Earlier today some rumours were going around about Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft [MSFT] taking a 7 minute slot at WWDC in the Steve Jobs keynote. Lots of ideas started moving around because of this including that there could be some sort of Bing integration with iPhone OS, or some kind of developer tools being tied in to Visual Studio 2010.

Well, Microsoft just squashed the rumour saying…

Steve Ballmer not speaking at Apple Dev Conf. Nor appearing on Dancing with the Stars. Nor riding in the Belmont. Just FYI.

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Matias Duarte was the webOS design guru at Palm up until recently. We now hear he has moved over to Google [GOOG] to become the User Experience Director for Android.

Duarte previously worked on the Sidekick with Andy Rubin, so the pair already have a connection and should work well together. It will be interesting to see what changes and direction he takes Android in. [Read more…]

Yesterday Apple [AAPL] took over Microsoft [MSFT] in market capitalization. The company sat below Exxon Mobil in terms of US companies. However, things have bounced back the other way today with the data changing constantly throughout the day.

Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying the share price times the number of outstanding shares. It is often used as a public metric of a company’s overall net worth.

Apple shares have been going up recently with them hitting a high of $251. When compared to Microsoft (who’s went down), we can see why Apple is catching up so quick, as well as overtaking. [Read more…]

Google [GOOG] announced Google TV last week at the I/O event. At the event we learned what the service allowed users to either use a Google TV, or get a companion box to bring the Google TV services to the screen. The system is designed to make it easier for the user/viewer to watch the program they want, when they want.

With the service being provided by Google it comes as no surprise that the company will be putting ads on the system to get revenue back. We have already learned that advertisers think this is the future due to the ads being more interactive and more engaging.

We just learned today from the Google TV product manager Rishi Chandra that viewing ads will be mandatory. It will not be possible to skip past ads on the Google TV platform. [Read more…]

It appears that Comcast is going to be offering broadband connectivity that could reach 105Mbps in speed.

The new service is to be called Extreme 105 and would give 105Mbps for downloads with a 10Mbps cap on the upload speeds. When purchasing the new package a new cable modem will be needed called the Arris WBM760 that allows for faster downloads.

It appears that the service is going to launch as early as next week, although all this comes from a users bill which showed a new package available, so we are a little unsure at the moment if this will go ahead just yet or not. [Read more…]

Google [GOOG] has announced the Google Chrome is now available as a stable release. The stable release is for the Mac and Linux versions which were previously in beta.

As well as launching the Mac and Linux versions as stable releases, Google has also added a bunch of features to the web browser. New features include the ability to synchronise bookmarks across several computers, sync browser preferences which includes themes, the homepage and startup settings. Also web content settings, preferred languages and zoom settings can also be synced which brings your favourite and ideal chrome settings to any computer you log in on. [Read more…]

Apple [AAPL] has confirmed that Steve Jobs will deliver the keynote address at WWDC at 10am June 7. The keynote will kick off the five day event that will be held in San Francisco.

It is expected that Steve will announce the new iPhone 4G (or whatever name it will get such as the iPhone HD for example). The press release can be found below. [Read more…]

54,000 batteries are being recalled by HP after problems with them have been identified.

The recall follows a similar programme put in place a year ago and comes after HP “received 38 additional reports of batteries that overheated and ruptured resulting in 11 instances of minor personal injury and 31 instances of minor property damage” since then.

The batteries that have the problems were installed in laptops and sold between August 2007 and July 2008. Also, some batteries were sold alone through the same time period. [Read more…]

When browsing any website using the regular http protocol, your connection is unsecure and allows third parties to intercept what you are doing online. To prevent this the https protocol is used that encrypts data sent between your browser and the server. Usually you find https on login pages, credit card payment pages and other “secure” types of things you do.

Earlier this year, Google [GOOG] started securing GMail.com connections with https so that sessions on GMail were secure to prevent third parties snooping in.

On Friday, Google announced that the main search pages of google are now secured. The pages can be found at https://www.google.com. What this does is encrypt your search sessions with Google to prevent third parties snooping in. The https version is optional and by default you are still taken to the regular version. [Read more…]

Google [GOOG] recently added Google Earth View to Google Maps. Earth View brings the features of Google Earth to the browser where you can now scroll around maps, rotate, see 3D imagery and pan around the globe just like the desktop version.

To access the feature you can just visit maps.google.co.uk and on the right of the screen you should see a tab saying Earth. Click on this and it will ask you to install a plugin. Once installed you can then navigate around 3D imagery in a similar way to how Google Earth works.

From my tests I found the interface wasn’t as sleek to use as Google Earth, but in general it works very well showing a number of 3D buildings in various locations. [Read more…]

Yesterday, Google [GOOG] announced the Google TV amongst other things. Google TV is a service that makes television the way it should be (in Google’s words). Two options are available to get Google TV. The first requires that you get a TV with built in Google TV. These will be developed shortly and will come from companies who work with Intel to put computers powerful enough to run the operating system.

The second option is for those who do not want to buy a specific Google TV, or for those who do not want to upgrade. This option comes in the form of a companion box that sits between your set top box and your TV.

Logitec has announced that it is getting on board with the Google TV system by creating companion boxes for users to hook up to their HDTV. The Logitec box will be the first Google TV box and will launch in the US when the service is ready to run. The system will work with the Harmony remote technology that will allow users to interact with the Google TV services. The controller includes a compact keyboard along with a touchpad. [Read more…]

Since it’s launch, Google Wave has been an invite only service. Google [GOOG] has now announced that Google Wave is open to all and available without an invite.

To access the service you need to visit wave.google.com where you can sign right in with your Google username and password (assuming you have one). If not, just create a new account and start using the services.

We began previewing Google Wave with individuals and a handful of Google Apps customers six months ago. Since then, Wave has been used in a great many interesting ways. It’s clear from the invaluable feedback we’ve received that Wave is a great place to get work done, in particular for teams working together on projects that involve lots of discussion and close coordination.

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