TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

Amazon.com already faces an array of competitors for the small but growing electronic book market. Now Google may be aiming for a piece of the action. The search giant is talking with publishers about letting them sell e-books through Google, the New York Times reports.

Looking for a cozy spot to get some work done? A great discussion has been going on at the Seattle Tech Startups forum over the past couple of days on the best places to set up shop for an hour or two.

Windows 7 Starter Edition, the edition of the upcoming operating system targeted to small "netbook" computers, will be able to run more than just three applications at a time, Microsoft said today. Previous versions of Starter Edition have imposed a three-application limit.

Bellevue's Motricity has named Jim Ryan -- a former Sprint PCS and AT&T Mobility exec -- to the post of chief strategy and marketing officer.

Scientists from the University of Washington, the Nature Conservancy and the University of Southern Mississippi are introducing a tool called ClimateWizard that lets people track temperature and precipitation changes in their local area, the Seattle Times reports.

Rivals to Microsoft's Internet Explorer are pushing the European Commission to require the company to offer alternative browsers as part of Windows, and to distribute them to existing Windows users via an automatic update, the Wall Street Journal reports.

An interesting report from the Directions on Microsoft research firm explains how Microsoft phases out products.

The Susan G. Komen foundation recently got a boost from Seattle-based Varolli Corp., which donated software to help the cancer research organization drive sign ups for its Race for the Cure on June 7. Using the Varolli technology, race organizers sent personalized voice messages from Mona Locke to more than 10,000 past participants of the race.

Modumetal, a Seattle startup that is developing new metals and metal coatings designed to be stronger, lighter and more corrosion-resistant than steel, has raised more than $1.5 million in new funding from Second Avenue Partners, the Alliance of Angels, and other investors. The company is preparing to bring its first products to market this year.

Wilson

Peter Wilson, who helped oversee Google's rapid growth in the Seattle region, is leaving the company next week -- aiming to launch his own venture toward the end of the year.

Wilson, engineering and site director for Google's Kirkland operations, confirmed the move today but declined to go into detail about his plans. His focus has been on cloud computing, social media and online advertising, and he acknowledged that his new company could involve one or more of those areas.

It’s been a tough few months for Seattle’s biotechnology industry. The region has experienced a series of layoffs and research cutbacks, is facing a tough investment climate, and was recently bumped from a top-ten list of national life sciences clusters. For the Seattle area, which just a few years ago was pinning its hopes on biotech as an economic engine, there is fear that progress has stalled and the sector is rolling backward.

It wasn't too long ago that Amazon.com launched a trade-in program for used video games, giving people a way to swap used games for Amazon.com gift-card credit. Now the online retailer is expanding the program to include used DVDs, HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs -- a sign that it sees trade-ins as a possible growth area in the recession.

President Obama today announced plans to name a new U.S. "cyber czar" to oversee the nation's online security efforts. The news accompanies a new report highlighting problems in the way the government handles online security initiatives.

The government report (PDF) cites Microsoft repeatedly, but not in a bad way. Instead, it refers to testimony and research from the Redmond company to back up its contention that sweeping changes are needed in government coordination.

It's always a little nerve-wracking to learn that your startup company is suddenly in competition with Google. We've seen this before with AdReady, which last fall got word that the search titan was rolling out a new product for self-service display advertising. And so it was yesterday with Google Wave, the new communications organizer which at first glance looked a bit like Gist.

Microsoft hasn't gone into much detail yet about how it will advertise its new Bing search engine -- but apparently the company's new strategy for challenging Google includes a big black truck.

On-stage demos are nice, but the best way to get the attention of geeky reporters at a tech conference is to pull out an early version of your next shiny gadget for a quick sneak preview in the hallway. That, at least, was Steve Ballmer's approach yesterday, as the Microsoft CEO gave Engadget an early look at the Zune HD at the D: All Things Digital Conference in California.

Also see this photo gallery of Ballmer showing off the device. Engadget seemed impressed with what it saw, calling the hardware "surprisingly thin" and the interface "very colorful and pretty snappy."

Mike Nichols

Microsoft's revamp of its search engine under the name Bing gives the company a third online brand -- adding to the original MSN and the relative newcomer Windows Live in its stable of Internet properties. It might seem like a lot, but each has a distinct and important role in Microsoft's online strategy, said the general manager of the company's search team in an interview this afternoon.

That was one of several topics addressed by Microsoft search GM Mike Nichols in the phone conversation from California, where Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the revamped search engine this morning. Read on for excerpts from the interview.

After watching the panel on M&A activity yesterday at the WTIA Fast Pitch Forum, I was wondering when we might see some more deals in these parts. Well, turns out one actually happened today. SourceForge today announced that it is gobbling up Bellevue's Ohloh, a massive directory of more than 300,000 open source projects and developers. Terms weren't disclosed. But based on what I am hearing there might be a few more M&A deals around the corner.

With the big E3 video-game convention coming up next week, Microsoft today announced that cumulative worldwide sales of the Xbox 360 have passed 30 million since the video-game console's November 2005 launch.

That's well ahead of the PlayStation 3, which launched a year later and was just under 23 million in cumulative sales as of the end of March, according to Sony's financial reports. However, Nintendo's Wii remains the runaway leader, with more than 50 million in cumulative sales, according to Nintendo's latest data.

Pack your bags and get ready to head to Palo Alto. That's the message for two Seattle area firms that have been accepted into Facebook's new 10-week incubator program: fbFund Rev 2009. 

Seattle's Sortuv and Vittana -- which we've written about here and here -- are among 20 startups and non-profit entities that will receive intensive support and training to help accelerate social applications. The companies -- chosen from among more than 400 applicants -- also will get around $25,000.

[Post updated with comments from Sortuv co-founder Jim Heising]