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MyiPadIsWarmToTheTouchGate: Consumer Reports Sounds Off on Hot iPad Issue

John Paczkowski — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:10:06 +0000

And, like clockwork, Consumer Reports has arrived to weigh in on reports that Apple’s new iPad generates an unusually large amount of heat.

The product evaluation agency’s take: It does, but not enough for anyone to worry about.

Earlier today, CR ran a battery of tests on the new iPad and found that while the new iPad runs up to 13 degrees hotter than its predecessor, at times hitting temperatures as high as 116 degrees Fahrenheit (running the graphics-intensive Infinity Blade game), it never gets hot enough to harm the device itself. In fact, it runs cooler than some laptops.

“During our tests, I held the new iPad in my hands,” said Consumer Reports researcher Donna Tapellini. “When it was at its hottest, it felt very warm but not especially uncomfortable if held for a brief period.”

Apple, of course, has already dismissed complaints that the new iPad throws off more heat than its predecessors, telling AllThingsD that the device runs well “within our thermal specifications.”

Andreessen Horowitz's Ben Horowitz Talks About Fat Start-Ups, Being a New VC and What's Hot and Not!

Kara Swisher — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:08:14 +0000

Yesterday, BoomTown motored down lovely I-280 to meet with (relatively) newly minted VC Ben Horowitz, the other half of the high-profile venture firm Andreessen Horowitz.

Started last summer by the pair–who have worked together since they met not-so-cute at Netscape Communications, with co-founder Marc Andreessen flaming worker-bee Horowitz in an email–it’s a $300 million fund that has plunked itself in the middle of just about every hot thing in Silicon Valley and beyond of late.

That includes being part of a recent huge round in online games rocket ship Zynga, a controversial consortium that grabbed Skype (Horowitz is on the Internet telephony giant’s board), as well as being a key investor in smoking stealths such as Kakai and RockMelt.

Of course, the pair is also in the race to fund mobile geolocation phenom Foursquare against a possible Yahoo (YHOO) acquisition.

Horowitz, who has long had a much lower profile than one-time digital golden boy Andreessen, is now emerging a little more publicly via a new blog, called simply Ben’s Blog.

With the apt quote at the top of the homepage by legendary mathematician and computer pioneer John von Neumann, “There’s no sense in being precise when you don’t even know what you’re talking about,” it’s a pretty saucy effort, especially if Horowitz keeps it up.

Recent posts included “Four Things Some VCs Do That I Don’t Like” and “The Case for the Fat Start-Up,” which he first published on All Things Digital.

We talked about this and more in a breakfast interview at the Rosewood Hotel on Sand Hill Road near Andreessen Horowitz’s offices, so here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Viral Video: Los Angeles Wildfires in 35 Seconds

Kara Swisher — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:30:52 +0000

One of the great things about the Internet is the immediacy in getting relevant information, especially via video.

Such has been the case with the fires that have been raging around Los Angeles of late, riveting images of which have proliferated around the Web, posted by professionals and amateurs alike.

Having just spent a week in the area, BoomTown can attest to the surrealness of driving around the city with scary fires clearly visible on the hills nearby. While the fires are now starting to come under control, the videos of them are still burning hot.

To get a taste of it, check out this amazing real-time video of one of the fires, taken last week and posted on YouTube–it is a time-lapse format, which a lot of people are doing:

Kara's What's Hot in Tech 2007, Starring London and Louie

Kara Swisher — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:01:17 +0000

The Public Relations Society of America, Silicon Valley chapter, asked me to make a short video for its dinner last night about what was hot in tech in 2007 and also what surprised me. They did not use it, as I got it in too late, so here it is!

I made it when I was in London last week (Double decker buses! The Beeb! Punk rockers with pink mohawks!). Then–horrid stage mother I have become with my little video camera–I lassoed my son in for the project too.

Here it is:

(I still am having problems with the Brightcove player, so I uploaded the video to YouTube.)