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interviews

Steve Jobs biographer: Jobs refused surgery

"60 Minutes" has posted a preview teaser from its interview with Walter Isaacson, the biographer whose book about the life of the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs hits store shelves next week. In the interview, Isaacson says that Jobs initially refused to have surgery until urged by friends and family.

In the clip, which is embedded below, Steve Kroft of "60 Minutes" gets Isaacson to discuss Jobs' handling of a tumor, which Isaacson says Jobs attempted to treat with alternative medicine versus having it surgically removed.

"You know, I've asked him about that," … Read more

Angry Birds maker planning IPO for 2012?

Angry Birds maker Rovio could go public next year, according to the company's chief marketing officer and "Mighty Eagle," Peter Vesterbacka.

"We're not ready to file for an IPO tomorrow," Vesterbacka told Bloomberg Television in an interview published today. "Maybe a year from now." He went on to say that his company is valued at around $1 billion, and would likely go public on that valuation if and when it files its papers for an IPO.

Rovio is best known for its Angry Birds mobile game--which Vesterbacka told Bloomberg has seen 400 … Read more

Best of Buzz Out Loud 15: Jobs steps down,TouchPad fire sale, and Parry Gripp interview (Podcast)

Tim Cook becomes CEO of Apple as Steve Jobs steps down; cute-animal-song wunderkind Parry Gripp joins us to talk about his new Baby Monkey iPhone game; and The Internetorati clamor to buy discounted TouchPads, while HP's stock plummets 20 percent to a six-year low.

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Best of Buzz Out Loud 10: The Spotify interview, Netflix rage, and a Facebook divorce! (Podcast)

The U.S. launch of Spotify has been much awaited, and we talk with Chief Content Officer Ken Parks. Fans rage over Netflix price hikes of as much as 60 percent, and a woman sues a man for ending Facebook relationship.

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The 404 849: Where we're taking a mulligan (podcast)

Did Shakespeare smoke the devil's lettuce? Joey Kaminski fills in for Wilson today to help us discuss this question and more, like should Jeff go to the world's first tickle spa? How would you evaluate Subway's $5 foot-long sandwich policy? And how do I get free Uncharted 3 and Call of Duty Black Ops (Annihilation)? We'll try our best to answer them all!

The 404 Digest for Episode 849

Capcom tries to kill used video game sales with the one-save game. Instead of pejazzling, Jeff should go to the world's first tickle spa. Twenty craziest job interview questions and the right answers. Crazies exhume Shakespeare's body to see if he smoked marijuana. Did you know that every episode of "Seinfeld" has a Superman reference? Whoa...dude!

Episode 849 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS VideoRead more

E3 2011: Q&A with Shigeru Miyamoto on the Wii U

LOS ANGELES--The Wii U, Nintendo's 2012 reinvention of the Wii hardware and of home console gaming, is still a device clouded in mystery. Its controls are intriguing, its capabilities seemingly vast. We had the opportunity to play with the Wii U after Nintendo's morning press conference. To gain more perspective, we had a one-on-one conversation with Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto, game design legend and creative executive behind Nintendo's first-party games.

Related links • Nintendo E3 press conference • Hands-on with the Wii U • E3 2011: Complete coverage

Time was limited, but I certainly had plenty of questions: about the Wii U, the future evolution of console and handheld gaming, and most importantly, how this all relates to Apple.

Q: What were the influences for the creation of Wii U? A: There was nothing external that influenced us. What really brought about the idea for it stemmed from our original concept for the Wii. We talked about it as the system that would never sleep, using something like Wii Connect 24--meaning, people would be able to access the system very quickly at any time. But, what we found was that as people started getting larger TVs, turning on the TV began to take more and more time than it used to. It was no longer instantaneous. So that became a barrier for people, and people who were watching TV would essentially make the system unavailable for somebody who wanted to play a game or see what was new with the system that day.

And so, with those challenges in mind, we started to look at what we wanted to do for the next system, and started to think that if we can't continue to always rely on the TV, we need to create a dedicated screen just for the system so people can quickly and instantly interact with it, regardless of what was happening on the TV. … Read more

Jack White is no fan of digital audio

I devoured Tape Op magazine's interview with Jack White III (the White Stripes), mostly because the man is as obsessed with sound quality as I am. The interview was conducted by Tape Op's editor, Larry Crane, but it sounds more like a freewheeling conversation than an interview. Crane founded the magazine 15 years ago, and it now has a circulation of 55,000 print copies.

White never takes the easy way with his music and recording, and prefers analog tape machines, "I like the constriction of 8-track. I like knowing in the back of my head that … Read more

Behind the scenes: The making of Homefront

Released last week for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC, Homefront tells the story of a future in which a united Korea has become mad with power and is in the process of invading a crumbling and vulnerable United States. Players assume the role of Robert Jacobs, an ex-Marine who joins up with the American Resistance, a scattered group of freedom fighters who swear to defend the country at all costs.

We got to sit down with Homefront's Design Director, David Votypka of Kaos Studios, to talk about the challenges of making a title with such controversial content, adapting writer John Milius' story into a game, and more.

Equal parts "Children of Men" and "Red Dawn," Homefront is a game whose story is easily one of the most engrossing we've experienced in quite some time, complete with an extremely convincing, cinematic opening. It's this narrative that instantly radiates through the player, creating more than enough reason to see Homefront all the way through. Though there are certainly a fair share of disturbing moments, at times Homefront is able to blur the line between a story and a video game. We asked Votypka about the hurdles in dealing with these very real and serious topics.

Votypka explained that video games, as a medium, are maturing and that he and the studio felt it was important not to shy away from the gruesome images found in plenty of R-rated films. Votypka says that Homefront definitely pushed boundaries that other titles may not wish to tackle. Having played through the game, we can confirm Homefront has a few moments that separate it from the pack.… Read more

HP chief: We must get products to market faster

Hewlett-Packard's new CEO apparently believes that one of his company's biggest problems is it slow pace.

"We need to fire up our innovation engine and get our products to market faster," CEO Leo Apotheker said in an interview published today by The Wall Street Journal. "It's not that we aren't innovative; it's that it takes too long to get to market."

Apotheker didn't specifically cite products, but it's certainly possible he was referencing tablets. At the Consumer Electronics Show in 2010, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed off HP's Slate tabletRead more

Mark Zuckerberg to appear on '60 Minutes'

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is slated to make a rare television interview appearance Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes." (CNET News is published by CBS Interactive, a unit of CBS.) It's his first TV appearance since the release of "The Social Network," the unauthorized film about his founding of Facebook that has been both praised by reviewers and criticized for what some say is an unduly negative portrayal of the young founder.

Zuckerberg appeared on ABC's "World News" in July, and on Oprah Winfrey's syndicated talk show in September--just before the release … Read more