AllThingsD » production

Is It Time for Just-in-Time Data Centers?

Kevin Brown — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 21:16:58 +0000

The 1970s were a challenging time for automakers, especially in the U.S. The model that had worked so well for decades — building new, bigger models often focusing more on design than function and practicality — was being challenged as oil shocks and inflation took its toll on the American buyer.

In the midst of globally difficult economic times, the Japanese saw an opening. Taiichi Ohno, working for Toyota after World War II, saw inefficiencies in the American assembly line system, especially in the inventory and quality control systems. He pioneered a new system of production for the company, called “just-in-time.” The objectives were to introduce consistency in the production process and eliminate waste of all kinds, including overproduction, excess inventory, time (waiting for parts) and ineffective or defective products being produced. American supermarkets, ironically, held the answer for Ohno; they only restocked shelves with enough product to replace inventory that was sold to customers. In the just-in-time system, this translated into keeping about 24 hours’ worth of inventory in the factory, with parts being ordered and shipped on an as-needed basis.

The success of Toyota’s transformation is now well-known; it became a global company that would eventually surpass sales of GM, the world’s largest auto maker, in 2008. The just-in-time system pioneered by Toyota would be widely copied, with U.S. automakers implementing the new system in the 1980s, to varying levels of success.

Lessons for the Data Center

You may be asking what all of this fascinating automotive history has to do with data centers today, in 2013. The fact is, the data center industry is undergoing a transformation of its own. While the U.S., thankfully, hasn’t seen oil shocks on the scale of those experienced in the 1970s, it’s clear that the era of cheap energy is over, especially with increasing demand for energy supply in high-growth markets like China and India.

Rising energy prices and volatility mean that data centers can’t afford to operate the way that U.S. auto manufacturers did in the 1950s and 1960s. Traditionally built to accommodate future growth, wastefully inefficient data centers were built in previous decades with overcapacity in mind, in an era when energy was much cheaper and more readily available. Today, data center owners and managers face the challenges of legacy builds, with these facilities suffering from the same kind of waste that plagued the auto industry before lean manufacturing changed it. As James Glanz outlined last year in the New York Times story “Power, Pollution and the Internet,” the worst offenders not only use huge amounts of energy to power parts of data centers that aren’t used, but also contribute to pollution.

Just as gains in the speed of transportation made just-in-time a reality for the automotive industry in the 1970s, the data center industry’s transformation may be driven today by recent technology advances and supplemented with an overall recognition in the industry that the old way of powering and cooling data centers will no longer be ignored by the public nor economically advantageous for companies. These recent advances include:

The rise of readily available modular data center components, including Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPSs), cooling and power distribution systems. These components are the infrastructure that can efficiently and reliably power and cool expensive computing equipment. Prior to the availability of modular components, data centers were almost always custom-built, and because of this, they were almost always overprovisioned to accommodate future growth or spikes in demand.
The rise of standardized components in the data center, especially related to data center infrastructure. Part of the success of just-in-time was a recognition that relying on trusted suppliers to manufacture parts, so that the automaker could focus on its core competency of manufacturing the automobile, would actually bring about more reliable and better-performing products. Data center infrastructure is much the same — custom-built systems come with custom problems that take man-hours and money to fix. Standardized components are time-tested to be effective, reliable and predictable, with flaws having been driven out in the manufacturing and testing/validation process.
The availability of monitoring software that provides visibility into energy usage in the data center. The just-in-time system relies upon signals that would tell managers what the rate of demand for parts was, so that production could be scheduled accordingly. Similarly, advances in data center software and analytics today provide that kind of intelligence for data center managers by monitoring equipment usage and helping to plan for future needs through benchmarking, indicating in advance when capacity may need to be increased.

Standardization is the key to consistency in the data center, while modularity is the key to flexibility. Both characteristics are needed to respond effectively to changes in the IT environment that result from changing business needs. Modular components are pre-engineered and “plug and play,” so that they can evolve with a changing data center’s design over time. Because they are scalable, changeable, portable and swappable, they confer a speed of installation that is akin to the flexibility that most car owners get today when they need to replace or repair auto parts.

Benefits of a Just-in-Time Approach

When Toyota pioneered the just-in-time system, it also built an entire system that the company would adhere to outside of production that would contribute to its success. Part of the system was to cultivate a culture of continuous improvement where its people’s talents would be stimulated and performance would be maximized. To be sure, recent events such as the tsunami in 2011 affected global supply chains and devastated production and supply in Japan, which exposed vulnerabilities in the system. However, the success of the overall system over time, as evidenced by its proliferation into all types of manufacturing as well as other markets including business intelligence in recent years, serves as a testament to the substantial benefits that can be conferred through applying the overall principles of the system.

In the data center, this requires a new approach to thinking about designing and building new systems, one which promises substantial gains in operational efficiencies. Some of these include:

Outsourcing of non-core competencies. In the auto industry, this included logistical functions such as storage and distribution to third party providers. Modular data centers, effectively, have outsourced the headaches of production, configuration and installation to the manufacturer of the components. They are plug-and-play, making initial deployment and subsequent changes achievable without a great deal of custom work, and they are built in factories under strict quality control and engineered to deliver peak performance.
Reduced response time to business demands, again due to availability of standardized and modular components. Growth can be planned for in the initial design of the data center, without being deployed and operationalized, which means data centers are “right sized” — operating only with the computing power and infrastructure to fit needs today rather than anticipated needs in the future.
Improved customer satisfaction and better return on equity, due to the reliability of components as well as energy savings and reduced manual labor. Custom-built data centers can take years to achieve designed performance specifications with respect to measurements such as Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE, a measure of data center efficiency). Prefabricated modules come with design specifications that are verified in the factory before they are shipped.
Less downtime, as failures in modular components can be identified quickly and easily and replaced in little time, compared to disparate or custom engineered components.

Data centers today, in fact, are already taking advantage of modular data center builds. The Beneficial Financial Group, one of the oldest insurance companies in Utah, needed to add more power and rack space in its data center, with better monitoring and management capabilities and minimal downtime. If it bought a new system or a larger version of the existing system, it would have had to re-engineer the data center completely; instead, Beneficial chose a modular system that integrated power, cooling management and servers with a universal rack design. The installation was completed over a weekend, with no interruption to business, and forecasts estimate the company will gain an annual ROI of 74 percent with a payback period of ten months, due to maintenance and service savings and increased user productivity. In addition, because it can now add servers as the company grows, Beneficial has expanded its data center capability by 300 percent with room for future growth.

Toyota, which spearheaded the just-in-time model, was able to achieve unparalleled growth and eventual industry dominance in the years following its shift. It’s an example of how turning traditional thinking on its head was able to change the entire industry and spawn whole new industries and innovations. Data centers today face a fork in the road, but there is a unique opportunity to take advantage of gains in technology to respond and adapt, making sure they are built not only for the needs of today but for the unforeseen challenges that may come in the next few decades.

Kevin Brown is Vice President, Global Data Center Offer for Schneider Electric and is responsible for leading Schneider Electric’s portfolio strategy and leading innovation to respond to emerging data center industry trends. Kevin is an experienced industry professional in both the data center and HVAC industry with over 20 years of experience in various senior management roles including software and hardware development, sales and product management, and holds a BS in mechanical engineering from Cornell University.

Former MySpace and NFL Digital Exec Jeff Berman Tapped as President of Hollywood's BermanBraun

Kara Swisher — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 17:55:18 +0000

Longtime digital exec Jeff Berman is joining Hollywood production company BermanBraun as its first president.

Berman — who is no relation to BermanBraun co-founder Gail Berman — comes to the firm from the National Football League where he has been in charge of its Web, mobile, social and non-console gaming efforts. While there, he worked on several new initiatives, such as its multi-party video chat for Fantasy Football.

Several years before that, he was a top exec at social networking site Myspace, finally ending up as president of sales and marketing, where he was in charge of branded advertising, sales operations, entertainment, content and marketing. Efforts there by Berman included the now defunct Web-only series “Quarterlife,” which also had a very short life on a major network.

The Yale Law School grad was also on the board of Buddy Media, which was sold to Salesforce.com last year.

He’s an interesting person, then, for BermanBraun, which focuses on content across multiple screens, including big branded Web sites such as Wonderwall for Microsoft’s MSN and also more traditional entertainment shows. Its juicy-looking television series “Deception,” for example, is set to appear on NBC this week. It now has about 130 employees, mostly working at its Santa Monica, Calif., HQ.

“We needed an exceptional leader to manage the company,” said BermanBraun co-founder Lloyd Braun, who was once a top media exec at Yahoo. “And Jeff is someone who has skillsets in a whole bunch of areas and an emotional intelligence that is as important to what we do.”

Braun said Berman would initially focus on his area of expertise — digital — but that he would become more involved in the television and movie arenas over time.

BermanBraun — which considered raising funding last year — is at an interesting juncture in its development, trying to form a new kind of independent Hollywood media company that straddles analog and digital.

Berman said he was attracted to the opportunity there.

“I had a great job, since there is nothing bigger than the NFL,” he said in an interview yesterday. “But Lloyd and Gail have an incredible vision across platforms for entertainment.”

He added that content was just at the beginning of development online, but was finally poised to explode with the popularity of tablets, smartphones, interactive TV and other such devices, as well as social and e-commerce tools.

“The mind reels, there is so much that has happened and can happen,” said Berman. “I don’t know if there is a better time to be at such a place to create these new franchises — [BermanBraun] is a laboratory, where stuff is actually working.”

Yahoo TV and Omg! Head Moves to Young Hollywood

Kara Swisher — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 13:00:07 +0000

Young Hollywood, the high-profile next-gen digital media start-up, has hired a top Yahoo content exec, Liz Coughlin.

The Beverly Hills-based Young Hollywood named Coughlin SVP of business operations, overseeing new business initiatives and all digital operations.

At Yahoo for a decade, Coughlin was most recently in charge of omg!, one of the largest celebrity sites on the Internet, as well as Yahoo TV. She also worked on corporate strategy, partnerships and large events for the Silicon Valley Internet giant.

Previous to Yahoo, she worked at the Digitas advertising agency.

“Right now, Young Hollywood is small, but it’s special, and where content production and media business is headed,” said Coughlin in an interview yesterday. “Trying to build new forms of content with the use of new devices and metrics and new forms of programming is an exciting place to be.”

Coughlin officially left Yahoo last week.

Currently, Young Hollywood creates “Entertainment Tonight”-style celebrity and lifestyle programming for other online outlets such as YouTube, Hulu and also Yahoo, as well as working on various marketing initiatives for large brands.

Exclusive: BermanBraun Buys Most of Shelby Bonnie's Whiskey Media

Kara Swisher — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:30:32 +0000

In a deal that was just signed, longtime Silicon Valley exec Shelby Bonnie has sold his social publishing start-up, Whiskey Media, to Santa Monica-based entertainment and interactive production company BermanBraun.

As part of the deal, BermanBraun will get three key sites of San Francisco-based Whiskey, including video entertainment-focused Screened, tech-testing site Tested, and Anime Vice, which covers anime and manga comics. It will also acquire Whiskey’s content-publishing platform.

Two other sites owned by Whiskey — games-oriented Giant Bomb and comic-book database Comic Vine — will be sold to another media company, which is rumored to be CBS Interactive.

Heaped on top of the niche content, aimed at passionate fans, Whiskey mixes in a lot of social networking, as well as user-generated content, along with its professional fare.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

But the major reason for the acquisition is that BermanBraun — which also makes popular sites for large portals such as Microsoft’s MSN (the Wonderwall celebrity site and Glo, aimed at the women’s lifestyle arena) and AOL (upcoming sites on weather, men and pets) — needs to be able to scale its online content production. The Whiskey platform should be able to allow it to more easily grow and create new sites more quickly, as well as mine data across them.

“With the addition of Whiskey’s first rate team and powerful, state of the art publishing, data and social tools platform, we will be able to further enhance our user experience and engagement, and provide our advertising partners with unparalleled data insights,” said Lloyd Braun and Gail Berman, who run BermanBraun, in a statement. “One of the other great parts of this acquisition is that we will have Shelby Bonnie in our lives. We have enormous respect for Shelby personally and professionally, and his insights, relationships and acumen will be invaluable to us.”

Bonnie, who was once CEO of CNET, which he helped found, added: “I have had the pleasure of knowing both Lloyd and Gail for years and they are two incredibly high integrity people who bring passion and creativity to the interactive space. As we see a dramatic changes in the whole media landscape, success will demand new skills and talents. BermanBraun’s content skills and vision joined with the Whiskey platform will create a combination that I believe is without equal. I couldn’t be more excited for the combination.”

Here is a video interview I did with Bonnie in mid-2010 about Whiskey:

[ See post to watch video ]

What’s Up With Jawbone UP? A Peek Inside the UP Testers Program.

Lauren Goode — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 23:04:19 +0000

Yesterday, a limited supply of Nike+ FuelBands became available for order again, after quickly selling out when they first launched last month.

If the early buzz over a rubberized activity-tracking wristband that syncs with your smartphone gives you deja vu, it might be because you’ve seen this all before — with something called the Jawbone UP.

Oh, right. The UP! So, what’s going on with the Jawbone UP?

Unfortunately, what we don’t know is still more than what we do know. Jawbone, which is known for its slick audio products in addition to the UP, paused production and agreed to issue no-questions-asked refunds for faulty UP bands back on Dec. 9. The company has declined to say anything specific about when it might resume production of the device, or if consumers will see a hardware update.

A spokeswoman for Jawbone has said that refunds are still in progress, and reconfirmed that the company still doesn’t have anything to share in terms of timing.

Jawbone did recently update the UP iPhone app, as it said it would; based on the update description, which includes vague “bug fixes,” the app update seems incremental.

We also know that Jawbone’s UP testers program is ongoing.

As part of the program, volunteers are sent UP bands to test and offer feedback on. They’re also issued challenges, and asked to weigh the UP against competing devices. Participants are required to respond to regular surveys and had to sign a binding confidentiality agreement, meaning that, outside of designated UP tester channels, they’re not supposed to blog, tweet or talk to the media about the product.

The program kicked off in early January and was invite-only (it’s now closed to new participants).

Below, you can see some of the questions Jawbone is posing to UP testers:

Readers, are you still using your UP wristbands, or have you returned them for a refund? Feel free to leave your comments below.

(UP band photo courtesy of Flickr/m8roberto)

Viral Video: First Trailer for "The Hobbit" Movie

Arik Hesseldahl — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:09:35 +0000

Since about 2004, the holiday season has been missing a little something. During the prior three years, I had become accustomed to standing in line to see a “Lord of the Rings” movie. But there were only three of them and, well, once the trilogy was done, it was done. Ever since, I’ve kind of moped a bit without a cinematic trip to Middle Earth to look forward to.

I’ve seen two performances of The Lord of the Rings in Concert, which is great fun and has been at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in previous autumns. But not this year.

But next year — and the year after that — I can renew my Hobbit habit. Yesterday the trailer for the first of two films based on “The Hobbit” hit the Internet. This one will be called “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” and will be in 3-D. It will cover roughly the first half of the J.R.R. Tolkien novel that predates the “Lord” trilogy, and includes the finding of the ring that’s central to the later story. Also there’s one surprise: The trailer sure makes it look like Gandalf and Galadriel are, or once were, an item. I sure don’t remember that from the books.

We here at AllThingsD have been paying close attention to the progress of these films, hanging on every video-blog posting by famed director Peter Jackson. (And if you haven’t seen them, they’re very fun to watch: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3.) I don’t think I’m the only member of the team that has a Hobbit habit. But I’m probably the only one who will admit it.

Anyhow, here’s the trailer. Enjoy:

BermanBraun to Launch Three Non-HuffPost Sites -- Including Weather -- for AOL

Kara Swisher — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:27:24 +0000

In a deal that was struck some time ago and is close to fruition, BermanBraun is prepping three major Web properties for AOL that will focus on pets, men and, interestingly, the weather.

After I inquired, AOL confirmed that the Hollywood production company — headed by former Yahoo and ABC exec Lloyd Braun and former Paramount exec Gail Berman — will debut the trio of sites around March. The new sites will use rich features and a slick design to attract premium advertisers.

The pair will jointly sell the advertising, but the sites themselves will be operated by BermanBraun in cooperation with AOL’s media unit, the Huffington Post Media Group. The deal was struck in late 2010, before AOL bought the Huffington Post for $300 million in January of this year.

While AOL has partnered with many outside sites, this will be the most prominent one since that acquisition.

Since then, much of the new content development on AOL has been aimed at drastically increasing the number of sites with that brand. There have been more than two dozen of those since March.

In this case, the Huffington Post Media Group, run by Arianna Huffington, has typically either created new topic sites or relaunched old AOL ones.

This week, for example, the company rejiggered AOL TV as HuffPost TV, as well as announcing El Huffington Post, an international Spanish-language version of the Huffington Post that will debut in early 2012, in partnership with El País.

The BermanBraun effort, though, is more independent and large-scale. It will feature extensive video and heavy use of imagery. Huffington Post will be involved in editorial selection, and has been working closely with the firm on incorporating social elements.

“It’s been a very dynamic and collaborative partnership — we’ve worked together on everything from design to picking the editors,” said Roy Sekoff, founding editor of the Huffington Post Media Group, about the arrangement. “BermanBraun brings a distinctive approach to their sites, and we’ve helped infuse that with our focus on real-time, social, and building community.”

Sekoff declined to give more details, such as the names of the sites. (They won’t be HuffPost Pets, HuffPost Weather and HuffPost Dudes, though!)

Pets could be a strong category if done in a new way, especially if designed with new tablet devices in mind. And weather, to my mind, is a sleeper category if reimagined freshly.

BermanBraun — which also develops television shows and movies — has a lot of experience in the online content arena. It has previously created Web sites for Microsoft’s MSN unit, including the high-profile celebrity site Wonderwall.

It will be interesting to see how the collaboration turns out. In the meantime, here’s my favorite weather song — Lena Horne rules! — to enjoy until the three sites launch:

Viral Video: Google Street View Address Is Approximately a Hit

Kara Swisher — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 08:20:37 +0000

Here’s a video I beg you not to miss, if you missed it last week in the holiday swirl. Made by a talented London production company called The Theory, using Google Street View, stop-action photography and a toy, it is titled “Address Is Approximate.”

There is nothing approximate about its success; the video has garnered many million of views since its recent debut and gained much notice for its makers.

Enjoy:

Address Is Approximate from The Theory on Vimeo.

Peter Chernin on Hollywood, Asia Growth and Not Yahoo: The Full AsiaD Interview (Video)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:34:20 +0000

We are now posting the full videos from the recent AsiaD conference, which took place in Hong Kong in October.

We’re following the schedule of the actual event. Up now: Hollywood mogul Peter Chernin.

The much-respected entertainment exec, who was the longtime president of News Corp. (which owns this Web site), now runs his own production company in Santa Monica, Calif.

Chernin Entertainment has had some big early successes, including the hit movie “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” and the adorkable television show “New Girl.”

But Chernin has always been much more Internet-curious than the average Hollywood mogul. He was deeply involved in the creation of the Hulu premium video service, and now serves on the board of the Pandora online music site. He’s also been giving the troubled situation at Yahoo a look-see with some private equity firms.

Chernin declined to talk about this deal in an onstage interview with Peter Kafka, but he does discuss the prospects for the old media world in the digital age, and the giant opportunities in Asia:

[ See post to watch video ]

Viral Video: More "Hobbit" From the Vlog Files of Peter Jackson

Kara Swisher — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 08:10:44 +0000

Famed director Peter Jackson, who helmed the “Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy, has promised to continue his production video blog from the movie set of “The Hobbit,” which is filming in New Zealand.

The man keeps his promise with a new installment that has lots more action.

I read the classic book when I was but a wee lass, so I will be very interested to see how it comes to life.

Here’s the latest vlog:

Former Myspace Music Head Holt Lands as COO at Maker (Plus Cool Video!)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:10:33 +0000

Courtney Holt, who stepped down as president of Myspace Music early this year, is taking a new job as COO of Maker Studios.

Holt has been an adviser to the Venice, Calif., new-generation production company — which makes and distributes more professional original content to the Internet, mostly via Google-owned YouTube — since the summer.

“It’s a natural fit to work with a great team and a natural evolution for me,” said Holt, who has been monitoring the online video space, despite many years in the music sector. “Being able to create an ecosystem of talent, distribution and production is a perfect storm of opportunity.”

The focus of Maker is to make Internet-only videos using better shared production tools, distribute and cross-promote them via a myriad of channels on YouTube and make money using the Google unit’s advertising system. Videos are original, and Maker also distributes those of other Web stars.

So far, the start-up has garnered $4 million in total funding from Greycroft Partners and GRP Partners, grown to 140 employees and logged 500 million monthly page views from its 300 videos per month.

“We have done a great job getting Maker up and running, but we wanted to take it to the next level with someone who gets what we are doing,” said co-founder Dan Zappin. “[Holt] has spent some time here, totally got it and we thought it was time to formalize the relationship.”

Zappin said Holt’s role will be to help Maker grow the business, still mostly on YouTube, but also make it in new ways. “Obviously, mobile is a big opportunity,” he said, while also noting Maker’s social efforts on Facebook and Twitter.

Recently, Google announced that it was handing out more than $100 million to dozens of partners to create new channels.

Maker is producing three of these channel categories, but hopes to be more than just a content creator.

“There need to be networks to do distribution and marketing for Web content creators, to be able to do so at a cost per minute and drive audience,” said Holt. “It is unclear if all will get that right and we think Maker can help.”

To get an idea of what it does, here’s an ultra-hipster video Maker did, as well as one I did earlier this year at Maker (which also has a newly redone Web site here):

[ See post to watch video ]

Hey Kids, Let's Put on a $4M VC-Funded Show! A Visit to the YouTube Moguls of Maker Studios (Video)

Kara Swisher — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:02:25 +0000

Recently, I went to Venice, Calif., to visit the hipster HQ of Maker Studios, a new-generation production company that has just gotten another $2.5 million in venture funding to help it make videos, mostly for YouTube.

That brings total funding from Greycroft Partners and GRP Partners to $4 million for a studio created to bring more professional original content to the Internet.

In addition, sources said, Courtney Holt, former president of Myspace Music, will begin helping Maker this summer as an adviser.

That means headier times for its co-founders Dan Zappin, Lisa Donovan and Ben Donovan, who have now definitively chosen the Web over the traditional Hollywood careers they started in.

Their strategy is not complex: Make more professional videos using better shared production tools, distribute and cross-promote them via a myriad of channels on YouTube, and make money using the Google unit’s advertising system.

There is interest in the model. Google — which has a tight relationship with Maker via encouragement and also a $100,000 grant — even bought a competitor, Next New Networks, in March.

And while Maker has a hey-kids-let’s-put-on-a-show-meets-Jon-Stewart-ironic vibe, it has garnered many hundreds of millions of views monthly and made some Web stars already, in what has amounted to a virtuous video circle.

Will it work? Who knows, but it certainly is colorful, as you will see from my video tour below, along with an interview with its founders:

[ See post to watch video ]

Will Yahoo Be In Play Again? Here's a Few Scenarios (That Could Be More Than Just Scenarios)

Kara Swisher — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 17:58:51 +0000

One of the results of Yahoo’s weak earnings report earlier this week has been the renewal of chatter about possible changes in its leadership and even ownership.

And continued investor discomfort with its troubled stock price–Yahoo shares are down 7.25 percent year over year and an astonishing 49 percent on a five-year basis–and the level of renewed grumbling by major institutional shareholders is causing some key players to go back to their PowerPoints to reevaluate various options.

(By way of contrast, Google is down about 4.5 percent year over year–largely due to last week’s earnings release with higher than expected expenses–but still up more than 20 percent for the five years.)

As many might recall, last year Yahoo was under scrutiny by a number of interested parties–from big media companies to other digital players to private equity firms–considering a number of takeover scenarios.

Most of them were just talk and no action resulted, but that did not mean that interest went away.

The truth is, they are still out there and ruminating–this time with what sources describe as a much more amenable Yahoo board, with several of its key members willing to entertain any legitimate offers or ideas to improve the Silicon Valley search giant’s prospects.

In the last go-round, by contrast, Yahoo’s top execs–including CEO Carol Bartz–denied any interest in the swirl of rumors related to a variety of ideas.

That’s definitely changed–at least at the board level–so here are three very credible scenarios of what could happen:

Peetie, Peetie, Yahoo-Sweetie

Late last year, BoomTown wrote a post about the interest that former News Corp. COO and President Peter Chernin–who now owns his own entertainment production company–had in the situation at Yahoo.

As I wrote in November:

But multiple sources from a variety of sides said that Chernin, a well-liked and deeply experienced media and entertainment exec, has been contacted by a number of private equity firms and other investors about his interest in becoming involved should any of the various and sundry scenarios around the Internet giant pan out.

And Chernin, many sources said, has expressed a definite interest in the situation, perhaps because he was deeply involved in a previous deal when running News Corp.

At the time, it involved combining the media giant’s Myspace social networking site with Yahoo and also Microsoft’s portal MSN and creating a new company, code-named “TrafficCo.”

Indeed, that interest remains for Chernin, who has also been an increasingly active investor, including in the digital sector. He is an angel funder of the hot social media app start-up Flipboard, and also just joined the board of the popular Pandora music service.

The most likely possible scenarios have him joining with deep-pocketed partners, including Providence Equity Partners and, yes, Microsoft, as well as investment banks or advisory firms, such as Morgan Stanley and Code Advisors.

The approach being considered–which would only be done in a friendly way, with the cooperation of Yahoo’s board–would center on making a large enough investment in its shares, allowing the group to take control of the management and the board, putting Chernin in as chairman and maybe CEO (or with a new CEO–see next section).

If Microsoft were involved–and Chernin has strong ties there–such a scenario might include folding all its online properties into Yahoo and renegotiating its rocky search partnership, too.

This is an idea that intrigues a lot of people–including current Yahoo board chairman Roy Bostock, co-founder Jerry Yang and other board members–who have indicated recently to several investors and dealmakers a willingness to listen to credible player such as Chernin.

But, in this scenario, it would be up to Chernin and his partners to make a prosposal, said sources, and he might decide that the complexity of getting the power to make big changes at Yahoo is too big to tackle.

In addition, Chernin remains a successful Hollywood player, with several major television and movie projects in the works, as well as big investment possibilities in Asia.

“Does he want the headache of Yahoo at this point in his career?” asked one person, among many Chernin has talked to recently about becoming involved in the company. “Would you?”

Maybe so, if it would provide a big financial windfall. Many think an exec with a reputation like Chernin’s could easily begin to move Yahoo’s moribund stock upward quickly.

ABC (Anybody But Carol)

Here’s one truth: Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz does not get proper credit for a number of moves she has made since coming to the company two years ago, including cleaning up the messy corporate structure, de-complexifying garbled systems, cutting costs and bringing its far-flung operations into line.

Yahoo’s stock is certainly doing better than when she arrived in early January of 2009, when it was in the $12 range compared to its current $16 price point.

But here’s another: That stock price now includes more than $10 in solid assets–cash and Yahoo’s much more valuable stakes in China’s Alibaba Group and Yahoo! Japan–leaving very little true share appreciation.

And here are more truths: Bartz’s inability to get revenues growing, innovations flowing, promising start-ups acquired and–most importantly–to stop the continual exodus of talent out the door of Yahoo has made her tenure shakier than ever.

Add to that making its relationships with Asian partners more tense, almost no traction in key mobile, video and social arenas, a record of loud public declarations that have fallen flat and serious troubles in Yahoo’s search and online partnership with Microsoft–a deal Bartz struck and is charged with managing–recently highlighted in Yahoo’s earnings earlier this week.

As shareholder activist Eric Jackson, who has long agitated for change at Yahoo, wrote this week in a post:

“The truth is that investors are fed up with Bartz. Their enmity towards Bartz is palpable when you talk to them. Bartz talked a big game coming into the job and she hasn’t delivered. It’s that simple.”

Well, not that simple and maybe not fair, but it’s also clear that no one thinks Bartz will be re-upped when her contract is up in 18 months.

Thus, it’s no surprise that ideas of other possible leaders of Yahoo are being contemplated now.

Here’s the short list I have made of my choices: Akamai President and Yahoo board member David Kenny; former Microsoft exec and current Juniper Networks CEO Kevin Johnson; former AOL CEO and current News Corp. digital head Jon Miller; and Nikesh Arora, current Chief Business Officer and sales head at Google.

There are plenty more to pick from, of course, and any could be installed in conjunction with an effort such as Chernin’s.

AOL Under the Hoop

No good Yahoo scenario plotting can be contemplated without including AOL and its flashy CEO Tim Armstrong.

Armstrong has made no secret of wanting to get ahold of Yahoo properties to apply the strategy he has been trying at AOL to get it moving again.

Which is: To become the premiere digital media company.

Which is actually Yahoo’s new motto–although arguably, in word and deed, Armstrong has been much more active in pushing the concept and narrative.

That includes his incessant acquisitions of all kinds of online media properties, including the big fish–the $315 million purchase of the Huffington Post and the coronation of its even-flashier co-founder Arianna Huffington as content chief.

Armstrong has certainly not been averse to the idea of a Yahoo-AOL hookup with him at the top, and has been actively talking to anyone interested in such a deal.

And things could get a lot more interesting if AOL linked with a bigger strategic partner, such as News Corp. or Disney or even Google, Armstrong’s former stomping grounds.

Still, wishing does not make it so, especially with a much smaller and weaker set of assets than Yahoo and a still poor record on goosing its advertising sales.

AOL’s stock is down 30 percent year over year, as investors still worry about Armstrong’s ability to turn the company around, which kind of puts him in the same situation as Bartz.

“AOL is waiting under the hoop for whatever happens, which is a good place to be,” said one person close to the situation. “Why not?”

Why not, indeed–so, let the games begin.

Intel Capital, Condé Nast Owner Invest $30 Million in Kno; Intel to Consult on Student Tablet Hardware

Kara Swisher — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 02:17:57 +0000

According to sources close to the situation, Intel Capital and Advance Publications will lead a $30 million investment round in Kno, the high-profile student tablet start-up.

In addition to the funding from its venture capital arm, Intel itself will consult with Kno on its tablet design. Kno, which is getting out of the hardware business, will now focus on its software to manage the devices that are aimed at the college market.

Intel will not manufacture tablets either. Instead, its engineers will consult with Kno on power management, graphics, display, systems integration, which it does for a variety of its customers.

Along with Intel Capital and Advance, current investors will also participate in the round, said sources. But Intel Capital and Advance, the owner of the Condé Nast publishing empire, make up a big part of the funding.

Sources said Intel Capital’s investment is $20 million and Advance and others make up the rest of it.

BoomTown reported in February that the much-funded and high-profile Silicon Valley start-up–aimed at making tablet computers focused at students–was considering selling off the entire hardware part of the business.

Sources said Kno execs have recently decided that the quicker-than-expected uptake in tablet production by a multitude of powerful device makers had made its efforts to package a seamless offering less critical.

Instead, the company will now focus on its robust software and services to offer students on the Apple iPad, as well as upcoming tablets based on Google’s Android mobile operating system and others.

The move is a dramatic shift for the company, which had not shipped significant numbers of the touchscreen device as it has long touted.

In fact, Kno said in November that it would ship a $599 and $899 version of the tablet by the end of the year.

The lower price was for its single-screen device, while the clamshell double-screen version was more expensive.

And, although it has been reported no pre-orders were fulfilled, Kno did indeed ship several hundred of them, built by China’s Foxconn, before stopping doing so earlier this year.

Many have been dubious about Kno’s ambitious hardware efforts.

That’s because marketing a new and complex product like the Kno takes a lot of effort and cash, especially since it is an increasingly competitive market for mobile and portable computing products that includes Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Google, Amazon, Dell and many others.

Before this $30 million, Kno has raised another $46 million in funding to add to an earlier $10 million round.

Sources in February said that the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company considering going back out to raise even more.

Its current backers include prominent venture players like Andreessen Horowitz and First Round Capital, along with angel investors Mike Maples and Ron Conway.

Sources said the shift to deliver textbook and other student-related delivery system would be a better path for all that investment money, since Kno has established a wide range of partnerships with colleges and universities.

In addition, Kno co-founder Osman Rashid has a lot of experience in digital education market. He was also the co-founder of Chegg, the textbook rental business that is reportedly aiming for an IPO soon.

BusinessWeek was first to report that Intel Capital was making the investment in Kno, but the post did not mention Advance’s involvement or that Intel itself was licensing the hardware design business from Kno.

Wind Power Hits a Trough

Jeffrey Ball — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 23:04:25 +0000

Gabriel Alonso, who runs one of America’s biggest wind-farm developers, often reminds his employees their goal isn’t to stage a renewable-energy revolution.

“This is about making money,” the chief executive of Horizon Wind Energy LLC tells his troops. And right now, his strategy is to retrench.

After years of blustery growth, wind power is facing a blow-back in some of its major markets. It is reeling from lackluster electricity demand in many mature economies, rock-bottom prices for competing natural gas in the U.S. and uncertainty throughout much of the world about government subsidies. Companies that make wind turbines are slashing production at some plants and reconsidering previous expansion.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

Another Yahoo SVP Departs–This Time, Techie Cheryl Ainoa

Kara Swisher — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:15:48 +0000

Yahoo is losing another longtime senior exec, this time Cheryl Ainoa (pictured here), who has been SVP of the company’s Global Service Engineering unit.

Ainoa, who was one of Yahoo’s top women executives, announced her resignation to her team earlier this week. She is apparently departing for a job at another Silicon Valley tech company.

As described for a recent “Girl Geek Dinner” at Yahoo, where she spoke on the topic of “Innovation at Scale,” Ainoa’s job was to lead “the teams that manage all Yahoo! applications in production worldwide–ensuring scalable, highly available and high performing experiences for every Y! user.”

Ainoa is a longtime Yahoo veteran and also has worked at other companies such as Broderbund Software, Genealogy.com and Healtheon/WebMD.

Earlier this week, another longtime Yahoo–VP of North American Field Sales Mitch Spolan–left for the top advertising job at social buying site, LivingSocial.

Yahoo declined to comment.

Exclusive: Kno Student Tablet Start-Up in Talks to Sell Off Tablet Part of Its Business

Kara Swisher — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 08:16:00 +0000

Kno–the much-funded and high-profile Silicon Valley start-up aimed at making tablet computers focused at students–is considering selling off the entire hardware part of the business and is in talks with two major consumer electronics manufacturers to do so, according to sources close to the situation.

Instead, the company will focus on its robust software and services to offer students on the Apple iPad, as well as upcoming tablets based on Google’s Android mobile operating system and others.

BoomTown could not determine which two companies Kno was in serious discussions with about unloading its hardware business, but the company has signed an NDA with one of them.

But, if a deal is struck, the move would be a dramatic shift for the company, which has yet to ship significant numbers of the student-focused touchscreen device as it has long touted.

In fact, Kno said in November that it would ship a $599 and $899 version of the tablet by the end of the year.

The lower price was for its single-screen device, while the clamshell double-screen version was more expensive.

And, although it has been reported no pre-orders were fulfilled, Kno did indeed ship several hundred of them, built by China’s Foxconn, before stopping doing so recently.

Many have been dubious about Kno’s ambitious hardware efforts.

Kno recently raised another $46 million in funding to add to a $10 million round, and sources said that the Santa Clara, Calif., company was considering going back out to raise even more.

Its current backers include prominent venture players like Andreessen Horowitz and First Round Capital, along with investors Mike Maples and Ron Conway.

A Kno spokeswoman declined comment.

But sources said the shift to deliver textbook and other student-related delivery system would be a better path for all that investment money, since Kno has established a wide range of partnerships with colleges and universities.

In addition, Kno Co-founder Osman Rashid has a lot of experience in digital education market. He was also the co-founder of Chegg, the textbook rental business that is reportedly aiming for an IPO soon.

You can see Rashid here, along with the Kno tablet prototype in the full demo video that the company did last year at the eighth D: All Things Digital conference:

[ See post to watch video ]

(Want to see it bigger? Click here.)

Apple's New iPad in Production

Yukari Iwatani Kane and Shayndi Raice — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 22:41:40 +0000

Apple Inc. has started production of a new version of its iPad tablet computer, said people familiar with the matter.

The new device will be thinner, lighter and will come with a faster processor, more memory and a more powerful graphics processor, said the people familiar with the matter. It will have a front-facing camera for the first time for features like video-conferencing, but the resolution of the new iPad’s display will be similar to the first iPad, they said.

The new iPad will be available through Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc., but not Sprint Nextel Corp. or T-Mobile USA in the U.S., according to some of the people familiar with the matter.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

2011 Forecast Calls for 76 Million iPhones With Chance of 32 Million iPads

John Paczkowski — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 16:18:23 +0000

With the hard launch of the CDMA iPhone at Verizon now just three days away, analysts are tweaking their sales forecasts to reflect its impact. The latest to issue an upward revision: Susquehanna’s Jeff Fidacaro, who raised his price target on Apple this morning to reflect strong pre-sale demand for the Verizon iPhone and a significant increase in its production.

“Our proprietary checks in Apple’s supply chain suggest slight increases to our production forecasts for CY1Q11,” Fidacaro said in a note to clients today. “Our read on CDMA iPhone production shows a ramp up from prior forecasts and positive revisions for the GSM iPhone as well. Early indications from the Verizon presale of the CDMA iPhone were [also] strong. Thus, we are raising our iPhone shipment estimates substantially.”

Fidacaro had been looking for Apple to ship 17.7 million iPhones in the March quarter and 70.5 million in fiscal 2011. Now he’s forecasting 19.8 million and 76.7 million–a 92 percent increase year-over-year.

That, along with a significant upward revision to his iPad shipment estimates, driven by the presumed debut of iPad 2–32.1 million in fiscal 2011, up from 27.3 million (a 330 percent increase year-over-year)–prompted Fidacaro to raise his price target on Apple to $465 from $445.

Spare change for Apple shares?

Exclusive: SnagFilms Snags $10 Million in Funding at $50 Million Valuation

Kara Swisher — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:15:38 +0000

SnagFilms, the online video distribution site for professional documentaries, has nabbed $10 million in funding from Comcast’s investment arm and New Enterprise Associates, and will also now be distributing fictional independent film releases.

That and the new investment giving SnagFilms a valuation of $50 million should be big news at the 11th Sundance Film Festival, the famous independent film gathering opening in Park City, Utah, on Thursday.

And SnagFilms also announced that well-known industry exec Bingham Ray is joining the start-up to spearhead its distribution of fictional narrative and foreign-produced independent films.

The service, unlike the subscription-based video giant Netflix, currently distributes free non-fiction documentary films with advertising, as well as offers rental streaming and purchase options.

And it is profitable, said Ted Leonsis, the former AOL exec who is the founder and has been the driving investor in SnagFilms.

“It was always my personal frustration as a backer of documentaries that you could not get distribution far and wide,” he said in an interview earlier today.

He noted that while Netflix is really now focused on big studio fare, “what we’ve discovered is a big supply of independent video that has never seen light of day, but that has a big audience.”

SnagFilms’ strategy is to give broader reach to these films, which often don’t even have a theatrical opening–or, if they do, are very small.

Along with its site, which digitizes the films and adds advertising to them, SnagFilms also encourages Web sites and others to grab films and create a “virtual movie theater.” (You can see my effort below.)

It also has video-on-demand deals with Comcast, Verizon and more, as well as purchase options with Apple’s iTunes and others.

Earlier this month, SnagFilms also launched an impressive and free iPad full-movie-watching app.

SnagFilms also owns a popular news site called indieWIRE, which covers the independent film market, and the new funding will also be used to expand it.

That market has been in need of a boost of some kind, since it has been struggling as financing has dried up for the production of quality documentaries and outside-the-Hollywood-machine movies.

It has long been hoped that the Internet would perhaps save and strengthen the genre, with its supposed long-tail magic.

But the going has been slow. Currently, SnagFilms has 2,000 films in its online library, although Leonsis said the aim is to use the new funds to get 10,000 films on the service as soon as possible.

“We’re trying to build a beachhead in the independent film world,” he said of SnagFilms, which currently has about 40 employees in Washington, D.C., and New York. “We think we have a niche and video is the killer app on Web now.”

Leonsis, who has backed such notable documentaries as “The Rape of Nanking,” said NEA’s Peter Barris will join the board, along with existing investor Steve Case.

Case and Leonsis, of course, were the dynamic duo of AOL’s glory days.

So, I am rooting for another win in an arena that needs it.

Thus, here’s my own movie palace online and also the official press release from SnagFilms:

Watch more free documentaries

Industry Powerhouses NEA and Comcast Invest in SnagFilms

$10 million in new funding to distribute documentaries and fictional independent films on all digital platforms and devices, globally

Washington D.C.–January 17, 2011 – SnagFilms announced today it has received $10 million in growth capital from new investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Comcast Interactive Capital (CIC). Existing investors, including Ted Leonsis (SnagFilms’ Founder) and Steve Case, also participated. The financing will be used to expand its distribution of independent films–including, for the first time, fictional independent releases–across all digital platforms and devices, and on a global basis.

SnagFilms is a leader in distributing free, ad-supported titles from a library of over 2,000 non-fiction films. Last year, SnagFilms entered the transactional world with launches of video on demand channels on Comcast and Verizon FiOS, as well as titles for sale through the Apple’s iTunes store. Earlier this month, SnagFilms debuted its iPad application with the largest collection of award-winning U.S. films offered free to iPad users.

“As a profitable company with substantial private investors, SnagFilms didn’t need to raise outside capital,” said company founder Ted Leonsis. “However, we saw overwhelming strategic value in involving NEA, a pioneer and leading venture capital firm, and CIC, the investment arm of Comcast. SnagFilms is very well-financed and uniquely positioned now to bring the full array of independent films–fiction and non-fiction, U.S. and foreign–to global audiences on all platforms and devices. We’ve amassed a library of 2,000 documentaries since our launch, and we’re now building distribution opportunities for tens of thousands of independent films in both categories. That’s great news for film fans and for filmmakers.”

“SnagFilms is perfectly positioned to fuse technology and content in a manner that has marked many of the transformational industry leaders we have helped build in the past,” said NEA Managing General Partner Peter Barris, who joins the Company’s Board of Directors. “New devices and digital platforms will allow consumers unprecedented access to quality content, and SnagFilms will be there to delight them. We are pleased to be able to invest in SnagFilms at this time, and to help them add fictional indie films to their expertise with documentaries–and to take both genres to the full swath of digital platforms and devices.” Among many other investments, Barris serves on the board of Groupon as its first VC investor.

“We are excited about the new opportunities SnagFilms creates, especially for independent filmmakers who historically could not get distribution,” said David Horowitz, Managing Director of Comcast Interactive Capital. “This investment reflects our view that consumers are demanding a diverse selection of high-quality content that can be watched on any platform or device.”

SnagFilms also announced that industry veteran Bingham Ray will join the Company to help guide its entry into distribution of fictional narrative and foreign-produced independent films. Ray, former President of United Artists, October Films and Kimmel Entertainment, and honored for Lifetime Achievement by the Gotham Awards, has deep experience in the acquisition, marketing and distribution of motion pictures, including “Hotel Rwanda,” “Bowling for Columbine,” “Secrets & Lies,” “War Room,” “High Art,” “Last Days” and “Breaking the Waves.”

“Bingham has been an advocate for filmmakers throughout his career,” noted Rick Allen, SnagFilms CEO. “His record of successful distribution on traditional platforms provides a strategic sense and depth of relationships that will be invaluable as we extend our model into a broader array of films. Bingham will be a key member of our large presence at the Sundance Film Festival this week and beyond.”

“I’ve been a big fan of SnagFilms from their earliest days, and am truly thrilled to be part of the team as they expand the service, bringing more filmmakers to bigger audiences on a wider array of platforms,” said Ray. “This is the future of our business.”

“SnagFilms plus Bingham Ray is a great combination,” said Tom Bernard, co-president and co-founder of Sony Pictures Classics. “Bingham knows the indie world as well as anyone alive and is admired for his experience and for always delivering for filmmakers. He’ll be a big asset to SnagFilms’ expansion.”

In addition, SnagFilms intends to use its new growth capital to expand its indieWIRE unit, now in its 15th year as the leading web source of news, reviews and analysis of independent film.

“indieWIRE’s traffic is now ten times what it was when we purchased it two and a half years ago,” Allen said. “Before the Academy Awards are announced later this month, you’ll see new editor-in-chief Dana Harris add ongoing features to our coverage of the indie world, and exciting new blogs to our Network, like the recently-added blog The Playlist.”

About SnagFilms

SnagFilms features free ad-supported viewing of more than 2,000 award-winning titles from some of the greatest names in documentary film. All films are shareable across the web. Since its launch in July 2008, SnagFilms’ library has been featured on over 2 billion web pageviews, with more than 325 million minutes of SnagFilms titles streamed across over more than 100,000 affiliated sites and webpages, including through partners such as Aol, Comcast, Hulu, the Starbucks Digital Network, IMDb, the Miami Herald, hundreds of non-profits, special interest sites and blogs. SnagFilms also offers selected titles via VOD (with Comcast and FiOS), on iTunes and through a new free application for the iPad.

OVGuide has twice named SnagFilms a Top Site and MovieMaker Magazine named SnagFilms to its annual list of “50 Best Websites for Moviemakers.”

Viral Video: BermanBraun Doesn't Just Make Web Sites ("The Cape" on NBC Debuts Soon)

Kara Swisher — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 08:15:49 +0000

Here is a new teaser trailer for a midseason replacement television show on NBC called “The Cape.”

It’s from Hollywood multimedia production company BermanBraun, which is known in tech for the handsome content sites it makes for Microsoft’s MSN portal, such as the celebrity-focused Wonderwall.

And partner Lloyd Braun also ran Yahoo’s media unit for a bit.

“The Cape” is about a good cop who is framed and has to turn himself into a crime-fighting hero to regain his old life and family. With a cape, natch.

There is a lot of broodiness and moodiness and there are also carnival misfits in the show, which premieres January 9.

Here is the trailer for the show:

Apple Ramps Up Holiday iPad Production

John Paczkowski — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 16:13:13 +0000

Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn is ramping up iPad production capacity to meet demand for the tablet over the holiday season. Taiwanese trade mag Digitimes claims Foxconn has begun using its newest factories in Chengdu, China, to manufacture an additional 10,000 iPads per day, or about 300,000 iPads per month.

Not a huge number, but together with the 2.5 million units Foxconn’s main production site at Shenzhen can produce each month, it’s presumably enough to offset the inevitable spike in holiday demand. And once Chengdu’s 50 iPad production lines are up and running in 2011, Foxconn will be able to produce about 40 million iPads per year–according to Digitimes, anyway.

Apple Developing CDMA-GSM 'World iPad'?

John Paczkowski — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 11:00:11 +0000

Here’s an interesting bit of speculation from Wedge Partners analyst Brian Blair, whose recent Qualcomm channel checks may reveal something about Apple’s next-generation iPad. According to Blair, Apple is developing a “World iPad” based on one of Qualcomm’s multimode CDMA-GSM chips.

“Recent checks…suggest Apple is going to be ratcheting down production of the existing 3G iPad over the next two months in anticipation of ramping up a new World iPad that is powered by Qualcomm and will run on both GSM and CDMA based networks around the world,” Blair writes. “Given our recent checks that suggest Apple is preparing to build approximately 48 million iPads in calendar 2011.”

Incidentally, Blair also says his checks suggest these next-generation iPads will include at least a front-facing camera and some design adjustments. “We…understand the new iPad is thinner than the existing model and is essentially made from one piece of metal with no pins needed,” he says. “We understand it requires a new type of manufacturing process as a result, similar to the company’s unibody approach seen in MacBooks.”

Such enhancements make perfect sense, right? As one longtime Apple observer told me, “I’d be stunned if it were otherwise.” The real mystery here is timing, he added, and–if Blair’s right about a dual-mode iPad–what role it would play in the company’s new relationship with Verizon, since a CDMA-GSM iPad would obviate the need for the carrier to bundle Wi-Fi-only iPads with its MiFi hotspot devices, as it currently does.

Kno Prices Its Student Tablets at $599 and $899 to Ship by End of the Year

Kara Swisher — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 05:00:01 +0000

Kno, the high-profile Silicon Valley start-up trying to jump-start a market for tablets focused on students, announced tonight that it will have a limited number available by the end of the year for sale at prices of $599 and $899.

The lower price is for its single-screen device, while the clamshell double-screen version is more expensive.

Kno would not say exactly how many it has ordered for its first tablet production run–the device is being built by China’s Foxconn–but co-founder and CEO Osman Rashid said in an interview earlier today with BoomTown that units would number “in the thousands.”

Rashid said the Kno tablet will initially be aimed at 10 college campuses across the U.S., although he also declined to name them.

“We are going to do online and offline marketing, in a very focused approach,” he said, noting that Kno would be working with some college bookstores too.

Marketing a new and complex product like the Kno will take a lot of effort and cash, especially since it is an increasingly competitive market for mobile and portable computing products that includes Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Google, Amazon, Dell and many others.

Kno recently raised another $46 million in funding to add to a $10 million round, and sources said that the Santa Clara, Calif., company could be back out raising even more early next year.

Its current backers include prominent venture players like Andreessen Horowitz and First Round Capital, along with investors Mike Maples and Ron Conway.

Kno’s Rashid said his company pushed the go button after getting good feedback from students in a beta test, half of whom used the single-screen device and the other half the two screens, along with its related education platform software.

“We found that 85 percent of those using the single screen wanted the dual-screen version and that those using two screens took three times more notes,” said Rashid. “Students said they love the fact that they can write in the textbook itself and it appears the way it needs to be, even in digital form.”

The first Kno will have an aluminum body, and the company will also offer a set of accessories, such as a cover and a stand.

And Kno will watch initial sales carefully. “As a start-up, we want to make sure we are meeting demand, but also that we roll it out in a careful approach,” said Rashid.

Indeed–and it will be interesting to see how that goes for the ambitious and innovative Kno.

Until the results are in, here is the official press release from Kno:

Kno Announces Pricing and Pre-Order Availability for Tablet Textbook; Pays for Itself in 3 Semesters

Delivers Significant Student Impact for Less than 1% the Cost of a 4-Year College Education

Santa Clara, CA–November 9, 2010–Kno, Inc., a powerful, groundbreaking tablet textbook designed specifically for students and the education market, today revealed the price of its 14.1 inch single and dual-screen tablets at $599 and $899, respectively. The company also announced that it is now accepting a limited number of pre-orders for an initial shipment that is expected to be on customers’ doorsteps by the end of the year.

“Kno’s extraordinary benefits represent only a tiny fraction of the overall cost of college, but its impact on the student’s career–and the energy it adds to the experience, the thrill of learning, and the ultimate grade–is dramatic,” said Osman Rashid, Co-Founder and CEO of Kno, Inc. “Even better, when you do the math, it actually pays for itself and still saves $1,300 in digital textbook costs.”

Kno has been beta-testing the product with students and the response has been overwhelmingly positive for both the single and dual screen devices. Far more than just a digital textbook, Kno is creating a powerfully effective new learning environment that will make students at all levels more successful at processing, grasping and retaining both facts and concepts.

“My experience with Kno has been really incredible. My books have become more interactive and the ability to hand-write electronic notes on the book pages themselves has changed how I retain information,” said Melissa Lin, a sophomore majoring in Biology at UC Berkeley that has been beta-testing the Kno tablet. “I see a ton of difference with the Kno. I can carry everything with me including my books, my notebooks and a browser for research. And, with the lower cost of digital textbooks, it will pay for itself in three semesters which is really great.”

Digital textbooks, which typically cost between 30 and 50 percent less than physical textbooks, will be priced separately and will be sold through the Kno bookstore, which will be accessible on every Kno device. Starting today, students will be able to browse Kno’s bookstore at www.kno.com/store/books, which will include tens of thousands of the most popular textbooks and supplement materials. Kno has previously announced that it is working with major textbook publishers including Cengage, McGraw Hill and Pearson. The company recently added publishers including Macmillan, Bedford, Freeman & Worth and Holtzbrinck as well as BarCharts Publishing, Kaplan, Random House and a large number of the University Presses.

“According to the not-for-profit College Board’s 2010 report, the average college student spends approximately $1,100 a year on book and supplies,” said Babur Habib, CTO and Co-Founder of Kno, Inc. “Kno can reduce that cost while bringing education into the 21st Century, providing students with a far superior learning experience than they have today.”

To learn more about Kno, please visit the Kno blog at http://blog.kno.com or visit us on Facebook www.facebook.com/GoodtoKNO, Twitter www.twitter.com/GoodtoKNO and YouTube www.youtube.com/GoodtoKNO.

Wonderwall Goes Latino

Kara Swisher — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 07:46:34 +0000

Hola Sofia Vergara!

In an interesting brand extension, the popular celebrity and entertainment site Wonderwall has launched a version aimed at the U.S. Hispanic market called Wonderwall Latino.

The main Wonderwall site, which is a partnership between Hollywood production company BermanBraun and Microsoft’s MSN portal that launched in early 2009, now has 11.3 million unique users and 337 million page views a month.

That site is getting a design overhaul, with new features including voting buttons, a dedicated video page and a buzz stream with breaking news and tweets, as well as apps for the Apple iPhone and IPod Touch.

According to an MSN blog on the Wonderwall extension, “BermanBraun will spearhead the design, programming, and operations of the digital brand. MSN will provide unique content and lead the advertising efforts in partnership with Microsoft and BermanBraun.”

BermanBraun also recently debuted a political site called BLTWY with MSNBC.com.