posts

Earlier today Bill Keller hurled some invective against Web aggregators in general and Arianna Huffington in particular.

It's a great, punchy read! But if you're in a hurry:

The New York Times' executive editor calls media commentators and media recyclers "oxpeckers who ride the backs of pachyderms, feeding on ticks."

He compares aggregators to pirates, then says that AOL's $315 million purchase of Huffington Post has been poorly described: "Buying an aggregator and calling it a content play is a little like a company's announcing plans to improve its cash position by hiring … Read more

Just days after closing its deal with the Huffington Post, AOL has confirmed that it will lay off hundreds of staffers.

A company spokesperson told CNET in a phone interview today that 200 people will be laid off in the U.S. The majority of those employees will come from the editorial side of AOL's operation, while the remaining employees are in other divisions. In addition, AOL will layoff 700 people in India. Approximately 300 of those people, however, will move to other companies and continue working on AOL support functions, like finance and operations.

The layoffs at AOL … Read more

The AOL layoffs are finally here, and they are smaller than some had been expecting.

According to several people close to the situation, the New York-based Internet giant will lay off up to several hundred staffers starting Thursday in very targeted areas of the company's U.S. operations, in a move that CEO Tim Armstrong signaled last week was coming.

Sources said there will be no staffers let go in its network group or advertising sales unit, but editorial and other media product groups will be impacted. Also on the chopping block are jobs in India, which will mean … Read more

The deal is done.

AOL announced today that it has closed its $315 million acquisition of the Huffington Post. AOL has integrated the Huffington Post with AOL Media and AOL Local to create the Huffington Post Media Group, the company said. That group will be led by Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, who will serve as president and editor-in-chief.

AOL announced its deal to acquire the Huffington Post a month ago. Huffington said at the time that the acquisition will help AOL become "one of the largest destinations for smart content and community on the Internet."

AOL has … Read more

I've been hearing "post-PC era" so much now that I wince when I hear the term. Clearly it must be time for me to get something off my chest.

There is no post-PC era.

Not as I see the landscape, at least. To me, tablets are a big break with the past when it comes to user interface, but deep down, more stays the same than changes. And the better tablets get, the more they'll simply absorb what we do with PCs.

In short, tablets will become PCs. Different PCs from today's PCs, but PCs. … Read more

In a few recent job postings noticed by AppleInsider, Apple has perhaps given a hint as to its future plans for iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads, looking for qualified individuals to bolster its Voice Control and syncing departments.

This is not the first search for Voice Control experts in which Apple has engaged. Back in December Apple was looking for new hires "specializing in voice technologies such as speech recognition, iOS software development for speech applications, and speech research."

Now, Apple is looking for three iOS Speech Operations Engineers to help develop the Voice Control functionality of iOS devices. Some of the more-advanced skills that Apple is looking for include:

Demonstrated experience deploying and configuring large numbers of Xen VM instances.

Demonstrated experience working with ssh, kickstart, bind, postfix, nagios; iptables, sed, awk, curl.

Demonstrated experience with configuring loadbalancing and firewalls.

Demonstrated experience with Nuance Recognizer, IBM WebSphere Voice, Google Voice, or similar voice search tool.

… Read more

There's no question it's a jarring contrast: layoffs versus champagne and cookies.

But that's the reality at AOL as its acquisition of the Huffington Post closes this week, even as it plans to sheds employees as part of its ongoing turnaround effort.

Sources said the New York-based Internet portal will announce layoffs soon.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong indicated job cuts were definitely coming at a PaidContent conference in New York yesterday.

"There will be job changes," he said, when asked about layoffs.

Perhaps sooner than later.

Several sources close to the situation confirmed that the … Read more

Every once in a while, we need a friendly reminder about the importance of getting a good night's rest--after all, the average human spends about a third of his or her life asleep, and a chronic lack of rest can lead to memory loss, depression, higher risk of heart disease and stroke, and more! The Sleep Doctor Michael Breus is back with more tips on how to maintain a healthy sleep cycle and to address the growing concerns about sleep!

We're lucky to have Dr. Breus in the hot seat today to answer your questions about sleep. His schedule is filled with appearances on Martha Stewart Morning Living, a bi-weekly column on Huffington Post, a new Twitter account, and a line of temperature-regulated mattresses at Sleepy's Mattress Store!

On today's hour-long episode, we're spending a little extra time with the good doctor to answer your concerns about the importance of a healthy night's rest. We start with an experiment in Europe with cars that drive themselves, allowing commuters to catch up on sleep en route to work.

We're all still questioning our own abilities to fall asleep and trust that the car will get us to our destination in one piece, but the article brings up an interesting point about the dangers of sleep driving, since over 60 percent of Americans have admitted to driving drowsy. Next time you're feeling tired, pull over and take a nap-a-latte!… Read more

A Microsoft job posting has provided clues into Microsoft's strategy to make its Office Web applications more friendly to touch-screen devices.

A listing that went up over the weekend for a software development engineer touts some of the successes of Microsoft's Outlook Web App (OWA), saying it has "made a huge difference in the daily lives of millions of users all over the world" but that the company is looking for someone to take OWA to "the next level" with a "next generation" client. That client would be for both the desktop … Read more