THE NEW LOOK FOR PHONES: STARTACKY

“I want us to return to the days of Startac and what we kind of lost. I want us to be the coolest, hippest generation of technology products.”

Motorola CEO Ed Zander, on designing phones that aren’t hopelessly lame, CNNmoney, 16 February 2005

THEN AGAIN, MAYBE MICROSOFT IS INTO THAT KIND OF STUFF

“I don’t plan to go to the Justice Department and whine about Microsoft’s monopoly. I’d rather fight Microsoft in the marketplace, because I’m sure we’ll whip them.”

Symantec CEO John Thompson, on competing with Microsoft, News.com, 15 February 2005

PITCHFORKS, ON THE OTHER HAND, ARE JUST DELIGHTFUL

“An angry mob using high technology, that’s not good.”

Blogger Rony Abovitz, on sparking the controversy that led to the downfall of CNN news chief Eason Jordan, The New York Times, 14 February 2005

MO’ BETA BLUES

“It’s kind of an arbitrary thing. We could take beta off all of our products tomorrow, and we wouldn’t actually have accomplished anything.”

Google cofounder Larry Page, on keeping products in interminable beta tests, News.com, 11 February 2005

THINKING ABOUT AMAZON: WORTH DOING!

“We don’t spend our time thinking about Amazon.”

Robot Co-op founder Josh Peterson, on getting an investment from former employer Amazon.com, News.com, 9 February 2005