BoomTown » iPod

Wall Street Hopes Apple Doesn't Fall Far From the Tree

Kara Swisher — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:09:44 +0000

When Apple reports its fourth-quarter earnings today, investors are hoping–actually, expecting–that the iconic computer company will look a lot now as it always has.

In other words, don’t go changing and it will please us.

Wall Street is anticipating, as it has throughout the econalypse, another estimate-beating performance from Apple (AAPL).

While Apple has signaled that it will be making up to $1.23 per share for the quarter, the “whisper” number for the quarter is much higher.

Revenue is also expected to rise strongly to upward of $9 billion.

The reason for all this happy talk? Strong sales of all of Apple’s innovative hardware products, including iPods, iPhones, and computers, as well as the big, fat profit margins that came with upgrades by consumers this past quarter to its new Snow Leopard operating-system software.

And, of course, the stock has been showing all this investor love by–as BoomTown has noted recently–defying gravity.

Apple shares are up just above 120 percent since the beginning of the year.

The company closed at $188.05 on Friday, giving it a market valuation of $168.5 billion.

Whether it will continue going up is a big question for investors, although Apple is entering the holiday season, when it typically does well.

Plus, many are expecting the company to goose excitement for 2010 with the announcement of its secret-but-everyone-knows tablet offering.

That said, Microsoft (MSFT) is also officially launching a new operating system this week–Windows 7–which is expected to give Apple some clear competition.

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

Kara Swisher — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:33:30 +0000

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.

As a completely virtual company, it’s nice to get together to gnaw on some ribs and trade 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.

“I’m vertical, back at Apple and loving every day of it,” declared Jobs, before introducing a variety of new features and software innovations to the company’s already strong repertoire, most specifically for iTunes and iPods.

(I guess some still stubbornly self-righteous bloggers were a little premature with their hysterical death’s-door assertions about the Silicon Valley icon and business-challenged certainty that Apple would wither too.)

Overall, from reading the coverage about the Apple (AAPL) gathering, the Jobs performance sounded kind of dramatic, even if there was no launch of a new device, such as the coming-up-next mystery iTablet.

Both Walt Mossberg and Digital Daily’s John “Patches” Paczkowski were at the event, along with Mossberg Solution’s Katherine Boehret and our Webmaster, master photog and Newton fanboy, Adam Tow (see his amazing images of the confab here).

(Walt actually punked me at the BBQ by pretending he actually had a demo of the alleged Apple tablet in his bag–at which I almost lunged like a lunatic–when he had no such thing. Ha. Ha.)

In any case, here’s their frank ruminations on what went down–not too much new, really, but still interesting, as always, from Apple.

And, separately, after the Apple event was over, Patches went to a meeting with Palm (PALM) to take a gander at the new Pixi smart phone and gives his first thoughts on that too.

Here’s the video interview:

[ See post to watch video ]

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

Kara Swisher — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:53:04 +0000

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 the 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.

In any case–reminding BoomTown simultaneously of an unfortunate haircut I had at seven years old, those sticky sticks of powdered candy and, of course, Tinkerbell–Pixi seems to be a smaller, less featured and cheaper version of the Palm (PALM) Pre device.

Except super-adorably skinny and featuring “Sex-and-the-City”-style fashionable back covers by artists.

(Paging Roger McNamee: Where is the mirror, please, because–as you insisted to me in an interview at the seventh D: All Things Digital conference, the ladies love it!)

Pixi uses the Palm webOS platform and other software from third parties, such as Facebook and Yahoo (YHOO).

The Pixi is seen here trying to flirt with a manly cup of coffee, with more images posted below, which you can click on to make larger–although not much larger since it is a pixie, for goodness sake!

Palm said the Pixi is scheduled to be available exclusively from Sprint (S) in time for the holidays (you can read more details in the full press release below).

But the launch today is clearly a happily-ever-after play–one that will surely cause Palm to catch all kinds of flak, if anyone actually pays any sustained attention today to Pixi given the outsized focus on whatever innovation in the iPod or iPhone or iTunes that Apple (AAPL) might or might not announce.

And, if Jobs does appear, all geek hell is sure to break loose and Palm staffers can pretty much quit for the day and go see “Julie & Julia” to familiarize themselves with the Pixi demographic.

By way of explanation, a Palm source wrote in an email to me last night, “timing’s a funny thing,” noting that this event has been long-planned to align with the demo debut of Pixi at Palm-sponsored Fashion Week in New York next week.

While one has to admire its minuscule chutzpah at going up against the Jobs-fueled juggernaut–a move even Google (GOOG) mobile plotter-in-chief Vic Gundotra wouldn’t attempt so overtly–let’s not hope the Pixi gets lost in the Apple sauce.

(Okay, sue me, but that line was too good to resist.)

Here are some more images to peruse, and below them, the full press release on the Pixi from Palm:

Thin Palm Pixi Phone Puts Fast, Intuitive Communication at Fingertips

Palm’s Thinnest Phone Yet Expands Palm webOS Line with Customizable Style

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sep 09, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE)–Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) today introduced the Palm(R) Pixi(TM) phone for faster, more intuitive and personal communication in a compact and customizable design.(1) With the instinctively useable Palm webOS(TM) platform, strikingly thin design, a visible full keyboard and fashionable personalization options, Palm Pixi lets you express yourself in amazingly useful ways. It’s scheduled to be available exclusively from Sprint in time for the holidays.

“With Palm webOS, we’re creating a new, more intuitive smartphone experience defined by unmatched simplicity and usefulness,” said Jon Rubinstein, Palm chairman and chief executive officer. “Palm Pixi brings this unique experience to a broader range of people who want enhanced messaging and social networking in a design that lets them express their personal style.”

In addition to linking your information from Google(TM), Facebook and Exchange ActiveSync, Palm Pixi adds Yahoo! and LinkedIn integration to Palm Synergy(TM) and assembles it all in a single view.(2) You can get your Yahoo! contacts, calendar and IM, and access to your LinkedIn contacts, including job titles. Synergy on Palm Pixi makes messaging easier by showing you all your conversations with the same person in one chat-style thread, so you can start a conversation on AIM Instant Messenger, Google Talk(TM) or Yahoo! Messenger and continue it by text message later.(3)

Complementing the phone’s already rich Facebook integration with the contacts, phone, calendar and photo applications, a new Facebook application will be available with Palm Pixi so you can see and comment on all the latest news from your friends, as well as easily update your status. The phone’s full QWERTY keyboard puts it all at your fingertips, and the multi-touch screen lets you move back and forth between open applications using natural gestures.(4) The unique removable back cover is rubberized, making it scratch-resistant, slip-resistant and durable.

Personalization with Style

For those who want to express themselves with some extra style, Palm is introducing the Palm Pixi Artist Series. Designed by some of today’s most unique and compelling artists, these numbered, limited-edition back covers let you change designs to suit your mood. You can see the first collection in the series, as well as information about the artists, at www.palm.com/artistseries. Palm will be showcasing the fashionable new Palm Pixi with the Artist Series covers this week at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York (Sept. 10-17).

You can also tailor Palm Pixi to your interests with downloadable applications from the Palm Beta App Catalog, including the latest entertainment and social networking applications such as Local Concerts by iLike, and Yelp(TM).(5) You can use Palm media sync to customize your phone with music, photos and videos from iTunes (Versions 8.1.1-8.2.1)(6), or use the on-device Amazon MP3 store to purchase individual songs or full albums over-the-air.(3)

“Palm Pixi continues Sprint’s leadership in providing useful and innovative devices on America’s most dependable 3G network,”(7) said Dan Hesse, chief executive officer at Sprint. “We are pleased to be the first carrier to bring this device to market and offer both devices in the growing Palm webOS family. Sprint’s Everything Data plans, which provide unrestricted access to the Internet, mobile content and applications, and our Ready Now retail experience make for a perfect combination with these new Palm products.”

The Sprint Mobile Broadband Network reaches more than 271 million people, 18,652 cities and 1,838 airports, and Sprint’s networks are now performing at best-ever levels.

Customers who purchase Palm Pixi will benefit from Sprint’s Ready Now, which the company pioneered to help customers leave the store educated, comfortable and confident about the phones they’re taking home. It is like having a free personal trainer that educates you on all your phone can do by setting up all the applications you want to use on the device.

Palm Pixi is also the perfect complement to Sprint’s Simply EverythingSM plan, which provides unlimited nationwide calling, texting, email, social networking, web browsing, GPS navigation, Sprint TV, streaming music, NFL Mobile Live, NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile and much more for only $99.99 per month. It’s a savings of $1,200 over two years versus some comparable competitor plans.

Palm Pixi Features

High-speed connectivity (EVDO Rev. A)

2.63-inch multi-touch screen with a vibrant 18-bit color 320×400 resolution TFT display

Gesture area, which enables simple, intuitive gestures for navigation

Exposed QWERTY keyboard for fast messaging

Robust messaging support (IM, SMS and MMS capabilities), including Google Talk, AIM and Yahoo! IM

High-performance, desktop-class web browser

Integrated GPS(8)

Multimedia options, including pictures, video playback and music, and featuring a 2-megapixel fixed-focus camera with LED flash, and a standard 3.5mm headset jack

Email, including Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) (for access to corporate Microsoft Exchange servers), as well as personal email support (Google push, Yahoo! push, POP3, IMAP)(9)

Bluetooth(R) 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support

8GB of internal user storage (~7GB user available)(10)

USB mass storage mode

MicroUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed

The first handset to launch with Qualcomm’s high-performance MSM7627(TM) chipset

Proximity sensor, which automatically disables the touch screen and turns off the display whenever you put the phone up to your ear

Light sensor, which dims the display if the ambient light is dark, such as at night or in a movie theater, to reduce power usage

Accelerometer, which automatically orients web pages and photos to your perspective

Ringer switch, which easily silences the device with one touch

Removable, rechargeable 1150 mAh battery

Dimensions: 55mm (W) x 111mm (L) x 10.85mm (D) [2.17 in. (W) x 4.37 in. (L) x 0.43 in. (D)]

Weight: 99.5 grams (3.51 ounces)

Sprint services, including Sprint TV(R) and Sprint Radio, Sprint Navigation, Sprint’s exclusive NFL Mobile Live and NASCAR Sprint Cup Mobile Live

Availability and Pricing

The Palm Pixi phone is scheduled to be available from Sprint in time for the holidays. Pricing for the phone, as well as the limited-edition Palm Pixi Artist Series covers, will be announced closer to availability. Customers who would like to register to receive additional information about Palm Pixi and be notified when it’s available can register at www.palm.com/pixi.

In addition, effective today the Palm Pre(TM) phone from Sprint is available for $149.99 with a two-year service agreement and after a $150 instant rebate and $100 mail-in rebate. You can find this great pricing at Sprint stores, on the web (www.sprint.com) and by calling Sprint’s telesales group (1-800-SPRINT1). With the new Palm Pixi phone, and Palm Pre at a lower price, Palm and Sprint are bringing greater choice of Palm webOS phones to a larger audience.

NOTE TO EDITORS: Photos and video are available from Palm’s media gallery at www.palm.com/mml.

Please add the tag #Palm #Pixi to your tweets or “Palm Pixi” to your blog posts about the all-new Palm Pixi phone running on Palm webOS, and follow Palm on Twitter at www.twitter.com/palm.

(1) Within wireless coverage area only. Email, mobile number, and related information required for setup and activation. Required data plan not included; unlimited plan strongly recommended.
(2) Limitations apply. Layered calendars and linked contacts for Outlook require Exchange ActiveSync and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP2 or later, sold separately.
(3) Within wireless coverage area only.
(4) Performance varies based upon actual usage.
(5) Third-party software available separately. Within wireless coverage area only.
(6) Compatible with iTunes 8.2.1 on Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X version 10.3.9-10.5.7. Within wireless coverage area only. Music sold separately. Please respect copyright laws when downloading music.
(7) “Dependable” based on independent, third-party drive tests for 3G data connection success, session reliability and signal strength for the top 50 most populous markets from Jan. ‘08 to Feb. ‘09. Not all services available on 3G and coverage may default to separate network when 3G unavailable.
(8) Coverage not available in all areas at all times.
(9) Outlook requires Exchange ActiveSync and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP2 or later, sold separately.
(10) Storage estimate subject to change based on system software and application usage.

The AppleTwitter-Equals-iBrangelina Experiment*

Kara Swisher — Wed, 06 May 2009 11:05:43 +0000

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* Yesterday, in a BoomTown post about the latest unproven rumors that the world’s most iconic computer company, Apple (AAPL), was in “late-stage” negotiations to buy Silicon Valley’s latest pretty young thing, microblogging service Twitter, I wrote:

“Oh, the very notion of Apple and Twitter is a Techmeme dream-ticket, sure to be chewed over for days on end. (I once considered doing a post that just said “AppleTwitterAppleTwitterAppleTwitter…” for 1,000 words to see how much idiotic traffic I would get.)”

I wrote that because the pair rivet the tech press and digital fanboys as no others do, fomenting an obsession normally reserved for, say, Brangelina.

And since I imagine that a marriage of Apple and Twitter would be covered a lot like those two are–Red alert: Someone just sighted Evan Williams with a giant iPod getting a scoop at Fraiche Yogurt for Steve Jobs!–I thought I would get started early, just in case.

(Finally, given the epic Twitter diss of last year, let’s all just assume that Facebook will be playing the Jennifer Aniston role.)

Here Comes the Summer Movie Geektravaganza: Trek to Demons to Bots to Cyborgs to Potter!

Kara Swisher — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:34:53 +0000

With bootleg copies ripped on the Internet or not and with an $87 million opening weekend for “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” it looks like the nerdiest summer movie season ever is off the races.

Hollywood, caught in the digital maelstrom, certainly is fine and dandy making bank by co-opting all the techie themes, gadgets and special effects, with a slate of movies over the next months that are like catnip to geeks of all kinds.

Including BoomTown, for example, which plans to fork over a lot of dough to pay for all the techtastic entertainment that those old media moguls can dish out before they collapse.

Here’s the roster and video trailers of key movies this summer:

Star Trek, May 8

It looks sassy enough with a hot, young cast in what is, like “Wolverine,” a prequel from when the crew of the Starship Enterprise were mere pups.

But one funny quibble comes from a post on the Mania.com blog called “10 Reasons to be Worried About ‘Star Trek’”:

“The New Bridge Looks Like an Apple Store: I love my iPod, but all the Apple Stores I’ve visited are located in the 21st century, not the 23rd. Made of frosted plastic shades and lawn furniture borrowed from the local Pinkberry, the bridge looks built to handle scenes of Kirk negotiating a kegger with the Vulcans more than the sparking explosions and flying bodies of the original.

One can imagine Kirk, trying to sweet-talk his latest alien conquest, and the bridge’s iTunes shuffle mode kicks in.”

Angels & Demons, May 15

Mathematical formulas, hidden puzzles to figure out the path of light through Rome, antimatter, Galileo?

Oh, I am there, except for Tom Hanks’s (playing Robert Langdon) shorter but nonetheless unfortunate haircut from “The Da Vinci Code.”

That and all the glaring but entertaining inaccuracies about science, religion and art from author Dan Brown. As if, I care.

Terminator Salvation, May 21

I am still in mourning over life without Summer Glau, given that the television show, “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” might be canceled after lackluster ratings in its second season.

I will have to trade that superb show for the grumpy grumbles of Christan Bale as John Connor in this fourth outing of the killer-cyborgs-from-the-future series of movies.

This one is set in the post-Judgment Day time, so it will have a lot of dusty, oily fighting with machines and grim grimaces about the dire situation (which, to be fair, bites).

Still, as always with my beloved “Terminator” movies, I’ll be baaaaaack.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, June 24

More machines noisily battling it out while humans get stomped. Sometimes, I think these movies have been thought up by people who hate their cellphones.

Still, the first “Transformers” was funny about all the tech, and this one looks like it could be amusing too.

Also, given that I have two young boys, I have played with a lot of Transformer toys since the last movie came out and they really are cool.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, July 15

I. Love. Harry. Potter.

I cannot control this fact and I am a wee bit perturbed by it.

But it is so, especially with all the creepy special effects that seem to get super-creepy in this sixth outing.

These movies just have gotten better and better, as have the young actors who play the main parts, so it’s hard to imagine it not being completely excellent.

Also, the whole pensieve thing rocks. The whole Dumbledore thing, not so much.

[PhotoShopped "Star Trek" publicity still courtesy of Mania.com]

Maybe the Feds Can Diagnose What Ails Apple and Steve Jobs (and Whether It Matters or Not)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:36:27 +0000

Early this morning, Bloomberg reported that regulators are looking into Apple’s disclosures about the health–or lack thereof–of its iconic CEO Steve Jobs.

According to the story, the Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting a review of Apple (AAPL) “to ensure investors weren’t misled, a person familiar with the matter said. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s review doesn’t mean investigators have seen evidence of wrongdoing, the person said, declining to be identified because the inquiry isn’t public.”

And while BoomTown has railed against the creepy obsession the media have had with Jobs’s health and the publishing of rumors and innuendos about it as fact without a whole lot of reporting, I hope it is true.

It is also entirely appropriate that the government agency charged with keeping an eye on public companies does investigate–at the very least, to get the story right.

Because if the press and blogosphere and Apple aren’t going to do it, I vote for the one with subpoena power to sort it all out and make some levelheaded determinations about the rules of the road.

(And, frankly, it is good to see the SEC more vigorous after its stunningly moribund record of late–Hello, Bernie Madoff!)

Apple’s COO and acting CEO Tim Cook, by the way, will likely be questioned about the SEC look-see, Steve Jobs’s health and more at its first-quarter conference call at 2 p.m. PST today.

Of course, the health of its business is the most important thing–sales of iPods and iPhones, new products and what Apple will do with its $25 billion cash horde.

But the focus will surely be on Jobs and now, this government inquiry.

What will be most interesting is exactly how much companies do have to reveal about the health of their leadership and whether the relative fame and brand-critical nature of that exec matters more.

For example, do leaders like Jobs or, say, Martha Stewart, have more need to discuss their health than some lesser known CEO who might have a similar problem?

And since it has been well known that Jobs suffered from a bout with pancreatic cancer and recovered, does he have to disclose it all, given that even his curable version of the illness has complications that are well documented?

And, most of all, how specific do Apple and Jobs have to be, and how frequently do they have to update, especially since a diagnosis is always a moving target?

More to the point, given that the bordering-on-crazed attention given to Jobs–who engenders so much passionate emotion–has also been off-putting and, worse, all over the map in terms of accurate information, what clarity can regulators provide?

Apple has been under increasing pressure, since Jobs revealed he had a “hormonal imbalance,” soon after which he announced that he was taking a five-month medical leave from his duties because his health problems were “more complex.”

I am less strident than others on this turn of events since having accurate health information about yourself is not quite the same as, say, details of a merger and who knew what when.

Plus it has been clear for a long time that all has not been well with Jobs, something any investor had to be aware of.

I have no inside information; nor have I talked to anyone who has treated him, but anyone who has not been on Mars for the past year could see that Jobs was not looking great, especially from his woefully haggard appearance.

As I have written:

Apple investors who have not figured Jobs’s precarious health–after a round with any kind of cancer–into their investment strategies about Apple going forward need some serious reality medication themselves.

Guess what? Jobs has been really sick and it means he is going to have a harder time with any kind of infection or complication for the rest of his life, and he will likely be more delicate than someone who has not had cancer.”

Who knows if the government will find out more, but it would be good if some of the smoke could be cleared away to see if there is some actual fire or not.

And if not, Jobs can get the peace he is seeking to try to recover his health.

As he said to Bloomberg last week: “Why don’t you guys leave me alone–why is this important?”

It would be nice to be get that answer and then, hopefully, let Jobs get on with getting well.

Gadget-Loving President Obama Gets a Futuristic New Limo Ride

Kara Swisher — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:41:22 +0000

Besides getting, well, the whole country to run today, President Barack Obama is now taking a geek-tastic new ride down Pennsylvania Avenue to his new home, which should more than satisfy his clearly gadget-loving persona.

Obama, who has an ongoing obsessive relationship with his BlackBerry, much as the rest of us do, just got a spanking new presidential limo (pictured above), which the Secret Service is calling the “Beast.”

The last time General Motors (GM) improved on the car was at outgoing President George W. Bush’s 2005 inauguration, which means the struggling automaker is faster at upgrading than Microsoft (MSFT) is with Windows!

But, let us just say, it’s not very Prius-like, despite Obama’s speech today about focusing on the environment.

Indeed, the Cadillac limo has heavy armor five inches thick, run-flat tires, bullet-proof glass, an interior that seals, in case of a chemical attack, and other stuff that is too top secret to apparently reveal.

BoomTown is thinking, um, working Wi-Fi?

Refrigerated cup holders (and more of them, please!)?

A food machine that makes pizza from thin air like on “Star Trek”?

Or, miracle of miracles, that giant Apple (AAPL) iPod embedded in the steering wheel?

Post your suggestions as to what gadgets should be in the President’s new ride below.

Memo to All Crepe-Hangers: It Still Ain't Nobody's Business If Jobs Is or Isn’t

Kara Swisher — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:00:58 +0000

Now, it’s getting flat-out macabre.

That would be the continuing swirl of attention the health of Apple icon Steve Jobs has been getting.

Rumors of his impending demise have been popping up periodically since the too-thin crisis of the Worldwide Developers Conference in June and look like they won’t stop until it actually comes true.

My grandmother used to have a perfect rejoinder for this kind of funeral-chasing behavior, which was prevalent among her gang of Italian sisters, who–whenever anyone caught a cold–predicted the worst outcome: “Don’t be a crepe-hanger.”

This time, more rumors surfaced yesterday in Gizmodo, curiously, a week before the Macworld at which he is famously not appearing. The site used a single–yes, that’s right–source saying his illness and not Apple’s business troubles with the conference’s organizer, IDG, was the reason for his pull-out.

The rumor, of course, sent Apple (AAPL) shares into a tailspin for the day, before others–such as CNBC’s Jim Goldman–posted just-as-strong refutations of the Jobs-Is-On-His-Last-Legs stories.

Blogger Robert Scoble even talked to a worker at a yogurt store that Jobs frequents and got a health report (good!).

Oh, dear–yogurt workers as medical experts? What’s next? Brain surgery consultation from the Starbucks barista? This is what we’ve descended to?

It has to stop, because the fact of the matter is that Jobs’s health is still nobody’s business, as it has not been throughout this bizarre obsession with one man’s personal issues.

In a post in late July, the last time this issue surged, I wrote:

And after listening to all of the debate about it–mostly indignant declarations by the media, making their case mostly by wheedling milder indignant declarations from stock analysts and corporate tsk-tsk outfits–I have concluded that what is ailing Jobs is exactly no one’s business.

Even if his every breath is critical to the ongoing operations of Apple, the reason most use as their main argument for Jobs to tell all, it goes double.

Why?

Well, any Apple investor has to know by now that Jobs suffered from a rather serious bout with a curable version of pancreatic cancer some years ago and that recovery includes inevitable complications.”

And, indeed, the only decent argument you can make to focus so intently on Jobs’s health of any relevance is the impact on Apple company stock, which is self-righteously trotted out each time these specious reports emerge.

The thing is, a lot of companies have been run by execs with health issues (and countries too–VP Dick Cheney’s ticker has been misfiring for a long time now, for example, and he still seems to have been running the show with a verve we wish he perhaps did not have so much of now).

But, to be fair, I will acknowledge the issue. But if anyone does not get that Apple’s CEO has health issues by now, they are ignorant in the extreme. The situation should be baked into the stock price.

In addition, Apple is run by a lot of other competent people besides Jobs and they too are part of its success. Here’s a news flash–Steve Jobs does not conceive, manufacture and wrap every iPhone and iPod.

That is the kind of mythology that has, of course, been propagated a lot by Apple and it is–like a lot of things–a bit true in a bigger concept.

But, as I recently said, when Jobs inevitably leaves the company, probably on his own two feet in retirement, the Cupertino HQ will not suddenly be taken up to the skies as if it were the rapture.

Maybe the yogurt shop guy knows about when that’s going to happen.

Speaking of rapture, here’s singer Jill Sobule singing about that at a recent D: All Things Digital conference.

And, in a second video, she sings perfectly about how we should behave when it comes to what is inevitable for us all. People riveted by Jobs’s fate might do well to take her sage advice.

Here are the videos:

Twitter: Where Nobody Knows Your Name–The Sequel

Kara Swisher — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 14:00:08 +0000

BoomTown’s been just one week gone and yet another goofy, traffic-generating debate “erupts” in the blogosphere, involving the usual suspects.

(Hey, it’s Loïc Le Meur and Michael Arrington again, fresh from their equally meaningful Are-French-folks-lazy-or-what? debate!)

This time, while the Mideast burns and the economy continues its meltdown, they and many others are going at it about the favored hyped Silicon Valley company of the moment, Twitter.

The new bone being gnawed on is something I can hardly grasp the point of–some drivel argument about what constitutes the authority of a tweet.

While tweet status would seem only important to, say, a Warner Bros. cartoon character like Sylvester, all I can think is: Who cares?

While I know I seem to say this a lot these days, I guess I am not really clear why people can’t use these various Web tools in any way they like, without a bunch of tech pundits pushing their self-aggrandizing agendas.

You want to rank tweets? Fine–knock yourself out! You want to use tweets to tell your family about your trip to Buffalo? Maybe not so much, but what the heck!

I think, though, the real story is the endless echo chamber of Silicon Valley that seems to persist in overestimating the meaning of Twitter, especially compared to so much more that is going on in the tech industry.

With only about six million registered users (with a much lower number of active ones), Twitter gets written about as if it were a mover and shaker extraordinaire, instead of just being what it is: An interesting status-alert start-up that makes zero revenues and turned down a very large buyout offer from another once-too-overhyped start-up (Facebook).

Well, after yet another week in the real world, I am here to tell you, precious few people still have any clue what Twitter is or how it works.

This is not to say Twitter is not useful or cool or that its growth is not impressive. All that is true about the service.

But the fact remains that Twitter is simply an unknown to most average people in a way other tech trends have not been.

The last time I did a What-the-Heck-Is-Twitter? experiment was in April and it went as follows:

So I was in Washington, D.C., this past weekend for a lovely wedding, traveling back to a city where I started my career and worked for 15 years after college.

And I conducted a little experiment among the more than 100 folks gathered for the wedding, all of whom were quite intelligent, armed with all kinds of the latest devices (many, many people had iPhones, for example) and not sluggish about technology.

They were also made up of a wide range of ages and genders, from kids to seniors.

And so I asked a large group of people–about 30–and here is the grand total who knew what Twitter was: 0

FriendFeed: 0

Widget: 1 (but she thought it was one of the units used in a business class study).

Facebook: Everyone I asked knew about it and about half had an account, although different people used it differently.”

This time, I asked yet another group of about 40 folks, in New York, Scranton and Buffalo, many of whom were young people and all of whom used the Internet regularly.

Those who knew what Twitter was: 3 (two only because they’d read about it being used in the Mumbai terror attacks).

Those who could actually explain how it worked and had used it: 1 (a journalist, natch!).

Friendfeed: 0 (even my family had not bothered to look at my recent post on the cool start-up).

Widget: 25, except most people now call them apps and are talking about using them in an Apple (AAPL) iPhone or an iPod Touch. Everyone was surprisingly knowledgeable, especially younger people, about apps for smartphones.

Facebook: 40–a perfect score, and almost everyone I talked to had a Facebook profile, which accounts for its huge growth to more than 140 million users worldwide.

You get the idea–while the digerati have moved away from Facebook as an important trendsetter, I am thinking that perhaps its time has just started.

Not that I have the tweet authority to say so or anything.

BoomTown Decodes the Apple Dumps Macworld Press Release (The "Yes, Virginia" Version)

Kara Swisher — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:00:37 +0000

BoomTown extends apologies to the late Francis P. Church, who penned the original “Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus” editorial in the New York Sun on Sept. 21, 1897.

But with just a little rejiggering, his eloquent words work perfectly as a translation for Apple’s press release about its withdrawal from San Francisco’s Macworld and no keynote speech from Apple CEO Steve Jobs yesterday, which doubtlessly shook the Apple (AAPL) faithful to the core.

Oddly enough, it matches up surprisingly–and a little disturbingly–well.

Thus, here’s a little holiday inspiration to help those poor souls make it through these darkest of days:

Dear Editor:

I am 28 years old. Some of my little fanboys say there is no Steve Jobs at Macworld. My imaginary friend at AppleInsider says, ‘If you see it on BoomTown, it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth, is there a Steve Jobs?

–O’Hanlon, a geek in Virginia”

Apple wrote: CUPERTINO, California—December 16, 2008—Apple today announced that this year is the last year the company will exhibit at Macworld Expo. Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, will deliver the opening keynote for this year’s Macworld Conference & Expo, and it will be Apple’s last keynote at the show. The keynote address will be held at Moscone West on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. Macworld will be held at San Francisco’s Moscone Center January 5-9, 2009.

Translation: Virginia geek, your little friends are wrong (and they also have no life, which is self-evident). They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia geek, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. Not as elegantly tiny as the iPod Nano, but little nonetheless. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Apple wrote: Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple’s Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.

Translation: Yes, Virginia geek, there is a Steve Jobs. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion and the fabled touchscreen tablet Mac exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Steve Jobs! It would be as dreary as if there were no amazingly great iPhones. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance, no Pull My Finger app to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Apple wrote: Apple has been steadily scaling back on trade shows in recent years, including NAB, Macworld New York, Macworld Tokyo and Apple Expo in Paris.

Translation: Not believe in Steve Jobs! You might as well not believe in those admittedly freaky iPod shadow dancers. You might get your other pretend friend at MacRumors to hire men to watch in all the Chinese manufacturing factories on Christmas eve to catch Steve Jobs, but even if you did not see Steve Jobs ordering up new Mini desktop computers, what would that prove? Nobody sees Steve Jobs, but that is no sign that there is no Steve Jobs. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see the iPod dancers dancing bizarrely on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

Apple wrote: Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications.

Translation: You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, and the fact that the Mac guy vs. PC guy ads are pure genius can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia geek, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

Apple wrote: Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

Translation: No Steve Jobs! Thank God! he lives and lives forever, despite Henry Blodget-fueled health rumors to the contrary. A thousand years from now, Virginia geek, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of Mac fanboyhood.

Apple, Apple All Around, but Not a Drop of Thinking

Kara Swisher — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 14:13:26 +0000

Hey, did you hear that Apple is launching some sort of new notebook thingamabob today?

If you didn’t, it can’t be because the Apple-product-release-hyper-hype cycle let you down.

Below, for example, is a screen grab Techmeme’s top stories early today. This list will balloon to more and more obese proportions as soon as the much-leaked rumors–a new MacBook from a single piece of godlike metal! With a sleek black border! And some secret-looking inputs to spin gold from hay at home!–about what the iconic computer maker is up to are officially confirmed or not this morning.

That you can always feel the anticipation in the air whenever Apple makes any move is, in a way, fascinating.

And the news-to-come was even boosting Apple’s shares yesterday, which have been taking a severe beating in the recent market meltdown and, before that, on false rumors of a heart attack suffered by Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs.

All seems to be forgiven from when Apple (AAPL) underwhelmed at its “Let’s Rock” event only a month back, where its ho-hum redo of its iPod line failed to live up to all the breathless excitement of its fanboys.

No matter. Next!

AllThingsD.com’s Johnny Apple-blogger John Paczkowski of Digital Daily will be there, of course, posting at the media-clogged launch, as it happens, and mightily contributing to the blog-smog that will start collecting over Cupertino, Calif., at 10 a.m. PDT.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you!

Apple Predictions + Grain of Salt = Impossible

Kara Swisher — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 21:27:18 +0000

As usual before yet another big Apple event, the psychic friends network is in overdrive in anticipation of the iconic computer company’s “Let’s Rock” media gathering in San Francisco tomorrow.

At this point, I think Apple could announce a change in the color of its bathrooms at its Cupertino HQ and it would be mayhem among the Mac faithful.

Nonetheless, even though what will be announced is likely to be a series of incremental improvements for Apple’s line of music-playing products–iTunes, iTouch and, of course, the iPod–and even the possibility of a revamped design, it’s astonishing how striking the hype is around the event.

Of course, that kind of passion from core users is a blessing for any tech company, and it is hard to quibble with Apple’s stellar ability to market every jog and tittle of its product development as if it was the second coming.

But the most intense focus will more likely be on Apple’s leader, CEO Steve Jobs, whose gaunt appearance at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June set off a flurry of discussion about the exact state of his health.

That talk has since been less frantic, despite the fact that there actually has been no clear announcement from Apple (AAPL) on the delicate subject (and Jobs’s colorful off-the-record chat with the New York Times’s Joe Nocera does not count, folks).

In any case, because AllThingsD.com cannot resist either, Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski will be there liveblogging “Let’s Rock” from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, with all the news that’s fit to post.

And, of course, everything else too.

The Entire D6 Interview With Sony's Sir Howard Stringer (3 of 4)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:49:00 +0000

We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May.

Unfortunately, due to issues too complicated to go into, we have to post all the D6 interviews in several 15-minute parts (I know, I know).

But–as many readers have requested–they will all be available in their entirety in this column.

Here’s Part 3 of 4 of an interview Walt Mossberg did with Sony Chairman and CEO Sir Howard Stringer. (I am posting one video part of the discussion with Stringer every day this week, starting Tuesday and concluding tomorrow.)

Sony (SNE) has been under enormous pressure to innovate and compete better in all its many businesses, and the consumer electronics giant still has not proved that it can knit them all together into a cogent whole.

In this video, Stringer talks more about craplets, discusses digital music players, including the iPod and Walkman-enabled Sony Ericsson cellphones, and takes questions from the audience about YouTube and the challenge of maintaining innovation and entrepreneurialism at a huge multinational company.

[ See post to watch video ]

Steve Ballmer: Killing Apple and Google With Kindness?

Kara Swisher — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:48:34 +0000

BoomTown is flatly fascinated by the rather incredible memo Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer penned to his troops yesterday, with news of the reorganization of its massive Platforms and Services Division and the departure of its president, Kevin Johnson.

In the memo, in a very rare public airing of its less-clean laundry, Ballmer actually casts Microsoft’s two major rivals, Apple and Google, in a somewhat positive light, while still vowing to best them.

It is not often that Ballmer or even Microsoft Founder Bill Gates mentions either company in public. More to the point, what neither typically does is acknowledge that they do anything right.

But Ballmer did so yesterday in the memo, perhaps a sign that Microsoft (MSFT) realizes it has trouble on its hands and needs to publicly declare tough enemies to pump itself up to fight.

The memo should be Topic A for financial analysts, who are gathering at Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., headquarters today for their annual meeting with company leaders.

“It’s going to be a rocky day,” said one Microsoft source.

And how! Especially given the need to explain the memo in more detail, including plans for beating back incursions by more nimble companies like Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG).

Ballmer took a baby step in that direction in the strategy email to employees.

About Apple, for example, Ballmer wrote:

In the competition between PCs and Macs, we outsell Apple 30-to-1. But there is no doubt that Apple is thriving. Why? Because they are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience. Today, we’re changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises. We’ll do the same with phones–providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences.

It is, for longtime Microsoft watchers, an interesting way to put it, actually framing the fight on Apple’s strengths–an end-to-end computing experience–rather than on Microsoft’s.

While Ballmer is entirely right about the sales figures, he is leaving out perhaps the more important fact that Apple–using its iPod and now iPhone juggernaut–has captured the consumer imagination and owns the tech zeitgeist, which is all about a deeply integrated and entirely Web-focused computing experience.

His mention of the phone issue is especially interesting.

Why? Because no matter what Ballmer says, the ancient cell phone software in Windows Mobile is under assault from Apple, Google’s Android and the upcoming new RIM (RIM) platform.

Ballmer’s longish comments on Google were just as important to pay attention to:

We continue to compete with Google on two fronts–in the enterprise, where we lead; and in search, where we trail. In search, our technology has come a long way in a very short time and it’s an area where we’ll continue to invest to be a market leader. Why? Because search is the key to unlocking the enormous market opportunities in advertising, and it is an area that is ripe for innovation. In the coming years, we’ll make progress against Google in search first by upping the ante in R&D through organic innovation and strategic acquisitions. Second, we will out-innovate Google in key areas–we’re already seeing this in our maps and news search. Third, we are going to reinvent the search category through user experience and business model innovation. We’ll introduce new approaches that move beyond a white page with 10 blue links to provide customers with a customized view of their world. This is a long-term battle for our company–and it’s one we’ll continue to fight with persistence and tenacity.

While it would be hard not to acknowledge Google’s overwhelming lead in search (and, of course, its position as the other key zeitgeist leader of the moment, in tech), Ballmer is laying out the challenge–which was, in essence, formulated by Johnson–as one that can be won by innovation.

He is entirely right, except for the fact that Microsoft is not a company well known for being innovative or for pushing boundaries.

More importantly, Microsoft cannot really do so from a search position of under 10 percent (check out how well Ask’s innovative efforts worked).

That’s why owning or controlling Yahoo is so critical, since its mid-20 percent market share gives Microsoft the leg up it needs to make these still-unknown innovations a success.

On a visit to Microsoft recently, I did see some really cool ideas and efforts in its Live offering, for example. But to move the needle, Microsoft needs scale to make consumers sit up and pay attention.

That’s why Ballmer’s comments about Yahoo rang especially false to me.

He wrote:

Related to Google and our search strategy are the discussions we had with Yahoo. I want to emphasize the point I’ve been making all along–Yahoo was a tactic, not a strategy. We want to accelerate our share of search queries and create a bigger pool of advertisers, and Yahoo would have helped us get there faster. But we will get there with or without Yahoo. We have the right people, we’ve made incredible progress in our technology, and we’ll continue to make smart investments that will enable us to build an industry-leading business.

Maybe so, but Yahoo is actually a strategy and not a tactic–which is to get there faster and with less of an uphill slog.

Microsoft could get where it wants to go with Yahoo. Without it? Not so easy.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

All Grown Up: Apple Apps Are for Adults (There, We Said It)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:26:22 +0000

When Apple releases its third-quarter earnings after the close today, Wall Street will be looking hard for a solid performance from the company to help buoy a tech sector smacked silly by weak reports from industry leaders Microsoft and Google last week.

It’s a lot of weight to put on the slim shoulders of Apple (AAPL), even though the company has shifted in recent years–largely due to the iPod and now iPhone phenomena–from a maker of devices for the elite to a mass consumer icon and a major influencer of key technology trends.

And, as has been much written about, Apple’s iPhone has brought the vision of a touchscreen minicomputer-on-the-go to the kind of reality that seemed impossible only a few years ago.

But more important to me is what is happening with the plethora of third-party apps now available from the iTunes App Store–both free and paid (picture below)–for use on the iPhone platform.

That’s because Apple has built a platform for adults.

Like many, I have downloaded dozens of iPhone third-party apps over the last several days.

And–unlike what one can discover on the other hot apps platform–namely Facebook–they are uniformly superb, lovely, useful and fun in a really nonjuvenile way.

The iPhone Facebook app is, by the way, stellar.

It’s more than a little ironic, then, that about a year ago it was the social-networking site that reinvigorated the idea of the importance of having a platform that a multitude of developers could thrive on.

It’s not exactly a new idea–Microsoft has nourished an ecosystem of developers for its powerful Windows software platform for, like, forever.

But Facebook surely made the idea bigger, looser, wilder and more exciting. Except that a lot of what has been created for Facebook has been profoundly stupid.

Last year, Boomtown set off a mini-tornado of debate when I suggested that I was less than impressed by the quality and endurance of most of the new Facebook apps–also called widgets–that began to take off.

In a post called: “The Children’s Hour: Facebook Apps Are for Toddlers (There, We Said It),” I wrote:

I get it, I get it. Millions upon millions of people are downloading and using these apps, part of a very clever ecosystem [Facebook CEO Mark] Zuckerberg unleashed in late May.

Under the scheme, widget-makers got to go wild on Facebook, and Facebook got to offload a chunk of its feature development onto others.

‘Until now, social networks have been closed platforms,’ said Zuckerberg at the [f8] event, calling on outside developers to integrate their applications into the service. ‘Today, we’re going to end that.’

But so far, as popular as those apps have become, what Zuckerberg and the widget-makers have wrought is mostly silly, useless and time-wasting, and the kazillion users of these widgets are pretty much just acting like little children.

I never thought I would call the often frivolous AOL back in the day–very simply, a Neanderthal version of Facebook–a mature offering in comparison.

While I will admit when I am not chewing nails that a lot of these apps are somewhat fun, I can’t help but ask myself that lyric from the old Peggy Lee classic: ‘Is that all there is?’

And if that is all there is, can Facebook really build a viable and long-lasting business on what is essentially a bunch of games that will ultimately become wearying for users? Doesn’t it need more robust apps that actually are useful and relevant and make Facebook the service that Zuckerberg has often told me was a ‘utility’?

While Facebook–with a cleaner and more strict look and a better navigation–is surely less goofy than rival MySpace for anyone over 12 years old, and its video, photo and email features are nice, the vast majority of its apps are still mostly as dumb as a box of hammers.”

Too harsh?

I think you would not say so after looking over a lot of what is available at the App Store on iTunes.

Lots and lots of the apps there are games, of course, which are the most popular.

But what amazingly clever games, like MotionX Poker with the delightful rolling dice, or the humming swish of PhoneSaber (totally silly, but in a profound manner that Vampire-biting on Facebook will never achieve).

And the list of useful stuff–Pandora Radio, Starmap, WeatherBug, Evernote and WHERE (pictured here)–is long and growing longer, and these seem to enjoy as much prominence and popularity as the sillier stuff.

In addition, the ability to truly use other Web services in a mobile setting–from Photobucket to Yelp to AIM to the New York Times–makes the iPhone an even more useful device to me.

And for each of the apps I can also imagine various monetization schemes that now make a lot more sense since the iPhone platform enhances them with mobility and simplicity (Carling’s branded iPint is very smart, for example).

I also get the feeling that, knowing they would otherwise not be granted entrance into the elegant kingdom of Steve Jobs, developers tried to design their apps just a little more perfectly.

I cannot say the same about adding widgets to Facebook, which only seem to put more burden on my experience there.

Some are great and some are truly awful, but you never know exactly what you are getting until you go through the typically onerous addition process.

That will soon change with the new Facebook redesign.

I do have great hopes for it, as it gets rolled out this week for users, because it looks like it will make the service much easier to manage and enjoy.

I hope so, because right now, Facebook feels too much like a garden in constant need of weeding.

Perhaps this is because these apps or widgets are more useful in a mobile setting, when you are truly looking for a wide range of discrete pieces of information, rather than on a large screen–which gets larger all the time–at home when the browsing experience lets you handle more information coming at you from all over.

I don’t know, but I do know that I have gotten more use out of my iPhone apps than any Facebook app so far, making me more productive and happy in the process.

Yes, the BubbleWrap app is pointless, but it did give me a few minutes to decompress and read the newspaper as my six-year-old son digitally popped away in glee this weekend.

You know what I mean–it’s called adult time.