Ginni Rometty reveals the future of Watson

IBM's CEO told Fortune what the future holds for the talking supercomputer.

FORTUNE -- On May 15, Fortune senior writer Jessi Hempel interviewed IBM (IBM) CEO Ginni Rometty as a keynote for the National Venture Capital Association's 40th anniversary conference, Venturescape. What follows is an edited version of their conversation.

Fortune: IBM was once about mainframes, and then PCs and printers. Now IBM is about services, software, Watson. How do you think MORE

Shapeways is reinventing the factory

A glimpse of the future -- printed in 3-D -- in Long Island City.

FORTUNE -- A short subway ride from Midtown Manhattan, Peter Weijmarshausen is building a factory that reimagines mass production. Weijmarshausen is the co-founder and chief executive of Shapeways, a company that lets people design and order objects printed on high-end 3-D printers.

It's not a new idea, but in the last year 3-D printing has become newly available: In MORE

Why your inbox is being flooded by LinkedIn

Many users describe a surge in activity on the social network. Truth is, it's been a long-time coming.

FORTUNE -- What's up with LinkedIn? Suddenly it's everywhere. Last week, as I finished up teaching a dozen masters students in publishing, I told them to keep in touch. Nobody called. No one emailed. Seven of them requested to connect with me on LinkedIn.

What's more, lately my inbox has been teeming with social MORE

Google takes stake in Lending Club

The search giant is dipping a toe in the quickly growing peer-to-peer lending industry.

FORTUNE -- First former Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack joined the board of peer-to-peer investment site Lending Club. Then came Kleiner Perkins's Mary Meeker, followed by the preeminent economist Lawrence Summers. Now Lending Club has picked up another high-profile backer: On May 2, the company announced that Google has taken a minority stake in the company. Through MORE

Airbnb to launch identity-verification tool

Startup hopes new verified ID badges will attract more users.

FORTUNE -- Starting April 30, Airbnb will go to even greater lengths to insure you are who you say you are, online and in the real world. The apartment-sharing site will begin rolling out a verified identification program that matches digital identity -- via social networking sites -- with real-world proof -- a photo ID. Once members have been verified, Airbnb MORE

Mark Zuckerberg: Why we don't want to build a phone

In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview, the Facebook chief talks to Fortune about Apple, China, and what his personal challenge is for the year.

FORTUNE -- A week before Mark Zuckerberg announced the "Facebook phone," he spoke extensively to Fortune senior writer Jessi Hempel about how he's reinvented Facebook to address the huge audience of customers who access the social network on their smartphones. (The complete story of Facebook's reboot will appear MORE

YouTube to launch music streaming service, take on Spotify

Exclusive: Google is planning to roll out a music streaming service to capitalize on the power of YouTube.

By Ryan Bradley and Jessi Hempel

FORTUNE -- YouTube, the world's largest digital repository of streaming media, will launch a subscription music service later this year. The service has its own negotiating team and operating unit but will likely have some overlap with new features also rumored to be coming to Google's Android MORE

Bill Gurley: The sage of Silicon Valley

Benchmark's Bill Gurley has provided wise counsel to some of Silicon Valley's most successful entrepreneurs.

FORTUNE -- When Silicon Valley's smartest people want to get smarter, they often turn to Benchmark partner Bill Gurley. For instance, he recently advised Travis Kalanick, CEO of startup Uber, on a less expensive version of his rapidly growing limo service. Says Kalanick: "He really pushed us to lower the price so there's no room for MORE

Inside BlackBerry's last stand

New phones. New software. And a new company name. An exclusive look at the difficult road that led to the most important day in the company's troubled history.

FORTUNE -- Here's what Research in Motion CEO Thorsten Heins wants you to do: forget everything you know about BlackBerry. Just about everything at the Canadian smartphone maker is new. The twin BlackBerry 10 devices unveiled today are thinner and sleeker than previous models. The MORE

Smartphones: Microsoft and RIM battle for No. 3

As Apple and Google dominate the American market, former leaders Microsoft and RIM find themselves brawling for third.

FORTUNE -- On Jan. 30, Research in Motion -- the Canadian company that once owned the American smartphone industry -- will attempt to regain its foothold with the launch of a new mobile operating system, BlackBerry 10. The company's goal is not to out-innovate the iPhone. Rather, in a market controlled by Apple MORE