richard

Google's legal headache spurred by its Street View project shows no signs of easing.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who has been leading a cadre of attorneys general investigating Google's Wi-Fi Street View data gathering, formally ordered the search giant today to hand over data gathered during the years it operated Street View cars. He issued a civil investigative demand, a legal order similar to a subpoena, after Google refused to provide the data after less formal requests, according to a statement released by his office.

"We need to verify what confidential information the company surreptitiously and … Read more

NEW YORK--There must be something squirreled away in the human brain that is hard-wired to go absolutely bonkers at the sight of anything that's shiny, slick, and begging to be touched. That, after all, is how Apple CEO Steve Jobs sells products.

But an iPad is only as good as the things you can do on it, and in this sense the device is implicitly a bit of a challenge, an Everest to climb or an English Channel to swim, for developers and entrepreneurs: What can you do on this? How can you take advantage of the features it … Read more

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Today is Cyber Monday, which is mostly a marketing scam in IMHO. Regardless, you will find it worthwhile to check out CNET's gift suggestions

Angry Birds' Christmas Edition is coming soon

Meanwhile, Angry Birds for Windows Phone 7 is not coming soon

Richard Branson is said to be launching an iPad magazine to compete with Rupert Murdoch's rumored iPad magazine. Branson's version will simply be called Project

A village in India has banned unmarried women from using cell phones

Lady Gaga and the Twitterati have gone silent on social networks … Read more

MarketWatch has posted a short news item about how Connecticut's Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is investigating whether "e-book deals between Amazon.com and Apple and major book publishers may be anticompetitive."

"These agreements among publishers, Amazon, and Apple appear to have already resulted in uniform prices for many of the most popular e-books--potentially depriving consumers of competitive prices," Blumenthal said in statement.

Ironically, of course, Amazon did not want to enter into the current agreements but was forced to after four out of the five major publishers signed on with Apple and moved to an &… Read more

Virgin Group CEO and entrepreneurial icon Richard Branson promised "one hell of a party" for the kickoff flight for air carrier Virgin America's first international route from San Francisco to Toronto on Tuesday, and if the trays of mimosas and acai-cranberry cocktails that kept getting toted past his first-class seat were any indication, his promise would not be broken.

Branson, a British national who was knighted in 1999, has become one of Silicon Valley's icons of late for his enterprises in green energy and the fledgling Virgin Galactic space company, and Virgin America is headquartered in … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--So a British billionaire, a Hollywood action hero, and an unusually good-looking city politician walk into an airport terminal.

That would be Virgin Group CEO Sir Richard Branson, California governor (and erstwhile Terminator) Arnold Schwarzenegger, and San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom, who were all on hand at San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday morning to kick off Virgin America's inaugural flight from San Francisco to Toronto. It's the three-year-old Burlingame, Calif.-based airline's first international route.

"To get Virgin America established, we had many battles," Branson said in the press conference, sounding more like … Read more

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal plans to head up a 30-state investigation into Google's Wi-Fi data gathering scandal, his office announced Monday.

Blumenthal's investigation adds to the legal headaches for Google caused by the revelation that its Street View cars were collecting wireless "payload" data in addition to geolocation data from unsecured wireless hot spots. Ever since Google revealed the extent of its data gathering a month ago in response to inquiries from German regulators, lawyers and politicians have been lining up to express their outrage.

"Consumers have a right and a need to know … Read more

Virgin chief Richard Branson has seen the enemy and it is carbon.

Branson is touting the Carbon War Room, a group of entrepreneurs, public sector officials, and industry leaders as a way to "remove gigatons of carbon out of industry." Branson, speaking at the SAP Sapphire conference, a coordinated Orlando-Frankfurt powwow with customers, Branson said:

When asked where information technology fits into this war on carbon, Branson noted that the industry plays a big role. Information technology companies and industry leaders need to … Read more

In case you didn't know, my articles this week are all about car audio. Today, we start at square one with picking out your most basic components for your car stereo: the head unit and speakers.

Rich Richards of Utah-based Innovative Home and Car Audio explains some basic things to look for and consider when designing your car audio system. Rich discusses the importance of getting a deck with high-voltage output through the preamp for better sound, the benefit of component speakers (midrange and tweeter) being as close together as possible, coaxial rear speakers, amplifiers, wiring, fuses, and everything … Read more