If you want a quick analysis of why Facebook would pay $1 billion for popular photo-sharing service Instagram, please ignore the obvious financials that just don’t add up at all and have most of the typically unshockable digerati shocked by the sheer amount of the price.

Actually, it’s pretty simple: Photos. Photos. And, oh yes, mobile photos — lots and lots and lots of them.

Astonishingly, Facebook users already upload an average of more than 250 million images daily, making it the most popular photo-sharing service on the Web.

But it’s not the best by far and not the most mobile, which is Facebook’s biggest weakness — that has been accomplished many others, especially Instagram, the favorite of power users who scoffed at Facebook’s weak tools. (The horror of no filters!)

Now — instead of all those billions of juicy digital photos snapped by an ever-growing legion of smartphone users loading up to the beautifully designed Instagram mobile app and living on the servers of the small San Francisco-based start-up — Facebook has now captured all these memories for its massive social networking site.

And while $1 billion seems an awful lot to pay for that privilege — Twitter is quaking with “OMG!” and “Wow!” and “WTF!” tweets about the acquisition — this is apparently priceless for Facebook in a deal that went down quickly and quietly in recent weeks.

That and the fact that the huge sum prevented Instagram from being scooped up by Google.

It’s a clear signal from CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg — who rules all product efforts at the company — of his intent to dominate all innovations that have to do with owning the social experience.

Because while many Instagram photos quickly made their way onto Facebook — sharing on the service, as well as on Twitter, was a big part of the app’s offering — the future of the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company is tied to having control over key elements of the user experience.

Of all of those — communications, status updates, content linking — it has been photos that have become perhaps the most important part of Facebook, almost since its beginnings.

Photos are what allowed Facebook to grow so quickly and what made it more than just a blue sea of text and links to consumers. Its new Timeline depends on big, pretty photos, and Facebook even recently announced that it would allow full-screen viewing of high-resolution photos on its Web site, a pricey endeavor.

So, perhaps it was inevitable that Zuckerberg would pay up for Instagram, too — he knows a good entrepreneurial success when he sees one and apparently has the power to convince start-ups that he can make their bigger dreams come true.

Whether or not Instagram ever makes money is perhaps beside the point at this moment in time, as Facebook is poised to go public at 100 times the amount it forked over for Instagram.

But that it considers such a purchase worth as much as one percent of its expected valuation says a thousands words. And most of those words are “mobile” and “photo.”

As Ben Jacobs noted on Twitter: “Kodak goes bankrupt and Instagram is worth a billion dollars. 2012, y’all.”

Indeed. And, I have no doubt if Zuckerberg could figure out a way to shove all those Kodak moments from analog snapshots onto Facebook easily, he’d have paid up for that, too.

Though it won’t arrive in the U.S. until Feb. 22, Sony’s newest handheld gaming device has stumbled out of the starting gate in Japan. The device sold 321,400 units in two days, but on Monday, Sony issued an apologetic statement after complaints emerged that the Vita was freezing and crashing.

But, for what it’s worth, there is a common thread between the two products: Sony’s new gadget was developed in part by one of the original creators of one of the most successful consumer-electronics devices of all time.

As the PlayStation blog reports today, the look and feel of the Vita was designed by Takashi Sogabe of the Sony Corporate Design Centre. It also notes that Sogabe, who has been at the company for 27 years, worked on the original Walkman.

While it probably isn’t entirely accurate that he worked on the original Walkman (since it came before Sogabe’s time), a bio on Sony’s Web site gives him credit for a “See-through Walkman,” and a “Beautiful Walkman.” He also worked on the PlayStation 3 and Sony’s e-reader.

The PlayStation blog will be posting a full interview with Sogabe later, but today’s post did offer some details.

Sogabe said the design team came up with various versions of the Vita, including one with a sliding back, and another that snapped shut like a clamshell.

He also said that they tried to incorporate two touchpads in place of the dual analog sticks, but that they weren’t accurate enough.

(Takashi Sogabe image courtesy of Sony)

(Walkman images courtesy of Wikipedia)

Tonight, Hipstamatic announced a new app called D-Series (to be released on Thursday), which helps groups of users create communal photo albums.

The idea is modeled on the disposable cameras that partygoers might pass around at a wedding or other event. Only after the “roll” is completed do all the images get downloaded to participants’ phones.

The new app, which, unlike Hipstamatic, is free, is not just like every other mobile photo-sharing app. Friends who have iOS devices and download the app can connect to each other to shoot up to one roll of 24 photos together. Users can then share the communal album to Facebook, Twitter and email.

D-Series is separate from the main Hipstamatic app, but uses the same signature theme cameras available to users through 99 cent in-app purchases.

D-Series fits in a similar vein with other group-photo-sharing apps, like Color (which pivoted to something different) and Divvyshot (which was bought by Facebook and shut down). But it has those signature Hipstamatic filters and flair, which the company attributes to the inspiration of analog.

*For reference, Hipstamatic has 4.5 million users; Instagram has 15 million.

Here’s a video pitch for D-Series:

Hipstamatic Disposable from Synthetic on Vimeo.

In a company statement announcing the deal, TI CEO Rich Templeton described the deal as being about “strength and growth.” He said National had done a good job boosting its profitability and reining in expenses, and that the combination will, upon the close, boost TI’s earnings per share.

TI specializes in wireless chips sold into mobile phones while National specializes in analog chips. TI is in the analog chip business too and has 30,000 analog products in its portfolio, which will now be supplemented by the 12,000 analog products that National sells. In one go, analog products will become more than 50 percent of TI’s business.

Another key factor: National’s manufacturing prowess. It owns chip factories–usually referred to as “fabs”–in Maine, Scotland and Malayasia, and TI says it will continue to operate them.

Terms of the agreement call for National shareholders to receive $25 in cash for each share of National common stock they hold at the time of closing. TI expects to fund the transaction with a combination of existing cash balances and debt. As of December 31, TI had about $3 billion in combined cash and short-term investments, and no long-term debt. TI also had access to a variable-rate revolving credit facility that gives it access to a combined $1.9 billion until August 2012; I’m presuming that the remaining $1.5 billion or so will be borrowed. National also has $879 million and change in cash on its books, but a little more than a $1 billion in long-term debt.

Investors seem cautiously optimistic about the deal. TI shares are up slightly in after-hours trading. National shares are naturally soaring by 70 percent to catch up with the valuation of the deal. One other company whose price I just checked is that of Fairchild Semiconductor. It’s a rival to National in the analog and power-management business. Its shares are up 94 cents–or more than 5 percent–after hours, and there’s no mistaking the speculative hope that it could be the next takeover target.

Sony Ericsson

Wireless handset maker Sony-Ericsson just issued a statement on the extent of disruptions it expects.

“Although the full impact of the current situation on our business will take additional time to assess, Sony Ericsson anticipates disruption to its supply chain operations,” the company said in a statement. “As part of our business continuity plan, we are in contact with all our key suppliers in the region and we are identifying the possible relocation of certain component manufacturing, and looking at secondary sources of supply.”

Intel and Qualcomm

Some analysts had speculated that plant shutdowns by Mitsubishi Gas would slow chip production by cutting supplies of certain chemicals used in the chip making process. Both Intel and Qualcomm told Bloomberg News that they’re careful to avoid situations where important supplies come from only one source.

Texas Instruments

Wireless chipmaker Texas Instruments said on Monday that a plant in Miho, about 40 miles northeast of Tokyo, had suffered “substantial damage” and that it may be July before the plant is back up to full production. The plant is responsible for about 10 percent of TI’s overall production, and about a third of its capacity is devoted to its Digital Light Processor, and the rest to analog components. Shares of Diodes, Inc., a TI rival, jumped when analyst John Vinh of Collins Stewart said the company stood to benefit from TI’s troubles.

Oracle

Analyst Derrick Wood of Susquehanna Financial said in a note to clients that fears about Oracle’s exposure to the Japanese market, which has driven the shares down in recent days, are probably overblown. Even though Japan accounts for about five percent of Oracle’s revenue, he said, fears are “likely overdone.” Most of Oracle’s revenue from Japan comes from recurring maintenance fees, so the risk of a serious hit to sales is minimal.

Raw Materials

The Wall Street Journal notes that Japan supplies about 90 percent of the world’s bismaleimide triazine, an important material used in making printed circuit boards for wireless phones. Japan also supplies much of the world’s silicon wafers that are used to make chips.

(Map via Wikimedia Commons)

One area of apps involves gaming. I’m not just referring to the single player, heads-down games that consume a person for hours until she beats her own best score, or the scores of strangers around the Internet—though plenty of those exist for the tablet. I’m talking about old-fashioned board games, the kind that involve sitting around with friends or family and actually having fun together. Some of these apps are purely digital. But one company is bringing real board-like elements to tablet games.

This week, I tested a game that successfully marries digital and analog games by using the first physical device to digitally interact with the Apple iPad screen. The $40 Duo by Discovery Bay Games (yoomigame.com) doesn’t plug into the iPad, nor does it connect to the iPad via Bluetooth or other means. It sits on the iPad screen in a specific spot and uses a built-in light sensor on its underbelly to interpret light signals displayed on the iPad screen during a game.

To play the Yoomi game with Discovery Bay Games’ Duo, players drop jewel-like tokens onto the top of the device to vote on possible answers to questions.

The first accompanying game app to use the Duo, called Yoomi, is free from the Apple App Store and can be played by kids as young as 3 years old. It simply asks players to guess what one person would choose between two possible answers, or options, both of which are displayed as digital cards with text and images on the iPad screen. Cards include options like, “dig a hole to China” or “find buried treasure.” Up to six people or teams can play, and each receives a set of jewel-toned tokens that they’ll try to get rid of before the other players by guessing each person’s choice. Playful music and sound effects accompany each game.

Players cast their votes by placing tokens on one of two spaces atop the Duo, a plastic hollow device with clear sides and a tiny black switch. Each space represents an answer, and the person about whom everyone else guesses privately chooses one answer by reaching into the Duo and touching the iPad screen to select the answer.

After the other players cast their votes, a Reveal button on the iPad screen uncovers the chosen answer. Suddenly, the space at the top of the Duo representing the correct chosen answer drops like a trap door, collecting all tokens that were there. The iPad is passed to the next person and play continues, with each person selecting an answer for others to guess until one person or team is out of tokens.

At first, I was skeptical that the Duo and the Yoomi game could replicate playing with traditional board games. Since so few aspects of my life aren’t touched by digital technology, putting down my laptop, iPad or BlackBerry to play a board game always feels like a treat. But I found that while playing Yoomi, the iPad becomes the game board, stationed in the center of a table or circle of friends and passed around for each person to cast a vote.

Since the iPad has plenty of additional functions, playing a game on it may invite distractions from the outside world. Other apps continued to work in the background on my iPad, like my Facebook and Entertainment Weekly apps, which send occasional pop-up notifications onto the screen. The thought of personal Facebook messages popping up would be enough to embarrass any teen into not wanting to use his or her iPad to play with family members. On a good note, the chime indicating I received a new email on the iPad was automatically silenced during game play.

And of course, the iPad costs at least $500, so even though the $40 Duo is relatively affordable, the whole set won’t fit most family budgets.

Still, several advantages come from using a digital game that incorporates physical components, like tokens and a device that collects those tokens. Instead of holding a controller and staring at a TV, like with video games, players need to look up at one another to see how many tokens each person has and who’s winning. And the Yoomi game questions are provocative enough that people will want to ask one another why they chose their answers or voted a certain way.

One of the most exciting things about this technology is its ability to use a light sensor for communication between the iPad screen and another object. Discovery Bay Games CEO Craig Olson said the company might consider using this technology for other products such as a health-related device that, when placed on the iPad screen, allows data to be automatically recognized and recorded.

Like other digital apps, Yoomi can be updated with new content to replenish the 150 pairs of digital cards that come loaded with this free game; another 150 pairs will be sent in an update later this year. Mr. Olson said people tend to burn through digital games much faster than traditional board games, and the ability to send new game material without manufacturing and delivering physical parts is a real boon.

The people working at Discovery Bay Games know a thing or two about traditional board games: Numerous Discovery Bay Games employees worked at Cranium, the charades-esque game that gets people humming, whistling, drawing with closed eyes and miming. Duo is likewise deliberately designed to encourage interaction with others.

In the next nine months, some 12 to 15 other iPad app games will be released for use with Duo, including a $2.99 Smithsonian Fact or Fiction game and a $2.99 Discovery for Kids–Astonishing Comparisons game.

This summer, Discovery Bay Games will start releasing other physical devices that will work with the iPad and range in price from $30 to $60. Some will use the light-sensor technology while others will use different signaling methods to communicate with the iPad. These will launch in conjunction with lead titles, like a Highlights for Children game and a Saturday Night Live game. Mr. Olson said the company is developing for the Android platform as well as for Windows 7 devices.

For now, the Duo and Yoomi are a fun way to add technology into family game night, with continuously updated content keeping game material fresh. As games improve to take full advantage of the other tablet functions, they’ll become even more enjoyable and interactive.

Write to Katherine Boehret at katie.boehret@wsj.com

Notice to Readers

Starting today, The Mossberg Solution column becomes The Digital Solution. It will still be written by Katherine Boehret and edited by Walter S. Mossberg.

And we’ve just added an exciting new speaker to the already top-drawer list: Daniel Ek, co-founder and CEO of Spotify.

For those living under a rock, Ek (pictured here with co-founder Martin Lorentzon) leads one of the most exciting music services on the Web right now.

In fact, the Swedish entrepreneur is shaking up how and where people listen to and consume music.

As MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka–who will be interviewing Ek onstage–recently wrote of Spotify’s efforts to bring its hugely popular (and legal) streaming offering to the U.S. market:

In Europe, where Spotify has been a very big success, listeners can stream an unlimited amount of music, on demand, without ever paying a cent. But in the U.S., rival streaming services like Rhapsody, MOG and Napster generally only offer a very brief trial period of a few days before requiring that a pay wall go up.

For the past two years, Spotify has insisted that free, unlimited streaming is the only way the service will work, because that’s Spotify’s most effective marketing technique. Subscribers who do pay up get benefits like ad-free music, and the ability to port their songs to mobile devices like iPhones.

But the labels, most notably Warner Music Group, have insisted that unlimited free streams only serve to strip away their product’s remaining value–if you can listen for free on Spotify, why would you ever buy another CD or iTunes single?

The whole mobile music space is a riveting one to dive into, of course, and we think Ek is the perfect person to help us do so.

Ek will appear Tuesday morning, December 6, but D: Dive Into Mobile opens on Monday, December 6, with an evening onstage interview with Google Android majordomo Andy Rubin.

The new conference represents the very first brand extension of our D: All Things Digital conference, now in its ninth year of grilling the big names in tech and media to sold-out analog audiences and scores more on the Web.

And, as always, there will be no PowerPoints, no panels and definitely no pontificating.

What there will be are unrehearsed, unscripted and unexpected interviews with top players, taking a big-picture view of the broader digital landscape.

But, unlike big D, D: Dive Into Mobile is topic-focused, drilling down deeply into the ubiquity of mobile technology and devices, and its implications for brands, organizations and consumers worldwide.

Offering a more intimate and focused conference setting, D: Dive Into Mobile will feature other industry heavyweights, including: Dan Hesse, President and CEO of Sprint Nextel; Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of Research in Motion; Mike McCue, CEO of Flipboard; Joe Belfiore, Vice President of Windows Phone Program Management at Microsoft; Jon Rubinstein of Palm, now owned by Hewlett-Packard; Foursquare CEO and co-founder Dennis Crowley; Google Ad Products Management head Susan Wojcicki; and AT&T Emerging Devices President Glenn Lurie.

D: Dive Into Mobile will be held at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco and, as usual, we’ll be liveblogging the whole thing and also posting highlight videos.

Along with Walt Mossberg, Kafka and I, Mossberg Solution’s Katherine Boehret will be conducting the interviews.

You can sign up here for D: Dive Into Mobile.

While everyone is considering whether to brine or deep-fry the turkey this week, All Things Digital HQ will be busy with our preparations for D: Dive Into Mobile.

That includes setting the program, which takes place in two weeks and will open with an evening interview with Google’s Andy Rubin (pictured here).

As the search giant’s mobile chief and principal force and creator of its Android operating system, Rubin is responsible for the ongoing development of the major rival to the Apple iPhone.

Many have challenged Android, including a recent jab from Apple CEO Steve Jobs, questioning its overall experience and whether or not it’s actually open.

Nonetheless, Rubin and Android have proven to be a disruptive and fast-growing force in the mobile space, aiming for dominance akin to Microsoft’s on the desktop.

Ironic? Yes.

Rubin started as an engineer at Apple and later worked at General Magic, where he participated in developing Magic Cap, an operating system and interface for handheld devices. When Magic Cap failed, Rubin joined Artemis Research, founded by Steve Perlman, which became WebTV and was eventually acquired by Microsoft.

After several years, Rubin left to found another smartphone effort called Danger, which was also acquired by Microsoft, in 2008.

Disillusionment with his ouster as CEO of Danger motivated him to found Android, which was later acquired by Google.

Now, it seems Rubin is poised to make good on his first efforts at making a truly smart smartphone ubiquitous.

And he is only one of many of the industry heavyweight speakers at D: Dive Into Mobile, among them: Dan Hesse, president and CEO of Sprint Nextel; Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of Research in Motion; Mike McCue, CEO of Flipboard; Joe Belfiore, vice president of Windows Phone Program Management at Microsoft; Jon Rubinstein of Palm, now owned by Hewlett-Packard; Foursquare CEO and co-founder Dennis Crowley; Google advertising czar Susan Wojcicki; and Glenn Lurie, president of Emerging Devices for AT&T.

Plus, there is also one more big speaker we’ll be announcing soon, so stay tuned.

D: Dive Into Mobile will be held at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco on December 6 and 7.

It represents the very first brand extension of our flagship D: All Things Digital conference, now in its ninth year of grilling the big names in tech and media to sold-out analog audiences and scores more on the Web.

And, as always, there will be no PowerPoints, no panels and definitely no pontificating. What there will be are unrehearsed, unscripted and unexpected interviews, where real news is often broken.

But, unlike big D, D: Dive Into Mobile is topic-focused, drilling down deeply into the ubiquity of mobile technology and devices, and its implications for brands, organizations and consumers worldwide.

Along with Walt Mossberg and me, Mossberg Solution’s Katherine Boehret and MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka will be conducting the interviews.

As usual, we’ll be liveblogging the whole thing and also posting highlight videos.

But there’s nothing like being there, so you can sign up for the D: Dive Into Mobile conference here.

Yes, it’s true–All Things Digital is expanding. And, for our first trick–ta-da–we bring you: D: Dive Into Mobile.

The new conference represents the very first brand extension of our D: All Things Digital conference, now in its ninth year of grilling the big names in tech and media to sold-out analog audiences and scores more on the Web.

And, as always, there will be no PowerPoints, no panels and definitely no pontificating.

What there will be are unrehearsed, unscripted and unexpected interviews with top players, taking a big-picture view of the broader digital landscape.

But, unlike big D, D: Dive Into Mobile is topic-focused, drilling down deeply into the ubiquity of mobile technology and devices, and its implications for brands, organizations and consumers worldwide.

Offering a more intimate and focused conference setting, D: Dive Into Mobile will feature a gathering of industry heavyweights, including: Dan Hesse, President and CEO of Sprint Nextel (S); Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of Research in Motion (RIMM); Mike McCue, CEO of Flipboard; Joe Belfiore, Vice President of Windows Phone Program Management at Microsoft (MSFT); Andy Rubin, Vice President of Mobile Platforms for Google (GOOG); Jon Rubinstein of Palm, now owned by Hewlett-Packard (HPQ); Foursquare CEO and Co-founder Dennis Crowley; and several more big speakers to be announced soon.

D: Dive Into Mobile will be held at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco on December 6 and 7 and, as usual, we’ll be liveblogging the whole thing and also posting highlight videos.

Along with Walt Mossberg and I, Mossberg Solution’s Katherine Boehret and MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka will be conducting the interviews.

But there’s nothing like being there, so you can sign up for the D: Dive Into Mobile conference here.

ATD has much more to come, of course, including D9 from May 31 to June 2, so watch this space for our next prestidigitation.

And, to give you an idea of how we run a D event, here are some greatest-hits videos from past conferences, including that famous joint interview with Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs and Bill Gates of Microsoft, as well as Jeff Bezos of Amazon (AMZN), Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20101013/d-all-things-digital-goes-plural-with-new-d-dive-into-mobile-conference/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100621/dear-nyt-oh-home-back-in-the-range-of-wireless-access/ http://allthingsd.com/20100621/dear-nyt-oh-home-back-in-the-range-of-wireless-access/#comments Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:06:56 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=29531

BoomTown has finally dragged all my various and sundry bags of gadgetry back to San Francisco after a week of it sitting mostly useless on a ranch in Wyoming.

However did I manage that?–at least according to a recent slightly alarmed series of articles in the New York Times (NYT) about how technology is messing with our inner chi.

Noted the Times, which has also been urging readers to unplug and then tell the tale:

“These technologies have become so constant in many of our lives we can’t see ourselves without them even as the impact of them on our personal and professional lives–and even our brains–is being discovered.”

Memo to the NYT editors: I survived the whole analog encounter just fine.

I was able to read a real book easily, sit quietly contemplating the cosmos and maintain regular eye contact with my children, even though I really also like being jacked into the matrix 24/7/365.

A brief rundown of how I did it:

Mobile Phone: My Apple (AAPL) iPhone has exactly zero bars at the Spotted Horse Ranch, which is located south of Jackson, Wyoming.

So the coverage was pretty much about what I get in San Francisco–except it was crystal clear when I was riding Lefty the horse on a mesa. I called my mom to say so.

But, in all, fewer than five calls all week.

I did post my location to Foursquare once from the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar, because you kind of have to do that when you are sitting on a saddle at a bar drinking a beer.

Mostly, my smartphone went dumb.

Internet: The Wi-Fi went in and out unless I was in direct line of the office where the hub was located. So, I did not do much of that either, although I tweeted now and then and made sure I was up on whatever Lindsay Lohan was doing (making trouble as usual!).

But, since it was so slow, there was little Web surfing–which is pretty much how I get most of my news these days. Thus, I was forced to crack open the newspaper, and it worked well, although it still leaves my hands grimy.

Email was a lot easier, of course, and I did some, although only a tiny fraction of my usual, which is hundreds of emails a day.

Other devices: I retired the Flip camera, even to shoot videos, as I was taking to the trails daily. Let’s just say that horses irk a lot easier than Internet moguls, and I did not want to get bucked.

On the other hand, the iPad was a delight to have, whether doing crosswords at the creek, playing air hockey with Louie, piano with Alex or just doodling. Video and music playing was also a welcome feature.

I thought I would miss the online element of the tablet, since 3G did not work where I was and it was not easily able to find the faint wireless signal.

Not so. Apps are really versatile, and it is easy to imagine everyone having some kind of loaded tablet device from a variety of manufacturers on vacation.

Thus, I guess I was not truly unplugged, even though I was insulated from the constant pinging of my usual life. Does this mean my brain has warped to crave tech and think small thoughts?

Then again, I also did not churn my own butter or rope my own cattle for hamburgers, and somehow those are not an issue anyone has with modern life.

In other words, I really wish it were not an either/or debate over technology, as it always seems to degenerate into. We can all live both offline and online without having to denigrate one or the other, as if it were some noisy Western shootout.

Oh, they re-created one of those every night in Jackson, which you can watch here on a Webcam aimed at Town Square and its antler arches.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100621/dear-nyt-oh-home-back-in-the-range-of-wireless-access/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100531/yahoo-display-ad-boss-bill-wise-lands-at-mediabank/ http://allthingsd.com/20100531/yahoo-display-ad-boss-bill-wise-lands-at-mediabank/#comments Mon, 31 May 2010 23:49:13 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=20056 Yahoo veteran Bill Wise, who left his job running the Web giant’s display ad platform unit this spring, has a new gig: He’ll be CEO of MediaBank, a Chicago-based ad technology company.

Wise is still technically a Yahoo employee, but says he’ll be at his new job “in weeks.” He replaces Brad Keywell, who co-founded Groupon, the crazily hot online shopping/coupon start-up.

Wise joined Yahoo (YHOO) in 2007, when it bought Right Media, the ad exchange he was running. So it makes perfect sense for him to land at another ad tech play. The difference between MediaBank and other ad tech start-ups is that until now, MediaBank has specialized in analog media, not digital: It sells technology that helps buyers of TV, print and other media plan and track their purchases.

That industry is dominated by Donovan Data Systems, and Wise’s first priority is to try eating into his competitor’s market share.

But MediaBank also works with digital media, though it’s a much smaller part of its business. The thinking behind Wise’s hire is that he can merge all of that together and help create a sort of mega-media marketplace: Think of Google’s (GOOG) AdX exchange, but with TV spots, magazine pages, etc., in addition to buying and selling Web display ads.

Wise, who lives in New York City, will stay there and open up a MediaBank outpost.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100531/yahoo-display-ad-boss-bill-wise-lands-at-mediabank/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100126/reaching-for-the-height-of-radio/ http://allthingsd.com/20100126/reaching-for-the-height-of-radio/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:21:11 +0000 Katherine Boehret http://solution.allthingsd.com/?p=1029 Despite the popularity of music downloads or streamed music through online services like Pandora, the good old radio is still a source of entertainment for many people. It turns on as soon as the car starts and inspires shower singers every morning. Plus, it works pretty much the same as it has for decades.

The trusty radio has finally received an upgrade—to the world of high definition. HD Radio, which has been gathering steam for a few years, sounds better and offers more channels than traditional radio. It also sends properly equipped devices text data like a song’s title and artist name as well as traffic, weather and stock information. One HD Radio even lets you pause programming in mid-stream, so you don’t have to miss a song or NPR story just because you’re drying your hair. And future HD Radio devices will record programming like television DVRs do now.

The Sony (above) and Coby Electronics (below) devices use HD Radio technology to play more stations at better sound quality.

This week, I tested three HD Radio devices to see what all the hype was about: Best Buy’s Insignia $50 HD Radio Portable Player (http://bit.ly/75FcIc); Coby Electronics Corp.’s $100 Portable HD Radio System (http://bit.ly/6G6g4Q); and Sony’s $160 HD Radio with Dock for iPod + iPhone (http://bit.ly/8c0Bqf). I also talked with iBiquity Digital Corp., the company that developed HD Radio technology and licenses it to broadcasters and radio manufacturers, about how this works.

I found some worthwhile offerings in HD Radio, like commercial-free, sub-channels within existing stations and better sound quality. IBiquity claims that HD Radio makes FM stations sound like CD quality and AM stations sound like FM; to my ear, this seemed to be true.

Overall, I didn’t hear enough incredibly great content or sound quality to want to run out and replace my old radios. Washington, D.C., where I live, supposedly offers 41 HD Radio channels, but I couldn’t find as many as that. Over 2,000 primary HD Radio stations and some 1,100 sub-channels can be heard in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, but some areas won’t offer as many stations, according to iBiquity.

Tuning in each HD station takes longer, like the way changing channels on a digital TV takes an extra second. But in my tests, this process took five seconds or more per change of channel. This kind of delay is enough to try anyone’s patience.

It might help to explain the technology behind HD Radio. HD Radio makes it possible for local broadcasters to transmit content via digital signals on existing AM and FM frequencies. The digital signals are encrypted and eliminate static heard in analog broadcasts, resulting in better sound quality. But they take longer to be decoded by HD Radio receivers.

Many people mistakenly think that in order to listen to HD Radio, they must pay an extra monthly fee like with satellite radio. If you buy an HD Radio device, you’ll only pay for it because the service itself is free; its price is built into the cost of the hardware.

Besides boosting the signal, HD Radio offers extra channels of programming you wouldn’t hear on a regular set. It allows existing FM channels to play additional content on “multicast” channels. Most multicast channels are commercial-free, and they appear on the radio’s display as HD2 and HD3.

Don’t confuse HD Radio with the text data that scrolls across the screens of many current radios, like my car radio. This is a non-audio service called Radio Broadcast Data System that has been around for a while.

Each of the radios I tested offered an HD Seek feature—a way of skimming through all stations to find and play those that could be heard in HD. But HD Seek didn’t stop on multicast channels; to get to those on each radio, I had to press buttons to tune up or down while listeningwhile already listening to to a main HD radio channel. Some HD Radio models have HD Seek tuning functions that find HD1 stations as well as HD2 and HD3 channels. I saved these HD2 and HD3 multicast channels in my radio presets so they were easier to find again.

While a radio was tuning in, or linking into, a channel (the process that took several seconds), an “HD” logo flashed on each radio’s display. This logo turned solid when the station was found and finally started playing. I listened to multicast channels like a bluegrass/country station from my local NPR channel. Another station’s two multicast channels played “South Asian” music and the Mormon Channel.

As its name suggests, Sony’s HD Radio with Dock for iPod + iPhone has a built-in dock for iPods, iPhones and iPod Touches. If, while using this radio, you hear a song on an HD channel that you like, you can hit a “Tag” button to save information about that song. The next time you dock an iPod, iPhone or iPod Touch into the Sony radio, these tags are transferred onto the portable player. When you plug that device into a computer and open the iTunes Store, a list of the tagged songs appears, making it easier to recall songs you liked and may want to buy. This radio is a tabletop model and has the largest display screen of the three radios I tested. It also comes with a remote. It saves up to 20 FM and 20 AM presets.

The Insignia HD Radio Portable Player is a much smaller unit that comes with earbuds and an armband for exercising. If this radio tuned in an HD channel that offered multicast sub-channels, these were indicated on the display with a “+” sign, like “HD1+.” The Insignia radio stores 10 preset stations.

The Coby Electronics Portable HD Radio System resembled a single, lightweight speaker with a wheel, six buttons and a digital display on it. IBiquity Digital said this model uses an older HD Radio technology that doesn’t offer as much reception sensitivity as the Sony and Insignia. Still, it was simple to use, and its wheel made it a cinch to tune in HD2 and HD3 channels. It stores up to 10 presets.

In September, when Microsoft’s Zune HD was released, I tested its built-in HD Radio, the only such device capable of pausing live radio content. I paused music and talk radio on the Zune’s HD Radio when my phone rang, then un-paused the station to resume. This doesn’t work if the device is turned off and on again before resuming play.

Along with stand-alone radios, HD Radio receivers also are becoming more common in home audio systems and in cars. But while HD Radio’s sound quality and extra channels are definite pluses, the number of available stations needs to improve to make the wait for the HD channels to start playing more tolerable.

Edited by Walter S. Mossberg.

Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100126/reaching-for-the-height-of-radio/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100121/with-an-eye-on-the-ipad-conde-nast-declares-its-39000-iphone-magazine-a-success/ http://allthingsd.com/20100121/with-an-eye-on-the-ipad-conde-nast-declares-its-39000-iphone-magazine-a-success/#comments Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:37:16 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=15356 Some early numbers from Condé Nast’s first attempt to create a digital version of one of its magazines: The publisher says it sold 6,614 copies of the December issue of GQ via iTunes, and some 12,000 copies of the January issue.

At $2.99 a pop, and after subtracting Apple’s 30 percent fee, that’s about $39,000 in revenue for the publisher, which isn’t even enough to rehire anyone the company let go during last fall’s layoffs.

And those sales numbers are puny compared with the title’s analog reach: GQ reports average newsstand sales of more than 200,000 per issue, plus more than 600,000 paid subscribers.

But they’re enough for Condé to declare the digital magazines, designed to be consumed on iPhones and iPods, a “success out of the gate.” For now, that seems plausible for two reasons.

For starters, this is a Big Media digital product that doesn’t cut into the existing analog offering. The company isn’t exactly sure whether digital buyers cannibalized print numbers, but its hunch is that they did not, and that seems right to me.

Second, it doesn’t matter from a financial perspective. That’s because Condé has convinced advertisers to credit both sales equally. And selling digital copies via iTunes is much more lucrative than spending money to print and distribute paper copies.

Just as important: While Condé won’t say so out loud, sales of the first few GQ iPhone issues have given the company confidence that it will be able to port the app to the iPad, or whatever Apple (APPL) calls the tablet it plans to unveil next week.

The ported app won’t be as flashy as the digital demos of tabletized magazines Condé and other publishers have shown off–it’s pretty much a literal translation of the magazine into digital form–but it’s a start.

The eye-popping stuff, meanwhile, will take some time to build.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100121/with-an-eye-on-the-ipad-conde-nast-declares-its-39000-iphone-magazine-a-success/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091020/conde-nast-tries-turning-the-app-store-into-a-newsstand-will-you-buy-gq-for-your-iphone/ http://allthingsd.com/20091020/conde-nast-tries-turning-the-app-store-into-a-newsstand-will-you-buy-gq-for-your-iphone/#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:26:56 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=12256 I’ve all but declared a moratorium on “Company X has an iPhone app” stories–memo to PR folk: There are now 85,000 apps–but this one is actually interesting: Condé Nast is turning the app into a digital magazine.

The publisher plans to start selling digital copies of its print titles via a yet-to-be-approved app. Condé will start with the December issue of GQ, which it will sell for $2.99 (versus a newsstand price of $4.99), but the idea is that the publisher can use the same technology to sell other issues of other magazines down the road.

Condé says the GQ digital issue will replicate the print one on a page-by-page basis, including the ads. Digital bonuses include related videos, as well as links to sites for products (clothing, music, etc.) featured in the issue.

I wasn’t able to attend Condé’s presentation this morning, so I can’t tell you how its attempt to transfer a rich glossy magazine onto a phone (or iPod touch) actually works. But for now, I’ll take the company’s word for it and assume that it’s a nice alternative to carrying around some dead trees.

The interesting question is the business model, which I think has some real potential. This doesn’t solve Condé’s core problem–its costs are too high to support its shrinking ad revenue–but it does have several things going for it.

For one, this approach reaches its potential readers where they are: I don’t want to read a magazine at my desk, and I’m far from sold on the idea of buying a specialized reader to consume it digitally. Getting it to me on my phone, which goes wherever I do, is the way to go.

It also generates some (potential) additional revenue for Condé Nast right off the bat without creating a channel conflict with its analog product line: Condé will be able to count any magazines sold via its app platform toward its audited circulation numbers, a trick that no publisher has been able to pull off with Web products so far. Meanwhile advertisers in the print publication who want to add digital links to the iPhone version will pay a premium, Condé says. And the publisher has been able to extract additional dollars from Grey Goose and Gillette, which will be “premium sponsors” of the GQ issue.

Bonus upside: Condé says the technology it has assembled for this effort should work well for future Apple (AAPL) products, like, say, its mythical tablet. “We think that the minute Apple is ready, if they ever are, to announce that they’re going forward with a tablet, that we’ll be ahead of everybody,” says Sarah Chubb, president of Condé Nast Digital.

This doesn’t solve the distribution issue that Condé and other publishers have with Apple, Amazon (AMZN) and other potential digital delivery outfits: Apple, not Condé, will control the billing relationship for the app. But then again, Condé doesn’t get to interact with you when you buy a magazine at a newsstand either, so at least it’s not getting disintermediated.

The question, as always, is whether customers are willing to pay anything at all for content they’ve been getting free on the Web. I still think we’re going to end up with a small segment of people willing to pay up for specialized stuff and a very large group that are going to end up with free things of dubious value. It would be great to be proved wrong, though.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091020/conde-nast-tries-turning-the-app-store-into-a-newsstand-will-you-buy-gq-for-your-iphone/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091016/what-happens-in-vegas-doesnt-stay-in-vegas-kara-visits-blog-world-expo/ http://allthingsd.com/20091016/what-happens-in-vegas-doesnt-stay-in-vegas-kara-visits-blog-world-expo/#comments Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:00:18 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=19491

Yesterday, BoomTown traveled to the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center–and it was not even time for the annual Consumer Electronics Show!

Instead, I was attending BlogWorld Expo, an annual event for bloggers of all kinds–from military bloggers to political bloggers to a roving pack of mommy bloggers–who gather to find out about all kinds of social media software and tools and, most importantly, how to monetize their sites.

I was at BlogWorld, which runs through tomorrow, to interview Ford Motor Company (F) digital guru Scott Monty, who compared social media to cocaine onstage.

There were a lot of other cool sessions and it was a surprisingly large and energetic and decidedly bloggy crowd, who were intent on schmoozing and trading tips in an analog venue.

Here is a quick video interview I did with BlogWorld honchos Dave Cynkin and Rick Calvert about where blogging is going:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091016/what-happens-in-vegas-doesnt-stay-in-vegas-kara-visits-blog-world-expo/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20091012/geeks-in-black-barry-sonnenfeld-comes-out-from-behind-the-camera-to-vlog/ http://allthingsd.com/20091012/geeks-in-black-barry-sonnenfeld-comes-out-from-behind-the-camera-to-vlog/#comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:26:26 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=19313

For many years now, one of our regular attendees at the D: All Things Digital conference has been award-winning movie and television director, producer and writer Barry Sonnenfeld, who is–as it turns out–a not-so-closeted geek in his spare time.

(He also appeared onstage in 2006 at D4 in an interview with Walt Mossberg, which you can see here.)

In fact, the man behind movies like “Men in Black” and TV shows like “Pushing Daisies” (and who likes to sport a Stetson and cowboy boots 24/7) does a gadget review column for Esquire magazine called “The Digital Man.”

Now he is branching out to a vlog about his geek passions on Crackle, which will appear every two weeks from wherever he is–either from his homes in East Hampton, N.Y. or Telluride, Colo., or from movie or TV sets.

And, compared to the cinéma vérité style of BoomTown (translation: shaky filming and bad sound), Sonnenfeld’s vlogs are pretty high quality, although they are not too overdone as those from Hollywood types always are, and it’s hard not to admire the editorial use of a martini.

Here’s his intro video vlog below, as well as one about a cross-country trip Sonnenfeld and his “analog” dog, named Lucky, took in a 2010 Ford Taurus SHO (super high output) and another about his experience helping his wife, Sweetie, cook for some film industry friends using the Traeger Professional Wood Pellet Grill.

Next week: A chain saw, although I hope Sonnenfeld will go light on the martinis for that demo.

From Crackle: The Esquire Digital Man Preview:

From Crackle: Ford Taurus SHO:

From Crackle: Traeger Professional Wood Pellet Grill:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091012/geeks-in-black-barry-sonnenfeld-comes-out-from-behind-the-camera-to-vlog/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090910/video-mossberg-and-patches-opine-about-applefest-2009-at-the-atd-annual-bbq/ http://allthingsd.com/20090910/video-mossberg-and-patches-opine-about-applefest-2009-at-the-atd-annual-bbq/#comments Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:33:30 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=18306

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:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090910/video-mossberg-and-patches-opine-about-applefest-2009-at-the-atd-annual-bbq/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20090622/insert-lame-mama-don%e2%80%99t-take-my-kodachrome-away-reference-here/ http://allthingsd.com/20090622/insert-lame-mama-don%e2%80%99t-take-my-kodachrome-away-reference-here/#comments Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:40:46 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=19973 With 70 percent of the its revenue now coming from digital sales and the unstoppable transition from analog to digital all but complete, Eastman Kodak (EK) is retiring Kodachrome. Seems “a fraction of one percent of Kodak’s film sales” just wasn’t enough to keep the venerable old color film around for a little while longer.

Thankfully, we’ll always have that wonderful Paul Simon song by which to remember it.

Kodachrome was on the market for 74 years–all those birthday parties and National Geographic covers. But you can’t stop progress, as Steve McCurry, who snapped what may well be the most famous Kodachrome photo ever (above), notes.

“The early part of my career was dominated by Kodachrome, and I reached for that film to shoot some of my most memorable images,” said McCurry. “While Kodachrome Film was very good to me, I have since moved on to other films and digital to create my images. In fact, when I returned to shoot the ‘Afghan Girl’ 17 years later, I used Kodak’s E100VS film to create that image, rather than Kodachrome Film as with the original.”

[Image credit: Steve McCurry via Wikipedia]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090622/insert-lame-mama-don%e2%80%99t-take-my-kodachrome-away-reference-here/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20090622/insert-lame-mama-don%e2%80%99t-take-my-kodachrome-away-reference-here-2/ http://allthingsd.com/20090622/insert-lame-mama-don%e2%80%99t-take-my-kodachrome-away-reference-here-2/#comments Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:40:46 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=19973 With 70 percent of the its revenue now coming from digital sales and the unstoppable transition from analog to digital all but complete, Eastman Kodak (EK) is retiring Kodachrome. Seems “a fraction of one percent of Kodak’s film sales” just wasn’t enough to keep the venerable old color film around for a little while longer.

Thankfully, we’ll always have that wonderful Paul Simon song by which to remember it.

Kodachrome was on the market for 74 years–all those birthday parties and National Geographic covers. But you can’t stop progress, as Steve McCurry, who snapped what may well be the most famous Kodachrome photo ever (above), notes.

“The early part of my career was dominated by Kodachrome, and I reached for that film to shoot some of my most memorable images,” said McCurry. “While Kodachrome Film was very good to me, I have since moved on to other films and digital to create my images. In fact, when I returned to shoot the ‘Afghan Girl’ 17 years later, I used Kodak’s E100VS film to create that image, rather than Kodachrome Film as with the original.”

[Image credit: Steve McCurry via Wikipedia]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20090622/insert-lame-mama-don%e2%80%99t-take-my-kodachrome-away-reference-here-2/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20081210/now-not-showing-at-itunes-and-netflix-some-of-your-favorite-movies/ http://allthingsd.com/20081210/now-not-showing-at-itunes-and-netflix-some-of-your-favorite-movies/#comments Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:55:52 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=1958 Want to watch nerd-favorite “The Fifth Element” via Netflix’s awesome streaming service? OK, but hurry up–the movie will disappear from the service on New Year’s Day. Want to rent the excellent George Clooney corporate thriller “Michael Clayton” via iTunes? Too late! The movie was there, but now it’s not.

Wait a minute: Hadn’t big media finally gotten religion and agreed to give us, the demanding consumers, everything we want, whenever we want it? Nope.

Hollywood in particular–which still has a big, if declining, business showing movies in theaters and then in other formats–is still interested in protecting its big analog revenue streams for as long as it can.

Translation: Netflix (NFLX) will show you just a slice of the of the 100,000+ movies it has in its regular catalog on its streaming service, because the studios aren’t eager to cut into their DVD sales and rental businesses. Which are way, way bigger than what they’re getting from digital outlets. And even movies that are available for free rental may disappear after a certain period, because the studios have other revenue “windows” to protect, as CNET explains.

The same thing goes for Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes: Even the mighty Steve Jobs can’t force the studios to give his customers unlimited access to their catalogs. This applies to multiple studios, by the way, and both new and old movies. “The Fifth Element” belongs to Time Warner’s (TWX) Warner Bros. studio, and came out way back in 1997, back when Netscape was a big deal. “Michael Clayton” is a Sony (SNE) movie that came out last year.

And by the way, that George Clooney movie really is good–like the excellent 1970s paranoia films brushed up a bit for modern times. And even more poignant after the past few months. I recommend seeing it even if you have to watch it on a screen other than your laptop. Which is exactly what Sony wants.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081210/now-not-showing-at-itunes-and-netflix-some-of-your-favorite-movies/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20081202/why-are-music-sales-dropping-because-its-hard-to-buy-music/ http://allthingsd.com/20081202/why-are-music-sales-dropping-because-its-hard-to-buy-music/#comments Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:34:52 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=1563 Digital is the future, but analog is the present. Which is why CD sales remain the biggest revenue driver for the music business. But big-box retailers, who sell almost all of the industry’s discs, are determined to change that, by relentlessly cutting back on the amount of floorspace they allocate to CDs.

Latest example: Borders Group (BGP), the struggling book chain, has cut its music inventory by 30 percent in the last year, the company said. Music now occupies about seven percent of its floorspace, and the space it used to take up has been given over to higher-margin products like children’s books.

Borders makes up a relatively small portion of U.S. music sales, but most big retailers have been doing the same thing for more than a year. If you don’t believe me, try to find the CD section next time you visit a Target (TGT) or Best Buy (BBY) this month.

The big stores will embrace individual albums–if they have an exclusive, like Best Buy’s deal with Guns N’ Roses, or Wal-Mart’s (WMT) recent AC/DC promotion. (That’s Best Buy’s GNR promotion, pictured above. Lonely, isn’t it?) But beyond that, they are basically telling music shoppers, who bought some $7 billion worth of discs last year, to take their business elsewhere.

[Image Credit: Idolator]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081202/why-are-music-sales-dropping-because-its-hard-to-buy-music/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20081028/the-entire-d6-interview-with-fcc-chairman-kevin-martin-and-verizon-wireless-ceo-lowell-mcadam-2-of-3/ http://allthingsd.com/20081028/the-entire-d6-interview-with-fcc-chairman-kevin-martin-and-verizon-wireless-ceo-lowell-mcadam-2-of-3/#comments Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:00:27 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=5706 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 an interview Walt Mossberg and I did with Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin and Verizon Wireless (VZ) CEO Lowell McAdam jointly. We paired the two together to talk about big issues facing the wireless industry, including low broadband speeds and high prices.

The video of the interview is in three parts, all of which I will post this week.

In this second part, McAdam talks about the wireless giant’s open network initiatives and the impact of aggressive efforts by Google (GOOG) in the space, termination fees and subsidy issues, while Martin discusses the key issues the FCC will be facing, including the transition of the broadcast industry from analog to digital and network neutrality.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20081028/the-entire-d6-interview-with-fcc-chairman-kevin-martin-and-verizon-wireless-ceo-lowell-mcadam-2-of-3/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20080802/dhs-terrorism-we-thought-you-said-war-on-tourism/ http://allthingsd.com/20080802/dhs-terrorism-we-thought-you-said-war-on-tourism/#comments Sat, 02 Aug 2008 17:55:33 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=2939 Overseas travel to the United States has plummeted in the past five years, and it may well plummet further thanks to The Department of Homeland Security’s recently revealed border policy on laptops, iPods and other electronics carried into the country by travelers. The policy (PDF) is five pages long, but essentially boils down to this: DHS agents can routinely seize travelers’ electronic gear and keep it for as long as they see fit. And they can search its contents and copy and share them with other agencies. And they can do this “absent individualized suspicion.”

The policy–which covers “any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form” as well as “written materials commonly referred to as ‘pocket trash’ or ‘pocket litter’”–applies to anyone entering this country, including U.S. citizens.

Anyone who wants to, that is.

If only we could keep our right to privacy safely up in “the cloud: along with our data …

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20080802/dhs-terrorism-we-thought-you-said-war-on-tourism/feed/ 3 http://allthingsd.com/20080802/dhs-terrorism-we-thought-you-said-war-on-tourism-2/ http://allthingsd.com/20080802/dhs-terrorism-we-thought-you-said-war-on-tourism-2/#comments Sat, 02 Aug 2008 17:55:33 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=2939 Overseas travel to the United States has plummeted in the past five years, and it may well plummet further thanks to The Department of Homeland Security’s recently revealed border policy on laptops, iPods and other electronics carried into the country by travelers. The policy (PDF) is five pages long, but essentially boils down to this: DHS agents can routinely seize travelers’ electronic gear and keep it for as long as they see fit. And they can search its contents and copy and share them with other agencies. And they can do this “absent individualized suspicion.”

The policy–which covers “any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form” as well as “written materials commonly referred to as ‘pocket trash’ or ‘pocket litter’”–applies to anyone entering this country, including U.S. citizens.

Anyone who wants to, that is.

If only we could keep our right to privacy safely up in “the cloud: along with our data …

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20080802/dhs-terrorism-we-thought-you-said-war-on-tourism-2/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20080501/how-does-chacha-make-money/ http://allthingsd.com/20080501/how-does-chacha-make-money/#comments Thu, 01 May 2008 00:01:00 +0000 Walter S. Mossberg http://mailbox.allthingsd.com/20080501/how-does-chacha-make-money/ Here are a few questions I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability.

---

Last week, when you wrote about the ChaCha cellphone search service, you didn’t say how they make money. Are they collecting phone numbers from customers so they can send spam text messages, or sell the numbers to others who will do so?

ChaCha allows you to ask any Web-searchable question, by speaking it or texting it over a mobile phone, and then it sends you the answer via text message. The company charges consumers nothing, but says it is hoping to make money by striking deals with cellphone carriers to incorporate the ChaCha service into their current 411 phone-number look-up services. Also, it hopes to eventually include ads in the text message answers it provides.

In addition to the message that includes the answer, ChaCha sends you a message saying it is working on your request and restating your question, so you can see if it understood you correctly. It also sends an introductory text message to first-time users and occasional tips on how to use the service. Scott Jones, ChaCha’s chief executive, asserts that “we do not spam” and “we never make phone numbers and/or email addresses available to others.” He said the company is updating its privacy policy to make that clearer.

We have DSL service. I use several Web-based applications, one of which is online backup, and my husband is concerned that they degrade his use of the Web, which includes creating Web sites. I contend that that is like saying turning on one light bulb is using too much electricity, that two people on one DSL line aren’t using up too much bandwidth. Who is right?

Every situation differs, depending on exactly which programs you are each using, how you have them set, whether you are using them simultaneously, and how fast your DSL connection is. However, in general, your husband is correct that it is possible for heavy Internet usage on one computer in a home to slow down Internet speeds on another.

This is especially true with something like online backup, because it relies on your DSL account’s upload speed, which is typically far slower than the download speed. If your online backup program is trying to push a bunch of files over a slow upload connection, while he is in another room trying to upload new versions of a Web site over the same narrow upload pipe, it could affect the speeds he gets. You might try coordinating or staggering those online activities that involve heavy uploading. Normal Web surfing or emailing shouldn’t require any such coordination.

I am thinking about purchasing a Dell (DELL) XPS One all-in-one desktop, but I have one question. Does the Dell’s built-in TV tuner require any extra attachments to watch TV right out of the box?

You can watch over-the-air stations and analog basic cable stations right out of the box, without added equipment. However, you may want to connect a small desktop antenna to improve reception, which is what I did when I tested this machine. To use the XPS One with digital or premium cable or satellite stations, you would have to connect it to a cable or satellite receiver, just as most people do with their TV sets. This requires the use of an adapter that comes with the machine.

• You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the new All Things Digital web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

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