Apple iTunes’ Ping launched Wednesday night to a flurry of chatter lauding it as a MySpace killer, only to land Thursday morning amid criticism and a nasty break-up with Facebook. Now that the dust is beginning to settle, let’s take a look at what Ping is, as well as what it could have been.
![How Your Cloud Dream Is Becoming a Security Nightmare [GigaOM]](http://gigaom2.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/3035796_37df2c6d12_z.png?w=300&h=200 "How Your Cloud Dream Is Becoming a Security Nightmare [GigaOM]")
After extracting a deal from Research In Motion that appears to give state authorities the ability to monitor messages sent over the company’s BlackBerry network — similar to a deal that RIM agreed to with the government of Saudi Arabia — the Indian government has suggested that it may go after both Google and Skype in an attempt to get similar kinds of security concessions.
The Arcade Fire’s new album release has been accompanied by relatively new uses of web video; earlier this month, a live-streamed YouTube concert directed by Terry Gilliam was watched, according to Mashable, by 3.7 million viewers. And today, thanks to some help from Google Chrome, the new track We Used to Wait gets an all-HTML5 “musical experience made specifically for the browser.”
While we’ve been trying to beam the idea of a solar-embedded iPhone into Steve Job’s head (so far successfully), a design company called Frostfire is helping out. The company has created an iPhone 4 case that has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery at the base with a small solar panel embedded on it that can extend the battery life of your iPhone 4 while on the go.
Open source media center application Boxee released a new version of its software today that now includes a new Movie Library that offers thousands of free movies from several streaming content Web sites. The team also reorganized the settings screen to make it more user friendly, added support for Google Buzz, and included an offline indicator mode so users can tell at a glance when the network connection is lost.
![Why HP’s 3PAR Bid Makes Sense [GigaOM]](http://gigaomcloud.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/3par_horiz_rgb.jpg?w=210&h=74&h=74 "Why HP’s 3PAR Bid Makes Sense [GigaOM]")
Just one week ago, Dell announced their intent to acquire 3PAR. (See The Simple Reason Dell Bought 3PAR.) Yesterday, HP showed that even elephants can dance and jumped into the fray with a $1.6 billion bid, about one-third higher than Dell’s original $1.15 billion offer.
![Why Labor as a Service is as Cloudy as it Gets [GigaOM]](http://gigaomcloud.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/crowd.jpg "Why Labor as a Service is as Cloudy as it Gets [GigaOM]")
When thinking about cloud computing, it’s easy to get caught up in the technological innovations. Often overlooked, however, is the tool that made all this high technology possible — the human brain. What if we could access that resource via the cloud, too? As I detail in my weekly GigaOM Pro column, we can. Some call it “labor as a service” (I like LaaS), others call it “labor-on-demand,” but everyone should call it cloud computing.
![Celadon: Putting Range Anxiety At Ease With Mobile [Earth2Tech]](http://earth2tech.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/celadon.jpg "Celadon: Putting Range Anxiety At Ease With Mobile [Earth2Tech]")
How you drive, where you drive and the weather conditions through which you drive an electric vehicle can change the vehicle’s range (how far the vehicle can go on a single battery charge) dramatically. That’s because batteries perform less than ideally in extreme hot and cold weather. For example, earlier this year former GM front man Bob Lutz said he only got 28 miles worth of juice from the Volt’s battery, in contrast to the advertised 40 miles, when he drove it for a weekend in Detroit this winter.
Technology Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) are like sunny summer days in San Francisco — more infrequent than you think. In sharp contrast, the technology mergers & acquisitions market continues to be on an upswing, giving investors much-needed relief. Sure, there have been some signs of life in the IPO market — 39 listings during the second quarter of 2010 — but ask anyone on Sandhill Road (the epicenter of tech money) and they are all busy calling on their banker pals.
![ALTe: Former Tesla Team Eyes Old Company Cars [Earth2Tech]](http://earth2tech.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/alte.jpg?w=300&h=193 "ALTe: Former Tesla Team Eyes Old Company Cars [Earth2Tech]")
While Tesla CEO Elon Musk is betting the farm on an electric vehicle for mainstream consumers, many other EV startups are finding company and public fleets a much safer gamble for the near term. Take ALTe, a startup founded by a trio of former Tesla execs in late 2008, which is taking old gas and diesel-guzzlers in public and private fleets and giving them new guts to run as extended range electric vehicles.
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