fortune

Love him or hate him, you have to admit that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has had a helluva decade.

Consider that, under his helm, Apple defined the portable music player market with the iPod, has shaken up the mobile industry with the iPhone, rocked the retail music business with iTunes, and re-invented the computing business with OS X in a way that the PC business--with less than 10 percent of market share--is no longer the bread-and-butter of the company.

Add to that the brilliant marketing behind Apple and the loyal, almost cult-like following of Apple's fans, and it's … Read more

MB Palmistry guides users through an analysis of their hands to determine what the user's life holds. The program isn't bad, although it's a bit skimpy on the analysis.

Like all programs from Mystic Board, this one opens with a screen cluttered with Mystic Board ads. Users then enter their name and gender, and the program guides them through a series of images. The first few images are horrible drawings of gnarled, creepy-looking hands; we were relieved when these gave way to photos of a normal-looking palm. For each characteristic--heart line, life line, and so on--users view … Read more

PASADENA, Calif.--Ashton Kutcher said that the fact he beat CNN to a million Twitter followers is a significant deal.

Kutcher, known to his nearly 3 million followers as "aplusk," said that it shows that one individual can have the power to reach as many people in a new medium as a media conglomerate.

"Individuals are becoming consumers and (the) editors of the media," Kutcher said. "It has and will forever change media."

While he doubts his content has the broad relevance of, say, CNN, Kutcher said having such a large audience is both … Read more

PASADENA, Calif.--Hewlett-Packard plans in coming months to introduce an electronic collaboration tool that combines video conferencing with electronic whiteboarding, CEO Mark Hurd said Friday.

Speaking at Fortune's Brainstorm: Tech conference here, Hurd said the tool goes beyond anything Microsoft has developed.

"This is a great capability," he said. "This will not just (have the) ability for you and I to see each other. I can actually write on the screen. You will see it the way I wrote it."

He said the product would be "very, very competitively priced," but didn't … Read more

PASADENA, Calif.--Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has a lot to say about the mobile operating system he held off on--Android--and not so much about the phone he has backed, Palm's Pre.

At Fortune's Brainstorm: Tech conference here on Friday, he said that he's limited on what he can say about how the Pre is doing because Sprint reports earnings shortly.

Despite that, he told the audience that the primary constraint for selling the Pre has been the number of devices that Palm has made--not demand for the product, he said.

"There have been shortages of the … Read more

PASADENA, Calif.--InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller says he ended up with a huge Internet conglomerate, but said that was never really his goal.

"I don't really believe in synergies," Diller said Friday, speaking at Fortune's Brainstorm: Tech conference here.

In the past few years, IAC has already spun off Home Shopping Network, Expedia, LendingTree, and Ticketmaster. He'd eventually like to see the Ask.com search and Citysearch local businesses stand alone as well.

"They are in formation, he said. "They are not sufficiently landed. I'm hopeful that they will be."

Fortune … Read more

PASADENA, Calif.--Marc Andreessen is known more for building companies rather than funding them, but he said he is looking forward to proving his chops in the latter category.

Andreessen, who launched his $300 million Andreessen Horowitz venture capital fund earlier this month, said Wednesday at Fortune's Brainstorm: Tech conference that he has a lot of "directly relevant" experience that will help attract start-ups.

There are not that many great companies started each year, he said. Andreessen noted that there are probably 15 companies created a year that go on to produce $100 million a year in … Read more

PASADENA, Calif.--Technology has the potential to help build smarter, greener cities, but whether it will is another matter.

That was the take-away from a panel discussion Wednesday at Fortune's Brainstorm: Tech conference here.

The need for cities that use less energy is clear. Although cities occupy just 2 percent of the world's geography, they account for 75 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emmissions, according to Clinton Climate Initiative Chairman Ira Magaziner. Cisco Systems CTO Padmasree Warrior noted that there will be 100 new cities with populations of more than 1 million people by 2025.

But … Read more

PASADENA, Calif.--While some suggest that space exploration is a luxury we can't afford in tough times, it's not surprising that Charles Elachi doesn't see it that way.

"Our economy is fundamentally dependent on innovation," said Elachi, who heads NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "This is not the time to go back and sit under our shell."

Elachi, speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm: Tech conference, said some of the technology used in space has led to things like GPS and better ways of detecting cancer.

To offer a visual aid to his argument, … Read more