All Things Digital

Today, we debut our new redesign of the home screen of AllThingsD.com.

It is, in fact, our second redesign since we launched the site in late April of 2007, although it is a much more drastic redesign, with a lot more elements added.

Why did we do it? No, we are not hyperactive (OK, we are, but we are taking medication for that).

Actually, it is because we in the ATD brain trust (that would be Walt Mossberg and me), along with our many much-more-intelligent staffers and advisers, wanted to bring even more digital news and analysis to our readers by making more stories available on the front page from us and also from around the Web.

Our aim was simple: Now newsier than ever!

In fact, we hope you will find our new look linktastic, as we try hard to embrace the notion that ATD’s audience wants to be able to find great tech and media stories anywhere and everywhere.

Just fyi, the inside sections remain exactly the same–it is only the front page that has undergone the renovation.

Here’s a quick tour, from the top to the bottom of the page:

Megablog: We combined the BoomTown and John Paczkowski’s Digital Daily blogs in one rolling one in the center rail.

We felt that it allowed us to feature a lot more of our stories on the main page longer, up to 20 typically, and also made it easier for readers to find stories before they dropped off the front.

We will be adding more material to this section soon, as we develop our content further.

Walt Mossberg: Walt’s weekly Personal Technology and Mailbox columns and Mossblog, as well as Katherine Boehret’s Mossberg Solution, move up and to the right in a high-profile spot.

As ever, Walt is the site’s amazing anchor and a tech consumer’s greatest adviser, telling it like it is and writing reviews that matter.

Tech Headlines: On the top left, we wanted to bring in the stellar work from our Dow Jones brethren at The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and MarketWatch, as well as from the Dow Jones newswires, to give readers links to as many stories as we can as news breaks.

This section will be updated every nine minutes to keep it fresh and new.

Voices: This section on the left remains the same, except it goes vertical. We try to hand-select (no stinkin’ algorithm for us) from across the digital blogosphere, so we can feature blog posts we think you need to see to keep up.

Also, expect more guest bloggers who write original posts just for ATD, like one tomorrow from Slide’s Keith Rabois, giving BoomTown a hard time for our problem with juvenile widgets.

The Tech Top 10: Also on the left, just below Voices, we keep our edited Tech Top 10, a list of the stories we think you need to know about every day.

Video: On the right is our featured video. We do a lot of video at ATD and we will feature our latest-posted here.

Tech Around the Web: Also on the right, we are posting, via RSS, the feed from four digital news sources we like and think are useful for our audience.

Two are editorially driven sites, paidContent and GigaOm, who we believe are combining the energy of the blogosphere and also providing readers with trusted reporting that also adheres to the standards of accuracy and ethics we try to operate under too.

This is a big focus for us at ATD and we want to point readers to high-quality material. They say you are judged by the company you keep and we could not agree more.

Both Digg and Techmeme, of course, are the key news aggregators of the sector and we like how helpful they are in surfacing important tech and media stories for readers.

Just click on each tab to get to each section. This section will also be constantly refreshed throughout the day.

More ads: Well, we have to pay the bills, don’t we? We hope you do find them useful and don’t find them too intrusive.

There will be even more to come from us in the coming weeks, especially as we gear up for the sixth edition of the D: All Things Digital conference, which is taking place May 27 to 29.

So, please let us know what you think of our new look, as we would love feedback.

And special thanks to all who worked on the redesign, including Mike Monteiro of Mule Design Studio and especially the tireless and multi-talented Adam Tow, our Web genius.

Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer of Microsoft (MSFT). News Corp.’s (NWS) Rupert Murdoch. Jeff Bewkes of Time Warner (TWX). Yahoo’s (YHOO) Jerry Yang.

All of them engaged in roiling Internet deal-making of late and all of them in just three weeks on the same stage–but not, thankfully, at the same time, or we’d need a professional negotiator–at the 6th D: All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, Calif.

The annual gathering of tech and media luminaries was created and is run by my amazing partner Walt Mossberg and me (see us here at D5) and will take place May 27 to 29.

The conference, as we describe it on our Web site, is “unlike any other executive conference.” What we mean by that is that we try to determine the next direction of the digital revolution via unscripted and informal, but pointed, conversations about the impact of digital technology with industry leaders.

In other words, Walt and I needling at the major players of the digital sector, until they give up the good stuff.

The other digital and media leaders coming? That would be: Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook; Michael Dell of Dell Computer (DELL); IAC’s (IACI) Barry Diller; Amazon’s (AMZN) Jeff Bezos; Howard Stringer of Sony (SNE); and TiVo’s (TIVO) Tom Rogers.

Also: Tom Glocer of Thomson Reuters (TRI); Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation; FCC Chairman Kevin Martin; Lowell McAdam of Verizon Wireless (VZ); Activision’s (ATVI) Robert Kotick; and former Microsoft tech guru and Nathan Myhrvold of Intellectual Ventures.

To say our timing is impeccably planned would be undeserved–we had no idea so much news related to all these companies and their leaders would break out, from the tough economy to takeover battles to court face-offs to mergers to trying to create a whole new way of reading.

Also, there will be some–as yet under wraps–amazing demos onstage too.

While the analog conference has been sold out for many months, the action will be on the AllThingsD.com site throughout the conference with round-the-clock live blogging by Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski, as well as video highlights from stage.

In addition, we’ll be pointing all over the Web to important tech and media news that breaks at D6.

And we will also stream the entire conference in the weeks after the conference takes place, so ATD’s audience can experience the whole thing, even if they cannot all attend.

But anyone’s questions can be there, though–this year, you can submit questions to any of the speakers via text or video that you would like answered. Walt and I will pick the best ones and let loose. Ask early and often here!

Walt and I are very excited for D6, even after last year, when we brought together industry legends Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs, for an historic joint interview.

At the time, Walt and I joked that we would not be able to top that amazing event (the video of the entire interview is below).

That interview was nearly unbeatable, but we also think that with the top-level interviewees we have assembled for D6, that it is game on.

Until then, here’s the Gates/Jobs video from D5:

In our ongoing quest for the perfect Walt Mossberg T-shirt, we are thrilled with this one, now available for purchase here.

They will join our others, such as this classic “Craplets” T-shirt, modeled below by Walt and Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski in our sacred collection.

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.

So we arrived at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with Digital Daily’s John “Patches” Paczkowski yesterday from rain-sodden San Francisco, and launched right into gadgetmania.

While there does not seem to be much news or truly groundbreaking products as of yet out of anywhere–”It’s like no one has anything new, but we have to all be here to show the flag,” said one attendee to me in a rare moment of honesty–it does feel a bit like old home week for the tech crowd.

While Patches covers the keynotes and the floor, I am roaming around searching high and low for new trends. And, so far, that feels like I am searching for Big Foot.

Here is BoomTown’s Welcome to Vegas video, where we arrive, start to brave the crowds of CES and run into blogger Robert Scoble, as usual, in the press room (and where I give him a hard time for giving in to Facebook’s fascist data rules):

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:

As you can probably see today, we have rejiggered the look of the front page of our AllThingsD.com site, as well as turbocharged our Voices section.

We hope you like it.

So what’s new? Find out after the jump!

Read more »

Because this is the fast-moving Web and we are a bunch of hip, hopping hep cats, we’re doing some renovation to the AllThingsD.com site and also turbocharging the Voices section too.

The site is still powered by those lovely folks over at WordPress and keeps the amazing style created by the truly intelligent designers over at San Francisco’s Mule Design Studio. And it is still all free, all the time.

But, on Monday, as if by magic–the magic of our Web genius Adam Tow, that is–we will have moved the digital furniture around on our front page, adding our occasional Tech Top 10 every day by our own John Sullivan and also a featured daily video.

And we will be rearranging all the pieces–BoomTown, John Paczkowski’s Digital Daily, Walt Mossberg’s many columns (including Katherine Boehret’s Mossberg Solution) and Voices–to make it prettier and easier to use, in our ongoing attempts to give readers more, more, more.

Read more »

Here’s some more video from the halls of Web 2.0 Summit, which is taking place this week in San Francisco.

Look to John Paczkowski of Digital Daily for liveblogging from the conference yesterday, which included appearances by Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and eBay’s Meg Whitman.

Today is the final day, with digital bigshots onstage like: AT&T’s Randall Stephenson, Mike Volpi of Joost and Uber-VC John Doerr.

Of course, most of the action–as always–takes place in the halls of the Palace Hotel, where the schmoozing never stops. We hung out for a bit yesterday and asked everyone their thoughts on the latest hot trend and ridiculous hype. Incredibly, the answer to both was Facebook!

Here’s a video of the scene from Day 2:

Put your feet up and watch some dandy videos from WSJ Online and MarketWatch, our very nice relatives at Dow Jones (AllThingsD is the crazy cousin of this family and Rupe is our new parental unit).

First, Microsoft unveils newest Zune Media players, in attractive guano-green, as the clever Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski notes in his post yesterday:

Then Starbucks joins up with Apple for a new “Song a Day” promotion, where they will give away 50 million songs all for the greater glory of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music stores and the sale of more Caramel Macchiatos!:

And, hey, we might see a national economic recession coming, but techies in the San Francisco Bay area are apparently safe, all due to Facebook, Google and green tech:

Leave it to the freakishly tall Megan McCarthy of Valleywag to impugn our stature at BoomTown.

In her post late last week that I missed (I was traveling and therefore not aware of her cruel, cruel taunts), she pointed with dread to a recent promise I made to try out a new wearable camera I saw at the TechCrunch40 conference earlier in the week, a la Justin Kan of Justin.tv.

Writes McCarthy:

One thing to keep in mind about this new development: Swisher, unlike Kan, is tiny–about 5′2″, if that. Any hat-camera she wears will be eye-level with Silicon Valley’s chest. We look forward to watching her conversations with Walt Mossberg’s sweater.”

First off, I am 5′2″ (really!!) and not a “little person” as one VC once called me.

Second, Walt never wears sweaters.

And third: Chest-level was the plan, if you must know!

Silicon Valley’s chest=big traffic!

Or as Valleywag overlord Owen Thomas added to the post in note wherein he also harasses my innocent employee, Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski:

Rowr.

Our John Paczkowski of Digital Daily continued to brave the potential for falling ill from start-up fatigue from his hysterically funny live-blogging of Jason Calacanis’s and Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch40 conference, while BoomTown continued to wander the halls in search of snacks and a safe haven from PR minions.

To no avail, although we did have a great debate with Techmeme’s Gabe Rivera about the ethics and rules of blogging and (sometimes lack thereof). Conclusion: We did not always agree, but Rivera is one smart cookie. (Also, the actual cookies and churros at the conference were mighty tasty.)

In this video, we talk to some folks, including the voluble Calacanis and the guy from Mint (whose expressive eyebrows actually rival those of John Paczkowski, also in the video), the start-up that won the conference’s best-in-show $50,000 grand prize.

Also: BoomTown will soon be trying out a new camera a la that annoying hat-camera guy, so get your Dramamine ready.

While we subjected our stalwart John Paczkowski of Digital Daily to the onerous and potentially mind-numbing task of live-blogging Jason Calacanis’s and Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch40 conference, BoomTown broke some news (on the Yahoo-Zimbra $350 million deal), wandered around and basically schmoozed.

In addition, cupcakes were had.

(The day also included a pricey payback lunch for a bet I lost about News Corp.’s acquisition of Dow Jones.)

Thus, here is my video on the event that featured tech start-ups, Web start-ups and–did we mention?–more tech and Web start-ups.

And, as usual, Scoble!

Our Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski live-blogged the Apple event yesterday, where much was announced, including the fact that we all paid too much for the iPhone when we rushed out to buy it earlier this summer.

Going forward, John will be doing a lot of live-blogging at various tech events, with the wit and sass he is so well known for.

Here’s an interview with him about the Apple live blogging, with John explaining how he did the whole thing using an iPhone after Steve Jobs’s minions apparently nixed laptop use.

John obeyed, although others did not, and managed to bang out his post on that annoying keyboard:

Our very own Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski–he of the arched eyebrow–did such a good job live-blogging our own fifth D: All Things Digital conference this year that we thought we would step up our game and send him out and about more often.

First stop, Apple’s special event today, starting at 10 a.m. PDT, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, where Steve Jobs will yawn and all hell will break loose. We know, it’s some iPod news–and we are probably using the term “news” rather loosely here–but John will be on the case in text and video!

And there will be more exciting, you-are-there-but-not-really live blogging ahead from John, such as the upcoming Web 2.0 conference, helmed by John Battelle and Tim O’Reilly and also in San Francisco, in mid-October.

Now, it seems, both John and BoomTown will have to be in the front seat with our eyes wide open for that event, given that Web 2.0 will announce today that News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch (and new owner of Dow Jones and, by extension, this site) and MySpace Co-Founder Chris DeWolfe will be delivering its dinner keynote on opening night Oct. 17.