Communication Breakdown

Google is taking on the US immigration system, which it says is limiting the flow of talent to its US operations. In a fascinating blog post, Google's policy council Pablo Chavez derides the country's stinginess with H-1B visas, the temporary permits given to foreign-born workers with specialised skills.

"Immigrants from countries like Canada, Iran, and Switzerland now lead our business operations, global marketing, global business development, and data infrastructure operations," writes Chavez. "Without these talented employees and many others, Google would not be where it is today... Over the last year alone, the artificially low cap on H-1B visas has prevented more than 70 Google candidates from receiving H-1B visas."

Sergey Brin himself, of course, is an emigree of what was the Soviet Union, and Laszlo Bock - Google's vice-president of people operations - fled communist Romania as a child. That's Bock in the clip below, testifying to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration "about the practical impact that the US immigration system has on Google". Apparently his mum was there too, and received a standing ovation from everyone present.

Clearly inspired by the Nintendo Wii (and possibly the WEEE directive, but I doubt it), Asus has decided to launch a new ultramobile PC called the, er, Eee. What next - the Oooo, or Aaaa?

The device is all very internet-centric, and apparently Eee stands for "Easy to learn, work, play; Excellent Internet experience and Excellent mobile computing experience". So now you know. Actually, it does look kinda nice - 7-inch screen, only weighs 890g, solid-state storage, built-in webcam and Wi-Fi, 3-hour battery life and half a gig of RAM. And it's XP compatible, which increasingly seems like the smart option.

Pity about the name, but - if the success of the Wii is anything to go by - I doubt it'll be too much of a worry for Asus.

Every now and again, we hacks have to change a detail in a story - a necessary evil because you, our reader, are more important than our pride. But sometimes that clarification ends up highlighting an absurdity. Like this, which greatly brightened up my day, from our sister publication News.com's story about Apple embedding user information in DRM-free music tracks:

Correction: This story erroneously reported that Apple had in the past encrypted personal information of iTunes customers embedded within music files. The data is available in clear text.

Absolutely splendid.

The general manager of Motorola's UK and Ireland mobile business, Jim Michel, has stepped down from his post after just a few months in the job. According to Moto, the company thanks Jim for the "great work and leadership during his time with Motorola and wishes him all the best for the future".

Whether his abrupt departure is anything to do with the job cuts looming at the manufacturer is anyone's guess for now. Although we know 4,000 further jobs (on top of a recently announced 3,500) are to go across the company's global operations - all divisions, all locations, apparently - they're not offering breakdown of where the chops are to occur. They have 2,500 employees in the UK, so it's a reasonable guess that some will be here.

The rate at which the giants of the internet are hoovering up minnows is phenomenal but consistent, which is why it's perhaps not worth writing up each acquisition as a full-blown front page splash. Here's a few of the latest from the last couple of days:

Google eats Panoramio

You know that layer in Google Earth which lets you see photos taken at various locations? The company which provides that is a Spanish startup called Panoramio - now it's part of Google itself.

News Corp eats Photobucket

More photo stuff. King Rupert (Murdoch, not Goodwins, obviously) has snaffled Photobucket, which often provides image hosting for his other online plaything, MySpace.

eBay eats StumbleUpon

That clever little toolbar which helps you randomly wander around the extremities of the interweb? Hands off - it's eBay's now.