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Each weekend we highlight the most relevant stories Wired News has covered. To find out what's coming up, jump to The Week Ahead.
An apple day: Apple used Macworld New York to make introductions, announcements, and statements of general strategy. Biggest headline-grabber was the iBook, dashing laptop offspring of the wildly popular iMac. Fast? "It's a rocket ship," enthused Steve Jobs at the Wednesday unveiling.
Apple also premiered the QuickTime TV network, its Net video challenge to RealNetworks and Microsoft, and announced that ABC News, RollingStone.com, VH1, HBO, and Fox had signed on to deliver content.
In his keynote, Jobs touted Apple's early adoption of USB, saying that the number of universal serial bus devices for the Mac has grown from 25 a year ago to 150 today. And later, in a press conference, Jobs said no, don't expect the iMac to be swept along in the free-PC movement.
Plugged in: The music industry's hunger for all things online was fed at Plug.In, Jupiter Communications' annual confab that proved you can have a tech trade show without booth babes.
Jupiter kicked things off by admonishing labels to stop dreading online music -- and start using it as a sales tool for CDs and tapes. Speaking for the old guard, BMG's Strauss Zelnick said, heck, he doesn't fear the Net. In his view, "finding talent, making great music, promoting those artists, and selling their work around the world" are tasks that only record companies can perform -- no matter how music is distributed.
Hype rules: MP3.com went public and the market put the value of the tiny San Diego company at US$7 billion. Latest quarterly revenues for the outfit: $665,785. One stunned analyst said the valuation was enough to "drop a horse dead in its tracks"; another called it "frothy."
Easy come, easy go: The market once loved Amazon.com, too -- and probably will again someday. But not this week. A key analyst downgraded the company, which admitted it expects to continue losing lots of money, and the next thing you now shares had lost 13 percent of their value in a day, and 50 percent in three months.
Here they come: The announcement that Carleton Fiorina would head Hewlett-Packard brought fresh hope to women in Silicon Valley. "This is an indication of things to come," said Karan Eriksson, who heads a women-in-tech networking group.
Too much of a good thing: Silicon Valley has a lot going for it -- skilled workers and tons of venture capital, for starters. But a new study suggested that the Valley's place atop the high-tech heap is not unassailable. Of particular concern: sky-high real estate prices and jammed freeways.
At last: Qwest landed US West after a long tussle with Global Crossing, and said it was now prepared to create a broadband powerhouse to compete with the likes of AT&T. US West is the largest US provider of high-speed digital-subscriber-line Internet access services, with about 50,000 residential and business DSL customers.
Facing reality: Unable to beat 'em, Microsoft sold out, unloading the arts and entertainment portions of its Sidewalk guide to CitySearch in exchange for a 9 percent stake in the company. Proof that for all its might and money, Microsoft wasn't able to figure out the local content business.
That said, Microsoft is doing a lot of things right. Fourth-quarter earnings jumped 60 percent.
Patently contentious: As Interactive Pictures geared up for a big IPO, the virtual reality company faced charges from competitors that key patents are bogus. CEO Jim Phillips said anyone unhappy with his business practices can challenge him in court. In his words: "Bring 'em on."
Bearing the burden: A Federal Trade Commission workshop took on the thorny question of what to do -- if anything -- to protect privacy in the digital age. While many see it as a classic Big Business vs. Consumers battle, entrepreneurs said that regulation - such as a new law to protect children online -- can spell doom for small operators.
You are not alone: There's hopelessness and anger deep in the heart of the online biz. How else to explain the success of NetSlaves? It's the hot e-zine (and subsequent book) published by two industry refugees who can help tell you where you reside in the Web caste system.
Nonbelievers: Tuesday was the anniversary of Neil Armstrong's moonwalk. Or was it? A handful of imaginative researchers and authors stubbornly maintained that the whole thing was a hoax. And they have the photos to prove it.
Unsavory perks: The San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's dominant daily newspaper, transferred and temporarily suspended tech gossip columnist Chris Nolan after she earned several thousand dollars by selling stock purchased at a special price from online retailer AutoWeb. The incident forced a lot of publications to ponder their policy on journalists and investments.
Too good to be true: The Securities and Exchange Commission cracked down on offerings of free stock, winning cease-and-desist orders against four companies that failed to register with the authorities. The agency warned investors to be on the lookout for such giveaways. Caveat emptor applies even for freebies, apparently.
No solicitors, please: The spam-fighting service Bright Light launched a free personal version of its system for blocking unsolicited email. That's good news for you. And what's in it for Bright Light? The company hopes to build more awareness of the year-old ISP and corporate network service that it sells.
Setting the clock: Samsung, JVC, Audiovox, and Sensory Science have signed up to have e-SIM "virtualize" some of their gadgets and render their user manuals Web-friendly. And if the Internet is a technological challenge for you, the company said, the "LiveManual" will also be available on CD-ROM.
Hands off my .web: A company called Image Online Design laid claim to the .web domain, which hasn't even been accepted yet by the Net's domain-name overseer, ICANN. Still, observers fear that if one company can be awarded a trademark over an entire top-level domain, the Net may be headed back down the same monopoly road from which it is only now emerging.
No mere speculation: Network Solutions, meanwhile, said it would begin requiring customers to pay in advance for domain names. These credit-card payments will not only be good for company revenues, but could also discourage cyber-squatters from snapping up names they don't intend to use.
Drug deal: A Minneapolis woman wants $1 million or more for the domain name Drugs.com, but the minimum bid of $150,000 hasn't even been broached. One theory is that the name is too generic for the big pharmaceuticals' tastes.
Modern misery: Occupational therapists blamed the spread of repetitive stress injuries on new tools that limit the range of muscle motion. Computers were cited as a big culprit, but RSI problems have been cropping up anywhere and everywhere over the past 10 years -- forcing new thinking on how to get jobs done.
Your number, please: A congressional committee held hearings on a law that critics say will create a national ID card. But even some Republicans, who you'd expect might recoil at such Big Brother-ism, believe requiring social security numbers on driver's licenses could decrease illegal (and even legal) immigration.
The people united: EParty doesn't even have a Web site yet, but the political group sure has high hopes. Founder Mark Pincus said his goal is to raise $50 million by recruiting 5 million members at $10 a head. That would give the organization muscle to match other Silicon Valley lobbying efforts, like the high-profile Tech Net. THE WEEK AHEAD
26 July, Los Angeles: Final disposition of the Kevin Mitnick cracking case has been continued several times as defense lawyers and the government squabble over how much restitution he will pay. They'll try again. At the federal courthouse.
26 and 27 July, Montreal: In a medium without borders, who has jurisdiction? That legal conundrum will be tossed around by the Internet Law & Policy Forum. Featured speakers include Robert Pitforsky, head of the US Federal Trade Commission and Andrew Pincus, the Commerce Department's top lawyer. At the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.
26 to 29 July, San Jose, California: Wireless is booming, which makes Unwired Universe -- a gathering of content providers, application developers, phone manufacturers, and network operators -- of interest. At the Fairmont Hotel.
28 July, Houston: Speculation had Compaq announcing its new CEO on the same day it announced earnings, but speculation was wrong. On Thursday, the company, in something of a shocker, pegged chief operating officer Michael Capellas for the post.
28 to 30 July, Mountain View, California: Those space shuttles have been going back and forth between Earth and space in pretty much the same fashion for 20 years or so. NASA's Space Shuttle Development Conference aims to imagine next-generation improvements. At Moffett Field.
