TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

This week on the TechFlash Podcast, continuing our partnership with 97.3 KIRO-FM in Seattle, we bring longtime Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley and veteran Apple watcher Glenn Fleishman into the studio to talk about the rise of the iPad, the prospects for a legitimate Microsoft response, and the announcement of a new Kindle. We also hear the funny story of what happened when Mary Jo, a newly minted iPad owner, first went to an Apple store to research her purchase.

The show airs on the radio at 7 p.m. Saturday night in the Seattle region, but you can also listen below right now or subscribe to the TechFlash Podcast using this RSS feed (http://feeds.feedburner.com/techflashpodcast), or via iTunes or Zune. Call 206-876-5465 to leave a message for our next show, and continue reading for links related to this week's episode. Access the podcast archive here.

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos chatted with Charlie Rose last night, touting the new $139 Kindle and speaking in great detail about how his company's device is different than Apple's iPad. Bezos made his point by arguing that the most popular application on the iPad right now is a game called "Angry Birds" in which players throw birds at pigs. That compares to the Kindle, whose best seller is a book by Stieg Larsson.

"At $139, some people spend more than that for their sunglasses, Charlie," Bezos said at one point when asked about the Kindle. "I mean it is not an expensive device." Asked about Steve Jobs and the iPad competition, Bezos added: "From where I sit, all of the data that I have, the evidence is very clear that Kindle is a companion to tablet computers, laptops..."

A big thanks to the more than 400 of you who joined us Wednesday for one of our favorite annual events, the TechFlash Summer BBQ and Ping-Pong Tournament, at the Showbox Sodo. The action on the tabletops was top-notch, the crowd was great, and we had fun catching up with people from across the Seattle tech community.

And who knew someone would come dressed up as a tree?

Team Banyan Branch, Spirit Award winners at the TechFlash BBQ and Ping-Pong Tourney. (Photo by Marcus Donner.)

That was the team from social media agency Banyan Branch (pictured at right), which took home the coveted Spirit Award thanks to their unique display of corporate pride -- coming out ahead of the stylish homemade getups worn by Blue Box Group and the, um, eye-catching matching pants sported by the team from online real estate firm Findwell (pictured below).

But the big winner of the night was a familiar name, ping-pong wizard Valeri Kim, representing tech consulting company Akvelon, who successfully defended his TechFlash title to take home the championship in the expert bracket. He overcame Minh Le of Silicon Valley Bank in a rematch of last year's final.

Valeri Kim, representing Akvelon, successfully defended his TechFlash title with a championship in the expert ping-pong division. (Marcus Donner photo)

Despite the loss in the final, Le's second-place finish earned him one of the best prizes of the night -- three hours of free lessons at the Washington Table Tennis Center in Bellevue, which brought some masters of the sport to the event to entertain the crowd with an incredible exhibition on a side table (starting at the 1:50 mark in the video above).

The Ping-Pong and Foosball tourney at the Showbox SoDo.

Oh, what a night. More than 400 people crowded into the Showbox Sodo for the second annual TechFlash Summer BBQ, Ping-Pong and Foosball tournament. Here's a look at some of the scenes from the big event, courtesy of photographer Marcus Donner.

Amazon.com plans to unveil a new, improved version of its Kindle reader tonight amid growing competition from Apple's iPad and others seeking a piece of the hot electronic book market.

The next-generation Kindle is smaller and lighter than the previous version, with faster page turns, longer battery life, built-in Wi-Fi, and other upgrades. It's the same price as before, $189, and for the first time Amazon is introducing a Wi-Fi only version, for $139.

That kind of price point could make Kindle attractive to the mass market consumer. But anyone hoping for a color display or touch screen will have to wait. Amazon said those features — which are central to the popular iPad — aren't part of the new Kindle.

"Most books are black and white," said Amazon vice president for Kindle Ian Freed, in an interview at Amazon's new headquarters in Seattle's South Lake Union. "What we're focused on is making the reading experience better."

Read on for more details and a photo gallery.

We're broadcasting live from the TechFlash summer bash. So, just in case you can't make it out for the fun, check out the live stream below. Things get rolling around 4 p.m. with the first ping-pong matches and foosball games.

Who do you think will take home the big prizes in ping-pong, foosball and the coveted "Spirit Award?"

Is this the future of social shopping? E-commerce giant Amazon.com has launched a new feature that lets people connect their Amazon and Facebook accounts, and get gift recommendations for themselves and their friends based on Facebook profile information.

It's a pretty interesting integration, and a way for Amazon to tap the growing popularity of the top online social network.

Of course, some people may find the whole notion of sharing highly personal Facebook information with Amazon a little creepy. Perhaps for that reason, Amazon emphasizes several privacy protections — saying it will not share people's Amazon account information and purchase history with Facebook, and it will not attempt to contact people's Facebook friends.

Nathan Myhrvold

Former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold's firm Intellectual Ventures, which has amassed a huge pile of more than 30,000 patents, says it doesn't intend to sue companies over patent infringement. But Intellectual Ventures has lately shown a willingness to put its patent arsenal at the disposal of companies involved in litigation. In a deal announced today, Intellectual Ventures sold a "significant" number of patents to Vlingo, a Cambridge, Mass.-based company that makes voice-to-text software. Vlingo is involved in a legal dispute with a rival company, Nuance Communications, and said it intends to use the Intellectual Ventures patents to bolster its defense.

This is the second major (known) case of Intellectual Ventures patents turning up in high-profile tech company litigation. Back in February, Verizon — which was fighting a patent infringement lawsuit brought by TiVo over time-shifting DVR technology — filed a counterclaim against TiVo using a patent acquired from Intellectual Ventures.

Click thumbnail to download PDF of Expert Ping-Pong Bracket.

Intense rivalries and heated competition will be on full display next Wednesday as more than 115 ping-pong and foosball fanatics converge on the Showbox SoDo for the second annual TechFlash summer bash. Last night, the TechFlash team invited readers to a Capitol Hill bar to see us draw the brackets for the second annual Ping-Pong tournament and inaugural Foosball fiesta.

We've got a huge lineup this year: 71 players in the intermediate division; 16 in the expert division and 32 in the foosball field. Download the brackets from this post, and let the trash talking begin. To cheer on your friends and co-workers, or just enjoy the party, tickets to the Summer bash -- once again featuring Smokin Pete's tasty BBQ -- will be available through Friday at noon. Click here to register.

Who will prevail among these of masters of Pong and Foos? Well, that's too hard to say. But we've got our eyes on a few early matches.

Amazon.com reported sharp growth in second quarter profit, but the result missed Wall Street's forecast and the company's shares fell more than 15 percent in after-hours trading.

The e-commerce giant reported Q2 net income of $207 million, or 45 cents per diluted share. That's up 45 percent from $142 million, or 32 cents per share, the same quarter a year ago. Analysts, however, had been expecting Q2 net income of 54 cents a share.

One interesting factoid from the press release: Amazon said its sales via mobile device had surpassed $1 billion in the last year.

Amazon made headlines today with a deal that will make Kindle the exclusive e-book publisher (for two years) of 20 classic works from authors such as Vladimir Nabokov, John Updike, and Norman Mailer. Amazon forged the deal for the digital titles with literary agent Andrew Wylie's new imprint, Odyssey Editions.

But Random House, which originally published many of the books in print, says it sent a letter to Amazon last night "disputing their rights to legally sell these titles which are subject to active Random House publishing agreements." Random House warned that after assessing its options it will take "appropriate action."

It's all part of an emerging tug-of-war over older backlist titles, many of which predated electronic books and the concept of digital rights. Such titles often produce a steady stream of revenue for publishers — and are a key focus in the growing e-book market.

Post updated with reaction from Macmillan and The Authors Guild.

Amazon.com wants you to know that its e-reader business is booming. The e-commerce giant today said the growth rate for Kindle device sales has tripled since the company lowered the price on its basic e-reader from $259 to $189 last month, with CEO Jeff Bezos calling the new lower price a "tipping point" for Kindle. Amazon also said it's selling more Kindle books than hardcover books.

However, Amazon as usual didn't reveal actual sales numbers, so it's hard to know how Kindle stacks up against Apple's iPad and other rival devices. (Apple on June 22 said it had sold 3 million iPads in 80 days).

Parminder Singh, President of Intellectual Ventures Canada. Photo via Dominic Schaefer/ Business in Vancouver

Patent firm Intellectual Ventures is expanding its international footprint, opening an office in Vancouver, British Columbia, and installing a Microsoft veteran to head it.

The Bellevue-based firm, which has amassed more than 30,000 technology patents, opened the office in downtown Vancouver in May. It’s led by Parminder Singh, former managing director of Microsoft's development office in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond.

Courtesy LMN Architects

Amazon.com's new Seattle headquarters campus is coming along. Paul Allen's Vulcan Real Estate, which is developing the project, said phase two of the campus — a five-story building on the east side of Boren Avenue North between Mercer and Republican streets — is now complete and fully occupied.

The new South Lake Union campus — which will eventually include a dozen buildings totaling nearly 2 million square feet of office space — is being constructed in phases through 2013. Amazon employees started moving into the first buildings back in April.

Amazon MP3 hasn't come anywhere close to toppling iTunes in the digital music market, though it has carved out a small but solid second place spot for itself (and gotten the attention of Apple). Now Amazon MP3 may be making new plans to boost its market share. TechCrunch reports that Amazon MP3 is gearing up for some kind of relaunch and has embarked on a hiring spree.