Google CEO Eric Schmidt used the opening moments of a New York City press conference to reinforce a message he’s been delivering for several weeks: The worst is over, things are looking up, and Google is spending accordingly.
Here’s a front-page story the New York Times would rather not be running: The paper is warning readers to be aware of bogus ads running on its Web site.
The paper says “some readers” have seen unauthorized pop-up ads promoting antivirus software on NYTimes.com, and warns visitors who see the ad not to click on it but to restart their browsers instead. While the Times doesn’t spell this out, it has likely had its site hijacked by a “malware” scammer who is trying to trick visitors into installing pernicious software onto their hard drives.
In the old days, Apple sometimes used bonafide celebrities to help hawk its products–either willing participants like Jeff Goldblum or, via the miracle of archival footage, icons like Einstein, Dylan and Lennon. But for its long-running “I’m a Mac” campaign, Apple has primarily relied on actors who are most famous for appearing in Apple ads. Here’s a new one that splits the difference: It features Patrick Warburton, best known as “Puddy” on Seinfeld
This is now an Apple earnings-call tradition: Analysts try their hardest to convince Apple executives to express interest in the booming market for cheap netbooks and Apple executives make it perfectly clear how much disdain they have for netbooks. But an $800 iTablet? That’s something else altogether…
The Web is full of armchair ad critics, particularly when it comes to spots from Apple and Microsoft. And the usual consensus from the chattering classes: Apple ads goooood. Microsoft ads baaaaaad.
But Microsoft’s latest campaign, which features documentary-like tales of youngish people priced out by Apple, may actually be working. At least when it comes to youngish people’s perceptions of the two brands.
Next to no news from the Apple earnings call this afternoon, which is just the way Apple execs like their earnings calls. Once again, the company provided no information about CEO Steve Jobs’s health except to note that he is still scheduled to come back to work in June. And the company continued to pooh-pooh the concept of netbooks–supercheap, supersmall laptops with very little horsepower that are the hottest part of the PC business right now.
First quick look at Apple’s earnings: Tim Cook and company have beaten the Street’s expectations. Apple earned $1.33 per share on revenues of $8.16 billion, beating the consensus of $1.09 and $8 billion. It also outperformed estimates for sales of the Mac, iPod and iPhone. At first glance, a strong quarter. But guidance for the next quarter may be a bit less than what Wall Street was looking for.
What if Apple had made the first iPhone in 1983? What if you could turn a Nintendo controller into a bong? What would a 103-inch TV look like? Theoretical questions no longer. At least for people who visit New York’s Lower East Side for the next few days. That’s where Gizmodo, Gawker Media’s crazily successful gadget blog, has set up a gallery of odd, cool, and awesome stuff.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
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