The voice behind Siri breaks his silence
Jon Briggs only discovered he was the voice of Apple's Siri in the UK when he saw it on television. He speaks openly for the first — Jon Briggs, the voice of Siri — Apple has been keeping a secre...
Corporate Japan Rocked By Scandal at Olympus
TOKYO — In June 1998, a disturbing rumor tore through trading floors in Tokyo: Olympus had suffered colossal losses on derivatives trading, punching a large hole in its balance sheet. The company's s...
Google's Chief Works to Trim a Bloated Ship
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Larry Page, Google's chief executive, so hates wasting time at meetings that he once dumped his secretary to avoid being scheduled for them. He does not much like e-mail eithe...
Hello Roboto
When we announced Ice Cream Sandwich I also got a chance to introduce Android's new typeface Roboto. Today I'd like to talk about how Roboto was born — why we decided to create it, and the design cho...
Warner Bros: we issued takedowns for files we never saw, didn't own copyright to
In a Monday court filing, Warner Brothers admitted that it has issued takedown notices for files without looking at them first. The studio also acknowledged that it issued takedown notices for a numb...
RIM's BBX Phones Won't Look Like Bold, Will Support BES
RIM's new BBX phones may not look like the BlackBerry Bold, but they will support BlackBerry's core enterprise email features, Alec Saunders, RIM's vice president of Developer Relations and Ecosystem ...
Zynga Leans On Some Workers to Surrender Pre-IPO Shares
SAN FRANCISCO—Zynga Inc. Chief Executive Mark Pincus often gave shares rather than high salaries to his top talent as he built his online-game start-up. — But as Zynga grew into a multibillion-dolla...
Mixel invites iPad users to create social collages
When's the last time you made a physical photo collage? Probably been a while. But the idea is familiar to most people and it's an easy way to creatively express yourself. That's what a new iPad ap...
Exclusive: Amazon's $79 Kindle Costs $84 to Make
NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Amazon's new $79 Kindle e-reader isn't just undercutting all competitors on price, it's also undercutting Amazon. — The soon-to-be-released e-reader costs $84.25 to manufactu...
Pick up where you left off: Google+ adds a ‘Games’ section to your homepage
If you can't get enough of Google+ Games, this new update is just for you. Google+ Games Software Engineer, Vermont Lasmarias, today revealed that an easy shortcut section to your most recently playe...
Facebook Adds Another Nail To The Proverbial RSS Coffin, Kills Off ‘Import’ In Notes
Bad news all ten of you that actually used this feature, Facebook has changed its Notes settings and will eventually eliminate the importing of blog items via RSS for personal Facebook pages.
Logitech CEO: Google TV ‘cost us dearly,’ no Revue replacement coming
Yesterday, Logitech hosted an Analyst and Investor Day and during his remarks, CEO Guerrino De Luca pulled absolutely no punches in describing the “mistakes” the company made with its Logitech Revue G...
Facebook Nears Settlement on Charges It Misled Users on Privacy
Facebook Inc. is finalizing a proposed settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over charges that it engaged in deceptive behavior when changing its privacy settings, according to people familiar ...
Exclusive: Mark Pincus memo to Zynga employees
Earlier today the Wall Street Journal suggested that social gaming giant Zynga had strong-armed employees into giving up previously-granted stock options. I wrote a follow-up post, arguing that the W...
Can A Twitter Account Be A Company Trade Secret?
There has been an ongoing tug-of-war between journalists and publishers over who gets to keep digital possessions after a break-up. The debate took a new twist this week after a court issued a ruling...
Sony CEO: We're building ‘a different kind of TV set,’ just like Apple
All eyes have been on Apple to reinvent the television set, but Sony CEO Howard Stringer recently confirmed that Sony, too, is working on re-imagining the TV. “There's a tremendous amount of R&D goin...
How does Sony make money? Life insurance!
Sony's consumer electronics business — led by TVs, videogames, and computers — still generates about half of the company's sales. — But Sony's profits these days come from what may seem like an unex...
Google Acquires Katango, The Automatic Friend Sorter
Back in September we broke the news that Google was in talks to acquire Katango, a small Kleiner Perkins-backed startup that launched this past summer. Today, they've made it official: Katango just a...