John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

Amazon Poaches Windows Phone Director

If Amazon’s not developing a smartphone of its own, it’s certainly doing a lot to maintain the appearance that it is: Sniffing around key wireless patents, and now poaching a smartphone executive from its most prominent Seattle neighbor.

Robert Williams, a 15-year Microsoft veteran who most recently served as senior director of business development for the company’s Windows Phone division, started work at Amazon today. His new role: Director of the retailer’s app store.

Williams joins Brandon Watson, senior director of Windows Phone development, who left Microsoft this past February. And while there’s no hard evidence to suggest that either of the two is working on Amazon’s rumored smartphone, their CV’s and smartphone experience certainly lend credence to the idea.

Amazon declined comment on Williams’s specific duties at the company.

Twitter’s Tanking

December 30, 2013 at 6:49 am PT

2013 Was a Good Year for Chromebooks

December 29, 2013 at 2:12 pm PT

BlackBerry Pulls Latest Twitter for BB10 Update

December 29, 2013 at 5:58 am PT

Apple CEO Tim Cook Made $4.25 Million This Year

December 28, 2013 at 12:05 pm PT

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I think the NSA has a job to do and we need the NSA. But as (physicist) Robert Oppenheimer said, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you’ve had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

— Phil Zimmerman, PGP inventor and Silent Circle co-founder, in an interview with Om Malik