d;:all things digital

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--HTC chief Peter Chou said on Thursday that the company doesn't have to pick sides in the battle between Windows Mobile and Android.

"We are actually committed to both," he said, speaking at the D: All Things Digital conference. "People are different. Different people like different things."

Windows has a lot of legacy users, Chou said. "We understand the value of Windows. Windows has a lot of value."

Android, he said, offers a good Internet experience combined with Google's Web services, making it more geared to the social-networking … Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--Streaming-game service OnLive, which launches in two weeks, gave attendees at D: All Things Digital a look at both its initial service as well as some things that might be possible down the road.

OnLive CEO Steve Perlman said that, although gaming is its first application, the service is really aimed to tap the power of cloud computing.

"If we can make gaming work, we can make anything work," said Perlman, a WebTV founder who also spent time at Apple and Microsoft.

In addition to playing games on televisions or computers that couldn't … Read more

Editor's note: We used Cover It Live for this event, so if you missed the live blog, you can still replay it in the embedded component below. Replaying the event will give you all the live updates along with commentary from our readers and CNET editor Josh Lowensohn. For those of you who just want the updates, we've included them in regular text here.

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie are slated to speak Thursday at the D: All Things Digital event.

Check back around 8 a.m. PDT for … Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended his company's approach to privacy, saying it makes sense for users to have a mix of information: some that's shared narrowly and some that should be made broadly available.

"There have been misperceptions that we are trying to make all the information public," Zuckerberg said, speaking at the D: All Things Digital conference here. That said, for social networks to link people to one another, some information must necessarily be public, he said. "There's some serendipity that can only happen if you are sharing," … Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--The tablet parade at D: All Things Digital continued into Wednesday afternoon, with Dell doing a brief onstage demo of its 5-inch Dell Streak device.

The Android-powered gadget is bigger than any smartphone but smaller than nearly all other tablets. The size of the device seemed to puzzle the conference moderators, with Walt Mossberg saying that using it as a phone was like holding a waffle to his head, while Kara Swisher said the most likely use for the device was as something to eat.

That reaction came in stark contrast to the veritable love fest … Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--Pressed on why the U.S. pays more for slower broadband than other countries, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Wednesday that the government has a plan.

"We do," he said in a speech at the D: All Things Digital conference. "I think we have a plan to tackle this."

"I think we are going to have spectrum congestion for a long time," he said.

Genachowski also pointed to the role that unlicensed spectrum can play, pointing to what happened when the FCC opened up a particular part of the spectrum. … Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--While the iPad is the device that everyone is talking about, another tablet made its debut at D: All Things Digital on Wednesday.

The Kno, with its dual 14-inch screens and touch-based Linux operating system, is aimed at students and is slated to hit the market at the end of the year. Kno isn't talking price just yet, but the company's goal is for it to be well under $1,000.

I had a chance to catch up with Kno CEO Osman Rashid just after his onstage demo and got a firsthand look at … Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--eBay chief executive John Donahoe on Wednesday defended both the decision to buy Skype as well as the company's later move to sell most of its stake in the Web telephony firm.

"It was an acquisition I'm not sorry we made," Donahoe said at the D: All Things Digital conference. "Taking risk is one of the things you have to do in an uncertain Internet (environment)."

eBay, he said, thought Skype could reduce friction by connecting buyers and sellers more directly. "It turns out Skype is a fantastic way … Read more

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif.--There is one clear star emerging at this year's D: All Things Digital conference: Apple's iPad.

In addition to all the stage time that the tablet got during Steve Jobs' talk last night, it is also dominating the discussion with other presenters.

Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg sang Jobs praises for several minutes, before declaring: "His greatest accomplishment is going to be this tablet."

"As Steve said last night, there is something indescribable about the connection," Katzenberg said. "Our children are going to get educated on it. They are going … Read more