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SecondMarket banks on rising tech stars, new markets

SecondMarket, which runs a market for shares of private companies, took a big hit when it lost Facebook as a customer, even letting go of 10 percent of its staff.

So who will replace Facebook, which since SecondMarket got into this business has been its most actively traded stock? That's a tall order, and it's unlikely that any one company will make up for all the trading that went on with Facebook.

Moreover, it's hard to assess what's going on with SecondMarket since the company doesn't disclose much. It won't say, for instance, which … Read more

Soccer fans set tweet-per-second record

In the Twitter world of sports, soccer proves to be king. During the peak of the Champions League match between Barcelona and Chelsea in Barcelona yesterday, 13,684 tweets per second were sent out globally -- setting a Twitter record for tweets during a sporting event.

"The conversation reached its high point immediately following Fernando Torres' late goal, which tied the game and sealed Chelsea's victory in the semi-final," Twitter said in a blog post today.

This means that soccer fans have now beat out football fans on the social network. According to the blog post, the … Read more

Stage set for Windows 8 hybrid, iPad showdown

Apple's CEO Tim Cook may have just thrown down the gauntlet to the Windows camp about nothing less than the future of portable computing.

Cook dismissed the idea of a hybrid MacBook-iPad device, during the company's second-quarter earnings conference call this afternoon. "You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not going be pleasing to the user," he said.

The toaster-refrigerator hyperbolic analogy aside, it just so happens that Intel has begun to push the Windows 8 laptop-tablet hybrid concept. And it has even built a demo unit to prove the … Read more

How to program a 30-second skip button for Comcast DVRs

My Comcast DVR died last week, so down I went to my local Comcast office to exchange it for a new box. Although I lost weeks' worth of Modern Family (which, inexplicably, isn't offered On Demand), my DVR's death came at a good time because Comcast recently received a new fleet of cable boxes and sent me home with the Motorola RGN200N.

Years ago, I had programmed a 30-second skip button for my old Comcast DVR on my old silver remote. It was a simple process:

1. Press the Cable button at the top of the remote

2. … Read more

Reporters' Roundtable: New tools for inventors

The game is changing for inventors. It costs less than it ever has to build a technology product or launch a company to sell it. There are new marketplaces to sell your goods, too--even if you haven't yet built a single unit.

Securities laws in the U.S. are also about to change, which will dramatically expand the funding possibilities for new companies. So get ready to be barraged with requests to help build small new companies, and prepare to be tempted to do it yourself.

Today we're talking with two real innovators who have built companies that make it possible for anyone with an idea to pre-sell products, learn how to design and build them, and manufacture prototypes and even the first batch of units. Our guests:

Yancey Strickler, co-founder of Kickstarter Jim Newton, founder of TechShop

Our episode, in two acts, is below:

CNET conversations with hot startups of SXSW 2012

Every startup CEO, founder, or co-founder hopes that this year, South by Southwest will be the event that turns them into the next Twitter, Foursquare, or Beluga. They come to Austin, Texas, in search of exposure, new friends, more money, and parties (of course). This year, CNET's Brian Tong and I sat down to talk to a few of the companies we thought were interesting--out of the many, many, many others that are also interesting, don't get us wrong.

From our interview home at the Thirsty Nickel, we spoke with Dave Morin, the CEO of Path, who assured … Read more

Reporters' Roundtable: The Apple TV is a big fat deal

Of the two products Apple launched this week, I think the more important was the Apple TV update. Because it's in the living room where Apple has the more interesting battle going on. This "hobby" of a product is still imperfect, but it's making major waves with consumer electronics companies, content producers, and cable firms. Why? Because with an Apple TV (or a competing product, like a Roku), you can bypass the old-line media economy.

Or can you? We're discussing today how Apple is trying to rewrite the living room entertainment experience. We have two great guests on the show:

John Falcone, CNET's executive editor for reviews in New York. Matthew Moskovciak, our home theater editor, also in New York.

Reporters' Roundtable: The couch potato, version 2

Next week, on March 7, Apple will introduce the next generation of iPad. Why is the tablet form factor working so well? What is it about a machine that is best used on the couch?

One growing use case for tablets is the "second screen." It seems we aren't satisfied with just watching TV anymore. Now we need a second screen to keep us engaged. Businesses are growing up to build second screen apps, and programmers are starting to take the multiscreen user seriously.

Today I have two guests who are working on these apps who will discuss the emerging market space:

Ole Lutjens, chief creative officer and co-founder of MX Jeremy Toeman, chief product officer, Dijit

A SecondMarket for small banks? Thank Facebook.

SecondMarket, which runs a market for trading stocks in private companies, is moving into regional and community banks.

That's quite a shift for the New York company, which since 2008 has created a booming business making a marketplace for people looking to unload private shares of hot tech startups such as Twitter, Yelp, and Facebook.

Surely the driving force behind this strategy is the resurgent tech IPO market. More specifically, Facebook, which is aiming to go public this Spring in what is expected to be the biggest Internet IPO in history. Facebook has been the most actively traded stock … Read more

Three reasons Facebook has to go public

Make no mistake: Mark Zuckerberg doesn't want to go public.

It's no secret that Zuckerberg has tried to keep Facebook private as long as possible, believing--rightly or wrongly--that that's the best way to stay nimble and build the business. But at this point, Zuck's got little choice. Facebook has become too big, it has too many shareholders, and so it's on track to go public this spring, eight years after Zuckerberg started Facebook in his Harvard dorm room.

A couple of months ago, the 27-year-old Zuckerberg assembled his top management team to talk about the … Read more