According to multiple reports I have received, some employees of OnLive have been walking out of their Palo Alto, Calif. offices over the last few hours laden with boxes.

And some, no surprise, are headed to a nearby bar — The Patio — presumably to drown their sorrows.

The departures from the online cloud-gaming service came after a meeting this morning in which its top execs told staff that it would be letting almost the entire staff go, but without a lot of explanation of what that meant.

While founder and CEO Steve Perlman runs a number of other digital efforts — via his own Rearden Labs — at its Silicon Valley HQ, sources said only fraction of staffers will be left to keep the servers running until a resolution for the assets is found. Kotaku reported that OnLive would be filing an “alternative to bankruptcy called an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, or ABC, in the state of California.”

It is not clear who actually owns the pricey technology and patents for OnLive, which has raised $56 million in funding from investors such as Maverick Capital, Time Warner and HTC. HTC, the Taiwanese telecom giant, invested $40 million of the total in early 2011.

That’s a lot of dough, so it is not clear what has happened or if Perlman is poised to sell off the entity.

Sony recently bought one of OnLive’s rivals in the space — Gaikai — for $380 million to turbocharge its cloud-gaming service efforts.

One thing is entirely clear: While egregiously denying it was doing so, the gaming and virtual desktop software start-up is effectively shutting down OnLive as it has been previously run.

Earlier today, an OnLive spokesperson denied the obvious situation.

“We don’t respond to rumors, but the service is not shutting down,” OnLive said, while also bizarrely flacking their games.

Last week, I heard a rumor of just this thing happening and asked a spokesperson last Friday via email: “I hear via very good sources it is closing down or cutting back.”

This was the disingenuous response: “The latest rumors have been around acquisitions — this is a new one! Not the case, but officially we never comment on rumors.”

No need for comment, as you can see from the photo above and also here that was just sent to me.

OnLive launched in 2010 as a Web portal for streaming games, which it demoed here, from the D: All Things Digital conference in 2010.

As Lauren Goode wrote earlier: “In addition to its cloud-based gaming platform, which runs on PCs, tablets and now Google TV products, OnLive also offers [Microsoft] Office-based, virtual desktop software for [Apple] iPads and [Google] Android tablets, which got the Palo-Alto-based start up in some hot water with Microsoft earlier this year.”

Mashable first reported on the possible layoffs earlier. Let’s upgrade that to actual.

Walt Mossberg and I could not be more thrilled to announce that Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, will be the opening-night speaker at our 10th D: All Things Digital conference.

It will be Cook’s first appearance at D, as well as his first time being onstage at an event not run by Apple or for investors since he was named CEO last August.

Since then, Cook has increased the enormous progress made under the late Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs, with the iconic Silicon Valley giant putting out a number of new and innovative products and also becoming one of the most valuable companies on earth.

(Of course, Jobs had made a half-dozen always memorable visits to our stage over the last decade, the last of which was in 2010 at D8.)

So we are looking forward to hearing Cook’s perspective on where the industry and Apple is going, and perhaps to get a glimpse into what makes its new leader — who is also a longtime Apple vet — tick.

And Cook knows a lot, to be sure.

Before he was named CEO, Cook played a critical role as COO at Apple, responsible for worldwide sales and operations from its supply chain to sales activities to service and support globally. Cook also ran Apple’s Macintosh unit.

Before Apple, he worked at Compaq, Intelligent Electronics, and even spent a dozen years at IBM.

Cook joins a D10 speaker list that is full of major players in tech and media, including: New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz, as well as many more.

(And we still have more speakers to come.)

Famed Hollywood movie director James Cameron has always been a geek, most especially an ocean geek, so it’s no surprise that he would be the one to dive seven miles down into the Mariana Trench’s Challenger Deep.

That would be into the Earth’s deepest place, in a tiny, vertical green tube. He’s the first person to do the treacherous dive alone — technically, it is 6.8 miles or 11 kilometers — an exploration he did with National Geographic.

It took about two hours to get down and a little over an hour to come back up. When he got back to the surface, Cameron was first spotted by the helicopter owned by his friend, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen (more power-nerding!), who was also along for the adventure.

While down in the bottom of the sea, Cameron gathered samples and readings, but he also found time to tweet:

Just arrived at the ocean’s deepest pt. Hitting bottom never felt so good. Can’t wait to share what I’m seeing w/ you @DeepChallenge

— James Cameron (@JimCameron) March 25, 2012

The well-known filmmaker has done two big movies related to the ocean — “Titanic” and “The Abyss,” but it is less well known that the lush landscape of “Avatar” got its color and design concepts from the sea.

I know all this and more about Cameron’s watery interests from an interview he did at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference in 2010. In it, he talked a lot about diving, including wanting to use submersibles to make sure the BP oil company was telling the truth about its spill back then.

Here’s the full video interview from D8, which is well worth a watch:

And here is a fantastic animation video National Geographic did of the dive:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120326/deep-diver-james-cameron-talked-ocean-geekery-way-back-at-d8/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20120202/during-the-ipo-quiet-period-please-enjoy-the-d-stylings-of-facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-and-sheryl-sandberg-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20120202/during-the-ipo-quiet-period-please-enjoy-the-d-stylings-of-facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-and-sheryl-sandberg-video/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:48:14 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=170893

We’ve been fortunate to host Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg twice on the stage of the D: All Things Digital conference, including one appearance with COO Sheryl Sandberg.

With the blockbuster IPO filing of the social networking giant yesterday — and the ensuing quiet period — both interviews are now most definitely an interesting look-see at the pair who are leading the company.

After Facebook goes public in late May, investors will presumably get more interaction with them both, as well as deeper insight into what makes the company tick.

Until then, here are the videos from the full interviews from 2010′s D8 and 2008′s D6 (unfortunately, for goofy reasons back then, we had to cut these up into four parts).

The interviews cover a wide range of topics, including the then-distant IPO.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120202/during-the-ipo-quiet-period-please-enjoy-the-d-stylings-of-facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-and-sheryl-sandberg-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111118/viral-video-titanic-in-3d-gets-facebook-lift/ http://allthingsd.com/20111118/viral-video-titanic-in-3d-gets-facebook-lift/#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2011 08:15:37 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=145593

Hollywood director James Cameron debuted the trailer for the upcoming 3-D version of the huge movie hit, “Titanic,” on Facebook earlier this week, where he also delivered an intro.

Why? Perhaps it’s the movie’s nearly 10.5 million fans on the social networking site, which Cameron referenced.

You can only see those remarks on Facebook, but here’s the trailer for the rerelease, coming out next April, as well as a video of Cameron at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference in 2010, where he first revealed that “Titanic” would come out in 3-D:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111118/viral-video-titanic-in-3d-gets-facebook-lift/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111109/horse-flash-apples-steve-jobs-on-adobe-vendetta-in-2010-at-d8-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20111109/horse-flash-apples-steve-jobs-on-adobe-vendetta-in-2010-at-d8-video/#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:30:29 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=142320

At a 2010 onstage interview with Walt Mossberg and me at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference, the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs spent a lot of time — and with considerable passion — talking about his company’s decision to dump Adobe’s popular Flash technology in its iPhone and iPad devices.

While he insisted that he wasn’t out to crush Adobe — instead using the metaphor of “choosing what horses to ride” — Jobs explained that the software technology was buggy, no longer useful, and, therefore, needed to be put out to pasture.

“We try to pick things that are in their springs … sometimes you just have to pick the things that are the right things going forward,” said Jobs plainly. “Flash looks like a technology that had its day and is waning.” According to Jobs, HTML5 was the new colt to back.

As to the implications on Apple’s mobile devices if consumers did not agree with his choice, he noted that “it all works itself out,” adding that a new iPad was then selling every three seconds.

“People seem to be liking iPads,” said Jobs with his patented grin.

It’s an interesting video to watch now — along with this one on Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen talking about the issue a year later at D9 — because of reports that first surfaced last night, that the high-profile software company — whose Flash technology has been a flagship product — was halting development on the mobile version of its browser plug-in.

Adobe confirmed the move this morning, noting it will focus its PC Web browser business and on tools that allow Flash developers to create mobile apps by packaging their code to run on Adobe’s AIR platform.

The move has big implications for Adobe going forward and also for mobile device makers, such as Google and Research In Motion. But not Apple.

As Ina Fried wrote:

“The move, if true, would be a major blow to Android device makers, who have long touted Flash compatibility as a key competitive advantage over Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

It would also mark a posthumous vindication for former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who took a controversial stand by not supporting Flash on Apple’s mobile products.”

Adobe now apparently agrees.

Here’s the video clip of Jobs talking trash about Flash:

(And, here’s a video from a year later from D9 of Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen talking about the same topic.)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111109/horse-flash-apples-steve-jobs-on-adobe-vendetta-in-2010-at-d8-video/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111109/the-fate-of-flash-on-mobile-devices-heres-the-adobe-ceo-talking-about-it-at-d9/ http://allthingsd.com/20111109/the-fate-of-flash-on-mobile-devices-heres-the-adobe-ceo-talking-about-it-at-d9/#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:05:45 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=142154

When Walt Mossberg interviewed Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen in June at the ninth D: All Things Digital conference about the future — or lack thereof — of Flash, and about the software company’s ugly fight with Apple over not supporting the technology on its mobile devices, Narayen declared the battle over.

“It’s an argument that the press likes to continue bringing up,” said Narayen, noting that all was fine with its development for Google Android and Research In Motion mobile offerings.

But now, as Ina Fried writes: “Adobe is apparently ready to throw in the towel when it comes to getting Flash to run on mobile devices.”

As it seems to have turned out, even Adobe now might be agreeing with the late Apple icon Steve Jobs on the issue.

Until we have more clarity on the plans, here’s Narayen on the topic at D9:

(And, to even out the score, here’s a video of Jobs talking about Flash at D8 a year before.)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111109/the-fate-of-flash-on-mobile-devices-heres-the-adobe-ceo-talking-about-it-at-d9/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111005/steve-jobs-appearances-at-d-the-full-sessions/ http://allthingsd.com/20111005/steve-jobs-appearances-at-d-the-full-sessions/#comments Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:49:00 +0000 Beth Callaghan http://allthingsd.com/?p=129213 Steve Jobs was onstage for the first-ever D: All Things Digital conference in 2003, and a guest and interviewee four times since — five if you count the legendary two appearances he made onstage at D5 in 2007, one solo and one with longtime rival and friend Bill Gates.

Here are the complete sessions for his D appearances:

D1 in 2003

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D2 in 2004

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D3 in 2005

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D5 in 2007

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D5 in 2007 with Microsoft’s Bill Gates

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D8 in 2010

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111005/steve-jobs-appearances-at-d-the-full-sessions/feed/ 8 http://allthingsd.com/20110826/steve-jobs-through-the-years-highlights-from-the-d-conference/ http://allthingsd.com/20110826/steve-jobs-through-the-years-highlights-from-the-d-conference/#comments Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:30:25 +0000 Beth Callaghan and Drake Martinet http://allthingsd.com/?p=113843 Since the inception of the D: All Things Digital conference in 2003, Steve Jobs was a frequent guest onstage, and his appearances have always made for some of our most popular videos. Here are some favorites:

D1: Steve Jobs Onstage in 2003, on the Tablet

A day after Bill Gates took the stage, enthusiastic about the future of the tablet computer, Jobs dismissed the idea as a niche product for rich guys. “We looked at the tablet, and we think it’s gonna fail.”

View the full session video of Steve Jobs at D1.

D2: Apple CEO Steve Jobs in 2004, on Not Doing a PDA

Specifically referring to ongoing speculation about Apple’s development of a PDA, Jobs said “I’m as proud of the products that we have not done as I am of the products we have done.”

View the full session video of Steve Jobs at D2.

D3: Steve Jobs Onstage at D3 in 2005

As Kara pushed for info about an “iPod phone,” Jobs laid out the challenges of creating such a product, though he didn’t make any outright denials that Apple was doing so.

View the full session video of Steve Jobs at D3.

D5: Steve Jobs Flashes the iPhone

In the first of two appearances at 2007′s D5 conference, Jobs joked with Walt about Apple’s “three businesses and a hobby” and gave attendees an oh-so-quick peek at the forthcoming iPhone.

D5: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates look back

In their first joint appearance in 20 years, Gates and Jobs reminisce about competition between their two companies and the state of the graphic user interface in the mid-nineties.

D5: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates look ahead

Jobs and Gates discuss the future of the industry and the roles of Apple and Microsoft as entertainment delivery systems.

View the highlight reel of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates together at D5.
View the full session video of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates together at D5.
View the full session video of Steve Jobs at D5.

D8: Steve Jobs on the iPhone’s Origin

In 2010, Jobs told Walt and Kara how the iPhone actually grew out of a multitouch display Apple was developing for a tablet. The OS was so promising that Jobs put the tablet on the back burner and used the OS for the iPhone instead.

D8: Steve Jobs on Apple’s Relationship With Google

“Just because we’re competing with somebody doesn’t mean we have to be rude.”

D8: Steve Jobs on Foxconn

Apple has a better understanding than most companies in the tech industry of the working conditions in its supply chain, Jobs told Walt and Kara in 2010, but it’s still working to understand the suicide rate at its Foxconn plant in China.

D8: Steve Jobs on iAds Restrictions

Here’s a hint for iOS developers: Don’t put third-party analytics software in your apps, especially not if the analytics firm involved is going to publish personal data about your users and their devices without asking them first. It really pisses Steve off.

D8: Steve Jobs on Television

The reason that Apple TV remains a hobby, Jobs explained at D8, is a balkanized television market that makes it impossible for the company to innovate across the board.

D8: Steve Jobs on AT&T

With the Verizon iPhone deal still on the horizon, Jobs was unable to offer any concrete hope to the Houston-based iPhone user in the D8 audience, whose only real problem with the phone was its inability to make any calls.

D8: Apple CEO Steve Jobs Talks About Flash

At D8, Jobs discussed his still-fresh “Thoughts on Flash” memo with Walt and Kara.

View the full session video of Steve Jobs at D8.

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]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110826/steve-jobs-through-the-years-highlights-from-the-d-conference/feed/ 7 http://allthingsd.com/20110812/the-gizmodo-iphone-4-caper-write-it-off-as-the-lisa-of-legal-vendettas/ http://allthingsd.com/20110812/the-gizmodo-iphone-4-caper-write-it-off-as-the-lisa-of-legal-vendettas/#comments Fri, 12 Aug 2011 12:32:21 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=109057

The San Mateo County district attorney’s decision not to bring charges against Gizmodo or its parent company Gawker Media in the iPhone 4 prototype caper has left Apple in awkward position. As you may recall, Steve Jobs made it quite clear in an onstage interview at our eighth D: All Things Digital conference in 2010 that he wanted to punish the publication.

“When this whole thing with Gizmodo happened, I got a lot of advice from people who said, ‘You’ve got to just let it slide,’” Jobs said. “‘You shouldn’t go after a journalist because they bought stolen property and they tried to extort you.’ And I thought deeply about this, and I concluded the worst thing that could happen, as we get big and we get a little more influence in the world, is if we change our core values and let it slide. I can’t do that. I’d rather quit.”

Well, Jobs is still CEO, even though the DA has now let Gizmodo off the hook.

So — as Jobs said he wanted to — will Apple go after the online media site with a civil suit? Or is the company too busy with other legal matters to bother?

Below, video of Jobs talking at D8 about the Gizmodo situation, in full:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110812/the-gizmodo-iphone-4-caper-write-it-off-as-the-lisa-of-legal-vendettas/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20110426/a-probe-in-your-pocket-heres-apples-steve-jobs-and-googles-andy-rubin-talking-privacy-at-d8-and-dive/ http://allthingsd.com/20110426/a-probe-in-your-pocket-heres-apples-steve-jobs-and-googles-andy-rubin-talking-privacy-at-d8-and-dive/#comments Tue, 26 Apr 2011 15:19:41 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=43052

We’ve done a lot of onstage interviews at our D: All Things Digital conferences with the leaders of tech.

That includes Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Google smartphone kingpin Andy Rubin, both of whom are now dealing with the fallout over a series of reports that iOS and Android smartphones regularly transmit their locations back to both companies.

The privacy implications are obvious.

As Mobilized’s Ina Fried wrote last week:

Questions about what location-based information Android makes use of followed reports that Apple’s iPhone and 3G-equipped iPads are storing a history of location information in an unencrypted database on the device. The Wall Street Journal on Thursday noted that both Android and Apple devices are sending certain location information back to the companies.

In addition to that issue, there are separate issues over the length of time such information is stored, both on the device and by Apple and Google. The iPhone (and 3G-equipped iPads) appear to be storing a long-term directory of where a device has been and keeping that information in an unencrypted database. Google keeps a small cache of such information, to allow mapping and search to work even if a device temporarily loses GPS signal. However, it doesn’t keep a long-term record on the device.

That’s why we cut this video of Jobs and Rubin talking about privacy, specifically and respectively at the eighth D: All Things Digital last summer and at D: Dive Into Mobile in December.

“We take privacy extremely seriously,” said Jobs, who addressed the smartphone location data issue in particular. “A lot of people in [Silicon] Valley think we’re old-fashioned about this.”

And I pressed Rubin on Android being a “probe in your pocket,” and he said its mobile open source operating system did not collect data, although Google services did.

“I think this is a trust and verify,” Rubin noted.

Both Jobs and Rubin make some pretty strong privacy-related statements in these videos, so it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110426/a-probe-in-your-pocket-heres-apples-steve-jobs-and-googles-andy-rubin-talking-privacy-at-d8-and-dive/feed/ 10 http://allthingsd.com/20110309/nprs-vivian-schiller-in-better-digital-days-the-full-d8-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20110309/nprs-vivian-schiller-in-better-digital-days-the-full-d8-video/#comments Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:21:42 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=41449

Today, as the left and right continue their epically exhausting battle for hegemony, NPR CEO Vivian Schiller resigned after a series of borks–including a sting video in the public radio’s top fundraiser insulted the Tea Party activists and the fumbled firing of commentator Juan Williams.

Oh dear.

Well, the former New York Times exec was pretty good at moving NPR into the digital age, at least.

In fact, BoomTown interviewed Schiller at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference about the digital future of NPR, which is pretty bright actually.

She talked about prospects for high-quality journalism and the ways the public radio unit could help create a more powerful network of many stations.

Here’s the full D8 video of the Schiller session, as well as a very funny spoof video she brought about some of the more way-out digital initiatives for NPR below it:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110309/nprs-vivian-schiller-in-better-digital-days-the-full-d8-video/feed/ 5 http://allthingsd.com/20101201/cbs-60-minutes-revisits-mark-zuckerberg-and-boomtown-takes-back-toddler-ceo-title/ http://allthingsd.com/20101201/cbs-60-minutes-revisits-mark-zuckerberg-and-boomtown-takes-back-toddler-ceo-title/#comments Wed, 01 Dec 2010 23:49:09 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=37916

This Sunday, the CBS television news magazine “60 Minutes” returns to Facebook after several years to check in on co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

In the first interview by correspondent Lesley Stahl in early 2008, Zuckerberg’s social networking empire was much smaller, beset by a series of management snafus and mired in yet another privacy controversy.

Plus, he was more than a lot more awkward. His “was-that-a-question?” response to an obvious question by Stahl was a near classic in geek communications.

Fast-forward to today: Zuckerberg rules an incredibly powerful tech company worth gazillions more (good), has developed into a very polished leader (good) and even had a big Hollywood movie called “The Social Network” made about him (not so good).

Presumably, Stahl will cover all that in her new chat with him, which includes a visit to Facebook’s new Palo Alto, Calif. HQ.

Stahl also interviewed me again and pistol-whipped me–okay, she just asked–until I took back my snarkiest remark from the first one, in which I called Zuckerberg a “toddler CEO.”

My new take, now sporting smart-lady glasses and much grayer hair: The toddler has turned out to be a prodigy!

In other words, the worm has officially turned.

Stahl also wanted to know about the rivalry with Google, the fallout of the movie, my epic de-hoodie-ing of Zuckerberg at D8 conference and what-up with the Winklevii (whom, I believe, I called “hambones.”)

Here is a small taste of the new piece, which airs at 7 pm this Sunday, followed by the entire one from 2008 and the blog post I did about it:

For those who missed it, here is the entire video of the piece CBS’ “60 Minutes” aired on Facebook last night, helmed by veteran correspondent Lesley Stahl.

It is not exactly the big wet kiss I was expecting the hot social networking company would get, but it was also definitely not an ouch-that-hurts piece that could have been done.

For those who don’t know the tale, it hits all the high (and low) points of the Facebook saga, with a button-pushing efficiency that television does so well. Thus, a synopsis:

Web Wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg, who seems genetically unable to smile (unlike, say, his deeply charming sister). Harvard. Ratty hoodies and flip-flops. Mark makes a Facebook profile for Lesley (how much do we love that she blocked her boss Les Moonves?).

Next stop: Silicon Valley! Dropping out and venture funding. Toddler CEO (that one was coined by BoomTown). Crazy HQ with kooky-looking employees, one of whom you know was forced to ride a unicycle through the office by Lesley.

Big growth. Is Mark Google’s Larry and Sergey rolled into one? Inexplicably, ZERO mention of its bigger rival, MySpace, even once. Worth $15 billion?–an insane number Lesley does not question nearly enough.

Oops, Privacy! Oops, Beacon! BoomTown tsks-tsks that stalkerish advertising idiocy and is asked about Mark’s qualifications as CEO (although no one cares what BoomTown thinks). Mark retorts: Hey, we need to make money. Lesley, so give the Wunderkind a break!

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101201/cbs-60-minutes-revisits-mark-zuckerberg-and-boomtown-takes-back-toddler-ceo-title/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100927/kno-to-also-make-a-single-screen-tablet-textbook/ http://allthingsd.com/20100927/kno-to-also-make-a-single-screen-tablet-textbook/#comments Mon, 27 Sep 2010 17:40:50 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=34253

Kno, the start-up that is creating a digital tablet for students, said it is also planning on releasing a single-screen version.

The company–which was started by the founder of Chegg, the online textbook rental service–had debuted a double-screen tablet (pictured here) at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference in June.

The current clamshell device has a pair of touchscreens that open and shut like a book, and Kno will offer an online store linked to the tablet for the purchase of materials.

Some felt the double-screened device might be too cumbersome, given the plethora of tablets in a variety of sizes that are being planned and released soon, all influenced by the popular Apple (AAPL) iPad.

Kno said its single-screen tablet will be smaller and sold at a lower price point, but will be shipped at the same time as the original double-screen, by the end of the year.

The company will be announcing pricing and ship dates soon.

When it does, Kno will be headed right into a competitive and increasingly innovative tablet market that now also includes Amazon (AMZN), Samsung, Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and Google (GOOG).

Kno is certainly girding for battle in this portable arena. It nabbed an additional $46 million in venture funding from a panoply of Silicon Valley bigs earlier this month.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based Kno previously raised almost $10 million in funding from prominent venture players like Andreessen Horowitz and First Round Capital, along with investors Mike Maples and Ron Conway.

In addition, well-known techie Marc Andreessen is now on Kno’s board.

Here is the video of a prototype of the double-screen Kno in action at D8:

Want to see it bigger? Click here.

And here is the official press release from Kno:

Kno Breaks New Ground with the World’s First
Single Screen Tablet Textbook

Kno Continues the Pace of Innovation in Integrated Learning with a Smaller Version of the Kno

San Francisco, CA–September 27, 2010–Kno, Inc., the groundbreaking tablet textbook and dynamic learning platform, today announced its further commitment to the education market with a single screen version of its tablet textbook. The single screen version extends the breakthroughs and functionality of the dual screen version announced in June.

“Kno fundamentally improves the way students learn,” said Osman Rashid, the CEO and Co-Founder of Kno, Inc. “We are driven to innovate in a category that has been static for too long. Even though the Kno pays for itself in 13 months, the smaller up front investment of the single screen version will allow more students to use our learning platform.”

Kno, short for knowledge, is a transformative learning platform that blends a touch-screen tablet, digital textbooks, course materials, note-taking, web access, educational applications, digital media, sharing and more into a powerful and engaging educational experience that is not available on any other tablet or eReader today.

“From day one, we designed the Kno with flexibility in mind,” said Babur Habib, CTO and Co-Founder of Kno, Inc. “We developed the product to have multiple configurations and meet different student needs. The single screen maintains the elegance of our fluid, intuitive interface while capturing the richness and ‘page fidelity’ of the original textbook.”

The company plans to ship both the single and two-screen tablet textbooks to consumers by the end of 2010. Pricing and pre-order announcements will be made in the coming months.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100927/kno-to-also-make-a-single-screen-tablet-textbook/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100908/heres-what-vcs-get-for-46-million-the-kno-tablet-d8-demo/ http://allthingsd.com/20100908/heres-what-vcs-get-for-46-million-the-kno-tablet-d8-demo/#comments Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:55:13 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=33473

Today, Kno, a start-up that is taking on the textbook by replacing it with a tablet aimed at students, nabbed another $46 million in venture funding from a panoply of Silicon Valley bigs.

And what are those moneybags getting for their dough?

Well, here’s the demo for Kno, which debuted at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference in June.

The clamshell device has a pair of touchscreens that open and shut like a book, and Kno will offer an online store linked to the tablet for the purchase of materials.

In fact, Kno shares a co-founder with Chegg, the online textbook-rental service.

That would be Osman Rashid–and you can pretty much draw a straight line from Chegg to Kno.

But rather than focusing on making an old business better via the Web, as Chegg does, Kno will be headed right into the competitive tablet market that now includes Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Samsung, Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and, reportedly, Google (GOOG).

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based Kno has previously raised almost $10 million in funding from prominent venture players like Andreessen Horowitz and First Round Capital, along with investors Mike Maples and Ron Conway.

In addition, Marc Andreessen is now on Kno’s board.

Andreessen Horowitz is upping the ante this new round too, as you can read in the press release below.

Kno Funding FINAL FINAL Release

And, here is the full demo video for Kno at D8:

(Want to see it bigger? Click here.)

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100908/heres-what-vcs-get-for-46-million-the-kno-tablet-d8-demo/feed/ 9 http://allthingsd.com/20100831/apple-the-angelina-jolie-of-tech-steps-into-the-spotlight-again-tomorrow/ http://allthingsd.com/20100831/apple-the-angelina-jolie-of-tech-steps-into-the-spotlight-again-tomorrow/#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:55:48 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=33148

For a secretive company, Apple sure has had a lot of events, launches and communications with the people in 2010.

Such as tomorrow’s music-focused event in San Francisco, where oodles of announcements around the iPod and iTunes are expected.

In a lot of ways, the company kind of reminds me of Angelina Jolie, the glamorous global celebrity who claims to vigorously guard her privacy, while at the same time carefully doling out an awful lot of information about her life, her many kids, her thoughts, her tattoos and, of course, Brad Pitt.

BoomTown is not meaning to disrespect Apple (AAPL) with this comparison, because no one loves a dose of Jolie news more than me.

The same is true for Apple, which has had a plethora of very noisy and very public activity throughout all of 2010, from its January 27 iPad announcement to the June 7 iPhone 4 launch to the July 16 Antennagate event.

That is not even including the many spontaneous emails of CEO Steve Jobs to the masses or his well-aimed barbs at both Google (GOOG) and then Adobe (ADBE).

And, of course, his energetic interview at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference in June.

Tomorrow, of course, will likely be more of the same, and the crack All Things Digital team will be there to chronicle it all, along with 38,467 other members of the media.

Given all this–now that I think about it–Angelina needs to step up her efforts if she wants to keep up with the Silicon Valley icon.

Until tomorrow then, here are some videos BoomTown made in 2010 at various Apple confabs, as well as the full video of Jobs at D8 in June:

iPad Look-See

Walt Mossberg and Jobs Talk iPad

iPhone 4 Palooza

Jobs at D8

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100831/apple-the-angelina-jolie-of-tech-steps-into-the-spotlight-again-tomorrow/feed/ 6 http://allthingsd.com/20100823/top-aol-media-exec-marty-moe-to-depart-other-rumors-of-david-eun-ankling-not-so-much/ http://allthingsd.com/20100823/top-aol-media-exec-marty-moe-to-depart-other-rumors-of-david-eun-ankling-not-so-much/#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 17:56:58 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=32671

According to sources close to the situation, one of AOL’s top, longtime media execs, Marty Moe (pictured here), is leaving the company.

Sources said the reasons were personal and Moe was not currently taking another job.

UPDATE: BoomTown just obtained the internal memo on the departure, which is below.

Moe is currently SVP of the Media unit’s News & Information Group at AOL (AOL), although he has held a number of other content posts under different execs at the long-struggling company.

Moe’s former boss Bill Wilson left the company in February, and Moe now works for President of Media and Studios David Eun, who came to AOL from a content job at the YouTube unit of Google (GOOG).

While there have been a spate of rumors recently that Eun was the one on his way out, sources at AOL said such speculation was inaccurate.

There has most definitely been tension in the media group since Eun began making massive changes in its management and strategy.

Media, in fact, has been the main focus of CEO Tim Armstrong, who is betting big on content offerings and the premium advertising that could be sold around it.

Here is the internal memo from Eun on the departure:

Dear AOL Media team–

Our colleague and long-time AOLer, Marty Moe, has decided to step down from his role leading our News & Information area. Marty, a nine-year veteran of the company, was one of the original champions of opening up AOL’s content and products to all users on the web at large as the company transitioned to an ad-supported media business.

More recently, Marty was a driving force behind helping AOL move away from aggregating third party content and moving toward the creation of high quality original content.

In talking with Marty, I know that he is eager to take on new challenges and also find more time to spend with his family. Marty is going to be transitioning with us through early October. In the meantime we will be looking for someone to fill his role.

Please join me in thanking Marty for his contributions to AOL and in wishing him the best of luck going forward.

David

And here is Armstrong talking about trying to jumpstart AOL in an interview with me at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference in June:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100823/top-aol-media-exec-marty-moe-to-depart-other-rumors-of-david-eun-ankling-not-so-much/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100817/exclusive-bermanbraun-strikes-big-ad-deal-with-starcom/ http://allthingsd.com/20100817/exclusive-bermanbraun-strikes-big-ad-deal-with-starcom/#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:57:44 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=32343 In an interesting move for premium online content, Hollywood’s BermanBraun has signed an advertising deal with Starcom MediaVest Group, the media agency unit of advertising giant Publicis Groupe, sources said.

As part of the deal, Starcom gets a “first look” at all of the online properties created by the innovative production company headed by Lloyd Braun (pictured here) and Gail Berman. BermanBraun produces both digital and mainstream content.

Both Berman and Braun are longtime Hollywood execs, and Braun also did a rocky stint running media at Yahoo (YHOO).

Sources said the goal for the parties is that the advertising spend exceed north of $100 million over four years on BermanBraun sites.

This is important, since Starcom’s clients, which include Wal-Mart (WMT) and Procter & Gamble (PG), are big spenders offline.

Thus, getting regular ad dollars to online properties is critical to the success of digital content, which has remained an experimental spend, compared with offline entertainment.

Those sites include its celebrity Wonderwall site, the women-focused Glo on Microsoft (MSFT) portal MSN, the upcoming political site on MSNBC and others being developed.

The deal is apparently nonexclusive to Starcom, sources said, so BermanBraun can sell to other advertisers.

The deal will be shepherded by Brian Terkelsen, who runs Starcom’s LiquidThread unit aimed at the Web and mobile devices.

To understand where it is all headed, here is a video of Braun onstage at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference in June, in an interview I did with him and Steve Levitan, co-creator of the television hit “Modern Family”:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100817/exclusive-bermanbraun-strikes-big-ad-deal-with-starcom/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100817/full-d8-demo-microsofts-project-natal-now-called-kinect/ http://allthingsd.com/20100817/full-d8-demo-microsofts-project-natal-now-called-kinect/#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:15:50 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=32251

As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June.

Today is our final video post, and the honor goes to Microsoft (MSFT) for its innovative Project Natal, which has recently been renamed Kinect.

The new gesture-based controller for the Xbox requires that consumer use hands, arms, legs and even heads to interact with the game, but nothing else.

To show it off, Walt Mossberg and I employed the services of my No. 1 son, Louie Swisher, who was aces at trying out the games. Me–not so much.

Here’s the video of the Project Natal/Kinect demo at D8:

Want to see it bigger? Click here.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100817/full-d8-demo-microsofts-project-natal-now-called-kinect/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100812/hollywood-groups-weigh-in-on-fcc-internet-reclassification/ http://allthingsd.com/20100812/hollywood-groups-weigh-in-on-fcc-internet-reclassification/#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:35:39 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=32045

An alphabet soup of entertainment-industry groups submitted briefs to the Federal Communications Commission today as part of its request for comment on a framework for broadband services.

Specifically, whether or not to reclassify the Internet as a telecommunications service, which would trigger all kinds of juicy regulatory power.

The Internet has been classified as an information service and not a phone service–a problem now, since a court ruling earlier this year said the FCC has no legal authority over an information service.

Rut-roh!–especially since FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has wanted power to push for net neutrality and faster broadband.

There are all kinds of complex issues at stake, from net neutrality to piracy to open Internet to broadband access–and Hollywood groups have conflicting interests, all related to content distribution.

But everyone’s obvious concern is copyright infringement and how to create rules around it without also having too much regulation or not enough freedom.

Oh, so vexing to explain and so many lawyers clearly involved, so just read this pair of briefs–one a joint filing from AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), DGA (Directors Guild of America), IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees), SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America); and the other a different take from the WGAW (Writers Guild of America, West):

Broadband Reply Comments

And here is Genachowski talking about a lot of this in an interview with Walt Mossberg at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference in June:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100812/hollywood-groups-weigh-in-on-fcc-internet-reclassification/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100812/full-d8-demo-video-wordnik/ http://allthingsd.com/20100812/full-d8-demo-video-wordnik/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:33:00 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=31959

As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June.

Today, it’s time for Wordnik, the innovative start-up aimed at, well, words.

Founded by Erin McKean, the former editor-in-chief of the New Oxford American Dictionary, Wordnik claims to have the word’s most complete map of the language you are currently reading.

In this video, she demos Smartwords, an open standard for sharing information about words.

But why use words when you can watch? Here’s the video of Wordnik’s demo at D8:

Want to see it bigger? Click here.

Note: We’ll be posting full D8 videos on Mondays and Thursdays. Next up: The demo for Microsoft’s Project Natal, now called Kinect.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100812/full-d8-demo-video-wordnik/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100809/full-d8-demo-video-onlive/ http://allthingsd.com/20100809/full-d8-demo-video-onlive/#comments Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:01:03 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=31683

As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June.

Today, please don’t miss this riveting demo of OnLive by longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur Steve Perlman.

OnLive is aimed at bringing high-end games to users, streamed from the cloud.

But the idea is much bigger than cloud gaming, since OnLive is essentially the most interesting example of how almost anything can be deployed in this manner.

With lots of patents pending and proprietary compression technology, OnLive will be an interesting and innovative start-up to watch.

So, watch it demo at D8:

Want to see it bigger? Click here.

Note: We’ll be posting full D8 videos on Mondays and Thursdays. Next up: The demo for Wordnik.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100809/full-d8-demo-video-onlive/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100806/dell-streak-demo-at-d8-the-full-uncut-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20100806/dell-streak-demo-at-d8-the-full-uncut-video/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:44:05 +0000 Beth Callaghan http://d8.allthingsd.com/?p=2550

As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June.

Today, it’s time for the Streak from Dell (DELL), a much-anticipated entry into the tablet market that Apple (AAPL) has blown up with its iPad.

Dell’s model, which uses the Google (GOOG) Android mobile operating system, is a different solution — smaller than the iPad, but bigger than a smartphone.

Want to see it bigger? Click here.

Note: We’ll be posting full D8 videos on Mondays and Thursdays. Next up: The demo for OnLive.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100806/dell-streak-demo-at-d8-the-full-uncut-video/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100806/kno-demo-at-d8-the-full-uncut-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20100806/kno-demo-at-d8-the-full-uncut-video/#comments Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:36:11 +0000 Beth Callaghan http://d8.allthingsd.com/?p=2548

As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June.

Here’s the demo for Kno, a start-up that is taking on the textbook by replacing it with a tablet aimed at students.

Want to see it bigger? Click here.

Note: We’ll be posting full D8 videos on Mondays and Thursdays. Next up: The demo for Dell Streak.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100806/kno-demo-at-d8-the-full-uncut-video/feed/ 0