AllThingsD » Walt Mossberg

HP Envy Spectre 14: A Premium Ultrabook, at a Premium Price

Lauren Goode — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:00:04 +0000

Over the past six months in the personal computing world, there has been much ado about Ultrabooks — thin, lightweight laptops with Intel-determined technical specifications that compete with Apple’s MacBook Air. Windows PC makers like Dell, Lenovo, Asus and Acer have all introduced Ultrabooks, and Hewlett-Packard, the world’s largest computer maker, has gotten into the game as well.

This week, I’ve been testing the HP Envy Spectre 14, a glass-covered laptop that falls into the Ultrabook category. The Envy Spectre hit the market in February, and the base model currently retails for $1,400.

I liked the Envy Spectre. It’s eye-catching, lighter than the laptop I usually carry, and zippy in terms of its processing power. But compared to other Ultrabooks, it’s heavier and more expensive. It’s really more of a premium product, rather than an ultra-light laptop. Also, there were a couple elements of its design, such as the fact that it wasn’t tapered and the lid was hard to open, that might prevent it from being my main laptop squeeze.

[ See post to watch video ]

The Envy Spectre 14 is 20 millimeters thick — just over 0.79 inches — and has a 13.3-inch-wide body with a 14-inch-diagonal LED-backlit display. It weighs just shy of four pounds. In comparison, the Dell XPS 13, which AllThingsD’s Walt Mossberg recently reviewed, is, at its largest point, 0.71 inches thick and just under three pounds. The 13-inch MacBook Air, which at its largest point is 0.68 inches thick, also weighs in at 2.96 pounds.

Despite its thickness, the HP Envy Spectre 14 is an attractive laptop. Its aluminum body is covered with Gorilla Glass, the thin, chemically-strengthened glass that makes up the displays of many smartphones and tablets. The glass is layered over three areas of the laptop: The lid, the 1600 by 900 pixel display screen and the palm rest. The trackpad is coated with chemically etched glass, which gives it slightly more traction than the cool-to-the-touch, super glossy Gorilla Glass.

The glass is scratch-resistant — I threw my keys into my laptop bag a few times, and the laptop wasn’t scratched — but it’s definitely not smudge-resistant. As with my smartphone and iPad, it was only a matter of time before the Spectre was covered with cloudy fingerprints. Fortunately, HP has included a protective case with the laptop.

The Spectre comes with a 128 gigabyte solid-state drive, 4GB of memory, runs Windows 7 and is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor, with the option to upgrade to a faster i7 processor for an extra $200. For an additional $300, you can also get a 256GB solid-state drive.

When I fired up the Envy Spectre for the first time, I noticed how quickly it booted up and how fast it was compared to my regular laptop, a fully loaded MacBook Pro. I downloaded iTunes, purchased a new album, installed a new Web browser and ran multiple Web pages at once, including a video-streaming site; even with all that going on, the Envy Spectre didn’t seem to slow down at all.

HP claims 9.5 hours of battery life with the Envy Spectre, provided that the user has the laptop set to HP’s recommended power-saving settings. In my test of the Spectre, which involved turning off power savers and setting the display to full brightness, connecting to Wi-Fi, playing an iTunes playlist nonstop and running an email application, the battery lasted just over five hours. With more normal usage, I estimate you’ll get about an hour more.

After a week with the Envy Spectre, there were a couple of elements of its design that bugged me. The first is that it’s actually difficult to open. There’s a barely-there lip on the lid of the laptop, and every time the device was shut, I had to dig my nails around the edges to pry it open.

I also noticed that the Envy Spectre’s screen doesn’t recline as far back as some other laptop screens do. This laptop has a dropped hinge so the bottom of its display butts up against the keyboard, physically preventing it from going back further. I compared the Spectre to an Asus Ultrabook and even a MacBook Pro, and both laptops opened up wider than the Spectre does. For users who prefer a wide range of motion with their laptop screens, this could be a drawback.

But there were aspects of the hardware that I liked. The LED-backlit keyboard is a nice touch, and the keys had a velvety feel to them. The keys also have proximity sensors that sense when the user has stepped away from the laptop for an extended period, dimming the backlighting and acting as a minor battery-saving mechanism. While some people are used to function keys performing common shortcuts — such as F5 for refreshing a Web page — I liked that the Spectre’s function keys adjusted display brightness and controlled music playing.

There’s an easy-to-access volume-control wheel on the right-hand side of the keyboard. This is part of HP’s Beats product, offered in select computers, which is supposed to produce better-sounding audio. While Beats audio isn’t going to replace the sound system in your home or apartment anytime soon, the music tracks I listened to through the laptop sounded fuller with Beats, especially when heard through headphones.

Unlike the MacBook Air, the Envy Spectre comes with an expandable built-in Ethernet port, along with two USB ports, an HDMI port and a Mini Display port.

There are also some other sweeteners that HP threw in with the Envy Spectre 14, including Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements (which photo and video hounds will appreciate), a two-year warranty for the price of one year and a two-year Norton AntiVirus software package.

I would recommend the HP Envy Spectre 14 — but as a premium laptop, not as an Ultrabook. For consumers who want a super slim, lightweight laptop, there are options with similar technical specifications that weigh in at under three pounds and cost less.

Neil Young, the Donkey and Digital Music: The Full Dive Into Media Interview (Video)

Peter Kafka — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:00:07 +0000

Neil Young has a long and storied career, but he didn’t want to talk about it when he came onstage at D: Dive Into Media last week. Instead, the musician was pushing his vision of the future: One where lots of people listen to really good-sounding music.

To be clear: Young isn’t complaining about today’s songs. He’s complaining about the way those songs are recorded and distributed.

There’s a colorful donkey input-output metaphor here, which Young uses to make his point. And he also has a plan to fix the problem.

But first he has to convince people there is a problem. And, as Walt Mossberg and I point out, lots of people have been buying (and stealing) music in the MP3 format that Young hates, and they don’t seem to be complaining about it.

Young says former Apple CEO Steve Jobs agreed with him, though. And now he’s looking for new allies. You can see the entire pitch here:

[ See post to watch video ]

At Long Last, Hands-on With Lytro's Living Camera

Ina Fried — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 14:00:59 +0000

After spending the past several months writing about Lytro, its launch and road to market, it was fun to finally get a chance to give it a try at this past week’s AsiaD conference in Hong Kong.

Photo credit: Eric Cheng / Lytro

The technology hasn’t changed since its June debut. Under the hood, Lytro’s camera uses a new technology called light field photography, which allows for so-called “living pictures” that can be refocused after they are taken, in addition to performing a few other tricks.

What is new is the design of the camera, which until last week had been carefully hidden from public view. It’s only about an inch high and wide, and several inches long — mostly to accommodate the eight-inch zoom. It’s got just two buttons — one for turning on the camera, the other for pressing the shutter. Other moves, such as zooming and viewing pictures, are accomplished by manipulating the multitouch display on the rear of the camera, or a touch-sensitive zone along the top of the camera.

In addition to getting to take my first picture with the camera, I got to watch Lytro demonstrate it on stage.

While Lytro’s images have become well-known for their ability to be refocused, one of the harder-to-explain features is the 3-D-like feature, achievable through something called parallax. Luckily, this can be illustrated with an animated image, like the one below, from Lytro’s onstage demo with Walt Mossberg.

The picture I took of the AsiaD stage is a more typical light field composition, with various spots that can be brought into focus. Try clicking on the iPhone screen, the camera viewfinder and the stage to see the different focal points.

Al Gore: Highlights from AsiaD (Video)

Beth Callaghan — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 06:20:31 +0000

Former Vice President Al Gore arrived at AsiaD almost directly from Steve Jobs’s memorial at Apple — where he is a board member — and the first thing he talked about in his interview with Walt Mossberg was the event itself: “Beautiful and moving … it’s a terrible loss, of course, for the entire world. We’ll all miss Steve.”

Gore also expressed his deep confidence in the Apple executive team and the prospects of the company moving forward. Among other topics, he and Walt talked about the environmental effects of the tech industry, the power of television and, of course, climate change. Video highlights from the conversation follow.

[ See post to watch video ]

Won-Pyo Hong: Highlights From AsiaD (Video)

Beth Callaghan — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:29:53 +0000

In his interview today with Walt Mossberg at AsiaD, Samsung’s Won-Pyo Hong — who heads global product strategy for the Korean company’s mobile business — talked a little bit about the “multidimensional relationships” his company enjoys, including its relationship with Apple, which features mutual lawsuits as well as large volumes of trade. That and more in the following highlight reel:

[ See post to watch video ]

Kibot Demo at AsiaD (Video)

Beth Callaghan — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:03:59 +0000

Korea Telecom demoed Kibot, its kids’ robot, at AsiaD today. The plastic monkey combines games and education, which is nothing too unique, but as shown in the video below, it also allows parents to call, videochat with their child, and even control the robot remotely.

[ See post to watch video ]

Jack Dorsey: Video Highlights From AsiaD (Video)

Beth Callaghan — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:20:10 +0000

Twitter is a big deal in Asia, according to Jack Dorsey, its very busy co-founder and executive chairman. By 2008, the company was translating into Japanese due to a massive amount of tamagotchi activity on the service in Japan. In China, though, not so much. Dorsey spoke with Walt Mossberg today at the AsiaD conference in Hong Kong about Asia, Twitter and Square, among other things. A highlight reel from the interview follows.

[ See post to watch video ]

Jonney Shih: Highlights From AsiaD (Video)

John Paczkowski — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 06:00:24 +0000

With cloud computing becoming more ubiquitous, the boundaries between the tablet, the smartphone and the notebook are blurring. Today, Asus finds itself at the center of that transition. In an AsiaD interview with Walt Mossberg, company Chairman Jonney Shih talked about navigating this sea change and where a company like Asus is placing its bets — on tablets, notebooks or both. Video highlights of the session below:

[ See post to watch video ]

Lytro Demo at AsiaD (Video)

Beth Callaghan — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 05:32:18 +0000

Lytro, founded by Ren Ng in 2006, has built a whole new kind of camera that works by recording all available light in any particular scene. Chairman Charles Chi and Director of Photography Eric Cheng demonstrated the groundbreaking light field camera on stage Thursday morning at AsiaD. Video below:

[ See post to watch video ]

Jerry Yang and Rose Tsou: Video Highlights From AsiaD (Video)

John Paczkowski — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 05:04:23 +0000

What is Yahoo? Has the company’s Microsoft partnership been as rewarding as the participants had hoped? How important is Asia to Yahoo and consumers as a whole? During a Thursday morning interview at AsiaD, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and Rose Tsou, who oversees the company business interests in Asia, answered these questions and more. Below, video highlights from the session:

[ See post to watch video ]

Walt Mossberg Reflects on Life and Career of Steve Jobs for Fox Business (Video)

John Murrell — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 21:44:02 +0000

On Fox Business today, Walt Mossberg reflected on the qualities that made Apple co-founder Steve Jobs a visionary, talking about the odd sense of optimism and serenity projected by Jobs during their one-on-one conversations.

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The Steve Jobs I Knew

Walt Mossberg — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:50:32 +0000

That Steve Jobs was a genius, a giant influence on multiple industries and billions of lives, has been written many times since he retired as Apple’s CEO in August. He was a historical figure on the scale of a Thomas Edison or a Henry Ford, and set the mold for many other corporate leaders in many other industries.

He did what a CEO should: Hired and inspired great people; managed for the long term, not the quarter or the short-term stock price; made big bets and took big risks. He insisted on the highest product quality and on building things to delight and empower actual users, not intermediaries like corporate IT directors or wireless carriers. And he could sell. Man, he could sell.

As he liked to say, he lived at the intersection of technology and liberal arts.

But there was a more personal side of Steve Jobs, of course, and I was fortunate enough to see a bit of it, because I spent hours in conversation with him, over the 14 years he ran Apple. Since I am a product reviewer, and not a news reporter charged with covering the company’s business, he felt a bit more comfortable talking to me about things he might not have said to most other journalists.

Even in his death, I won’t violate the privacy of those conversations. But here are a few stories that illustrate the man as I knew him.

The Phone Calls

I never knew Steve when he was first at Apple. I wasn’t covering technology then. And I only met him once, briefly, between his stints at the company. But, within days of his return, in 1997, he began calling my house, on Sunday nights, for four or five straight weekends. As a veteran reporter, I understood that part of this was an attempt to flatter me, to get me on the side of a teetering company whose products I had once recommended, but had, more recently, advised readers to avoid.

Yet there was more to the calls than that. They turned into marathon, 90-minute, wide-ranging, off-the-record discussions that revealed to me the stunning breadth of the man. One minute he’d be talking about sweeping ideas for the digital revolution. The next about why Apple’s current products were awful, and how a color, or angle, or curve, or icon was embarrassing.

After the second such call, my wife became annoyed at the intrusion he was making in our weekend. I didn’t.

Later, he’d sometimes call to complain about some reviews, or parts of reviews — though, in truth, I felt very comfortable recommending most of his products for the average, non-techie consumers at whom I aim my columns. (That may have been because they were his target, too.) I knew he would be complaining because he’d start every call by saying “Hi, Walt. I’m not calling to complain about today’s column, but I have some comments, if that’s okay.” I usually disagreed with his comments, but that was okay, too.

The Product Unveilings

Sometimes, not always, he’d invite me in to see certain big products before he unveiled them to the world. He may have done the same with other journalists. We’d meet in a giant boardroom, with just a few of his aides present, and he’d insist — even in private — on covering the new gadgets with cloths and then uncovering them like the showman he was, a gleam in his eye and passion in his voice. We’d then often sit down for a long, long discussion of the present, the future, and general industry gossip.

I still remember the day he showed me the first iPod. I was amazed that a computer company would branch off into music players, but he explained, without giving any specifics away, that he saw Apple as a digital products company, not a computer company. It was the same with the iPhone, the iTunes music store, and later the iPad, which he asked me to his home to see, because he was too ill at the time to go to the office.

The Slides

To my knowledge, the only tech conference Steve Jobs regularly appeared at, the only event he didn’t somehow control, was our D: All Things Digital conference, where he appeared repeatedly for unrehearsed, onstage interviews. We had one rule that really bothered him: We never allowed slides, which were his main presentation tool.

One year, about an hour before his appearance, I was informed that he was backstage preparing dozens of slides, even though I had reminded him a week earlier of the no-slides policy. I asked two of his top aides to tell him he couldn’t use the slides, but they each said they couldn’t do it, that I had to. So, I went backstage and told him the slides were out. Famously prickly, he could have stormed out, refused to go on. And he did try to argue with me. But, when I insisted, he just said “Okay.” And he went on stage without them, and was, as usual, the audience’s favorite speaker.

Ice Water in Hell

For our fifth D conference, both Steve and his longtime rival, the brilliant Bill Gates, surprisingly agreed to a joint appearance, their first extended onstage joint interview ever. But it almost got derailed.

Earlier in the day, before Gates arrived, I did a solo onstage interview with Jobs, and asked him what it was like to be a major Windows developer, since Apple’s iTunes program was by then installed on hundreds of millions of Windows PCs.

He quipped: “It’s like giving a glass of ice water to someone in Hell.” When Gates later arrived and heard about the comment, he was, naturally, enraged, because my partner Kara Swisher and I had assured both men that we hoped to keep the joint session on a high plane.

In a pre-interview meeting, Gates said to Jobs: “So I guess I’m the representative from Hell.” Jobs merely handed Gates a cold bottle of water he was carrying. The tension was broken, and the interview was a triumph, with both men acting like statesmen. When it was over, the audience rose in a standing ovation, some of them in tears.

The Optimist

I have no way of knowing how Steve talked to his team during Apple’s darkest days in 1997 and 1998, when the company was on the brink and he was forced to turn to archrival Microsoft for a rescue. He certainly had a nasty, mercurial side to him, and I expect that, then and later, it emerged inside the company and in dealings with partners and vendors, who tell believable stories about how hard he was to deal with.

But I can honestly say that, in my many conversations with him, the dominant tone he struck was optimism and certainty, both for Apple and for the digital revolution as a whole. Even when he was telling me about his struggles to get the music industry to let him sell digital songs, or griping about competitors, at least in my presence, his tone was always marked by patience and a long-term view. This may have been for my benefit, knowing that I was a journalist, but it was striking nonetheless.

At times in our conversations, when I would criticize the decisions of record labels or phone carriers, he’d surprise me by forcefully disagreeing, explaining how the world looked from their point of view, how hard their jobs were in a time of digital disruption, and how they would come around.

This quality was on display when Apple opened its first retail store. It happened to be in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, near my home. He conducted a press tour for journalists, as proud of the store as a father is of his first child. I commented that, surely, there’d only be a few stores, and asked what Apple knew about retailing.

He looked at me like I was crazy, said there’d be many, many stores, and that the company had spent a year tweaking the layout of the stores, using a mockup at a secret location. I teased him by asking if he, personally, despite his hard duties as CEO, had approved tiny details like the translucency of the glass and the color of the wood.

He said he had, of course.

The Walk

After his liver transplant, while he was recuperating at home in Palo Alto, California, Steve invited me over to catch up on industry events that had transpired during his illness. It turned into a three-hour visit, punctuated by a walk to a nearby park that he insisted we take, despite my nervousness about his frail condition.

He explained that he walked each day, and that each day he set a farther goal for himself, and that, today, the neighborhood park was his goal. As we were walking and talking, he suddenly stopped, not looking well. I begged him to return to the house, noting that I didn’t know CPR and could visualize the headline: “Helpless Reporter Lets Steve Jobs Die on the Sidewalk.”

But he laughed, and refused, and, after a pause, kept heading for the park. We sat on a bench there, talking about life, our families, and our respective illnesses (I had had a heart attack some years earlier). He lectured me about staying healthy. And then we walked back.

Steve Jobs didn’t die that day, to my everlasting relief. But now he really is gone, much too young, and it is the world’s loss.

Editors Note: Here is a video of Walt talking about that walk with Jobs:

[ See post to watch video ]

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Steve Jobs's Appearances at D, the Full Video Sessions

Beth Callaghan — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:49:00 +0000

Steve Jobs was onstage for the first-ever D: All Things Digital conference in 2003, and a guest and interviewee four times since — five if you count the legendary two appearances he made onstage at D5 in 2007, one solo and one with longtime rival and friend Bill Gates.

Here are the complete sessions for his D appearances:

D1 in 2003

[ See post to watch video ]

D2 in 2004

[ See post to watch video ]

D3 in 2005

[ See post to watch video ]

D5 in 2007

[ See post to watch video ]

D5 in 2007 with Microsoft’s Bill Gates

[ See post to watch video ]

D8 in 2010

[ See post to watch video ]

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Steve Jobs Through the Years: Highlights and Clips From the D Conference

Beth Callaghan and Drake Martinet — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 13:30:25 +0000

Since the inception of the D: All Things Digital conference in 2003, Steve Jobs was a frequent guest onstage, and his appearances have always made for some of our most popular videos. Here are some favorites:

D1: Steve Jobs Onstage in 2003, on the Tablet

A day after Bill Gates took the stage, enthusiastic about the future of the tablet computer, Jobs dismissed the idea as a niche product for rich guys. “We looked at the tablet, and we think it’s gonna fail.”

[ See post to watch video ]

View the full session video of Steve Jobs at D1.

D2: Apple CEO Steve Jobs in 2004, on Not Doing a PDA

Specifically referring to ongoing speculation about Apple’s development of a PDA, Jobs said “I’m as proud of the products that we have not done as I am of the products we have done.”

[ See post to watch video ]

View the full session video of Steve Jobs at D2.

D3: Steve Jobs Onstage at D3 in 2005

As Kara pushed for info about an “iPod phone,” Jobs laid out the challenges of creating such a product, though he didn’t make any outright denials that Apple was doing so.

[ See post to watch video ]

View the full session video of Steve Jobs at D3.

D5: Steve Jobs Flashes the iPhone

In the first of two appearances at 2007′s D5 conference, Jobs joked with Walt about Apple’s “three businesses and a hobby” and gave attendees an oh-so-quick peek at the forthcoming iPhone.

[ See post to watch video ]

D5: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates look back

In their first joint appearance in 20 years, Gates and Jobs reminisce about competition between their two companies and the state of the graphic user interface in the mid-nineties.

[ See post to watch video ]

D5: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates look ahead

Jobs and Gates discuss the future of the industry and the roles of Apple and Microsoft as entertainment delivery systems.

[ See post to watch video ]

View the highlight reel of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates together at D5.
View the full session video of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates together at D5.
View the full session video of Steve Jobs at D5.

D8: Steve Jobs on the iPhone’s Origin

In 2010, Jobs told Walt and Kara how the iPhone actually grew out of a multitouch display Apple was developing for a tablet. The OS was so promising that Jobs put the tablet on the back burner and used the OS for the iPhone instead.

[ See post to watch video ]

D8: Steve Jobs on Apple’s Relationship With Google

“Just because we’re competing with somebody doesn’t mean we have to be rude.”

[ See post to watch video ]

D8: Steve Jobs on Foxconn

Apple has a better understanding than most companies in the tech industry of the working conditions in its supply chain, Jobs told Walt and Kara in 2010, but it’s still working to understand the suicide rate at its Foxconn plant in China.

[ See post to watch video ]

D8: Steve Jobs on iAds Restrictions

Here’s a hint for iOS developers: Don’t put third-party analytics software in your apps, especially not if the analytics firm involved is going to publish personal data about your users and their devices without asking them first. It really pisses Steve off.

[ See post to watch video ]

D8: Steve Jobs on Television

The reason that Apple TV remains a hobby, Jobs explained at D8, is a balkanized television market that makes it impossible for the company to innovate across the board.

[ See post to watch video ]

D8: Steve Jobs on AT&T

With the Verizon iPhone deal still on the horizon, Jobs was unable to offer any concrete hope to the Houston-based iPhone user in the D8 audience, whose only real problem with the phone was its inability to make any calls.

[ See post to watch video ]

D8: Apple CEO Steve Jobs Talks About Flash

At D8, Jobs discussed his still-fresh “Thoughts on Flash” memo with Walt and Kara.

[ See post to watch video ]

View the full session video of Steve Jobs at D8.

Running an iPad App on Windows

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 01:01:58 +0000

Is it possible to run an iPad app on a Windows computer, or to run the iPad operating system?

No. Apps for the iPad and iPhone are specifically designed for Apple’s mobile operating system, called iOS, and that operating system is built to run only on Apple’s mobile devices. There are some apps called “Web apps,” which are really websites that behave like applications. For instance, Amazon just released a Web version of its Kindle e-reader app called the Kindle Cloud Reader. These are the exception to the rule: They do work on iPads and Windows PCs. But they aren’t, strictly speaking, iPad apps.

I am thinking of getting an original iPad (Apple reconditioned) instead of the iPad 2. It would save me about $170 and appears to have about all the same features including full warranty except the camera, which I have on my newer iPod. Any reason I shouldn’t do this?

No, not if you don’t need the cameras and trust Apple’s refurbishing service (I have no reason to distrust it, just have no experience with it). The original iPad runs the same software and apps and has most of the same capabilities. However, it is thicker and heavier than the current model, and while I always found it speedy, it isn’t as fast as the newer one.

Is there a link you can provide for a free download of Microsoft Word? I didn’t get it on my Windows 7 PC.

Microsoft Word, and the Office suite of which it is a part, aren’t available as free downloads, as far as I know. But you can download a free 60-day trial. If you want a free office suite, you might try Open Office.

Email mossberg@wsj.com.

What Martha Saw: #D9 Tweets From the Eyes of the Audience

Drake Martinet — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:25:08 +0000

AllThingsD is all over Twitter and not just because our very own Kara Swisher is followed by more people than live in some nations.

No, our audience, our readers and the top-tier attendees at our ninth D conference were all about tweeting their days away as well.

In fact, Bill Gross, one of our attendees, liked the conference so much that he posted a story on Storify of his whole D experience rolled up in 113 tweets.

Well, Bill, we can do you one better–here’s the story of D9, according to the celebrity (and mini-celebrity) guests at D.

Ours is full of pictures (the behind the scenes kind) and links to videos. And even the inimitable @MarthaStewart makes an appearance or two.

If you love us on Twitter, feel free to follow our new accounts, which break our copious coverage into topic areas like social or mobile, so you’ll get everything you’re looking for without risking info-overload.

Enjoy (if you don’t see tweets via Storify right away, please refresh your browser and it should work):

(Special thanks to our intrepid–and very new–intern Alexandra Chang for contributing to this post.)

Adobe CEO: Android Will Overtake iPad Just Like it Did the iPhone (Video)

Tricia Duryee — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:51:39 +0000

Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen debunked a myth today at D that there’s an ongoing feud between it and Apple over running Flash on iOS.

Still, he didn’t hesitate downplaying Apple’s early lead in the tablet market, saying over the long-term, he is putting his money on Google’s Android, which runs Flash (coincidentally).

“What you saw with smartphones hitting an inflection point with Android, you’ll see it again with tablets,” he said.

He also named both HP and RIM as two companies that will gain traction in the enterprise. Both of those platforms also support Flash.

“There will be another 20 tablets that will come by the end of the year that will push the industry in different directions,” he said.

Some will provide the hardware that plays specifically to Adobe’s strengths, such as tablets that support video production and tablets that come with a stylus, which allows for more detailed actions like illustrations.

“I think the community is vibrant. I’m really excited,” he said.

Here’s the entire highlight reel with Narayen’s interview with Walt Mossberg:

[ See post to watch video ]

Sorry, Windows 8 May Look Different, But It Will Need the Same Security Software

Tricia Duryee — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 23:30:10 +0000

It may look completely different, but unfortunately, Microsoft’s new Windows 8 platform will be the same when it comes to being vulnerable to outside attacks.

At the D Conference today, where Microsoft gave its first glimpse of Windows 8, Walt Mossberg asked Windows President Steven Sinofsky, “What about security? Will I have to install some anti-virus program on this lovely thing?”

The short answer: Yes.

“It will always be a good idea to run security software,” Sinofsky said. “If you think your machine’s not a target, you’ll find out pretty soon that it is.”

Sinofsky added that having security software on the device doesn’t have to be a painful experience. It’s possible to use it without getting constant pop-ups and nagging renewal notices. “I think it’s possible to write security software that you never see until something bad happens,” he added.

Dell Streak Demo at D8: The Full, Uncut Video

Beth Callaghan — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:44:05 +0000

As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June.

Today, it’s time for the Streak from Dell (DELL), a much-anticipated entry into the tablet market that Apple (AAPL) has blown up with its iPad.

Dell’s model, which uses the Google (GOOG) Android mobile operating system, is a different solution — smaller than the iPad, but bigger than a smartphone.

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Note: We’ll be posting full D8 videos on Mondays and Thursdays. Next up: The demo for OnLive.

Kno Demo at D8: The Full, Uncut Video

Beth Callaghan — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:36:11 +0000

As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June.

Here’s the demo for Kno, a start-up that is taking on the textbook by replacing it with a tablet aimed at students.

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Note: We’ll be posting full D8 videos on Mondays and Thursdays. Next up: The demo for Dell Streak.

Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally at D8: The Full, Uncut Video

Beth Callaghan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:38:29 +0000

As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June.

Here’s the last interview Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher did at D8, but definitely not the least: Ford Motor Company (F) CEO Alan Mulally.

Here’s the full video of the D8 interview session.

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HTC CEO Peter Chou at D8: The Full, Uncut Video

Adam Tow — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 06:26:12 +0000

As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June.

Here’s Walt Mossberg’s interview with HTC CEO Peter Chou, who heads the Taiwan-based smartphone maker.

As Digital Daily’s John Paczkowski wrote in June:

“Over the past few years, Chou has transformed HTC from a contract handset manufacturer into a smartphone powerhouse, a company that ranks behind only Nokia (NOK), Research in Motion (RIMM) and Apple (AAPL) in global smartphone shipments. That’s quite an achievement and one attributable to the very early, savvy bet Chou made on Google’s (GOOG) Android mobile operating system.

But that same bet has gotten HTC into trouble as well, most notably a high-profile lawsuit from Apple alleging that a number of HTC’s Android devices infringe patents related to the iPhone’s graphical user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.”

Oh, that…which is all discussed in the full video of the D8 interview session with Chou.

[ See post to watch video ]

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Note: We’ll be posting full D8 videos on Mondays and Thursdays. Next up: Ford (F) CEO Alan Mulally.

Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs at D8: The Full, Uncut Video

Beth Callaghan — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:42:44 +0000

As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June.

Here’s Walt Mossberg’s interview with Qualcomm (QCOM) CEO Paul Jacobs at D8.

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Note: We’ll be posting full D8 videos on Mondays and Thursdays. Next up: Peter Chou, CEO of HTC.

EBay CEO John Donahoe at D8: The Full, Uncut Video

Beth Callaghan — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:54:05 +0000

As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June.

Here’s Walt Mossberg’s interview with eBay (EBAY) CEO John Donahoe, about the situation at the iconic Silicon Valley e-commerce giant.

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Note: We’ll be posting full D8 videos on Mondays and Thursdays. Next up: Paul Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm (QCOM).

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski at D8: The Full, Uncut Video

Kara Swisher — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:04:14 +0000

As promised, All Things Digital is posting the full videos from our eighth D: All Things Digital conference, held in early June.

Today, it’s Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski’s turn.

The former Internet and media exec was selected by the Obama administration to lead its more aggressive digital efforts.

But it has not been an easy job so far.

There have been both court rulings and political pressure related to the agency’s purview over broadband and other digital issues, even as the FCC is trying to implement a much needed National Broadband Plan.

Here’s the full video of the session, in which Genachowski talks about all this and more in an interview with Walt Mossberg:

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Note: We’ll be posting full D8 videos on Mondays and Thursdays. Next up: Hollywood producers Steve Levitan and Lloyd Braun.

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