All Things Digital

Michael Phelps who? In what is probably the greatest moment in this Olympics, Usain Bolt of Jamaica won gold in the 100-meter dash in 9.69 seconds, a new world record–and he didn’t even have to try after the first half of the race. But you wouldn’t know it if you were here in the U.S.–well, if you were not online actively searching for a video clip of it. NBCOlympics.com has a lame text story online, with a lamer Getty Images-supplied photo slideshow. Not that we were expecting anything different from NBC today, but it does add up to the growing frustration with the “bottled-up” (not my phrase … Jeff Zucker used it in a CNBC interview yesterday) coverage by the network.

Read the rest of this post

Hard to know what to get excited about regarding David Faber’s report on CNBC this morning alleging that Sprint Nextel (S) is in talks with various parties that are “not informal”–in Faber’s words–to sell its struggling Nextel unit. Faber says private equity funds (remember them?) “aligned with telecom” are among interested parties, as is the Nextel International affiliate, better known as NII Holdings (NIHD).

Read the rest of this post

A funny thing has been happening to Google lately. Have you noticed? It’s going up!

And I’m not talking about the one-day pop it got from those surprisingly good earnings, which shocked just about everyone on Wall Street and sent Google shares soaring.

I’m talking about the day-to-day creep-up, the steady momentum, the renewed interest in a company that never deserved to be on the outs to begin with.

The parallels to Apple are pretty striking.

Yes, the two are in decidedly different industries, but the status they enjoy in their respective industries is pretty striking. They are each the single, exciting brand, doing innovative things, controlling their markets, owning the buzz.

Read the rest of this post

I’m skeptical. Let me just say that right out of the gate. I’m skeptical that Apple Inc. and Apple Corps have signed a deal to put the Beatles’ 255 song catalogue on iTunes. Don’t get me wrong, I see the economies here and I know that everyone involved sees $$$ in their eyes. And believe me, every fan I’ve talked to, including Steve Jobs himself, wants to see a deal get done.

I’m just skeptical that one is imminent.

Read the rest of this post

Investors lined up two hours before the Apple shareholder meeting began here in Cupertino, Calif. It’s a little unusual for them to be here so early, and I thought it might be related to the company’s 40% plunge since the beginning of the year. Instead, I found that euphoria had given way to cautious optimism, but optimism nonetheless, that Apple would continue to rely on innovation to recapture its stock market magic.

Read the rest of this post