Everyone’s talking about Software-as-a-Service, but Hardware-as-a-Service? Microsoft is planning something like that, unveiling plans for a “pay-as-you-go” computer that would allow users to pay for their hardware and software hourly, and as they need them. The PC itself would be either free or come heavily subsidized, like cell phones.

The idea makes sense, as computers are often more powerful than their users’ needs require, and basic tasks such as Web browsing and email probably take up more computing time than higher-performance needs such as gaming or video editing.

The computer is scalable, allowing users to pay specifically for their needs, and nothing more. “For example, the Office bundle may be $1.00 per hour, the Gaming bundle may be $1.25 per hour and the Browsing bundle may be $0.80 per hour,” says the patent.  It is enticing to think that a casual gamer could own a system with good gaming specs without paying thousands of dollars for limited gaming hours.

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I was more than a little astounded to learn about Cyber Monday, that buying stuff on the Internet the first day back from work after Thanksgiving had become so integral a part of life that it warranted a name. Now it turns out that the workday is also the time when the most videos are watched online, too.

“With a 96 percent broadband penetration among at work Web visitors in October and many employees spending nearly eight hours a day at their computers, workdays are prime time for online video viewing,” says Nielsen (pdf).

More people watch YouTube at work than at home: 65 percent of video viewing occurs between the hours of 9 to 5. When most people leave work, YouTube viewership falls: 49 percent watch between the hours of 5 and 8pm, 43 percent between 8 and 11pm. There’s less diurnal viewing during the weekend, as only 51 percent of online viewers watch videos at that time.

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Pew Internet & American Life Project asked technology stakeholders in an online survey to assess scenarios about the social, political, and economic impact of the Internet by 2020. The results keep separate the responses of 578 experts from the 1,196 total respondents.

Experts agreed that the mobile device will be the primary connection tool to the Internet for most people in the world. Increased computing power, lower price, and global protocol standards all account for the “bottom” three-quarters of the global population to make up fifty percent of all people with Internet access.

The transparency of people and organizations will increase, but experts were split on related developments. Such include ideas that personal damage due to posted videos would lessen, or people would prefer social data exchange over anonymity. It will also not necessarily yield more personal integrity, social tolerance, or forgiveness.

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Earlier this week, from Cupertino via the corporate blog, Apple announced that this will be the last year that the company will exhibit at Macworld Expo. The opening keynote for this year’s Macworld Conference and Expo will be delivered by Philip Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, Apple’s last keynote at the show.

Apple can directly reach its customers at retail stores (3.5 million people visit every week) and their retail Web site (hundred million customers). In recent years they scaled back at trade shows, including NAB, Macworld NY, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.

By phasing out trade show presence, Apple is making the transition to an even more proprietary form of promotion. With thousands of attendees at such events, reactions are widely varied and impossible to control. While this change has provoked reactions by journalists, the effects will likely all be favorable from a corporate perspective. Apple’s prowess for precisely formed presentations suggests the public would receive more carefully crafted first-hand looks, optimally flattering and fool-proof over a blog review.

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Yahoo released a new global data retention policy Wednesday that they hope will set an industry-leading approach to privacy. The company’s various services and products will anonymize user log data within 90 days with limited exceptions for fraud, security and legal obligations. The policy will extend beyond search data to apply to page views, page clicks, ad views and ad clicks.

This development shaves Yahoo’s data retention length from thirteen months to only three. As for their hope that this will establish an industry trend, they already have been strategizing to set themselves apart from Google , who truncated their own policy of eighteen months to nine in September.

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Nielsen has just published its 2008 top ten list for various media. Besides the alarming fact that the top four TV programs were either American Idol or Dancing with the Stars, the lists give good insight into this year’s tech trends.

2008’s top ten web sites are:

1. Google (120,498,000 Average Monthly Unique Audience)
2. Yahoo! (114,872,000)
3. MSN/Windows Live (98,414,000)
4. Microsoft (95,479,000)
5. AOL Media Network (90,193,000)
6. YouTube (72,623,00)
7. Fox Interactive Media (68,780,000)
8. eBay (54,680,000)
9. Wikipedia (54,505,000)
10. Apple (49,303,000)

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Yahoo’s long-expected layoff last week of 1,500 employees marked the latest mass firings in tech. Tech losses, whether in the form of layoffs, companies closing their doors, or being bought-and-dissolved (e.g. Pownce), are still accelerating.

Tech layoffs have now passed 100,000, reports Techcrunch, who have been keeping a scorecard, which I first became aware of after Sequoia confirmed that the good times were indeed dead. In all, 109,629 people lave been laid off since August 27th (as of December 12th).

“After a lull around Thanksgiving, December has seen some of the biggest layoffs in the tech industry yet since the economy entered its tailspin in the fall,” writes TC’s Erick Schonfeld.

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As a baseball fan, reality is incomplete until it is quantified. That’s why reading Nielsen’s report of Twitter’s 2008 growth is fascinating, despite the fact that everyday we read about who or what is now tweeting.

Between Septembers 2007 and 2008, Twitter’s audience grew from 533,000 to 2,359,000 users, a change of 343 percent.  It’s almost three times the growth of the other site that gets as much press: Facebook.  Surprisingly, as fast as Facebook is growing, it is only the 6th fastest site.

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The best green tech is that which is energy efficient, makes your life better (or at least less frustrating), and saves you money. HP’s new HP Enviro Series batteries will do just that, as they are estimated to last three years.

Typical laptop batteries retain their full charge for 300 recharge cycles, or one year. HP’s Enviro Series, which make use of Boston Power’s Sonata Lithium-ion battery, will last 1,000, while retaining like-new power. It is also significantly faster to recharge than standard batteries, which take around two hours. The Sonata recharges to 80 percent in thirty minutes; because of this, laptops will exude less heat waste.

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Music industry minds will be reacting to bopaboo, an online marketplace allowing consumers to legally sell unwanted music and buy DRM-free digital music from other consumers. According to their FAQ, duplicated files are not produced when music is uploaded to be sold. Users can search for music from others by standard parameters (Artist, Album, Song, etc.).

The service claims that it brings together consumers and copyright-holders for the first time in a marketplace where both are able to benefit from a legal secondary market for digital music. The selling process is simple for the user: upload files and select sale price. Music is transferred to the buyer, money is transferred to the seller’s “bopaBank,” minus the usage fee, and can be withdrawn used within the site. With a dedicated user URL, sellers can promote their bopaboo Store on their own Web sites or social networking profiles.

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