Stephen Baker

There Better Be Some Cool Stuff at CES, Because CE Holiday Sales Data Bytes!

Kara Swisher in Commerce on January 8 at 11:26 am PT

Camcorders and MP3 players go splat!

Cisco Kills the Flip Video Camera Business

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on April 12, 2011 at 6:39 am PT

Cisco is shaking up its consumer business. First on the list of things to go? The Flip video camera.

All Humans Bow Before the Mighty Watson, Master of "Jeopardy"

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on February 16, 2011 at 5:03 pm PT

The IBM supercomputer Watson wins at the game show “Jeopardy,” but human player Ken Jennings put up a good fight and probably made some IBM executives nervous in the process.

IBM "Jeopardy" Challenge Day 2: Very Different From Day One

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on February 15, 2011 at 5:16 pm PT

Spoiler warning! When we last left our human heroes, one of them had drawn even while another was far behind the supercomputer Watson in a match of the uniquely human game of “Jeopardy.” The computer was winning raves for holding its own against the game’s best human players. That would soon change with a surprising twist at the very end.

IBM "Jeopardy" Challenge Day One Ends in a Tie

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on February 14, 2011 at 4:55 pm PT

Day one of the IBM “Jeopardy” challenge ends with a human player and the computer tied, and with some interesting wrong answers from the computer. Plus: “Final Jeopardy” author Stephen Baker fills us in with some first-hand details.

That Human Vs. Machine Practice Round of "Jeopardy" Didn't End the Way You Heard It Did

Arik Hesseldahl in Enterprise on February 14, 2011 at 1:37 pm PT

IBM’s Watson supercomputer didn’t win that much publicized practice game after all. A human did. This according to a draft of the final chapter of a forthcoming book on the matchup.

"Final Jeopardy" Question: Would You Buy an E-Book Without an Ending?

Peter Kafka in Media on January 27, 2011 at 4:24 am PT

Stephen Baker has a great tale to tell you. But if you buy his new e-book–about an IBM computer facing off against “Jeopardy”’s smartest players–you won’t get the whole story. Yet.

Analyst: IPad a Want, Then a Need

John Paczkowski in News on October 2, 2010 at 8:52 am PT

If netbook sales are in decline, Apple’s iPad isn’t to blame–not yet, anyway. According to a new survey from NPD, only 13 percent of iPad owners bought the device in lieu of a PC. For the other 87 percent, it was an incremental purchase, a luxury purchase.

Office 2010 Having Reception Problems Too

John Paczkowski in News on July 14, 2010 at 7:58 am PT

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer claims the reception given to Office 2010 has been “incredible,” but according to NPD, it’s been anything but. In the research house’s view, the first two weeks of Office 2010 sales have been “a bit disappointing.”

85 Percent of Mac Switchers Forgot to Toss Windows PC

John Paczkowski in News on October 5, 2009 at 9:51 am PT

Approximately 12 percent of all computer-using U.S. households own an Apple machine, and nearly 85 percent of those also own a Windows-based PC. That’s the conclusion of an NPD survey that suggests that Mac households favor multiplatform environments, buy more gadgets and have the higher income needed to afford them.