If you like your Net news like you like your espresso – – in small, yet savory, doses, with a smooth, dense froth and a flavorful bean, ground fresh and compacted with just the right amount of tamping, well, we’ve got the following shots lined up to whet your whistle.
While the global news cycle spotlighted the E-G8 attempting to regulate the global Web, it’s been a little sleepier in this corner of the world over the past holiday weekend. Here are a few quick shots to pry your eyes back open and get you ready to spring into summer.
Alaska Airlines Pilots Get iPads (yawn!)
The new iPad 2 sure beats the 450-page flight manuals Alaska Airline’s pilots have been forced to tote around in what look like Yellow Pages recycling cases. We’re very happy for the real “cloud computing” sky truckers, so long as they keep their eyes on the instrument panel and away from Angry Birds, Instagram snapshots, or “Check ins” at every Foursquare hotspot we fly over.
Microsoft Gets a Spiff for Every Droid Sold
Was this a leak or simply bragging rights? For every HTC Android phone sold for real dough, Microsoft gets a shiny new $5 bill. Not only is that nothing to sneeze at, it’s five times what MS earns in Windows Phone revenue. Wasn’t it a clever royalty payment model that put Microsoft on top of of the software industry in the first place? Truth be told, this isn’t actually a licensing deal. It’s payback for the patent infringement case Microsoft brought against HTC. Could this mean that Apple may soon be entitled to $5 for every Samsung phone or Galaxy tablet sold that uses the same trade dress and iconography as Apple does in iOS? Between Microsoft and Mhyrvold, Redmond has a patent on nearly everything, except Apple!
Three-Point Play! Howard Schultz is highest paid CEO by more than 2-to-1!
We told you espresso beans were potent. They have catapulted Howard Schultz to a total of $21,733,013 in 2010 executive compensation, more than twice as much as F5 Network’s John McFadden or Paccar’s Mark Pigott. In all, a dozen Washington-based CEO’s made at least $5 million in total pay, including bonuses. But Schultz made more than four times that amount. Is it too late to sell the WNBA Seattle Storm? That could mean an extra million in his pockets. Slam dunk!
Amazon Launches Mac Download Store
Besides the fact that Amazon apparently removed the words “App Store” from the marquee of the new “Mac Download Store,” we’re trying to decipher why this item is especially newsworthy. After all, Amazon boasts one of the world’s largest inventory’s of products from an incredibly long list of vendors including Apple software producers. Perhaps this is just another volley in the “Me Too” Matching game. Last week, Amazon put Lady Gaga’s new album on sale for only .99 cents and managed to garner 450,000 new customers for its version of both the Apple iTunes store and its Amazon Cloud Drive, a parallel of the rumored Apple iCloud digital storage service. The Amazers are very much in the game.
Ballmer Has Support of his Board and of Bill
A show of hands and a great big bear hug was bestowed upon Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer by Microsoft’s Board of Director’s and its co-founder Bill Gates, after Hedge fund manager David Einhorn suggested it was time for Ballmer to step down. Yes, it truly was a slow news week.
News Flash: Glassdoor.com has published a scathing report that Ballmer’s approval rating among Microsoft employees has dropped below 30 percent on a quarter-by-quarter basis since 2008. That compares to a 65 percent approval rating for Ballmer during the second quarter of 2008. (The quarterly analysis is based on at least 50 reviews per quarter).
“(Ballmer’s) problem isn’t so much shrinking profits as a loss of investor faith in Microsoft, whose price-to-earnings ratio is one of the lowest among big companies in the United States,” according to the column. I think I’ll have another shot! [24×7]
