Bob Caswell

A few months back we asked the question, “LinkedIn – What’s the big deal?” TechConsumer author Marion Jensen hadn’t signed up and was excited to get started, only to find out that the site offered little to do. It seemed like Facebook without the fun factor, a social network for professionals. You create a profile, describe your professional history, and connect with others. In turn, you can see who your “friends” (or is that business associates?) are connected with. The idea is to build your professional network. But to what end?

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Plenty of buzz is a flutter today on the news that airlines will soon have in-flight Internet access. Back in April of this year, the same buzz existed. Here’s a quick summary of what’s new today plus an overview of other details released earlier this year:

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Starting within the next few weeks, Dell computers (notebooks and desktops) will be for sale in more than 900 Best Buy locations in the U.S. After this move, Dell’s products will be available in almost 10,000 stores worldwide. This seems ironic considering Dell pioneered the low cost, online, skip-the-middleman model. But the company lost the “world’s largest computer maker” trophy to HP, and the retail distribution channel is one area where HP shines.

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The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program started at MIT was developed with the intention of getting $100 laptops to kids in developing nations. While the price tag is almost twice that, they’re still working to get it down.

The laptop, currently called the XO Laptop, has had some success with the recently announced “Give One, Get One” program. For just $399, the deal buys both yourself and a child from a developing nation new XOs. The non-profit is reporting about $2 Million worth of donations each day.

Now the latest news has Microsoft coming out with a statement saying it is trying to rework Windows XP to run on XO laptops. The company has outlined the challenges (a good rundown of them can be found here) it faces in this unusual project. The biggest challenge cited is the fact that the XO laptop uses flash memory rather than a traditional hard drive, which is what Windows normally needs.

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Perhaps in an attempt to differentiate itself from Blu-ray, HD DVD tech wizards will launch the HD DVD version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with a new feature called “community screening.” The movie takes advantage of the fact that all HD DVD players are equipped with an Ethernet hookup (unlike Blu-ray, which has players that do not include network connectivity). “Community screening” is a way to watch a movie simultaneously with your friends while you’re each in the comfort of your own homes. Here’s how it works:

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