Voices

Nokia Aims Software At Low-End Phones

Nokia Corp., having abandoned its ambition to develop a high-end operating system, is shifting its programming efforts toward creating software for its low-end phones, according to people familiar with the matter.

AOL Layoffs Coming Soon, Followed by Champagne and Cookies for Advertisers When HuffPo Deal Closes

There’s no question it’s a jarring contrast–layoffs versus champagne and cookies. But that’s the reality at AOL as its acquisition of the Huffington Post closes this week, even as it sheds employees as part of its ongoing turnaround effort.

Liveblogging Yahoo-Nokia Partnership Announcement: Email and Maps Horsetrading

As BoomTown reported last week, Yahoo planned to announce a partnership deal with Nokia this morning, centering on email and mapping. Here’s the–very brief–liveblog of the press conference about it.

Exclusive: Yahoo Poised to Unveil "Project Nike" Partnership Deal With Nokia at Monday Event

Today, Yahoo sent a press conference invite for Monday in New York to reveal “an exciting announcement about providing global consumers with rich online and mobile experiences, and bringing forward a new era in keeping consumers connected.” That’s all it took to get BoomTown on the horn to find out what that meant. And, according to sources, that will be a deal with Finland-based mobile phone giant Nokia to build Yahoo’s email, search and other applications and services into a range of its devices.

Dear Web 2.0: It Is the Economy, Stupid!–Part 2

Before the recent crash-and-burn of the overall U.S. economy, BoomTown went all Cassandra and started talking about the worrisome weak tech stocks at the beginning of September. Then in mid-September, after listening to the frothy statements at two demo conferences from a series of start-ups, I got even grumpier in a post called “Dear Web 2.0: It’s Still the Economy, Stupid!” In Greek mythology, Cassandra was given the gift of prophecy, except–due to her rejection of Apollo’s affections–nobody would ever believe her warnings. Well, this time you might want to believe it–for Silicon Valley, it really is the economy now.