I’ve come to the conclusion that my Android phone hates me. It probably hates you, too. The breaking point came today when I tried to use my phone to Google the word “Edsel.” Instead of delivering the answer, my phone — a cheap LG model from Virgin Mobile — spontaneously rebooted itself. I wasn’t ex

This column starts with the $3.4 billion acquisition of SuccessFactors by SAP, ties together “the cloud” with mobile computing, throws in a dash of futurism and somehow winds up with a reference to Glee. Want to give your CEO an iPad? You probably also need web-based applications so she can do somet

As I write, the VentureBeat offices sit enveloped by a cloud. In all directions, the fog wraps our office building in a soft, gray fuzz, obscuring the views of downtown San Francisco, the bay, and the ocean. It’s not unlike the cloud of marketing and hype surrounding “cloud” technologies. A fog of j

Caterina Fake: “Much more important than working hard is knowing how to find the right thing to work on.” via Caterina.net: Working hard is overrated.

In my latest column for VentureBeat, I wrote about my experiences as an entrepreneur during the dot-com boom, and why it’s so important not to delay if you think you’ve got a startup in you. The only way to learn how to start a company is by going out and actually doing it. There are […]

This @ericries piece from last weekend is one of the smartest things I’ve read on race & meritocracy. He discusses how the gender makeup of major symphony orchestras changed radically after implementing a simple change: Making people do their auditions behind black screens, so the auditors can’t see

Glam Media founder Samir Arora thinks he knows the future of media. The secret, he is betting, is brand advertising displayed against high-quality, premium content. That stands in stark contrast to the advertising model that’s worked best for the past decade online, in which increasingly specific te

I was a judge at a startup competition recently. It was great fun and all of the 8 contestants were brave enough to make a 2-minute presentation in front of a room full of people — not to mention four cranky judges. One presentation in particular really stood out though. When Halvor Gregusson got of

Minted, a marketplace for community-sourced paper products like custom stationery and wedding invitations, has raised a big pile of the green kind of paper — the kind you can spend. For anyone whose parents told them to stop doodling Celtic knots or obsessively repetitive graphic designs and focus o

I have a cameo in the Monty Python-esque introduction to this video that I’m rather proud of, goofy as it is. The week in review: Jobs’ last words, Siri’s rough week & Google+’s last stand | VentureBeat.

Apple understands it. Amazon understands it. But nearly every other gadget manufacturer is missing the point: It’s not about the specs any more. It’s about the ability of devices to deliver a seamless, integrated, easy-to-use experience that combines plenty of desirable content and useful services,

Silicon Valley has a race problem. You don’t need a Twitter fight to tell you that. And, while it’s great that CNN has made waves with previews of its upcoming show on the subject, you don’t need cable TV to tell you that, either. (For two smart views on the controversy, read Hank Williams and […]