TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

German engineering giant Siemens is working with Amazon.com to test new cloud-based voice and communications software. Siemens rolled out the experimental product at the VoiceCon conference in Orlando and is gauging customer interest. The software runs on Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) -- and marks another interesting collaboration for Amazon in the cloud computing arena.

Sun Microsystems is laying off 24 employees in Bellevue on May 30, according to a company notification to the state of Washington. Sun confirmed this week that it's handing out 1,500 layoff notices, but declined to specify where the affected workers are located. The job cuts are part of a broad restructuring that Sun announced in November.

Struggling Seattle biotech Targeted Genetics today reported a fourth quarter loss of $10.8 million, more than double its loss for the same period in 2007. Revenues also declined to $2.2 million, with the company noting that it only has enough cash on the books to fund operations through June. The company said that it expects the stock -- which has traded below $1 for the past year -- to be delisted from the Nasdaq.

AuBeta Networks, a 9-year-old Seattle company that provided wide area network services to restaurants and retailers, has hit hard times and is in the process of selling its assets to Telekenex. In a letter to customers earlier this month, AuBeta CEO Ethan Hernandez apologized for service disruptions and said that the company is transitioning operations to San Francisco-based IP service provider Telekenex.

A new article by Vanity Fair reveals an interesting tidbit about a '90s flirtation between the New York Times and Amazon.com. In a piece titled "The Inheritance," writer Mark Bowden chronicles NYT publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.'s efforts to keep the storied newspaper alive in today's rapidly changing media environment. Bowden talks to former Times CFO Diane Baker, who said she forged a major deal with Amazon.com, only to see it shot down.

Barron's gives a glowing take on Amazon.com in a new cover story titled "The World's Best Retailer," proclaiming, "This may be an opportune time to add shares of Amazon.com to your shopping cart and proceed to checkout." It's a remarkable U-turn for Barron's, which famously labeled the online retailer "Amazon.bomb" a decade ago.

Amazon.com is ramping up its Video on Demand business of streaming movies and TV shows from the web, this week confirming plans to offer titles in high definition this year. Amazon primarily offers streaming video for purchase or rent. But it is also experimenting with an entirely different business model for video through its Internet Movie Database (IMDb) website. IMDb offers a select number of videos for free — and has signaled it wants to do the same with its entire library of titles.

Amazon.com, an early leader in cloud computing, is weighing in on the so-called "Cloud Manifesto," an effort to establish principles for making cloud services work together. Microsoft has already criticized the document and raised questions about the fact that it is being drafted in secret. Amazon says it just heard about the effort and will review it, but appeared to express some skepticism.

[Full text of Amazon statement below]

Amazon.com is closing a trio of U.S. distribution centers, the first time it's closed a warehouse since 2006. Amazon said the closures in Munster, Ind., Red Rock, Nev., and Chambersburg, Pa. are part of a reorganization of its fulfillment network -- moving capacity to larger warehouses that can "better balance product mix and customer orders." The distribution centers slated for closure employ some 215 people.

Last month, Topaz Bridge announced new funding. Now, the Bellevue software company has appointed Chris Voss -- the former vice president of SAP America's western region -- as senior vice president of sales and marketing. Voss spent 12 years at SAP handling accounts related to Apple, Microsoft and Nike.

iStockphoto founder Bruce Livingstone is leaving Getty Images , a move that was unrelated to layoffs of 110 people at the Seattle digital image company reported last week by Photo District News, according to News.com. Calgary, Alberta-based iStockphoto was acquired by Getty Images for $50 million in 2006.

It's March Madness -- baby. And that doesn't only mean legendary battles on the hardwood. The folks at executive search and headhunting firm BINC are bringing the science of bracketology to the tech business, setting up a Sweet Sixteen of the best Web/software companies to work for in 2009.

So far, Seattle area companies are out in front, though Expedia is in the fight of its life with Yahoo. (At last count, it was leading by just two votes.) Microsoft appears to be cruising to a first round victory over Slide, while Amazon.com is destroying MySpace. The video commentary -- where "the analysts" offer their picks -- is actually quite entertaining.

Barnes & Noble, which just jumped into the electronic book market, is quickly ramping up its mobile e-book strategy. The bookseller, which acquired e-book retailer Fictionwise a few weeks ago, announced that Fictionwise's free eReader application is now available for BlackBerry users. The eReader is already a popular app on the iPhone. Barnes & Noble's move sets up a new competition with Amazon, which recently launched its own Kindle app for the iPhone and is targeting other mobile devices as well. 

College students have always been an intriguing potential market for Amazon's Kindle and other electronic book readers. In theory, students burdened by heavy and expensive textbooks could benefit from light, portable electronic readers. Amazon has long been rumored to have a student version of Kindle in development, though the company hasn't announced anything yet. In the meantime, some parts of academia are moving toward electronic books. The University of Michigan Press said this week it will transition to "primarily digital" production of scholarly texts.

A new lawsuit is targeting Apple's moves to tap the growing electronic book market. A Swiss company called Monec Holding AG is suing Apple in U.S. District Court in Virginia for patent infringement and unfair trade practices, among other things. Monec alleges Apple violated its 2002 patent called "Electronic device, preferably an electronic book."

Apple offers a variety of e-book applications for the iPhone. The case could also have implications for Amazon.com, which recently came out with its own Kindle app for the popular iPhone as a way to expand the reach of its electronic book store.

Amazon.com recently got rapped by the online magazine Slate, which accused the online retailer of having a dismal record of corporate giving. Now it appears Amazon is doing some damage control. The company just updated its "Amazon Giving" page, touting its support for nonprofit author and publisher groups and charitable efforts by Amazon employees.

The recent problems experienced by the Windows Azure cloud-computing preview might have seemed like a case of Microsoft joining the party. Outages and other glitches have been relatively common in the industry as Amazon, Microsoft and others have opened up their data centers for smaller companies and developers to use for storage, computing and delivering online applications.

But those kinds of problems shouldn't be an inevitable part of cloud computing, says Doug Hauger, Windows Azure general manager.