texhibition.com

This post was updated at 12:46 PM PT with comment from ‘Quarterlife’ co-creator Marshall Herskovitz.

It’s undoubtedly a setback for those hoping to see Web video make a clean transition to the living room TV: Quarterlife, the hyped-up Web series from the co-creators of Thirtysomething and My So-Called Life, had a very disappointing network debut on NBC and may be on the chopping block.

The show, which premiered Tuesday night, managed to pull in only a tepid 3.1 million viewers, according to The Hollywood Reporter. While NBC hasn’t formally decided to pull the plug, sources have told the entertainment news service that such an announcement is forthcoming.

Video-blogging ‘Quarterlife’ protagonist Dylan Krieger, played by actress Bitsie Tulloch

(Credit:
NBC)

It could’ve been a Cinderella story. A TV show, rejected by traditional outlets, finds a new home on the Web. It gains buzz, a major network picks it up, it’s a success, and everybody cashes out. Or not.

Quarterlife, a semi-edgy drama, had debuted online at Quarterlife.com and via a syndication deal with MySpace.com. On the Web, it didn’t reach “Leave Britney Alone” levels of popularity, but it amassed enough viewers and positive reviews for NBC to decide to add Quarterlife to its prime-time lineup.

But the reason why Quarterlife was likely picked up so quickly–the Writers Guild of America strike that left television networks without new scripted content–no longer exists. Now that the writers are, well, writing again, NBC has a much less compelling reason to keep Quarterlife around.

In a statement Thursday, Quarterlife co-creator Marshall Herskovitz remained optimistic. “I am happy to say that the reports of Quarterlife’s demise are exaggerated. We’re deeply grateful for NBC’s efforts to make Quarterlife a success on network television,” he said. “However, I’ve always had concerns about whether Quarterlife was the kind of show that could pull in the big numbers necessary to succeed on a major broadcast network. It is important to remember that Quarterlife has already proved itself as a successful online series and social network with millions of enthusiastic fans.”

It’s niche-media, Herskovitz added. “We live in a media world today where many shows are considered successful on cable networks with audiences that are a fraction of those on the Big Four. I’m confident that Quarterlife will find the right home on television as well.”

Today Salesforce.com announced a “global strategic alliance” (also known as a partnership) with Google, introducing a new integration point, Force.com Toolkit for Google Data APIs. The alliance allows developers using Salesforce.com’s cloud-based development platform to integrate with data from Google services via Google Data APIs. This integration service is in addition to Salesforce for Google Apps, which integrates Google’s suite of applications with Salesforce.

Marc Benioff wants to remake the business software world.

(Credit:
Dan Farber)

CODA, which is developing a financial suite of applications on the Salesforce platform (Force.com), has developed a prototype that takes data from Google Spreadsheets and brings it into an Order-to-Cash module.

This latest coupling with Google is part of Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff’s quest to remake the software world and replace Microsoft as a leading business software platform for building any kind of application. Remaking the software world means moving from client/server solutions to multitenant, cloud-based, on-demand, software-as-a-service, utility computing, platform-as-a-service applications or whatever assemblage of words describes Web-centric computing. They could also be called “server/client” systems, since Salesforce.com, Google, and others offer offline access to the applications.

Part of Benioff’s strategy over the years has been to draw attention to his company by picking on his biggest potential competitor–Microsoft. His mantra is “the end of software,” referring to the kind of client/server applications embodied by
Microsoft Office. In a March interview with CNET News.com, Benioff said:

I think Microsoft is still a dinosaur. More than ever, it tries to hold onto its monopolistic position around technology that they hold, whether it’s SQL Server, whether it’s NT, whether it’s Windows, whether it’s Office–these are their cash cows they don’t want slaughtered.

The other part of Benioff’s strategy is to align with Google against Microsoft. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so that makes Google my best friend,” Benioff has said.

But the reality is that Microsoft Office is an essential part of the Salesforce ecosystem. Benioff told me that a very large percentage of our customers do integrate with Microsoft’s desktop apps. But he seems to be encouraging customers to abandon Microsoft Office and adopt Google’s applications.

Benioff touts that the most downloaded applications in the Force.com AppExchange are related to Google, such as Appirio Calendar Sync for Salesforce and Google Apps and Gmail to Salesforce Browser Button for
Firefox. But Microsoft’s popular Word and Excel integration for Salesforce.com is not available via the AppExchange, so it’s unclear as to how it compares in terms of usage to the Google-related products in AppExchange.

Benioff has been visionary in pushing a new model for business applications and adept at generating headlines. But it is way too early to count Microsoft out. This is just the beginning of a new software era, and Microsoft hasn’t yet decided to make it more interesting, but it will.

LG Vu showing ‘The Tonight Show’

(Credit:
Nicole Lee/CNET Networks)

An anonymous source just provided the Boy Genius Report some details on the upcoming AT&T Mobile TV that’s set to debut in May. As you’ll recall, AT&T Mobile TV will offer live over-the-air television via Qualcomm’s MediaFLO, and will be offered first on the LG Vu and the Samsung Access. Well, the new details suggest that the service will launch on May 4, and will come in three flavors: Limited, Basic, and Plus. The Limited edition includes four channels (Fox Mobile, CBS Mobile, NBC, and NBC News) for $13 a month, the Basic edition includes nine channels (Fox Mobile, CBS Mobile, NBC, NBC News, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, CNN Mobile, ESPN) for $15 a month, and the Plus edition includes the aforementioned nine channels, as well as a Sony Pictures channel for $30 a month. We gave AT&T Mobile TV a brief hands-on at
CTIA, and we were suitably impressed with the fast loading times with no buffering. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get a real thorough review of the service once it eventually debuts. Stay tuned!

This does seem to fit in with recent rumors that the new MacBooks will be made from, if not one, then a very small number of aluminum sheets, bent into shape using a process referred to as the “brick.” (Although whether that refers to the manufacturing process, the initial block of aluminum, or something else entirely, is not clear.)

This time via a Chinese Web site (which is now timing out, perhaps due to heavy traffic), and reposted on MacRumors.com, Engadget, and others. Just what this photo purports to show seems a little unclear to us, but it may very well be the left side and keyboard tray (minus the actual keys) of a new MacBook Pro.

As always, take all so-called spy shots with a large grain of salt.

In the Phoenix case, Microsoft’s behavior change staved off a potential antitrust investigation. In the interoperability case, Microsoft’s gyrations were in vain; the company was still fined by the European regulators.

But in both cases–and a growing number of examples–Microsoft’s failure to be upfront regarding its reasons for its behavioral changes leads me to continue to assume the worst about any technology, policy or strategy changes the company makes.

Microsoft claimed it had seen the light. As it turns out, the only light it saw was a potential investigative flashlight from the US antitrust regulators after Phoenix Technologies filed a complaint. Mary Jo concludes:

I’m getting there, too. For those who still believe Microsoft + Novell is all about peace, love, and interoperability for the good of customers, you’d do well to check Microsoft’s track record. For those like I who have tried to believe Microsoft’s recent open data pledge on Sharepoint, good luck with that belief.

Microsoft has billions of reasons to drag its feed on change. It has two massive monopolies that are bigger than most other software companies…combined. Why change? Why do anything for customers that might have the adverse side effect of helping competitors?

commentary

It’s getting to the point where one day Microsoft actually will do something benevolent and no one will believe it. I’m getting there. You?

I try hard to give people the benefit of a doubt, even Microsoft. So when I read this post from Mary Jo Foley I just wanted to cringe. As Mary Jo notes, Microsoft seems to be institutionally incapable of doing anything for the right reasons, most recently at its intransigent best/worst when relaxing its Vista EULA to allow virtualization.

Microsoft’s existing labs are in Redmond, Wash.; Silicon Valley; Beijing; Bangalore, India; and, confusingly enough, Cambridge, England.

“Breaking through barriers is what research is all about,” Chayes said. “We’re going to New England to break through barriers between core computer science and social sciences, and to do fundamental research that can lead to deeper insights and better computing experiences in an increasingly online world.”

“The new lab will enable Microsoft Research to interact closely with the large community of scientists in New England, notably the faculty and students at the many premier academic institutions in the vicinity,” Microsoft said in the release. “It will also provide researchers with the opportunity to interact with people in Microsoft’s incubation centers and newly acquired companies in the region.”

Credit: Microsoft
Jennifer Tour Chayes

Chayes commented on both the importance of the lab and the significance of her appointment as a lab director.

The new lab will focus initially on “core computer science, especially more algorithmically oriented areas, and the social sciences, with a particular emphasis on building connections between these two areas,” Microsoft said, adding that there will also be a small team working on design issues.

The lab will be run by Jennifer Tour Chayes, a veteran of Microsoft Research. The press release was quick to note that Chayes is the first woman to run one of the company’s labs.

“But I’m also personally delighted that we’re breaking through barriers for women in leadership positions in the scientific-research community,” she added. “I hope my new role will serve as an inspiration for other women in scientific fields, and particularly for young girls who may be interested in math and science. I want to show them that math and science are cool, that research is creative and exciting, and that there is a path for women in technical fields at companies like Microsoft.”

Microsoft on Monday said it plans in July to open its sixth research lab, in Cambridge, Mass.

For people setting up meetings, Tungle is Outlook-only so far. But as I said, it sends confirmation e-mails to attendees that many calendar applications can read.

Tungle’s success is in its design. If you’re setting up a meeting, you can select whole swaths of potential times, even if you just want the person on the other end to pick a 30 minute slot. You can also do cool things such as drag blocks across days (for example, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday through Friday) for open times. Tungle will excise times that you’ve already got booked (including times booked by other attendees on your Exchange server), and will make sure that your contact never gets the option to select times that are taken, even if they’re scheduled after you send out the initial meeting request.

Tungle lets you create big blocks of potential times for meetings, but it won't double-book you.

When a meeting is finally locked in, the person or people you’ve scheduled get confirmation e-mails, and in the e-mails come calendar entries that auto-populate Outlook, Google Calendar, Entourage, and other scheduling systems.

Tungle is free. Premium services (such as scheduling meeting rooms) will be available eventually. The company also plans to make money by linking to third parties such as conference bridges.

Once we can get these applications stable on a PC, we’ll compare them.

Tungle lets you give some of your contacts access to your free/busy information so they can more easily initiate a meeting request with you. For people you’d rather keep at a more professional distance, you don’t have to share anything about your schedule except episodically, when you want to set up a meeting with them.

It appears easy to use and mostly straightforward. I’m looking forward to giving it a shot. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the desktop application to run on my system. Outlook is a “finicky platform” Tungle CEO Marc Gingras told me before I fired up the demo on my own PC. Prophetic words. My cursed laptop also rejects TimeBridge, by the way. I don’t know what it is that keeps scheduling helpers from running well on my computers.

Do you a scheduling broker?

( polls)

Another unique feature: The capability to schedule two people into a meeting but not yourself–great for administrators. And you still get a confirmation when the meeting is set up.

Tungle, launching today, may be the meeting coordination utility to beat. Like TimeBridge, Jiffle, and other products in this new category, it lets you block off a bunch of times for a meeting you want to have with a person or group of people, and then it handles all the back-and-forth while your attendees figure out which of the available times they want to grab. Once the meeting is booked, it enters the appointment into your Outlook calendar and sends the recipients calendar entries, too.

But there is something disconcerting about seeing the rather serious gentleman in the beige jacket and imposingly expensive watch fail to expand his view of the world. His face is so unbearably fixed, as if it too has been frozen in sympathy with what is happening on the screen.

In each we see a television personality attempting to enjoy the touch screen facility and, well, finding the screen as frigid as a beer in a Reykjavik bar.

It also affects one’s blood pressure to see the chap in the waistcoat on the breakfast show “Tokudane”, continually tap a file, then the Windows logo, then any and every part of the screen in a vain attempt to make for a little exciting television.

I am sure these were isolated incidents caused by inferior configuration or some kind of digital unfamiliarity.

Indeed, one of his fellow televisual employees scuttles up and crouches down in front of the screen and tries to help him out. Yet still his screen finger skills bear as much fruit as, well, some fingers that attempted to make sense of Vista.

However, the fine Japanese news source, Japan Probe, was itself somewhat discombobulated by these two seemingly unrelated incidents of Windows 7 opacity.

I should say that both these clips appear to come from Fuji TV, so I hope that they didn’t manage to obtain a rather duff copy of the operating system.

However, I will be eagerly scouring the Web for sales figures from Japan.

I feel fairly confident that
Windows 7 will turn out to better than its predecessor.

I don’t speak Japanese quite well enough beyond “watashiwa kekong shtemasen” (no, I am not married) to know what is being said.

I feel fairly confident that it will not turn hairy users bald, nor cause sane users to enter institutions of mental restructuring.

However, I have been watching these two pieces of film from Japan with some small prick of concern.

(Credit:
DealExtreme.com)

It’s been entirely too long since we’ve had aquatic-bird-inspired audio equipment. So herewith we present the Mini USB Rechargeable Penguin speaker. It stands just under 3 inches high, connects via USB to your computer, and has a 3.5-millimeter audio jack so it plugs into most MP3 players, CD players, or stereos. Your tunes of choice emanate from the back of the little guy.

We’re revisiting a long-standing tradition here on Crave with this one: a gadget in the shape of a penguin!

DealExtreme has it for $9.90 with free shipping.

This is a big move for Rockstar Games because it opens up GTA IV to an even bigger audience than could already play it. And that likely means many more millions of units sold to players who feel they simply don’t want to put down the cash for a next-gen video game console like the Xbox or the PS3. And just in time for the holidays.

Originally available for
Xbox 360 and
PlayStation 3, the game, which had sold more than 8.5 million copies through early June, will be available on PCs–though not Macs, apparently–on November 18 in North America and on November 21 in Europe.

According to Rockstar, the PC version of the game will feature an exclusive multi-player version. And one wonders if that could lead some players who already have the game for the Xbox 360 or PS3 to buy it for the PC as well. Again, more riches for the publisher.

Over at our sister site, Gamespot, Wednesday, the eagle-eyed Guy Cocker noticed that Rockstar Games has officially announced its mega-hit, Grand Theft Auto IV, is coming to the PC.

Further, it means that PC gamers, who have been able to play previous versions of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, will be left behind their console-owning friends no longer. All of which means more bins full of cash for Rockstar and its Take-Two owners.