems were blamed on the venue. The platform is set to launch this fall; I’m hoping more details will emerge about how it’s going to stand out against AIR.

Rocker Neil Young makes collected works available for download — Speaking of Sun, famed musician Neil Young is partnering with the company in an ambitious project to make all of his work available for purchase. Apparently, the content will be delivered on Blu-ray discs that check for and download new content as it becomes available. Young says the Playstation 3 is the best device for downloading all that music. This sounds very cool, although I’m not sure that it’ll lead to quite as many PS3 sales as the new Grand Theft Auto game.

Microsoft’s media player Zune gets TV shows – For all you Zune owners who have been jealously eyeing those with iPods and wondering, “When will I be able to watch Battlestar Galactica on a tiny, portable screen?” the long nightmare is over.

Cisco revenue up 10 percent in Q3 – That’s an increase from $8.9 billion to $9.8 billion. Since the company, which is the largest maker of networking equipment, is seen as a bellwether for the larger tech industry, that’s a bit of a relief, and particularly impressive after Sun recently reported a loss during the same period and blamed the weakening economy. Cisco’s profit, on the other hand, fell due to acquisition-related charges, and sales are expected to grow more slowly than previously anticipated.

Stephen Colbert is the Person of the Year (on the Internet) — The political comedian will be recognized as part of the 12th Annual Webby Awards next month. Colbert’s mockery of Internet trends has led to everything from Wikipedia vandalism to possibly the largest Facebook group in history. Which is enough to make him an online pioneer, at least in the eyes of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

Verizon Wireless today unveiled the specifications for its open network and promised to partner with inventors to grow the industry. That sounds good, but what does it really mean?

On the consumer end, unless you’re willing to pay several hundred dollars for a phone, you’re still likely to end up signing one of those 2-year contracts. On the developer end, you’re going to need to create a device that adheres to CDMA (the network protocol Verizon uses) standards, as well as some “supplemental requirements” — which is a vague way for Verizon to call this an “open” network, while still having rules.

Don’t get me wrong, this certainly seems like a step in the right direction — but it also sounds a bit like things won’t be that different at all.

Some of the quotes from the company’s Open Development Device Conference are also telling:

“The technical specifications aren’t rigorous and are based on industry standards,” said Tony Melone, chief technology officer for Verizon Wireless.

“The certification process won’t be lengthy, costly or complicated,” said Tony Lewis, vice president of open development for Verizon Wireless.

That’s a lot of “aren’ts” and “won’ts” — these statements sound downright defensive.

Before Apple unveiled the iPhone last June, the mobile industry seemed like a much different place. Back then, every company wasn’t tripping over one another to out-”open” its competition. Instead, we had a group of closed companies, content to lock customers in and rack up monthly overages.

Shortly after the iPhone emerged, talk of a “Google Phone” began to heat up. This rumor eventually revealed itself to be Google’s Android mobile development platform.

The iPhone and Android coupled with Google’s entrance into the wireless spectrum auction had wireless companies rightly spooked. The word “open” not only became the new buzz word of the mobile industry, but a competition of sorts erupted to see which of the major mobile providers could be the most open. Verizon said it was opening its network, then AT&T said it would be even more open, then Sprint tried to position itself as the most open of all (our coverage).

While the “open” plans were being made, the mobile companies next engaged in a price war. Verizon and AT&T both promised unlimited calling plans for $99-a-month. Not to be outdone (and in a weak position as the 3rd-place carrier), Sprint promised unlimited calling plans as low as $60-a-month (our coverage).

Verizon’s announcements today may sound good, but consumers and developers should be cautious. The mobile industry is rapidly evolving right now, and each company is doing little more than attempting to say the right thing to get ahead.

1) Rumor: Google to buy Sprint?
2) The U.S. House of Representatives passes VC tax
3) Berkeley Bionics brings exoskeletons to market
4) Fox Interactive Media may start its own ad network
5) Railpower Technologies to steam on, for now
6) Zuckerberg, speaking grandly
7) Are Facebook’s ads illegal in New York?
8) Murdoch calls Facebook a phonebook
9) Sprint and WiMax startup Clearwire have ended plans to form a joint venture

Rumor: Google to buy Sprint? – The rumor surfaced yesterday, here, suggesting that despite a number of major issues, owning a carrier would give Google crucial control over developing and distributing its own mobile services. The issues, however, are numerous. Google would have to beef up its governmental lobby arm to compete against AT&T and other carriers for favorable regulations. It would also have to manage retail stores for mobile customers (expensive, although they’ve worked for Apple!). The move might also send the message to AT&T and the others considering the Open Handset Alliance that Google is actually going to compete directly against them, regardless of the Open Handset Alliance that Google is spearheading. Om has more about how this move could make sense for Google, Intel, Cisco and other leading Silicon Valley companies.

The U.S. House of Representatives passes VC tax — It will change the carried interest from a capital gains to ordinary income, thereby lifting tax to about 35 percent on VCs and other private equity professionals. It is not expected to pass the Senate, however, and President Bush has suggested he would veto it.

Fred Wilson’s series on the struggling VC industry – Venture capitalist Fred Wilson has a good series of posts about the rise and fall of the VC industry, and explains how the official data VCs report may look better than reality (because poorly performing firms have decided not to report their data, or are shutting down and so can’t report their data), and that even top performing firms in the industry aren’t doing that well. It suggests the VC industry is in for some serious pain.

Berkeley Bionics brings exoskeletons to market – It provides technology to give you extra muscles, and plans to augment human strength in places like the war zone (for military) or other emergency situations (firefighting, and so on). This system provides its pilot with the ability to carry loads up to 150 pounds on his back “with minimal effort” over any type of terrain for extended periods of time without reducing his agility. The company is a spinout from the Berkeley Robotics and Human Engineering Laboratory and is raising funds. Via Alarm:clock.

Zuckerberg, speaking grandly – “There is no opting out of advertising,” Zuckerberg said of Facebook’s new platform last week, “Once every hundred years media changes. The last hundred years have been defined by the mass media. The way to advertise [then] was to get into the mass media and push out your content. That was the last hundred years. In the next hundred years, information won’t be just pushed out to people, it will be shared among the millions of connections people have.” Via TechCrunch.

Fox Interactive Media may start its own ad network – FIM may be planning to begin providing advertisements, as well as living off of them. Company representatives have been making the rounds to gauge the interest of outside media sites in showing ads provided by Fox, according to the Silicon Alley Insider. Of course, FIM may be large enough to create its own ecosystem: The company runs AskMen, Fox.com, Dow Jones, Myspace and several other giant media properties. We’re not sure if it’s connected, but we also recently reported on FIM hiring a consulting company to streamline its ad operations. Maybe the advice was, “Go forth, and build your own.”

Railpower Technologies to steam on, for now – The fires were flickering for Railpower, a maker of hybrid locomotives, but the Ontario Teacher’s Pension Plan decided to step in and keep the engines running. The fund put $35 million into the cleantech train company, noting that it expects that “increasingly stringent environmental regulations in North America and globally will open up new markets” for clean rail startups like Railpower.

Are Facebook’s ads illegal in New York? — That’s what the New York Times is saying, citing a 100-year-old New York State statute which says that “any person whose name, portrait, picture, or voice is used within this state for advertising purposes or for the purposes of trade without the written consent first obtained” can sue for damages.

Murdoch calls Facebook a phonebook –”The two platforms are very different in the user experience,” said Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corp. and owner of MySpace, the competitor to Facebook. “MySpace is a place for self-expression, where users’ MySpace pages become their home on the Internet. It is where they discover people, content, and culture — where they share information, communicate, and consume. Facebook, on the other hand, tends to be a web utility, similar to a phonebook.” Via ZDNet.

Sprint and WiMax startup Clearwire have ended plans to form a joint venture — WSJ has details.

Here’s the latest action:
1. Medio’s roar turning to a squeal?
2. Sprint changing WiMax plans?
3. AOL rumored to be considering buying ad targeting network Quigo for $300 million
4. Bug Labs, for open-sourced electronic devices
5. Semantic search engine Hakia releases social networking tool
6. The amazing $200 Ubuntu Linux “green” PC at Wal-Mart
7. Cisco does its 125th buyout
8. Facebook’s stock has appreciated 33-fold, and then some
9. Internet Brands going public with growing losses, declining sales?
10. Shopstyle signs deal with In Style Magazine

Medio’s roar turning to a squeal? — We’re wondering what will happen to Seattle’s Medio, the company that provides mobile search technology to telecom giant Verizon, now that Google is reportedly close to signing a deal with the giant carrier to offer customers a GPhone. This which would carry a Google operating system, based on Linux and offering a host of Google applications including search. The Mercury News carried a profile story on Medio Tuesday, in which chief executive Brian Lent (pictured top left) boasts Medio has a broader reach than Google, citing its partnership with Verizon. The article appeared the day before the deal negotiations between Google and Verizon leaked. Obviously, Medio won’t get kicked off of Verizon’s phones overnight. The GPhone hasn’t even arrived yet. Still, the Merc piece is a notable read, explaining how Lent knew the Google co-founders at Stanford, but initially shrugged of the promise of search; he even turned down the No. 1 employee position at Yahoo. Verizon, in turn, may be flirting with Google for the following obvious: Apple iPhone has become a raging success, after Verizon turned down the chance to be the iPhone carrier partner. As Techdirt points out, Verizon and Google have a tough history, including the standoff over the 700 MHz spectrum debate and network neutrality. But the GPhone, that might paper over the differences.

Sprint Nextel changing WiMax plans? — Sprint may be rethinking its plans to offer high-speed wireless Internet service using WiMax technology, possibly merging its wireless broadband unit with start-up Clearwire, according to the WSJ.

AOL rumored to be considering buying ad targeting network Quigo for $300 million – But its just a rumor. Details from Kara Swisher.

Bug Labs, for open-sourced electronic devices — You’ve heard about all the open-source software. Well, New York’s Bug Labs is offering open source for hardware, drawing on outside developers to help fashion the building blocks of these personalized devices that will be easy enough for non-techies to assemble. It is backed by Spark Capital, Union Square Ventures and Robert Young, founder of open source company Red Hat. More about BugLabs here. It has similarities with Ponoko.

Semantic search engine Hakia releases social networking tool — Called Meet Others, it lets you meet people who typed in the same search query. Now that is geeky.

The amazing $200 Ubuntu Linux “green” PC at Wal-Mart — The price of this computer is truly in the basement. It runs OpenOffice software and comes pre-configured with links to all of Google’s online applications. See Wired story for more details. It stands in stark contrast to Nicholas Negroponte’s $100 laptop for the poor, began at a price of $100, but which now has crept upward to….$200. So apparently, there’s no need for the poor laptop any more. The developing world may as well order a Linux version straight from Wal-Mart.

Cisco does its 125th buyout –Cisco, the giant networking company, proves you can grow and prosper through non-stop acquisitions. It has paid $100M for Securent, a company that monitors access to a company’s data and communications regardless of vendor, platform, or operating system. Securent was founded in 2004 by Rajiv Gupta after raising capital from Greylock and Onset (via Alarmclock ).

Facebook’s stock has appreciated 33-fold, and then some – Many of us reported how the Microsoft deal to invest in Facebook at such a high value ($15 billion) makes Facebook’s private shares expensive. This, in turn, makes it tough to recruit motivated employees, because it means there’s little room for the stock to appreciate — at least for several years until Facebook starts making some money. NYT’s Miguel Helft has done a good job at exploring just how far the stock has risen.

Internet Brands going public with growing losses, declining sales? — We don’t get this one. The El Segundo, Calif., company has filed to raise $45 million in an IPO. But the company, whose sites include CarsDirect, WikiTravel, FlyerTalk.com among others, swung to a loss of $2.4 million in the first nine months of the year, and saw is revenues decline too. This, after buying 35 start-ups last year, enough to jolt any company. Buyer beware. It is backed by IdeaLab.

Shopstyle signs deal with In Style Magazine — ShopStyle, the fashion-focused shopping search engine that Sugar recently acquired, has announced a partnership with the popular In Style Magazine. Sugar has said its efforts to create a woman-centric network, a la Glam, was not working out, and has been looking into other means to generate revenue. Combining ShopStyle’s search with the editorial sensibilities of In Style’s fashionistas could prove lucrative for both companies. Under the terms of the deal, Sugar will receive a cut of revenues, as well as its CPCs.

Here’s the latest action:

1) Sprint CEO Gary Forcee out, after company struggles — good for startups?
2) Google “Gphone” details emerge
3) IBM and Google invest in cloud computing education
4) Google gets heat for disrespecting its elders
5) Facebook app offers virtual Facebook rooms
6) Proximic takes on Google search and Adsense
7) Grayboxx takes on local search and local review sites

Forsee forced out as Sprint struggles to compete — Gary Forsee, the chief executive who masterminded Sprint’s merger with Nextel in 2005, has gotten the boot following speculation by the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

Psst, we’ve got one idea for Sprint: Open networks spur innovation. Google’s Andy Tian explained this recently, saying it is a driving force behind China’s booming mobile market. Perhaps the new Sprint chief executive, once chosen, might want to consider turning Sprint’s mobile network infrastructure into an open platform for third-party mobile applications here in the US?

The Sprint-Nextel merger, completed during a period of frantic consolidation in the mobile carrier industry, was intended to give Sprint a strong presence in both the business and consumer markets. Instead, the combined company’s business faltered as customers fled to other carriers. Sprint’s current troubles could delay its ambitious WiMax project with Google. Mobile social mapping service Loopt (our coverage), one of the few startups that has managed to land a distribution deal with Sprint, tells us the company still feels “very good” about the partnership. (Photo, above, via CNET)

Google “Gphone” details emerge – The New York Times reports that Google, whose stock just passed $600, has been working on its rumored mobile phone project for a full two years. The article notes that that Google will probably not focus on creating a revolutionary device like the iPhone, but will aim to create an open-source, Linux-based alternative to Windows Mobile and get it onto as many handsets as possible. Google is likely to encounter resistance from the carriers, especially Verizon, whose tussle with Google over wireless spectrum in the US gets more boisterous. But Google sees the mobile market as one of its biggest growth opportunities, and won’t go down without a fight. (Image via NYT.)

IBM and Google invest in cloud computing education — As cloud computing, or the practice of scaling processing across an interconnected grid of computers, gains popularity, companies from Amazon to Microsoft have latched onto the concept. Part of the problem with its growth is that there are more potential uses for cloud computing than there are skilled engineers to run the networks. Now Google and IBM have announced they will jointly invest up to $30 million in equipment and training at six top universities, giving themselves a dual benefit: The appearance of altruism, and first shot at hiring the brightest graduates.

Google gets heat for allegedly disrespecting its elders – On the other end of the spectrum, Google is back in the news for (allegedly) trying to dump its older employees. The decision by a Santa Clara County judge to dismiss the age-discrimination lawsuit of former Google executive Brian Reid has been overturned by the Sixth District Court of Appeals in San Jose. The court declared that a jury should hear the evidence, which includes a statistician’s study finding that older employees at the company consistently receive lower evaluations and smaller bonuses than their more youthful counterparts.

Reid claims colleagues referred to him as an “old guy,” and “fuddy duddy,” and says he was fired for not being a “cultural fit.” Whether or not this constitutes age discrimination is up to the jury to decide, but the idea doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone; older employees have long known they’re an endangered species at tech outfits.

Facebook app offers virtual Facebook rooms — Scenecaster, a company that lets you create 3D virtual rooms and embed them on social networks, has released a Facebook application. It lets you create a virtual room in Facebook and add virtual objects from Scenecaster’s catalog of virtual goods. Along with Acebucks (our coverage) and Zuckerbucks, two virtual currencies on Facebook, this is another example of third-party developers adding virtual-world features to the social network. (Screenshot via Scenecaster.)

Proximic takes on Google search and Adsense — Proximic, which launched at the beginning of the month, searches the web based on the relationships of words to each other rather than the words themselves. The German company has been showing its software off around Silicon Valley to positive reviews, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

The problem with Google’s contextual search and advertising technologies is that it uses particular keywords, which tend to miss the overall meaning of an article and instead deliver ill-fitting search results or ads. Proximic indexes the web, like other search engines, but uses the “pattern proximity” of all of the words on a page to establish a baseline of “normality,” and thus figure out how words relate to each other. For example, a Proximic search on an interesting research project that has assembled a bunch of microrobots in an ant-like colony will find a whole range of other web pages that deal specifically with similarities between robots and ants (see the company’s screenshot, below).

Proximic currently offers a widget for publishers, so they can display relevant information from around the web on within their sites, and a Firefox browser plugin that displays similar pages. Because it relies on patterns, not words, it can be used in any language. Scoble has a good video interview with the founders here. Google did not respond to a request for comment on what its doing in this area.

Grayboxx says it’s better on local search/reviews – Grayboxx (our coverage) says it has found a way to improve on Google and Yahoo’s crummy local search results, and provide better reviews of locales than Yelp. Grayboxx, which began opening up to a few communities this summer, today made the service available to 100 more small cities around the U.S. The company collects local data — purchase information at local retailers, online restaurant reservations, and so forth — to create its own rankings of how local people value local businesses. For example, repeat online reservations at a local restaurant by many local people will increase the restaurant’s ranking. That’s right: No user-generated content gets created on this site. It’s hoping to appeal to middle America, as companies like Yelp struggle to move beyond their urban base of reviewers.

Here’s the latest action:

Sprint doubles bet on WiMAX –- Sprint doubles its investment pledge on the untested WiMAX technology (WSJ, subscription required), which Sprint will use to provide widespread broadband over its network. It now plans to spend $5 billion by 2010.

Twitku, the Meebo for twittering — Twitku is a new service that lets you post a single message about what you’re doing simultaneously to Twitter and Jaiku. Those two services are rivals in letting people send one-line messages to their friends, and some people have become torn about which one to use. So Twitku lets them avoid the problem. Like Meebo does for instant messaging, Twitku brings your accounts into a single screen.

Meebo now tailored for the iPhone — The popular online instant messaging company has finally unveiling a version designed for the iPhone. Other IM startups, such as Heysan!, were iPhone-compatible when the iPhone launched and saw traffic surge. Since launch, IM companies of all shapes have introduced their own iPhone-compatible versions. One that we’ve covered is FlickIM, which boasted at the time it was better than the then-existing Meebo on the iPhone. Meebo is one of the most used instant messaging services in the world. Like the Facebook app for the iPhone, this move was predictable.

VMware’s $750 million mistake — While everyone was getting suckered into raving about VMware’s whopping IPO Tuesday, few people stood back and realized what the company’s robust stock rise (from $22 to $51 in the first day) really meant. Essentially, the company flittered away about $750 million to investors who had nothing to do with the company’s success. Had it sold its stock at a higher price, say $45, it would have doubled its proceeds, and still given initial investors a decent incentive to buy the stock. Press accounts marveled at the stock’s rise, but hey, had the company priced its stock at $10, it could have seen a five-fold increase, and gotten even better press coverage! Great press, but completely destitute. What it should have done was use the open-IPO process that prices stock at market rates to begin with, which is what Google did. Investment bankers hate it. But its better for the companies. (Thanks to Techdirt, for the reminder).

Final nail in Bolt Media coffin — Bolt Media, the video site that launched in 1999, absorbed more than $60 million in venture backing, precariously survived the burst of the Internet bubble in 2000, slaved through the dark years of 2001-2003, travailed through a management buyout in 2004, and then almost got sold in February to GoFish, has finally met its end. The acquisition didn’t go through, because of Bolt’s myriad of lawsuits, giving it no other option than to fold.

Reporters sue HP — Three reporters for CNET Networks sue Hewlett-Packard, accusing the company of violating their privacy in its hunt for the source of boardroom leaks.

Sprint Nextel said it has partnered with Google to offer search and other social networking services on its mobile portal site after it launches its new WiMAX network next year.

See their announcement here.

Sprint is investing heavily in WiMAX, which will offer a high-speed wireless network for mobile devices comparable to the broadband speed you’re used to with cable or DSL, and will reach a planned 100 million people next year. The move is significant because mobile browsing has been hampered to date by the slow wireless networks existing today. It’s a big move for Google, which has been investing in communications. The deal may let it become a default starting place for users of the nation’s third-largest mobile carrier.

It’s also significant because Sprint has pushed forward with location-detection technologies, which provides Google with more powerful ways to interact with its users. Sprint, for example, recently signed an agreement with another company, Loopt, which will let friends track the whereabouts of other friends. Google’s mapping and other technologies could find further enhance these sort of interactions.

Under the accord, Google will provide the search services for the portal, and Sprint will integrate Google’s GTalk chat service.

It’s worth noting that Sprint’s WiMax network faces rivals. The other carriers are also building out their own high-speed networks.

Loopt, a Silicon Valley company that lets people interact on their cell-phones as they move around on a map, will now be available on Sprint.

Loopt lets users chat with each other and inform them of their moves around town — while bar-hopping for example — without having to send messages each time they move. Loopt automatically updates your location every 15 minutes, using GPS technology. Friends also using Loopt can check your location when they want. Other services require manual input of moves, and create quite a bit of spam because your friends get blasted by SMS updates each time you register a move. That’s likely one reason Google’s Dodgeball didn’t work out (see our comparison coverage from a year ago).

You can send messages that show your location. You can also share geo-tagged photos. The move is significant for the young Loopt, because until now it has been available only on Boost, a relatively small carrier owned by Sprint.

Cutting deals with carriers is excruciatingly painful. As an oligarchy, the major carriers protect their networks fiercely and are aggressive in looking for way to get paid. Loopt Chief Executive and founder Sam Altman told us nine months ago he was working on this and other carrier deals. He says other deals are still coming. The company says it has more than 100,000 users, though it isn’t clear how many of them are active. Sprint users will have to pay $2.99 a month for the service, another barrier to widespread adoption. Sprint would have been been wiser to offer Loopt for free, and cut some sort of revenue share on advertising. The service will be available on 25 different phones.

Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt yesterday wrote a column for VentureBeat talking about the state of the wireless industry, and why the latest plans by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to open up a part of the wireless spectrum aren’t good enough, and will keep power firmly in the hands of incumbents like Sprint.

Loopt is backed with $5 million from Sequoia Capital and New Enterprise Associates. Verizon Wireless and AT&T are believed to have similar location-based social network products in the works.