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AOL: We've Got Garlinghouse

Former Yahoo! executive Brad Garlinghouse earned notoriety in 2006 when he sent a scathing memo to the company’s top brass. In what came to be known as the "Peanut Butter Manifesto," Garlinghouse said Yahoo (YHOO) had spread itself too thinly across many businesses. Now Garlinghouse is headed to another company that needs to improve its focus.

The former Yahoo exec also gained props for helping the company pick winners from among existing businesses. In 2007, Garlinghouse helped convince Yahoo to give up its photo service and instead focus on Flickr, says former Yahoo executive Jeff Bonforte. "It was like him living the ‘Peanut Butter Manifesto,’" Bonforte says. Flickr is one of the most widely used photo-sharing services.

In some ways, the biggest challenges facing Garlinghouse at AOL are of his own making. At Yahoo, he led the effort that put Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Messenger ahead of AOL Mail and AOL Instant Messenger in terms of U.S. visitors. In July, Yahoo’s e-mail service had more than 106 million unique visitors, almost three times the tally for AOL, according to comScore (SCOR). Now he’s determined to revive the flagging properties at AOL. "I’m a very competitive person," Garlinghouse tells BusinessWeek. "I’m here to win and if I didn’t think there was a chance [of beating Yahoo in e-mail and IM], I would not have joined."

AOL: "More of a Foot in the Past"

On his first day at the new job, Garlinghouse wouldn’t rule out acquisitions, though he said he’s not planning a shopping spree. "If there are attractive opportunities, we’ll look at those," he says. It’s about time AOL looks for ways to update its communication tools, says Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Lazard Capital Markets. "The way people communicate changes very quickly—Twitter and Facebook are clear examples of that in recent history," Sebastian says. "AOL seems to still have more of a foot in the past than in the future."

App helps hearing-impaired sort through aural clutter

Hearing aids and cochlear implants work like complicated miniature microphones to help the deaf and hard-of-hearing pick up the noises around them. Unfortunately, the hum of background noise also tends to be amplified, often creating a confusing melee of sound.

Miriam Furst-Yust, a professor at Tel Aviv University’s School of Electrical Engineering, has developed new software called Clearcall that can improve speech recognition by up to 50 percent in hearing aids and cochlear implants, according to a press release put out by the American Friends of Tel Aviv University.

Amazon glitch ditches international-shipment option

However, in its analysis, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers found that most promising geoengineering techniques can be done on Earth. It argues that a handful of technologies be deployed at large scale, along with other strategies, to mitigate the effects of climate change.

As concern grows over climate change, a number of geoengineering ideas have been proposed, including placing mirrors in space to reflect sunlight or shooting sulfur particles into the stratosphere, which would also have a cooling effect.

At the top of the list are artificial trees, which are mechanical devices that can absorb carbon dioxide from the air faster than trees and then sequester that gas underground.

Although proposing billions of white roofs doesn’t appear to be controversial, many other geoengineering ideas are. For example, scientists have warned about the environmental impact–or effectiveness–of “seeding” the ocean with iron to spur growth of plankton to sequester carbon.

Algae would grow from pumped-in carbon dioxide and sunlight and be harvested for use either as a liquid fuel to run in a combined heat-and-power unit or turned into biochar, or charcoal used as a soil conditioner that also sequesters carbon from the air.

(Credit:Institution of Mechanical Engineers)

Amazon sidesteps battle over Dan Brown book

Amazon.com’s Kindle may be the most-popular e-reader on the market, but that doesn’t mean everyone is happy with it.

But after entering into discussions with Amazon, Random House announced last week that it had approved a Kindle version.

It’s interesting that Amazon felt the need to write its own press release to announce the book’s Kindle availability. It underlies the importance of Brown’s book and perhaps of Amazon’s desire to show other publishers that Random House is allowing one of the biggest books of the year to hit the Kindle at a reduced price on the same day it’s offered as a hardcover in stores.

“Now that all of our security and logistical issues surrounding the e-book of ‘The Lost Symbol’ have been resolved, the e-book will be released simultaneously with the hardcover on September 15,” the publisher announced. It didn’t elaborate on what those issues were.

Amazon followed up that statement with its own confirmation this week.

Apple can relate. It has been forced to deal with a wary music industry since itsiPod started becoming the dominant force in the industry. The music industry is scared of iTunes and Apple. Book publishers don’t want to put themselves in the same position with the Kindle and Amazon.

But it’s possible that they are. Random House has already backed down. Simon & Schuster is up next to challenge Amazon and its Kindle. It will be interesting to see whether it goes to battle or follows Random House’s example.

Disclosure: Simon & Schuster is owned by CBS. CNET News is published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.

Publishers are wary of some aspects of the Kindle.

In either case, its decision will set a precedent.

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Random House’s issues set the stage for what could have been a major battle between Amazon and publishers. Dan Brown’s book promises to be a bestseller the day it’s released. Random House might have had some leverage.

The Kindle version of “The Lost Symbol” was in limbo since Amazon first placed the hardcover version on its site for preorder. Its publisher, Random House, was concerned with releasing a Kindle version on the same day as the hardcover version. The company reasoned that with such a low price ($9.99 on the Kindle) compared with the hardcover version, which Amazon is currently offering for $16.17, that Kindle sales would cannibalize hardcover sales.

Stephen King’s next book, “Under the Dome,” which is slated for a November 10 release, could potentially challenge Kindle policy if its publisher, Simon & Schuster, decides to press the issue.

Amazon announced earlier this week that it will, in fact, sell a Kindle version of “Da Vinci Code” author Dan Brown’s latest novel, “The Lost Symbol.” The book is slated for release on September 15.

A share sale to the public wouldn’t have given Hsieh the freedom to keep innovating and likely wouldn’t have been well-received. Good customer service, including local call centers and free shipping, comes at a cost. Zappos barely breaks even. So that meant an acquisition was one of the only other alternatives.

Acquirer means: This competitor may one day be a serious threat. Let’s take them out now.

Acquirer says: We hope [the target's] innovative spirit rubs off on the rest of our company.

This backdrop is what makes Amazon.com’s (AMZN) acquisition of Zappos especially remarkable. Having followed both companies closely and having known several of the people involved, I can say that this is a rare instance in which the principals mean what they say. Amazon’s Zappos deal might well become an exception to Silicon Valley’s takeover rules.

Unparalleled Customer Service

Cynical? I’ve covered enough high-tech deals to know better. For the target company and its investors, takeovers are a way to cash out. For the acquirer they’re a means of hiring good engineers and removing a would-be rival. Products frequently languish or are discontinued, and key employees at the target typically leave.

Acquirer means: That’ll happen for a while—until we need to cut costs by folding the target into our operations.

Zappos was in what could have been an ugly situation. It was a 10-year-old company from which its investors quite legitimately wanted a return. Zappos has $1 billion in gross merchandise sales, boasts a well-known brand, and enjoys an unparalleled rep for excellent customer service.

Amazon-Zappos: Not the Usual Silicon Valley M&A

Cover a few mergers and acquisitions in techland and you’ll quickly learn the difference between what companies say and what they mean. A few examples:

AmEx Presale Tickets for AMERICAN IDIOT Now Available

Amazon.com's 1984 Problems Are Just Beginning

Apparently, Amazon.com (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos’ abject apology for remotely nuking copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from hundreds of Kindle devices was not enough for one Michigan teenager.

What Amazon did have was liability, for distributing infringing works. And in an effort to manage its liability it threw its customers under the bus. That’s hardly the image Amazon wants to be projecting right now, as consumers are just starting to pay attention to e-books and e-book devices in significant numbers.

Seventeen-year-old Justin Gawronski filed suit against the company in federal court in Seattle last week, charging Amazon with violating its own terms of service, breach of contract, and illegal hacking, among other things. The plaintiff claims the unilateral removal of 1984 from his Kindle wrecked his work on a summer reading assignment because the notes he took accompanying the e-book now referred to paragraphs and electronic pages that are no longer there. His lawyer is seeking class-action certification for the case.

If I were in Bezos’ shoes I’d settle this one quickly. The issues raised in the Gawronski suit are likely to be the least of Amazon’s Kindle problems going, legally and otherwise. The biggest legal problem Amazon created for itself with the attack on 1984 was revealing that it has the capability to remotely delete Kindle books in the first place.

Air NZ unveils flat out economy comfort