All Things Digital

What will be the news of how many Macs were sold in the recent quarter (2 million? More?!?), which will be revealed when Apple (AAPL) announces its earnings this afternoon?

And, even if sales are soaring, iPod sales don’t slow as much as expected and the 3G iPhone looks tasty, the stock still might not get a bounce.

Well, worry not by watching this funny Mac-related spoof by iJustine of Madonna’s latest pretentious song:

So, as readers of this blog know by now, I can get a little obsessed with certain digital companies or topics, sort of like a geek version of “Kolchak: The Night Stalker.”

Except, the werewolves BoomTown has been trying futilely to kill come in the form of juvenile widgets!

Over the last year, of course, I have been majoring in the foibles of Facebook and the tribulations of Yahoo, with a minor in studies of Internet video and online content creation in Hollywood.

While I have posted on a huge host of topics, companies and from all over the world, the drilling down has been a good thing in that the column has broken a lot of stories on our area of expertise and also has developed less idiotic analysis over time.

And don’t get me wrong–I love the relentlessness that blogging provides. Let’s be clear: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Jerry Yang of Yahoo remain on my most wanted list.

But it is time to widen the circle and add new Web companies to stalk to our repertoire and I welcome reader input.

So, here is a list of some digital companies I am thinking of zeroing in on next:

1. Amazon: For the love of Kindle, Jeff Bezos sure knows how to hold on and keep on trucking. In a previous life, BoomTown covered retail for seven years (that is a lot of time being forced to contemplate Wal-Mart) and even covered Bezos when he was just starting out.

2. eBay: A kissing cousin to Amazon, the development of commerce on the Web has not been properly scrutinized and it will be interesting to see how this company fares in its post-Meg Whitman phase.

3. HP: While it seems a tad dull, I like the idea of looking closer at this important tech company as it moves further into the digitization of all its businesses.

4. Microsoft: Need we ask? Between its wacky investment in Facebook to thwart Google to its full-scale attack on Yahoo to thwart Google to its nonstop efforts to thwart Google, something must have gotten in the water supply up in Redmond. Seriously, it is easy to portray the software giant as incompetent when it comes to Web issues, but we like its recent chutzpah.

5. Hollywood: Disney, CBS, Viacom, News Corp., Time Warner and the rest of those old-media outfits have always been a focus here, but as convergence ratchets up, it is important for techies to really be up to speed on what they are up to.

6. Apple: We can’t let that friggin’ Fake Steve Jobs get all the funny lines, can we? No, we cannot.

7. AOL: After two books, you might think I would be colossally bored with the perpetually stumbling icon. Not so! Until it vanishes, a la Netscape soon enough, I shall probably be compelled to follow it to the ends of the earth.

As to topics, here’s what I think is interesting going forward: multi-touch technology becoming more widespread; data portability (and not because of Scoble!); privacy related to social advertising; genomic and body hacking; and the opening up of the mobile experience.

As always, I welcome any and all suggestions. Except, of course, if it’s another werewolf widget.

When last we checked in with NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, he was merrily trashing Steve Jobs and Apple.

What a difference a three-month-long writers’ strike in Hollywood makes.

Yesterday, in an interview in the Financial Times, Zucker said: “We’ve said all along that we admire Apple, that we want to be in business with Apple,” he said. “We’re great fans of Steve Jobs.”

Hmmmmm.

It was only at the end of last October when Zucker (pictured here) was slapping the digital media business, and especially Apple, in an interview with New Yorker writer Ken Auletta at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School.

In it, Zucker blamed Apple for ruining the music business.

To be fair, Zucker did add “in terms of pricing” to the idea that Apple was the villain, noting that NBCU only had $15 million in revenue for its video fare on iTunes in its last year (a service it had just pulled off of to do its own thing).

He wanted NBCU to have the ability to raise prices on some shows it was selling to get better returns, even though Apple’s Steve Jobs has stuck to his guns on keeping pricing lower.

The entertainment industry, long used to controlling all the action, has long hated this, of course, since Apple’s iPod device has essentially been the only one widely embraced by consumers.

“We don’t want to replace the dollars we were making in the analog world with pennies on the digital side,” said Zucker, in what is admittedly a very good metaphor for the fast-changing situation for old media caught in the new media tsunami.

But then he stepped right into it by suggesting Apple should pay back media companies like his. “Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content and made a lot of money,” he said.

At the time, I noted: “That’s sort of like Britney Spears asking the tabloids to hand over a big bag of Benjamins for making such bank covering her riveting high jinks and crotch emergencies. Frankly, she has a better argument than Zucker.”

Nonetheless, NBC has been fast-forward on its efforts with its Hulu video sharing site, a joint venture with News Corp. (owner of this site).

And, quite correctly, in the FT piece, Zucker noted that the strike has spurred him to begin cutting back on some old television traditions, like the pilot season and the once-glamorous upfront presentations to impress advertisers.

“Things like that are all vestiges of an era that’s gone by and won’t return,” said Zucker. “I think there were a tremendous number of inefficiencies in Hollywood and it often takes a seismic event to change them, and I think that’s what’s happened here.”

Seismic, indeed.

While we usually feature our cartoon dudette and dude–Nitrozac and Snaggy–from Geek Culture’s Joy of Tech in Voices now, there was one leftover comic about Apple’s Macworld that deserves special attention.

That’s right: The Macworld Expo Survival Kit (gas mask optional!).

Click on the image to make it bigger:

When BoomTown was at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, I followed my partner-in-tech-crime Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret around the floor of the famous gadgetfest with my annoying video camera (truth be told, I am the irksome one and the camera simply my tool of choice).

And because Walt is so well known among the geek set, naturally, I dubbed him the “Brangelina of Tech.”

Thus, it is also natural that we deliver the same quality time with Waltgelina at Macworld, which was held yesterday in San Francisco and featured the famous annual keynote by his iLama Steve Jobs.

So, here is the first video of two of Walt visiting Macworld yesterday, trailed by our very brave Associate Editor John “Sully” Sullivan (pictured here), who gamely borrowed BoomTown’s Flip video camera to take on the momentous task, since I was at meetings in Silicon Valley all day (there was, in fact, life beyond the Moscone Center yesterday).

Sullivan also did a most excellent job of blogging the Jobs’ keynote here, as Digital Daily’s John “Patches” Paczkowski was indisposed.

In this episode, Walt introduces Sullivan to the floor of Macworld and then gives a first look and public-Walt-handling of the not-the-iPhone-but-cool-anyway MacBook Air subnotebook.

Is Walt impressed? You’ll just have to wait for his review until he puts it through its paces.

In the meantime, here is the video:

Here is Part 2 of Waltgelina at Macworld.

Here is the second video installment of Walt Mossberg visiting Macworld yesterday, trailed by the very brave Associate Editor John Sullivan of AllThingsD.com, who gamely borrowed BoomTown’s Flip video camera to take on the momentous task.

In this episode, Walt visits various partners of Apple’s, including Microsoft and, apparently, Dr. Seuss.

In the wise words of “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish”: “From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.”

So it seems to me, at least.

Here is the video:

Kudos to AllThingsD.com friends and Voices regular comic geniuses at Joy of Tech (see the latest one here) for getting in Steve Jobs’s keynote at Apple’s Macworld yesterday.

Webclips, one the the new features of the iPhone announced yesterday by his iHoliness, showed one of JOT on the display Jobs used.

Hey! Facebook makes the cut! But where’s BoomTown?

But we’re not bitter, so here’s the picture below of the new feature:

OK: I know, I know.

But these videos by iJustine and her friend Karen are among the funniest about Macworld out there. The first is a sleepover and the second a workout.

My other choices were mostly of legions of Apple fanboys staring into their iSight cameras in creepy dark rooms, yammering on and on about how Steve Jobs would make their lives worth living for one more iGlorious year.

Guess which one I picked?

The annual love-in to All Things Steve Jobs, oops, we mean Apple, opens this week in San Francisco. Of course, the punditry is in high gear over what precious object his iHoliness will pull out of his pocket in 2008.

Or, apparently this year, out of the air, which is some sort of super-duper-double-secret-probation object or service–revealed on an Apple banner spotted at the Moscone Center (see below)–that is supposed to send Apple’s legions of fanboys into their annual tizzy at the Macworld Conference & Expo.

Last year, of course, that meant near-nirvana, as Jobs unveiled the iPhone at the event, as he foisted the instantly iconic object upward in front of the ecstatic crowd.

But, given the game-changing nature of the iPhone, the excitement deserved its leap into the mainstream and even its ultra-hyped and never-ending rollout.

Naturally, that is a near impossible act to follow, so one wonders how jazzed Jobs can make his legions of followers AiP (After iPhone) when he delivers his keynote tomorrow.

Rumors run the gamut from a small portable computer aimed at road warriors and those with money to burn to a new iteration of Apple TV with more Hollywood deals attached to iTunes movie rentals to more and better for the iPhone.

Until then, check out our new favorite video on one person’s very funny guess of what is to come:

Lots of people were bellyaching about the lackluster nature of Bill Gates’s final performance at CES last night–long on deals and stats and short on the futuristic predictions Gates often makes.

Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski was unimpressed, as were Duncan Riley of TechCrunch and ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, for example.

But, to my mind, giving the Microsoft co-founder and chairman a hard time at this point is sort of like razzing Celine Dion, who coincidentally also just completed her own longtime run in Las Vegas in her Caesars Palace show, “A New Day.”

In other words, let’s just all admit that–as irksome as both have sometimes been–they do kind of grow on you after a while.

While that may be still debatable with Dion, I know, it is squarely the case with Gates, who has had the longest-running and most complicated relationship with the tech industry, even as he has dominated it for most of the past two-plus decades.

Gates’s impact will surely be chewed over in the history books in centuries hence–likely as not, always with the Yin to his Yang, Steve Jobs of Apple.

And, despite all the controversy his tenure has engendered (most especially the bullying antitrust behavior), as he transitions from his day-to-day role at Microsoft in July in what will likely be one of the longer goodbyes in the digital arena (including his sixth appearance at our D6 conference in May), I am guessing his influence will be seen as a net plus in the years to come.

While many level charges at Microsoft as a hindrance to innovation over the years, via the overwhelming dominance of its Windows operating system, the fact of the matter is that the digital industry has never been more fast-moving and quick-changing, and it remains one of the brighter spots in the pantheon of businesses worldwide.

While that is not because of Gates and Microsoft alone, it is also not in spite of them either. In fact, it’s quite bracing to see Gates attempt to make quick shifts over the years as technology has raced past him, an indication of just how powerful change is compared to the world’s richest man.

Very powerful, as it has turned out, and watching Gates try to keep up has been a perfect metaphor for all those who labor in the tech sector.

His famous December, 1995 sleeping-giant-has-awakened speech about the Internet was a case in point, as were his aggressive moves in later years into a wide range of arenas such as gaming, search, online services, social networking and even an attempt to take on the iPod hegemony with the Zune.

It is clear that most of Microsoft’s efforts outside of its core software business–and a great business it remains, by the way–have been less impressive. But it points to a key factor that never changes throughout the tech arena that even the giants are always vulnerable.

Now, going forward, what Microsoft will do post-Gates, of course, is all that matters.

Will it try to vaunt ahead in the search and portal arena and catch No. 1 Google by attempting to acquire Yahoo?

Will it use its popular Xbox to finally move successfully into the home-entertainment space, as evidenced by announcements Gates made last night at CES about deals with media giants like NBC Universal and others?

Can its MSN ever be more than just an also-ran portal?

What will happen to software in the years ahead as applications inevitably move to the Web?

Gates will not be the one to figure it all out, as he will be off, focused on his laudable philanthropic work when these questions and more get answered.

But even he could not have made an accurate guess onstage last night, as much as pundits wanted him to.

In fact, one of the more tiresome things to endure at CES–aside from the long lines–is always having to listen to the spate of predictions of what is to come, when, the truth is, no one really knows how it will all turn out.

It was always thus. After all, reaching way back in history: Wasn’t the launch of the Titantic supposed to herald in the age of high-tech super-boats? Of course, no one figured in the tragic results from its encounter with an iceberg.

But it did make for a pretty good song, so let’s enjoy a bit of Celine to send Bill Gates off on what one hopes is a much safer journey:

While “Here Comes Another Bubble,” the hysterical but copyright-controversial online music video created by San Francisco’s Richter Scales got all the attention, the folks over at JibJab Media also made another video set to the tune of the same Billy Joel song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”

Except JibJab actually asked for and got permission from Joel for the use of the song for its parody. (Props for that, I say!)

Techwise, the review of 2007 includes, the Wii, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, SuperPokes and his Digital Holiness Steve Jobs of Apple and the instrument of his glory, the iPhone.

In any case, we still love “Bubble,” but here is the JibJab’s offering, which was shown on the still-writerless “Tonight Show” last night on its first night back after the writers’ strike shut it down. It is the 11th time that the Venice, Calif.-based online video-maker has appeared on the show.

Predictions, schmedictions.

As a holiday gift to all readers, BoomTown will refrain from making any big pronouncements about what’s coming in 2008 in the tech sector, because, um, well, I have no idea what’s coming in 2008 in the tech sector. No one could have Miss Cleo-ed all the twists and turns of 2007, for certain.

Could we have predicted a tiny start-up with negligible revenues but explosive growth could be valued at $15 billion? We swear on our Facebook profile we could not!

Could we have shamanized that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang would have promised there were no sacred cows at the struggling Internet giant, even though there apparently are herds of them? It’s a mooot point that we would have been unable to do so.

Could we have guessed that Apple stock would be up 135%? You can iTouch my iPhone if I am lying!

Could we have foreseen that a devastating writers’ strike in Hollywood would be waged over nonexistent Web revenues? It’s a tale we could not have created, even with special effects.

Could we have pontificated that Google would take on the cellphone industry? You can ring our bell, but no, ma’am.

Could we have imagined that unusually enthusiastic entrepreneur Mark Cuban would lose his step on “Dancing With the Stars”?

Well, OK, we figured that one out, right after watching the painful “I Dream of Jeannie” dance number, pictured here. (But then again, we were rooting for Marie Osmond.)

Over the next week, I will be posting the most popular videos on BoomTown from 2007.

To kick it off, here’s the interview Walt Mossberg and I did at D5 with Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs, a truly historic interview with the tech industry’s two main legends.

The discussion took place the evening of May 30, 2007 at D: All Things Digital, the annual tech and media conference that Walt and I host. The next conference takes place in late May 2008.

We also made the popular interview with Gates and Jobs available for download on iTunes (where it is among the most popular video podcasts ever for download).

Here is the interview in its entirety:

And here is our highlight video of the interview, which is much shorter:

And here is the very funny historic prologue we played before Gates and Jobs came onstage:

Last night, the Public Relations Society of America’s Silicon Valley chapter held its annual “Media Influencer” dinner at the Computer History Museum, which featured a spate of tech journalists pitching a large room full of PR people about what’s hot in the sector.

Turning the tables this year–and apparently getting “honored” by the group–were: Victoria Barret of Forbes, CNBC’s Jim Goldman, Business Week’s Rob Hof, The Wall Street Journal’s Don Clark, Robert Scoble of Scobleizer and BoomTown. (USA Today’s Jon Swartz could not attend.)

Venture capitalist Ann Winblad moderated the event, which seemed akin to trying to herd cats.

Some of the topics included: Facebook (of course, and whose PR head Brandee Barker appears in the video below after a harrowing day handling Lesley Stahl of “60 Minutes,” which is doing a piece on the social-networking site with an apparent focus on–also, of course–privacy); the impact of the possibly looming recession on tech; Apple’s iPhone (of course, of course); Google (triple of course); the resurgence of the enterprise space; and the fate of Yahoo.

Here is video of the event:

(I still am having problems with the Brightcove player, so I uploaded the video to YouTube.)

The post I did yesterday on Universal Music Group head Doug Morris and his grumpy interview with Wired about digital issues got some interesting comments, all of which concluded that the veteran music exec had lost his marbles.

In the interview, Morris took aim at Apple’s popular music player and service, blamed college students for the music industry’s troubles and generally seemed disgruntled that this digital stuff would not go away.

He even compared the music industry to hapless and helpless Shmoos (pictured here) from L’il Abner, despite the fact that it has been and remains a rapacious business.

For example, he said of Apple’s Steve Jobs: “We were just grateful that someone was selling online. The problem is, he became a gatekeeper. We make a lot of money from him, and suddenly you’re wearing golden handcuffs. We would hate to give up that income.”

Readers were not pleased (neither was BoomTown!).

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