TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News

Online real estate site Zillow.com announced Monday that it has partnered with AOL to bring its suite of mortgage tools to AOL Real Estate and DailyFinance.

Under the partnership -- a new one for Zillow -- AOL visitors will have access to Zillow's Mortgage Marketplace, which lets prospective homeowners research mortgage rates, compare loan quotes and connect with lenders.

Could Microsoft's motion-sensing Kinect technology soon be a part of your company board room, or help you shop for a car?

Microsoft is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its Kinect gesture and voice-controlled technology by talking up the commercial possibilities of the device. The company said Monday that it has seen the Kinect pop up in a variety of industries over the last year, and is now ready to take the technology to the business world.

More than 200 businesses, including Toyota, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Razorfish, have joined a global pilot program to explore Kinect’s commercial possibilities, said Alex Kipman, the general manager of incubation for Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment unit.

Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg told a group of startup entrepreneurs over the weekend that if he had to do it over again, he would have kept kept the company in Boston.

"If I were starting now I would do things very differently," he said in an interview at Y Combinator's Startup School. "I didn't know anything. In Silicon Valley, you get this feeling that you have to be out here. But it's not the only place to be. If I were starting now, I would have stayed in Boston. [Silicon Valley] is a little short-term focused and that bothers me."

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates spoke to about a thousand students at UW’s School of Computer Sciences and Engineering Thursday.(PSBJ photos/Anthony Bolante)

Maybe it was inevitable. There have been signs of it happening for awhile.

But in a short period of time recently, there’s been an unusual series of vignettes showing the softer side of Bill Gates. Over the years, the Microsoft co-founder has earned a reputation for abrasive tactics like yelling at employees, evading deposition questions, abruptly ending interviews in a huff and – as revealed in Paul Allen’s autobiography earlier this year – trying to undercut his own partner in the early days of the software company’s life.

Could it be that Gates is growing mellower as he grows older? In case you haven’t been watching closely, here’s are some indicators:

* In an interview on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday (Oct. 30), he said he wasn’t bothered “at all” by critical comments made by Steve Jobs in the just-released biography of the Apple co-founder by writer Walter Isaacson.

Jobs had been quoted as saying Gates had never truly invented anything and had “shamelessly ripped off other people's ideas."

RealNetworks has announced that its Rinse service can now identify songs by listening to a portion of a song, using technology from Gracenote. The company is also encouraging users of Siri, the voice recognition software on the iPhone 4S, to use Rinse to better find songs. The service launhced in April. A full version of Rinse is available for $39.

Editor's note: TechFlash is about to launch the 2011 TechFlash Newsmaker awards, noting achievements in the technology industry. Nominees in about a dozen categories will be posted on TechFlash beginning Nov. 7, and readers will vote throughout the month. Winners will be announced Dec. 1 at Experience Music Project. This week we are catching up with a few winners from 2010.

Zaarly founder Eric Koester

Eric Koester, who was named Best Tech Hire/Move of the Year in the 2010 Flashies, has made plenty more moves in 2011.

Koester won for his move from the Cooley law firm to Appature, where he was hired as general counsel. But he didn't stop there. In February, after a Startup Weekend in Los Angeles, he co-founded Zaarly with Bo Fishback and Ian Hunter.

Zaarly allows users to post what they want and what they are willing to pay online and see if there are any takers. Some examples include someone wanting to pay $500 for a used iPad and another offering $40 for a tire rotation.

A screenshot from a lawsuit against HTC that claims the company collects too much location data from customers' phones.

Updated with comment from HTC.

Location, location, location...can certainly get a company into hot water these days.

Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has been hit with a lawsuit by customers who claim the company tracks and shares too much detail when it gathers location information using a weather app integrated into its phones. The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status for their suit.

The lawsuit (PDF, 23 pages), filed in a Seattle federal court last week, claims that HTC uses the AccuWeather app to track customers’ exact geographic location and shares that information with advertisers who want to target users with location-specifc ads.

Both HTC, which has its U.S. headquarters in Bellevue, and Pennsylvania-based AccuWeather are named in the suit. The plaintiffs maintain that the two companies collect more information than needed to provide customers with relevant weather information.

Looking for seasonal work? Hop in your trailer or RV and head to an Amazon distribution center.

ABC News had a story this morning on “workampers” – people who travel the country working seasonal or short-term jobs. Retailers go on a seasonal hiring spree during the holidays, and Amazon does the same at its distribution centers as it scrambles to fulfill an influx of orders.

F5 Networks has hired Manny Rivelo as its senior vice president of security and strategic solutions, and the company is continuing to hire hundreds of new employees.

Rivelo leaves Cisco Systems after a 19-year career there, most recently as senior vice president of engineering operations and systems.

The Samsung Focus S is one of AT&T's new Mango-based smartphones. The device has a 4.3-inch display, 8 megapixel camera and front-facing camera.

The first Windows Phone Mango-based smartphones are set to hit the U.S. next month as Microsoft looks to sweeten customers on the newest version of its mobile operating system.

Four new phones are arriving in November. Three of those will be announced Nov. 7 at a Microsoft event in New York City, but they'll be available from carriers AT&T and T-Mobile before then.

The HTC Radar 4G ($100) from T-Mobile will be the first Mango-based phone to hit the U.S., on Nov. 2. ZDNet’s Matthew Miller has all the details, as well as a good hands-on review of the new device.

Amazon continues to beef up its streaming movie library in an effort to draw Kindle Fire owners to its Amazon Prime program.

Amazon has struck a deal with Disney to bring shows from ABC, the Disney Channel and Marvel to its Prime streaming video service.

Popular shows including “Lost,” “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Spider-Man” will be available for free to Prime subscribers, and to Kindle Fire owners for one month when the tablet is released this November.

The Disney deal is part of Amazon’s strategy to use the Kindle Fire to draw more subscribers to Amazon Prime and other Amazon offerings. Amazon Prime comes free for a month with the purchase of a Kindle Fire, and Amazon is hoping to convert Prime test drivers into permanent customers by building out a content library that can rival those from Hulu and Netflix. Amazon Prime costs $79 a year.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos is on a spending spree rolling out new products such as the Kindle Fire tablet (Portfolio/J.D. Harrison)

Amazon reported another massive jump in revenue. But the Seattle e-commerce giant also has been spending heavily, most notably by opening up distribution centers rolling out its Kindle Fire tablet at $199 less than half of rival Apple's iPad.

The results of that spending has Amazon projecting it could lose up to $200 million for the fourth quarter, which drove the company stock price down.

In reporting third-quarter financial results Tuesday (Oct. 25), Amazon said net sales increased 44 percent.

Net income, meanwhile, decreased 73 percent -- to $63 million, or 14 cents per share, compared with $231 million, or 51 cents per share, in the third quarter of 2010.

Amazon's operating margins as a percentage of worldwide sales have narrowed over the last four quarterly reports, slipping from 3.7 percent a year ago to 3.3 percent, then 2 percent, then 0.7 percent in this latest quarter.

For the fourth quarter, Amazon projected that its bottom line from operations could land anywhere between a loss of $200 million and a profit of $250 million.

Microsoft is not the only company making news with its retail stores.

Bellevue’s T-Mobile USA has unveiled fifteen newly redesigned retail stores in the Seattle area. It’s part of a national push to revamp or build 400 stores across the country in time for the holiday rush.

Customers will notice a more open plan with new hardwood flooring and a large digital messaging screen at the rear of the store.

Craig Sawyer Designs

"Keyboards can be hidden, or set off to the side, but my experience is people use them so much that they want them out there," said Eastside designer Craig Sawyer.

Remember when you used to be ashamed of your TV? No matter how much time you put into upholstering, draping, texturing or painting, the otherwise harmonious symphony of your efforts screeched to a stop as soon as your eye passed over that bulky and obnoxious box. It was ugly, but you still didn’t want to live without it.

Today, interior designers are embracing their clients’ relationship with their media platforms — and it doesn’t have to be a love-hate relationship either.

Gone are the days of tucking away the TV in a hutch and shutting the office door on your noisy computer. As technology gets thinner, lighter and less expensive, homeowners are not only letting their media platforms be seen but are making them as much a focal point in a room as a fireplace might be, said Eastside interior designer Craig Sawyer.

Center for Political Accountability chart

Amazon scores a “zero” in a new comprehensive study looking at how large U.S. companies voluntarily disclose their corporate expenditures on politics.

The study, by the Center for Political Accountability, looked at whether large companies disclosed their political contributions to candidates, political action committees and to ballot measures.

Microsoft is among a third of the large corporations that place some limits on how they spend corporate dollars on politics, according to the study.

Amazon, meanwhile, is lumped at the bottom with 14 companies that scored “zero” in seven categories used to judge how S&P 100 companies are voluntarily sharing how they are spending to influence political campaigns. The findings from the study were reported by Politico.

Amazon also was at the bottom for not archiving its political spending on its website and for not having a policy of board oversight of spending, according to the study.