stephen colbert

When you are a news anchor--albeit for the Comedy Channel--you can't shy away from the news of Steve Jobs' death.

But are you really supposed to play it straight? Are you supposed to reminisce about, in Stephen Colbert's case, the day Steve Jobs gave you one of the first iPads so that you could flog it at the Grammys?

Or, in Jon Stewart's case, are you supposed to mention occasions when Jobs called you in appreciation of some skit of other?

Well, yes, in both cases.

Yet, as you watch both of these tributes from their shows, … Read more

Google and Microsoft continue their highly public patent-related catfight, which is either raising awareness of the issue of overbroad software patents or just turning into an embarrassing public battle that's making us all uncomfortable. Also, facial recognition is a trap, and security researchers are rushing to unveil the real Shady Rat. Plus: Computer Love!

Much of the alleged battle between Google, Apple, Facebook--and anyone else who's large and occupies the tech playground--is being waged in the public sphere.

Each of these companies realizes that making people feel warm about their boss is just as important as making them feel warm about your product. Indeed, it IS making them feel warm about your product.

Some choose to create warmth by donating large amounts of money to troubled schools. Others simply explain jokes.

Indeed, what a delight it was to see Google CEO Eric Schmidt make an appearance on "The Colbert Report." Should … Read more

Perhaps privacy doesn't exist any more. Or, perhaps, as the highly incisive Danah Boyd of Microsoft Research New England suggests, we will have to find more sophisticated ways (and more sophisticated software) in order for everyone to understand what information should be made available and to whom.

Yet when the issue reaches the level of comedy, then you know it is truly serious. So this week, when Stephen Colbert decided on his "Colbert Report" to make Google and its CEO Eric Schmidt the rather public source of entertainment, what was most surprising was not the humorous way … Read more

I know you, like so many, will never be able to live without the word "tweet." It has become as much a part of our lives as "iPad", "troll" and "Lol."

Not everyone thinks this way, however. The New York Times, for one, announced that its writers would no longer be so cavalier as to use the Twitter byword.

"Tweet" is not, according to the Times Standards Editor, Phil Corbett, "standard English." "Tweet," he opined, may well fade into oblivion. Surely, I opine, only if BP … Read more

Microsoft has found some creative ways to advertise its Bing search engine, but last night's tie-up with "The Colbert Report" might be my favorite.

The company pledged $2,500 for each time that Colbert mentioned the word Bing, something he managed to work in 40 times in the show, if you count the time he said he was "rob-bing" Microsoft blind. In all, the stunt raised $100,000 for the Colbert Nation Gulf of America Fund. (Why the Gulf of America? Because, as Colbert says, "We broke it, we bought it.")

The mentions … Read more

"Never mind how I got it. I had two kidneys," said Stephen Colbert in his second brilliant, spontaneously QVC-ish iPad pitch, which aired on "The Colbert Report" Thursday night.

The seriously committed, or those who should be, will remember that Colbert was first seen producing an iPad from inside what might well have been a specially made jacket pocket at the Grammys. Thursday, on his show, he claimed everyone was raving about the magical revolution.

Newsweek, he declared, loved the iPad so much it made it the "first non-Obama cover in 15 months." Yes, … Read more

Many products launch themselves very much like an investment banker launching himself at a party. They strut in, chin up, determined to tell everyone how great they are in as loud a voice as possible. Somehow, they feel, everyone will hear, whether they like it or not.

Apple tends not to follow that principle. It doesn't create noise. It creates intrigue. It makes people feel positive--even, sometimes, against their better judgment. Since the very earliest days of its advertising, it has worked very hard at the art of being charming. It knows how to turn up at the party and say hello. It offers a bon mot here and a smile there, until by the end of the evening, it has won over many.

If Apple were a politician, it would win quite a few elections (it wouldn't get involved in extramarital affairs in Buenos Aires, either).

Rumors are suggesting that Apple's latest attempt to influence our behavior and tickle us with the lightest of hands, the iPad, will be available at the end of this month.

Which means advertising, and probably quite of lot of it. Some say the ads will launch March 15. What might they look like? Well, yet another rumor has suggested that Apple shot one of its new iPad spots in a California diner called Jax on the Tracks.

This, if true, is interesting in itself, as it suggests that this campaign might actually involve people. More than just their hands, I mean. … Read more

In case you were wondering how Apple intended to advertise the iPad, the answer might just be "very well."

At Sunday's Grammys, Stephen Colbert approached the deeply onerous task of reading out the nominees for Song of the Year with singular glee. Because just as he looked lost, trying to remember where the list of nominees was, he whipped out an iPad from inside his jacket pocket.

It was real. It was on. When he turned it, the screen went from vertical to landscape. And you see how portable it is, people? You can slip one inside … Read more