Newspipe: iSteve biography; Intel tablets; RIM revolting

By Richi Jennings. April 11, 2011.

Welcome to Newspipe: a wrap-up of interesting stories in a handy, easily-digestible size. This time: Apple (AAPL) fanbois prepare for an authorized hagiography -- sorry, biography -- of Steve Jobs; Intel (INTC) talks up its Oak Trail processor for Android tablets; and Research In Motion (RIM) can't get no love.
 

iSteve is the unoriginal title of Walter Isaacson's upcoming "authorized" biography of Steve Jobs. Scheduled for early 2012, there's little to say, according to publishers Simon & Schuster. If you're getting déjà vu, it might be because we first heard about it last year. Walter who? Isaacson is known for working the room, apparently; he previously wrote biographies of Kissinger, Franklin, and Einstein. Most are expecting it to make fascinating reading.

A publication where every word has to be blessed by Steve, eh? Sounds familiar; what does it remind me of?
 

Intel wants you to have an Atom in your next tablet. Oak Trail is the codename for its latest power-sipping CPU, the Atom Z670. Intel's telling the world that it's working with Google to make Android 3.0 run on the chip. My "old mate" Roger Kay reckons Intel is squaring up to make ARM irrelevant. Of course, it'll also run Windows 7 and Linux.

Never underestimate the value of backwards-compatibility. But my worry is this is too little, too late, with Windows 8 being ported to ARM.
 

And RIM's co-CEO is frustrated. Mike Lazaridis thinks the company doesn't get enough credit for it profitability, growth, and global reach. Perhaps it's because the company's most recent products have been "clunkers"? His twin, Jim Balsillie, points out the huge risk RIM's taking by engineering a platform shift, to QNX.

Call me old-fashioned, but saying it's "Where tech companies go to die," isn't likely to build confidence that RIM can turn this around.

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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. He's also the creator and main author of Computerworld's IT Blogwatch -- for which he has won American Society of Business Publication Editors and Jesse H. Neal awards on behalf of Computerworld, plus The Long View. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, you can follow him as @richi on Twitter, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: TLV@richij.com.

You can also read Richi's full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.