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Privacy Experts Weigh In on Whether There Is a Cure for "Creepy" (Video)

Tricia Duryee — Tue, 22 May 2012 23:55:43 +0000

Sometimes the Internet is a creepy place.

There are identity thieves, stalkers and people generally trying to take advantage of you.

At least that was one of the things that I took away from a privacy conference last week in Seattle, where the word “creepy” slipped into the conversation as a description of everything from location-based services to more cutting edge Internet businesses.

But advocates argued that the cure for creepy was to make services relevant and useful — not spammy and invasive. In other words, consumers are willing to share their information — age, gender, location — if there’s a benefit to them.

I moderated a panel titled “Building Trust in the Sharing Economy,” which addressed identity issues as people become more comfortable using the Internet to find babysitters, rent out their apartments or lend their car to strangers.

In those cases, honest people typically don’t mind sharing information about themselves in order to be considered a trustworthy consumer or provider. It’s a red flag if they don’t.

Sonny Singh, the VP of sales and business development at Jumio, said it’s not creepy when you show your driver’s license to Hertz when you’re renting a car or to a hotel when you’re checking in. That’s why it shouldn’t be viewed as strange when you use sharing services like Airbnb or RelayRides.

But he said, instead, “they are assuming from your Facebook profile that you are who you say you are.”

Jumio is developing technology that allows users to verify their identity by entering their credit card and driver’s license information using a webcam or camera phone.

Participants in the panel (from left to right in the picture) are: Tricia Duryee, AllThingsD; Drummond Reed, founder, Connect.me; Sam Rosen, co-founder, Scaffold; Xin Chung, CEO and founder, Trustcloud; and Singh.

Here’s a video of the whole discussion, but you can skip to around the 26-minute mark to hear the whole discussion on “creepy.”

Flat-Screen TV Prices: Anything but Flat

Lauren Goode — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:35:03 +0000

If you bought a new television during the first four months of this year, you may have paid more than you originally budgeted for.

That’s according to the latest TV Tracker report from IHS iSuppli, which eyes the prices and specifications of TV sets in the U.S. market.

Prices of flat-panel TVs climbed an average of $78 between December and the end of April, the report says, from an average cost of $1,119 — the largest increase during any four-month period in the U.S. TV market over the past year.

Last month, average pricing for U.S. flat-panel televisions, including LCD and plasma sets, reached $1,248, and average prices of 3-D LCD TVs in April rose 3 percent to $2,492.

The price surge contradicts reports from late last year that suggested TV prices could drop in the first half of this year.

“LED-backlit LCD panel prices will likely continue falling in 2012, but at a much slower pace than in the second half of 2011, which will slow retail price erosion,” NPD DisplaySearch said.

Part of the reason for the price surge: Features. The report notes that high-end features like Internet connectivity in “smart” TVs and LED screens have contributed to an 11.4 percent climb in flat-panel prices since December 2011.

Even if consumers weren’t actively looking to buy a fancy TV with all the bells and whistles — because as I noted during the Consumer Electronics Show this past January, some features like 3-D are taking a backseat, and consumers have been somewhat slow to adopt this technology — they may have been persuaded to buy something more expensive.

Retailers have been shifting their strategies and looking to “upsell” customers, iSuppli says.

“Retailers are working to convince buyers to move up to either a larger-sized TV or to one using LED-backlit panels,” the report says, noting that the cost of upgrading to a bigger-screen TV has been greater than the upgrade cost of going with the same-sized screen, but in LED. “The larger price premium for upgrading to a bigger TV size indicates the market was aware that buyers were willing to shell out more money to obtain larger-sized sets over a similar-sized TV model with LED backlighting.”

For consumers that have held off but are still in the market for a new TV, it’s not all bad news: In the second quarter of the year, sellers are expected to close the price gap between certain features, to maybe a 10 percent premium per feature. Which means some buyers might be able to have their big-screen smart TV and eat their 3-D LED, too.

(Photo courtesy of Flickr/Best Buy CA)

More D10 Speakers: Ellison, Meeker, Myhrvold, Along With Pixar and Visa!

Kara Swisher — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 21:49:26 +0000

A month ago, I posted an initial list of speakers for the 10th D: All Things Digital conference.

After a decade, the event — which is held in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., just south of Los Angeles, at the end of May — has attracted another amazing group of speakers, including: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; serial entrepreneur Sean Parker, who will appear with Spotify co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek; Zynga founder and CEO Mark Pincus; Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz; LinkedIn Chairman and VC Reid Hoffman, who will appear with the social business site’s CEO Jeff Weiner; and Skype CEO Tony Bates.

Now, here’s another group of stellar speakers we’ve added to the programming lineup (and there are still even more big names to come in the weeks ahead): Oracle CEO Larry Ellison; former tech analyst superstar and now VC Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins; Intellectual Ventures’ Nathan Myhrvold; Pixar co-founder and Disney animation head Dr. Ed Catmull; and Visa President John Partridge.

Larry Ellison, CEO and founder of the enterprise giant Oracle, needs little introduction, as one of tech’s highest profile figures and a true Silicon Valley icon. Frankly, I think the short bio that’s on Oracle’s Web site says it all: “Larry Ellison has been CEO of Oracle Corporation since he founded the company in 1977. He also races sailboats, flies planes, and plays tennis and guitar.” There will be a lot to talk about with the voluble and always entertaining exec — who appeared at the D conference once before many years ago — from the current state of the tech industry to insights to where it’s all going. (In addition, Ellison has agreed to appear on a panel we are doing as a tribute to his close friend, Apple’s former CEO Steve Jobs.)

Another well-known tech figure is Meeker, who is now a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, having joined the storied venture capital firm in early 2011. She focuses there on investments in its digital practice and via KP’s Digital Growth Fund, working with companies such as Spotify, Jawbone and One King’s Lane. But Meeker is perhaps best known for her long stint — 1991 to 2010 — as a star Internet research analyst at Morgan Stanley, where she brought many of the Internet’s great companies to the attention of Wall Street and beyond. She also wrote a series of groundbreaking reports on the landscape. That includes her annual “State of the Internet,” which Meeker will debut this year at the conference in an extended demo of her always riveting Internet trends presentation.

Nathan Myhrvold is also a tech legend, having worked for 14 years as chief strategist and CTO of Microsoft. But, instead of retiring, the avid inventor decided to focus on patents, founding and leading a controversial company called Intellectual Ventures, which buys them up and licenses them out (or sues if it doesn’t sell). With all the mishegas around patents right now, it’s a good time to have Myhrvold back to explain it all and perhaps to take some of the blame for the explosion in intellectual property lawsuits. (Myhrvold also co-authored a cookbook, “Modernist Cuisine,” so we hope we will also get some sort of futuristic cooking demo. Perhaps, Patently Delicious Flan?)

Speaking of tasty, the animation from Pixar over the years has been just that and it’s been one of Disney’s greatest acquisitions. Given how much Pixar has contributed to animation technology, we are glad to finally get Dr. Ed Catmull onstage. As co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios and president of Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, he will discuss where entertainment and technology are intersecting and where they are not. Catmull is a geek’s geek in the industry — having also founded the computer graphics laboratory at the New York Institute of Technology, the computer division of Lucasfilm, as well as Pixar, which he did with chief creative officer John Lasseter. Get ready to talk about image compositing, motion blur, subdivision surfaces, cloth simulation and rendering techniques, texture mapping and the z-buffer. Also, Catmull’s five Academy Awards.

Lastly, it is perfect timing for bringing on John Partridge, president of Visa. With swirling issues around online identity theft, digital privacy, the future of money and the rise of upstart competitors such as Square, Partridge has his hands full at the credit card giant. One of the most neglected arenas in tech, the way we manage payments is perhaps the biggest story of the next era, especially as it relates to mobile and the rise of smartphones as all-purpose devices.

Corning Looks to Recreate the Viral Magic With New Video About Glass

Lauren Goode — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:02:35 +0000

One would hardly think a video about glass would go viral.

But that’s what happened a year ago, when upstate New York-based Corning Inc., maker of optical fiber, Pyrex and the ultra-thin chemically strengthened glass used in many newer tablets and smartphones, posted a slickly produced marketing video on YouTube.

The five-and-a-half minute spot gave more than 17 million viewers a futuristic glimpse at the ways glass could be used in day-to-day life, from tablet screens to home appliances to car dashboards to bus-stop poster panels. The video shows a shiny happy family interacting with the touch-friendly surfaces in a world that I can only guess has flawless, perpetual Internet connectivity.

Now, Corning is looking to recreate some of that viral magic with a sequel video, aptly named A Day Made of Glass … 2!

It’s not remarkably different from the original video. There are two versions of the sequel; one with a narrator, and another without all the explanatory dialogue.

The sequel features the same family, but takes the scenario a few steps further — for example, tablets are now present everywhere, from the bedroom to the classroom, and the neurosurgeon dad is using antimicrobial glass in the operating room, as well as large-panel, fiber-optic glass displays to communicate via video chat with fellow doctors in China.

Despite the fact that large displays play a prominent role in the videos, Corning’s chief financial officer, Jim Flaws, said that large-screen displays are still too expensive for the masses, and that the company sees smartphones and tablets as the fastest-growing area for Corning in the near term. Flaws also said we can expect to see more glass in smaller feature phones, not just in smartphones.

He reaffirmed that Corning is forecasting $10 billion in sales for 2014; last year, the company hit record annual sales of $7.9 billion.

Corning’s Gorilla Glass is currently used in more than 575 consumer-tech product models across 30 major brands, totaling more than 500 million units worldwide. While it’s unclear whether Apple’s latest iPhone and iPad displays are made using Gorilla Glass, Corning was tapped to supply its specialty glass for the original iPhone (which you can read more about in this New York Times story about Apple’s supply chain in China).

Recently, Corning unveiled a new version of its Gorilla Glass that is 20 percent thinner than the original glass.

For your viewing pleasure, the new Corning video is below:

And in other glass-related news — because it’s a slow Friday, so far — ScienceNOW says that researchers have accidentally created the world’s thinnest pane of glass, measuring just three atoms thick.

The State of Social Sharing With Fred Wilson, Roger McNamee and More (Video)

Kara Swisher — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:51:22 +0000

Here’s a panel I did last week at the Privacy Identity Innovation conference on Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley.

The panel was called “Social Sharing and the Data-Driven Economy.” And while that sounds a little dry, it was a lively session that included: Jim Adler, Chief Privacy Officer and GM, Data Systems at Intelius; David Glazer, director of engineering for Google+; Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners; and Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures.

All have deep experience in the social networking space and insights into its implications, so it’s a good video to watch if you’re interested in where it’s all going.

Enjoy:

Social Sharing and the Data-Driven Economy from Marc Licciardi on Vimeo.

Tech Is Glamour-ous: Mag Hosts Panel on Women in Tech (Video)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:03:26 +0000

Earlier this week, I flew to New York to moderate a panel on women in tech for Glamour, part of an article I did for the magazine’s recent issue.

As loyal readers know, I now and then get a bee in my bonnet about the issue of gender imbalance in tech. As in: Too many dudes and not enough ladies in key jobs.

So, along with the piece, there was also an event to talk about it all, which was held at the Times Square HQ of Glamour’s publisher, Condé Nast.

My panel included women execs from high-profile tech companies, including: Stacy Brown-Philpot, director of Google-owned and operated properties; Julie Larson-Green, corporate VP of program management for Windows at Microsoft; Kati London, director of product for Zynga; and Hilary Mason, chief scientist at Bitly.

My video interviews with them are below, as well as another of the whole session:

[ See post to watch video ]

Final AsiaD Speakers: Apple's Phil Schiller and Former VP Al Gore

Kara Swisher — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:15:32 +0000

And then there was Schiller and Gore.

That would be Apple’s SVP of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller and former Vice President Al Gore, who round out the stellar list of speakers at our upcoming AsiaD conference.

Taking place from Oct. 19 to 21 in Hong Kong, the lineup is already impressive, with a mix of speakers from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, as well as Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

The previously announced speakers include: Alibaba Group’s Jack Ma; Google Android head Andy Rubin; Twitter inventor and product guru, as well as Square co-founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey; Nvidia founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang; Asus Chairman Jonney Shih; Sony president and second-in-command Kazuo “Kaz” Hirai; Google+ guru Bradley Horowitz; Hollywood big shot Peter Chernin; Huawei’s North American R&D head John Roese; Microsoft’s Windows Phone head Andy Lees; and a panel of Silicon Valley start-up stars — Joyus’ Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, SurveyMonkey’s Dave Goldberg and Airbnb’s Brian Chesky; Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and Asia head Rose Tsou; LivingSocial’s Tim O’Shaughnessy, along with founders of two of its Asian units, Daniel Shin and Paul Srivorakul; Samsung mobile head Dr. Won-Pyo Hong; HTC CEO Peter Chou, who replaces Chairwoman Cher Wang.

Schiller, who reports to Apple’s CEO Tim Cook (and before that, Steve Jobs) is a member of the executive team of the tech icon, where he has worked for 17 years. He is responsible for a swath of Apple’s outward-facing businesses, including product marketing, developer relations and business marketing.

Today, in fact, he was onstage at Apple’s iPhone event, outlining some of its new product offerings. In addition, Apple just opened its first retail store in Hong Kong.

Gore, who had a memorable interview at the fourth D: All Things Digital conference in 2006, needs little introduction. The former VP and Nobel Peace Prize winner is now chairman of Current TV and also continues as a prominent environmental activist.

Gore is on the board of Apple, while also being a senior adviser to Google, which is a neat trick. At the same time, he is a partner in the famed Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins, and co-founder and chairman of Generation Investment Management, a partnership that is focused on sustainable investing.

And, as most people know, he knows a thing or two about the Internet.

Walt Mossberg and I could not think of two better people to add to the lineup we have for AsiaD, which has very few seats left.

See you in China in two weeks!

Even More AsiaD Speakers: Yahoo's Yang, HTC's Wang, Samsung's Hong and More!

Kara Swisher — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 05:08:36 +0000

With AsiaD just a little over a month away, Walt Mossberg and I are adding even more speakers to the list, for what we hope will be an awesome event in Hong Kong.

Taking place from Oct. 19 to 21, the conference lineup is already impressive, with a mix of speakers from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, as well as Silicon Valley and more.

The previously announced speakers include: Alibaba’s Jack Ma; Google Android head Andy Rubin; Twitter inventor and product guru, as well as Square co-founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey; Nvidia founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang; Asus Chairman Jonney Shih; Sony president and second-in-command Kazuo “Kaz” Hirai; Google+ guru Bradley Horowitz; Hollywood big shot Peter Chernin; Huawei’s North American R&D head John Roese; Microsoft’s Windows Phone head Andy Lees; and a panel of start-up stars — Joyus’ Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, SurveyMonkey’s Dave Goldberg and Airbnb’s Brian Chesky.

Now, to add to the kitty:

Yahoo co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang, who will appear with the Internet giant’s Asia head Rose Tsou. For all of the noise around the company these days, Yahoo has a huge footprint in the region, maintains a big e-commerce business there and holds massive stakes in key firms, such as Yahoo Japan and China’s Alibaba. One of Yahoo’s first big investments came from Asian investor Masa Son, in fact, way back when.

Also on deck is LivingSocial’s CEO and co-founder Tim O’Shaughnessy, who will appear with Daniel Shin, the CEO and co-founder of South Korea’s Ticket Monster, which the daily deals site just bought as part of its aggressive move into Asia. Competing there with its U.S. rival Groupon, as well as a myriad of local social buying services, the market is a tough one.

Because of Samsung’s increasing importance as a global player in smartphones and tablets, we thought it was important to have Dr. Won-Pyo Hong. He heads global product strategy for Samsung’s mobile business, which has surged in the past year to make the Korean tech giant a leader in Android-based phones and tablets, and a significant challenger to Apple.

Also key in the mobile arena is Cher Wang, the chairwoman of three Taiwan companies, including HTC, the important and innovative handset and tablet maker which has been a key player in Android’s success story. But just this week she talked about the possibility of HTC buying an operating system, which would further strengthen its hand in the competitive market.

That’s it for now, but we will have more big names to come, as well as some pretty cool demos we will be putting onstage at AsiaD. So stay tuned.

Viral Video: Common Sense Media's Kids' Online Privacy Panel

Kara Swisher — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 07:47:48 +0000

On Wednesday, I moderated a panel for Common Sense Media about online privacy, with a focus on the impact on children.

It was a lively talk at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley, with a most excellent panel, so please check out this worthy and important issue:

Let's Play Word Association With Tech Moguls!

Kara Swisher — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:06:36 +0000

Earlier this year, I moderated a panel of tech leaders from the U.S. and Europe, at the opening of the DLD conference in Munich.

To get things going, I used that old trick of word association, channeling a technique perfected –aptly, for the location — by Sigmund Freud.

The panelists — who included Google’s Nikesh Arora, LinkedIn Chairman and investor Reid Hoffman and Accel Partner’s Jim Breyer — had to give lightning observations on Facebook, Google, Apple’s Steve Jobs, Nokia, New Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch and smartphones.

The results were very interesting and very different, as you will see here below in a chart of it, posted recently by DLD on its Facebook page (click on the image to make it larger):

And here is a digital version of its whole DLD book that the chart was in:

Open publication – Free publishing – More book

An Unlikely Pair (Me and Glamour Magazine, That Is) Tackle Women in Tech Conundrum This Fall

Kara Swisher — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:01:38 +0000

As readers of mine know, I write a semi-ranty post now and again about the lack of women in high-level tech jobs and on the boards of its major companies.

While things are a lot better in the digital industry than, say, in meat-packing, it is still a slow slog to equality in both power and influence, even with ever more enlightened male tech leaders.

Many years ago, for example, I posted a piece, titled “The Men and (No) Women Facebook of Facebook Management” There were none in the high echelons of the social networking start-up at the time.

More recently, I wrote a piece — “The Men and No Women of Web 2.0 Boards (BoomTown’s Talking to You: Twitter, Facebook, Zynga, Groupon and Foursquare)” — about how all the often touchy-feely men entrepreneurs of the hottest Web 2.0 companies had a glaring problem.

While most of them have women as a majority of their customers, they could not seem to find even one qualified woman for any of their boards.

This makes it a struggle even in programming our D: All Things Digital conferences. We have featured almost every significant female tech exec we could — from eBay’s Meg Whitman to Hewlett-Packard’s Carly Fiorina to Yahoo’s Sue Decker and, later, Carol Bartz to Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg to this year’s amazing DARPA head Dr. Regina Dugan.

But it is still definitely not enough and a failing we think about improving all the time.

I could go on — and I am going to go on even more this fall in the pages of Glamour magazine, which has asked me to write an essay on where all the women in tech are and what is their status today and in the future.

I will also be part of what I hope will be a provocative panel, moderated by Glamour editor-in-chief Cindi Leive, in New York City on October 11.

The panel, said Glamour, “will ask where all the women are and why don’t we see more of them — and tell why the next Mark Zuckerberg should be a ‘Marcia.’”

I am not so sanguine that that will occur anytime soon, but it will be good to talk about this important issue. Diversity is at the heart of true innovation and more of it is needed for tech to thrive in the coming years.

I will also be helping select the panelists for the Glamour event and would welcome any suggestions, especially some ideas that are not typical.

Until then, here’s the impressive Dugan at D9 last week, as well as a video of the movie trailer for 1995′s “Hackers,” in which Angelina Jolie plays a hard-charging techie who is her mostly dude colleagues’ equal.

[ See post to watch video ]

Winklevii: How Can We Miss You If You Won't Go Away? (Plus the Full Court Ruling)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 18:27:01 +0000

It seems Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the Don Quixote twins of the digital age, have tilted at yet another legal windmill unsuccessfully.

So now, after losing another court challenge to overturn a previous court challenge, they’ll have to settle for $65 million.

Actually, $100 million, which is how much shares in Facebook have appreciated since the pair and also Divya Narendra settled with the social networking giant.

Said the ruling from the U.S. Circuit of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in part:

The Winklevosses are not the first parties bested by a competitor who then seek to gain through litigation what they were unable to achieve in the marketplace. And the courts might have obliged, had the Winklevosses not settled their dispute and signed a release of all claims against Facebook. With the help of a team of lawyers and a financial advisor, they made a deal that appears quite favorable in light of recent market activity. For whatever reason, they now want to back out. Like the district court, we see no basis for allowing them to do so. At some point, litigation must come to an end. That point has now been reached.

The end? Say it ain’t so! BoomTown, for one, will miss those big lugs.

Not so much Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, especially since the pair allege the tech wunderkind stole the idea for the start-up while a student at Harvard University.

After much legal mishegas, they got $20 million and 1.25 million shares at a price of $8.88 each.

And that’s more than enough, said court to the the Winklevii–it’s their eternal nickname in Silicon Valley now–and they can’t back out of a settlement they made in 2004.

As for the specifics, the three-judge panel struck down every Winklevoss argument:

- They said the terms of the Facebook deal introduced after mediation were typical.

- They said Winklevii should have been sophisticated enough to understand valuation.

- They said Winklevii couldn’t use the sealed mediation settlement documents to argue their case.

It’s true, but it’s also sad to see it all over, since all the litigiousness between Zuckerberg and the Olympic rowing brothers has been so dramatic that it was the subject of the almost Oscar-winning movie, “The Social Network.”

But maybe they can go to the Supreme Court! One can dream!

And with their latest loss and all the Google machinating against Facebook, who’s up for a sequel: “Geek Wars: The Empire and the Vii Strike Back.”

In a statement, Colin Stretch, deputy general counsel of Facebook said: “We appreciate the Ninth Circuit’s careful consideration of this case and are pleased the court has ruled in Facebook’s favor.”

Here’s the full ruling:

08-16745

It's Hard to Cut the Charging Cords

Katherine Boehret — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:24:07 +0000

What if there was a product that made it easy to charge all your household mobile devices and it used just a single cord to do it?

Charging pads are designed to do just that. The WildCharge Pad from PureEnergy Solutions Inc., one of the first charging pads, seemed revolutionary when it came out three years ago. It’s a small, thin pad covered in panels that conduct electricity. It plugs into the wall, and devices can be casually dropped onto it so they can start juicing up.

[ See post to watch video ]

Yet, here we are still fumbling around to find the right charging cord to plug into our phones, iPads, digital cameras and portable music players. This week, I decided to investigate why charging pads haven’t caught on with consumers.

One reason is that people may not want to buy a charging accessory when gadgets come with their own cords. Also, for devices to work with these charging surfaces, they must have special backs or cases that correspond with the pad. These can change the look of a device, making them bulky.

However, manufacturers of smart phones and other gadgets are starting to incorporate the technology behind charging pads at the design level so they aren’t so obtuse. Palm Inc., now a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard, designed a $20 (after instant rebate) accessory called the Touchstone that works as a magnetic charging dock for its Pre smart phones. A special backing still must be swapped out for the Pre’s regular back, but this looks just like the phone’s regular backing. And last week, when H-P unveiled its TouchPad tablet, due out this summer, the company confirmed this device would also work with a Touchstone charger.

Energizer’s Inductive Charger

But why isn’t there one charging pad that works with several different gadgets and doesn’t require an unattractive sleeve? Of the different charging technologies, there isn’t one that has gained a toehold.

A group called the Wireless Power Consortium—which includes a host of different companies like smart-phone makers, wireless carriers and TV makers—created what it intends to be an international standard for interoperable wireless charging, called Qi (pronounced “chee”). The WPC hopes manufacturers will eventually make devices that are Qi compliant so they all work with the same charging pad and don’t require a sleeve, since the technology would be built in. Products using this charging standard would have a Qi logo on their packaging. Compared with the current situation of using different chargers for each device, Qi sounds heavenly.

Though the WPC includes members like Samsung, LG Electronics, Verizon Wireless and Motorola, none of the companies has introduced a Qi-compliant product. When I asked a Motorola spokeswoman if it had plans to use the Qi standard in its products, she would only say that the company is evaluating the technology for future devices. Likewise for BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd., a WPC member. A spokeswoman said she couldn’t comment on future product plans.

In September, another trade group, the Consumer Electronics Association, created a panel to sort through various opinions on wireless power technical standards. The sole aim of the group is to collect and share information with manufacturers. This group is examining five issues that include: nomenclature; safety; radio-frequency emissions and efficiency; and standby measurement. A CEA spokeswoman said the panel and the WPC share many of the same members and that the panel plans to share information on a charging standard.

Duracell’s myGrid charging pad, which uses the conductive charging technology.

There are two types of charging technology and it isn’t clear yet which one will become the standard. The Qi standard involves a technology called inductive charging, while other companies, like PureEnergy Solutions, use a conductive charging technology.

One big difference is that inductive chargers don’t require metal-on-metal connections to charge a device like conductive chargers do. This means inductive charging will work through lots of different materials, including wood, plastic or leather. This could allow pads to be built into different surfaces, such as airplane trays and office furniture. Late last year, the first Qi-enabled wireless charging station was installed at Windsor International Airport in Ontario.

One product that is Qi compliant is Energizer’s $89 Inductive Charger (http://energizer.com/inductive), but this still requires sleeves for devices. The sleeves cost $35 each and are available for BlackBerrys, the iPhone 3G or 3GS and iPhone 4. Late this summer, Energizer will introduce a universal adapter with micro- and mini-USB compatibility.

Powermat USA’s $60 Wireless Charging System for the iPhone 4 (powermat.com) uses a slightly different technology that requires devices to rest on charging pads in specific positions.

On the conductive front, PureEnergy Solutions has licensed its WildCharge Technology to other companies. All licensees feature a WildCharge Mark of Interoperability on their products so consumers know which products are compatible with the WildCharge charging pad.

Duracell uses this technology in its MyGrid line of products (http://3.ly/A7Yh), including the $85 iPhone Starter Kit and a $90 cellphone starter kit. RadioShack will use WildCharge Technology in its $50 Enercell Charging Pad (http://3.ly/6gcY), which will be available in June, and skins for devices that charge on these pads will cost about $30 each.

In the future, hopefully, one of these committees will figure out which technology is best to establish one standard that saves people from using a rat’s nest of power cords.

Write to Katherine Boehret at mossbergsolution@wsj.com

Apple Investing in Toshiba LCD Plant

John Paczkowski — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:00:35 +0000

Come 2011, Toshiba will begin construction of a new LCD panel factory in Ishikawa, one whose output is intended largely for the iPhone. Reportedly underwriting a portion of its $1.19 billion cost: Apple, which is evidently looking for a bit more control over its component sources as demand for LCD screens grows with the proliferation of touchscreen smartphones.

Apple has not yet responded to a request for comment.

Spotify's Daniel Ek Splashes Down at D: Dive Into Mobile

Kara Swisher — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:58:15 +0000

Next week, we’ll be putting on our first brand extension of the highly successful D: All Things Digital conference with D: Dive Into Mobile.

And we’ve just added an exciting new speaker to the already top-drawer list: Daniel Ek, co-founder and CEO of Spotify.

For those living under a rock, Ek (pictured here with co-founder Martin Lorentzon) leads one of the most exciting music services on the Web right now.

In fact, the Swedish entrepreneur is shaking up how and where people listen to and consume music.

As MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka–who will be interviewing Ek onstage–recently wrote of Spotify’s efforts to bring its hugely popular (and legal) streaming offering to the U.S. market:

In Europe, where Spotify has been a very big success, listeners can stream an unlimited amount of music, on demand, without ever paying a cent. But in the U.S., rival streaming services like Rhapsody, MOG and Napster generally only offer a very brief trial period of a few days before requiring that a pay wall go up.

For the past two years, Spotify has insisted that free, unlimited streaming is the only way the service will work, because that’s Spotify’s most effective marketing technique. Subscribers who do pay up get benefits like ad-free music, and the ability to port their songs to mobile devices like iPhones.

But the labels, most notably Warner Music Group, have insisted that unlimited free streams only serve to strip away their product’s remaining value–if you can listen for free on Spotify, why would you ever buy another CD or iTunes single?

The whole mobile music space is a riveting one to dive into, of course, and we think Ek is the perfect person to help us do so.

Ek will appear Tuesday morning, December 6, but D: Dive Into Mobile opens on Monday, December 6, with an evening onstage interview with Google Android majordomo Andy Rubin.

The new conference represents the very first brand extension of our D: All Things Digital conference, now in its ninth year of grilling the big names in tech and media to sold-out analog audiences and scores more on the Web.

And, as always, there will be no PowerPoints, no panels and definitely no pontificating.

What there will be are unrehearsed, unscripted and unexpected interviews with top players, taking a big-picture view of the broader digital landscape.

But, unlike big D, D: Dive Into Mobile is topic-focused, drilling down deeply into the ubiquity of mobile technology and devices, and its implications for brands, organizations and consumers worldwide.

Offering a more intimate and focused conference setting, D: Dive Into Mobile will feature other industry heavyweights, including: Dan Hesse, President and CEO of Sprint Nextel; Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of Research in Motion; Mike McCue, CEO of Flipboard; Joe Belfiore, Vice President of Windows Phone Program Management at Microsoft; Jon Rubinstein of Palm, now owned by Hewlett-Packard; Foursquare CEO and co-founder Dennis Crowley; Google Ad Products Management head Susan Wojcicki; and AT&T Emerging Devices President Glenn Lurie.

D: Dive Into Mobile will be held at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco and, as usual, we’ll be liveblogging the whole thing and also posting highlight videos.

Along with Walt Mossberg, Kafka and I, Mossberg Solution’s Katherine Boehret will be conducting the interviews.

You can sign up here for D: Dive Into Mobile.

Google's Android Kingpin Andy Rubin Will Open D: Dive Into Mobile (Plus, One More Surprise!)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:01:02 +0000

While everyone is considering whether to brine or deep-fry the turkey this week, All Things Digital HQ will be busy with our preparations for D: Dive Into Mobile.

That includes setting the program, which takes place in two weeks and will open with an evening interview with Google’s Andy Rubin (pictured here).

As the search giant’s mobile chief and principal force and creator of its Android operating system, Rubin is responsible for the ongoing development of the major rival to the Apple iPhone.

Many have challenged Android, including a recent jab from Apple CEO Steve Jobs, questioning its overall experience and whether or not it’s actually open.

Nonetheless, Rubin and Android have proven to be a disruptive and fast-growing force in the mobile space, aiming for dominance akin to Microsoft’s on the desktop.

Ironic? Yes.

Rubin started as an engineer at Apple and later worked at General Magic, where he participated in developing Magic Cap, an operating system and interface for handheld devices. When Magic Cap failed, Rubin joined Artemis Research, founded by Steve Perlman, which became WebTV and was eventually acquired by Microsoft.

After several years, Rubin left to found another smartphone effort called Danger, which was also acquired by Microsoft, in 2008.

Disillusionment with his ouster as CEO of Danger motivated him to found Android, which was later acquired by Google.

Now, it seems Rubin is poised to make good on his first efforts at making a truly smart smartphone ubiquitous.

And he is only one of many of the industry heavyweight speakers at D: Dive Into Mobile, among them: Dan Hesse, president and CEO of Sprint Nextel; Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of Research in Motion; Mike McCue, CEO of Flipboard; Joe Belfiore, vice president of Windows Phone Program Management at Microsoft; Jon Rubinstein of Palm, now owned by Hewlett-Packard; Foursquare CEO and co-founder Dennis Crowley; Google advertising czar Susan Wojcicki; and Glenn Lurie, president of Emerging Devices for AT&T.

Plus, there is also one more big speaker we’ll be announcing soon, so stay tuned.

D: Dive Into Mobile will be held at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco on December 6 and 7.

It represents the very first brand extension of our flagship D: All Things Digital conference, now in its ninth year of grilling the big names in tech and media to sold-out analog audiences and scores more on the Web.

And, as always, there will be no PowerPoints, no panels and definitely no pontificating. What there will be are unrehearsed, unscripted and unexpected interviews, where real news is often broken.

Along with Walt Mossberg and me, Mossberg Solution’s Katherine Boehret and MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka will be conducting the interviews.

As usual, we’ll be liveblogging the whole thing and also posting highlight videos.

But there’s nothing like being there, so you can sign up for the D: Dive Into Mobile conference here.

Check Out PARC's 40th Anniversary Doings

Kara Swisher — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:32:56 +0000

Recently, there was an event in Silicon Valley to celebrate the 40th anniversary of PARC, the pioneering research facility that birthed a lot of tech’s most potent innovations.

Ever heard of laser printing or Ethernet networking or the graphical user interface?

Yes, that and much more.

PARC, by the way, stands for Palo Alto Research Center and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox (XRX).

Here are some videos from the celebration, including an alumni panel, as well as predictions for 40 years hence:

PARC 40: Alumni perspectives

View more videos from PARC, a Xerox company.

PARC 40: Customer perspectives

View more videos from PARC, a Xerox company.

PARC 40: Employee perspectives

View more videos from PARC, a Xerox company.

PARC 40: Predictions for the next 40

View more videos from PARC, a Xerox company.

The Facebook Movie: Sorry, Mark–But Critics Like It, They Really Like It! (Plus the Taiwanesed Version!)

Kara Swisher — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 14:15:45 +0000

The Facebook movie is finally here, the reviews are in and–no surprise–the critics are raving.

After all, it was done by Hollywood pros director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin, who have apparently transformed the appalling badly penned and very fictional book “Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal” by Ben Mezrich into some bit of cinematic art.

But that’s not BoomTown talking, so here is a rundown of five reviews by top critics, as collected by the terrific Rotten Tomaties site (you can click on the links below for the full reviews):

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times:

“Smartly written by Aaron Sorkin, directed to within an inch of its life by David Fincher and anchored by a perfectly pitched performance by Jesse Eisenberg, ‘The Social Network’ is a barn-burner of a tale that unfolds at a splendid clip.”

Owen Glelbermann, Entertainment Weekly:

“‘The Social Network’ has everything you want in a thriller for the brain: Huge doses of ego and duplicity, corporate backstabbing, and some very layered performances.”

Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal:

“This account of Facebook’s founder, and of the website’s explosive growth, quickly lifts you to a state of exhilaration, and pretty much keeps you there for two hours.”

Bob Mondello, NPR:

“‘The Social Network’ is terrific entertainment–an unlikely thriller that makes business ethics, class distinctions and intellectual-property arguments sexy.”

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News:

“Weeks after seeing it, moments from it will haunt you.”

Hauntingly sexy is simply not the Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that I know or what most think of the powerful social networking site, but it seems to go on and on like that in the reviews, with every critic using the film to wax poetic about life in the digital age.

(Personally, I find all my life lessons in “The Terminator” series, but no one seems to grok my profound insight here.)

On Rotten Tomatoes, which you can see above, the movie got a 97 percent critics rating, although only an 81 percent audience vote. Still, only Ben Affleck’s “The Town” is as close.

In other words, Mark, even if it is trashing you as a person, what you represent seems to have inspired analog ecstasy and movie magic.

And for most film critics, it seems, a very happy ending.

I will be seeing “The Social Network” later today at a special screening in Silicon Valley, sponsored by Eastwick Communications, which will be followed by a panel discussion titled: “Trust, Privacy, and Ethics in the Facebook Age.”

I am the moderator, and the interviewees include M. Ryan Calo, director of the Consumer Privacy Project at Stanford Law School; Matt Cohler, one of Facebook’s earliest execs (where he remains a special advisor) and now a VC at Benchmark Capital; FutureWorks’ Brian Solis; and ReputationDefender CEO Michael Fertik.

Video TK, natch, although I am going more for wobbly, rather than exhilarating.

I certainly could not do much better than another genius version by Next Media Animation from Taiwan. While only in CGI, there is bathroom sex, beatings, peepholes and–say what?–a gay love triangle.

Really and truly–enjoy:

The Facebook Movie Is Here, the Critics Love It–So Let the Panels Begin!

Kara Swisher — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 12:16:03 +0000

The world of Facebook did not stop last Friday–although its unusual downtime was kind of spooky–when “The Social Network” made its debut in New York.

The much-anticipated movie opens wide this Friday for all to see what the hubbub is about.

And for everyone in Silicon Valley to debate, of course, grokking the film that looks askance at the origins of the powerful social networking site and especially its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

BoomTown will be doing so on Friday after a 2 pm screening sponsored by Eastwick Communications, which will be followed by a panel discussion titled: “Trust, Privacy, and Ethics in the Facebook Age.”

Panelists include M. Ryan Calo, director of the Consumer Privacy Project at Stanford Law School; Matt Cohler, one of Facebook’s earliest execs (where he remains a special advisor) and now a VC at Benchmark Capital; FutureWorks’ Brian Solis; and ReputationDefender CEO Michael Fertik.

It sounds very lofty, but I plan to be hopped up on Red Vines and Jujubes–so please send some suggestions for questions to ask the panel to @karaswisher on Twitter.

Until then, I leave you with this terrific picture below of Zuckerberg and Newark Mayor Cory Booker at a KIPP school there that was posted by Solis.

Frankly, I don’t give a fig about whether the timing of his $100 million donation to help reform education was or was not to burnish his image, after seeing the promise on the faces of these kids.

It is hopefully one of many more to come from the vast wealth Zuckerberg will have after Facebook goes public.

In fact, I’d like to know what the Winklevii did with their $65 million payout, other than flap their lantern jaws about how they needed more dough for creating exactly nothing.

Zuckerberg might deserve a lot of smacking around for serious issues related to how he runs Facebook now and in the future–and he surely is about to get a truckload related to the founding of the company.

But for the donation alone, let’s all try to drop our deep cynicism for just one moment–even as we all enjoy a movie at his expense too.

BoomTown Clarifies Ron Conway's Clarification of His Super Angel Fit (Plus Bin 38 Menu!)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:13:30 +0000

Now comes the backpedaling. Of course.

Today, well-known Silicon Valley angel investor Ron Conway sent a missive to his favorite missive publisher, TechCrunch.

It was a “clarification” of his earlier “leaked” email to Super Angels in which he lambasted them for a controversial dinner at Bin 38 in San Francisco.

At which one of his partners at SV Angel Partners was in attendance. At Conway’s insistence, as it turns out.

Oops.

Also in the say-what department, a blog post in TechCrunch today about how its TechCrunch Disrupt conference was not going to be all AngelGate read:

“The fact that some of them may or may not have had discussions that may or may not have been inappropriate is, in the end, a sidenote.”

BoomTown can’t mock that epic Silicon Valley statement any more than it does all on its own.

But, after the first decoding, here is the final one for Conway’s words, and then it’s time to leave this circus to the panel tomorrow:

Ron wrote: Last Thursday TechCrunch published a leaked email from me to some angel investors who attended the Bin 38 dinner.

I would like to clarify some confusion from that email.

David Lee, my partner at SV Angel did not want to go the Bin 38 dinner. We talked and then agreed that he should go.

David Lee shares the same passion and satisfaction as I do in helping entrepreneurs bring their innovation to fruition and that’s why we work together and I am proud to call him a close friend and partner.

This is the last time I am going to say anything about this topic since we must focus our attention back where it belongs…with the entrepreneurs and helping them build great companies!

Translation: Jazz hands!

And, as usual, MySpace’s Sean Percival does a great illo of the Super Angel menu at Bin 38, which I neglected to post last week:

BoomTown Talks Girl Geek at Facebook Hack Event

Kara Swisher — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 15:08:41 +0000

This Saturday, BoomTown gassed up the Mini and motored on down to Facebook’s newest building in Palo Alto, Calif., for a Developer Garage and Hackathon, which the social networking giant did in partnership with Girls in Tech.

The goal was to focus on women developers, although there were plenty of dudes in attendance, as per usual at any all-night nerd-off.

While there, event wrangler Randi Zuckerberg fobbed off to me a panel for lady geeks she was slated to moderate, which was a decidedly risky move on her part.

Here is the video of that panel, which included: Facebook Engineering Director Jocelyn Goldfein; Meebo co-founder Sandy Jen; Jennifer Pahlka, founder of Code for America; and Catherine Herdlick, a game producer for Electronic Arts (ERTS).

Natch, I also did a video of my own at the Silicon Valley event that features interviews with Zuckerberg, Facebook Engineering VP Mike Schroepfer, GIT Managing Director Dhana Pawar and Goldfein, which is also below:

[ See post to watch video ]

Kara Visits Google's I/O: The Attack of the Android Phones and Geek Social Dudes Too!

Kara Swisher — Fri, 21 May 2010 15:34:20 +0000

Here’s a video I did yesterday at the Google I/O developers conference in San Francisco.

I was there on the second day of the annual event to moderate a panel titled, “Where Is the Social Web Going Next,” with panelists from MySpace, LinkedIn, Microsoft (MSFT), Yahoo (YHOO), Twitter and, natch, Google (GOOG).

Essentially and as usual, as was the case at Twitter’s Chirp conference recently, it was me smacking around a bunch of geek dudes at a festival of geek dudes for the enjoyment of geek dudes.

This is BoomTown’s chosen snarky path!

We talked a lot about privacy–the big hot-button issue, of course, which is why we really should have had a Facebook geek dude on the panel too–in social networking, mobile and devices.

And here’s my video from I/O, including interviews with some of those geek dudes:

[ See post to watch video ]

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Buzzword Alert to All Geeks: Please Replace "Real-Time" Web With "Right-Time" Web STAT!

Kara Swisher — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 07:38:20 +0000

Earlier this week at Twitter’s Chirp conference, Venrock’s David Pakman seemed to strike a chord by coining a new buzzword that deserves to gain some level of acceptance.

On a panel BoomTown moderated, in answer to my question about what kinds of investments and trends he is looking for in the social networking space, Pakman said:

“The ‘right-time’ Web is more valuable in some cases than the real-time Web. Real-time data is only interesting when I’m actually looking for that information. There’s no service today that’s giving information when it’s really needed. If your company is doing that…I brought my checkbook.”

While the checkbook was a nice touch, Pakman is actually making a good point, as much as I hate the proclivity of techies to coin new and often silly terms to wow the general public.

But one of the key issues being raised of late about making all these status update data streams helpful is that they are super-useless 98 percent of the time, resembling a raging flooded river more than a way to navigate to any place that is actually useful.

Someone does have to significantly drop the signal-to-noise ratio on all this blather, cutting through to find the really valuable information we all know has to be there.

Until someone does, please enjoy the Mighty Diamonds, singing their classic song, “Right Time”:

What Shall BoomTown Ask the Twits–Oops, I Mean Twitter-Loving VCs–at Chirp Today?

Kara Swisher — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:21:08 +0000

Later today at Twitter’s Chirp conference in San Francisco, BoomTown is moderating a panel titled “Investing in the Ecosystem.”

Or as I like to call it, “How Do You VCs Come Up With Those Crazy Valuations: Magic 8 Ball? Ouiji Board? Darts?”

I have a choice group of dudes–of course, they are all dudes–for the panel, all of whom have invested in a range of start-ups, including Twitter.

They include: Polaris Ventures’ Mike Hirshland, Venrock’s David Pakman, Bijan Sabet of Spark Capital, and Benchmark Capital’s Peter Fenton.

Presumably, the group of venture capitalists will give the audience the 411 on what goes into finding, feeding and nurturing the many innovative start-ups that populate the Twitterverse.

That is, until you actually try to compete with Twitter or make some dough without its sanction, wherein all the nice Whos-down-in-Whoville sweetness of the folks who run Twitter turns into the backroom at the Bada Bing with Tony Soprano and the boys.

(You can see Twitter COO Dick Costolo here, in fact, giving us his best Don Corleone in this video interview with MediaMemo’s Peter Kafka.)

The tensions of late between Twitter and the many third-party developers circling it are perhaps going to add some frisson to the two-day event at the Palace of Fine Arts, which costs $469 to attend. Twitter also just announced its advertising platform plan.

The first day is all talk, from Costolo, Twitter CEO and co-founder Evan Williams, co-founder Biz Stone and others. The second day is 24-hour hackathon.

For those not there, Twitter will be streaming the event live with the help of Justin.tv.

And, of course, there will be tweets–lots and lots of tweets.

[Sticker image courtesy of Zazzle.com]

Tweet the People: Twitter VC Wilson and Federal CTO Chopra Talk Policy in D.C.

Kara Swisher — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:15:40 +0000

Ms. BoomTown went to Washington, D.C., this week to moderate a panel on the future of the digital arena for an event marking the 25th anniversary of the first .com domain.

Surprisingly, the panelists–Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson, Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and VeriSign (VRSN) CTO Ken Silva–did not talk about geo-location jet packs and augmented reality for everyone.

Instead, due to their proximity to pols and government bureaucrats, they went wonkish, talking a lot about open government, data-retention regulations and, in Wilson’s case, pondering the “privacy heist” of consumer information by Silicon Valley social networking hotshot Facebook.

Now, to be fair, Wilson is a big and early investor in rival Twitter, so he might have his bias.

But the conversation was a refreshing change from pointless discussions on location wars between Foursquare and Gowalla and reporting-free speculation about whether MySpace is or is not for sale or will spin off or not.

In fact, it was almost erudite, except for the part about how the Federal Communications Commission gave me a giant paper-filled binder of the National Broadband Plan (more on that classic D.C. tree-killing move later!).

So that you too can get all federal, here’s a video I did with Wilson and Chopra, in which they talk tech policy:

[ See post to watch video ]