Friday afternoon noteworthy tidbits

• Whether Universal Music Studios has the right approach offering free music downloads was certainly the talk over at Apple this week. It is an interesting move and shows that the music labels are starting to digest the “shock” of the Internet and are trying to embrace it as an opportunity rather than look at it as the end of their business. It is also about time since they have been looking at this for probably now 10 years or so.
• The other major topic at Apple is probably the soon to be expected launch of movie downloads on its iTunes (Sept. 12 is rumoured will be the day). The major DVD resellers (Wal-Mart has 40% of the $17 bln US DVD market!) seem to be fighting successfully so far against Apple’s Steve Jobs, who - it is said - could only convince its Disney Studio’s (he’s the largest shareholder) to sell DVDs for $14.99. The title in “Good Morning Silicon Valley”, sums this up nicely I think, also because only with FTTH does it seem to make sense to download movies in my opinion, and we are far away from having that rolled out anywhere. So here’s how a film studio CEO’s day might start: Morning, sir — you’ve got Apple on Line 1, Wal-Mart on Line 2, and the Advil is in the top drawer
• In an attempt to talk sense into current wireless mobile Internet, tech celebrity Dave Winer, as TechCrunch reports, has set up some mobile friendly websites. They also think it makes sense that people post blogs from mobile phones. While I am bullish on this in general it requires Wifi or WiMAX speeds before this makes really sense. Unless you have the time to wait all day for your picture blog to be uploaded via 2.5 or 3G slow data networks, taking the very likely multiple time outs into consideration as well…
• During a business trip this week in Finland I could also walk into a Nokia store and play a bit with the new camera phone N90. With its really big size (weight seems Ok) I don’t think it is ready for the masses to adopt it. The quality of the display and the built-in Carl Zeiss optics are outstanding and truly impressive though. I think one can - with some patience - make good videos with it and if the networks get faster also submit them in a feasible amount of time. Now for once the slogan is telling the truth “We don’t sell phones. We sell multimedia computers”.
• In Silicon Valley there have been quite a few investments into alternative energy ventures including of course solar cells. Now Vinod Koshla is behind a $200 million investment into the just three months old startup Cilion. The company aims to build eight plants by 2008 capable of producing a total of 440 million gallons (3.8l) of ethanol a year and has partnered with Western Milling - a grain milling company near Fresno California - a few months ago. The size of this investment is substantial and it’s maybe the biggest so far into an alternative energy startup.
• Finally Forbes announced that German chancellor Angela Merkel is the most powerful woman in the world. I’ll check with my wife on this but I think anyone who looks as confident like her deserves this title.

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