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An interesting perspective on the long-term impact of "apps". From the demand side, they represent a completely new paradigm for interacting with technology. From the supply side, they lead to a deep reconfiguration of the computing industry and of its business models.

What will the future of personal computing be? After the era of the PC, what kind of devices will emerge as dominant designs?

Carmakers traditionally considered on-board devices as closed, proprietary systems to be sold as options at very high margins. The wind is changing, and a new paradigm for infotainment is emerging: the car as a peripheral to personal computing devices.

Last week, we announced a new feature that lets you add a favorite photo or image to the background of your Google.com homepage. To provide you with an extra bit of inspiration, we've collaborated with several well-known artists, sculptors and photographers to create a gallery of background images you can use to personalize your Google homepage. Included in the collection are photographs of the works of Dale Chihuly, Jeff Koons, Tom Otterness, Polly Apfelbaum, Kengo Kuma, Kwon, Ki-soo and Tord Boontje, as well as some incredible photos from Yann Arthus-Bertrand and National Geographic. We'll be featuring these images as backgrounds on the Google homepage over the next 24 hours. Of course, since we want your Google homepage to be personal to you, you can still choose an image or photo from your computer or your own Picasa Web Album. Whether you select an image from our new artist collection or prefer to have a more personal touch on your homepage, you'll still enjoy the speed and ease of use that you've come to expect from Google. We're also excited to announce that this feature is now available internationally. We hope you enjoy the new artist collection and making Google feel more like your own!

E' pacifico che alcune scelte di Microsoft non siano risultate brillanti, ma alcuni asseriscono che la società possa stare tranquilla in vista del contrasto Apple v.s Google, i quali ancora non hanno le sue stesse quote di mercato. Tuttavia, come sappiamo, la situazione è destinata a cambiare, perciò nel leggere questo articolo ci si chiede se la scommessa di Bill Gates, vuoi tradizionalista, vuoi vincente finora nell'espandere la propria tela fra i consumatori medi (che poi siamo quasi tutti), possa spuntarla sul lunghissimo periodo. Microsoft è nota per aver trasformato le difficoltà dell'informatica in un pacchetto appetibile e pronto all'uso. Ma se pensiamo alla co-creation, alla specializzazione sempre più acuta delle persone, quanto vale davvero ostinarsi nello standard, nelle piattaforme, quando accanto a te c'è chi, con il cloud computing e l'open source, propone leggerezza di terminali, indipendenza dalla piattaforma, mobilità? Per ora tra i due litiganti Microsoft sta più o meno bene, ma l'innovazione ci insegna ad adeguarci, come lo stesso ingegnere IBM notava al seminario.

The diffusion of netbooks exhibits many interesting traits of radical and disruptive innovation: the change in technical tradeoffs and product architecture (though not of core technology), the downsizing in performance (good enough for a new market), the inertia shown by incumbents.

It's likely that some of the words such as "netbook", "smartbook", "tablet", etc. will sound funny and obsolete in the near future. However, it is always like this during paradigm changes. Industry is now trying to understand what comes after the PC, and no product architecture and usage process has yet emerged as dominant.

The iPad has finally been launched. It will be interesting to see whether this new type of product will carve itself a niche along to existing products (smartphones on the one side, PCs on the other) or whether it will become a substitute to them. Of course, this doesn't only depend on its own merits, but on features like connectivity, availability of applications and content and - not to be neglected - performance of the supply chain.

Another comment on the HP/Palm acquisition. 

That Palm couldn't make it alone was quite clear. However, its competence and assets (the WebOS operating system) are pretty valuable, especially in the hands of the world's largest PC maker now trying to figure out what happens beyond the era of the PC.

Authorities on both sides of the Atlantic on Monday moved towards investigating Google following the internet group's disclosure that it had recorded communications sent over unsecured wireless networks in people's homes. Peter Schaar, the German commissioner for data protection, called for a "detailed probe" by independent authorities into the practice by Google. He said the group's explanation of the collection of data as an accident was "highly unusual". "One of the largest companies in the world, the market leader on the internet, simply disobeyed normal rules in the development and usage of software," he said. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission was expected to launch an inquiry as well, according to people who spoke to agency officials. Privacy advocates said an inquiry could look at whether the collection of data breached rules on unauthorised access to computers and private communications. "This may be one of the most massive surveillance incidents by a private corporation that has ever occurred", said Marc Rotenberg, leader of the nonprofit Electronic Privacy Information Centre in Washington. "It is unprecedented vacuuming of WiFi data by a private company. Can you imagine what would happen if a German corporation was sending cars through Washington sucking up all this information?" Google reiterated its statements from late Friday in Europe, when it reversed earlier denials that it had collected personal activity. It said it had been using a fleet of camera-equipped Street View vehicles, which take pictures for the group's imaging services, and had been at the same time using the cars to assemble a database of electronic WiFi addresses intended to improve the functioning of its maps and other location services. Google said the project leaders ignored that the vehicles were also taking in snippets of activity on the WiFi networks. "We didn't want to collect this data in the first place and we would like to dest

Windows 7 will enable touch-screen control of PCs, and PC makers are introducing devices with this feature. This is an interesting topic since tablet PCs, precursors to this technology, were mostly a flop a few years ago. What will happen this time? In case acceptance will be higher, will it be because of better performance of hardware and software? Or will it be because consumers are now accustomed to using touch-screens on smartphones?