The OpenTable Binge and Purge

in News on May 25, 2009 at 1:31 pm PT

For a company whose business is built on the recession-brutalized fine-dining industry, OpenTable’s IPO last week was impressive. Must have made for quite a windfall for the company’s larger investors. Especially those who took the opportunity to dump their stakes in their entirety.

This Week’s New Yorker Cover, Brought to You by the iPhone

in Media on May 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm PT

Publisher Condé Nast gets plenty of well-deserved criticism for its slow embrace of technology and the Web, but some of its individual titles do some interesting stuff. To wit: This video, which depicts how artist Jorge Columbo created this week’s cover art in an hour, using an iPhone and an app called Brushes.

A Problem Has Been Detected With Your Classified Mission. Windows Has been Shut Down to Prevent Damage to Your Computer.

in News on May 25, 2009 at 10:11 am PT

How slow are government agencies at adopting new technologies? So slow that the U.S. Army is planning a major upgrade of its information systems–to Microsoft’s Windows Vista OS. Though Windows 7 is expected at market by the end of the year, the United States military has set that as a deadline for its migration from Windows XP to Windows Vista and from Office 2003 to Office 2007.
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Don’t Touch That Dial: TwitterTV Coming to a Screen Near You (Maybe)

in D7 on May 25, 2009 at 8:55 am PT

Must-Tweet TV? Maybe. Twitter is lending its name to a to-be-developed TV game show that “would harness Twitter to put players on the trail of celebrities in an interactive, competitive format.” That sounds… interesting, maybe. More important, but less sexy: Twitter continues to crank out deals with mobile carriers around the world.
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A Long Weekend's Journey Into (D7) Flight!

in News on May 25, 2009 at 7:00 am PT

Incredibly, the seventh D: All Things Digital conference begins tomorrow night, after a year of preparation, as we raced to the finish line this past weekend. Here is a video I did as we get ready, including: my mother being perplexed by Twitter (which will be fodder for a good question for co-founders Evan Williams and BIz Stone on opening night of D7 tomorrow); my assistant, Ed, getting threaded; our first D commercial by my friend and also new Fox star Jane Lynch of “Glee” (incredibly, we realized that she and I now both work for Rupert Murdoch); and a short primer on this year’s show by my terrific partner, Walt Mossberg.
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Hints of a New Market for Cheap, Power-Sipping Servers

in News on May 25, 2009 at 6:08 am PT

Netbooks are hot. Intel estimates that the laptops–which can cost less than $300–sold faster in their first 12 months on the market than Apple’s iPhone or Nintendo’s Wii game console did. Could a similar low-end niche emerge in server systems? It’s too early to tell, but there are some tantalizing signs–and some big ramifications if the trend takes hold.

Susan Boyle Sings Again: "Memory" and a Makeover

in News on May 25, 2009 at 12:44 am PT

Here are the two answers to the key questions you might have about Susan Boyle’s return appearance on “Britain’s Got Talent” last night: Yes and yes. As in: Did the Scottish singing (and Web) sensation nail it again? And, does she look better? Of course, singing “Memory” from “Cats,” Boyle made it to the finals, which are set to take place next Saturday.