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A quick talk with Scott Cook, booth babe and Intuit co-founder

Rafe Needleman — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:38:00 GMT

Intuit founder Scott Cook demos new TurboTax for Mac at MacWorld.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CBS Interactive)

I spied Scott Cook, a founder and former CEO of Intuit, which makes Quicken and Quickbooks, at his company's Macworld booth, giving demos just like any booth worker. That was curious--you don't see big company billionaires mingling with consumers in a frenzied trade show environment too often (although you should). So I snared him for a quick interview about his booth duty and the plans for Intuit overall.

Regarding hanging out with The People, Cook simply said that it's a great way to get customers to talk to him for free (versus paid surveys, I assume) and that it's good to hear what you are doing wrong (as a Quicken for Windows user, I could give have given him an earful, but time was short). He also likes to see how his team presents to customers.

On Intuit's overall strategy, Cook says Intuit is pursuing a strategy based around online and mobile access to financial data. U.S. consumers spend $7 billion a year in overdraft feeds, he says, and there's no excuse for that when your phone could alert you when you're about to over-extend yourself. Thus Quicken Beam and Quicken Online (which recently got a refresh) as well as an online version of the small business app Quickbooks. There's also an online version of TurboTax that will compute and file your federal taxes for free. State returns are extra, though.

Quicken Mobile gives you quick visibility in your basic financial position.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CBS Interactive)

At the same time, Intuit seems to be renewing its commitment to standalone apps, or at least to the Mac. Quicken for Mac is being retired in favor of a newly-built financial management app called Financial Life, now in a very early public beta. It looks, at first glance, like a nicely designed version of Quicken, simpler to get in to than the company's traditional software. (On Windows, Quicken 2009 looks like a typical upgrade for Intuit from Quicken 2008: a few new features, but according to user reviews, lacking needed reliability improvements.)

Yet despite Cook's mission to offer holistic financial suites for its users, Intuit is not yet delivering on integration between its products. For example, if you use Quicken Mobile to update your Quicken Online account, that data won't make it into your Quicken software installation on your personal computer. And data files cannot be shared between Mac and Windows installations.

$9 million for SpotMixer's video ad service

Caroline McCarthy — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:00:00 GMT

One True Media, the parent company of an online video ad creator called SpotMixer, has announced a fresh $9 million in Series B venture funding. The round was led by DAG Ventures, with contributions from NTT Finance and existing investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Amid widespread financial difficulties (to say the least) in the media business, SpotMixer and its new investors are pitching it as a cost-cutting option for small companies.

"While the market opportunity for video advertising remains well-defined, smaller businesses are more concerned than ever about how to most cost-effectively spend their limited advertising dollars," said DAG managing director Young Chung, who has joined One True Media's board of directors. "SpotMixer has quickly established itself as one of the most innovative and thoughtful solutions that will enable accelerated growth around this major advertising trend."

In conjunction, SpotMixer announced that it has been appointed the first official "authorized reseller" of Google's AdWords service for videos. This means that SpotMixer clients will be able to directly distribute their ads using Google's ad platform in addition to creating them online.

SpotMixer charges clients a minimum of $49 per month for access to its online tools, which are effectively a souped-up version of the many Web-based video "mixing" services out there. Then they can shoot them out across the Web with video embed codes or ad campaigns on the Web or cable TV.

Making the advertising process cheaper and easier is certainly a good pitch during a recession, but there's a flip side, too: Small companies with tightening budgets could easily opt to nix video ads altogether, sticking with the more familiar territory of text or display advertising. SpotMixer, on the other hand, maintains that video ads are more effective

Add permanent keyboard shortcuts to Google.com

Josh Lowensohn — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:14:00 GMT

If you're a keyboard shortcut junkie in Google Reader, Gmail and Google Docs you might have noticed Google.com, the mother of all Google services, is a bit lacking in the keyboard shortcuts department. There is currently an official Google-sanctioned experimental keyboard shortcuts program you can opt into, although there's the slight chance that the company may one day kill it off. That and it won't remember to give you the shortcut keys the next time you search if you're not signed in to your Google account.

If both of these things are holding you back from keyboard shortcut dominance, worth downloading is Janakan Arulkumarasan's Google Keyboard Shortcuts extension for Firefox. When installed you can simply use your arrow keys to sift through the results, which get highlighted in a lovely pallid yellow. There are two ways to open up the result links: you can either hit enter, which opens the link in a new window, or enter plus control which opens it up in a new tab. The extension trumps Google's own keyboard shortcuts program in this regard.

As with many of the other neat extensions we've blogged about recently, Google Keyboard Shortcuts is experimental, which means you have to be registered with Mozilla's add-ons site to download it.

Once installed the Google Keyboard Shortcuts extension lets you browse through search results using your arrow keys.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Pandora 2.0 for iPhone released

Harrison Hoffman — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:42:00 GMT

As if being the top free iPhone app of 2008 wasn't enough for Pandora (iTunes link), six days into 2009, it has launched version 2.0 of its app. New features in this release include a progress bar for songs (finally!), 30 second previews for bookmarked songs, the ability to create a new station from a song or artist, artist information, cover-flow view for song history, and some sharing features.

While this update isn't anything revolutionary, it certainly adds features that round out out cool features in the app, like embedded iTunes purchasing. With Tuesday's announcement of iTunes downloads, now being possible over 3G coming from Macworld, this could prove to be a very useful feature.

Creating new stations from artists or songs will add a lot to the capability and usefulness of this app as well. The new cover-flow view for song history behaves almost exactly like Apple's. The album covers flip over to reveal information on the artist and why that song was played. One annoyance here is that you cannot bookmark or purchase songs from this view. I suspect that this is an easily correctable issue.

The 2.0 update for Pandora improves upon an already killer and must-have application for the iPhone. It's available right now, so go and grab it from the iTunes Store.

6 services that help you find, follow friends on Twitter

Don Reisinger — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:14:00 GMT

Finding friends on Twitter was simple when the service was in its infancy, but today, Twitter is home to millions of users. In fact, 70 percent of the entire Twitter community is composed of people who signed up in 2008 and 5,000 to 10,000 new users sign up each day.

That's why I've compiled a list of some great solutions that have helped me find friends more efficiently than asking for their usernames.

Twitter search

Maybe this is an obvious pick, but using Twitter search to find friends on Twitter actually works quite well. The feature allows users to search for a person by name and based on that information, it will return all the Twitter users who registered under that name.

Overall, Twitter's search tool is really fast, and will find the person you're looking for without much digging. That said, it has one severe limitation: finding people with common names like John Smith will take some time, and it's only useful when searching for a specific person.

Twubble

If you haven't tried Twubble out yet, it's time you give it a spin.

Twubble is simple and requires little to help you find friends. Upon surfing to the site, you're presented with a "Find some friends!" button, which when clicked, analyzes your Twitter account and finds people who you may want to follow. I was skeptical at first, but after clicking the button, the service returned a slew of colleagues and friends that I had no idea were on Twitter. I followed many of them and tried the button again. This time, it returned many of the same people and most of the users that I had already followed were displayed. Twubble realized that, though, and delivered a disclaimer saying it may not work as well the second time around if you follow many people.

Although the same results are returned multiple times, it's the first run-through that matters. If you want to find friends and colleagues quickly, Twubble offers a fine solution for doing just that.

Mr. Tweet

Mr. Tweet is similar to Twubble in that it analyzes your Twitter account to find other people that it thinks you should follow. But what it provides that Twubble doesn't is a host of stats with information about how you may know a particular person and how active they are on Twitter.

If you want, Mr. Tweet will even auto-follow all the people it finds for you, but it requires you to hand over your username and password to the service to do it--a major security issue, if you ask me. Regardless, it works extremely well and returned a nice list of people worth following.

I chose to follow them myself, though. I don't need any help from Mr. Tweet.

TwitterLocal

If you want to find people in your area that may be using Twitter, TwitterLocal is a great service to do it. Upon entering a city and state or ZIP code, you can quickly find all the people within a 40-mile radius that have recently issued tweets.

TwitterLocal doesn't analyze your Twitter profile like Twubble or Mr. Tweet, so the chances of finding a link between yourself and another person in your area are quite slim. But if you're sure that some of your friends are on Twitter and you can't find them through any other means, TwitterLocal will do a fine job of narrowing your search to your city. That said, you'll be hard-pressed to find folks you know. I tried multiple ZIP codes trying to find someone and each time, I failed. But if you're only looking to meet new people in your town, TwitterLocal is a great place to start.

Twits Like Me

Twits Like Me is a simple app that won't win any prizes for its design, but it skillfully finds other folks who share your same interests.

Once you input your Twitter username into the service, Twits Like Me searches through Twitter to find others that the app believes you will find interesting. It works well and I found a slew of people I knew by using the service. The only issue is that there's really no logic in how it finds those you may share interests with. As far as I can tell, it searched for people who tweeted about the same topics as I had in the last few days, but it didn't analyze those tweets to determine which topics I talk about most often.

In essence, Twits Like Me works great if you and your friends tweet about the same topics, but if you talk about tech and the buddy you're trying to find loves sports, you may have some trouble using this app.

TwitterPacks

By employing a wiki and allowing anyone to access it, TwitterPacks does a fine job of arranging Twitter users into groups based on their interests, location, company, or favorite topics.

The main attraction to TwitterPacks (and probably its biggest issue) is that it relies on the community to provide value. For anyone to find people who share interests on Twitter, they first need to join the wiki and place their Twitter profile under one topic, interest, or company. If the millions of Twitter users actually used TwitterPacks, it would be an invaluable tool to find others that share your interests or live in the same area. But because it's only used by a relatively small number of users, you'll probably have a tough time finding people you know. If you want to make new friends, TwitterPacks will work just fine, though.

Want to know where to find Don Reisinger on Twitter? Right here!

Apple takes another small step onto the Web

Josh Lowensohn — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:41:00 GMT

At Tuesday's Macworld keynote speech, Apple announced a handful of upgrades to existing software. Of the changes, one of the biggest is the budding online integration found inside two of its software suites: iLife and iWork. The "2009" versions of both of these software packages show a more balanced approach by Apple in integrating third-party services alongside pushing users toward its own online efforts.

Apple's 'collaborative' element of iWork revolves around storing the files in an online share called iWork.com. (Click to enlarge.)

(Credit: Apple Inc.)

In the case of iWork, is a tight integration with a brand new online component called iWork.com. The site, which launches later this month in conjunction with the software release, lets users upload files for sharing with others--up to 1GB. When using any of the three applications included in the iWork suite users are able to export whatever they're working on right from a link on the top of the screen. Once the item has been uploaded it can be shared with other users who can download it in whatever file formats you specify, or leave little sticky-note comments.

This is far from online word processing solutions offered by Google, Zoho, Thinkfree, and others, but continues in the direction of 2007's photo galleries and Web e-mail applications that were offered as a part of Apple's MobileMe service. Notably missing from this new online service is a way to actually edit the document right in your browser, and instead requires downloading a local copy then re-uploading.

Additionally iLife's iWeb application has been updated with both Facebook and FTP integration. Now, whenever you make changes to your site you can have it send out a notification to your Facebook news feed, letting your friends see that you've made an update. And with the FTP integration there's no more messing about with third-party FTP applications to update changes you've made to an iWeb-created page. You can now simply plug-in your server information and have it sync up.

Apple's Macworld updates

Here's a basic rundown of everything Apple announced Tuesday. For more details, read our summary here.

iTunes
DRM-free and cheaper songs

MacBook Pro
New 8-hour battery

iLife '09
Photo geotagging and music lessons

iWork '09
Online syncing, Keynote Remote

This is going to solve a lot of headaches for people who wanted to use the WYSIWYG site creation software without ponying up to pay Apple to host it for them.

Another big change is in iPhoto, which now offers built-in export support for both Facebook and Flickr--two of the most popular photo-sharing sites on the Web. Exporting to both of these services was previously possible with third-party plug-ins, however Apple's new solution works right out of the box. Any changes you make to uploaded photos within the software will be automatically sent back to these places. This means that you can replace a previously uploaded photo without manually having to visit the site and re-upload.

Still missing from both of these suites is a true online companion. While iWork.com offers a free (for now) way to share big files outside of e-mail, and without the need for a subscription to Apple's MobileMe service, you still have to do all the work on your computer--and your computer only. With the Facebook and Flickr integration you can't pull down photos you've previously uploaded for editing on the software's new editing tools. I'm also sad to see that despite the promising integration with Google Maps in iWeb last year, there's still not a way to import and export from Google Docs and Spreadsheets in Pages and Numbers respectively.

Maybe next year.

Users can now export photos to both Facebook and Flickr right out of the box in the new iPhoto.

(Credit: Apple)

Click here for more Macworld Expo coverage from CNET News.

More iPhone apps you can't have: Newber and iCall

Rafe Needleman — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:28:00 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO--At the MacWorld ShowStoppers event Monday night, I got a quick look at Newber, an iPhone app from Freedom Voice Systems that lets you redirect calls made to a new number you give out ("newber," get it?) to alternate numbers depending on your location. If you're in the office at your desk, the app can send calls to your work phone. At home? It rings the house phone. Neither? The call will ring on your iPhone. (See also: Grand Central.) The app uses GPS to suggest call routing, but ultimately you make the routing decision. Sounds like a cool idea, but if you want to try it, you can't.

Although Freedom Voice submitted Newber to Apple for approval to sell it in the iTunes store in October, Apple has not approved the app for distribution. It hasn't denied it, either. In fact, Apple will not tell Freedom Voice anything about the disposition of its review except that it's "taking longer than expected" to review the app. Freedom Voice marketing strategist Nick Goudy told me he gets e-mails to that effect about every two weeks. He talks to Apple once a day. He says he uses different phone numbers to prevent them from screening his calls.

When Steve Jobs announced the App Store in October, he said all apps would be approved (or denied) within three weeks.

What's most infuriating, Goudy told me, is that activity logs for the Newber platform indicate that Apple has not yet started or tested the app at all.

iCall, which makes a VoIP app similar in many ways to the approved TruPhone product, is in a similar spot. This app allows users to make VoIP calls from Wi-Fi-equipped iPhones and iPod Touches. CEO Arlo Gilbert told me that his company communicated carefully with Apple regarding not just approved use of the iPhone SDK and communications channels, but also got marketing advice from Apple on how to sell the app. Yet, once the app was submitted for approval (in early October), Apple clammed up, and won't tell the company whether the app is going to be approved or not. E-mail queries are not responded to and phone calls get "ticket numbers" but no resolution.

Gilbert can understand why iPhone network provider AT&T might not like the app, and that's why, he says, he was sure to talk to Apple during development of the product. iCall allows incoming calls to iCall numbers to route around the AT&T cellular network and run over WiFi and VoIP. As Gilbert knows from his experience running a telco, incoming mobile calls are very lucrative for carriers.

Unlike Newber, iCall has been tested by Apple, Gilbert says his logs show. He just wishes he could get an answer--either yea or nay--from Apple.

Newber and iCall want your support.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman / CBS Interactive)

Both Freedom Voice and iCall say they've invested about $500,000 each in developing their apps, and are wondering what to do next. The companies together have started a petition, titled "Support developers with faster app store response and approval," and the companies are working on alternative versions of their products. Newber is beta testing a Blackberry version and has an Android app in development. iCall has various PC- and Web-based VoIP apps.

Certainly, it would be more fair for Apple to simply say no to Newber and iCall than to leave these products in limbo. I expect the reality is that Apple/AT&&T politics are behind the confusion. Either that, or Apple is developing its own suite of enhanced telephony services, and--as was the case with the over-the-air podcast downloader Podcaster, which offered a service that Apple later released in iTunes--it doesn't want competitive products in its store in advance of the release of its own updates.

Update: 2:35 p.m. PST: I'm waiting to hear back from Apple after a request for a comment.

Click here for more Macworld Expo coverage from CNET News.

Previously:
Apple to Podcaster: No App Store for you
Google admits breaking App Store rules
Apple kills iPhone app, claiming API violation

Tech layoffs: The scorecard

Rafe Needleman — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:36:00 GMT

With the overall economy slumping, the tech industry is taking its fair share of hits. We'll keep updating the chart below as news of company changes comes in. See our complete coverage of how the tech sector is faring here: Tracking the tech downturn.

Know of a layoff not listed here? Let us know on this form or e-mail us.

Company	Date	How many	Further reading
LiveJournal	01/06/2009	About 12	LiveJournal deletes 'about a dozen' jobs
Logitech	01/06/2009	15% of salaried staff worldwide	Logitech to slash 15 percent of workforce
Lenovo	01/05/2009	200 staff in Beijing offices	Lenovo rumored readying layoffs
Microsoft	01/01/2009	Unknown	Microsoft planning big layoffs for January?
AMD	12/28/2008	100 additional, making 600 total since November	AMD cites $70 million in fourth-quarter costs
Unisys	12/22/2008	1,300; 4%	Reuters: Unisys slashes 1,300 jobs
Electronic Arts	12/19/2008	10 percent	EA boosts layoffs to 10 percent of workforce
Western Digital	12/17/2008	2,500; 5%	Reuters: Western Digital warns on revenue, will cut jobs
Midway Games	12/16/2008	180; 25%	Reuters: Midway Games to cut jobs, take charge
Laird	12/16/2008	5,000; nearly 50%	Reuters: Laird announces 5,000 job losses as sales slump
WebMD	12/16/2008	4% to 5%	PaidContent: WebMD to cut up to 5% of staff
Gaia Interactive	12/15/2008	13%	VentureWire: Gaia lays off staff
Alcatel-Lucent	12/12/2008	1,000 managers, 5,000 contractors	Big revamp for Alcatel-Lucent, with Web 2.0 spin
CBS Interactive	12/11/2008	Undisclosed	All Things D: CBS Interactive/CNET Re-Org: The Complete Memo
SGI	12/11/2008	225; 15%	Silicon Graphics adjusts business plan
Yahoo	12/10/2008	1,520	Yahoo pink slips issued, recruiters circling above
Sony	12/09/2008	16,000 total	Sony to lay off 8,000 full-timers, 8,000 others
Netflix	12/08/2008	50 people	Neflix cuts 50 tech jobs; streaming issues linger
Level 3 Communications	12/08/2008	450; 8%	Denver Business Journal: Level 3 cutting 450 jobs
BMC Software	12/05/2008	350; 6%	AP: BMC Software to cut 350 jobs, 6% of workforce
RealNetworks	12/04/2008	130; 7%	Sources: Layoffs hit RealNetworks
Viacom	12/04/2008	850; 7%	Viacom lays off 7 percent of workforce
AT&T	12/04/2008	12,000; 4%	AT&T lays off 12,000
Adobe	12/03/2008	600	Adobe warns of shortfall, job cuts
Carlyle Group	12/03/2008	about 100, 10%	Bloomberg: Carlyle Cuts 10% of Workers, Including U.S. LBO Jobs
Analog Devices	12/03/2008	about 20	EE Times: Analog Devices shutters DSP design center
Sage North America	12/03/2008	150	Sage North America Reports 2008 Results
Gawker Media	12/02/2008	"a few"	Gawker Media's rolling layoffs continue
Intrinsyc	12/01/2008	95; 30%	680 News: Intrinsyc cuts global workforce 30 percent
Fring	11/27/2008	10; 20%	Fring cuts staff by 20 percent
Technorati	11/25/2008	6; 12%	Technorati trims workforce, cuts pay
TiVo	11/25/2008	7%	TiVo profits from EchoStar litigation
Palm	11/21/2008	up to 10% of 1,050	Palm orders layoffs as Apple and RIM take toll
Buzznet	11/21/2008	10; 11%	Valleywag: Music community Buzznet lays off 10
LodgeNet	11/21/2008	170	Argus Leader: LodgeNet cutting jobs
Lam Research	11/20/2008	600; 15%	Reuters: Chipmaker Lam Research cuts 600 jobs
Akamai	11/20/2008	7%	Akamai to cut 7 percent of workforce
Lawson Software	11/19/2008	200; 5%	AP: Lawson Software shares tumble after job cuts
Pillar Data Systems	11/18/2008	150; 30%	SJ Mercury News: Pillar Data Systems lays off 30% of staff
KLA-Tencor	11/18/2008	900; 15%	SF Business Times: KLA-Tencor to cut 15% of people
Sun Microsystems	11/14/2008	6,000; 15% to 18%	Sun restructures, lays off up to 6,000
Rearden Commerce	11/14/2008	10%	Valleywag: Rearden Commerce cuts 50 people
Applied Materials	11/12/2008	1,800; 12%	Applied Materials cutting 12 percent of workforce
National Semi	11/12/2008	330	Reuters: Nat Semi cuts revenue view, plans job cuts
Wired.com	11/11/2008	3 of 28	Wired.com trims editorial staff by 10 percent
Current Media	11/11/2008	20%	Layoffs hit Al Gore's Current Media
Six Apart	11/11/2008	8%	Six Apart: Changes at Six Apart
Tucows	11/11/2008	15%	Restructuring at Tucows
Circuit City	11/10/2008	20%	Circuit City files for bankruptcy
BitTorrent	11/10/2008	50%	After a tough year, BitTorrent replaces CEO again
Insight	11/10/2008	240; 4%	East Valley Tribune: Insight Enterprises lays off 240
Honeywell	11/07/2008	700	Phoenix Business Journal: Honeywell moving 700 jobs out of Phoenix
Zappos	11/06/2008	8%	Letter to Zappos employees
Veoh	11/05/2008	20; 20%	Veoh lays off 20 percent of workforce
LinkedIn	11/05/2008	36; 10%	LinkedIn slashes 10 percent of its workforce
Cadence	11/05/2008	625; 12%	Cadence Design cuts 625 jobs
Anadigics	11/05/2008	100; 15%	Anadigics cuts 15 percent of workforce
AMD	11/05/2008	500; 3%	AMD slashes 500 more jobs
Nokia	11/04/2008	600	Hundreds of Nokia jobs under threat
THQ	11/03/2008	4 to 5 studios	Kotaku: THQ Shuttering Four to Five Studios?
Tektronix	11/03/2008	150	Tektronix announces fresh layoffs
Spot Runner	11/03/2008	115; about 30%	TechCrunch: 115 people lose their jobs at Spot Runner
Nortel Networks	11/03/2008	1,300; 5%	Nortel earnings tank
YouSendIt	10/31/2008	20%	VentureBeat: YouSendIt trims 20 percent of staff
Aliph	10/31/2008	25 people	Layoffs hit Bluetooth headset maker Aliph
Motorola	10/30/2008	3,000	Motorola's struggle for survival
Electronic Arts	10/30/2008	600	Kotaku: Electronic Arts Lays Off Six Hundred
Freescale	10/30/2008	2,400; 10%	Freescale dragged to loss; will lay off 10%
Symantec	10/29/2008	4.5% cost savings	Symantec layoffs coming
Avalanche Studios	10/28/2008	77 of 160	Avalanche Studios lays off nearly half of staff
Revision3	10/27/2008	9 people, 5 shows	Video start-up Revision3 joins the layoff club
Helium	10/27/2008	30% of 110	F***dStartups: Helium.com huge layoff
BroadSoft	10/24/2008	about 12	GigaOM: BroadSoft cuts jobs as sales slow
Comcast Spotlight	10/24/2008	300+ of 3,500	Broadcasting & Cable: Comcast Spotlight cuts positions
ADC Telecoms	10/23/2008	300-350	AP: ADC expects fiscal 2008 loss, plans job cuts
Xerox	10/23/2008	3,000	Xerox to cut 3,000 jobs
Avid Technology	10/23/2008	500	Form 8-K: Results of Operations and Financial Condition...
Nokia	11/04/2008	600	Hundreds of Nokia jobs under threat
Tektronix	11/03/2008	150	Tektronix announces fresh layoffs
Spot Runner	11/03/2008	115; about 30%	TechCrunch: 115 people lose their jobs at Spot Ru
Circuit City	11/03/2008	17%	Circuit City to close 155 stores
THQ	11/03/2008	4-5 studios	Kotaku: THQ Shuttering Four to Five Studios?
Break.com	10/23/2008	11 of 80	Break.com lays off 11
Eons	10/23/2008	8 of about 33	The Boston Globe: Eons eliminates eight jobs
Dell	10/22/2008	8,900	The Register: Dell: 'We will out-pace the rest of the industry'
SanDisk	10/22/2008	TBA	SanDisk layoffs in the works
ManiaTV	10/22/2008	20 of 70	NewTeeVee: ManiaTV lays off 20, to reduce orig
iMeem	10/22/2008	25% of 80	Imeem jumping on the layoff bandwagon
Mahalo	10/22/2008	10%	Calacanis.com: Tough times, hard decisions
HP	10/22/2008	24,600 over three years	HP to slash 24,600 jobs following EDS buy
Ticketmaster	10/21/2008	35%	F***edStartups: TicketMaster.com laying off 35%
Comcast	10/21/2008	300	AP: Comcast to cut up to 300 jobs in eastern di
Manhattan Associates	10/21/2008	6.5%	Reuters: Manhattan Associates hit by slump
Softchoice	10/20/2008	6.5% of 958	Toronto Star: Softchoice cuts staff by 6.5 percent
Veoh	10/20/2008	0	UPDATE: Layoffs at Veoh, or not?
Wikia	10/20/2008	3	UPDATE based on personal interview with Jimmy Wales
Autotrader	10/20/2008	69	Orlando Business Times: Autotrader to close c
Texas Instruments	10/20/2008	possibly 300	TXCN: Hundreds face pink slips at TI
Sony Ericsson	10/17/2008	2,000 globally	Bloomberg: Sony Ericsson Reports Smaller Loss Than Anticipated
Sprint	10/17/2008	ongoing	KMBC-TV: Sprint plans 'gradual layoffs'
Jaxtr	10/17/2008	13	13 employees laid off at VoIP start-up Jaxtr
Zivity	10/17/2008	33%	Zivity lays off a third of staff
Zillow	10/17/2008	25%	Zillow lays off 25 percent of staff
SearchMe	10/17/2008	20%	Search engine startup SearchMe cuts 20 perce
Heavy	10/17/2008	14%	Downturn strikes again: Heavy lays off 14%
Lenovo	10/17/2008	50 in Morrisville, N.C.	WRAL: Lenovo to lay off 50 workers at Morrisville headq
MPC Computers	10/17/2008	200	Idaho Business Review: Details released on MP
Hi5	10/16/2008	10% to 15%	No Hi5's today
Sirius XM	10/16/2008	50	Sirius XM makes cuts to XM in D.C.
Pandora	10/16/2008	20	Pandora cuts 20 employees
Adbrite	10/16/2008	40%	'Layoffs are not a statement about performance'
Actel	10/16/2008	10%	EE Times: Actel cuts 10% of workforce
Tesla Motors	10/15/2008	Detroit office	Automaker lays off Detroit office with blog post
SkyRider	10/15/2008	All	P2P start-up SkyRider has shut down
Appcelerator	10/15/2008	6	Tough times, tough decisions
Jive Software	10/14/2008	33%	Jive Software lays off 1/3 of staff
Redfin	10/14/2008	20%	Redfin blames economy in layoffs
Qimonda	10/13/2008	3,000	Qimonda: Qimonda announces global restructuring program...
Seesmic	10/10/2008	7	Tough times. Tough decisions
Lulu	10/09/2008	24	Lulu cuts jobs as revenues slow
Micron	10/09/2008	15%	Micron to cut workforce by 15 percent, slash flash output
eBay	10/06/2008	1,000	eBay buys Bill Me Later, lays off 1,000
Gawker Media	10/03/2008	14%	Gawker Media to lay off 14 percent of editorial
Entellium	10/03/2008	95%	Workers get ax at software maker Entellium

If you want a real-time view into the world of layoffs, use this Twitter search. But we recommend having a stiff drink first.

TechSmith's screencast service Jing goes pro

Josh Lowensohn — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:31:00 GMT

On Tuesday, TechSmith released Jing Pro, a paid premium version of its free screen capture and casting software. The new service, which runs $14.95 a year, upgrades videos to H.264 encoding, takes off the Jing watermark in the bottom corner of recorded clips, and gives users the option to upload directly to several popular video hosting sites including Facebook, YouTube, Viddler, and Vimeo.

Of the news, one of the biggest changes is the move to the MPEG-4 AVC video format. It's the go-to format for iPods and iPhones, as well as set-top boxes like the Apple TV and TiVo. Likewise, it's been adopted by YouTube, which makes a separate encode for each file for Flash players and hardware that run H.264 clips. This means that going forward your screencast may end up being able to be watched on a wider range of devices.

On the export front I'm a little surprised TechSmith is offering such a simple way to offload captured videos to third-party hosting sites. It's really nice, but will no doubt cut into potential revenue from people who might have paid the extra cash for the company's video hosting sister product, Screencast.com. This service has a higher cap on its file size (2GB up from most service's 1GB max), but limits how many people can watch your content to 2GB of streaming video.

In addition to the launch of Jing Pro, TechSmith put up a new support site called the Jing Help Center, which has a handful of how-to videos and support documents. This is available to both free and pro users.

Download Jing (via CNET's Download)

Hackers hit MacRumors keynote coverage

Caroline McCarthy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:13:00 GMT

(Credit: Topherchris.com)

Some nasty pranksters, likely associated with Web forum 4Chan, have hacked into Apple gossip mainstay MacRumors' live-blog coverage of Tuesday's Macworld keynote. Hosted on a separate domain, MacRumorsLive.com, the site was plagued by offensive messages about Apple CEO Steve Jobs' health and general inanity (i.e. "SEX ME") before finally succumbing to "technical difficulties."

It remains uncertain whether the pranksters actually brought down the site, or whether MacRumors voluntarily took it down to keep things under control.

It's pretty clear, however, that this was the work of 4Chan, which has gained both respect and notoriety (depending on who you ask) over the past year for its persistent protests against the controversial Scientology sect in the form of an offshoot group called "Anonymous."

Over on 4Chan's labyrinthine forums, a couple of threads (warning: contains explicit language) hint at members' collusion to take down MacRumors Live, and the hacked live blog was peppered with declarations of "4CHAN FTW" (that's "for the win," for those who stepped in late).

This year's Macworld Expo has gained particular attention because Apple has announced that it's the last in which it will have a presence. Additionally, iconic CEO Steve Jobs bowed out of the keynote presentation. Marketing executive Phil Schiller took his place.

The 4Chan skulduggery appears to have first been noticed by Twitter users and independent blogs like Topherchris.com, which took the screenshot above.

One Twitter user pointed to rumors on social-news site Digg that 4Chan members had been circulating MacRumors passwords on Monday night.

It's a silly prank, yes. But it could have a big impact on MacRumors: this is likely the site's biggest day of the year, and the event could have an impact on both ad revenues and server costs.

UPDATE: It's not totally clear who's actually responsible for this attack. We've been getting a handful of e-mails indicating that it may have been a non-4chan group called Myg0t that was using the 4chan forums to organize, and another e-mail claimed credit on behalf of another forum community, Ebaumsworld. Indeed, screenshots show that one of the hacker messages read, "We are from Ebaumsworld. We are hackers on steroids."

Honestly? The world may never know.

This post was updated at 2:13 p.m. PT.