Life in a shipping container

It may be the ultimate recycling project: taking retired shipping containers and repurposing them as buildings. SG Blocks thinks it can make the proposition into big business.

By Beth Kowitt, writer-reporter

FORTUNE -- It may be the ultimate recycling project: taking retired shipping containers and repurposing them as buildings. It's not uncommon to see these makeshift structures informally in use around ports or construction sites, but now Paul Galvin is trying to MORE

How Android came to dominate

Google's $12.5 billion bid to buy Motorola Mobility is likely to reshape the mobile industry. But a deal would have been unimaginable without the surging Android platform.

FORTUNE -- Google's proposed $12.5 billion acquisition of handset maker Motorola Mobility is a bid to protect itself from litigious competitors as well as to dramatically move its mobile business forward. But the search titan's biggest acquisition ever wouldn't even be imaginable if it MORE

100 million Android fans can't be wrong

The inside story of how Google conquered the smartphone world.

By Beth Kowitt, writer

FORTUNE -- When Google (GOOG) acquired a tiny wireless startup called Android in 2005, few at the search giant had particularly high hopes for the deal -- if they even knew about it. At that point Google had purchased just a handful of companies, mostly software makers it had quietly folded into its operations. (Big, high-profile deals like YouTube and DoubleClick came later.) Besides, not many people knew exactly what MORE

Crowley: Foursquare funded through 2011

The founder of Dodgeball and Foursquare talks about funding, falling out with Google, and whether he'd partner up with Facebook or Yahoo.

Foursquare is Dennis Crowley's second go-around at a location-driven social networking service, and this time he's determined to make sure he gets to see it through.

Crowley sold his first company, Dodgeball, to Google (GOOG) but then had the frustrating experience of still having all these things he wanted to MORE

The Honeycomb effect

Android users have been waiting for the just released Gingerbread upgrade. But yesterday Andy Rubin leapfrogged them by demoing next-gen OS Honeycomb, and chatting about the time Google bit off more than it could chew.

The latest version of the Android operating system, Gingerbread, is barely out of the oven but Andy Rubin, who heads up Android for Google (GOOG), couldn't resist giving the audience at the D: Dive into Mobile MORE

Why it doesn't McMatter if you don't like the McRib

The cult favorite sandwich, hovering on the border between yum and yuck, won't mean much to McDonald's bottom line. But it's moving the needle on the company's brand awareness, especially in social media.

Wondering what a McRib, McDonald's barbecue pork sandwich, tastes like, but haven't quite worked up the steam to go out and try one? Just ask the Internet:

"It's fast food's best version of comfort food." "I'll take an order MORE

The world's most followed Tweeter on Twitter

For Ashton Kutcher, winning the race to 1 million followers on Twitter before CNN was not about being victorious in a popularity contest.

Instead, it illustrated that "one individual could have as much influence on a social network as a media conglomerate," he said at Fortune's Brainstorm: Tech conference.

He also noted that it signifies a shift in turning media back over to consumers, who are now also content creators and editors. MORE

What private equity investors want

Investors in the technology, information, and media space should expect a "culling of the herd," say two of the sector's big players.

"Looking at our portfolio today, it's either feast or famine," said Jonathan Nelson, CEO of Providence Equity Partners. "Some [companies] are knocking the cover off the ball." In subscription-based businesses, "growth has developed undisturbed," while those that have been hurt the most rely on an advertising model.

"People right now MORE

One-on-one with Twitter's Stone

Biz Stone says site soon will launch "Twitter 101" for corporations 

In an interview that was alternately irreverent and earnest, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone on Thursday said he expects the company this year will reveal its plans making money. He also noted that Twitter still does not have a head of sales.

Stone said the public's infatuation on Twitter making money was like a "nice loving mom who wants make sure you're eating." MORE

AT&T CEO connects on the iPhone

Randall Stephenson's business is all about connectivity, which means these days the AT&T chairman and CEO spends a lot of time talking about Apple.

While the company may have an exclusive deal with the maker of the iPhone, Stephenson said don't expect it to last forever, although he wouldn't expand further.

When asked if he was completely satisfied with AT&T's relationship with Apple, Stephenson said, "I don't think I could get my MORE