Linked List: May 5, 2009

Tuesday, 5 May 2009

Who Says Chrysler Hasn’t Shown Foresight? ★

BusinessWeek:

The Chrysler headquarters building is a spectacular sight from I-75 in Michigan. But the Auburn Hills edifice and its sprawling campus sit in the middle of one of the most economically depressed areas in the country. When the building was erected in the early 1990s, it was designed so it could be repurposed into a shopping mall without too much modification if the perennially troubled Chrysler should go out of business.

Apple Takeover Rumors Generally Not Worth the Paper They’re Not Printed On ★

Harry McCracken recounts a slew of old “Apple is going to buy X” rumors and predictions.

Hulu, iTunes, and the Future of Internet TV ★

Cringely:

BusinessWeek, among others, made a grand effort this week to present Hulu as a masterstroke that will hurt or kill iTunes rather than what it is — an expensive streaming service that doesn’t make money.

He speculates that Apple might go the HBO route, paying for exclusive rights to high-quality original programming.

Bento for iPhone ★

$5 iPhone version of Filemaker’s new database app. Works by itself, but also syncs with the Mac version.

Kara Swisher on Rumor That Apple Is Buying Twitter ★

Astute analysis. Of course Apple is interested in Twitter. Everyone is. That doesn’t mean a deal is at hand.

FTC Looks Into Ties Between Apple and Google Boards ★

Obama administration looking into whether Apple and Google’s shared board members (especially Eric Schmidt) are hindering competition between the two companies.