David Needle

Steve Jobs was quoted in a press release and reportedly spotted at the Apple campus on Monday, raising speculation that the chief executive may have returned to work. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), which has not disclosed details on Jobs’ state of health, declined to comment. CNBC said Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor, reported to work on […]

The HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web. Source: HP.Click to enlarge. SAN FRANCISCO — Hewlett-Packard hopes lightning strikes twice. Twenty five years ago, the computer and printer giant released its first home printer, the LaserJet, the first of many products in what was to become a multibillion-dollar business. Today, HP previewed what it’s touting as the first […]

Everyone doesn’t need to know what’s happening right this minute — it just seems that way. Twitter tweets abound, up-to-the-minute news tickers are the norm on TV and keeping your status message up to date has become, well, a status symbol. Search giants like Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) have long prided themselves […]

Microsoft will provide technology to optimize sales of television advertising for NBC Universal (NBCU) under an “alliance” that the two companies announced Thursday. Under the terms of the deal, NBCU will use Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Admira television media marketplace to sell advertising — that is, once Admira begins commercial service in the fourth quarter of […]

In what might turn out to be an unintentional boost to Starbuck’s sales, more than 200 Apple stores across the country will open at 7 a.m. Friday morning to make the first load of new iPhone 3G S phones available. Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) unveiled the new model earlier this month and more recently announced it’s […]

There’s an old sales adage about not leaving money on the table, but in this Web 2.0 world, some of those old saws don’t apply. The latest to get on the so-called “Freemium” bandwagon is enterprise social network provider Socialcast. The company released the latest version of its social networking platform for business earlier this […]

It’s back to basics for Intel. Wednesday the chip giant announced in a blog post that it plans to overhaul its marketing message with a focus on its “Core” line of microprocessors. The blog, by corporate communications manager Bill Calder, says Core will be positioned as Intel’s (NASDAQ: INTC) primary “hero client brand” distinct from […]

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The good new for proponents of the Semantic Web: “We’re at that inflection point where innovation is exploding,” said Tom Tague, who heads the OpenCalais initiative at Thomson Reuters. OpenCalais is a high profile Semantic Web project that uses natural language processing to make content easier to find. Rather than a […]

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Is Bing better than Google? Do conversations lead to better search results? Is mobile search any good? The answers to these questions came up for debate as a panel of tech heavyweights here at the Semantic Web conference weighed in on some of the most pressing concerns facing the search space. […]

MySpace, the social network owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, said it will cut 30 percent of its staff to lower costs as it struggles to stay popular in the face of rising competition. MySpace will be left with about 1,000 employees, it said in a statement released on Tuesday. The company declined to say […]

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The wait for Siri, a much-hyped virtual digital assistant application for the iPhone, may soon be over. “Soon, really soon,” said Tom Gruber, co-founder and CTO of Siri, when asked when the free service will be available. Gruber’s appearance here at the Semantic Web conference was one of a few previews […]

Facebook held an off-the-record media event here last night at its new headquarters. The company moved from a smaller space in Palo Alto to a more rural part of town in what’s known as the Stanford Research Park. A reception with company executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, was held on the roof (great views) of […]