AllThingsD » bird

Viral Video: The Fantastically Freaky CGI of "Snow White & the Huntsman"

Kara Swisher — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 08:41:39 +0000

And here I thought the sulky genius of Kristen Stewart would fade away after the final two “Twilight” movies made their debut — one opens this week (yay!).

Instead, this trailer for “Snow White & the Huntsman” looks 100 percent freakier than any sparkly vampires.

The CGI special effects seem pretty awesome here, from the explosion of scary birds to the soldiers who shatter like black glass to the de-aging of the Evil Queen to the blobbish mirror-mirror-not-on-the-wall.

And not one single sign of any adorkable whistling dwarves to be found.

Oh, just watch:

Viral Video: Biz Stone Talks Turkey (And Will Be Partying With Them Too!)

Kara Swisher — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:11:21 +0000

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, who is now working on a new venture called Obvious, is taking some spare time to hang out with turkeys.

Stone, a well-known vegan, will be the special guest for the Orland, Calif., “Celebration FOR the Turkeys” next Saturday, which is being thrown by Farm Sanctuary.

According to its Web site, “Farm Sanctuary was founded in 1986 to combat the abuses of factory farming and to encourage a new awareness and understanding about ‘farm animals.’ At Farm Sanctuary, these animals are our friends, not our food.”

Thus, bird-lover Stone will lend his help to the laudable organization he has been supporting for a decade — as someone who loves turkeys, he says in the video, “just not to eat them.”

Calling PETA Stat -- Stop the Twitter Bird Magazine Cover Abuse!

Kara Swisher — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:59:29 +0000

That poor little bird.

The famous Twitter bird, I mean, which is getting yet another drubbing on another magazine cover.

When last we checked in with the tweetie icon, he (his name is, apparently, Larry) was on a crutch and all bandaged up on the front of Fortune under the inevitable title: “Trouble@Twitter.”

Inside, there was also an illustration of the bird with a rocket strapped to his back going the wrong way.

Is this bird Wile E. Coyote or what?

Now, New York magazine has the bird as an obese beached whale with the cover line: “twitter #toobigtosucceed?”

I wonder when, if and when the start-up starts to score big results, there will be a Twitter bird with really big muscles.

Or more likely, because Larry is getting unfairly abused, if all does not go well for the San Francisco company, a Twitter bird with X’s for eyes.

I am calling fowl.

The Facebook Hedgehog Mascot (And Yelp Competitor) That Never Was

Liz Gannes — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:53:19 +0000

Even if it sounds more like a tall tale than it does the truth, a post on Quora from early Facebook employee Ezra Callahan this morning is pretty amazing.

A Quora user asked, “Does Facebook need a pet (Android robot, Twitter bird, etc.) to improve its corporate image?”

Callahan, who joined Facebook in 2004 and was the company’s first product manager, replied that early Facebook president Sean Parker had advocated the company adopt a hedgehog (literally) as its mascot.

At the time, Facebook was working on a Yelp competitor, a would-be revenue-generating product it scrapped after getting venture funding.

Callahan and Matt Cohler (now a Benchmark venture capitalist and Quora’s lead investor) had looked into sending “each participating business a little stuffed blue hedgehog,” and Parker toyed with the idea of buying an actual hedgehog in Nevada, according to Callahan, who insists this is a true story. With Callahan’s departure from the company last year, none of those three are still at Facebook.

Read the full tale here.

I felt a little silly doing it, but I’ve asked Facebook PR for comment.

Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my ethics statement.

Image courtesy Flickr user Claus Rebler.

The BoomTown Movin'-On-Up Tour of Twitter's New San Francisco HQ

Kara Swisher — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:54:38 +0000

Why Twitter invited BoomTown back for another visit to its latest HQ after my last one, I will never know.

But the masters of microblogging did and here is my video of the lovely new digs in San Francisco.

Designed by CEO Evan Williams’s wife, Sara, it is an understated, classy and very hip–but definitely luxe–affair, with cream, celadon, lemongrass and azure, among the soothing colors.

It also broadcasts green living, as long as there is also a pricey espresso machine present and accounted for.

Well, Twitter has raised $155 million in funding, so it is probably good for it.

A little over 100 employees toil–although it’s pretty pleasant toiling, with room for about 200 more–in offices most recently occupied by the now-banished Bebo social networking site, owned by AOL (AOL).

Well, the karma of that Web 2.0 stumble seems to have been feng-shuied out completely, as you will see below.

In fact, Twitter seems to be giving Google (GOOG) a run for its money in workplaces that treat their workforces well, which include Facebook, whose new HQ I toured this summer.

Some Twitter highlights include the same freaky pair of green deer from the company’s smaller previous HQ nearby, a Twitter employee I dubbed “Snuggie Boy,” a tricked-out DJ booth, too many giant “war rooms” to count, more bird images than that, a spate of comfy couches and a very odd but compelling stool made of wood dowels.

And, of course, a free and tasty organic lunch, which is de rigeur for Internet companies.

Oh, before I forget, also Twitter employees.

The person who drew the short straw to be my tour guide was Jenna Sampson, Twitter PR–oops, communications–staffer.

She used to work for Flickr at Yahoo (YHOO), by the way, so Sampson is definitely moving on up to a deluxe HQ in the sky.

Here is a link to video interview I did with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone too.

And here’s the office tour video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Finally, here is my favorite version of the classic television theme song, “Movin’ on Up,” from “The Jeffersons,” appropriately done by Rhett and Link with an Apple (AAPL) iPhone Leaf Trombone app:

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong Speaks (Though He's a Cagey One)!

Kara Swisher — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 03:38:20 +0000

Here is a video interview I did today with AOL CEO Tim Armstrong in Germany–really!–where we both were appearing at a digital marketing conference.

In it, the former Google (GOOG) exec talked about a range of things, including the possibility of charging for content, innovating in the graphical advertising market, competition with Yahoo (YHOO) and the upcoming spinoff of the Time Warner (TWX) unit.

But Armstrong did not talk about merging or other big search deals with other companies–including Microsoft (MSFT), which I wrote about here, along with AOL’s search for directors.

In the interview, I also insulted the famous AOL yellow running man, even though the mascot icon apparently just won “a vote to be inducted into the Advertising Walk of Fame, beating out 25 rivals, including Ronald McDonald and the Vlasic Stork,” according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

There must be hope yet for AOL if it bested a pickle-loving bird and a freaky clown.

Here’s the interview:

[ See post to watch video ]

The New Twitter Homepage Is, as Reported, Search-alicious!

Kara Swisher — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:22:06 +0000

BoomTown reported last week that Twitter was planning on debuting a new homepage this week.

And presto–it’s up!

You can see the new page above (click on the image to make it larger), which is heavy on search, as well as topic trends.

I am not sure this makes the site a “Google-killer,” as some have predicted, with Twitter dominating real-time search.

But the blue is a very pretty shade, although I still want the microblogging service to 86 that annoying Twitter bird (alert PETA stat!).

In an interview with BoomTown last week, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said the homepage was rejiggered “to better show who we are.”

Stone said the old welcome page was essentially confusing to the masses of people who came to the innovative start-up, made aware of the microblogging service by the massive media hype it has received over the last year.

“You can try it out without having to sign up, so you can get an idea of what Twitter is before you use it,” said Stone last week. “We need to do a better job of explaining ourselves to people who hear about us and then have no idea what do to.”

Stone was right, as you can see from the image of the old homepage below (click on the image to make it larger).

Stone also said in the interview that the goal is to make the page as lively as Twitter is.

“We have to turn a lot of awareness into engagement,” said Stone. “Our front page is not reflective of that right now.”

Now, it presumably is, bird by irksome bird.

Exclusive: Twitter to Debut a New Main Homepage Next Week

Kara Swisher — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:26:44 +0000

Twitter will unveil a new main homepage next week at Twitter.com, said co-founder Biz Stone, in order “to better show who we are.”

In an interview with BoomTown this afternoon, Stone said the current page is essentially confusing to the masses of people who come to it, made aware of the microblogging service by the massive media hype it has received over the last year.

People arriving at the new main homepage will be greeted by a search box, information on Twitter trends and a panoply of more specific information about how they can use Twitter.

“You can try it out without having to sign up, so you can get an idea of what Twitter is before you use it,” said Stone. “We need to do a better job of explaining ourselves to people who hear about us and then have no idea what do to.”

Stone is right.

As you can see below (click on the image to make it larger), the current main homepage is pretty lame now, with a picture of a bird on a branch, some cursory explanatory what-why-how information, a link to a video and some media kudos, as well as an ability to sign on.

Stone said the goal is to make the page as lively as Twitter is.

“We have to turn a lot of awareness into engagement,” said Stone. “Our front page is not reflective of that right now.”

Thus, the San Francisco-based company has redone its homepage to be more interactive.

Said Stone: “We want it to show us as a place where people can discover what is going on in real-time and much more.”

It’s an interesting move for Twitter since the service could use a more robust homepage to give it more of a unified feeling.

Currently, users interact only with their own pages and do not use any central Twitter hub.

Eventually, although Stone did not say this was a goal, Twitter could use a more programmed homepage to feature popular subjects, tweets and more.

Part of the effort to make Twitter understandable is a new site called “Twitter 101,” which Stone said was to give companies a way to understand how to use Twitter.

(You can see the site here.)

In a blog post on Twitter 101 today, Stone wrote:

“We coordinated with business students and writers to surface some interesting findings, best practices, steps for getting started, and case studies. The results demonstrate how customers are getting value out of Twitter and suggest techniques businesses can employ to enhance that value. While this work was envisioned for businesses, it’s also useful for anyone using Twitter so have a look if you like.”

As an added bonus, here is a full video of Stone and Twitter CEO Evan Williams talking about the innovative start-up in an onstage interview with Walt Mossberg and me at the D: All Things Digital conference in late May:

[ See post to watch video ]

Twitter Co-Founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone Speak!

Kara Swisher — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 08:30:24 +0000

BoomTown visited Twitter’s San Francisco HQ for a pie-filled tour yesterday.

But I also got a chance to sit down to have a chat with two of its founders, CEO Evan Williams and Biz Stone (pictured here, right to left), about all the doings at the wildly popular microblogging start-up.

For the record, Williams is the quiet one, while Stone is more voluble–but don’t let appearances deceive you, as both are ambitious and aggressive entrepreneurs.

I asked a lot before I did the video–so don’t give me a hard time for not pushing too hard on it–but neither deigned to talk about the swirl of rumors about which giant Internet behemoth–Google (GOOG) or Microsoft (MSFT)–was going to get its wealthy mitts into the innards of Twitter (or not!).

Nonetheless, the pair actually took time to talk about what they think is behind the surge in growth and awareness of the simple-to-use service, as well as the state of innovation in Silicon Valley.

As hard a time as I have given them for Twitter’s defocus on an actual business plan, there is no question that the pair have an unusually compelling product on their hands that has many more possibilities than it does pitfalls.

Both Stone and Williams, in fact, are going to be appearing onstage at our upcoming D: All Things Digital conference in late May to talk about all that and more, so here is a taste of what is to come.

And, yes, that’s a bird–Get it? Tweet!–over Stone’s head, etched in the glass of the conference room door.

(I also did a video tour of Twitter’s HQ with Stone, which is here.)

Here are Williams and Stone:

[ See post to watch video ]

[Photo taken by Mai Le, posted via Flickr, uploaded to Wikimedia and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0]

Sarah Palin's Dead Turkey Interview

Kara Swisher — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:13:46 +0000

How much do I love the Internet?

Muchety-much after seeing this interview that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin gave plastered all over the Web, in which the former Republican VP candidate gives a local Anchorage television station an interview as a Thanksgiving turkey is being slaughtered right behind her.

Actually, I cannot exactly tell what the hapless workman is doing to the poor turkey in question, because he keeps coming in an out of the frame, carrying the feathered bird by the feet, not sure if he should be doing whatever he is doing as Palin speaks.

But the worker does leave and then return in the course of the interview and then turns on some funnel-shaped device that seems to shake up the bird in an awful way. Twice!

Still, ever the trouper (and sanguine hunter, it seems), Palin obliviously keeps up the turkey patter, having just “pardoned” another turkey earlier.

Such is fowl fate.

Here’s the video (and, after seeing it, tofu might look more palatable on Thursday or you can give to Farm Sanctuary’s Adopt-A-Turkey Project, which commented on the Palin interview):