Tim Conneally

Opera Software has released the first build of Opera 11, the first browser in the software family to support browser extensions.

"Opera has always been customizable, but now you can personalize your browser in a new way through Opera extensions," said Opera Co-Founder Jon von Tetzchner in a statement Thursday. "We take pride in introducing new
features to the browser. Now, other developers can join in the fun and share their innovations with millions of people. Everyone using Opera 11 will be able to personalize their browser in myriad ways, which opens up so many possibilities for making the Web a more personal experience."

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Last year, Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski warned of an impending "spectrum crisis" where the demand for wireless connectivity vastly outstrips our ability to support wireless connections. Wireless spectrum is a finite resource.

To tackle this problem, the National Broadband plan includes the goals of increasing the wireless spectrum by 300MHz in the next five years, and by 500MHz in the next ten.

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Early in 2010, Google announced it was looking to build and test a 1Gbps fiber-to-the-home network in a couple of U.S. cities. Hundreds of interested cities made attempts to convince Google they would be ideal candidates for the new fiber optic network.

Today, Google Product Manager James Kelly announced the first field trials of the fiber technology Google might use in its community deployments
will be built at Stanford University's residential subdivision in early 2011.

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It's been one year since Windows 7 launched to the world, and to celebrate the passing of the year, Microsoft has released some information about the milestones Windows 7 has passed.

Most importantly among them, Microsoft announced that 240 million Windows 7 licenses have been sold worldwide, which gives it a 17% global OS market share. Microsoft communications manager Brandon LeBlanc today said Windows 7 is "the fastest selling operating system in history."

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As expected, Apple on Wednesday launched a new version of its two-year old ultraportable Macbook Air, and revealed a new, smaller version that could be described as the first Mac netbook.

The 13.3" Macbook Air has been bumped up to a 1440 x 900 display, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, Nvidia GeForce 320m graphics processor, and a total unibody aluminum design. Unlike previous versions of the Macbook Air, it has no hard drive; and has shifted over to 100% flash-based memory like the iPhone and iPad. With the shift to Flash memory, the battery life has stretched to 7 hours from the previous 5, has a 30-day standby time, and features instant-on booting.

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Software company Mozilla on Tuesday unveiled its plans for Open Web App stores for distributing, selling, and managing rich Internet applications built in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Mozilla's concept is similar to the Chrome app store Google discussed when it first unveiled Chrome OS one year ago, but it is meant to use only browser-native functions that can be accessed just as easily on a PC as on a mobile device.

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LightSquared, the hybrid satellite/4G LTE network currently in development across the United States has shipped its mobile communications satellite off for its November 14 launch in Kazakhstan.

The satellite was constructed by Boeing and is named SkyTerra 1, after the satellite company that designed the network which Harbinger Capital acquired in its formation of LightSquared. It pairs with four gateway base stations on Earth and its related network of beamforming equipment.

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Monday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced one of Redmond's major cloud supporters Ray Ozzie would be moving to a role focused on the entertainment sector before he ultimately retires. Tuesday, Microsoft followed it up with the introduction of a new cloud-based productivity suite called Office 365, which launches in limited beta today.

Office 365 combines Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and Lync Online in a single cloud-based package scalable to the needs of small businesses or huge enterprises with a per-user license cost depending upon the volume of users.

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Since HP acquired Palm Inc. last April, the future of the Palm brand, and the webOS mobile operating system, have been uncertain in the eyes of the public: Would webOS make its way onto HP Slates? Would it merge with the iPaq brand?

Now, we get to see the results of HP's rescue of the formerly unprofitable, but conceptually brilliant Palm with today's debut of HP webOS 2.0 and the new Palm Pre 2.

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Patent holding company NTP has struck again, filing yet another patent infringement suit against a big tech company. This time, rather than a broad claim that encompasses multiple companies (like its suit three months ago against LG, HTC, Microsoft, Motorola, Google, and Apple; or its suit in 2007 which targeted wireless network operators) this claim is aimed squarely at Yahoo.

The complaint, filed on October 15 in the Eastern District Court of Virginia, focuses on five patents for wireless e-mail transmission that NTP used in its suit against Research in Motion (RIM) in 2001.

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Ray Ozzie will be stepping down from his position as chief software architect at Microsoft, a note from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Monday afternoon.

Ozzie has been in an executive role at Microsoft since the Redmond company acquired Ozzie's Groove Networks in 2005. He assumed the role of Chief Technical Officer almost immediately, and then graduated to the position of Chief Software Architect approximately a year later. According to Ballmer, Ozzie will be shifting his area of focus to "the broader area of entertainment where Microsoft has many ongoing investments."

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New York City, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay area will be the next WiMAX deployments to go live, Sprint and Clearwire announced today. Before the end of 2010, the nationwide WiMAX network constructed by Clearwire and Sprint will be activated in four more major metropolitan areas, including Denver, Miami, Cincinnati, and Cleveland.

At the end of 2009, Sprint and Clearwire had about 30 WiMAX deployments open to the public in a dozen U.S. states, with plans to have more than 80 completed by the end of 2010.

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Last week, Sony, Dolby, and Netflix announced that the PlayStation 3 would be getting an all new native Netflix app today that supports 1080p streams and 5.1 channel audio without the need for a disc, as it turns out, the Nintendo Wii today has gotten a similar app update.

With a software update today and a free app from the Wii Shop Channel, the Nintendo Wii can stream Netflix Instant movies without a disc, too. Though the console supports neither High Definition nor surround sound, this update has much further-reaching consequences than the PlayStation 3's.

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Since the launch of the Apple iPad last January, print media has been reinventing itself for consumption on touch tablets. Magazines such as Glamour, GQ, Gourmet Traveller, The New Yorker, People, Popular Science, Vanity Fair, and Wired have all debuted subscription apps for iPad. E-books have also found a home on the iPad with apps from Amazon, Borders, Barnes and Noble, and Apple.

But in June, a huge splash came from the iPad app Flipboard. Heralded as "publishing revolution" by tech pundit Robert Scoble, and backed by high profile investors such as Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moscovitz, Flipboard showed how the iPad could take Web data and make it into something more like a magazine.

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Audiogalaxy is back. But it's not the same service you knew a decade ago.

Audiogalaxy was one of the most elegant peer-to-peer filesharing services of the early 2000's, pairing a robust P2P client with a Web-based search and indexing system that made Napster look sloppy by comparison.

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