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Poke! I Choose You to Be My Seatmate.

Lauren Goode in Social on February 24 at 10:05 am PT

Some airlines are offering social network profiles on seat-selection maps, the New York Times reports.

The Full Valenti: Dodd Trades His Olive Branch to Tech for a Howitzer, After SOPA/PIPA Gets Delayed

Kara Swisher in Media on January 20 at 11:32 am PT

What would Jack do? (And would it work anymore?)

The Fate of Flash on Mobile Devices: Here’s the Adobe CEO Talking About It at D9

Kara Swisher in Mobile on November 9, 2011 at 6:05 am PT

Here’s Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen talking in June about making sure Flash worked well on non-Apple mobile devices. Have times changed?

China Solution: Yahoo, SoftBank and Alibaba Reach Agreement

Kara Swisher in News on July 29, 2011 at 4:50 am PT

Yahoo, SoftBank and Alibaba have reached an agreement in their contentious dispute around the Alipay payments unit.

Cablevision Complains (Very Quietly) About News Corp.'s Web Blackout

Peter Kafka in Media on October 18, 2010 at 10:49 am PT

The move to shut down Fox.com and close off part of Hulu to the cable system’s customers was “unprecedented and anti-consumer.” So why not holler loudly?

Welcome Back, Steve: Apple CEO Jobs to Appear Onstage at D8

Kara Swisher in News on April 27, 2010 at 5:01 pm PT

Apple CEO and Co-founder Steve Jobs will appear at the eighth D: All Things Digital, in an interview on the opening night, kicking off our tech and media conference that will also include famed Hollywood director James Cameron, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, among others. Jobs has been interviewed onstage many times at D, including in a famous joint session with Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates in 2007. There is much to talk to Jobs about in 2010, obviously, including the new iPad, its tense relationship with Google and the next innovations from the computer giant.

Project Alesia: News Corp.'s Roman Battle Cry–Does That Cast Googlers as the Gauls? (Plus Video!)

Kara Swisher in News on December 23, 2009 at 11:23 am PT

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 in ancient times widely considered to be one of the more decisive battles in history. And that is apparently what top News Corp. 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.

From the Department of Oh No, She Didn't: Whitman Defends eBay's Skype Debacle

Kara Swisher in News on November 11, 2009 at 11:30 am PT

If spinning is an intense political skill, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is doing her very best at trying to create a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. As Om Malik reports on GigaOm, Whitman–who is trying to nab the Republican gubernatorial nomination in California–told a radio interviewer recently that “actually I think Skype will prove to be a good acquisition for eBay.” Well, good if you mean the $2.6 billion purchase of the Interent telephony that didn’t ever work as Whitman had effusively promised in 2005. Or the ugly lawsuits over it. Or the successful shakedown by its co-founders to get a big chunk back. You get the idea.

Not With a Bang, but a Whimper: Icahn Leaves Yahoo Board (Plus His Entire Letter)

Kara Swisher in News on October 23, 2009 at 3:00 pm PT

Carl Icahn, the activist billionaire investor who made such a noisy fuss in his quest to force management and other changes at Yahoo, is taking a much quieter leave from the Internet giant’s board. He said “there was not a need at this time for an activist investor” on Yahoo’s board. That’s true, of course, but here’s BoomTown’s quickie analysis: Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz completely ignores him.

Viral Video: I Left My Fists in San Francisco (Which Will, Sadly, Help YouTube's "1 BN" a Day)

Kara Swisher in News on October 9, 2009 at 1:15 am PT

Oh my. Oh my. There is almost nothing BoomTown can say about a rumble that was captured on an Apple iPhone on a San Francisco Muni bus. A fight between two women escalates over some kind of seat issue and it is sure to become an Internet sensation. Appalling, but there is very little that will go on anywhere without being uploaded and viewed–probably to YouTube, which has a new logo, seen here, advertising that fact.