Silicon Valley

SAN FRANCISCO--In a "fireside chat" at TechCrunch Disrupt today, Silicon Valley venture capital guru John Doerr announced the launch of Erly, a new social network built around "experiences."

Doerr, the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner who is considered among the most important VCs in Silicon Valley, said during an interview by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington that Erly was built around the idea of "a different kind of interaction, an experience graph." Erly was founded by Eric Feng, the founder of Hulu (who was also a Kleiner, Perkins partner).

Erly's first product is … Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--The biggest lesson that Apple board member and longtime Steve Jobs adviser Bill Campbell learned from the former CEO? "Make sure you have great product."

Campbell, known as "Coach" to friends and some peers, may not be as known in the world of technology as he should be. The chairman of the board of Intuit, and an Apple adviser and board member who also has several other high-level tech-industry positions, appeared at the Demo Fall conference here today, in conversation with Bloomberg reporter Brad Stone.

Over the course of a 20-minute rumination on … Read more

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--If there's one thing that late night TV hosts like David Letterman and Jay Leno are said to hate, it's when a star books both their shows back to back.

The tech industry doesn't have its own Letterman and Leno rivalry, but one could say that this week's head-to-head TechCrunch Disrupt and Demo Fall shows are a pretty good analogy.

So it was a bit strange to go to both shows this week and see the same high-profile kick-off speaker at each, LinkedIn founder and Graylock Partners principal Reid Hoffman. And both presentations … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Any fan of tomatoes knows that buying them at farmers' markets is expensive, yet the alternative of buying affordable, bland tomatoes at supermarkets is entirely unattractive.

The same dynamic, of course, goes for just about any type of fresh food, be it meat, fish, or other vegetables. And while there are a growing number of companies that deliver fresh produce to people's homes, consumers have very little control over what they get when they buy in to such systems.

Now, a Palo Alto, Calif., startup called Farmigo is throwing its hat into the ring, hoping to help consumers … Read more

If you're going to try to help people figure out the best foods for their individual circumstances, why not bring a little Silicon Valley sensibility to the table?

That's the thinking of ShopWell, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based start-up that's hoping to become a major player in the ever-growing personal nutrition recommendation arena with a high-tech matching algorithm.

Founded by Brian Witlin, a former entrepreneur-in-residence at leading design consultancy IDEO, ShopWell is aiming to give individual shoppers Web- and mobile-based applications that offer the best possible suggestions about what groceries to buy based on their own personal … Read more

Throughout the tech industry this afternoon, people are in shock. And even as word spreads that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is stepping down, those who are Apple's most devoted fans and users are struggling to decide if they should hold on to their faith in the company and its future products.

It's clear that there is no one in the tech world--or even the larger world of business--with a larger and broader influence on their company or their industry. And as the early hit to Apple's stock demonstrates, many are worried that the company without Jobs is … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Can toys be part of a computing movement?

At Sifteo, a start-up here launched by two MIT Media Lab graduates, the answer is an emphatic yes. And while the world may be focused on the innovative play offered by the young company's motion-aware Cubes, the founders have higher aspirations than just being a toy company.

This evening, at a party in San Francisco, Sifteo is publicly launching its first product--a set of small electronic cubes (see video below) that communicate with each other wirelessly and enable a wide variety of casual digital games. The cubes come in sets … Read more

PALO ALTO, Calif.--It's hard to imagine a larger collection of iPhones in one place outside of an Apple store than were in evidence Thursday in this heart-of-Silicon Valley city.

It wasn't one of Apple's famous establishments, but it definitely was a shiny brand-new retail store--this was the grand opening of the Speck store and a celebration of that company's wide selection of cases and covers for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and many other high-tech devices.

At least a couple hundred invited guests and neighborhood friends came out to eat hamburgers, tacos, ice cream, and other fare … Read more

Computers with processors that mimic the human brain's cognition, perception, and action abilities are a lot closer than they've ever been after IBM on Wednesday unveiled the first generation of chips that will power them.

The announcement comes nearly three years after IBM and several university partners were awarded a grant by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to re-create the brain's perception, cognitive, sensation, interaction, and action abilities, while also simulating its efficient size and low-power consumption.

The grant was part of Phase 2 of DARPA's Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) … Read more