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All posts tagged ‘mobile’

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

“Changing the World Through the Web”: Video Interviews with Zuckerberg, Kutcher, Rospars and Shah

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Yesterday, BoomTown moderated a panel at California’s Women’s Conference titled “Changing the World Through the Web” for a crowd of several thousand people.

The panelists included Hollywood actor/producer, Katalyst co-founder and Twitter demigod Ashton Kutcher; Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg, who leads the social networking site’s elections, breaking news and social change initiatives; Premal Shah, president of online microloan site Kiva.org; and Joe Rospars, founder and creative director of Blue State Digital and new media director for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

Here are video interviews I did with each of them.

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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Liveblogging Yahoo’s Third-Quarter Conference Call: Bartz “Came Down With Something,” and CFO Carries On (and On and On and On)

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Uh-oh, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz was expected to appear on the Internet giant’s third-quarter earnings call, but she apparently “came down with something,” according to CFO Tim Morse.

BoomTown is sending over chicken soup right now, but let’s hope she gets her vaccinations tout de suite!

Thus, no sassy quotes or cursing, but a very earnest Morse, who sounded like he was once a Boy Scout.

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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Exclusive: Skype Founders Keep on Punching–File Injunction Against Volpi and Index

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Joost and Joltid filed a motion for preliminary injunction against former Joost CEO Michelangelo Volpi and Index Ventures, where Volpi now works as a partner, asking that he not use knowledge or confidential information he got at the video start-up in current dealings with Skype.

The move is yet another legal attack from the founders of Skype, who were on the losing side of the $2 billion deal to buy the Internet telephony giant from eBay.

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Friday, October 9, 2009

Viral Video: I Left My Fists in San Francisco (Which Will, Sadly, Help YouTube’s “1 BN” a Day)

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Oh my. Oh my. There is almost nothing BoomTown can say about a rumble that was captured on an Apple iPhone on a San Francisco Muni bus.

A fight between two women escalates over some kind of seat issue and it is sure to become an Internet sensation.

Appalling, but there is very little that will go on anywhere without being uploaded and viewed–probably to YouTube, which has a new logo, seen here, advertising that fact.

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Monday, September 28, 2009

Can Apple Shares Keep Defying Gravity?

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Since the beginning of the year, Apple shares have more than doubled from $90.75 on Jan. 2 to almost $186 today.

Google has done about half that performance, while Microsoft has done one-third.

But that’s apparently not enough, according to Thomas Weisel analyst Doug Reid, who has raised his price target on Apple to $210 from $180.

BoomTown is getting dizzy.

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Fancy Charts of the Week: Mobile App Loyalty–“They Use or You Lose”

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This week, BoomTown has found an interesting chart to peruse about the loyalty people have for their smart-phone apps.

The takeaway for developers: Try to stay in Quadrant I!

In other words, Sally-Field-at-the-Oscars territory–it’s where they love you, they really love you.

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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Is Spotify Spot On? Co-Founder Daniel Ek Talks About the Hot Online Music Start-Up!

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There’s no question that Spotify is the latest hot start-up of the moment, which would be super annoying to BoomTown–who is easily irked by never-ending froth around Web 2.0 companies–if co-founder Daniel Ek were not so sharp and the digital-music-on-demand service he created not so nifty.

But, indeed, Ek turned out to be a very refreshing and level-headed serial entrepreneur in an interview I had with him yesterday in London.

Here’s the video.

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Monday, September 21, 2009

Adobe’s CTO Kevin Lynch Talks–But Not Omniture!

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BoomTown went to visit the HQ of Adobe in San Francisco several weeks ago to have a chit-chat with its CTO, Kevin Lynch, for a lovely discussion about the future of its Flash online video technology and more.

But he somehow did not mention the then-pending purchase of Omniture by Adobe for $1.8 billion. Go figure.

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Friday, September 18, 2009

Loïc Le Meur Speaks About New (and Improved?) Seesmic!

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When BoomTown went to visit serial entrepreneur Loïc Le Meur early last year at his San Francisco HQ, he was stoked about the prospects of his “video conversation” community start-up.

Fast-forward to today and the entire business plan of Seesmic has been upended, with the video part pretty much junked. Now Le Meur is focused almost entirely on his social media desktop client, as well as Web and mobile versions, which began as a dashboard for Twitter.

If at first you don’t succeed, dump and change again–the motto of Silicon Valley!

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Friday, September 11, 2009

Nokia Acquires San Francisco “Microsocial Networking” Start-Up, Plum

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Nokia is set to announce today that it has acquired Plum, the San Francisco “microsocial networking” start-up, for an undisclosed amount, sources said.

UPDATE: Nokia confirmed the purchase, but gave few details.

The small company was founded several years ago by Hans Peter Brøndmo as a social-bookmarking site. He then shifted its focus, trying to make a business in the places big social networks ignore.

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Thursday, September 10, 2009

Video: Mossberg and Patches Opine About AppleFest 2009 at the ATD Annual BBQ

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Here’s a lovely video BoomTown did last night at our All Things Digital annual BBQ, at which the crackerjack team at our little rogue operation inside Dow Jones goes analog, gnaws on some ribs and trades tech tales.

Last night, of course, much of the chatter was about what went down at the Apple event in San Francisco yesterday, at which CEO and Supreme Leader Steve Jobs made a grand reappearance onstage after a liver transplant.

Walt Mossberg and Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski were there and give their spicy reports.

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Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Teeny-Tiny Pixi Phone From Palm Tries Killing Giant Hype for Apple Event Today

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Oh, BoomTown fears this is not going to end well for the weensy little smart phone Palm is debuting today on–what an amazing coincidence!–the very same day Apple is throwing its big product bash in San Francisco, at which Mac fanboys fervently hope that Supreme Leader Steve Jobs might even appear.

You don’t step on Superman of Silicon Valley’s cape, of course, but the device with the aggressively cute name of Pixi is apparently attempting just that.

Thus, this fairytale might have a not-so-happy ending.

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Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Digital Management Musical Chairs: The Tooth-Free Edition

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Longtime Yahoo exec Brad Garlinghouse’s appointment to a new job at AOL today is yet another sign of an interesting trend for those keeping score of the comings and goings of top Internet execs.

As anyone who watches the digital space knows by now, this kind of management musical chairs is common and never-ending, although it seems more frantic than ever of late.

In fact, borrowing a quote by IAC/InterActiveCorp chairman and CEO Barry Diller from an onstage interview I did with him at the sixth D: All Things Digital conference, and switching out Hollywood for Silicon Valley: “[It] is a community that’s so inbred, it’s a wonder the children have any teeth.”

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Monday, September 7, 2009

Sticky Situation of the Month: Ex-Yahoo Communications Head (and “Peanut Butter Manifesto” Scribe) Garlinghouse to Helm Similar Unit at AOL

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Yahoo exec Brad Garlinghouse–famous for his controversial “Peanut Butter Manifesto,” which correctly chided the Internet giant for becoming so lugubrious several years ago–is taking a job at AOL very similar to the one he left at Yahoo last year.

Garlinghouse, who will remain on the West Coast, will be named president of Internet and mobile communications at AOL, putting him in charge of the New York-based Time Warner online unit’s powerful email and instant-messaging properties, including ICQ and AIM.

He will also be, said AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, its “CEO of Silicon Valley for us.”

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Friday, September 4, 2009

BoomTown Talks About the iPhone Apps Economy on the News Hour (Plus Some Future Stuff Blather)

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Last night, “The News Hour With Jim Lehrer” aired a piece on “how technology companies are innovating amid the recession by designing popular new smart phone applications.”

BoomTown was to talk about how perhaps not all of the 65,000 apps being created by legions of third-party developers for the Apple iPhone will result in gold, diamonds and unicorns raining down on entrepreneurs.

Oddly enough, I somehow went all Jules Verne at the end and started talking about screens on coffee tables, so I am obviously just as bad.

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About Kara

Kara Swisher started covering digital issues for The Wall Street Journal's San Francisco bureau in 1997 and also wrote the BoomTown column about the sector. With Walt Mossberg, she co-produces and co-hosts D: All Things Digital, a major high-tech and media conference.

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Ethics Statement

Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

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