When in San Diego recently, BoomTown paid a visit to Qualcomm and its Chairman and CEO, Paul Jacobs, to talk about a new “smartbook” device the wireless-technology company unveiled last week, but that won’t make its debut until the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in January.

There, Jacobs will show off what is essentially a combination of a smartphone and a netbook.

Obviously, it’s going to be a competitive market and, really, Apple, with its upcoming tablet computer, is also pushing into this mobile-phone-that-ate-computers space.

Read More »

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.

Read More »

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.

Read More »

BoomTown has already gotten some very good submissions from readers for a contest to come up with a good moniker for the tablet device Apple is allegedly working on.

In a post earlier today, some of my ideas included: iTablet, iPad, iAmnotanetbook and iAmakindlekiller.

And here are some of the user-generated ideas, via Twitter mostly, and my Paula Abdul-inspired comments in reaction to them.

Read More »

Despite the spate of recent rants about all that’s wrong with Apple, the pendulum will swing once again, and soon, once the drumbeat gets even louder for the new digital tablet that is slated to be delivered from on high sometime this fall by–in the most likely and juicily dramatic scenario–CEO Steve Jobs.

So, I suggest we move on from the dead-horse issue of the Google Voice app and other sleepy debates to more enjoyable late-August frivolities.

Like trying to guess the name that Jobs will ultimately bestow on the new device. BoomTown will start…

Read More »

BoomTown is certainly going to be one of the many-so-many who will immediately fork over whatever it takes to get my mitts on the upcoming tablet device from Apple.

And that’s why, according to a new report from Piper Jaffray Senior Research Analyst Gene Munster–who is monk-like in his devotion to writing down every scrap he can about whatever Apple HQ in Cupertino, Calif., deigns to release–it’s going to be raining money down on the company, just like manna from heaven.

Read More »

Oh dear, I always forget that the camera is turned on 24/7 these days, knows all and sees all and then sticks it on YouTube.

Like this moment for me that came during a speech I gave last week at the Software & Information Industry Association’s NetGain conference in San Francisco, which was titled, “How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Tweet: What Interactivity Really Means for Real Businesses.”

In 140 words or fewer, I insult Amazon’s Kindle, Apple and even myself for being a Steve Jobs fanboy.

Read More »

Earlier this week, BoomTown chronicled my parenting conundrum concerning the fact that my almost-seven-year-old son hijacks my iPhone at every opportunity to play games and more.

Titled “My iKid iJacked My iPhone: A Geek Parenting Tragedy,” it describes the Apple smartphone’s strange hold over him and how it was freaking me out.

That was until I saw this do-NOT-miss video, sent to me by an Internet entrepreneur whom I know (and who shall remain nameless), about his even younger son’s iPhonaticism.

Or as this apps-crazy toddler puts it rather strongly: iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiyiiiiiPhoooooooooone!

Read More »

BoomTown has been an unabashed fan of Pure Digital’s Flip digital video cameras since we debuted them at the D: All Things Digital conference in 2005.

And I have used the nifty device on this site since for my shaky-tastic video extravaganzas.

Yes, Pure Digital’s CEO Jonathan Kaplan is to blame!

Here is my video interview with him, which I did last week, in the wake of Pure Digital’s acquisition by Cisco for $590 million, in which we talk about what’s to come for my beloved Flip.

Read More »

Yahoo’s top mobile exec, Marco Boerries, is departing Yahoo, according to an internal email obtained by BoomTown that he sent to some staffers on Sunday.

I have also since confirmed Boerries’s departure with company insiders familiar with the situation.

In a post on Monday on a restructuring at Yahoo that new CEO Carol Bartz is likely to unveil to the company this week–sources tell me it is now set to be announced internally tomorrow–I noted that Boerries was one of the more likely high-level execs to go.

“With a very heavy heart I have to tell you, that I will be leaving Yahoo!,” Boerries wrote, attributing his departure in an email titled “Personal Update,” to issues related to his family.

Read More »