Lou Dolinar / LinuxInsider:
What's Holding OpenOffice Back?  —  Why doesn't free trump expensive?  Every Microsoft product has a free, open source counterpart created by dedicated programmers who loathe everything the company stands for.  The free stuff is darn good.  Yet companies and individuals continue to buy billions of dollars worth of Microsoft products.

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
The Yahoo Circus Pulls Into Sun Valley Next Week  —  Starting Tuesday this week, all the major players in the Yahoo-Microsoft-Everyone-And-Their- Mother circus will line their private jets up in Sun Valley for the high-powered 26th annual Allen & Co. confab of tech and media moguls.

Natalie Weinstein / CNET News.com:
Privacy advocates praise Google's new link  —  Update at 12:35 p.m. and 3:50 p.m.: Comments from privacy advocates have been added.  —  Google apparently decided to keep it clean, in more ways than one.  —  The company has made a minor change to its home page, adding a link to its copyright line that leads to its Privacy Center.

Ben / microBlog:
Thank you, Adobe Reader 9!  —  Recently I wrote a blog entry about bloated software, and how much better Foxit PDF reader was than Adobe Reader.  But I was using Adobe Reader 8.  Little did I know how much superior version 9 would be.  —  For starters, version 8 was a 22 MB download.

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Friendfeed v. Twitter: Half The Followers In Five Months  —  Twitter is still far larger than its much younger competitor Friendfeed in aggregate terms.  But an interesting trend is developing - many longtime Twitter users are noticing that the number of followers they have on Friendfeed is growing far more rapidly than on Twitter.

Bill O'Brien / InformationWeek:
Ultra Mobile PC Buyer's Guide  —  We look at a range of versatile UMPCs and mobile Internet devices (MIDs) from ASUS, Gigabyte, and Samsung, Amtek, OQO, Roan Digital, Vye, and WiBrain.  —  Pity the ultra mobile personal computer.  It's barely a few years old and it's already suffering from multiple personality disorder.

Guy Newey / Agence France Presse:
Apple's iPhone could find Asia tough to crack  —  HONG KONG (AFP) - The iPhone 3G, which Apple is billing as twice as fast and half as expensive as the debut model, will roll out in cities from Tokyo to Sydney on Friday — but it could face challenges in Asia it will not have elsewhere.

Kevin Purdy / Lifehacker:
Kid-Proof Your PC with SteadyState  —  When you've got your Windows XP or Vista setup running perfectly, you don't want to lose all your painstaking customizations to a reckless tot, an experiment-minded friend or spouse, or a rogue system-lousing program.  Windows SteadyState …

Dieter Bohn / WMExperts:
Facebook App for Windows Mobile (Finally!)  —  Head on over to http://faceofmobile.com/ to get yourself a copy of FriendMobilizer, a 3rd party app that finally brings Windows Mobile up to par with BlackBerry and (cough) the Palm Centro on the social network scene.

Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Who would wait a week in line for an iPhone 3G? … Who's crazy enough to camp out for a week on the streets of New York City for a chance to be first to buy an iPhone 3G?  —  TheWhoFarm, that's who, a newly minted publicity-seeking environmental collective with an agrico-political mission …

Recent posts from on AIR:
Ethan Malasky on Developing Secure AIR Applications
Lots of Excitement for Adobe AIR in Europe
On AIR Tour Europe Almost Sold Out

Channels 9, 10, and TechNet Edge are social media communities brought to you by the Evangelism team at Microsoft. Channel 9 is a Developer community that features interviews with the people behind Microsoft Products and Technologies, a wiki and an active general discussion forum. Channel 10 is a community for the Power User that in addition to highlighting relevant Microsoft Products and Technologies profiles those people who are using technology to change our world. TechNet Edge is where IT professionals go to get the inside story on the latest Microsoft technologies, watch screencasts and learn more from the insiders.

Recent posts from Channel 9:
Charles Teague: Building Windows Live Writer Plug-ins
TechEd Amanda Silver on Visual Basic 2008 and VB in the future
This Week on C9: Jeff Sandquist and Bill Gates stories

questionpro (blog) aims to deliver the most advanced features that the online survey market demands while maintaining a balance between flexibility and ease-of-use. Customer satisfaction is our #1 priority and our software constantly improves by taking customer feedback to heart. The success of our company depends entirely on the success of our clients. Our single goal is to deliver a service that makes conducting online research easy.

Recent posts from The QuestionPro Blog:
Ironman Nice Update
Notes from CASRO Technology Conference: SMS Research
13th Annual CASRO Technology Conference

OSCON (blog) is happening July 21-25 in Portland, Oregon. OSCON is the crossroads of all things open source, bringing together the best, brightest, and most interesting people to explore what's new, and to champion the cause of open principles and open source adoption across the computing industry.

Recent posts from OSCON:
Brian Aker's Vision for a Livable Design, Looking at MySQL as OSCON Approaches
Open Mobile Exchange to Debut at OSCON
O'Reilly Radar: Call For Open Source Awards 2008 Nominations

Zoho (blog): Zoho does online office. Zoho offers a wide range of online office and productivity applications ranging from word processors, spreadsheets, presentation apps to CRM, project management, wikis and more. Zoho aims to provide an affordable suite of online applications.

Recent posts from Zoho Blogs:
Syncplicity Integrates Zoho
Zoho Business : Scheduled Maintenance on Jun 29, 2008
Zoho Show Update : Export as PPT/PDF/ODF, UI in 9 New Languages, Undo/Redo & more

Compete.com (blog) is the only online competitive intelligence service that combines web wide site metrics and search analytics in one site to help you quickly master online marketing. Our goal is to make it easy for you to keep your finger on the pulse of the whole online landscape and get the most out of your search investments to effectively drive brand awareness, drive site traffic and increase sales.

Recent posts from Compete Blog:
What You Have Been Asking For... Today We Are Launching Compete PRO …
E*Trade: The Right Stuff “Baby”?
May Online Video Market Share: ABC Signs Up With Veoh; Fancast and Hulu Tango