Okay, okay, we get it: Morgan Stanley got the coveted left-hand lead position on Facebook’s blockbuster IPO filing. Goldman Sachs is there, too, but in the third-place, always-a-bridesmaid spo,t and is crying big salty tears about the injustice of it all.

It’s hard to feel badly for overpaid investment bankers, and focusing on them is kind of like endlessly discussing the lawyers who processed your mortgage, when the focus should be on the house you’re buying.

Does anyone except a few Richie Rich ZIP Codes in Manhattan care about this one deet of the initial public offering of the social networking giant?

Nope, but there is so little real news ahead of the IPO filing expected today that this is what we are chomping on this morning, as everyone awaits the big doc drop at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sources said it is likely to come this afternoon rather than this morning, though. And, perish the thought, all that dotting of I’s and crossing of T’s could delay it to tomorrow, even (unlikely, but mebbe!).

Sigh.

Tidbit: Facebook was actually founded the first Wednesday in February of 2004 in an undergraduate dorm room at Harvard University, like today but eight years later.

Thus, here’s a boring Facebook history timeline chart to look at:

Okay, that was really dull.

What up? The board met, the spinmeisters are at the ready and, most of all, Silicon Valley is stoked to make some more arrogant badillionaires.

Now, hopefully, we’ll get the real news about Facebook.

Namely, who’s getting the big dough in this much-anticipated Web 2.0 gambit? Co-founder and CEO and Hoodie Commander Mark Zuckerberg fer sure, but who else?

Plus all the juicy financials from Facebook, along with stats in usage, growth and just how much the company sticks it to its gaming serf — oops, partner — Zynga and others for the privilege of being on its all-powerful platform.

Me? I pay nada, like other Facebook users, for being able to show off pictures of my vacations and decline friendships from PR people I like, but still … well, you know.

Here is another Facebook financial chart that will not knock your socks off unless you are an accountant:

I am now so comatose waiting for the show to begin that I briefly began a liveblog of my activities this morning.

It went like this:

4:45 am PT: Done with AOL Q4 earnings, which were meh, but better meh than expected. AOL, if you recall, used to be Facebook and now is, um, not.

Note to Zuckerberg: Be nice to people on your way up, since you’ll meet them again on the way down.

4:46 am PT: I check the SEC site and get zip. Click, click, clickety-click over to find out the latest on Demi Moore and her fake-pot debacle.

Who knew there was synthetic cannabis and it is called K2 or Spice? Not me! According to Wikipedia: “It seems likely that synthetic cannabis can precipitate psychosis and in some cases it is prolonged.”

I decide to blame Ashton Kutcher and then wonder if he is an investor in Facebook via BFF-to-errant-celebrities-who-like-tech Ron Conway, also a Facebook investor.

Note to self: Call Ashton! That dude plays village idiots all the time, but I am not fooled by Mr. Pretty Face.

4:47 am PT: I consider email bombing Yahoo’s Jerry Yang, who is probably not so busy right now, and asking him what he thinks about the Demi Moore crisis and also Facebook’s IPO.

Remember when Yahoo was king of Silicon Valley and Yang posed in that purple VW on the cover of that magazine? Better still, remember when Yahoo was going to buy Facebook for just over $1 billion and then borked it?

Just sayin’, Mark — so, keep it reals!

4:48 am PT: I consider going out for doughnuts — and not because of any real weed need. I just would like me some glazed and sprinkled sugar treats right about now. Then, I could post the pictures of them on my Facebook page.

Sweet.

But you-know-who would file right when I left the house on the munchie run. Click, click, clickety-click over to the SEC site and I come up peanuts.

Time to check in on the Kardashians.

You get the idea — so, Facebook IPO, take me away!

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First off: I can reassure all my readers that I will not be coming out with an opus on Yahoo’s turmoil in 2012. Nor rounding out a trilogy of books on AOL in 2013, for that matter, full of lessons learned and bridges burned.

But that’s not true for other players in Silicon Valley, including three sure-to-be prominent books coming out in the next three months.

First off, on Jan. 25, will be the work of Fortune magazine writer Adam Lashinsky, who turned his cover story on the inside workings of Apple into a book called … “Inside Apple.”

The subtitle, “How America’s Most Admired — and Secretive — Company Really Works,” promises the “secret systems, tactics and leadership strategies that allowed Steve Jobs and his company to churn out hit after hit and inspire a cult-like following for its products.”

Apparently, we’re all about to find out about concepts like the “DRI” — or assigning a Directly Responsible Individual to every task (which I call DYS, or Do Your Story, here at AllThingsD); and the Top 100, “an annual ritual in which 100 up-and-coming executives are tapped a la Skull & Bones for a secret retreat with company founder Steve Jobs.”

Sadly, not anymore on that retreat, but I am still looking forward to reading more about the management techniques of the late tech visionary.

On Valentines Day, well-known VC, entrepreneur and Start-Up Whisperer Reid Hoffman’s book with co-author Ben Casnocha also comes out, touting lessons from Silicon Valley.

Titled “The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career,” it is described as a “blueprint for thriving in your job and career in today’s challenging world of work by applying the lessons of Silicon Valley’s most innovative entrepreneurs.”

Let’s hope it’s not the dudes from Color handing out the advice!

According to the authors, “the key is to manage your career as if it were a start-up business: a living, breathing, growing start-up of you.”

If I were a start-up, I would sell virtual doughnuts. Hey Reid, gimme a badillion dollars!

Finally, on March 12, the grumpy investor Peter Thiel teams with entrepreneur Max Levchin and chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov for “The Blueprint: Reviving Innovation, Rediscovering Risk, and Rescuing the Free Market.”

It’s funny that they, and also Hoffman, are using the hopelessly analog term “blueprint,” but I like the retro feel.

No surprise, Thiel’s posse is unhappy with the pace of innovation, presumably underwhelmed by “Plants vs. Zombies” compared to the internal combustion engine.

“Challenging the notion that we are living in an age of technological progress, three of the world’s most original thinkers demonstrate that we have become a risk-averse society, hobbled by tort laws and government regulations, short-term financial thinking, and mind-numbing complacency,” the book’s description reads. “Eager to end ‘paper entrepreneurialism’ and avoid another financial meltdown, they propose that we expand research and development in breakthrough ‘disruptive technologies,’ create millions of jobs through science-based engineering and genuine innovation, shore up our crumbling infrastructure, stop squandering money on misspent ‘horizontal education,’ and restore financial discipline.”

Phew! And here I was very pleased that I can Instagram filtered pictures of my dinner last night around the world.

In any case, before the zombies arrive to steal them, get your brains ready to think big thoughts.

I am here at Yahoo HQ in Sunnyvale, Calif., to check out “Product Runway,” which is the Silicon Valley Internet giant’s attempt to show that it can still innovate.

First and foremost is the launch of Livestand, a personalized news reader that is similar to Flipboard and a variety of other rivals, including — soon — Google.

It’s Yahoo’s attempt to present a business-as-usual feel — amidst a long and agonizing and very public strategic overview that might also include the sale of the company (or not!), in the wake of the recent firing of its last CEO, Carol Bartz.

It has caused a lot of trauma inside Yahoo, which can’t help with innovation.

But we press on!

In other words, despite the three-ring circus going on outside, Yahoo wants you to know it is still hard at work.

We begin:

10:35 am: As the strains of U2 die out, Yahoo Chief Product Officer Blake Irving takes the stage, which is actually set up in the company’s cafeteria. I can smell lunch being made nearby and I am hungry.

Apt — Yahoo certainly needs to show off a lot of cool stuff or its fate will be cooked.

No pressure, Blake!

“Personally, I am more bullish on Yahoo today,” he said. “What is Yahoo? Simple. It’s the premier digital media company. Period. Stop.”

Oh, if it were only that easy.

10:46 am: Irving pulls out his favorite slide, which looks like a chemistry test. It lists the various elements of the product strategy, with things like personalization, mobile, premium.

Now to Livestand, which is available on the Apple iTunes app store right now.

Don’t all rush at once!

Irving notes that Livestand is more than just an app — it is a platform.

In other words, Yahoo wants to help publishers publish online. Kind of a Facebook of content.

If Yahoo can pull it off, that is. (And, of course, unless Facebook decides to do the same.)

10:50 am: Livestand is an HTML5 “personalized living magazine.”

“This is the way Web pages are going to look,” declares Irving. Which is to say, heavy on photos, swoopy navigation, a television screen-like interface.

Irving uses the example of Surfer magazine, which is a good idea since waves always look pretty. Especially in a video-in-frame with Kelly Slater in Hawaii.

But, in essence, for anyone who has used Flipboard for years now, none of this is entirely different.

10:54 am: The look of what would be the Yahoo News page is actually much more interesting, since it is clearly a whole lot better than the Web page.

Irving also shows off a “living ad” — in this case, an unusually snuggly couple on a couch. It is cool, but creepy.

When launched, the ad has tap points. Irving — naughtily declaring about what is an ad, “I’ll tap that” — taps the lady’s butt, which would also have been my move. We learn about the jeans, of course.

10:58 am: Irving then shows off the ability to add feeds.

Next, something called “Cocktails.” First up, a developer tool called Yahoo Mojito and Yahoo Manhattan, which is a hosting service. The company will open-source both the technologies in 2012.

Irving brings up Mike Kerns, VP of Personalization & Social, who came to Yahoo when it bought the innovative sports fan site called Citizen Sports.

“We like to ship sh#t,” he notes. I like Mike Kerns immediately.

Kerns intros C.O.R.E. No, it is not a secret government organization that takes out fussy bloggers, who might be more critical than Yahoo execs would like.

In fact, it stands for “content optimization relevance engine.” Of course it does.

Simply put, C.O.R.E. is trying to link the right content or whatever to the right consumers and who likes what. Ladies like this, dudes like this. Apparently, “men of multiple ages” enjoy stories about golden chicken.

11:11 am: Kerns is moving on to social, especially its integration with Facebook. While much touted, sources tell me it has gone slower than expected in terms of use, but that it is improving.

Kerns talks about the idea of matching content to conversations to interests and, well, you know — the now exhausting world of modern media consumption.

The world in which you can no longer simply read an article and enjoy it — you must comment, share, discuss, parse, tweet.

Does anyone remember when you read something cool and just kept it to yourself?

Forget it, pal! It is a full-information society now and you better get on board and start poking your friends about every little thing.

(Personally, I plan on becoming a hermit in 3 … 2 … 1.)

11:18 am: Now Tim Parsey, who is Yahoo’s design head. He is hands down the most delightful exec the company has had in a while, mostly because he loves to smirk adorkably.

He shows off Yahoo’s first original design, which was a dull list. And then another really bad logo. But Parsey loves it! It’s kitschy!

Smirk attack!

Parsey moves into what has to happen now, which is to deliver a much more emotional experience and a much better designed one. He uses words like “humanism.”

Say what? He is right — Yahoo has for too long completely ignored design as an important part of the experience.

That’s why Flipboard was so quickly touted — it was pretty and fun. And it is why everyone is simply forced to love Apple products.

11:22 am: Parsey even has a code for it, called REM — for rational, emotional and meaningful.

He shows off a weather app. People take photos and they can be used in the app. Then Yahoo Mail for the iPad, whic is also handsome with photos and video. Livestand, also pretty.

“Great way to differentiate,” says Parsey. He calls it “one Yahoo!” Indeed.

11:35 am: I’ll admit it. After Parsey-fest, I zoned out for a sec when IntoNow dude, Adam Cahan, comes up.

Donut emergency!

Back to IntoNow, it’s the television indexing service that Yahoo bought in April.

Essentially, more ways to watch the media — in this case, video — and do 53 other things at the very same time. Memo to humanity: We will all be paying continuous partial attention for the rest of eternity.

Like I said: Hermitage!

11:41 am: Product dude Irving is back, making a point that, despite all the public mishegas, Yahoo has been busy at innovating.

A redo of email, better search, social “Facebar” with Facebook, Flickr for Google Android.

Irving is correct — Yahoo’s engineers have been hard at work and deserve kudos for doing so, even with attrition issues, stock declines and questions about the company’s very future being debated daily.

The problem is that too many of these improvements are mostly incremental and essentially table stakes for tech companies, most of whom have introed many more significant innovations in the same time frame as Yahoo has.

Google did Android, Google+ (as well as some notable failures). Microsoft did Kinect, Windows Phone, Windows 8. Amazon did Kindle Fire. Facebook did a range of major updates, as it has grown like a weed.

And there’s Apple. You might have heard of the iPhone and the iPad.

You get my point. Yahoo’s Product Runway today is well done, but what it really needs to be is just the beginning of a take-off.

11:48 am: Now Q&A time.

The first question is what took so long to get Livestand out, the second is why should people use Livestand since Flipboard and others have already been around for a dog’s age.

I ask about design — mostly because I want Parsey to use the word “delicious” a lot — and also about all the turmoil around the company and its impact on product creation. (I decide not to mention that Yahoo blew its acquisition of the bookmarking site, Delicious, and then sold it.)

Parsey delivers on the delicious scale, noting that Yahoo must have one design experience and yet has a lot of different interfaces. In other words, it cannot be Apple, but it can feel a lot more cohesive.

Irving talks a little bit around the obvious elephant in the room — the future of Yahoo — noting that the product staff was trying to focus and forget the storm going on outside.

“We have dreams about what this company can be,” says Irving.

You and me both, brother.

12:04 pm: More questions that are too detailed for my tastes, since they have delivered lunch and I can see it and I am ravenous.

As Parsey might say: It looks deliiiiiccccious.

Now, let’s hope Yahoo can do even more tasty stuff.

Microsoft had a solid fourth quarter, which is why the conference call with Wall Street analysts should be relatively short and sweet.

Or sweet, at least.

Microsoft reported beat expectations on profits that rose 30 percent, as well as on revenue. Of particular note were its Office, Entertainment and Devices and Servers and Tools units. Even the revenue at its perpetually money-sucking Online Services division was up 17 percent.

(You can see Microsoft’s charts and other data here, if you really want more.)

Here’s a liveblog of the call:

2:31 pm PT: Well, Microsoft investor relations dude-in-chief Bill Koefoed sounds unusually jaunty in his greeting.

And why not? The results are good for Microsoft, even a little giddy, with a lot of impressive numbers and solid launches of several products, from Xbox Kinect to Office 365 to Bing, the very pricey but pretty search service.

Next up is CFO Peter Klein, who also sounds like this particular call is a relief.

He talks about the results a bit, most of which are up.

“In summary, we are pleased,” says Klein about the quarter and the year. He also notes that he is “excited.”

It’s party time in Redmond!

2:38 pm: Peppy Bill is back, going through the numbers. Solid!

Klein then moves onto the future and he remains “excited.”

Now, it is onto Q&A from the analysts.

This is where I zone out a little and start to wonder if a doughnut is a wise choice for an afternoon tasty treat.

That would make me “excited.”

Lots of congrats, which only makes me hungrier. One analyst asks why it was so much stronger than expected.

Klein: The economy has improved, businesses are expanding, peeps love them some cloud.

There is a question about how the troubled Yahoo search partnership is going. Klein promises some improvement by the end of the year.

Still, bummer!

But it is quickly back to happy, with a question about the strength of Xbox and its subscribers.

“It’s fantastic,” says Klein.

Like I said, sweeeeeeet.

Oh dear, BoomTown is still jetlagged from my recent trip to China and now Microsoft Bing is offering up a head-requiring event later this morning in San Francisco to explore the future of search.

There better be donuts.

A lot and with sprinkles, since speakers include the lugubrious investor and hedge fund philosophizer Peter Thiel and skunk-at-a-Web-garden-party author Malcolm Gladwell.

Here’s Microsoft Bing exec Satya Nadella’s blog post on the event, as well as one pre-video of what to expect from the sessions.

In it, Gladwell, noting the richness in search has yet to cure cancer, has a good point, which should be interesting with the backdrop of the protests going on in Egypt and elsewhere.

As in: If governments can block search, does it really matter?

I will be posting if someone comes up with a good answer to that one.

Bing and Big Think present Farsight 2011: “Beyond the Search Box” Event and Webcast

In the past ten years, search has transformed the way we experience the web even as the web itself has changed. New user interfaces, mobile devices, and interactive services are evolving beyond text pages intertwining the ‘web’ into all aspects of our lives and thus we expect to be able to do more online with less friction. Along with the innovation has come an explosion of information and services that are compounding at an exponential rate. Trying to get things done on the web is becoming more complex and fragmented every day. In short, unlike many consumer products, the problems facing the search industry are getting harder–not easier.

In order for us to truly realize the science-fiction dream of so many of us kids, of that ubiquitous intelligent agent, we want to elevate the discussion in search beyond next quarter’s technology. To begin to do that Bing has teamed with Big Think to bring the best minds from inside and outside the industry together for a series of spirited conversations, panels, and demos examining the “Future of Search.”

The group we’ve assembled includes Hedge Fund Manager and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Recorded Future co-founder and CEO Chris Ahlberg, journalist entrepreneur Esther Dyson, contrarian journalist and “Tipping Point” author Malcolm Gladwell among others.

In addition, Farsight 2011 will include a search industry roundtable featuring Matt Cutts from Google, Rich Skrenta from Blekko and our very own Harry Shum from Bing. The panel and much of the day will be moderated by the entrepreneur and technologist, Vivek Wadhwa.

You are invited to take part in the discussion, by submitting your questions for the experts in advance at BigThink.com. Then return on February 1 to watch the conference streaming LIVE from 10:00am to 2:00pm PST on Big Think.com.

I encourage you to tune and be a part of the conversation to help all of us realize the potential that this most powerful technology can bring.

Satya Nadella–Senior Vice President, Online Services

BoomTown motored on down to the Microsoft campus in Silicon Valley on a fabulously sunny day to liveblog the latest Bing event.

The software giant is updating its search service, announcing deep integration–part of a deal announced last year–with Facebook.

The theme, according to Microsoft (MSFT) SVP Yusuf Mehdi, quoting the Beatles, was search with “a little help from your friends.”

Let’s hope it’s not: “Help, I need somebody.”

11:35 am PT: Mehdi kicks off the show, announcing the line-up, which includes Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Well, it just got 100 percent more interesting here in this nondescript auditorium.

Mehdi talks a little bit about the future of search and making it better. He talks about social being an important part of it.

While I’d have gone with Barry Manilow, he quotes the Beatles.

Mehdi is followed by Microsoft Online Services Division President Qi Lu, who throws more love bombs at Facebook.

“With the partnershop of Facebook and Bing, we will be able to unlock…how people in a social relationship can be first-class citizens in a search experience,” said Lu.

It sounds so lofty, even though it is mostly trading movie review recommendations or good places to take the kids on a rainy Sunday.

Lu thanks Zuckerberg effusively and invites him onstage.

11:54 am: No hoodie.

Zuckerberg is also “honored to be here,” giving us a little history lesson about the origins of the social networking giant and its various and sundry efforts.

I’ll be honest, the lack of donuts is making me distracted.

He’s not actually saying more than bromides about “what would social search look like.”

And looking around at who would be the right partner in the arena. Microsoft! Of course! That giant investment way back when was nice too!

“They’re really the underdog here,” said Zuckerberg in the first interesting comment, noting that overdogs–that would be Google (GOOG), which he does not mention by name–never innovate much.

His take: Underdogs are the best.

12:01 pm: Mehdi is back to show off the wares in a demo.

First, what’s there. Web search in Facebook and Facebook status updates on Bing.

Zzzzzzzz. Get to the good stuff!

First, a module that brings in a Like module from Facebook into the search, with all the other information provided by Bing.

It is, said, Mehdi, particular for a person.

“This is going to profoundly change how we search,” he said of personalized experiences.

Mehdi also shows off a way to differentiate your friends who have names of famous people, who are the ones who come up on search first.

Interesting, but people search is not the biggest problem I have.

He also says more is coming, such as friend experts surfacing in search and Like in every result on a page that it was possible. Yipes!

Also, thank the Lord, the ability to turn it off.

12:15 pm: Now Facebook exec Dan Rose comes up and starts talking about the Facebook-Microsoft bromance.

Apparently, four years is an eternity in Silicon Valley in terms of a relationship.

Actually, four weeks is long, so congrats you two crazy kids!

I’d celebrate with a donut if they were here.

“More and more” social in Bing, said Rose.

It’s a match made in digital heaven!

12:22 pm: Q&A time!

So what more? The press is so unsatisfied! Yes, we are.

Zuckerberg takes the lead. New interfaces! More!

A privacy question. “This is Instant Personalization,” said Zuckerberg, who said that Facebook has five partners in that effort.

He explains Instant Personalization, saying he wants to clear up misconceptions.

It’s private enough, you oversharers!

“Just because it is all public information about you, this is really good,” he said.

But is it by default? Of course, it is. That’s Facebook modus operandi!

Opt-out should be tattooed on employees at Facebook as a requirement.

Bing does put up a warning at the top of the page, but only five times. Then, you need to go foraging to turn it off.

Next: Does Bing search queries get sent back to Facebook? Not necessarily.

But, “everything is going to be social eventually,” said Zuckerberg, as long as it is public.

Public is apparently the new black.

More questions about new Facebook Groups and other deets, none of which is that bracing.

Apropos of nothing, I am considering asking a question about the ever-exciting Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) scandal, just to jack up the volume.

I try to ask a question about Zuckerberg’s underdog comment, but no more time.

But Zuckerberg sort of addresses it, going on about why he has picked Microsoft as the favorite.

While he does not say it, it’s because Facebook is the overdog here and, as you know, every overdog needs an underdog.

Speaking of cartoon heroes, here is the opening of that classic television show:

Microsoft is holding yet another feature update event for its Bing search service later today at its Silicon Valley HQ.

Microsoft (MSFT) Online Services Division President Qi Lu will be there, as well as SVP Yusuf Mehdi, for–according to the invite–”a conversation about new directions and future opportunities of search and a demonstration of some new search innovation by Bing.”

Those two are the big guns at Bing, so this won’t be a minor update.

As has been widely reported, a lot will be about its continuing integration with Facebook data, which BoomTown scooped out last year.

Big giant and sustained yawn, since it is a year gone and everyone is doing this in some fashion, including Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO).

Unless, of course, it is executed in some distinct and unusual manner.

Maybe a search of Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg’s data, every time yours is displayed without explicit permission?

We can dream!

I am hoping, as before, there is some kind of mapping update, since Bing often shows some cool new stuff at these regular events.

And I’ll be asking about how the Yahoo search and online advertising partnership is going, natch.

Liveblogging and possible video attack to begin at 11:30 am PT. (Note to Microsoft minions: Donuts, not cream puffs.)

BoomTown was sitting front row center–better to scare Google Mobile Product Manager Hugo Barra–at the Silicon Valley search giant’s press event in San Francisco this morning.

Google (GOOG) called together a group of reporters to discuss some “cool new features” for its Android operating system.

While many have been expectantly waiting for Google to announce a video-calling offering, to match the Apple (AAPL) FaceTime service, that was not to be here.

Instead, it was a low-key rollout of a few whiz-bang features to ooh and ahh at.

Happily, Google provided unusually delicious donuts, which was my entire reason for coming, because donuts are the pastry to the gods.

Let’s get to it:

10:05 am PT: PR dude Mike Nelson introed Barra, who said there will be two new features announced.

Ooh and Ahh.

First though, we were forced to endure yet another lecture on how important mobile is and where the future is headed that comes from every single company that throws a mobile event.

Mobile is the big show now?

Really? We had no idea this cell phone thing was going to take off! Thanks, Professor Barra!

Barra pressed on with lots of talk about MIPS (millions of instructions per second, which you should care less about, but is important).

Barra said that innovative smartphones were becoming “super-computers in your pocket.”

Again, master of the obvious!

I obviously needed to have a bite of my lovely sprinkle-laden donut to gain some balance.

10:12 am: Barra moved onto voice recognition. He asked the phone movie times in Palo Alto, Calif. and how high the Empire State Building, results which were promptly delivered.

(When my kid asked me on a trip to New York, I just said it was a badillion feet high, which also worked as an answer.)

But such technology is cool, for sure.

But Barra upped the ante by speaking four languages–Spanish, French, Italian and Japanese–to get results. It worked! Get this guy on “The Amazing Race” pronto!

Now, tricks over, it was onto the first product announcement!

And, drum roll…it was a new feature that Google is a calling “Voice Actions” in Voice Search, available today for Android 2.2 Froyo devices.

This sounded like a band name from the 1980s.

Instead, it is the ability to speak into the phone and have it instantly do things, such as sending text messages, automatic dialing and mapping and more, all via speech commands in English.

Speech recognition, natural language processing and semantic Web search–you could kind of do this before on Android, but it was neither seamless nor automatic, said Barra.

He did not say, but Voice Actions is an awful lot like Siri, the mobile app assistant start-up that Apple bought recently.

But there were more on Voice Actions, according to the adorkable demo dude Mike LeBeau, a baker’s dozen (13!) of actions, and there will be more.

He spoke into the phone a request to “Listen to the Decembrists.” Presto (and also props for the hip musical choice)!

Then, LeBeau spoke an email about some scuba diving trip. Presto!

But then he added a smiley face! Unfortunate and decidedly unhip, but presto!

After that, LeBeau kept showing off, setting the alarm clock, going to Wikipedia, doing a search for art galleries in Amsterdam.

10:28 am: Now for product announcement #2.

Barra brought up engineering manager Dave Burke, who built it in his 20 percent time.

It’s a synching feature called “Chrome to Phone.”

This sounded like a 1990s band name.

“It is a low latency way to push information to the phone,” said Burke, using Google’s browser and an app for the mobile device.

There is a little icon on the Chrome browser you click that sends a variety of stuff to the app on an Android phone.

It’s certainly helpful.

10:35 am: Onto Q&A about the two perfectly fine, though hardly earth-shaking, announcements.

Questions about the languages, bookmarking Chrome to Phone (not yet) and what’s coming next.

More!

It was all about solving “pain points” said the Voice Actions dude LeBeau.

All I know is donuts are the only thing that solves my pain points. Presto!

(And here is a post of some videos and screenshots of both Voice Actions and Chrome to Phone to enjoy.)

BoomTown has been in Redmond, Wash. today to attend Microsoft’s annual Financial Analyst Meeeting, where top execs from the software giant have been taking the stage to talk about All Things Microsoft.

I liveblogged this morning’s sessions here, and now the afternoon opened with CEO Steve Ballmer.

The pugnacious exec has been under a little bit of pressure from Wall Street, due to the company’s naggingly limp stock price, even though Microsoft (MSFT) just turned in record results for its fourth quarter

He has even been subject to an ongoing series of rumors, scuttling around the tech sector, that Ballmer would even be replaced due to the moribund shares.

That did not happen today, with Ballmer appearing as confident as ever, very loud and proud, hanging out and kibitzing with investor dudes (they are all dudes here, for the most part) at the technology showcase after the morning session.

Like a particularly aggressive tour director on “The Love Boat,” in fact, he even ordered the analysts to go see all the stuff on display, such as a mobile data center, Windows 7 Phones and its gesture gaming technology now called Kinect.

We complied.

After a lovely lunch, here is a report of the action at the afternoon session at FAM:

1 pm PT: Ballmer took to the stage to talk about Microsoft’s consumer businesses.

First to get praise: Xbox, a money-losing, but very innovative business.

Read the screen: FY10 A Great Year. FY11: Even better.

Ballmer was hot on Kinect, which will be “wow.”

Next: Bing!

Share was from eight to 12.7 percent, frequent releases, mobile focus and strong brand awareness.

Yay. Except the part about Google (GOOG) still having a 70 percent share of the search market.

“We’re not confused, we have a lot of work to do here,” said Ballmer, who noted the price tag for competing in search was high. “It’s going to take a lot more.”

A lot.

Office 2010 was next and it’ll be cloudier, touchier, socialier than ever.

Next up: Windows 7–a definite home run, with an almost 93 percent share on laptops.

“Suffice it to say, Windows is the tide that floats all boats,” said Ballmer.

That is, of course, except that PCs are being inevitably supplanted by many other types of other consumer devices.

Thus, Ballmer moved onto tablets, which he called slates and convertibles.

He took some shots at Apple (AAPL), and promised something would be coming soon.

It better.

Ballmer did admit the truth: “They’ve sold certainly more than I’d like them to sell, let me just be clear about that.”

Then it was onto a demo of some new stuff, including the availability of a “Personal Cloud” for users of Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7.

Essentially, as many companies have been trying to do, it a way for consumers to have access to photos, music and more anywhere on any device.

There was also a new Windows synch feature, which is part of this anything-anywhere-anytime-any device theme.

At this point in the afternoon, I have to say that the thought of a hyper-sharing world of endless data shooting all over the place was exhausting.

I suddenly started thinking about starting a site called Hermit.com–please don’t visit, as I have nothing to share with you and I don’t care what you’re doing either.

Where were those sugary donuts, Microsoft?

I perked up at the demo of the Windows Phone 7, which is very slick and looks terrific. As with Bing, it is nicely differentiated from Apple’s iPhone or Google’s Android mobile operating system.

There is some nice automatic integration in the Windows 7 Phone with Facebook, the powerful social networking platform, with cool blue dots as the updating signal.

2:06 pm: Ballmer was back, declaring he’s not only a PC, but “I’m a Phone too!”

Not quite as catchy a motto, but I like the effort.

Ballmer also touched on Microsoft’s retail stores, which I like to call Not-Apple-But-They-Look-Like-Them Stores.

Next up: CFO Peter Klein, whom I have never seen in person. Let me say, compared to most Microsoft execs, he is unusually young looking, as if he just got his driver’s license.

But he is clearly a smartie, pulling out all the big graphs of money stuff, discussing the economics of the cloud and how it will will result in profit growth.

Many wish the boxed software business did not have to die, but it is on its last legs, so it’s time to hug the cloud for dear life

Klein’s argument that it will all be okay: Microsoft will sell to more users, they’ll earn more per customer and customer satisfaction is increased.

He walked through the numbers, which have been good, noting he hoped for more of the same.

2:31 pm: It’s Q&A time, with Ballmer coming out and calling for “ENERGY!” from the group.

If there were donuts, perhaps! Otherwise, it’s more of a snoozy afternoon situation. Zzzzzzz.

While waiting for other execs to get onstage, Ballmer made a kind of humble-pie statement for shareholders, noting he is a big one too and wanted the stock price higher.

“I’m all in,” he declared, noting he still held 86 percent of his shares in Microsoft since he arrived decades ago.

Of course, that 14 percent represents billions of dollars to have to scrape by on.

The first question was: Wassup with tablets? “It feels like right now you are not completely clear,” said the questioners.

Ballmer was a bit defensive, with his voice going up and up some more. It’ll use Intel (INTC) chips and Windows, but he was still not more specific.

“We’ll be in market as soon as we can,” he said, which was to say that he was not saying.

The next few questions were about financial details and costs. Again, Ballmer noted the returns were strong and other execs said the company had discipline.

More about the cloud, which COO Kevin Turner continued to declare was a big focus. “The proof’s in the pudding,” he said. “But clearly, we have to execute.”

Another question about the tablet, which seemed to annoy Ballmer, who made a lot of noise about being ready to compete.

One tidbit: The Windows 7 tablet will print.

Wheeeee!

After declaring Google’s Android, a “weird collection” of phones, he repeated that Microsoft was all in with its tablet.

Well, get in then!

A good question is asked about what Ballmer thought would be a good sign of progress on mobile phones a year from now.

Well, more share and to stop the downward slide of it.

Then a key question: What if Windows 7 Phone does not work, if it is like the failed Vista operating system software.

For the first time, Ballmer answered quietly: “It won’t be.”

And, then much louder, he’s all in.

BoomTown took the corporate All Things Digital jet–aka Virgin America, seat 10A–up to Redmond, Wash., today to attend Microsoft’s annual Financial Analyst Meeting, which also includes a passel of media drones like me.

I will be liveblogging the event all day, which is essentially a cavalcade of top execs from the software giant taking the stage and showing off their wares.

There should be a little bit of swanning, since Microsoft (MSFT) turned in very good financial results last week, posting a huge increase in earnings and revenue due to the uptick in PC sales and the intro of the Windows 7 operating system. Losses at its Online Services division remained high, so thank goodness for servers and tools!

Here we go:

8:15 am PT: I was late due to the completely confusing streets of suburban Redmond, all of which look exactly alike, as does every building on Microsoft’s sprawling campus. I am a streets of San Francisco girl, obvi.

In the Conference Center, though, things had not started well past the 8 am start time, as we await the entry of investor dude Bill Koefoed.

U2′s “Beautiful Day” was playing over the sound system, which it was not up here in the Pacific Northwest this morning–it was kind of cold and gloomy, a la “Twilight”–but hopefully will be for sparkly Microsoft execs. We’ll see!

Finally, Koefoed came out and started in on feedback, touting the newly renovated investor relations site, which he is “pretty proud of.” It is nice looking, as are most of Microsoft’s hand-out materials.

In fact, he sent me an excited note last week, because I posted Microsoft’s pretty fourth-quarter slides.

Dear Bill: You need much better things to get excited about! Like the new Magic Trackpad from Apple (AAPL)! Wait, I mean Windows Phone 7!

Koefoed moved quickly to point out last week’s strong results, which is no surprise. When you’ve got lemonade, make more lemonade!

Then he outlined the various Microsoft’s eight “core” businesses, such as Xbox, Bing, Microsoft Office, Windows Azure and, of course, Windows, that the company will be going over.

That’s a lot of core, isn’t it?

Some questions to be answered: Business PC refresh and share momentum? Impact of iPad/slates? Windows 7 phone? Expense control?

Beautiful or not, it was going to be a looooong day.

8:42 am: A jaunty Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s COO, bounded out. He tried to get the crowd more lively, but this was not to be unless there was a lot more coffee.

I had great hopes for a goofy quote this morning from Turner, who declared at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference earlier this month about Apple’s antenna controversy: “It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I’m okay with that.”

I don’t know about you, but insulting a competitor by shooting off your own foot is a gift that keeps on giving to me.

In any case, Turner said Microsoft was now “leading with the cloud,” a move that the company had been resisting in the past. Now: All in!

He outlined all the various services for business customers. “We are the market leader in cloud services for business,” said Turner, noting Microsoft had been too quiet about the inevitable move of data and software services to big services in the digital sky.

(Actually, in its secret heart, Microsoft was hoping this whole Internet thing would go away and it would be back to a PC on every desktop, but that horse has left the barn, so it’s cloud time!)

Next up for Turner: The much deserved popularity of Windows 7. Of course, since Vista was Microsoft’s Antennagate–except much, much, much worse–it was not hard to be better.

Turner then moved on to bashing Google (GOOG) and other competitors. Turner put up some quotes from Jaguar employees, after the car company switched to Google for email and other services.

One said Google was like vinyl seats. Ziiiiing!

Next Turner victim: VMware (VMW)! He claimed its products were pricier and not cloudy enough.

As for Linux: Meh!

Oracle (ORCL): Customers don’t want to be locked into the land of Larry Ellison!

Cisco (CSCO): Just you wait, John Chambers!

9:19 am: Turner headed off and Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie started in on his speech, titled “Reimagining Microsoft’s Future.”

That would be the client plus the cloud, natural user interface and something he called “working on your behalf.”

Mundie launched into his future-dude schtick, but he’s not exactly Alvin Toffler, so I started desperately mainlining the caffeine.

He talked about movable data centers, the “Internet of Things” and other cloud innovations, but there is no new idea here to blow your mind.

Is it too much to wish Mundie would talk about an invisibility cloak? Instead, it was the orchestration of data authority.

That will apparently be a new data marketplace product, codenamed Dallas, to shop for giant data sets and more.

Mundie than showed off some personalization-driven features in the Bing search service, which are also not new concepts.

For example, he showed a menu, embedded in a table, that might know what you like to eat at a particular restaurant you frequent.

This is what would be on my table and there is no need of a fancy computer table to know this: Donuts, donuts, donuts.

Speaking of which, FAM minions: Where the heck were my donuts?

Mundie then moved onto Kinect, once called Project Natal, the actually cool gesture interface for gaming that will be available for Xbox soon.

Finally, he finished up with a video clip of a medical triage assistant. Great, even less customer service from hospitals. The demo was flatly freaky.

The morning session wrapped up with a visit to the technology showcase to “expect the unexpected,” although I was not expecting that in any way, and then it was off to lunch.

Next up in the afternoon session: CEO Steve Ballmer at 1 pm PT.

Yesterday, Microsoft Online Service SVP Satya Nadella–also known as the search-dude-in-chief–presided over the Search Summit, to update the media on the progress of the Bing service.

Since it launched Bing a year ago, the software giant has been aggressively–and with some interesting innovations–trying to make a dent in the market dominance of Google (GOOG), which has a share of upwards of 70 percent.

Bing has just broken into the double digits, which is impressive, but it’s still fighting an uphill battle. It’s essentially the little search engine that could.

Here’s a video interview I did with Nadella at the Microsoft office in San Francisco, where we talk about a lot of stuff, including Bing’s progress over the last year and when it might make some money.

I also added my interview with him from right after Microsoft struck its search partnership deal with Yahoo (YHOO) last August, just below it.

Speaking of money shot, check out the lovely donuts and cream puffs:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100714/microsoft-satya-nadella-bing-a-year-later/feed/ 1 http://allthingsd.com/20100713/liveblogging-microsoft-bings-search-summit-2010-there-will-be-donuts-also-cream-puffs/ http://allthingsd.com/20100713/liveblogging-microsoft-bings-search-summit-2010-there-will-be-donuts-also-cream-puffs/#comments Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:41:01 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=30544

After BoomTown complained at December’s search summit held by Bing about the lack of the finest pastry known to man–namely, donuts!–minions were dispatched by top Microsoft geek general Satya Nadella to fix the dire situation.

And, happily, at Search Summit 2010, there on the lovely snack table were a small pile of them–which looked like Krispy Kreme to me.

There were lacking the key sprinkles feature, but carb crisis averted!

Speaking of features, top Bing execs were on hand in San Francisco to show off all the work they have been doing over the last year in the software giant’s efforts to topple mean old Google (GOOG) via an innovative offering.

Even the plain-speaking Nadella acknowledged in his opening it was still a bit of a children’s crusade, since Bing had barely broken into double digits in search market share and Google was hovering around 70 percent.

But the most recent report released this week by comScore (SCOR) showed continued promise, so Microsoft (MSFT) presses on its long and pricey road!

Here’s my liveblog of this morning’s event at the software giant’s San Francisco office:

10 am PT: Nadella opened with the donuts news. Nice move.

Then, it was onto some promising stats of growth, which have surely been promising, despite the high price tag (Microsoft’s online division lost $700 million in the last quarter, to give you an idea of the sticker shock).

Still, as search exec Brian MacDonald said, as he was presenting all the many new features–such as cards–added over the last year: “We’re in it to win it.”

At the end of his presentation, in a slide title “Future,” he said reporters could not take pictures or video. Sure, hop us up on sugar and then tell us something interesting and bar us from taking snaps!

But MacDonald clicked through the images so fast, it was hard to tell what Bing would be up to. Essentially, it looks like a more blocky, image-heavy design, with more differing fonts and contextual info.

10:40 am PT: A smart search geek Harry Shum was then on with a lecture about search intent and all kinds of insider tweakery that made me confused, since I do not understand terms such as “page-level dialog.” There is also apparently “session-level dialog.”

Harry knows what it all means, which is pretty much all that counts.

My take: It has to do with some sort of digital conversation Bing search dudes are having with the users that users have no idea is actually going on.

Simply put: They’re watching you.

11 am PT: Next search guy talked about search intent and such.

That means adding features such as a link to search history or instant weather on the opening page. It’s the little touches that count.

In fact, they do, as Bing tries to differentiate itself from what Google offers, via a series of neat tricks and clever design.

That includes, for example, easy access to lyrics and song classifiers, when searching in music.

Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” was used as an example, since Lady Gaga seems to be the go-to gal on seeming cool these days.

(But is it time to check Bing search trends to see if she is peaked?)

11:19 am: Next, top Online Services Division exec Erik Jorgensen came on to discuss mobile and mapping. He compared himself with “Edward Scissorhands” when talking about how hard it is to have a good experience on a small device.

“Type less, do more,” is the internal mantra at Bing, he said. Coincidentally, my mantra is type more, do less.

Jorgensen showed off Bing mobile stats: 23 million users, 160 percent growth and four million downloads of its iPhone app. Yes, it has come to this–Microsoft using Apple (AAPL) to tout its success.

Then it was onto mapping, which is a pretty good arena for Bing. Stats: 41 percent growth in U.S. unique users, 43 percent rise in searches using enhanced maps, a huge boost in map apps.

11:29 am: Bing Maps guru Blaise Aguera y Arcas–who has the single most sexy name in all of geekdom–said the focus is now on social location.

As in Foursquare!

In fact, he showed off a map in which Foursquare check-ins pour in and pop up in a bit of a freaky way, as in: You can stalk in real-time.

Then it was onto cool mapping eye-candy, which I always fall for since the whole zoom-in-zoom-out thing is mesmerizing. Aguera y Arcas showed off clickable geographic names and embedded maps within maps from, in this case, a zoo or a museum.

11:50 am: Q&A Time!

The first question is about gaming. It’s hot said Nadella, and Bing wants to provide discovery and search more than games themselves.

I asked a question about the status of the Yahoo (YHOO) search partnership deal, which is in process. It is a very complex process, in fact.

And, though they were supposed to be in tandem, Nadella said that algorithm would move faster than advertising technology handover.

“If there were a drop of of advertisers [due to the new deal], that would be problematic,” he said.

Yes, which segued into the next obvious topic: When would Bing make some dough?

Thus. I asked about the high costs of competing in the search space, which Nadella said would continue, including distribution deals and in the aggressive marketing of Bing.

“For sure, we had to ante up,” he said. “But the product has to be able to stand on its own…ultimately, the product has to carry the day.”

More questions about distribution, social search, churn, product differentiation and whether Bing is growing from a more passive user to building a “fan base.”

BoomTown brainstorm: If they handed out delicious donuts with each search, I’d leave Google in a New York minute.

But, like a skunk at a garden party, I asked another question about when Bing is going to break even.

Nadella was too smart to answer this digital hot potato.

“It’s a big market where money can we made, and we are making progress,” he said, saying I should ask his bosses about specifics.

I shall!

In this vein, someone then asked a question about whether Bing would ever become a verb as Google has become.

Shum joked that in the future six letters would be too many for people to say, so things were looking up for four-letter search brands!

More questions included whether Google was tweaked by Bing yet (yep!), and whether Bing should try to win in an international market to show some muscle (U.S. is still top focus).

Finally, it was “time to deploy the cream puffs,” said a Microsoft PR honcho.

Long past time, I’d say.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100713/liveblogging-microsoft-bings-search-summit-2010-there-will-be-donuts-also-cream-puffs/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20100203/devour/ http://allthingsd.com/20100203/devour/#comments Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:59:47 +0000 John Paczkowski http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/?p=34146 Verizon this morning copped to what the blogosphere has been jawing about for weeks now: Motorola’s Devour is to be the wireless carrier’s next Android handset. Arriving at market next month, the Devour seems a lower-cost alternative to the Droid, though Verizon (VZ) hasn’t yet named a price for it.

Certainly, the specs, below, for the Devour suggest it will cost significantly less than the $200 Droid commands when tethered to a two-year wireless contract.

• Android 1.6 (Donut) with MotoBlur, a Motorola (MOT) service that essentially corrals Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Picasa, GMail and MS Exchange activity into a single feed and presents them on your phone
• 3.1-inch touchscreen at 320×480
• Horizontal slider keyboard
• 3-megapixel camera
• EVDO Rev. A
• Wi-Fi b/g
• aGPS
• Bluetooth with A2DP
• HTML 5-compatible Webkit browser
• MicroSD card up to 16GB

As I said, Verizon has not disclosed the price for Devour, but $99 sounds about right to me, especially if the company is looking to pit this thing against Apple’s (AAPL) low-end iPhone 3G.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20100203/devour/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20091223/project-alesia-news-corp-s-roman-battle-cry-does-that-cast-googlers-as-the-gauls/ http://allthingsd.com/20091223/project-alesia-news-corp-s-roman-battle-cry-does-that-cast-googlers-as-the-gauls/#comments Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:23:02 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=22304

While Internet companies such as Google use baked goods as names for their key strategic initiatives–recent ones related to its Android mobile operating system were called Donut and Eclair, for example–aggressive media giant News Corp. is definitely not going for sweetness in its unusual selection of a code name for its high-profile digital content effort.

That would be Project Alesia, a moniker that comes from a vicious siege from ancient times widely considered to be one of the more decisive battles in history.

And that is apparently what top News Corp. (NWS) execs think is the best way to describe their plans for stopping the decimation of premium content in the digital age and transforming their business to take advantage of new means of distribution, according to numerous sources BoomTown spoke to this week about the unusual name.

“It takes a lot of determination to succeed in what is one of the biggest challenges newspaper and all media has ever faced,” explained one source. “So, the real path to success will require ingenuity and staying on course over time…which was critical to that military victory.”

Interestingly, said several sources, the Project Alesia name was picked by James Murdoch, chairman and CEO of Europe and Asia for News Corp.

Widely considered the heir apparent to his father, News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch is apparently a dedicated reader and student of Roman history.

But it has actually been the elder Murdoch who has been cast as the obvious general so far, conducting a recent series of public verbal attacks on Internet targets, especially Google (GOOG).

He has accused the search giant of “stealing” content, for example, while other News Corp. execs have echoed his gibes in various high-profile forums.

But James Murdoch has been a key player behind the scenes in the digital strategy, several sources said, an effort that also includes News Corp. Chief Digital Officer Jon Miller and Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton.

(Full disclosure: News Corp. unit Dow Jones owns this site.)

Of this top group, it is James Murdoch–who has slowly been emerging as a more high-profile player, especially internationally–who found inspiration in the past.

To understand why, you’ll first need a short and truncated history lesson, which I culled from a variety of sources online and off:

Taking place in September 52 BC in what is now France, the Siege of Alesia (also referred to as the Battle of Alesia) pitted Rome’s famed leader, Julius Caesar, against the Gallic tribes under the unified command of Vercingétorix of Averni.

More important–besides being cited as one of the best uses of siege warfare and “circumvallation” (see more about this below)–the battle of Alesia is considered a turning point in the bitter wars conducted by the Roman Republic to tame the Gauls, who had finally united as a single force in opposition to the Roman invasion.

The hard-fought win–in a battle where the Roman army was outnumbered five-to-one, outside a hilltop fort in Alesia–is often credited with reinvigorating Rome’s power over Gaul. After the loss, Gaul became a province of the Roman empire and was pretty much subdued for the next 500 years.

Alesia is often cited as one of Caesar’s greatest military victories and the fallout from it later led to his ascension to ultimate power in Rome (which was soon followed by his infamous assassination).

That’s not the ultimate end News Corp. is envisioning, of course, sticking with Alesia’s main themes of “perseverance” and innovation, said several people with knowledge of the digital content efforts.

And, no surprise, in the digital battles between traditional media and interlopers from the Web, guess who has been cast as noble Caesar and who plays the role of marauding heathens?

You know, the ones who even cast their women and children out of the fort into the middle of the siege when food started to run out? That would apparently be the Googlers of Silicon Valley, although if it were them, the food would be organic!

Not all comparisons are the same, said a source. For example, consider circumvallation, which is essentially the building of a series of encircling fortified walls around the enemy. Contravallation is also also part of the strategy, to protect from attacks by enemy reinforcements attacking from the outside.

One could easily imagine that this means creating pay walls around premium content or de-indexing it from search sites like Google, both of which News Corp. has publicly talked about doing.

Not so!

“Traditional media companies are interested in investing in innovation too, so the idea of just putting up walls around content is a red herring,” said the source. “The idea is to find new ways of distributing media that also makes money, because why should journalism in [digital] ones and zeros be any different?”

Of course, with new stats showing sites like Google News and Yahoo (YHOO) News as the place consumers are going to get more and more of their news, that is a big issue in a longer fight, which will grind on for a very long time and well before any side can ever declare victory.

And here is a clip from a 2001 movie, “Vercingétorix,” about the Siege of Alesia, not made by News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox Hollywood studio, starring that actor dude from “Highlander” (aka my fave movie of all time). It does not end well for Google, oops, the Gauls:

[The 1899 painting at the top is by Lionel-Noël Royer.]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091223/project-alesia-news-corp-s-roman-battle-cry-does-that-cast-googlers-as-the-gauls/feed/ 4 http://allthingsd.com/20091214/nexus-is-a-perfect-name-for-the-trekkies-of-google-the-video-proof/ http://allthingsd.com/20091214/nexus-is-a-perfect-name-for-the-trekkies-of-google-the-video-proof/#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:01:39 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=21860 Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Nexus?

Well, it does sound futurey and all, but it got BoomTown to wondering how Google’s geektastic engineers settled on the name for their not-so-secret new smartphone, which is called the Nexus One.

The code name for the project was Passion, and Google (GOOG) used a series of fattening pastry monikers for the various updates to its Android software, the operating system for the phones, such as Donut, Eclair and Flan.

So why Nexus?

By dictionary definition, the choice of the word “nexus” does seem entirely appropriate.

From the Latin for “binding,” it is defined simply as:

“A means of connection; tie; link; a connected series or group; the core or center, as of a matter or situation; Cell Biology: a specialized area of the cell membrane involved in intercellular communication and adhesion.”

More recently, Nexus Prime is one of the original 13 Transformers, according to the Transformers Wiki:

“Nexus Prime was created to guard Rarified Energon by Primus shortly after he assumed his planet form. At an unknown point in time, this Transformer was broken into five other robots: Skyfall, Landquake, Breakaway, Topspin, and Heatwave.

He is sometimes, unfortunately, known as Nexus Maximus.”

(Well, as long as it’s not some women-hating, gay-bashing phone like the Droid!)

Nexus Prime is also a city on Second Life, based on “popular futuristic cyberpunk themes,” says the Second Life Wikia. Apparently, it is now decimated.

Nix that, then!

Thus, BoomTown is voting for the explanation from “Star Trek: Generations,” the 1994 sequel whose plot centered on the mysterious Nexus.

In the movie, Captain James T. Kirk, while christening the Enterprise-B, gets sucked up into a mysterious energy ribbon and disappears.

About 70 years later, Captain Jean-Luc Picard tangles with a mad genius named Soran, who plans to kill badillions of folks in order to get into the Nexus, where apparently, all your deepest desires are fulfilled in a perfect and timeless world.

Picard also gets drawn in, and let’s just guess who he meets there in order to save the day?

It’s such a dreamy version of a mobile phone–a place where the Nexus One never never loses the signal as the AT&T (T) network always does for the Apple (AAPL) iPhone!

Given that my iPhone suffered 87 dropped calls last week alone in New York and San Francisco, I can stargaze, can’t I?

And while we are waiting for the Googlers to drag this wireless drama out for a while longer, until we get our mitts on the actual device, please enjoy the video of the trailer for “Generations”:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20091214/nexus-is-a-perfect-name-for-the-trekkies-of-google-the-video-proof/feed/ 5 http://allthingsd.com/20080103/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-learned-to-love-the-blog-truthiness/ http://allthingsd.com/20080103/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-learned-to-love-the-blog-truthiness/#comments Thu, 03 Jan 2008 12:52:34 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/20080103/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-learned-to-love-the-blog-truthiness/

So yesterday I posted my first of three ruminations of what the leap from old media to new media has taught me.

In it, I noted that “I think it is safe to say that I will probably never write another thing professionally for a print publication and will spend the rest of my career–such that it will be–publishing online only.”

And that, my friends, was a prime example of truthiness in action!

Nonetheless, the statement of that glaringly obvious fact caused a little bit of a stir around the Web, almost as if I was saying something amazingly freakish, such as: I have decided that forthwith I will bake my scribblings into delicious frosted donuts and readers can literally eat all my tasty bons mots up.

In fact, the shift I am making is perhaps one of the more normal and logical things I have done (which are acts you can count on one hand, in my case), essentially responding to a dramatic change in consumer habits by trying to provide the best offering I can in that new venue.

Which brings me to my next point about the nature of the blogosphere, which demands from its contributors a level of clarity and, dare I say, intimacy.

That is much easier to avoid in the print medium, where it is simple to distance yourself from readers and rely on on-one-hand-on-the-other-hand back and forth that leaves them with little idea of what is actually going on.

Of course, the best of journalists don’t do this–their prose is as clear as a pane of newly washed glass, through which one can see everything, even as they maintain a level of fairness and accuracy that is always required.

But I have found writing a blog that being non-opaque is necessary. You pretty much have to say what you know in much more firm terms or risk that the legions who always know more than you do will tell the story better.

Of course, that can often result in blabby and flabby online writing that comments and reacts and has no underpinnings of actual reporting and is too often simply untrue.

That was a common complaint in the early days of blogging from mainstream journalists. Of course, many of them had made their fair share of mistakes too, but they correctly felt that the Web was lacking in the kind of checks and balances that would temper this problem.

At the time, I thought that was mostly the case. But I also believed blogs would inevitably get better and better, adding on the kinds of standards and practices that are important for credibility and then combining them with the valuable immediacy of the Web, its sassy energy and, perhaps most importantly, its proclivity to tell it like it is.

Thus, while being a columnist offline or online definitely gives me more latitude, I can now offer scoops and news along with analysis and observation in what I think is a much more useful combination.

That’s what I have been trying to do, for example, in my coverage of Web companies like Facebook and Yahoo, where I break news often, as well as begin conversations about everything from their valuation to strategy or lack thereof.

And, in the Web’s ability to offer instant video, I have found it even more helpful and relevant to take the audience where I go too.

While some might not like the rawness of this approach, I feel it offers a much clearer perspective and gives people more of an ability to make their own judgments on what I am showing them.

This more transparent approach that blogging at its best can offer is not a mind-blowingly new concept, but it is a key one going forward.

When it all works right, it results in a virtuous circle of information that is created between professionals and nonprofessionals and, hopefully, where a new level of respect and credibility is achieved.

And, if that doesn’t work, there is always the donut option.

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