Silicon Valley

It's hard to imagine making thermostats sexy, but if anyone could do it, it would be the "father of the iPod."

In 2008, amid renewed concerns about Steve Jobs' health, Fortune ranked the probable candidates to someday replace the famed Apple CEO. The first choice? Then COO and eventual successor Tim Cook. The second? Tony Fadell, chief of the iPod division and the man credited with the ideas that resulted in the creation of the iPod and its marriage with the iTunes Music Store.

Around that time, Fadell left Apple, his next move unknown, and since then, … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--From Dave Lieb's desk, he can see a wall-mounted monitor about 75 feet away with nothing on it but black digits on a white background. Right now, it reads "59,957,611."

"It's going up one a second," says Lieb, the CEO of Bump Technologies, watching the number steadily climb. "I think we'll hit [60 million] just after lunch."

By 60 million, he means the total number of "Bumpers," people who have downloaded Bump's iPhone and Android apps, which allow two users to instantly share … Read more

PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif.--Everyone wants to know what groups of people--large and small--are thinking in real time. But there has never really been a good way to figure it out.

That's the proposition behind the new startup from former Sun CEO Scott McNealy, called Wayin, which thinks it has the answer.

Wayin, which launched last night, is a system that aims to give people a way to share their thoughts about things--be it a question related to a live baseball game, a political debate, or the passing of a tech titan--in real time. Essentially, said McNealy at a … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Welcome to Day on the Job, a new series looking at what life is like inside the technology business. Over the coming months, I'll be visiting a wide variety of tech companies, with an emphasis on startups, each time shadowing one person for a whole day.

It could be the CEO, or it could be an engineer or a designer. Or anyone in between. The idea is not to uncover dark secrets or business plans, but instead to take readers alongside the people who are creating the products they use every day or may be using in the … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--If you're a Facebook user eager for Netflix integration, you'll likely have to wait for Congress to act before getting your wish.

It turns out, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said Thursday at F8, Facebook's developers conference here, that of the 45 countries where the troubled movie rentals service is offered, integration with the world's leading social network will be available in 44. Facebook users in the United States won't have access to Netflix.

How could that be, especially given that both Netflix and Facebook are U.S.-based companies that have giant user bases … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Facebook is rolling out some of the biggest changes in its history, unveiling its new Timeline and all-new Open Graph features today, features that will radically change how users display their information, and the way they discover new content.

At F8, Facebook's annual developers conference, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the two new features. Timeline, he explained, is "the story of your life," significantly altering the way people's information is shown on the world's leading social network, presenting "all your stories, all your apps, and a new way to express who you are," … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--After unveiling Timeline at F8 this morning, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Ticker, a part of the next version of the social network's Open Graph.

Last year, Zuckerberg said, Facebook rolled out Open Graph, a map of all of a user's connections in the world, and made it so users can connect to anything they want in any way they want. But now with the next Open Graph, he said, users will also be able to connect to an order of magnitude more things than ever before using what he called Ticker, a way to express "… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Timeline at the F8 developers conference here today. Calling it "the story of your life," Zuckerberg said Timeline changes the way Facebook presents users' information. It presents "all your stories, all your apps, and a new way to express who you are," Zuckerberg said.

"It's a way to tell all the important stories from your life on a single page," Zuckerberg said.

The more you go back in your life, he added, the more Timeline will show what you've done. "It's how you can … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--In 20 years, a majority of new cars will be electric and the world's single largest source of energy will be solar power, Tesla Motors and SpaceX founder Elon Musk said today.

Speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference here, the 40-year-old billionaire co-founder of PayPal shared his vision of the future, and also gave the room full of would-be entrepreneurs some sobering advice about what they should expect when trying to get companies off the ground.

"Expect it to be difficult," Musk said. "A friend phrased it well: 'Starting a company is like eating glass … Read more