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Web video just grew up

by Matt Bowman, August 20, 2010 | Comments (1)

Thanks to Old Spice, Rated Awesome and the Gregory Brothers, online video has officially come of age

Without any press release or fanfare, secretly and subtly, just when you thought it would never happen, Internet video grew up. Since YouTube was born, the newborn sector has been flailing about, vaguely aware of its legs and arms, but without a clue as to how they worked. Shaky images of cats and toddlers splattered our screens like spitup on ...

Time Inc. thrusts mags into new iPad model

by Matt Bowman, August 20, 2010 | Comments

People Magazine's app will now be free for print subscribers. Cue Phase 2 of Jobs' distortion field.

Time Inc. Friday morning made its iPad version of People free to print subscribers. Previously, each iPad issue cost $3.99 a pop even to those who paid for the print edition. I know. You don’t read People either. So who cares, right? Well, if you’re immersed enough in Western culture to read this blog, you should care. This is the ...

Why don't women blog about porn?

by Matt Bowman, August 18, 2010 | Comments (5)

A handful of men-penned posts on porn this week raise the question. The answer may be ugly.

Ever notice how many male tech bloggers defend porn like it was their religion? This week, two big B-list bloggers, MG Seigler and Ryan Tate, came out waving the fleshpot flag with gusto. Tate's piece takes the now-common tack of crying hypocrysy over Apple's ban on porn apps. He notes that Phillip Shoemaker, Apple’s man in charge of the App ...

Someone is fueling Hulu IPO rumors

by Matt Bowman, August 16, 2010 | Comments (1)

The Big Media video site may be prepping a public offering that would give it a $2B valuation.

Hulu is readying an initial public offering that would value the company at $2 billion according to anonymous sources briefed on the matter that snitched to the New York Times. That probably means Hulu’s leadership wants to start the rumor mill (who else would leak this?), in order to A) genuinely stoke interest among investment banks for an IPO B) ...

Starbucks to offer WSJ for free this fall

by Matt Bowman, August 13, 2010 | Comments (3)

Coffee chain is betting that free subscriber content will boost the power of its psycho-magnet

It’s Friday. At some point today, you’ll get the urge for an end-of-the-week, longish break to do some of that leisure reading you heroically denied yourself for the last five days. Troll the headlines, check Facebook, that sort of thing. You do it often, but come this fall, the experience will change. On a Friday this fall, the balance in ...

Boomerang: send & receive gmail in the future

by Matt Bowman, August 12, 2010 | Comments

	The most important new gmail feature in years isn't coming from Google. This has been a long time coming. Email is a mess. As a guy who whose office is his inbox, I’m ashamed to say that I still haven’t figured out how to manage the office. I’m left with endless clutter, important emails unresponded-to, and no way to get a jump on emails that need to go out. Very soon, gmail ...
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Facebook's Foursquare killer is weeks away

by Matt Bowman, August 11, 2010 | Comments

As Social King readies location-based features, privacy and Foursquare's fate hang in the balance

Facebook is readying to launch its Foursquare competitor in a few weeks, according to CNet. This is probably the main reason for Mark Zuckerberg's company-wide 60-day lock-down. Caroline McCarthy picks up several hints about what the offering will look like: It will be an API for use by third-party apps. It’ll have an events check-in dimension, thanks to the Hot ...

Ellison blasts HP for ousting Hurd

by Matt Bowman, August 10, 2010 | Comments (2)

Oracle chief defends his tennis buddy against what looks like an unscrupulous HP board.

Oracle Chief Larry Ellison is livid. HP just ousted his good friend Mark Hurd for a minor accounting discrepancy and a claim of sexual harassment HP apparently knows is false. In a letter to the New York Times, Ellison let it be known that he has his friend’s back. “The H.P. board just made the worst personnel decision since the ...

My Damn Channel raises more damn money

by Matt Bowman, August 9, 2010 | Comments

Web video studio pulls in $4.4 million as VC money trickles back into online entertainment startups.

Online video studio and platform My Damn Channel has raised a $4.4 million Series B round led by Intuitive Venture Partners, with additional funding from existing investors Okapi Venture Capital and Sunshine Wireless Company. The New York Times' Brian Stelter believes this is emblematic of a resurgence in VC interest in online video. Really, it's just a part of the ...

Wikileaks: an ugly transparency posterchild

by Matt Bowman, August 6, 2010 | Comments (2)

In the tech blogs, it's hip to dope-slap DC. But hugging Wikileaks is like kissing your executioner.

Lots of drama this week over Wikileaks, the whistle-blower website that continues to publish sensitive classified documents from the War in Afghanistan. The national security versus transparency debate is often mishandled by tech pundits who don’t know how to balance their allegiances. The recent developments all point to an escalation of the U.S. military’s response to the site: arresting an ...

Slide slips into Google for $182-$228 M

by Matt Bowman, August 5, 2010 | Comments

The company we almost forgot about manages a face-saving exit as Google’s gaming grab continues.

Quick: What do you know about Slide? I know, I know—Max Levchin founded it. What else? If you’re having trouble answering that question, you’re not alone. Here’s the short answer: it makes social widgets. But here’s why anyone cares about Slide: it was founded by former PayPal CTO Max Levchin, who said he would consider it an abject failure if ...

Facebook ad revenue jumps 1000%

by Matt Bowman, August 4, 2010 | Comments

Advertisers cast aside misgivings and turned on spending spigit in last 12 months, COO maintains.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg says in an interview with Bloomberg published this morning that the company’s advertisers have boosted spending 10-fold in the last year. This means a lot of things. It means that Facebook can push back an IPO even longer, till 2012 or beyond (arm-chair pundits had unanimously agreed on 2011 before another Bloomberg report last week). The ...

Why did Apple vaporize Lala?

by Matt Bowman, August 3, 2010 | Comments

Apple tells labels "iTunes in the Cloud" isn't ready yet. Perhaps Cupertino bought to kill.

When Apple bought cloud music service Lala in December, iTunes in the Cloud was expected to follow quickly. Last night, CNet published their best guess as to why that never happened—or rather, several disparate clues to possible explanations: Apple has the Lala team working on a video technology; Apple hasn’t reached licensing deals with the record labels; management disagreements led ...

Microsoft sold your privacy (thank goodness)

by Matt Bowman, August 2, 2010 | Comments (2)

The company bowed to advertising pressure, quashed pro-privacy Explorer design in 2008.

The WSJ just published the billy club for your weekly Microsoft beatdown. Turns out the company quashed internal efforts to boost online privacy in favor of making more money with advertising. Horrible, right? The Microsoft lynch mob is gathering on the Washington border. But before you start practicing your sideswipe, here's an apologia for Redmond. First, the facts: In 2008, ...

Evo 4G coming June 4. Mobile future included.

by Matt Bowman, May 13, 2010 | Comments

For $199 plus contract, device offers two-way video chat via Qik, wifi hotspot capability

This morning brings a glimpse of the near mobile future. Two announcements—one about Sprint’s Evo 4G Phone and one about Android’s next version—paint a picture of what this summer holds for early adopters with cash to burn. First, Sprint released more details on the two-way video chat functionality of the Evo 4G, set to go on sale June 4th for ...

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