This week, CBS news program “60 Minutes” had an interview with Microsoft co-founder and now major philanthropist Bill Gates, called “Bill Gates 2.0.”

It also included some discussion of his longtime relationship with the late Apple legend Steve Jobs.

Here’s the interview in full, in which he talks mostly about eradicating diseases like polio by improving vaccine delivery and his other efforts to alleviate suffering worldwide.

And here’s a special report by “60 Minutes,” in which CBS’s Charlie Rose talks about the Gates-Jobs part, which includes parts of the joint interview the pair did at our fifth D: All Things Digital conference in 2007:

Earlier today, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates discussed technological innovations for vaccines, ahead of a Global Vaccine Summit being held next week in Abu Dhabi.

Set during World Immunization Week, 300 people — including Gates, who is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and who will be delivering a keynote address — will gather on April 24 and 25 to talk about what the world community needs to do move forward the effort to vaccinate children, including a plan to eradicate polio by 2018.

It’s an important effort since, according to the Gates Foundation, every 20 seconds one child dies from a disease that could have been prevented by an existing vaccine.

“The key thing to understand is that vaccines are miraculous,” said Gates in a roundtable telephone interview with several reporters, noting that they are low-cost in relation to the huge benefit they provide.

Two key next steps, he said, have to do with a variety of technologies that are being explored to help in the delivery of vaccines, and also finding ways to make them cheaper.

“There is an under-investment in general, particularly in doing things for the poorest,” he said, requiring his private organization and others to pay for the research or to work with big pharmaceutical companies to create technologies that can also be deployed in more lucrative ways in rich countries. “Usually, there is a missing market incentive.”

Still, there is innovation in the sector, even if it is slow.

Gates referenced a “super-thermos” approach that is being field-tested in Senegal that keeps vaccines cold without needing more energy. Another effort is under way to formulate vaccines so that they do not need to be kept cold in the first place. A third is to combine several vaccines together to get the prices down.

Also important are improvements in satellite mapping technology, which allows field workers who deliver the vaccines to better assess where the need is. That’s especially important since a lot of the work is still on the ground, such as the push to eradicate polio in much the same way as smallpox has been. Currently, noted Gates, it is still an issue in just three countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria.

And since reaching near total coverage is critical — “The difference between 85 percent and 90 percent [coverage] can be the difference between success and failure,” said Gates — making sure health workers find the people they are trying to vaccinate is paramount.

“It’s kind of a high-tech thing compared to how it was being done,” said Gates.

But, although there have been great hopes around the use of mobile devices in the field to access and record accurate data on patient visits, immunizations and other health information, it’s still an uphill battle against easier paper solutions.

“The paper-based systems are preferable,” said Gates, because of lack of reliable connectivity and ease of use. “It’s a high threshold to get rid of that and use cellphones.”

Or, as Gates noted in a blog post from a recent visit to Ghana, where cellphone data-keeping is being tested: “Many of us are looking at potential digital strategies for record-keeping, but paper is pretty good.”

(Photo courtesy of the Gates Foundation)

On Wednesday, the San Jose-based company will report fourth-quarter and year-end earnings, and eBay is expecting the holidays to have treated it well.

For the fourth quarter, it is projecting earnings per share of up to 58 cents on revenue of up to $4 billion. For the full year, profits are expected to be as high as $1.99 a share on up to $14.1 billion in revenue.

Analysts are a little more cautious.

The consensus is calling for eBay to earn a profit of 61 cents in the fourth quarter and $2.05 a share for the full year. Those numbers are best compared to eBay’s non-GAAP projections, which exclude some items. On a non-GAAP basis, eBay is projecting to earn up to 69 cents a share for the quarter, and up to $2.35 a share for the year.

One analyst, however, recently revised his target, saying he expects eBay to now hit the projected 69 cents a share.

The rise in the stock price over the past year stems from the work eBay has done to overhaul its marketplace business.

The turnaround has included fixing back-end technology, like search algorithms, and revamping the design, including a new logo and homepage. Innovation is also occurring in delivery with programs testing same-day delivery and pickup services. As the transformation has started to take hold, eBay has started to attract new users to the site via TV commercials.

Operating alongside eBay is its buddy, PayPal, which also had a strong year. In the third quarter, the payment division saw revenue jump 23 percent compared to the year earlier.

One particular subject the company will be eager to talk about this quarter is how much growth it is seeing from consumers shopping on their phones and tablet computers. In the third quarter, it forecasted that eBay and PayPal would each transact $10 billion in volume this year over mobile, or more than twice what they recorded in 2011.

It will not be a surprise if eBay blows past these numbers, given the number of times it has revised its figures upward. Other third-party reports confirm what eBay is already witnessing.

For instance, last week, eMarketer reported that U.S. sales over mobile devices increased 81 percent, to nearly $25 billion, in 2012. At that level, it said, mobile devices accounted for 11 percent of total U.S. e-commerce sales. In comparison, I’ve been reporting for the past few months that eBay’s mobile revenue is closer to 16 percent of its total sales (but those figures have been based only on estimates).

Amazon is reportedly generating half as much, or around 8 percent to 10 percent of its revenue from mobile.

Finally, analysts won’t just be looking for a recap of the company’s 2012 accomplishments on Wednesday, but will also be looking for hints about the future.

The big question on everyone’s mind is whether eBay can maintain its growth for another year.

On the marketplace side of the business, eBay anticipates growing revenue by helping brick-and-mortar stores like Toys “R” Us and Macy’s compete online. Meanwhile, PayPal has been slowly expanding into in-store payments, with the hope that 2013 will be the first year it brings in revenue from the business (or at least that’s what eBay hopes).

On Friday, eBay’s shares traded 1.3 percent higher to close at $53.70, which is just shy of its 52-week high of $54.20 a share.

“I’m not intimidated by going on eBay, but I don’t know how to sell, and PayPal is another deterrent,” she said.

But the San Jose resident lucked out after hearing about eBay’s new pilot program on the radio.

The program offered to send an eBay employee to her home to pick up the items and deliver them to an expert, who would attempt to sell them — for a cut of the proceeds.

“I can’t tell you how fabulous this is. You never know what’s going to sell, but you might as well try,” said Weber, who was visited by two eBay employees in December.

The program is one of several pilots that eBay is experimenting with as it tries to figure out ways to connect with consumers locally by having a physical presence, rather than conducting everything anonymously over the Internet.

Last month, I got a close look at the pick-up service as well as a similar pilot that allowed people to drop off clothing and small consumer electronics at a mall. The two trials are being conducted in a small number of markets for a limited period of time, but could be expanded if successful.

A third pilot that falls into the local category is something called eBay Now, a same-day delivery service that is being tested in San Francisco and parts of New York City. The program allows users to place orders at major stores, like Macy’s or Toys “R” Us, from a mobile phone and have them delivered to their door within a couple of hours.

Last month, I met briefly with Vikram Singh, director of eBay’s consumer business, who is heading up the pick-up program, and with Amanda Thomas, the director of new business pilots at eBay, who is leading the drop-off centers, to get the scoop on both programs.

Both Singh and Thomas said the trials have been great for introducing eBay to new customers. But what stood out about both programs was how little risk eBay was taking on their end for conducting them. While it must pay for some infrastructure, like the drivers, vans and mall kiosks, there’s no fear that eBay will end up with inventory it doesn’t want. For both trials, eBay is tapping into its network of selling assistants, who are registered with eBay to sell items for a fee.

In Weber’s case, her items were picked up by two eBay employees, who took careful inventory of every plate and serving dish before delivering the items off to a selling assistant.

Once the item is logged by eBay, it is then up to the seller to come up with a fair price to get the item sold, keeping in mind that the pick-up program takes a 25 percent cut. In the future, Singh expected to experiment with charging a fee for the pick-up service, as well, to see if consumers would still be interested.

Singh said of the 70 pick-ups conducted by mid-December, no one had questioned the cut. He said he has also been happy with the quality of items being picked up, except that there have been too many books.

If the items don’t sell, the owner can either choose to donate them or have them returned to their home. The owners receive payment in the form of a printed check or via Paypal within three weeks of the items being picked up.

The mall pilot worked a little differently.

During the trial, consumers were invited to drop off a bag of used clothing or small electronics for evaluation while they shopped. When they returned, a registered seller would offer a set price for the entire bag. The consumer could either accept the offer and receive payment via PayPal, or choose to list the items on eBay using their own account.

If they opted to sell the items themselves, the registered sellers on site would provide advice on how to price the items and how to list them to get the most attention.

For instance, a seller told me the best way to sell something was to use every character allowed in the headline to describe an object. For instance, some of the keywords to describe the navy blazer in the photo on the left included navy, peacoat, blazer, new and buttons. Within just a few minutes, she draped the blazer over a mannequin, snapped a photo of it using an iPad and had it listed for sale.

Thomas said during the first week, of the 2,000 people who stopped by the booth, 30 to 40 percent were new to eBay. The pilot operated out of a mall in San Jose between Nov. 26 and Dec. 25.

In a separate interview, Devin Wenig, eBay’s president of global marketplaces, said the experiments are focused on keeping eBay competitive — against large commerce companies like Amazon, as well as against start-ups that are constantly entering the space.

By being proactive about getting new sources of inventory, it ensures that eBay has a good selection of items for sale, not just the items from people who have sold on eBay before. A key component of eBay’s success is to list both used and new items side by side to give consumers the most choices, he said.

“We have 350 million items for sale, which is nine times larger than Amazon,” Wenig said. “That wouldn’t be the case if we separated out the two businesses.”

Wenig said he plans to use the pick-up service to sell a number of lawn ornaments that came with his home, which he doesn’t personally care for. Listing them on eBay and being responsible for shipping, however, seemed like a burden. Getting them out of his garage, however, is something he’s definitely interested in.

“People make their living on eBay and that feels good, but to be the belle of the ball, we have to step it up. We can’t get complacent,” he said. “We have to move faster and innovate at a quicker pace.”

What was a small glitch for FreshDirect might have been a prime opportunity for the newest crop of food delivery services — companies that don’t don’t deliver groceries, but instead ship boxes of pre-prepared recipe ingredients that aim to make even the busiest professionals or harried parents look like food stars.

“We want to be your sous chef,” says Simon Schmincke, chief marketing officer at HelloFresh, which is headquartered in Berlin and recently started serving parts of the U.S. “It’s a subscription model, so you don’t have to order groceries every week.”

These types of formulated meal services, like HelloFresh and Sweden-based Linas Matkasse, have been popular in parts of Europe for several years. Now they’re making their way Stateside — and showing early signs of success.

Earlier this month, HelloFresh secured $10 million in funding. Another fledgling service, Blue Apron, recently nabbed $800,000 in seed funding from a group that includes the founders of Seamless and Yipit.

Here’s how it works: Consumers sign up for weekly food-ordering options, which usually don’t exceed three prepared meals per week. The services then send subscribers an email a week ahead of time with some recipe options. The subscribers have about a day to respond to the email with their selections. The following week, the food arrives in the mail.

But, to be clear, these aren’t precooked meals; they’re boxes with the raw materials, right down to the half-cup of diced onions or a pinch of salt, along with cooking instructions.

The pricing plans range from $8 a meal from a service like FreshDish to $69 a week for three meals from HelloFresh. That might sound like a lot for just a few meals, but the minds behind the companies will argue that you’re not spending chunks of change on spice jars you’ll never use again, or on a whole bundle of cilantro that will soon turn brown and soupy in your fridge.

Some of these services are targeting different audiences. HelloFresh has partnered with Aquavit, a restaurant on New York City’s Upper East Side, to come up with recipes that will be pleasing to the foodie crowd. Blue Apron creator Matt Salzberg stresses that the company sources only high-quality food, including meats from the same wholesaler that provides for Mario Batali’s establishment Eataly. Steve Goldstein, the creator of Fresh Dish, was inspired by the challenges facing working parents, and has said that Fresh Dish is aimed at families.

Like most new ventures, these services don’t address all markets in the U.S., and can be somewhat limited. Most ship meals for two, four or six people only. Some don’t offer vegetarian, vegan or gluten-free meal options, and most don’t allow the subscriber to adjust the recipe before it ships if they’re allergic to certain ingredients (the companies say customers with food allergies can just leave out those items while preparing the meal). They also don’t ship grocery-store items, like a carton of milk or case of water.

And for frequent travelers, a food subscription may not be ideal: You’ll have to remember to pause the service or deselect meal options the week before you go. Fresh Dish says it veered away from the subscription model for that reason.

But, unlike something like FreshDirect, which requires that the customer is home to receive a delivery, these meal kits come in convenient, insulated boxes that can sit on your stoop for up to a day while you toil away at work.

If so, you’re in luck. There are a handful of options for getting packages delivered in time for Christmas, especially if you live in one of the markets where retailers are testing same-day delivery services.

In case you didn’t already know, today was pretty much the deadline for consumers to place orders online and to reasonably expect their packages to arrive on time. For example, Sears, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Walmart and even Amazon stopped offering rush shipping this afternoon on most orders.

As I previously reported, last week was the peak for e-commerce spending, and this year that shouldn’t be any different. But there are a number of ways to still get deliveries sent to your home if you don’t feel like fighting the crowds at the mall.

Amazon is promising on-time deliveries for some orders placed on Saturday and Sunday for some items in select cities. But it won’t be free. For those with Amazon Prime, it will cost $4 and up — on top of the $79 you pay every year to be a member.

Then there’s same-day delivery. Though the services are being characterized as tests, these merchants are trying to see if it can be economical to deliver items that are kept locally at stores (and not at distant warehouses) to homes within a few hours. It’s clearly another strategy for brick-and-mortar retailers to try to compete with e-tailers that offer the convenience of delivery.

Two of the major trials are being conducted by eBay and Walmart.

EBay’s service is called eBay Now. Consumers can place orders from a mobile app that will deliver goods to you at your home, in a park, even at a bar, within about an hour. The company is working with a number of local retailers on the service, including Target, Best Buy, Nordstrom, Toys “R” Us and Bloomingdales.

According to an eBay spokeswoman, eBay Now will be available from 9 am to 6 pm (local time) on Christmas Eve, but closed on Christmas Day. The service is currently being tested in San Francisco and parts of New York City.

Walmart is another retailer that is testing same-day delivery. The “Walmart to Go” service allows customers in a handful of markets to buy and receive items on the same day for $10. Inventory is limited to popular items, including toys, electronics, sporting goods and other gifts. The service is in Northern Virginia, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, the San Jose-San Francisco Bay Area and Denver.

Walmart will be offering same-day delivery until Dec. 23, but will be closed on Dec. 24 and 25. It will resume on Dec. 26.

There are smaller alternatives, too.

For example, TaskRabbit is a marketplace where you can find people who are willing to complete small projects or services for a fee. The service operates in a number of major markets around the country, and due to its independent nature, a spokesman claims, “The Web site and iPhone app are never closed.”

In fact, once a “rabbit” has received a background check and activated, “they can work when they want, and not when they don’t.” Popular tasks this month include holiday shopping, which is averaging $57; gift wrapping, $38; and hanging lights, $85. If that sounds exorbitant, remember that consumers should expect to pay a premium on holidays.

Finally, another service in San Francisco is Postmates, which is offering same-day delivery by dispatching a nearby courier to run an errand. A spokeswoman confirmed that it is operating on Christmas Eve from 8 am to 6 pm, and on Christmas Day from 11 am to midnight.

Additionally, as part of the iPhone app, Postmates is creating a shopping guide that lists major retailers where last-minute purchases can be made, including the likes of Apple, Tiffany, Uniqlo and Nordstrom.

While there seem to be a lot of last-minute options, Forrester Research analyst Sucharita Mulpuru said that this year is no different from other years in at least one sense. Retailers, and especially e-commerce companies, are always trying to push the limits when it comes to how late orders can be placed.

“It does drive a spike in sales as you approach the shipping deadline. I’d estimate a 20 percent lift on that day over an average holiday day, but by no means would it eclipse the Thanksgiving weekend or Cyber Monday,” she said.

Of course, if you miss all of these options, there are always gift cards. And there’s still the local mall.

Image by mbortolino

Amazon, which is known for being the king of fulfillment, says orders placed through Tuesday will arrive by Christmas Eve, and for its Prime members, orders can be made as late as Friday.

Deadlines for other retailers are scattershot during the rest of the week — Wednesday for Walmart and Thursday for Sears — but nearly all of the big retailers are willing to push delivery times even later for consumers willing to pay for expedited shipping. Some will accept orders as late as Dec. 20 and 21.

As of right now, online retailers should be pretty thrilled with what Santa has delivered this year.

For the first 44 days of the holiday season, sales have totaled $33.8 billion, a 13 percent jump over the same period last year, according to comScore, which measures purchases made online through broadband connections.

“With this most recent week in the books, the peak spending period may now be in our rear-view mirror — but the online holiday shopping season is not over yet,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.

Last week, four days surpassed the $1 billion threshold, making it the heaviest five-day online shopping period on record, comScore reports. So far, 11 days have exceeded $1 billion in spending, compared to 10 last year. It’s important to note that the results do not include sales that occur over mobile phones and tablets.

ComScore expects tomorrow to be another heavy shopping day as procrastinators scramble to order gifts in time. Years ago, Monday was coined “Free Shipping Day,” and that continues to be the case, but enthusiasm over the offer seems to have mellowed as free shipping has become standard for many retailers.

As AllThingsD previously reported it would, Yahoo has released a new version of its Yahoo Mail offering, updating its Web offering and also adding native mobile apps for Apple iPhone and Microsoft’s Windows 8. It also updated its Google Android app.

The new Web mail has a decidedly cleaner design and improved search, part of an effort to better compete with Google’s Gmail, which has taken major share from Yahoo in the arena in recent years.

In fact, one source told me that the aim was to be “more Gmail-like.” And, indeed, it looks like it is. Yahoo is also working on a radical rehaul of its homepage, which is set to debut in the coming weeks, although the Silicon Valley Internet giant has been rolling it out in testing for months now.

Redoing Yahoo’s flagship properties — especially to focus on mobile — is a key priority at the company under new CEO Marissa Mayer. She said in a blog post that the new Yahoo Mail will be rolled out to most users soon.

It’s an important step, as I noted in my post about the impending changes to Yahoo Mail, which got its last refresh a year ago:

At the time, the first change in five years got good reviews, with a cleaner design, Twitter and Facebook integration, improved spam filters and speedier delivery.

Unfortunately, since then, Google’s Gmail has become the most popular email service in the world, passing Microsoft’s Hotmail (which is now called Outlook.com after a recent rejiggering), according to recent stats from comScore. That has added up to Gmail’s 287.9 million monthly unique visitors worldwide, 286.2 million for Microsoft’s email product and 281.7 million for Yahoo Mail.

Still, in the U.S. at least, Yahoo is holding onto its longtime — though dwindling — lead, with 76.7 million using Google’s email product and 35.5 million using Microsoft’s.

It’s an important spot to maintain for Yahoo, since many of the users of its products now come to the site to access email and it has been a key driver to its content properties.

But to keep mindshare, Yahoo faces increasingly strong competition. Google’s Gmail released a series of solid improvements last fall. In addition, along with the positively reviewed Microsoft Outlook.com redo, AOL has just announced a new email product called Alto. While it is in beta to a small audience, it is aiming to help users with multiple email accounts organize them better.

In others words, the mail business — especially using it via smartphones and tablets — is another place Yahoo has to make sure it remains innovative.

But it can also feel like you’re ordering from a black hole, with little insight into what’s going on behind the scenes — or when your delivery will arrive.

GrubHub has come up with a feature that lets users track their food’s progress as it is being delivered to their doors.

The feature, called Track Your Grub, joins GrubHub’s OrderHub and DeliveryHub as part of a three-step system.

Restaurants listed on GrubHub use a company-provided Android tablet to take orders via the Internet. Drivers then use the DeliveryHub app on GPS-enabled mobile devices to communicate with both the restaurant and the orderer.

Provided that the driver is using the DeliveryHub, customers should be able to see the driver moving toward them in real time, similar to the way cars are tracked in the Uber car-service app.

Along the way, GrubHubbers also receive push notifications or SMS messages updating them on the status of their delivery.

The feature is being rolled out today across iPhone and Android mobile apps. GrubHub says that some 100 restaurants in six cities (including New York, San Francisco and Boston) will have the Track Your Grub option to start.

GrubHub has also said that more than 25 percent of its total orders now come from mobile devices.

GrubHub was planning on demoing its new food-tracking feature at our D: Dive Into Mobile conference last month. Attendees were going to be able to track ordered food as it made its way onstage to Matt Maloney, GrubHub’s co-founder and CEO. Unfortunately, the conference was postponed due to Hurricane Sandy, so GrubHubbers will have to check out the food-tracking feature for themselves.

Some people enjoy shopping. I am not one of those people.

The time it takes me to drive to the grocery store, figure out what I want, wait in line to buy it and drive home always feels like an unnecessary waste of time. I could be using that hour for far more rewarding activities, such as watching BattleBots clips on YouTube writing.

Imagine my elation, then, when I heard about Instacart, an iPhone app that promises cheap grocery delivery to your door.

The start-up is part of a bigger phenomenon of apps that get others to do mundane tasks for you, such as the more high-profile TaskRabbit.

In Instacart’s case, you browse through the app’s categories, pick what you want, and indicate if you want your groceries delivered within the next three hours (for $3.99) or in the next hour (for $9.99). Or, you can pay $99 a year for free, unlimited three-hour delivery.

This annual plan may sound a bit familiar to those with subscriptions to Amazon Prime, which charges $79 annually for free, two-day delivery of most items in the online retail giant’s warehouses.

Instacart CEO Apoorva Mehta

And the similarities are not mere coincidence. Instacart’s CEO is Apoorva Mehta, formerly an Amazon supply-chain engineer.

But the two services aren’t the same. Amazon, of course, can offer items at very low prices, because it owns and operates huge distribution warehouses worldwide. Instacart, part of the current crop at Y Combinator, works around the need to have high inventory costs entirely.

If this reminds you of the Web 1.0 flameout Kozmo.com — the much-hyped instant delivery service that was partially funded by Amazon, in fact — you would not be completely off base.

In Instacart’s case, orders sent through the app (which is invite-only for now, and available only in San Francisco, Mountain View and Palo Alto) are then assigned to a driver, who finds whatever you ordered at a nearby store and brings it to you.

There are competitors in the delivery area, such as Peapod mobile, which requires you to make an account before you can see what’s available; there is also MyGofer, which offers delivery from local Kmart stores.

Instacart’s take is for users to open up a Pinterest-like grid of popular items (including Oreos and beer). When you tap on the picture of an item and say how many you want to add to your cart, you’re then taken back to the grid to buy more stuff.

There is also browsing by departments such as “Beverages” and “Deli,” which open into yet another grid of the most popular items.

After looking through all the departments and searching for things I couldn’t find easily, I assembled a full shopping list: More than 15 items, including orange juice, soup, bananas, soda and, of course, beer (but no Oreos).

Instacart offers free three-hour delivery with app users’ first order. My stuff was delivered about two hours after I ordered.

Well, most of the order was. That’s another issue with such services right now. Since Instacart doesn’t have a formal relationship with any stores, the drivers are left to their own wits to find what they can, and Instacart refunds users for the price of whatever they can’t find. This underlines the disadvantages of blindly sending someone else off with your shopping list, and no way to contact them.

Prices are also higher. Besides an invisible convenience fee on top of what Safeway — where my driver shopped — charged, all together my groceries were $20 more than if I had shopped myself.

To battle the issue, Amazon has quietly installed large metal cabinets — known as Amazon Lockers — in grocery, convenience and drugstore outlets that function like virtual doormen, accepting packages for customers for a later pickup. Amazon began opening Lockers in Seattle, Washington, D.C., and New York state about a year ago.

And the company is now ramping up the operation. In just the past few weeks, Amazon has opened its first Lockers sites in the San Francisco Bay area.

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Wikipedia

Several reports have suggested recently that Amazon’s strategy is to move its distribution centers into urban centers, so that it can deliver products to consumers within a few hours after they hit the buy button.

But Amazon’s CFO Tom Szkutak said not to get your hopes up.

“On the topic of delivery speed to customers, we are trying to get closer to customers, but in terms of same-day delivery, we don’t see a way to do same-day on a broad scale at the moment. But we are always trying to figure out a way to serve them [our customers] better,” he said. “We don’t see a way to do that on a broad scale economically.”

While that still leaves the door open a crack, it appears from the company’s second-quarter call that while faster delivery may not make a lot of sense right now, the economics of building more warehouses in more central locations does.

The retail giant, known for two-day delivery through its Prime membership program, says it plans to build 18 new fulfillment centers this year, of which six are already open. It confirmed it could be looking to open even more.

During Q2, Amazon said, worldwide net shipping costs totaled $585 million, representing 4.6 percent of the company’s net sales, compared to the previous quarter, when shipping costs totaled $668 million, or 5.1 percent of sales.

Szkutak said costs per item have fallen as the warehouses have gotten closer to customers, reducing the amount of fuel needed. “We are seeing a number of factors,” he said. “We are getting closer to the customer.”

Building and operating those facilities, however, is one of the company’s largest expenses. Amazon said its net sales increased 29 percent to $12.83 billion in the second quarter, but its operating income was nearly halved to $107 million from a year ago.

By becoming more efficient, Amazon was able to make a significant difference.

For example, during the second quarter, it started selling thousands of new products that were previously uneconomical to ship because of their size, weight or low price. Some of the items now available on the site include things from everyday categories such as household items, groceries and beauty.

Postmates Inc., a San Francisco Internet start-up that launched its same-day delivery service in December, is hoping to succeed by tying its business to the proliferation of smartphones.

“We want to do for intracity commerce what FedEx did for overnight shipping across the country,” says Postmates Chief Executive Bastian Lehmann. “We’re definitely not blind” to the history of failed delivery start-ups, he says, “but we’re not afraid.”

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Google’s move into fulfilling delivery of physical goods is motivated largely by Amazon, these people said. Amazon’s growth has surged in recent years with a service called Prime that allows people to receive many items they order from the site in a day or two for a $79 annual fee, analysts said.

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The Washington, D.C.-based company will also be trying out a poorer-man’s option, called Instant Ordering, that offers takeout and delivery from a wider selection of restaurants.

Both services will be offered at full price, breaking the company’s tradition of offering deep discounts to restaurants, spas and other experiences.

Initially, the services will be available in LivingSocial’s hometown as the kinks get worked out of the system, but the company has ambitions to take it wider.

“We think it’s going to really resonate with people,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, co-founder and CEO. “If merchants can figure out how to expand their tables outside their restaurant, that’s a whole new revenue stream and introduction to people for them.”

The Instant Ordering service will leverage restaurants that already have existing delivery or takeout options, but Room Service will be for restaurants that have never tried it before. LivingSocial will provide the vans and the delivery personnel, and will drop off the food at a designated time. It will also pick up the plates the next day.

It sounds a little bit like Kosmo, the venture-capital-backed free delivery service that exploded during the dotcom boom, but Room Service is working with high-end restaurants, which probably have larger margins to play with than a movie rental or a pack of cigarettes.

In a description of the service, LivingSocial writes: “Along with an elegantly plated meal on ceramic dishware, we’ll provide you with everything you need, from a cloth napkin to candles. As for those dirty dishes? We’ll take care of those, too. Just place them in a LivingSocial Room Service container, leave them outside your door the next day, and we’ll pick them up.”

We hear there’s chocolate for dessert, too. Just not on your pillow.

Starting on Tuesday, 70 merchants will be participating in the company’s Instant Ordering service; Room Service will kick off on Thursday and Friday with just one. The service’s guinea pig is D.C.-based Kushi, a sushi restaurant co-owned by Ari Kushimoto Norris.

Kushi will offer two set menus for $66 each. The first offers several small plates, including shrimp and pork skewers, with a plate of sushi. The second offers vegetarian small-plate options, such as mushrooms and soba noodles with a plate of sushi.

Kushimoto said the price compares to a meal at the restaurant, with tip included. An undisclosed portion of the revenue will go to LivingSocial. O’Shaughnessy explained that the value of Room Service is not in the discount that the company is typically known for giving, but in the convenience and experience of the service.

Kushimoto said she believes it will be an attractive service for working families that don’t have a babysitter, but have the capacity to spend money on a regular basis in restaurants.

One of the challenges she dealt with in early trials involved retaining the quality of the food — in other words, keeping the warm plates hot and the cold plates chilled. But delivery is something Kushimoto has always wanted to try. Since LivingSocial is hiring the delivery drivers and promoting the service, she doesn’t have to worry about taking on the risk of hiring extra personnel before it takes off.

Both new services will be part of the company’s “Instant” offering, which include being able to buy a discount via a mobile phone and redeem it in a matter of minutes. Instant is currently live in 22 metropolitan areas.

So far, the variety of merchants offering deals in any particular neighborhood can be low, but by offering a list of options, where you can get take-out or delivery, the catalog will grow, albeit at full price. Of course, merchants will have the option of offering a discount, and users will be able to redeem prior offers.

The firing of Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz leaves open one of the bigger and more difficult jobs in tech — one that has taken its toll on many.

Nonetheless, rapper Snoop Dogg stepped right up to the Twitter plate yesterday, as soon as news broke of the ouster.

Tweeted Snoop Dogg:

“Im takn over as tha CEO of Yahoo. Need sum of tha Snoop Dogg content ya digg. Nuff Said.”

Not nearly nuff!

Thus, while the Yahoo board has yet to begin a search, I have already been hard at work on selecting the next CEO.

(Last time, the company took none of my suggestions, but after the most recent result, the directors might want to pay mind!)

Sources said Yahoo is looking for an experienced Internet type, either from inside or outside the company.

“Yahoo has put its flag in the ground as a digital media company with a technology base,” said one source. “The job requires big buckets of expertise and needs someone who will grow the company.”

Here I go with the outsiders:

Peter Chernin: The former News Corp. exec has been eyeing Yahoo for a possible takeover with other investors. Both Yahoo and I had picked him when co-founder Jerry Yang stepped down as CEO almost three years ago, and he had declined the offer. This time, perhaps a big chunk of the company and total autonomy would work, even if making a hit like “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is more fun.

Sheryl Sandberg: The COO of Facebook is sort of the anti-Bartz, with a smooth and efficient persona, and she is an experienced tech exec. But the former Google exec is at a place of growth at the social networking site, and is unlikely to want to leave the big show, especially since a blockbuster IPO is looming.

Jason Kilar: The Hulu CEO is in the midst of the process of selling the premium video service, with Yahoo as a bidder. While he has some tense relations with the studios, Kilar is top notch in his dedication to consumer products, and has a lot of experience from his stint at Amazon, too.

Dan Rosensweig: Currently CEO of IPO-headed Chegg textbook rental service, the former Yahoo exec never got a chance to run the company as its top leader. Well-connected and still well-liked by the troops at Yahoo, it still would be pretty hard for him to go home again.

Dave Goldberg: Sure, he’s married to Sandberg (see above), but the savvy CEO of polling phenom SurveyMonkey is one of the sharpest thinkers in Silicon Valley. He sold his music company to Yahoo many years ago and has a strong background in consumer online services.

Jon Miller: The chief digital exec at News Corp. almost got the CEO spot years ago when Carl Icahn was agitating for change at Yahoo, before Time Warner blocked him via a noncompete. With the mishegas at the media giant, and dwindling digital businesses there, it might be a good escape hatch for Miller.

Susan Wojcicki: The accomplished Google exec, who runs all its ad products, has the kind of calm, cool, collected persona that Yahoo could use right about now. The search giant was founded in her garage, and she has been a key part of its success since then. Wojcicki is also an understated class act in hey-look-at-me Silicon Valley.

Todd Bradley: The Hewlett-Packard exec just got blindsided when the company kicked webOS to the curb. While he is in line to run a possible spinoff of the device business, Bradley might also want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire.

Mike McCue: The CEO of Flipboard would certainly energize Yahoo with his intense focus on quality and consumer delight. The news app start-up could be a good addition to Yahoo, and McCue, the former Netscape and Microsoft exec who is well-liked in the Internet scene, would be, too.

Joanne Bradford: The former Yahoo advertising head bolted Bartz’s regime early on to run revenue for Demand Media. Well-liked in the ad business, she also knows where all the bodies are buried at Yahoo. Since ads and media are key at the company, she’d make an interesting choice.

Yusuf Mehdi: The Microsoft online exec would also be a left-field candidate to run Yahoo, given his even-keeled personality and longtime experience in the sector. And, though pricey, Mehdi’s impact on Bing search has been important. But he’s also been involved in the software giant’s lackluster ad and search partnership and still has not turned around the situation at MSN.

Kevin Johnson: The former Microsoft exec and current CEO of Juniper was once slated to be the CEO of Yahoo, had Microsoft managed to win the company in its hostile takeover attempt. In fact, Johnson was the architect of the idea of Yahoo running the media and Microsoft running the tech.

Tim Armstrong: Well, he might have been a good candidate before the downward slide of AOL and a recent series of questionable judgments. If Armstrong can’t keep a loud tech blogger in line, it’s not clear he can wrangle the Yahoo beast.

And here’s the insider scoop:

Ross Levinsohn: The former News Corp. exec is running the Americas for Yahoo, which puts him in charge of the company’s key businesses. But he’s still struggling to turn the ad business around, and how well he does that could be a major determinant of his success. But fantastic hair!

Blake Irving: The former Microsoft exec has an amiable nature and is well-liked at Yahoo, but he still needs to show that the company can ship some innovative products, and quickly. Like Livestand, the news reader, which is muchly late.

David Kenny: The Yahoo board member is now president of Akamai, which might preclude him from the job. But the well-regarded exec — he’s a snazzy dresser, too — ran one of the Internet’s top digital ad agencies and now has tech chops from the content delivery network.

Memo to Yahoo board: I have a million more ideas, from former Viacom exec Tom Freston to former Yahoo board member Eric Hippeau. Or why not bring back a passel of former Yahoos to advise, such as former CEO Terry Semel or former president Sue Decker?

Or Oprah! I hear Winfrey will be in Silicon Valley later this week, and she has a lot more free time now.

Like Snoop Dogg, she would fo shizzle be the bomb to cover.

Related posts

• As Yahoo Continues to Wobble, Investors (And Board) Eye Options
• Exclusive: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Tim Morse Named Interim CEO
• Carol Bartz’s Last F%*& You — Now Aimed at Yahoo Board
• Yahoo’s Statement on Bartz Ouster
• Wall Street Likes Bartz’s Firing — Yahoo Stock Spikes on News
• My Picks for Yahoo’s Next CEO — Maybe Snoop Dogg, Ya Digg?

According to sources close to the situation, Intel Capital and Advance Publications will lead a $30 million investment round in Kno, the high-profile student tablet start-up.

In addition to the funding from its venture capital arm, Intel itself will consult with Kno on its tablet design. Kno, which is getting out of the hardware business, will now focus on its software to manage the devices that are aimed at the college market.

Intel will not manufacture tablets either. Instead, its engineers will consult with Kno on power management, graphics, display, systems integration, which it does for a variety of its customers.

Along with Intel Capital and Advance, current investors will also participate in the round, said sources. But Intel Capital and Advance, the owner of the Condé Nast publishing empire, make up a big part of the funding.

Sources said Intel Capital’s investment is $20 million and Advance and others make up the rest of it.

BoomTown reported in February that the much-funded and high-profile Silicon Valley start-up–aimed at making tablet computers focused at students–was considering selling off the entire hardware part of the business.

Sources said Kno execs have recently decided that the quicker-than-expected uptake in tablet production by a multitude of powerful device makers had made its efforts to package a seamless offering less critical.

Instead, the company will now focus on its robust software and services to offer students on the Apple iPad, as well as upcoming tablets based on Google’s Android mobile operating system and others.

The move is a dramatic shift for the company, which had not shipped significant numbers of the touchscreen device as it has long touted.

In fact, Kno said in November that it would ship a $599 and $899 version of the tablet by the end of the year.

The lower price was for its single-screen device, while the clamshell double-screen version was more expensive.

And, although it has been reported no pre-orders were fulfilled, Kno did indeed ship several hundred of them, built by China’s Foxconn, before stopping doing so earlier this year.

Many have been dubious about Kno’s ambitious hardware efforts.

That’s because marketing a new and complex product like the Kno takes a lot of effort and cash, especially since it is an increasingly competitive market for mobile and portable computing products that includes Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Google, Amazon, Dell and many others.

Before this $30 million, Kno has raised another $46 million in funding to add to an earlier $10 million round.

Sources in February said that the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company considering going back out to raise even more.

Its current backers include prominent venture players like Andreessen Horowitz and First Round Capital, along with angel investors Mike Maples and Ron Conway.

Sources said the shift to deliver textbook and other student-related delivery system would be a better path for all that investment money, since Kno has established a wide range of partnerships with colleges and universities.

In addition, Kno co-founder Osman Rashid has a lot of experience in digital education market. He was also the co-founder of Chegg, the textbook rental business that is reportedly aiming for an IPO soon.

BusinessWeek was first to report that Intel Capital was making the investment in Kno, but the post did not mention Advance’s involvement or that Intel itself was licensing the hardware design business from Kno.

A spokesperson told us today that Amazon Tote launched in the Seattle area in July 2010 as a new experimental customer delivery option and confirmed “This pilot program will no longer take orders as of 6 p.m., Thursday, March 3.”

The Tote service offered a free weekly delivery on a specified day. The perk was that it didn’t require a minimum-order size and you got to keep the reusable totes, however, the delivery day could not be changed.

It was a hybrid between Amazon’s Prime service, which offers free two-day shipping with an annual fee, and the company’s Amazon Fresh grocery service, which delivers food and some regular items directly to some houses in Seattle, also for a fee. Customers of Tote will continue to have those two options.

The discontinuation of the service appears to be a reversal for the Seattle-based company, which said in January that the program “will be expanding soon.” The Financial Times reported separately that the e-commerce company was headed for a national roll-out.

The spokesperson did not return requests for comment as to why the service was shutting down.

This debut was supposed to happen a few weeks ago in San Francisco, with Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs sharing stage time. Instead, Murdoch will show off his new publication at the Guggenheim in New York, with Apple content boss Eddy Cue stepping in for Jobs.

We’ve got a very good idea of what to expect: A newspaper that’s both old-fashioned and cutting-edge, which will sell for 99 cents a week or $40 a year. And the best way to experience the new publication will be on an iPad, not at a museum.

Still, it will be interesting to hear News Corp. pitch this one in real time, and to see how it leverages all of its resources and a very rare Apple endorsement. (This Web site, we should note, is owned by News Corp. as well.)

10:40 am: Greetings! So excited to be in the Guggenheim that I’m starting this one a few minutes early.

10:44 am: And here’s Jon Miller, who has been shepherding this thing at News Corp. Here’s some fresh scoop! The Daily will be be live onstage for the demo, he says, but won’t appear at the app store until noon.

[Note: The Daily can be found here at the Apple App Store]

10:47 am: Miller is working the room very well; now chatting up Reuters’ Ken Li.

10:48 And Steve Rubenstein, who has been handling PR for the Daily launch. He semi-taunts me by noting that there were tasty canapés at Rupert Murdoch’s private party Tuesday night.

10:49 am: If you’d simply like to watch a livestream of the event, minus my commentary, head to thedaily.com at 11 ET.

10:50 am: That sound you hear is the rustle of departing page views.

10:51 am: Cunning of the News Corp./Rubenstein/event-planning crew to split up the press by species. Gives us something to talk about.

10:52 am: BREAKING NEWS! Jon Miller says Wi-Fi here at the Guggenheim has been working “intermittently.”

10:52 am: WAAAAAAY More interesting is that Engadget’s Joanna Stern being hassled for daring to take out a camera during a press conference. She is being moved three seats back. Where that’s OK, apparently.

10:56 am: Pre-launch music, btw: Some kinda samba thing going on. Festive and, dare I say, a smidge bit sexy. Rowr!

10:58 am: Slightly curious is that registration staff told media that they’ll have “review units” available after presser. But everyone in media has an iPad, right? It’s required, no?

Perhaps the notion is that the presser will end before noon, and the Daily won’t be available until then, so if you want to get hands-on in the meantime, that’s the way to go. Which would be smart!

On the other hand, if they’re simply handing out free “review” units to the press, well, that’s kinda smart too. Because the press likes free stuff.

11:03 am: Our crack tech guy Adam Tow tells me TheDaily.com site is now saying that the app will be available at noon ET. I can’t see that on my screen, but I’ll take his word for it.

Especially because that’s what Jon Miller said a few minutes ago.

11:05 am: Given News Corp. pub WSJ’s focus on privacy, and Apple’s, interesting to review the Daily’s:

When you use the Services, we may collect certain non-personally identifiable information about that use. For example, in order to permit your connection to the Services via the Internet, our servers receive and record information about your computer and browser, including potentially your IP address, browser type, and other software or hardware information. If you access the Services from a mobile or other device, we may also collect transactional information such as a unique device identifier assigned to that device (“UDID”), your geolocation, or other transactional information for the device in order to serve content to it. We also may use cookies and other tracking technologies (including browser cookies, pixels, beacons, and Adobe Flash technology including cookies), which are comprised of small bits of data that often include an anonymous unique identifier. Websites send this data to your browser when you first request a web page and then store the data on your computer so the web site can access information when you make subsequent requests for pages from that site. We may use these technologies to collect and store information about your use of the Services, such as pages you have visited, search queries you have run, and advertisements you have seen.

11:06 am: And we’re live. Here’s Rupert Murdoch, iPad in hand.

“Good morning. I’m Rupert Murdoch.”

Thanks for the “amazing Steve Jobs,” a man who has “single-handedly changed the world” of technology and media.

“Steve has been a champion of the Daily from day 1.”

“New times demand new journalism.” [hrm]

Trying to take best of traditional journalism, including “shoe-leather reporting” editing, “a skeptical eye” [hrm!] and combine them with awesome tech.

“”Simply put, the iPad demands that we completely re-imagine our craft”

Shooting for audience that is sophisticated and reads a lot, but not print.

We have that, but it’s niche. No “true news discovery.” The magic of newspapers “and great blog” lies in “serendipity.”
True!

Similarly, we must make the business of news-gathering viable again.

Goal is to be indispensable source for news and entertainment. “A robust new voice.”

Shout-outs to Jesse Angelo and Greg Clayman, who run editorial and business, respectively, for the new pub.

Daily will be 14 cents a day–99 cents a week–because no printing, delivery costs, etc.

More superlatives for the Daily, including a “sense of fun.”

Target audience is “tablet” audience–[note emphasis on tablet, not iPad].

And a shout-out to Jon Miller, too.

[Unless I misheard and it was News Corp. CTO John McKinley.]

“We believe the Daily will be the model for how stories are told and how they’re consumed.”

And another shout-out to “all our friends at Apple”

Okay. Here are Miller, Angelo, Clayman.

11:13 am: Miller starting off. Not a demo–this is live production.

Trying to figure out how to produce new news for tablet era. “We think we’ve developed that.”

Angelo shows off home screen of the Daily, with Egypt as main headline. Applause.

Have been doing live production for about six weeks.

11:14 am: They have a reporter on the ground in Cairo right now. Josh Hirsch [sp?].

Lots of big pictures, video embedded in text.

And here’s one of the 360-degree photos. Which look cool!

Can put audio behind them, etc.

HD video–here’s a clip about prisoners making toys in Angola prison. Note the bluesy background music. ’Cause it’s about a prison, duh.

11:16 am: Back to Miller. Have rethought navigation.

11:17 am: Back to Angelo, showing off swipey carousel. Sorta silly to describe this to you in a liveblog, but there’s a “play” function and a “shuffle function,” and a video anchor who will discuss the main stories of the day.

11:18 am: Back to MIller. “The Daily is not an island” can share to Facebook, Twitter, email.

11:18 am: Angelo: We can also pull HTML5 pages into device. Can also link out. [Subtext--we are TOTALLY NOT ignoring the Web, you dummies. We're not idiots.]

Bringing Twitter feeds directly into app. So you can see what Lily Allen (used to be semi-famous a couple of years ago) has to say about something.

11:19 am: Miller: We have apps and games section, with a link directly to Apple Store.

And we have an awesome sports section [sounds familiar!].

11:20 am: Angelo: Yes, check out our awesome sports section. Troy Polamalu talking about Clay Matthews’s hair.

“For sports fans, we really think this is the showstopper”–customizable sports filter by team/sport, brings in scores, tweets, etc.

11:21 am: Miller: Publishing once a day, with updates throughout the day “as the news warrants.”

Verizon sponsoring first two weeks of free subscriptions.

11:22 am: The art in this liveblog, by the way, is coming directly from livestream. Nice job, Adam Tow.

11:22 am: Here’s Eddy Cue. Never seen him before. A very, very, very big deal in media circles.

Running through iPad, iOs success. iPad customers are huge news eaters. 200 million news apps downloaded so far.

I’ve been using the Daily for the last two weeks. “It’s amazing.” Amazing that it’s done every single day. More superlatives, etc.

Basically, a repeat of what Miller et al just said.

Okay. Here are the new details on push subscriptions. First time Apple has used this tech. 99 cents a day, $40 a year. [ahem].

11:26 am: And now, oddly, press conference comes to a halt for a photo opp.

11:26 am: Waiting for them to set up chairs for Q&A.

Questions and Answers

How will back issues be handled? Where will old copies be stored?

Angelo: Best thing to do is to save articles you care about. And it will also be archived on the Web. Internal archiving not there for 1.0.

Q: When will other pubs start using subscription option?

Announcement “very soon for other news publications.”

Q: How will you measure impressions, etc. for advertising?

Miller: Will have tech built into app for that. I should have mentioned during presentation that we love advertisers.

Q: For Rupe: How will you measure success?

A: We want to sell millions. But keep costs low. We have spent $30 million so far, “all of which has been written off in figures we’ll announce today.” But overall costs $500,000 a week going forward.

Q: Another question about subscriptions.

A: A non-answer from Cue.

Q: Who/what does Daily compete with? And how will other News Corp. properties be integrated?

A: Miller: Gotta compete with everything. “you’re competing with Angry Birds at some level.” [Hey that's my line!]

Murdoch: In NY, for example, we already have multiple outlets competing with each other. This is another.

Q: What about breaking news? How will that work?

A: Angelo talking up twitter feeds, sports scores, but “we can drop in a new page if we want to, and we will.” BUT! As a conusmer, I don’t like Web sites that change constantly. It’s not a great experience. [THAT IS: This is a newspaper, not a Web site.]

Q: What’s the political tone of this thing. Centrist, right?

A: Murdoch: “The editorial position will be in the hands of the editor.” Cue Angelo, who sorta hedges. On op-ed page, “We’re patriotic.”

Q: Someone wants to know if Rupert is really into this. Also, will there be an Australian version?

Murdoch. Duh.

(An Australian version “always a possibility.”)

Q: Why do this with the Daily instead of existing brands. Also, what’s up with your phone hacking newspapers in the U.K.?

A: Murdoch: Existing tablet apps are what got me excited about launching a new one. No comment on “the other matter.”

Q: You’ll be working with other tablets besides iPad, right?

A: Murdoch. Yes. And “we’ve been quite honest with Apple about that.” We’ll defnintely be on all platforms. But Apple will be the dominant one this year, in my opinion.

[Sorry, missed a Q. Seems to be about what apps Murdoch likes.]

Q: More about the editorial voice, please.

A: Angelo: Thinking it through. We know that people spend a lot of time with these apps–35 minutes, 40 minutes. “It’s unbelievable.” So how do you create content rich enough to keep people there?

Q: What did Steve Jobs say about this in the last couple of days?

A: Murdoch: “He did call me last week” and told me app was “really terrific. He was extremely flattering.”

Q: How will people find this stuff, since it’s not on the Web?

A: Cue: We’ve downloaded 10 billion apps. People can find this stuff.

Miller: We feel really good about this. We didn’t want to make compromises.

Q: I ask about what’s available on the Web.

A: Some of it will be mirrored on the Web, when it can be done technically. [Sorry, hard to type and write.]

[Sorry, now even more confused about what's available on the Web and what isn't. Going to have to follow up with the gang later.]

[Where's Greg Clayman, by the way?]

11:47 am: Q: How do you balance a subscription model with a large audience that advertisers want?

Murdoch: “They’d pay a much lower rate per thousand if it was free. They realize it’s something that people want.” And we can tell them more about who sees it. “It’s not just scattered out there….We’ll draw a better class of advertiser, and a better rate.”

11:48 am: Q: What’s the split between ad and subscription revenue?

Miller: Subscription will be larger at start, and then eventually 50-50, “which is the magic number.”

And we’re done. Will try to follow up, may have more answers/comments here, or in a separate post. Thanks for checking in!

Here is the press release announcing the Daily:

Introducing The Daily

First National Daily News Publication Created for iPad Launches today in the Apple App Store

New York, NY, February 2, 2011 – Today Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of News Corporation, unveiled The Daily — the industry’s first national daily news publication created from the ground up for iPad.

“New times demand new journalism,” said Mr. Murdoch. “So we built The Daily completely from scratch — on the most innovative device to come about in my time — the iPad.”

“The magic of great newspapers — and great blogs — lies in their serendipity and surprise, and the touch of a good editor,” continued Mr. Murdoch. “We’re going to bring that magic to The Daily — to inform people, to make them think, to help themengage in the great issues of the day. And as we continue to improve and evolve, we are going to use the best in new technology to push the boundaries of reporting.”

The Daily’s unique mix of text, photography, audio, video, information graphics, touch interactivity and real-time data and social feeds provides its editors with the ability to decide not only which stories are most important — but also the best format to deliver these stories to their readers.

“News Corp. is redefining the news experience with The Daily,” says Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think it is terrific and iPad users are really going to embrace it.”

Led by Editor-in-Chief Jesse Angelo and Publisher Greg Clayman, The Daily is the first application made available on the App Store as a subscription — which will be billed directly to an iTunes account. And because this paperless paper requires no multi-million dollar presses or delivery trucks, it will be priced at just 99 cents a week (or $39.99 for an annual subscription).

“The Daily launches at a moment when advances in technology are changing the job of the modern editor,” says Mr. Angelo. “These advances are giving us new ways to tell stories. We intend to take advantage of all of them, and make The Daily the new voice for a new era.”

Each day The Daily will publish up to 100 pages focused on six key areas: news, sports, gossip and celebrity, opinion, arts and life, and apps and games. It will offer views from across the political spectrum. They will come from across cultures and generations, across America and the world.

The Daily will feature Sudoku and crossword puzzles, localized weather reports, and a customizablesports package that captures news on the user’s favorite teams. Subscribers will also be able to leave comments on Daily stories in either written or audio form — as well as bookmark them in-app to read later.

As readers move through The Daily’s content, they will be helped by several highly intuitive navigation tools. And while The Daily lives on the iPad, most of its articles can be easily shared via Facebook, Twitter and email. The Daily will link out to the web, as well as bring the web into the app.

“In short, says Mr. Murdoch, “we believe The Daily will be the model for how stories are told and consumed in this digital age.”

The Daily has bureaus in New York and Los Angeles, as well as stringers across the country. Full companybios are available at TheDaily.com/about. Executive staff includes:

John Kilpatrick – Executive Creative Director
Steve Alperin – Managing Editor
Mike Nizza – Managing Editor, News
Richard Johnson – LA Bureau Chief
Sasha Frere-Jones – Editor, Arts & Life
Chris D’Amico – Editor, Sports
Elisabeth Eaves – Editor, Opinion
Peter Ha – Editor, Apps, Games and Technology

The Daily is also changing the way advertising is offered and consumed within a news publication. Full-page ad units are completely interactive, customizable, and offer a rich mix of branding and direct response opportunities. Launch advertisers include HBO,Macy’s, Paramount, Pepsi Max, Range Rover, Verizon, and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

“With The Daily, Rupert Murdoch has given us the chance to rethink the entire experience of news delivery and consumption,” said Mr. Clayman. “The ability to actively listen to and engage with our audience means we can continually provide an experiencethat consumers value in this fast-evolving tablet space. Together with our customers, our advertising partners, and the team at The Daily, we are excited to create a new form of media.”

About The Daily
The Daily is a first-of-its-kind daily national news publication built exclusively as an application for tablet computing. It provides readers the engaging experience of a magazine combined with the immediacy of the web and the need-to-know content of a newspaper, all while elevating user experience beyond the printed word. The Daily is a subscription-based news product, published 365 days a year, at the cost of $0.99 cents a week or $39.99 a year. For more information on The Daily go to: www.thedaily.com.

Finally, here are screenshots from The Daily’s listing in the App Store:

[CLICK HERE FOR LIVE COVERAGE OF THE PRESS EVENT]
But a select crowd will get to see the iPad newspaper tonight, at an equally notable Manhattan location: Rupert Murdoch’s apartment, where the News Corp. CEO is hosting a “low key” cocktail party.

Although News Corp. owns this Web site, my email invite to tonight’s pre-launch launch event hasn’t arrived, and I’m told it never will. The company hasn’t offered me a peek at the Daily, either.

But at this point I’ve still got a pretty decent sense of what Murdoch’s guests will see this evening, and the rest of us will see tomorrow: A newspaper that’s both old-fashioned and cutting-edge.

People who have gotten up  close to the the Daily describe a digital paper where many of the news stories look just like news stories you’d see anywhere else.

Others will look more like iPhone apps, featuring interactive graphics or videos, or photos you can swipe, pinch and zoom–with perhaps almost no text at all.

And there’s more! There’s no 3-D video yet, though it’s on the agenda. But there will be an audio feature so you can have stories read aloud to you. And there’s a crossword puzzle! And Sudoku!

A Daily-watcher who thinks the thing is amazing compares it to the Daily Prophet, the magical newspaper read by Harry Potter and his wizard pals.

More jaded observers tell me it’s more or less what they’ve seen in existing iPad magazine apps, particularly Hearst’s Popular Mechanics and Condé Nast’s Wired. The big difference is that those magazines come out monthly, and the Daily will get beamed to your iPad… daily.

Still, the most striking thing about the Daily has nothing to do with any technical bells and whistles. It’s Murdoch’s insistence that he can sell a digital newspaper app to consumers trained to expect that digital news is what you get on the Web, for free.

The Daily is almost defiantly anti-Web: It will have a free site, with a grudging sample of perhaps 10 percent of the newspaper’s stories, but that’s it. While Web news sites increasingly focus on aggregation and filtering of other people’s content, the Daily will focus on making its own stuff, even though plenty of other people are already doing it.

And while News Corp. officials have tried to argue that the Daily isn’t a newspaper but something else, it is most definitely produced using a newspaper model: Six sections, written once a day–the Daily team is particularly excited about its sports coverage–and delivered in the wee hours of the morning.

The Daily will allow for some midday updates, but it’s really designed to land with a digital thud on your virtual doorstep, just like the newspapers Murdoch has loved all his life.

Murdoch will charge 99 cents a week for a subscription, and he’s certainly going to get some takers at the start, especially since the Daily will be free for the first two weeks after tomorrow’s launch.

Which will be a noisy one. The press will give it plenty of free promotion, and News Corp. will augment that with a digital ad campaign, in addition to offline marketing donated and/or bartered from other Murdoch properties. Perhaps there’s a way to mention it once or twice during Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast on Fox.

Much more important will be the endorsement from Apple, which is using the Daily to roll out a new “push” subscription feature.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who was supposed to appear onstage in San Francisco with Murdoch to bless the launch, will send content boss Eddy Cue to New York tomorrow instead.

That’s still Apple’s seal of approval, though, and I can’t think of another time the company has so conspicuously blessed a single third-party product. That alone will be enough to prompt an enormous number of people to try it out.

Remember that Apple already has a customer base of  some 125 million iTunes users–if you do want to buy this thing, you won’t need to pull out a credit card. A few button clicks will do.

The real question, of course, is how many people are going to pay for the Daily a month down the road, when the buzz is gone. And there’s no way to guess at that when you get your first look at the thing. No matter when that happens.

In the first 40 days of the holiday shopping season, comScore estimates that more than $21.95 billion has been spent online, increasing 12 percent vs. last year.

The most recent week saw a spike in sales with $5.15 billion in spending, an increase of 11 percent over last year, as two days each pushed passed $900 million.

But still, it’s likely that the biggest shopping day online has yet to occur. The industry would like you to believe that its “Cyber Monday,” the Monday following Thanksgiving, is the busiest, and while spending hit an all-time record of $1.03 billion on that day this year, procrastinators typically spend more as we get closer to Christmas.

This Monday, Dec. 13, has been coined “Green Monday,” presumably after the color of money. EBay came up with the term after the second Monday in December 2007 kicked off one of the busiest shopping weeks online.

This year seems particularly robust, as shoppers become even more comfortable seeking discounts online. ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni, surmised: “This coming week, beginning with Green Monday, should see some of the heaviest online shopping activity of the season and we expect at least one more day to surpass the billion dollar spending threshold.”

But the holiday shopping season will naturally slow down starting on Friday, Dec. 17, as free delivery offers expire and it becomes more difficult to get guaranteed delivery by Christmas Eve. Until then, the post office can assume its sleighs will be packed full of cardboard boxes.

Amazon.com is offering free shipping on purchases of $25 or more until Friday, unless you have an Amazon prime subscription. Wal-Mart is offering free shipping–with no minimum–on 60,000 items until Dec. 20. And, Dec. 17 has been coined Free Shipping Day with lots of merchants trying to get shoppers to do last-minute spending online without the penalty of shipping costs.

In fact, the 10-year-old venture capital firm General Catalyst Partners is moving out two of its partners from Cambridge, Mass., to Palo Alto, Calif.–just in time to avoid the Boston winter.

On Tuesday, I met up with Neil Sequeira, a managing partner at the firm, who arrived in town a few months ago and is focused on the social Web and new media.

Sequeira said his fellow managing partner Hemant Taneja, who invests in cleantech companies, will be joining him out here soon.

Sequeira’s kids are too young to be in school, he’s from the Bay Area and none of his portfolio companies are based in Boston, so for him it was a relatively easy move.

General Catalyst’s Palo Alto office will soon have 11 people, up from no presence whatsoever a year ago. Sequeira and Taneja account for about a third of the core partnership of the small VC firm.

Sequeira, whose investments include the Internet television delivery company Boxee and the social media marketing company Vitrue, recently had two of his companies sold–Hot Potato to Facebook and ScanScout to Tremor Media– so he’s looking to find a few more board seats to occupy.

He said General Catalyst was happy with its two-x return on selling Hot Potato to the social networking giant shortly after it invested. But to find the really big opportunities on the consumer Internet, the place to be is in Silicon Valley, he said.

I recorded a very quick interview with Sequeira in which he revealed he’s getting the hang of this Palo Alto VC thing pretty well: He’s already done a seed investment deal at the bustling Coupa Café, where we met up.

Here it is: