Alec Saunders SquawkBox

A ray of good news showed up in my RSS reader this morning.  Jeff Pulver wrote on his blog yesterday that one of his summer projects is going to be to resuscitate FWD, his 12 year old experiment in VoIP and what Jeff refers to as Participatory Communications.  To that end, he's asked Daniel Berninger to come aboard, and FWD will launch a "freemium" model later this year, with some premium and some free services.  The goal is to make it self sustaining, because as Jeff said in his blog posting:

My funding of FWD over the last 12 years departed from any investment logic long ago. The membership fees will not provide a return for the investment, by I hope they remove the limitation my resources have on FWD reaching its potential. Support and maintenance needs of existing FWD services people tell me want can be liberated from my interest in spending on new services.

Good one Jeff, and I'm sure the FWD community will thank you for it.

The rumours have been rumbling for a while that Microsoft will buy Facebook, and predictably that's producing reactions.  Folks ranging from Robert Scoble (Microsoft doesn't deserve facebook) to Fred Wilson (Facebook will sit tight) have opined on the topic.  

A number of people (including some inside the Redmond Borg that I've spoken with) seem to be saying that the folks there don't get it.  Never mind that 17,000+ Microsofties have Facebook profiles, or that they have a very profitable advertising relationship with Facebook, or that the developer division is busy cranking out tools that target Facebook as a platform… those dummies in MSN land wouldn't know a Facebook from a Faceplant.  In fact, pretty much the company strategy is to miss the social networking revolution all together, just like they missed that other revolution called the Internet.  But don't worry, shareholders… the invincible Windows franchise is going to carry the day.

Yeesh!

C'mon folks. Let's put aside our prejudices, and assume that (a) anytime a new platform emerges overnight with 30 million plus users Redmond is going to wake up and be interested, and (b) their choice to have a relationship with Facebook is a positive sign of support. 

In fact, it's the latter point that is most interesting.  Prior to this, aside from the MacOS, does anyone recall what the last non-Microsoft platform that Microsoft targeted was?  Think way back to the early 1990's and OS/2. 

This could be:

• Facebook as the new Macintosh — a profitable new revenue stream for Microsoft.
• Facebook as the new Netscape — a way to get their toes wet before conducting an all-out assault on the social networking space of their own.
• Facebook as the new WebTV – a prelude to an acquisition. 
• Facebook as a way for Microsoft to participate in the profits from the social networking revolution, and potentially gain a competitive advantage on Google / Yahoo / AOL.

However you look at it, of the portal players out there Microsoft has the most cosy relationship with Facebook of them all.  From this vantage point it doesn't look at all like Microsoft is unaware of the value of Facebook. 

In what had to have been the most predicted announcement of the year, Research in Motion announced BlackBerry with WiFi yesterday.  This RIM BlackBerry 8820 is essentially a BlackBerry 8800 with WiFi added.  In WiFi mode, users will have access to all BlackBerry Enterprise Server features, or BlackBerry Internet Server features. Unlike the iPhone, this is more than just WiFi data.  The release states that support for UMA will allow FMC applications to be built and deployed by carriers as well.  Let's hope that RIM reaches out to third parties like Gizmo Project and Truphone and permits them also to integrate with the 8820.

And in what has to a poke-in-the-eye for Apple, the RIM press release notably calls out this feature:

Removable Battery - The BlackBerry 8820 comes with an ultra-thin, high-capacity, removable battery that further extends the exceptional battery life for which BlackBerry handsets are known.

Nice.

Available from AT&T and other carriers this summer.