AllThingsD » Austin

Apple to Build New Austin Campus

Arik Hesseldahl — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:33:35 +0000

Apple will soon be staffing up and building in Texas. The company just completed a deal with commissioners in Travis County, Texas, under which it will build a $16.5 million, 200,000-square foot building in North Austin by 2015, plus a second, $226 million, 800,000-square-foot office by 2025. The deal, which gives Apple a series of tax breaks and incentives from the county and state worth a combined maximum of $35 million over 15 years also requires Apple to hire a minimum of 3,655 workers by 2025. It employs 3,100 at its current campus in Austin now.

Viral Video: Let the Hipster Games Begin!

Kara Swisher — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 07:16:26 +0000

I meant to post this last week — a very clever spoof on the hit movie “The Hunger Games.”

This version: “The Hipster Games,” with ironic young people from five districts — Portland, Austin, Brooklyn, Oakland and Silverlake in Los Angeles — fighting to the death for that old Talking Heads vinyl record album.

Enjoy:

Viral Video: The ParkMe Dudes Booting Austin

Kara Swisher — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 07:31:04 +0000

ParkMe is an app that AllThingsD writer Ina Fried wrote was “the best (and worst) marketing gimmick in Austin” at the SXSW Interactive festival last week.

Simply put, the Los Angeles-area start-up used fake tickets and boots to get the word out about their app, which recommends the “cheapest and closest parking around you.”

Yes, boots in Texas. Heh.

Here is a video ParkMe did about the effort:

Party On … And On … And On, Geek (But Not Much Else): A Newbie Reflects on SXSW

Ina Fried — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:00:50 +0000

Never having been to South by Southwest, I really didn’t know what to expect after I landed in Austin.

As I take off on a plane away from Austin, I have a few observations, many of which seemed to be shared by others I chatted with.

To be clear, I’m referring to the interactive piece of the event. I have far too poor taste in music and movies to pass judgment on those portions, nor did I stay for those parts.

The event is an incredible party.

SXSW Interactive is actually a conference surrounded by many, many small (and not-so-small) parties. But the parties are so numerous and so close to the conference that it is more like one big party than it is a discrete set of events.

It’s mostly a marketing and PR thing.

Marketing and branding are a big part of any event, but they seem to be the raison d’etre for this conference.

South by Southwest is a great place to try to identify your company as hip and edgy, and there are plenty of the kinds of folks in attendance who help decide those sorts of things. It’s also a good barometer for which companies have lots of money to throw around. (Full disclosure: AllThingsD hosted two parties, one for the launch of its new All Things Reviewed site — which was very lovely, if we do say so ourselves.)

It’s not a big place for news.

Folks looking for lots of interesting headlines were disappointed. As far as big trends, the closest thing I saw was the need for a breakthrough in battery life for all our digital gear.

While SXSW has been a place where apps and services have taken off in years past, most of those have been apps and services that help aid the sort of schmoozing that is the best part of the Austin event.

There were good discussions to be had, both onstage and off. I had good chats with people I knew and many people I didn’t.

It’s a terrible place for sleep.

Largely because of the fact that it is one big party, it is very hard to achieve downtime in Austin. There is literally always something going on, and with so much good food and music, even wallflowers can be persuaded to leave their comfort zones. The enforced insomnia was exacerbated by the fact that the event coincided with the shift to Daylight Savings Time, depriving conference-goers of one more precious hour of sleep.

I talked more about some of my experiences on Monday’s “Digits” show, as well as in an interview on Southern California Public Radio’s “Madeleine Brand Show,” discussing the trends from Austin:

[ See post to watch video ]

AllThingsD Takes SXSW by Storm (in Pictures)

Lauren Goode — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 21:46:17 +0000

SXSW Interactive is, thankfully, almost over. We came, we saw, we ate from food trucks. We stood in lines in the rain (grudgingly wearing branded ponchos), we strained our eyes and ears for any slivers of news that might come out of the panels, and we got more texts and buzzes and pings from our phones’ location-based and messaging apps than we thought was technically possible.

We learned that video games are good for you, that TV has ruined politics in the U.S. and that social media should fix it, and that Jimmy Fallon has different activities in mind when he thinks of “activity wristbands.” We learned how to be disruptive. We heard Google’s designers explain how they convinced their company to take on that infamous redesign.

We identified one of the worst marketing gimmicks in all of Austin (aside from this controversial one), and heard about all the crazy tasks SXSW-ers hired people to do for them. We learned that an impromptu Jay-Z concert will light up Twitter like it’s Arab Spring in Austin. We hosted not one but two parties at SXSW, announcing at the first event the new All Things Reviewed section of our Web site.

Since words can only say so much, we’ve put together a slideshow for you, below, and our full list of stories is below that:

The Homeless Defend Becoming Hotspots

Geoffrey A. Fowler — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:11:48 +0000

An experiment with letting homeless people make money by serving as wireless Internet hotspots raised plenty of eyebrows at this year’s South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.

After igniting a media storm in its first three days, the organizers contemplated shutting down the program, which equipped about a dozen homeless people with 4G hotspot cards. Homeless participants, who wore t-shirts to identify themselves, were charging passersby to access their Wi-Fi connections at a conference where network access is in high demand.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

SXSW News: Jerry Levin's StartUp Health Academy for Entrepreneurs Announces First Class

Kara Swisher — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 18:20:44 +0000

In an interesting twist on the accelerator and incubator model for entrepreneurs, StartUp Health Academy announced its first class of “healthcare transformers” today at SXSW in Austin.

StartUp Health, which is chaired by former Time Warner CEO Jerry Levin and is backed by AT&T and the California HealthCare Foundation, is backing 10 entrepreneurs who are focused on “fixing a broken healthcare system in ways that significantly reduce costs and dramatically improve care.”

Unlike programs that support start-ups, some of these companies are well on their way in terms of funding and staff. What has been missing, according to StartUp Health, are the other support functions aimed specifically at companies in the still-nascent digital health care field.

Most of all, it’s a nice break from similar groups that back companies designing apps to help people stalk each other at SXSW bars.

Here’s the press release about the 10 that were picked, who were selected from nearly 400 applications and will be part of a three-year curriculum:

The Best (And Worst) Marketing Gimmick in Austin

Ina Fried — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 15:00:31 +0000

As I walked from the Austin Convention Center, I noticed that nearly every car had an envelope under the wipers, marked “Parking Violation.”

Suspecting this might be a South by Southwest gimmick rather than meter enforcement, I grabbed one of said envelopes.

Indeed, opening the envelope revealed a postcard with a quarter taped to it and a pitch for a start-up called ParkMe.

“Download the Parkme app today,” the flyer said, in all capital letters, below the also fully capitalized “Parking violation warning.”

I wonder how many car owners fell for it, and just how forgiving they were upon learning they had been played.

Forget Cleantech -- It's Cleanweb at SXSW

Kara Swisher — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:00:32 +0000

Earlier this week, I slogged through the rain in a very dorkish GroupMe plastic poncho at SXSW in Austin to attend what I thought was one of the more interesting sessions, titled “Why Cleanweb Will Beat Cleantech.”

Perhaps because it was not yet another creepy location app (memo to Banjo and Highlight users, please stop attempting to get me to allow you to stalk me, cuz I ain’t!), it was more sparsely attended.

But the presentation by longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sunil Paul was a good one, given his premise that current information technology tools were at the heart of creating solutions around energy conservation.

The founder of Brightmail — and also the first start-up partner of Zynga CEO and founder Mark Pincus at a Washington, D.C., company called Freeloader (where I first met the pair) — thinks that clean technologies like solar can be better leveraged with Cleanweb, which he defined as the “application of information technology to resource constraints.”

In other words, more Airbnb (fewer hotel rooms mean less carbon emissions), more Zappos (fewer stores, less driving to stores, etc.) and more teleconferencing (that’s easy to grok) is evidence that the Cleanweb could be an important contributor to saving the planet.

Quoting a recent tweet he saw, Paul noted that a smartphone today has as much computing power as the computers that put a man on the moon, but all we do with them is launch birds into pigs.

“I am saying we can do something better with the aggressive application of software technology,” he said.

Actually, those Angry Birds are now in space, too.

In any case, here’s Paul’s interesting deck from the talk:

cleanweb_presentation-Sunil-2012-mar-10

Houston Comes to Austin as Kara Swisher Talks Lessons Learned With Dropbox CEO

Ina Fried — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 22:14:56 +0000

It seems a little odd for someone who is not yet 30 to be reflecting on a career doing start-ups. But Dropbox CEO Drew Houston is not your ordinary executive.

At 29, Houston is already on his sixth start-up, having worked at his first at 14 and started another during high school. Dropbox itself came about when Houston was doing another start-up in Boston and struggling with having to save everything to USB drives.

“It was just personally frustrating,” Houston said in a discussion with our own Kara Swisher at SXSW in Austin on Sunday. “The first lines of code were written on a bus in South Station.”

Houston (pronounced “HOW-stuhn” — like the street in New York, rather than the city in Texas) had taken a year off from MIT to work on one of his start-ups, a company to do online SAT preparation. But, unlike prior Boston-area students Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, Houston got his degree.

“I promised my parents I would go back,” Houston said. Plus, those other people dropped out because their companies were going through the roof, a problem he didn’t have. “There wasn’t a need for me to immediately drop out.”

Houston also recalled the story of how Y Combinator forced him to find a co-founder in order to get funding for Dropbox.

“It is like asking someone to get married in two weeks,” Houston said. Houston ended up convincing Arash Ferdowsi to drop out of school and joined Dropbox.

“It was clear that he was very smart,” Houston said. “He was interested in some of the same things I was.”

Swisher also prompted Houston to recall the story of how he was connected with Sequoia Capital by Palo Alto carpet seller and investor Pejman Nozad.

“It was just unconventional,” Houston said. “It’s not your typical Sand Hill Road experience.”

Nozad has been a landlord or investor for a number of major Silicon Valley start-ups from PayPal to Andy Rubin’s Danger.

Houston also related the story of how he took a Zipcar down to Apple’s headquarters, before ultimately turning down late CEO Steve Jobs’s overtures to buy his company.

“We actually didn’t get to numbers,” Houston said. “I was really flattered, obviously, we’re huge fans of Apple, but we really want to build this company.” The formal part of the meeting ended pretty quickly, Houston said, as Jobs then famously told Houston that Dropbox was a feature, not a product. The company also had talks, though less formal, with Google.

Houston said it was like Christmas morning at age 24 as he watched his bank account go from next to nothing to several million dollars, hitting refresh on his computer as the first venture money arrived via wire transfer.

Among the many lessons Houston has clearly learned is how to win over a crowd. Dropbox handed out free T-shirts before the talk started on Sunday.

“Oh, you are an easy group,” Swisher said.

(Update: Houston wouldn’t say how much revenue the company makes but confirmed that Dropbox is profitable. He also acknowledged that the last funding valued the company at $4 billion.)

On Competition:

Houston notes that the company has always faced competition in its core business. “Maybe the cast of characters changes,” he said. Houston notes that there are other companies offering more free storage and yet Dropbox continues to gain customers.

“Dropbox is useful to anyone with a phone,” he said. “That’s like two billion people.”

Most rivals work well only with a certain subset of devices, like Apple products or Google’s. “All of these guys have their home base and their turf to protect.”

On how it can protect all that data with only 110 people:

“That is our promise to people,” he said, that for tens of millions of people they are going to protect your stuff from all the various bad things that can happen from security threats to data loss and other issues. “We’ve done a lot of stuff” with a very small team, he said.

On what he worries about most:

It’s doing the things his customers want and hiring the right people, Houston said.

“If you do those two things you can screw up just about anything else,” he said.

On the future:

Houston said the company is expanding from file storage and into solving new problems, particularly trying to tie together other kinds of experiences.

“They don’t realize we are just scratching the surface of all of these amazing things we can do,” Houston said. “The world needs this really large-scale and elegant solution to tie this all together.”

On his talks with Facebook and Zuckerberg:

“There’s a lot of interesting stuff we could potentially do together,” he said.

On how they deal with government requests for information, whether U.S. or China or Syria:

“If you look at our privacy policy or terms of service, it’s written in plain English,” Houston said. “We really want to be the best possible advocate.

Dropbox has only had a few dozen requests from governments, Houston said. The company has looked into all of them and only handed over information in a “handful” of cases.

The Power of Power at South by Southwest

Ina Fried — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 19:14:06 +0000

People in Austin are going to extreme lengths to recharge their iPhones, iPads and other digital devices.

Folks are apparently so desperate for a boost they are willing to pull out their USB cords and plug them into a stranger’s jacket or pants.

FedEx has six people running around South by Southwest in USB-charger-equipped outfits. The specially equipped coat and trousers are filled with dozens of ports tied to Mophie battery packs. The shipper is also offering up another kind of recharging — serving up free lunch from a FedEx-branded food truck, along with the option to eat at picnic tables with built-in USB and power ports.

“We know people want free food and free power,” said FedEx’s Brian Hurt. “Those are two things we can give them.”

FedEx is looking to both build goodwill with entrepreneurs and tout a relatively new mobile app that lets people ship packages without ever printing a label.

Sunday’s shrimp po’boys, served up in a “lunch box” reminiscent of FedEx’s signature shipping packages, were a particular hit, though some also took the time to plug in.

“All I need is coffee,” said digital marketer Bradley Shende, before noticing that gratis java was also available.

FedEx is far from alone in trying to grab an audience by offering a power boost. Samsung, which places its recharging stations permanently at airports and other public places, has one of the stands at its booth.

AT&T has a number of recharging lockers that let visitors lock up their phone while it charges, allowing the owners to do other things. Google has a station with lots of USB cords in its Android booth — though, not surprisingly, there are no iPhone dock connectors.

Getting enough juice for one’s digital gadgets has become an increasingly important issue at tech events, including January’s Consumer Electronics Show.

Of course, there are also plenty of people at the Austin Convention Center, like every conference, sitting on the floor next to any available outlet.

And, for those who aren’t plugged in, Foursquare’s Dennis Crowley offered up a public service announcement on Twitter, specifically addressing all the newbies to the event.

“Don’t forget ‘ABC’ (Always Be Charging),” he tweeted on Saturday.

Tweeting in the Danger Zone

Kara Swisher — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 18:33:00 +0000

– Mona Eltahawy on citizen journalists on Twitter in Syria and elsewhere, speaking at SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas

South by Southwest Parties On, Despite the Rain

Ina Fried — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 18:48:11 +0000

As the people pushed to get in, the music thumped and the crowd gyrated at the Samsung Feed event, I tried to remember the time in high school when I actually wanted to go to something like this.

These days, though, I’m envious of this generation’s nerdy kids with their Friday and Saturday nights home. After a few minutes hanging out with Samsung and the Angry Birds folks showing off Angry Birds Space, I decided to beat a hasty retreat.

On the way back, though, I got some glimpses of the nightlife I was forgoing: Bars with signature cocktails, Trucks cooking up BBQ and Mexican fusion and party scenes that were just warming up.

Here are some images from my brief attempt to see the SXSW party scene.

Apple Doubling Presence in Texas

Ian Sherr — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 21:30:29 +0000

Apple Inc. plans to build a $304 million campus in Austin, Texas, doubling its presence there over the next decade.

The Cupertino, Calif., company said it will add 3,600 jobs in the next 10 years to its existing work force of 3,500 employees there. Apple said the move is part of a rapid expansion from 1,000 employees in 2004.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Rain Douses Austin as Crowds Flood Into SXSW

Liz Gannes — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:43:20 +0000

It’s pouring in Austin, and my AT&T data connection is already choking. For the past few years, the wireless provider has added network capacity for SXSW. In response to my tweeted complaint this morning, AT&T just sent over a map of temporary Austin hot zones and cellular on wheels (see below).

But with the rain keeping thousands of us indoors in the same spots, it doesn’t seem to be enough.

SXSW’s press office told me it won’t release attendance numbers until later in the festival, because new people will keep buying tickets during the event. With the registration line twisting for hours throughout the Austin Convention Center, it seems almost abusive for the organizers to let more people in.

Last year’s SXSW Interactive had 19,000 badged participants, up 40 percent from the year before. Based on my own anecdotal experience with flights, hotels and lines so far, there are way, way, way more people here.

There are currently more than 3,700 people currently checked in on Foursquare to the main Austin Convention Center location, and conference sessions haven’t even started yet.

SXSW is a hugely lucrative event for its organizers and for the Austin economy, with the interactive, film and music festival bringing in an estimated $167.8 million in revenue to the region in 2011.

This year, even in the rain, the city is more crammed than ever with branded tents and domes for corporate parties and showcases for cellphones, soft drinks and cars.

But the official program isn’t the end of it. This morning, I had breakfast with the folks at Zaarly, who have 14 staffers on the ground in Austin, and only one conference badge among them — for their biz-dev guy.

Zaarly is co-hosting a party tonight with Twilio and Startup Weekend, in a venue that holds 300 people. They have received more than 12,000 RSVPs.

Zaarly, which is a peer-to-peer marketplace for goods and services, is actually optimistic about long lines being a marketing opportunity. CEO Bo Fishback said he has contracted workers who will stand in lines throughout Austin this week with “Z” signs above their heads, and who will charge people who want to take their spot in line between $10 and $50.

Especially if it’s still raining here on Monday, I imagine people will pay far more than 50 bucks for spots in line to get into the free Jay-Z show at SXSW put on by American Express.

Checking In and Checking Out South by Southwest

Ina Fried — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 17:24:11 +0000

As a South-by newbie, I had very little idea what to expect upon arriving in Austin.

One thing I sure wasn’t expecting was the cold and gloomy weather. But once you walk from wherever you manage to find a room over to the Austin convention center, things heat up considerably. The lobby is hip-ified with whiteboards and zeitgeist polls and for-sale hoodies (not that everyone didn’t come with their own already).

Registration was a zoo, albeit a well-organized one where the herds were sorted into their various species — speakers, attendees and the omnivorous press.

As for AllThingsD, Liz Gannes and I are already on the ground, and we’ll be joined by the rest of our posse shortly.

In the meantime, here’s a look at some of the very early scenes from SXSW 2012. And if you are a newbie like me, or just want a little help, check out this tech tool kit that Lauren Goode put together.

The Essential SXSW Tech Tool Kit

Lauren Goode — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 17:29:58 +0000

Hey, over here! Yeah, you — the person who’s pretending to respond to work emails while trolling the Internet today for anything related to “Apple” and “iPad.”

There’s something else happening this week: SXSW Interactive, where techies gather to share ideas and drink and flick their barbecue-sauced fingers over their smartphones as they rave about the next big app that’s going to connect them to the person … standing right next to them.

AllThingsD will be there in full force, as my colleague Liz Gannes wrote. And it’s a good thing she did, because SXSW travel planning tends to be so haphazard that it’s hard to know if you’re going or not until it’s in writing. For ourselves, and for others who are heading down to Austin, we’ve put together the Essential SXSW Tech Toolkit for the five days of the festival.

RSVP to All Your Parties With One App
At this point, whether you’re going to SXSW or not, you’ve probably received a hundred or so party invites, and have painstakingly responded to them one by one. On the off chance that you still need to RSVP, there’s an app for that. WillCall, nicely profiled on TheNextWeb, is a last-minute-ticket-purchasing app that’s letting techies RSVP to 50 SXSW parties in a few clicks. WillCall’s standard mobile app runs on iPhone and Android devices, but for SXSW RSVPs, users will have to log in to this Web app through Facebook Connect.

You’ve RSVPed. Should You Bother Waiting in Line?
Now that you’ve responded to all those party invites, how do you determine which ones are worth waiting in line for? Localmind, a Quora-for-Foursquare app that lets users pose live questions to people in various locations, is working with a mobile karaoke lounge called (RV)IP to give real-time information to app users about what’s happening in downtown Austin. Localmind users will be shown all of the parties and events going on, and will be able to send questions to people at the events to get the scoop on what’s going on inside the party. (During the afternoon, the kararoke RV transforms into a mini spa, offering free massages, treats, and maybe most importantly, phone charges. What more do a bunch of overworked geeks need?)

The Official SXSW Mobile App
Okay, parties aside: We’re in Austin for work. And that means navigating the maze of venues, panels and pop-up stands. Womzit, a recently-launched “word of mouth” iPhone app that lets users make a recommendation by snapping a photo, rating the object or place, and sharing it with friends, is powering the official app of the conference, called SXSW GO. SXSW GO lets users browse panel schedules and speakers, search for venues, view full maps, and offers various social options, including the ability to post photos, share via Twitter and Facebook, and check out conference attendee profiles. The app is available for iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7.

Because You Can Never Have Too Many Photo Apps
Pixable is like a Pinterest for Twitter and Instagram, only you log on through Facebook Connect. (I know, my head hurts, too.) Here’s what you need to know: During SXSW, Pixable will be showcasing shared Twitter and Instagram photos in a real-time updated stream, provided that the photo posts are tagged with #SXSW. In order to access the feed, log into Pixable and select the Hashtags dropdown in the upper right-hand corner. The app is available on the Web, on iPhone and on Android phones. Pixable will also be showing off its SXSW photo feed at the FEED House, a 20,000 square foot art space in downtown Austin that’s being transformed into an interactive experience by Twitter and Samsung.

Get in (Rain) Gear
Sorry to be a Debbie Downer, but it’s supposed to rain in Austin this weekend. Before you leave your sleeping quarters to hightail it or hail a pedicab to the Convention Center, check your smartphone’s weather app. And pack an umbrella, just to be on the safe side. Opportunistic tech start-ups, now’s your chance to put your stamp on a range of wet-weather gear. You’re welcome.

How to Get Around Town
Peer-to-peer services are all the rage: You can use Airbnb to rent out your apartment, TaskRabbit to outsource your chores, ParkatmyHouse to share your driveway, and Done to do it all for a good cause. Since getting around SXSW can be challenging, why not rent someone else’s car? Getaround helps people “un-idle” their cars by offering an online marketplace for them to rent them out. After launching last month in Portland, Ore., it’s now bringing its services to Austin, just in time for SXSW. Rental fees start as low as $3 an hour — though the typical compact car costs about $45 a day — and each rental is insured for up to $1 million.

What About the Local Mobile Social Craze?
What about Highlight, you ask? Or Sonar, or Glancee, or Kismet, or NTRO? Some of those mobile social discovery services have already been pretty hyped-up. We’ve got them on our radar, as well, and are going to take some time to evaluate how the apps work, both in a crowded tech space and IRL (that’s Internet speak for “in real life”), to see which ones stand out from the pack.

What we’re really interested in are the next next big mobile social discovery check-in apps, ones that would invite us to parties that haven’t been planned yet, allow us to check in to bars that haven’t been built yet, or connect us with people that don’t exist yet. Like Foursquare, only … Futuresquare. You read it here first.

(Feature photo courtesy of Flickr/DHGatsby)

Siri, Why Don't You Have A Texas Accent?

Arik Hesseldahl — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 19:57:02 +0000

I don’t know exactly why anyone is surprised that Samsung is making Apple’s A5 chip in Texas, but for some reason they are. Reuters reported today that the South Korean chip giant is building at a factory in Texas the wonderchip that powers both the iPhone 4S and the iPad. That’s the surprise. Rather than a factory somewhere in Asia, Samsung is cranking out the chips in the Lone Star State.

Given that Apple and Samsung have been working together for years — the first iPhone chips were Samsung made, after all — I’m not entirely sure why anyone is surprised that this Samsung fab was expanded to accommodate, among other customers, Apple.

Maybe the cybernetic voice of the iPhone’s marquee feature, the personal assistant Siri, should sport a Texan twang, rather than a non-specific accent. There’s a lot more inside the iPhone that comes from Texas than just the A5.

For one thing, the chip itself, or some significant portion of it, was probably designed in Texas to begin with. Remember Intrinsity? That’s the boutique chip design company that Apple acquired in 2010. Yes, that’s the one. Where was it based again? You guessed it: Austin, Texas.

There’s more. This is the very same factory that Samsung announced it was going to expand last year with a $3.6 billion investment. Indeed, yours truly even covered the announcement for Bloomberg News.

The previous fabs have been turning out Flash memory chips since the late 1990s. And since Samsung is the world’s largest supplier of Flash memory, and Apple is the world’s largest consumer of Flash memory, there’s a pretty good chance that the iPhone you’re carrying right now contains flash chips built in Texas. However, Apple buys flash memory from other companies too, including Toshiba and Hynix.

Then there are lots of other smaller components that come from Texas. Texas Instruments supplies the chip that drives the touch screen. As its name implies, TI is based in Dallas and has six fabs in Richardson, Texas (and many others around the world), one of which may turn out the touch screen controllers that iSuppli found in the iPhone. (TI wouldn’t confirm one way or the other if it’s made in Texas, but there’s a pretty good chance!)

And then there’s the audio codec chip from Cirrus Logic, found by market research firm iSuppli in its teardown analysis. It’s another company based in Texas, and so while the chip itself was probably manufactured in Asia, it was designed at Cirrus HQ in Austin.

And finally, don’t forget that Apple itself maintains a huge presence in Austin. The Austin American Statesman reported last year that the company was nearing a deal to lease 55,000 square feet of office space for the Intrinsity team, and is thought to employ about 2,500 people in and around Austin, most of them based at a 400,000 square foot campus.

So for all of Apple’s California good vibes, there’s a lot of Texas in every iPhone it makes.

Report: Apple's A5 Chip Made in Texas

Lauren Goode — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:48:16 +0000

Reuters reports that, according to sources, the A5 processor used in Apple’s iPhone 4S and iPad 2 is made in a sprawling 1.6 million-square-foot Samsung Electronics factory in Austin, Texas. The Korean electronics giant began supplying the A5 processors to Apple this year from the Austin plant, the story says. Both Apple and Samsung spokespersons declined to comment.

Here's Gowalla CEO's Non-Denial Denial Email to Investors About Facebook Acquisition

Kara Swisher — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 05:54:43 +0000

Update: Facebook has confirmed it is hiring Gowalla’s core team, while the Gowalla product will be shut down.

Even Gowalla CEO Josh Williams isn’t pretending a deal for Facebook to buy the location-sharing company isn’t happening, as you can read below in an email he sent to his investors.

Both companies declined to comment on a story on Friday and over the weekend. CNN had the scoop about the social networking giant acquiring Gowalla, which I have taken to calling Not-Foursquare.

That’s because — despite its often clever approach and innovation — it never caught up with the leading social location service.

Gowalla, which changed its approach several times, had been for sale for some time, said several sources.

The Austin-based start-up has raised just under $11 million from a range of investors, including Greylock Partners, Shasta Ventures, Alsop Louie Partners and the Founders Fund, along with a batch of well-known angel investors.

But let’s put this one to bed with the email that Williams sent out after the CNN story broke Friday, which was read to me tonight, so I might not have all of it perfectly and it is missing a sentence about I-will-smack-the-leaker):

The second confirmation email has apparently not yet been sent, but I will try to get it when it is, along with the price.

So, until the official official yes, here’s a video interview I did with Williams in April of 2010 about the location “wars”:

[ See post to watch video ]

Pre-$200 Million Valuation: Flipboard's Mike McCue at SXSW (The Full Onstage Video)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:30:38 +0000

In March, BoomTown travelled hipster-Texas-style for the South by Southwest festival in Austin.

I was there to check out the geek-packed scene, but also to interview Flipboard’s Mike McCue in an onstage interview there.

The Silicon Valley start-up, which makes an innovative and highly designed social media reading app for the Apple iPad (iPhone and Google’s Android mobile operating system to come), recently raised $50 million in new funding, giving it a $200 million valuation.

This interview with McCue took place before that, but it’s still a wide-ranging map to where the much-touted Flipboard is headed.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Exclusive: Flipboard Confirms $50 Million Funding at $200 Million Valuation

Kara Swisher — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 20:23:12 +0000

Late last month, BoomTown posted about a huge venture funding effort by the high-profile and even more highly designed social media reading app for the Apple iPad, Flipboard.

Today, its co-founder and CEO Mike McCue confirmed the $50 million round at an eye-popping $200 million valuation, in a wide-ranging interview at the start-up’s Palo Alto, Calif., HQ.

“We’re obviously thrilled, because we think it confirms our focus that people want a beautifully designed way to interact with content and to share it,” he said. “And there is a lot more to come–on a scale of one to 10, we’re just at a two or three.”

The bulk of the new second round of funding–Flipboard had previously raised $10.5 million–came from New York-based Insight Venture Partners.

Insight’s Jerry Murdock said in an interview that he was excited about the idea of “social endorsement” that Flipboard was pioneering.

“We back great entrepreneurs and Flipboard is that and also in an obviously unique position to solve a problem of media consumption in the digital age,” he said. “The sky is the limit. Or more precisely it is the best environment to consume curated real-time content for Twitter and Facebook, because of the user experience and social endorsement integration with the content.”

Insight is also an investor in Twitter.

Also stepping up in the new Flipboard round is Comcast’s venture arm, as well as previous investors, including Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures and a spate of well known angels, such as Twitter co-founder and product guru Jack Dorsey, Facebook co-founder and Asana dude Dustin Moskovitz, the ubiquitous Ron Conway, actor Ashton Kutcher and the investment company of former News Corp. exec Peter Chernin.

“From a Comcast perspective, we’re intrigued with Mike and what he’s doing with content aggregation,” said Amy Banse, Comcast Interactive Capital’s new head. “We think we can learn from him and he from us.”

Co-founded by longtime entrepreneur McCue (Netscape, Tellme) and former Apple iPhone engineer Evan Doll in January, Flipboard launched to much attention in July.

The elegant Flipboard–which McCue recently told me in an onstage interview at the South by Southwest conference in Austin had zero revenues thus far–has changed the game on the consumption of social media.

Its innovative social magazine concept is attempting to make the social networking universe more accessible, consumable and, perhaps most importantly, visually arresting via its rich app.

Essentially, Flipboard pulls information from media RSS feeds and sites such as Twitter and Facebook data streams and then reassembles it in an easy-to-navigate, personalized format in a mobile tablet touchscreen environment.

In its current offering, there are pull-quotes, photos, videos, status updates and even the first paragraphs of linked-out content. There is also the ability to comment and share, as if one were on a social networking or microblogging site.

McCue said the new giant pile of cash will be used to increase its 32-person staff to about 50, international expansion, small acquisitions and more product development on more platforms.

The next in the arena will be the iPhone version of Flipboard, said McCue, followed by one for the Google Android mobile operating system eventually.

Left unsaid, of course, was the need for funding to fight the likelihood of increased competition in the hot space for delivering both professional and social content to consumers on a wide range of devices.

Rivals are varied, such as Silicon Valley’s most adorable news reader start-up Pulse and also Zite, a news reader which was recently sued for copyright infringement by a group of major publishers.

There are bigger potential players, such as Google, which is trying to find various ways to move into the social space.

In fact, said several sources, Google and others have made acquisition approaches to Flipboard, which has instead opted for raising more funding and staying independent for now.

McCue declined to talk about that, but did note that he is not surprised by publisher interest, especially of the worried and wary kind, in the arena.

“Anyone not respectful of others’ content is going to get in that kind of trouble,” he said, noting Flipboard has struck deals with 17 big publishers so far, including this morning’s announcement about a partnership with Oprah Winfrey’s and Discovery’s OWN cable network. “There is not one half to this equation.”

Right now, the Flipboard app is free and the business plan is advertising and some possible subscription scenarios.

McCue said advertising will be the key to Flipboard’s business plan in the future, although it’s not clear if the company will ever sell advertising itself.

Rather, it will partner with publishers seeking better distribution in the explosive tablet and smartphone market, where Flipboard has been gaining traction quickly.

But until that is sorted out, there is now $50 million more in the Flipboard kitty to figure it all out.

“With this funding, we can grow at the right pace and have a lot of flexibility to get the product right,” said McCue. “And, that’s the most important thing.”

Pretty Flipboard Fundraising at an Even Prettier $200 Million Valuation

Kara Swisher — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:15:12 +0000

Flipboard, the high-profile and highly designed social media reading app for the Apple iPad, is out raising another round of funding at an eye-popping $200 million valuation, according to numerous sources close to the situation.

The Palo Alto, CA, company declined to comment on its new funding efforts, which sources said had recently accelerated.

While that valuation might change, several sources considering the investment said it is unlikely to go down in the current frothy financing market in Silicon Valley, especially given Flipboard’s splashy profile and top-drawer pedigree.

Co-founded by longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur Mike McCue and former Apple iPhone engineer Evan Doll in January, Flipboard launched to much attention in July.

That included $10.5 million in venture funding from Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures and a spate of well known angel investors, such as Twitter Co-founder Jack Dorsey, Facebook Co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, the ubiquitous Ron Conway, actor Ashton Kutcher and the investment company of former News Corp. exec Peter Chernin.

At the time, it was unclear what Flipboard’s valuation was. But now, said several sources, it’s clocking in at a hefty $200 million, which is perhaps no surprise at a time of increasingly lofty investments in tech start-ups.

Suddenly, Foursquare’s $95 million valuation seems like a bargain! (Sorry, Dennis Crowley, for comparing you to the Kool-Aid pitcher dude.)

In any case, the elegant Flipboard–which McCue recently told me in an onstage interview at the South by Southwest conference in Austin had zero revenues thus far–has changed the game on the consumption of social media.

Its innovative social magazine concept is attempting to make the social networking universe more accessible, consumable and, perhaps most importantly, visually arresting via its rich app.

Essentially, Flipboard pulls information from sites such as Twitter and Facebook data streams and then reassembles it in an easy-to-navigate, personalized format in a mobile tablet touchscreen environment.

In this offering, there are pull quotes, photos, videos, status updates and even the first paragraphs of linked-out content. There is also the ability to comment and share, as if one were on Twitter or Facebook.

Flipboard has since added a number of features and will be launching its new iPhone app later this year.

Right now, the Flipboard app is free and the business plan is advertising and some possible subscription scenarios.

It will be interesting to see who will jump into this leader in a nascent market, besides its current investors. Sources said one likely target group for Flipboard could be a large traditional media company.

Until the financial dust settles, here is the video of an onstage interview by the Digital Solution’s Katherine Boehret with McCue at the All Things Digital event, D: Dive Into Mobile, in December:

[ See post to watch video ]

(Full disclosure: ATD is part of Flipboard’s publisher beta program.)

Video: GroupMe Dudes Talk Group Messaging Phenom (and Drink Beer at the Same Time)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:01:45 +0000

If you had to pick the hotsy-totsy start-up to win the media darling of South by Southwest award for 2011–following in the precious footsteps of Foursquare and Twitter from years past–it would probably have to be GroupMe.

The group messaging/conference call/location/photo sharing service has, as these things tend to, garnered a lot of heat since its debut less than a year ago.

That has, of course, also meant the requisite big venture funding–$11.5 million in total–for the New York-based GroupMe, including from SV Angel, betaworks, First Round Capital, Lerer Ventures, General Catalyst Partners and Khosla Ventures.

And, no surprise, the dead-simple idea now has many start-up rivals, all vying to use combine mobile, texting, social, location, groups and smartphones into some unholy megatrend.

Still, GroupMe has built a slick little offering, which is likely to get scooped up by some bigger entity (or perhaps just copied, which is the sincerest form of flattery in tech).

Until then, its Co-founders Jared Hecht and Steve Martocci are enjoying their day in the sun–quite literally, at their free grilled-cheese-and-beer giveaway at SXSW this weekend in Austin, Texas.

Here is my video interview with their-future-is-so-bright-they-have-to-wear-shades pair:

[ See post to watch video ]

Video: BoomTown Versus Texas Hipsters and Cheddar Cheese Cats at SXSW

Kara Swisher — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 19:18:17 +0000

As it turned out, BoomTown did not succumb to hipster poisoning on my sojourn this past weekend to Austin, Texas and the famous South by Southwest festival.

The annual gathering, which has interactive, music and film elements, started last week and is still going strong–fueled, as far as I can tell, by beer, blogging, empanadas and excessive start-up hype.

Actually, it was a good time had by me, despite assertions from some longtime attendees that SXSW had somehow jumped the shark.

I personally saw no shark-jumping, but there certainly were a lot of free t-shirts and fake tattoos.

Here is a video of a variety of scenes from the weekend, from all over SXSW, from our very own All Things Digital party (I now can retire, since I had a drink named after me) to encountering a giant cheddar cheese sculpture of cats.

Yes, it was that kind of SXSW.

Enjoy:

[ See post to watch video ]