TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

TechFlash will be shifting to a new content management system starting at 2 p.m. Monday. During the transition, we won't be publishing new posts, and commenting will be suspended. When the site comes back on Tuesday, we expect to have a new commenting system (Disqus), and a new blog (Eric Engleman on Amazon.com), along with behind-the-scenes enhancements and underpinnings for future improvements.

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It's been a busy month here at TechFlash HQ -- unusually so for August. We've tracked a number of venture deals and even published our own tourist guide for the Seattle tech community. We've got some exciting things planned for September, so stay tuned. But without further ado, here are the most viewed posts for the month of August.

1.) Pioneering Internet 'detox' center looks to cure online addicts (A link from The Drudge Report sent this story skyrocketing)

2.) Innovation: The lessons of Bob (Monica Harrington's nine lessons from the failure of MIcrosoft Bob sparked a great discussion)

3.) New Google is the old Microsoft (Galen Ward's insightful guest column took Google to task)

4.) Ben Huh of LOLcats fame is perplexed by company success (So are we)

5.) Grand Tour of the Zune HD, with glimpses of Bing and browser (The video struck a nerve with more than 107,000 views on YouTube and over 475 comments)

6.) Microsoft moving Azure from WA data center, citing state tax policy (Taxes and Microsoft: A hot topic for sure)

Learn That Name, a new iPhone app designed to help people remember the names of people they bump into at events, won the most votes at Startup Weekend even though the 54-hour coding marathon was held on Microsoft's campus. Attorney Eric Koester -- who came up with the idea because he forgot the name of one of the attendees -- said he's hopeful to have the $2.99 app approved in the Apple store in the coming weeks. Here's the 10-minute pitch.

Interestingly, 14 of the 15 teams at the event built their products on the Microsoft platform -- driven in part by the prize money offered by the BizSpark program.

But at the end of the day, it was a mobile app on a competing platform that won the most votes in Microsoft's backyard.

"Awkward," whispered Startup Weekend organizer Clint Nelsen into the microphone upon announcing the top voter getter.

Bill Gates has contended that IBM remains Microsoft's biggest threat. Many others would say it's Google or Apple. But don't forget about VMware. The New York Times makes that point today in a profile of the virtualization company, led by former Microsoft executive Paul Maritz.

“After Google, it is the company Microsoft fears most," IDC analyst Gary Chen tells the newspaper.

In the first tab below, we're tracking Seattle's Startup Weekend at Microsoft. In the second tab are notes and links from the TechFlash team. Use #techflash to see your message in the third tab. Add your images to the TechFlash Flickr Page to see them in the fourth tab.

Cray Inc.  announced that it has acquired the PathScale Compiler Assets from SiCortex in a deal of undisclosed size. Cray CEO Peter Ungaro said the deal is "another indicative example of our strategy to acquire the key technology components necessary to building a productive, high performance user environment on our supercomputers."

Washington Post technology columnist Rob Pegoraro gives Microsoft's new Windows Live Movie Maker a mostly positive review. The program "represents a genuine advance," he writes. "The barely changed name understates how little this program ... shares with older Movie Maker releases."

Continuing to expand their use of social media, the Seattle Sounders have launched a Spanish language Web site at Espanol.SoundersFC.com where Latin American players plan to blog.

Looks like somebody's marketing budget is doing just fine. Microsoft has turned a 27-foot M820A2 military truck into a video-game haven, with eight Xbox 360 consoles inside, in anticipation of the upcoming launch of "Halo 3: ODST," according to the LAist blog.

Windows 7, like its predecessor, will get a big launch event in New York City, reports CNet News.com and ZDNet.com.

Plains All American Pipeline has purchased Vulcan Capital's 50 percent indirect interest in PAA Natural Gas Storage for $220 million.

Dell and Hewlett-Packard have filed legal briefs supporting Microsoft's position in its patent dispute with i4i Inc., reports SeattlePI.com. Microsoft is appealing a ruling in the case that would prevent the company from selling Word. A hearing is set for Sept. 23. 

DotNetNuke, which is developing a platform for interactive Web sites built on the Microsoft stack, has purchased Snowcovered.

AdMob estimates that there are about $200 million worth of iPhone applications sold each month, or about $2.4 billion a year, reports GigaOm.

Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn on Monday plan to announce a new Internet safety program that will be used in 70 Washington schools, The program, developed in conjunction with Web Wise Kids, uses video games to teach students how to avoid online predators, cyber bullies and scam artists.

VatorNews has an interesting analysis on why the iLike and FriendFeed founders sold out when they did.

Michael van Baker is stepping down as editor of the Seattle news blog Seattlest to start a new site called TheSunBreak.com. In an emai, van Baker said the new site will take a more "talkative, magazine-style approach to Seattle news & culture." The new editor of Seattlest is Regis Lacher.

A company called Denizen has sued Microsoft's Bing ad agency, JWT, for infringing on its patented technique of blending TV programming with advertising time, according to an AdAge report. JWT used the technique in a Bing ad that aired during -- and featured stars from -- NBC's "The Philanthropist." Here's the clip.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced a new program for developing nations, OneApp, that uses a combination of cloud services and on-device processing to offer applications such as Facebook, Twitter and Live Messenger on lower-end phones, a.k.a. feature phones.

Given the inherent limitations of feature phones, I was skeptical about how well the apps actually worked, so I arranged to stop by Microsoft today to get a demo from Tim McDonough, a senior director on the project. Here's a video with excerpts from the run-through.

The video-game console wars are ramping up again in advance of the upcoming holidays. Microsoft this morning confirmed a series of long-rumored Xbox 360 pricing cuts, and Sony is promoting its PlayStation 3 price reductions with a new campaign, including this ad.

The PlayStation 3 has long been more expensive than its rivals, on the surface, but Sony is circulating a new chart today, seeking to reinforce its contention that people end up paying more with the Xbox 360 overall when considering add-ons that need to be purchased separately. Microsoft has fueled the fire among game enthusiasts by dropping the HDMI cable from the new $299 Xbox 360 Elite.

Click through for the chart, as sent to us by a Sony representative.

There will be some big names, discussing some intriguing topics, during the new season of the Distinguished Lecturer Series organized by the University of Washington's Computer Science & Engineering Department.

The initial lineup of speakers was announced this morning (PDF). It includes former Microsoft engineer Charles Simonyi talking about space travel; and Intellectual Ventures chief Nathan Myhrvold (the former Microsoft chief technology officer) discussing technological aspects of cooking (third item). Hopefully someone will also ask Myhrvold about hurricanes and beer kegs during the Q&A section.

Don't look for gaming pioneer Jordan Weisman to sell his next startup company to Microsoft. In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, the founder of FASA Interactive -- which was sold to Microsoft in 1999 and subsequently closed in 2007 -- said that the software giant "destroyed" the development culture of the organization.

"I don't think the studio ever really had a chance. It was destroyed right in the beginning," Weisman tells the online publication. Even more interesting, Weisman said that Microsoft was on the path to destroy Bungie -- maker of the popular game Halo -- before he intervened.

Microsoft's Bing isn't one of the native search engines available inside the iPhone, but the Redmond company this morning released a new software development kit to help third-party iPhone and Mac developers use the search engine inside their applications.

The technology, available under an Microsoft Public License, was announced this morning on the Bing developer blog. It works in conjunction with the Cocoa and Cocoa Touch programming environments that can be used to write Mac and iPhone applications.

Yes, Microsoft is cutting the price of the 120 GB Xbox 360 Elite to by $100, to $299. Yes, the company is phasing out the 20 GB Xbox 360 Pro and cutting the remaining models by $50, to $249. And no, the video-game industry can't keep a secret.

Microsoft is finally acknowledging the news that was first leaked more than two months ago -- then confirmed repeatedly -- saying it's shifting its game console lineup to leave itself with two models: the Xbox 360 Elite for $299 and the Xbox 360 Arcade, sans hard drive, for $199. Going away is the Xbox 360 Pro, a longtime mainstay of Microsoft's lineup. The changes take effect Friday.

Microsoft quickly apologized yesterday for the incident in which the head of a black man was swapped for that of a white man in a marketing photo on the website of its Polish subsidiary. That isn't stopping it from becoming international news. And it definitely isn't stopping people from having fun with the situation.

Stephenson

Chris Stephenson, a music industry veteran who joined Microsoft in 2006 to help lead the launch of its Zune music player, plans to leave the company for a position at Universal Music Group, the Wall Street Journal reports today. The news comes as the company prepares for the Sept. 15 launch of the Zune HD, the next generation of Microsoft's iPod challenger.

In an 84-page document (PDF) filed last night with a federal appeals court, Microsoft lays out its argument against a patent verdict that would prevent the company selling its widely used Word software starting next month. Microsoft argues that U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Davis in Texas erred in upholding, and adding to, a jury verdict that the company describes as a riddled with mistakes.

"This is not justice," lawyers for Microsoft write in the opening brief.

Post updated with statement from i4i saying Microsoft's brief illustrates the "hostile attitude of Microsoft toward inventors who dare to enforce patents against them," and is "blatantly derogatory about the Court system."