Joe Wilcox

File this in the "if he's still CEO" department.

Today, the Consumer Electronics Association announced that, no surprise, Microsoft's CEO would give CES' kick-off keynote next year.

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It's rare that a public company takes moral stances where business interests suffer. But that's the choice Google made in January 2010, after reversing its search censorship policy in China. On Monday, ironically during the 235th celebration of America's freedom, Microsoft announced an English-language search deal with Baidu, China's leading search provider. Microsoft will censor the results Bing delivers.

I don't believe that the Baidu-Microsoft deal could have been possible, if not for the courageous actions taken by Google 18 months ago. Even then, Google should be faulted, having agreed to censor search results in China for nearly four years earlier. Google's decision to stop censorinp hurt its business in China, and not just search. Chinese manufacturer HTC is one of Android's biggest hardware OEMs. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Samsung has risen above HTC as premiere Android handset manufacturer over the last 18 months.

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Not sure? Does your carrier not require you to get a data plan? Do your fingers go clickety-clack across just nine numeric keys? If yes, then you don't have a smartphone. But you should, and may soon if a ComScore survey of 30,000 Americans 13 and older is to be believed.

For the three months ended in May, there were 234 million cell phone users in the United States -- 76.8 million with smartphones. That works out the 32.8 percent, which ComScore graciously rounds up to one-third. But don't feel left out just yet. There are two definitions of the "in-crowd" here -- the ins who use smartphones and the ins that belong to the majority. Sixty-six percent is still a big number using, ahem, dumb phones.

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Talk about juxtapositions. Last week, Google quietly unleashed the Data Liberation Front and tool Takeout for moving user data from the company's services. Would you like to switch from Gmail to Windows Live Mail? Google Takeout can help. Over at Facebook, however, matters are quite different -- as one tool for extracting friend data shows. The world's largest social network wants to keep your friends. But you knew that already, right?

Developer Mohamed Mansour's tool Facebook Friend Exporter revved to version 2.2.1 yesterday. CNET's Stephen Shankland blogged about the Chrome Extension then, and Mashable's Eric Swallow today. Perhaps the utility got a wee bit too much attention. Mansour posted to the download page today: "Facebook is trying so hard to not allow you to export your friends. They started to remove emails of your friends from your profile by today July 5th 2011. It will no longer work for many people". I can't get the extension to work, BTW.

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People love to play, eh? The global gaming ecosystem, which includes consoles, handhelds, software and social networks, will grow 10.4 percent in 2011 to $74 billion from $67 billion last year, says Gartner, which expects spending to reach $112 billion by 2015.

Software will account for more than half of gaming spending -- $44.7 billion this year. However, Gartner predicts that through 2015, software spending will recede before online games, which is the fast-growing segement.

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If your time isn't worth much, do take advantage of the free $25 iTunes gift card offer circulating Facebook. Clicking the link will lead you to a page compelling you to share the offer with all your friends, before moving on to a survey. What do you get -- other than perhaps a few dislikes from your social network? Nothing. It's a scam, blogs Graham Cluley, Sophos senior technology consultant.

The request to "share" the offer with Facebook friends should be dead giveaway the offer is fake. "You should, of course, always treat such requests with suspicion, but that hasn't stopped many people unwittingly help the scammers to spread their links far and wide across Facebook", Cluely warns.

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You want to know why Apple is so hellbent on stopping Samsung selling smartphones in the United Sates? Reread this post's headline.

Samsung's sales milestone comes as competition increases with Apple here and abroad. Galaxy S II sales success also partly explains the ongoing patent claims and counter-claims spat going on between the companies. In its boldest move yet, Apple on July 1 requested a preliminary injunction barring Samsung from selling Droid Charge, Galaxy S 4G, Infuse 4G  and Galaxy Tab 10.1 here. (Justia.com has consolidated case history.)

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The alarming tweets that went out a few hours ago are false, according to Fox News. They claimed that President Barack Obama had been shot while campaigning, which itself is red flag something wasn't right. What president would campaign on America's Independence Day nearly 18 months before the election?

"FoxNews.com's Twitter feed for political news, FoxNewspolitics, was hacked early Monday morning", according to a report by Fox News. "Hackers sent out several malicious and false tweets claiming that President Obama had been assassinated. Those reports are incorrect, of course, and the president is spending the July 4 holiday with his family. The hacking is being investigated, and FoxNews.com regrets any distress the false tweets may have created".

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Finally techdom is talking about something other than Apple, and probably it's more important.

When dinosaurs ruled the earth, what creature then could have imagined that someday mammals, which were smaller and eventually smarter, would replace them? Fast-forward to the present. For all the talk about the handsome or the beautiful, it's the geeks, not the athletes, that people listen to. Right now techdom is incessantly chattering about Google+. There's simply no way to turn down the volume.

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On this day, 235 years ago, the Second Continental Congress voted for a Declaration of Independence. From that perspective, July 2nd is America's independence day, but the document wasn't ready for another two days. So it's perhaps appropriate timing to discuss the declaration I made on April 4th to free myself from Google. At the time I asked: "Can you give up Google?" Maybe you can, but I couldn't.

Google's antitrust troubles motivated me. In December, the European Commission opened an "antitrust investigation into allegations that Google Inc. has abused a dominant position in online search". An investigation loomed in the United States and, as of late last month, is underway. The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing Google's business practices.

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Well, hell, maybe Google is serious about all this open stuff, after all. As part of the massive Google sites makeover now underway -- of which the + social service and gmail clutter cleanup are part -- there is a new utility for sucking all your precious data out of the search and information giant's services. Hey, it's your data. Shouldn't you be able to take it anywhere?

The Data Liberation Front video above introduces this new thing -- Google Takeout. It's more than a utility. Google Takeout is a movement. I mean that. This whole data portability thing clearly stems from Google's so-called "Open Principles". There is a Data Liberation Front website, blog and Twitter feed.

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Los Angeles Times reporters Jessica Guynn and Dawn Chmielewski claim that Google "is in preliminary talks to buy online video pioneer Hulu, people familiar with the situation said". Microsoft and Yahoo also are suitors. Last week, Hulu went on the selling block, setting off a tizzy of speculation about whom -- and rumors, just like this one.

Generally, when negotiations are serious, they never leak out, and "preliminary" means just that. Companies have preliminary talks every day about partnerships and acquisitions that go nowhere. Talk is cheap. Buying a company isn't, which is one of many reasons why leaks about talks generally mean nothing more or that one side or the other seeks leverage. The leak about Google could be purposely done to get a more serious suitor to ante up more cash.

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But can IE9 and Windows 7 help defy gravity?

First of the month means fresh browser usage data from NetApplications. Despite all the hoopla about IE9, Internet Explorer's share, as measured in usage, declined (again) in June -- to 53.68 percent from 54.27 percent in May and 55.11 percent in April. Internet Explorer 9 launched in March.

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My whole Google experience is changing around me. Today I started using Google+, which brings a fresh -- and I'd say quite attractive -- look to the default search page. It's as functional as pleasing. Looks like the makeover just starts there. Google is freshening up other services, too, including Gmail. For the first time ever, I want to use this service in a browser.

"We're embarking on a series of interface updates to help strip out unnecessary clutter and make Gmail as beautiful as it is powerful", Jason Cornwell, Google user experience designer, writes in a blog posted late this evening Eastern Time. Changes will occur gradually over a few months.

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Except for perhaps a complete collapse of its share value or meteor striking its headquarters, Research in Motion couldn't have had a more troubling day. An anonymous executive released a scathing letter, while the Waterloo, Ontario-based company made concessions to stave off an investor revolt.

NEI Investments had planned to make a proposal during RIM's annual General Meeting for shareholders that would have separated the company's leadership, if adopted. Right now, RIM has co-CEOs, who have come under fire as the BlackBerry platform burns beneath them. From NEI's perspective perhaps, two heads aren't better than one. Shareholders could have separated the roles of CEO and chairman and set up an independent chair. Today, RIM agreed to establish an independent committee for realigning top leadership, and NEI withdrew its proposal planned for the July 12 meeting.

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