AllThingsD » Las Vegas http://allthingsd.com Sun, 27 May 2012 01:54:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://allthingsd.com/theme/images/logo-rss.jpg All Things Digital http://allthingsd.com/ 144 22 Loeb Calls Again for Thompson Firing From Yahoo, as Former eBay Boss Supports Him http://allthingsd.com/20120509/loeb-again-calls-for-thompson-firing-from-yahoo-as-former-ebay-boss-support-him/ http://allthingsd.com/20120509/loeb-again-calls-for-thompson-firing-from-yahoo-as-former-ebay-boss-support-him/#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 14:33:40 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=205930

As expected, activist shareholder Daniel Loeb of Third Point released a new letter on the bio controversy he set off at Yahoo, again calling for the firing of its CEO, Scott Thompson.

“It seems farcical to us that the Board will most likely spend more time deliberating over whether Mr. Thompson should be fired than it did properly vetting whether he should have been hired,” read the letter in part. “The necessary investigation into whether certain senior executives and Board Members knew of Mr. Thompson’s deceptions before hiring him should not delay decisive action over his ethical breaches.”

Loeb, who is waging a proxy fight with Yahoo over board seats he wants, also offered to work with the Yahoo board to find a new CEO if it accepted his slate of directors. In the interim, he suggested Yahoo put either CFO Tim Morse or media head Ross Levinsohn in the job. Morse had taken that position temporarily after Yahoo fired its last CEO Carol Bartz last fall.

Confused yet?

Loeb set off a management crisis there last week with the revelation that Thompson had added a fake computer science degree to his bio.

The first casualty came yesterday with the stepping down of Yahoo director Patti Hart, who was charged with vetting Thompson for the job.

The Yahoo board also announced yesterday that it would be conducting a probe of the circumstances around the hiring, as well as how the faux academic credentials got in Thompson’s bio and also the company’s regulatory filings.

The new letter was a reaction to Thompson’s apology on Monday for the borked bio becoming a “distraction” (but not, oddly, for the mistake itself). Loeb had previously called for Thompson’s firing over the bio fibbing.

Loeb will be appearing at an investor conference in Las Vegas later today, where he will surely be asked about the situation.

In related news, eBay CEO John Donahoe, Thompson’s former boss, lent words of support, but also underscored that the online commerce company’s legal filings of his bio were always correct, even if its Web site and other PR documents handed out were not. Thompson came to Yahoo from a stint as president of eBay’s PayPal payments unit.

As reported by Bloomberg, Donahoe said:

“When Scott was hired at EBay Inc., all of EBay’s filings had the accurate information. Some of EBay’s PR materials had that bio. Our legal filings were taken care of by our legal department. Some of the PR materials had that info,” he said while in Tokyo of the correct bio versus the incorrect one.

Donahoe added: “I think Scott Thompson did a great job at PayPal. I think he’s a very talented leader and I believe he can help Yahoo. I hope they get through this and he can continue to do the very challenging job he’s got of helping to turn Yahoo around. I’m Scott’s biggest fan.”

This has been the first public support of Thompson by a prominent Internet figure, which might help lagging morale at the company.

Here’s the full version of the latest Loeb letter:

Third Point May 9 Letter Release

RELATED POSTS:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120509/loeb-again-calls-for-thompson-firing-from-yahoo-as-former-ebay-boss-support-him/feed/ 0 Place Your Bets: Will Loeb Drop Another Bomb on Yahoo at Vegas Confab Later Today? http://allthingsd.com/20120509/place-your-bets-will-loeb-drop-another-bomb-on-yahoo-at-vegas-confab-later-today/ http://allthingsd.com/20120509/place-your-bets-will-loeb-drop-another-bomb-on-yahoo-at-vegas-confab-later-today/#comments Wed, 09 May 2012 13:00:48 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=205749

Daniel Loeb of Third Point — the activist shareholder who set off a management crisis at Yahoo last week with the revelation that new CEO Scott Thompson had added a fake computer science degree to his bio — will be onstage at a high-profile investor confab in Las Vegas this afternoon.

It’s Loeb’s first public appearance since he scored a direct hit on Yahoo in his ongoing proxy fight against the company — a first casualty yesterday, with the stepping-down of Yahoo director Patti Hart, who was charged with vetting Thompson for the job.

With one win like that, can Loeb resist using the panel — titled “Titans of Wall Street: Insight & Strategies for Capitalizing on Today’s Markets” — to strafe Yahoo a bit?

Sources said Loeb is prepping some reaction to Thompson’s apology on Monday for the borked bio becoming a “distraction” (but not, oddly, for the mistake itself), as well as an offer to work with the Yahoo board on a new CEO choice. Loeb has called for Thompson’s firing over the bio fibbing.

But the pugnacious investor will likely also be asked to opine on the situation so far at the off-the-record SkyBridge Alternatives Conference, which describes itself as “committed to facilitating balanced discussions and debates on macro-economic trends, geo-political events and alternative investment opportunities within the context of a dynamic global economy.”

What will be more interesting to see in the days ahead — even as the Yahoo board investigates how the false information about Thompson’s academic credentials got on that bio, as well as in regulatory filings — is if Loeb can be more than just a bomb-thrower and put forth a more specific and substantive plan for the long-troubled company than he has so far.

It’s not a requirement, of course, since Loeb is only seeking board seats and is not lobbying to be CEO, whose job it is to formulate a cogent strategy. But other Yahoo shareholders he is seeking to convince to join him in his proxy battle probably want more than “Yahoo stinks” from him at some point.

Still, for today at about 1:35 pm PT, when Loeb is scheduled to speak, it’s probably a good bet to expect some less-than-pretty noise from Sin City.

Update: In related news, eBay CEO John Donahoe, Thompson’s former boss, lent words of support but also underscored that the commerce company’s legal filings of his bio were always correct, even if its Web site was not. Thompson came to Yahoo from a stint as president of eBay’s PayPal payments unit.

As reported by Bloomberg, Donahoe said:

“When Scott was hired at EBay Inc., all of EBay’s filings had the accurate information. Some of EBay’s PR materials had that bio. Our legal filings were taken care of by our legal department. Some of the PR materials had that info,” he said while in Tokyo, of the correct bio versus the incorrect one.

Donahoe added: “I think Scott Thompson did a great job at PayPal. I think he’s a very talented leader and I believe he can help Yahoo. I hope they get through this and he can continue to do the very challenging job he’s got of helping to turn Yahoo around. I’m Scott’s biggest fan.”

This has been the first public support of Thompson by a prominent Internet figure, which might help lagging morale at the company.

RELATED POSTS:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120509/place-your-bets-will-loeb-drop-another-bomb-on-yahoo-at-vegas-confab-later-today/feed/ 0 Casino Game Makers Outline a Winning Strategy on Facebook http://allthingsd.com/20120406/casino-game-makers-outline-a-winning-strategy-on-facebook/ http://allthingsd.com/20120406/casino-game-makers-outline-a-winning-strategy-on-facebook/#comments Fri, 06 Apr 2012 22:34:03 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=193967 Remember, the house always wins.

Increasingly, that phrase can be applied not only to Las Vegas casinos, but also to Facebook, which takes a 30 percent cut of game developers’ revenues for the right to be on the social network.

“Facebook is almost the same business [as casinos],” said Chris Satchell, CTO and EVP of research and development at International Game Technology, which makes both traditional casino games and social games. “Facebook has real estate and customers, just like the casinos.”

Since 1981, IGT has been developing and manufacturing slot and video poker machines for casinos. Some of its games include recognizable brand names such as Wheel of Fortune, Big Buck Hunter, The Hangover and Sex and the City. Now, the casino game-maker is trying its hand at social games.

To make the leap, in January IGT acquired Seattle-based Double Down Interactive for $500 million. This week, the company launched their latest social game, called American Idol Slot, within Double Down’s casino on Facebook, which ranks in the top 25 by drawing 5.4 million gamers a month.

The American Idol game lets people spin the wheels featuring the faces of Season 11 contestants with host Ryan Seacrest looking over their shoulder. The free-to-play game allows you to win additional chips. Those who aren’t as lucky can buy 75,000 for $1.

The company says the game was in development prior to the acquisition, but says it is an example of how the two companies make a great fit.

Satchell said the idea is to enable cross-platform gaming experiences, so that players can connect to games before, during and after visits to casinos. Obviously, using big names helps.

But he also sees Facebook as a way to introduce casino games to a younger crowd, who are more likely to go clubbing at a casino than play highly profitable slot games.

“If we could just get them to understand that it’s fun. Social gaming is a good way to do that, and it’s a good business in its own right,” he said.

It’s a good business now, but it may be an even better business in the future when online gambling is legalized.

Late last year, the Department of Justice issued a new interpretation of the Wire Act of 1961. Under the new ruling, it interprets the Act as only outlawing bets on sporting events — not all events and contests. With that clarification in place, it will now be up to each state to pass legislation outlining operating procedures.

Some states have already passed laws, encouraging several companies, including IGT, Zynga and Caesars Interactive, to place their bets.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120406/casino-game-makers-outline-a-winning-strategy-on-facebook/feed/ 0 Caesars IPO Hits Jackpot http://allthingsd.com/20120208/caesars-ipo-hits-jackpot/ http://allthingsd.com/20120208/caesars-ipo-hits-jackpot/#comments Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:55:29 +0000 Tricia Duryee http://allthingsd.com/?p=172596 Caesars Entertainment stock popped 82 percent on the first day of its public offering, trading at $16.39 a share. The Las Vegas company sold only 1.8 million shares, at a price of $9 each. Caesars, known for its casinos, is also betting on new online initiatives, such as social and real-money gaming. The IPO will provide an exit for some of its investors, who paid $28 billion to take it private four months ago. Because of its debt balance of $22 billion, some analysts view the deal as unattractive.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120208/caesars-ipo-hits-jackpot/feed/ 0 CES Fun With Lytro's Light Field Camera http://allthingsd.com/20120117/ces-fun-with-lytros-light-field-camera/ http://allthingsd.com/20120117/ces-fun-with-lytros-light-field-camera/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:04:31 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=164345 It’s a sign of how few truly revolutionary things were shown in Vegas last week that one of the most interesting devices I handled was the Lytro camera that I have been writing about for months.

While I had already seen the light field camera and taken my first picture at AsiaD in Hong Kong back in October, at the Consumer Electronics Show I got a full hour to play around with it.

The demo was part of an event the start-up had at the Wynn hotel, where journalists and a few of the company’s fans could get some face time with the device, which is just starting to ship to customers.

Taking pictures actually did take some getting used to, which surprised me, but it was a lot of fun once I got the hang of it.

Here are some of my more successful efforts. Again, for those who haven’t yet played around with one of Lytro’s “living pictures,” just click anywhere in the frame to put that part of the image into focus.

In this shot, try focusing on the nearest gold ball to get a glimpse of the camera and photographer, and then click on the phone in the back to see it come into focus:

This one is a shot of a MacBook Air keyboard:

And this is a close-up of an iPhone’s home screen:

The product is available for order directly from Lytro’s Web site, with an 8 gigabyte version (enough for around 350 pictures) selling for $399. A 16GB version is priced at $499.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120117/ces-fun-with-lytros-light-field-camera/feed/ 0 Inside the CES Lost & Found http://allthingsd.com/20120111/inside-the-ces-lost-found/ http://allthingsd.com/20120111/inside-the-ces-lost-found/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:57:58 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=162966 A couple of days ago, just before I headed to the theater at the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino for our AllThingsD FootBallmer dual-blog, I realized I had misplaced my laptop charger. It sent me into a mild panic.

How would I survive CES?

Fortunately, I was able to locate a spare charger (they’re not hard to find in the vicinity of the Consumer Electronics Show). But in case some Good Samaritan had returned it, today I made a trip to the CES Lost & Found. A treasure chest of lost iPhones.

I made my way down the crowded central hallway at the Las Vegas Convention Center to a dark, elevated booth. A security dispatcher was sitting on a chair in front it; two others worked inside the forbidding-looking structure.

In order to inquire about the lost item, I had to stand on tiptoe and speak through a hole in the protective glass — as if I were making a bank deposit or talking to a cabbie back in New York. A dispatcher shook her head at me through the window when I asked if a charger had been brought in.

No luck for me.

But for most CES-goers, it seems, all is not actually lost: The Lost & Found department at CES has a better than 50 percent return rate, according to the security dispatcher, whose name is Olivia Huguet. During a conference like CES, she said, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority fields about 50 misplaced items a day.

“It depends on what’s going on, obviously. If it’s not so busy, people don’t bring in as many things,” Huguet said. “We try to return every item, even after CES is over. We take the time to investigate if there’s some way to identify the owner.”

“We get a lot of iPhones. Tons of iPhones,” Huguet added. “We’re able to return almost every one. But we get other things, too.”

When I asked what the strangest item is she’s seen so far at CES, she shrugged. “Nothing too off-the-wall. Some tripod case today. But other times, we get everything. We’ve gotten hearing aids, we’ve gotten teeth. Entire sets of teeth. Sometimes we even see drugs.”

No comment on whether visitors try to reclaim those.

CES NOTEBOOKS:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120111/inside-the-ces-lost-found/feed/ 6 Walt and Katie Take a Tour of CES (Video) http://allthingsd.com/20120110/walt-and-katie-take-a-tour-of-ces-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20120110/walt-and-katie-take-a-tour-of-ces-video/#comments Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:38:22 +0000 Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret http://allthingsd.com/?p=162717 Walt walks the CES floor with Katie, and finds less “newness” at this year’s event, noting that the absent Apple looms over the show.


[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120110/walt-and-katie-take-a-tour-of-ces-video/feed/ 0 There Better Be Some Cool Stuff at CES, Because CE Holiday Sales Data Bytes! http://allthingsd.com/20120108/there-better-be-some-cool-stuff-at-ces-because-ce-holiday-sales-data-bytes/ http://allthingsd.com/20120108/there-better-be-some-cool-stuff-at-ces-because-ce-holiday-sales-data-bytes/#comments Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:26:06 +0000 Kara Swisher http://allthingsd.com/?p=161317

Just as the annual Consumer Electronics Show kicks off this week, according to a report from the NPD Group: Consumer electronics sales during this past holiday period dropped six percent from last year.

That should be some not-so-welcome news for the vendors at the Las Vegas gadget confab, which is seeking to show off new wares to excite said consumers.

Those offerings had better step it up, from a look at the NPD Weekly Tracking Service, which noted that the decline was coming off another decline from a year ago.

While 2011′s drop was not as bad as 2010′s, it’s not the right direction, although the tally did not include some of the more explosive device categories being prominently featured at CES, such as tablets.

Said NPD: “Total consumer technology sales (excluding cell phones, tablets, e-readers, and video games) fell 5.9 percent to around $9.5 billion for the 5 weeks ending December 24, a slight improvement over the 6.2 percent decline in 2010.”

Sales of personal computers and televisions fell 4 percent, with flat unit volumes.

“2010 was the first year in quite awhile where the real drags on the core CE marketplace were not TVs and PCs,” said Stephen Baker, VP of industry analysis at NPD, in a press release. “Revenue for those two segments outperformed while the rest of the market dropped by more than 7 percent. The accelerated rate of decline in older technology categories such as DVD, GPS and MP3 players put a ceiling on how well the industry could perform during the holiday.”

Consumers did snap up flat-panel TVs, with screen sizes of 50 inches and higher rising by 32 percent in unit sales.

And the rocky 3-D TV business also grew by more than 100 percent, with TVs with “3D capability accounting for more than one in every five dollars spent on TVs during the holiday.”

Also up: Home theater systems (10 percent) and stand-alone streaming devices (65 percent).

But those increases did not stem the overall negative tide.

For other sectors, here’s the damage to holiday revenue in percentage change from 2011 dollars spent:

Blu-ray players: Down 17 percent.

Camcorders: Down 42.5 percent.

Digital picture frames: Down 37.5 percent.

GPS: Down 32.6 percent.

HDD: Down 25.1 percent.

Mice and keyboards: Down 7.1 percent.

MP3 players: Down 20.5 percent.

Multifunction printers: Down 9.9 percent.

Point-and-shoot cameras: Down 20.8 percent.

MORE CES NEWS:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120108/there-better-be-some-cool-stuff-at-ces-because-ce-holiday-sales-data-bytes/feed/ 0 CES 2012: Snooki and Bieber Are In, Gaga Is Out! http://allthingsd.com/20120107/ces-2012-snooki-and-bieber-are-in-gaga-is-out/ http://allthingsd.com/20120107/ces-2012-snooki-and-bieber-are-in-gaga-is-out/#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 21:00:59 +0000 Lauren Goode http://allthingsd.com/?p=158579 One thing the annual Consumer Electronics Show is known for — aside from all the electronics and promises of life-betterment they bring — is the smattering of celebrities who have been roped into doing product promotions or are going for some TMZ-friendly Las Vegas fun.

This year, none other than Justin Bieber is scheduled to stop by the event, while repeat attendee Lady Gaga is not.

And CES is also about to get Snookified.

Lady Gaga first appeared at CES in 2010, when it was announced she would be taking the role of creative director at Polaroid. Attendees and members of the press went a little goo-goo for Gaga, who certainly livened up the event. At last year’s show, the Lady of the hour again appeared at the Polaroid booth, and unveiled three new products (two of which, we reported earlier, have yet to hit the market, as is not uncommon for some of the products showcased at CES).

A spokesperson for Polaroid said Lady Gaga is still currently creative director for its Grey Label line, but is not scheduled to be at CES this year due to her demanding schedule.

So, let’s get to Bieber. The 17-year-old singing sensation is scheduled to appear at a booth for TOSY, a Vietnamese robotics company. I’ve been told he is not doing interviews, so all the 14-year-old girls out there wishing they were the Tavi Gevinson of consumer electronics coverage can hold off on bombarding the CEA with requests for press badges.

On to Snooki: The pint-sized “Jersey Shore” star will be there, not for high-tech tanning beds or electronic Bumpits, but to help hype iHip, a maker of audio accessories. Snooki, a.k.a. Nicole Polizzi, is hosting a fist-pumping VIP party at the Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino during the week, and will also be making appearances on the floor of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Other celebs expected to be in attendance at the big show: Actress Eliza Dushku, who will be at the show as an ambassador for the Entertainment Matters program sponsored by Variety magazine and Ericsson; 50 Cent will announce new audio products through his company, SMS Audio; fitness guru Jillian Michaels will kick things off at the Sports and Fitness TechZone; Dennis Rodman is going as part of the launch of Paltalk’s Firetalk (and at 6’6″ won’t be hard to spot on the floor); and actor Seth Green will appear at the booth for Shodogg, a service for controlling video-watching across multiple screens, using a smartphone (we can’t hardly wait!). Finally, Ludacris will be there, representing SOUL Electronics.

Last year, “Survivor” star Jeff Probst made a CES appearance, during which he gave some tips on how to — heh — survive the show. Probst did, in fact, survive, but won’t be making it this year.

More notable names are likely to appear, but whether there will be anyone big enough to drown out the buzzing, pinging and ringing of the electronics — and the shrill sounds of Biebermania — is still to be determined.

MORE CES NEWS:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120107/ces-2012-snooki-and-bieber-are-in-gaga-is-out/feed/ 2 Vizio Jumps Into PC Fray http://allthingsd.com/20120107/vizio-jumps-into-pc-fray/ http://allthingsd.com/20120107/vizio-jumps-into-pc-fray/#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:57:53 +0000 Ian Sherr http://allthingsd.com/?p=161241 Vizio Inc., which shook up the market with inexpensive high-definition televisions, now wants to become a computer manufacturer.

The Irvine, Calif., company, which ranks as one of the top sellers of televisions in the U.S., plans to show a line of thin laptop computers and all-in-one desktop PCs running Microsoft Corp.’s Windows software next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20120107/vizio-jumps-into-pc-fray/feed/ 0 Dell Will Drop the Flashy Vegas Act for CES This Year http://allthingsd.com/20111130/dell-will-drop-the-flashy-vegas-act-for-ces-this-year/ http://allthingsd.com/20111130/dell-will-drop-the-flashy-vegas-act-for-ces-this-year/#comments Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:15:52 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=148648 Dell’s presence at the Consumer Electronics Show the past few years has been hard to miss. This year, it may be hard to find. Sources say the company is scaling back its participation in the annual trade show — drastically.

While it never had a big footprint on the floor of the show itself, for the past three years it has hosted media and showgoers in the Dell Suites — an entire floor of The Palms Casino Resort tricked out with the latest in Dell hardware. This year, however, the company is approaching CES with a bit more restraint.

It won’t be commandeering the The Palms’ Hardwood Suite to create a “smart living space.” Instead, sources say, Dell is opting for moderation, taking meetings in hotel suites and CES conference rooms and perhaps piggybacking on the keynote of one of its partners for a big product announcement (ultrabooks, anyone?).

So the company will still have some visibility at the event, just not the sort of high-profile, conspicuous-consumption-style visibility it has had in years past.

Why the shift? That’s not clear. Dell has had a very spotty record in the consumer gadget market dating back to its Axim handhelds and DJ music players. That has continued to its recent forays into smartphones and tablets. And the company’s attention has been leaning heavily toward the enterprise of late, which makes CES a markedly less useful event for it.

Indeed, speaking at the Credit Suisse conference today, Steve Felice, Dell’s president for Consumer, Small and Medium Business, said the company was looking to “prune” products to focus on more profitable areas. That message echoes comments made during Dell’s last earnings call when the company said consumer sales in the U.S. and Western Europe recently had led it to step away from “low-value” PC opportunities to focus more on servers, services and networking equipment (with a 6 percent drop in consumer revenue in the third quarter, that seems like a reasonable move). This undoubtedly factored in to the company’s decision to scale back at CES.

Dell Suites at CES 2011

Another theory: The Dell Suites concept has outlived its usefulness now that the company has Dell World, the customer-focused conference it inaugurated this year and plans to hold again in 2012. Why pay good money to deliver your message in the free-for-all, look-at-me shouting match that is CES when you can create your own platform from which to deliver it when people aren’t tired of listening?

Reached for comment, Dell confirmed that it is indeed dialing back its presence at CES and that it will be introducing a new product during a partner keynote, though it declined to specify which one.

“Over the last few months, we’ve been evaluating the most effective platforms that allow us to reach and engage our core consumers directly,” the company said in a statement provided to AllThingsD. “We will continue to have a presence at CES 2012, meeting with key retail customers, partners, investors, press and analysts, among others. In addition, we will be joining a key partner in their keynote presentation and we will be introducing a new product at the show. As we look ahead to calendar year 2012, we will be focused on engaging our various stakeholders through uniquely Dell experiences, such as the recently concluded Dell World and other Dell-specific events.”

Reached for comment, the Consumer Electronics Association, which produces CES, said Dell has not yet told them of its intentions for CES 2012.

(Image Credit: Dell Flickr page)

MORE CES NEWS:

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111130/dell-will-drop-the-flashy-vegas-act-for-ces-this-year/feed/ 0 Full D@CES Interview Video: Nvidia's Jen-Hsun Huang http://allthingsd.com/20110121/full-dces-interview-video-nvidias-jen-hsuan-huang/ http://allthingsd.com/20110121/full-dces-interview-video-nvidias-jen-hsuan-huang/#comments Fri, 21 Jan 2011 22:44:32 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39815

As promised, after posting highlights last week, here’s the full video from an interview with Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang at our D@CES event at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The chipmaker exec talked a lot about how mobile is about to see super-duper-duper smartphones and more.

Here’s Huang in a video of the interview with Mobilized’s Ina Fried:


[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110121/full-dces-interview-video-nvidias-jen-hsuan-huang/feed/ 3 Full D@CES Interview Video: Microsoft Internet Explorer's Dean Hachamovitch http://allthingsd.com/20110119/full-dces-interview-video-microsoft-internet-explorers-dean-hachamovitch/ http://allthingsd.com/20110119/full-dces-interview-video-microsoft-internet-explorers-dean-hachamovitch/#comments Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:17:15 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39756 As promised, after posting highlights last week, here’s the full video from an interview Walt Mossberg did with Microsoft Internet Explorer head Dean Hachamovitch at our D@CES event at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The browser chieftain at the software giant talked a lot about privacy, as you can see from Hachamovitch’s latest shirt motto.

Enjoy:


[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110119/full-dces-interview-video-microsoft-internet-explorers-dean-hachamovitch/feed/ 1 Full D@CES Interview Video: Twitter CEO Dick Costolo http://allthingsd.com/20110117/full-dces-interview-video-twitter-ceo-dick-costolo/ http://allthingsd.com/20110117/full-dces-interview-video-twitter-ceo-dick-costolo/#comments Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:05:22 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39649

As promised, after posting highlights last week, here’s the full video from an interview I did with Twitter CEO Dick Costolo at our D@CES event at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Costolo is one funny dude, and he also said a lot about what’s up at the San Francisco microblogging service.

Enjoy:


[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110117/full-dces-interview-video-twitter-ceo-dick-costolo/feed/ 0 D@CES Highlights Video: Nvidia's Jen-Hsun Huang http://allthingsd.com/20110114/dces-highlights-video-nvidias-jen-hsun-huang/ http://allthingsd.com/20110114/dces-highlights-video-nvidias-jen-hsun-huang/#comments Fri, 14 Jan 2011 16:01:20 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39510

Our next highlights video from our D@CES event last week is of Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang.

The event, which we did in cooperation with the Consumer Electronics Show, was only three sessions in one afternoon. It was followed by a lovely party, all at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.

Huang talked about how mobile is about to see super-duper-duper smartphones and also touched on the chipmaker’s legal battle with Intel, which was settled earlier this week.

Here’s a longish highlights video of Huang’s interview with Mobilized’s Ina Fried:


[ See post to watch video ]

I’ll be posting the full videos of this interview, as well as with Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and Dean Hachamovitch, who is in charge of Microsoft’s Interet Explorer browser from D@CES next week.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110114/dces-highlights-video-nvidias-jen-hsun-huang/feed/ 1 D@CES Highlights Video: Microsoft IE's Dean Hachamovitch http://allthingsd.com/20110112/dces-highlights-video-microsoft-ies-dean-hachamovitch/ http://allthingsd.com/20110112/dces-highlights-video-microsoft-ies-dean-hachamovitch/#comments Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:01:17 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39437

Our next highlights video from our D@CES event last week is of Microsoft Internet Explorer chief Dean Hachamovitch.

The event, which we did in cooperation with the Consumer Electronics Show, was only three sessions in one afternoon. It was followed by a lovely party, all at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.

Here’s a longish highlights video of Walt Mossberg’s interview with Hachamovitch, during which they focused a lot on privacy issues on the browser and the Web (check out his shirt):


[ See post to watch video ]

I’ll be posting the third highlights video D@CES of Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang on Friday and all full videos from the event next week.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110112/dces-highlights-video-microsoft-ies-dean-hachamovitch/feed/ 0 Nike Digital Sport's Stefan Olander Talks About Its Digital Marathon http://allthingsd.com/20110111/nike-digital-sports-stefan-olander/ http://allthingsd.com/20110111/nike-digital-sports-stefan-olander/#comments Tue, 11 Jan 2011 14:05:06 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39404

While BoomTown was running around the endless floors of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, I jogged right over to the folks at Nike, to see their new Nike+ SportWatch GPS.

The device is yet another step in Nike’s long march to try to digitize the running experience.

Nike put sweat into its digital efforts in 2006 with its wireless in-shoe sensor, which communicates with an Apple iPod.

Since then, it has moved on to its popular iPhone and iPod app, as well as an earlier watch called the Nike+ SportBand.

Now, in partnership with TomTom, it is upping the game with the new watch, which sends even more information back to the app and also its Nike+ Web site.

Nike is hoping to turn that destination, which has about four million members now, into a kind of inspirational social experience for runners of all levels.

The watch is part of that, of course, chronicling geo-location information and also a wide range of performance stats, such as time, pace, distance and calories.

Here’s my video interview with Stefan Olander, VP of Digital Sport at Nike in which we talk about it all:


[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110111/nike-digital-sports-stefan-olander/feed/ 2 Exploring iStuff at CES With Mobilized (Video) http://allthingsd.com/20110110/exploring-istuff-at-ces-with-mobilized-video/ http://allthingsd.com/20110110/exploring-istuff-at-ces-with-mobilized-video/#comments Tue, 11 Jan 2011 01:14:59 +0000 Ina Fried http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/?p=2148 With a little time left at the end of the Consumer Electronics Show, I finally had a break from private meetings, press conferences and onstage interviews. I used the time on Saturday morning to briefly tour a section of the massive show floor.

Given that I only had about an hour for my grand tour, I decided, in true Vegas style, to explore the first thing that came to me when I entered the show floor. Fortunately, since I cover mobile stuff, that turned out to be the iLounge-sponsored Apple area. It took me back to my early days of covering MacWorld Expo, back when it was an event Apple attended.

Some of the vendors were names I recognized, like Speck and Griffin and Mophie–companies that I had covered since their early days, companies that I had watched transformed from start-ups to serious players amid the explosion in the market for companion products to the iPod and, later, the iPhone.

There were also plenty of companies that I had never heard of, eager to find global distribution for ideas ranging from an iPod speaker resembling a gramophone to stickers that make the back of an iPad appear to be etched with a portrait of Barack Obama, Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, among other famous faces.

There were also T-shirts, headphones, keyboard attachments and even a booth with a representative of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

My only purchase of the day came after I had left the show entirely, though. With some urging from BoomTown’s Kara Swisher, I splurged on Pinball Magic, an accessory that transforms an iPod Touch or iPhone into a pinball machine, which was on clearance for $25 at the Brookstone store in the Las Vegas airport.

Here’s a video look at some of what I found.


[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110110/exploring-istuff-at-ces-with-mobilized-video/feed/ 0 D@CES Highlights Video: Twitter CEO Dick Costolo (¡Olé!) http://allthingsd.com/20110110/dces-highlights-video-twitter-ceo-dick-costolo-%c2%a1ole/ http://allthingsd.com/20110110/dces-highlights-video-twitter-ceo-dick-costolo-%c2%a1ole/#comments Mon, 10 Jan 2011 21:01:17 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39346

Yes, like a digital Heidi Klum, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo did declare that BoomTown’s outfit was “matador casual” at the start of an interview I did with him at D@CES last Friday.

The event, which we did in cooperation with the Consumer Electronics Show, was only three sessions in one afternoon. It was followed by a lovely party, all at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.

Here’s a longish highlights video of my interview with Costolo, during which we talked about a wide range of issues facing the San Francisco microblogging service, as well as his take on my fashion choice.

But let it be said, while I did not comment on his sartorial selection at the time, as you will see below, Costolo really did pull off a very smart approximation of an Ellen DeGeneres look himself.

Here’s the highlights video of Costolo–the full video will be up in a week.

The other highlights videos at D@CES will also be posted this week, with the full videos next week: Microsoft Internet Explorer head Dean Hachamovitch on Wednesday, and Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang on Friday.

Enjoy:


[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110110/dces-highlights-video-twitter-ceo-dick-costolo-%c2%a1ole/feed/ 0 Waltgelina 2011: Walking the CES Floor With Walt and Katie http://allthingsd.com/20110110/waltgelina-2011-walking-the-ces-floor-with-walt-and-katie/ http://allthingsd.com/20110110/waltgelina-2011-walking-the-ces-floor-with-walt-and-katie/#comments Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:05:13 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39341

BoomTown likes to take an annual walk on the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret to get a perspective of their very long march and what’s coming next.

Then, I get to leave!

I jokingly call Walt the “Brangelina” of CES, since he is stopped constantly on the floor by fans who want to meet him in person and those who just want to kibitz with him about the latest and greatest trends in the tech sector.

Here’s this year’s video I did last Thursday, in which we look for tablets that are not Apple iPads, marvel at a Klingon lady, try to make 3-D glasses look styling and generally are overwhelmed:


[ See post to watch video ]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110110/waltgelina-2011-walking-the-ces-floor-with-walt-and-katie/feed/ 1 Twitter Responds to WikiLeaks Document Demand by Feds–But Who's Next? http://allthingsd.com/20110108/twitter-responds-to-wikileaks-document-demand-by-feds/ http://allthingsd.com/20110108/twitter-responds-to-wikileaks-document-demand-by-feds/#comments Sat, 08 Jan 2011 08:25:16 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39304

Twitter has been ordered by a U.S. federal judge to turn over documents related to several people involved with WikiLeaks to the Justice Department.

Tonight, a Twitter spokeswoman responded to a request for comment on the situation:

“We’re not going to comment on specific requests, but, to help users protect their rights, it’s our policy to notify users about law enforcement and governmental requests for their information, unless we are prevented by law from doing so. We outline this policy in our law enforcement guidelines.”

In an onstage interview I did with Twitter CEO Dick Costolo at a D@CES event last night in Las Vegas, he referenced the issue, but would not give any specifics.

While he said he could not talk about WikiLeaks specifically, he indicated that he disliked government mandates to keep things quiet and reiterated Twitter’s desire to connect people with useful information.

“We’re going to lash out at things that prevent us from doing that, as aggressively as we can,” said Costolo, who also used Twitter crackdowns in China as an example.

It might be a Herculean task to fight the federal government, which is aggressively going after WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange.

Some Web companies, such as eBay’s PayPal unit, have cut off WikiLeaks.

On the other hand, Twitter took legal action to unseal the court order, which allowed it to inform those involved, giving them 10 days to object. Otherwise, the San Francisco microblogging service would have had to turn over information without the knowledge of these users.

There will surely be more of these to other Web companies, with obvious candidates being Google and Facebook.

The order from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is ordering Twitter to fork over subscriber names, user names, screen names, mailing addresses, residential addresses and more of several people involved with WikiLeaks.

But you can read for yourself–here is the court order, as well as the unsealing order:


twitter1


twitter2

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110108/twitter-responds-to-wikileaks-document-demand-by-feds/feed/ 10 D@CES Today: Twitter, Nvidia, Microsoft in the Vegas Spotlight! http://allthingsd.com/20110107/dces-today-twitter-nvidia-microsoft-in-the-vegas-spotlight/ http://allthingsd.com/20110107/dces-today-twitter-nvidia-microsoft-in-the-vegas-spotlight/#comments Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:00:12 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39276

First things first, for those emailing me frantically about getting into our D@CES onstage interview event later today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas: We’re sold out and have a very long wait list.

That said, people in Sin City tend to flake out, so if you show up at the Marcello Ballroom at the Venetian Hotel at 3 pm, you might snag a seat, as people did last year at the same event.

No guarantees, but it’s a betting town, so you might want to do so.

And, if you throw craps, our crack All Things Digital staff will be posting photos, reports and video quickly.

I am hoping there will be some juicy news for them to chew on, as we interview three fascinating subjects:

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang and Dean Hachamovitch, who heads the Internet Explorer browser team within the Windows unit at Microsoft.

Our latest event comes after our successful D: Dive Into Mobile conference, part of the D: All Things Digital juggernaut.

(Actually, it is more like a tiny red wagon, but it is really cool.)

This is our second D event at the CES, which is taking place this week.

Last year’s tech execs onstage were Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein, Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings and Google’s Android chief Andy Rubin.

As usual, our event will be focused on the consumer electronics arena, and the big trends impacting it.

The D@CES program is only this afternoon, with the new trio.

Costolo (pictured here), a longtime entrepreneur, took over from co-founder Evan Williams earlier this year and is charged with turning the microblogging service into a real, live boy, um, company.

Twitter is making a big push into the mainstream and also wants to be present for all the many devices shown at CES.

As noted before, I will be grilling Costolo. Well done, I hope!

Nvidia’s Huang (pictured here) is leading a big change for the company. Although known for its PC graphics chips, Nvidia is shifting an increasing amount of focus to other areas, such as mobile chips with its Tegra line.

Huang will be interviewed by Mobilized’s Ina Fried.

Walt Mossberg will take on Hachamovitch (pictured below), who heads the IE team at Microsoft.

Well known for sporting a different black shirt featuring a different saying made up of the IE logo and letters at every keynote speech, he has been at the software giant since 1990.

We thought bringing his voice was important, since Hachamovitch has been focusing on privacy using the browser, an increasingly key topic in tech.

So get ready for some fun–after all, it’s Vegas, baby.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110107/dces-today-twitter-nvidia-microsoft-in-the-vegas-spotlight/feed/ 0 T-Mobile Wants You to Know It Is Speeding Up Its Network, Too http://allthingsd.com/20110106/t-mobile-wants-you-to-know-it-is-speeding-up-its-network-too/ http://allthingsd.com/20110106/t-mobile-wants-you-to-know-it-is-speeding-up-its-network-too/#comments Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:05:31 +0000 Ina Fried http://mobilized.allthingsd.com/?p=1906 As Mobilized told you last month, T-Mobile is indeed using the Consumer Electronics Show to announce its plans for a faster version of its existing HSPA+ network.

The company demonstrated the network during a press event on Thursday and said that it expects 140 million Americans in 25 metro areas to have access to its HSPA+42 network by mid-2011. The demo included downloading of individual songs from Amazon in as few as five seconds.

“Our network will continue to keep pace with the growing demand,” said T-Mobile CEO Phillip Humm, who said the company is embracing its status as a challenger brand (marketing speak for “the little guy”).

T-Mobile used a press conference on Thursday to announce the network and show off the LG-built G-Slate tablet that it plans to introduce in the first half of the year. T-Mobile also said it expects to offer a 7-inch Dell Streak tablet in the coming weeks.The Streak has a dual-core Nvidia Tegra processor along with support for Adobe Flash and a Gorilla Glass screen. T-Mobile said it will be sold at a “consumer-friendly price,” but didn’t share details.

Humm told reporters that the company has now sold 900,000 devices that run on its HSPA+ network, which it bills as America’s largest 4G network.

“This proves the rapid adoption,“ Humm said, adding that the carrier expects to be offering more than 25 4G devices by the end of the year, ranging from smartphones to mobile broadband.

T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray showed a slide that he says shows that HSPA+ has a strong road map to get faster in the coming years, though he said that T-Mobile does believe in moving to LTE in the future when the time is right. (T-Mobile currently lacks the spectrum to build such a network, among other issues.)

Ray said that T-Mobile has been testing T-Mobile’s new HSPA+42 network in Las Vegas and said its average speeds are on par with those provided by Verizon’s LTE network, even before that network has much load on it.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110106/t-mobile-wants-you-to-know-it-is-speeding-up-its-network-too/feed/ 0 Lady Gaga + 126,000 Pasty Geeks + Vegas = BoomTown Nirvana http://allthingsd.com/20110106/lady-gaga126000-pasty-geeks-in-vegasboomtown-nirvana/ http://allthingsd.com/20110106/lady-gaga126000-pasty-geeks-in-vegasboomtown-nirvana/#comments Thu, 06 Jan 2011 14:24:35 +0000 Kara Swisher http://kara.allthingsd.com/?p=39227

This is going to be good.

The iconic singer and performance artist Lady Gaga will be appearing at the Consumer Electronics Show later today to unveil “creations” she came up with for Polaroid.

Gaga announced last year here that she had been named the creative director of Polaroid.

As part of the collaboration that will debut her Polaroid “Grey Label” project, Gaga said a year ago that she would be coming up with “prototypes in marrying the fields of fashion/technology/photography innovation.”

Oh, goody. Fishnet stockings that can post pictures to Instagram!

I am considering going to the event–as ordered to by the shy and retiring Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel.

But it will likely be a mosh pit of nerdy dudes, so I’ll need to frontload starting at 10 am.

And you can watch it on Polaroid.com at 3:30 pm PT.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20110106/lady-gaga126000-pasty-geeks-in-vegasboomtown-nirvana/feed/ 3 Remember the Parrot! http://allthingsd.com/20110106/remember-the-parrot/ http://allthingsd.com/20110106/remember-the-parrot/#comments Thu, 06 Jan 2011 11:30:55 +0000 Peter Kafka http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/?p=27687 This is the gadget industry’s week of hope and promise. But if you’re a dark sort, you can invert all that and see nothing but doom.

Me, I’m a peppy, perky guy. Ask anybody! Still, if I were a gloomy Gus, I’d spend some time reminiscing about 2010′s Consumer Electronics Show, where I spent a bunch of time checking out:

A year later, and they’re all gone: Either officially dead, or just pining for fjords, and very unlikely to perk up.

Not all of this stuff was vaporware, in the technical sense. Palm, at least, really did sell a few of those Palm Pre Pluses before it gave up and sold out to HP.

Still, an 0-for-4 experience like that is enough to make a humble media correspondent want to avoid checking out new technology altogether, and that’s basically what I’m going to do.

I might take a look at the UltraViolet media locker demo, but that’s about it. I’m headed to Las Vegas this morning* with the primary goal of talking to media people, many of whom live in New York, just like I do.

So yes, it might seem a little odd to head across the country to talk to people who live and work a few miles away, but there’s a logic to it. Trust me!**

And if you do want smart, incisive technology coverage, trust the rest of the All Things D team: Walt, Katie, Kara and Ina are on the ground already, and the rest of the gang is monitoring developments from their home bases. It’s good stuff!

*Not just because I enjoy being fashionably late, but because it was many hundreds of dollars cheaper to fly out today than earlier in the week. (And also because I’m old, and at my age every extra day you spend in Las Vegas is a dog year.)

**Totally not a boondoggle. Note the line about saving money on airfare, above.

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