In tough economic times such as these, even the biggest businesses get the urge to restructure, re-org and reshuffle. Kara reported on several big breakups (of the tech variety), including the seperation of AOL from TimeWarner. Even good ol’ icq got into the mix. Read More »

Want to see Conde Nast’s not-so-secret plans to produce tablet-friendly editions of its magazines? Get yourself to New York’s Meatpacking District. Or check out this grainy YouTube clip. Read More »

A new feature wherein All Things Digital looks at up-and-coming and innovative start-ups you should know about. This week: We caught up with Sam Blackman, CEO of Elemental Technologies at the San Francisco NewTeeVee Live conference. Elemental Technologies hopes to become a major player in the future of online and over-the-air video through its high-performance encoding technology. Read More »

Working for a start-up is hard enough. Trying to wittily describe “the unique entrepreneurial culture that sets their company apart and inspires them to go to work each day”–in 140 characters or less–is equally challenging. That was the task set by the National Venture Capital Association and job board StartUpHire, which asked for Twitter-esque submissions from start-up employees in celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week. Read More »

Want to watch YouTube on your TV? There are plenty of devices and services that let you do that, with more on the way. But starting next month, at least one gadget is getting its YouTube feed shut down: Syabas, which makes a line of set-top boxes called “Popcorn Hour,” says Google’s video site has told it to remove YouTube content from its offering beginning December 2. Read More »

As Sony Corp. scrambles to reassert its technological relevance, Chief Executive Howard Stringer is betting on a strategy for the electronics giant that focuses on adding online content to more of its gadgets. Speaking at the first joint public appearance by Sony’s new management team since a shake-up in February, Mr. Stringer said the Japanese giant is “moving faster than we’ve ever moved” to meet parallel challenges. Read More »

Nokia’s workforce is deteriorating nearly as fast as its share of the mobile phone market. This morning, the company–which sacked 1,700 employees in March and another 450 in April–said it will cut 330 more jobs in its research and development group. Read More »

You can debate whether Oprah Winfrey’s plans to shut down her broadcast show–in 2011–and move to cable constitutes “news.” Ditto for what it means for the culture. But what do Oprah’s plans mean for the TV business? Not that much, argues JP Morgan analyst Michael Meltz. Read More »

Brizzly, the Web-based Twitter client from Thing Labs, covered in Almost Famous two weeks ago, begins public beta today. In addition to opening its “expanded” Twitter interface to the world at large, the start-up is offering an on-the-fly translation tool for foreign tweets. And it has hired former FriendFeeder and current Facebooker Ben Darnell. Read More »

Remember paying astronomical prices for college textbooks that, once class was over, had only one possible use: as paperweights? To the relief of parents everywhere, shelling out $182 for Principles of Biochemistry may become a thing of the past. Several recently funded start-ups make it cheaper, or in some cases free, for students to obtain books. Read More »

The latest revision of the Google Books settlement has been granted preliminary approval by a New York district judge, though it will be some time before that approval is finalized–if it is finalized. Judge Denny Chin of the Southern District of New York said Thursday that he will hold a hearing Feb. 18 on the new agreement, which will restore access to millions of out-of-print books, but may also one day give the company a monopoly on the largest digital library in the world. Read More »

Here’s your half-empty/half-full stat for the day: Four in 10 consumers don’t want to see ads on their phones. Is that good or bad for the nascent mobile ad business? Read More »

China Mobile Ltd., the world’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, is pinning its hopes on new third-generation services such as mobile television and mobile readers to drive growth amid increasing competition and falling voice revenue. Read More »

The European Union’s formal objection to Oracle’s proposed acquisition of Sun has evidently transformed the database giant’s intransigence into grudging agreeability. The EU has extended the deadline for approval of the $7.4 billion merger to Jan. 27 from Jan. 19 at Oracle’s request. Read More »

Big Brother is watching. That is the message corporations routinely send their employees about using email. But recent cases have shown that employees sometimes have more privacy rights than they might expect when it comes to the corporate email server. Legal experts say that courts in some instances are showing more consideration for employees who feel their employer has violated their privacy electronically. Read More »