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Verizon Narrows Kin Target to Thrifty Young and Social Users

John Paczkowski in Social on June 28, 2010 at 4:01 pm PT

What does Generation Upload think of Kin, the social media phone Microsoft designed for it? Evidently not very much, because Verizon is cutting its prices barely a month after bringing it to market. Over the weekend, the carrier quietly reduced the price of both Kin models, dropping the Kin One to $29 from $49 and the Kin Two to $49 from $99.

Microsoft to Uncrate “Pink” Phones at April 12 Event

John Paczkowski in News on April 5, 2010 at 12:01 pm PT

Apple isn’t the only company holding a special invitation-only event this month–Microsoft is as well. Four days after Apple unveils the details of its forthcoming iPhone OS 4, Microsoft will take the wraps off its long-rumored “Pink” phones at a San Francisco media gathering with the cryptic title, “It’s Time to Share.”

CNET Boss Joe Gillespie Has Left the Building

Peter Kafka in Media on February 18, 2010 at 12:01 pm PT

Joe Gillespie, the CBS executive who oversaw the company’s CNET and CBS News.com sites, has left the company amid a reorg. Gillespie’s old unit, the CBS Interactive News Group, has been folded into a group with the company’s “business brands,” including BNET and MoneyWatch. Greg Mason, who was running the business group, now oversees the whole thing. But CBS says it doesn’t have any other shake-ups planned for its digital division.

Oh, Snow Leopard Frees Up Disk Space All Right

John Paczkowski in News on October 13, 2009 at 9:00 am PT

Apple has finally acknowledged that a bug in its new Snow Leopard operating system can, on rare occasions, result in a catastrophic loss of data. The glitch, which first surfaced in support forums in early September, is triggered by logging in and out of a guest account and wipes the main user account of all data. Clearly, this is not what Apple meant when it claimed the OS would free up as much as seven gigs of space upon installation.

Gates on Chrome OS: Nothing to See Here. Move Along…

John Paczkowski in News on July 15, 2009 at 8:54 am PT

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is finally having his say on Google’s wonderfully overblown Chrome OS announcement. His take: It’s just another Linux distro.

Like Snowflakes, No Two myTouch 3Gs Alike…

John Paczkowski in News on June 22, 2009 at 12:00 pm PT

In a summer of handset debuts that already includes the Palm Pre, Apple’s iPhone 3GS, and soon, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Tour 9630, add one more: The myTouch 3G, T-Mobile’s second Google Android phone. The carrier officially introduced the device today and said customers can begin reserving it on July 8.

Arianna Huffington Talks About New Managing Editor Singh!

Kara Swisher in News on April 28, 2009 at 5:12 pm PT

While in Los Angeles today at the AlwaysOn OnHollywood conference, BoomTown ran smack into blogging empress Arianna Huffington. She was there to give a speech called “Video Killed the Radio Star…But Can the Web Actually Save Journalism?” Her answer was a decided yes, especially with great journalists working online, such as the new managing editor of the Huffington Post the mega-blog has just hired. That would be former CNET Networks Editor-in-Chief Jai Singh, who quit the company last year after a dozen-year run.

New From Activision: Guitar Hero III–World Recession

John Paczkowski in News on December 12, 2008 at 5:35 am PT

In a month when some 533,000 jobs were lost nationwide, Americans bought an astonishing amount of videogame paraphernalia–$2.91 billion worth, according to market research outfit NPD Group. That’s a 10 percent increase over November 2007. Said NPD analyst Anita Frazier, “With $16 billion realized for the year so far through November, the industry is still on pace to achieve total year revenue of $22 billion in the U.S.”

CBS Interactive/CNET Re-Org: The Complete Memo

Peter Kafka in Media on December 11, 2008 at 4:37 pm PT

CBS paid $1.8 billion for CNET last summer, and today it is dealing with the consequences: A re-org and layoffs. CBS execs won’t release a total for the number of people fired, so news will be coming out in piecemeal fashion for some time. In the meantime, here’s CBS Interactive’s new corporate structure, detailed in an internal memo distributed late today.