Hollywood

Jeff Skoll: Becoming Superman

The entrepreneur backs heady causes and finances serious films (including documentary of the moment Waiting for "Superman"). How did this unassuming Canadian billionaire become a philanthropic superhero?

A few years ago Jeff Skoll, recently arrived in Hollywood from Silicon Valley, took a call from George Clooney. Clooney had directed Good Night, and Good Luck, one of the first films that Skoll financed, and positive reviews had begun fueling Skoll's reputation for MORE

Live from Apple's fall product launch

This is the spot for our live coverage of Apple's (AAPL) Sept. 1 music event.

In sum, Steve Jobs delivered on most of the rumored new products and services. The headlines:

A new $99 Apple TV that streams (rather than downloads) $4.99 movie rentals and 99-cent TV rentals from ABC and Fox.
A new lineup of iPods, chief among them the iPod touch equipped with two cameras, one a front-facing camera that can MORE

Apple, the iPad and the 99¢ TV show

Scrambling to cut content deals as the April 3 launch-day deadline looms

Steve Jobs knows a thing or two about Hollywood. He ran Pixar for 20 years. He's Disney's (DIS) largest stockholder. He's got a hobby called Apple TV. And he's packed the iTunes Store with more than 55,000 TV episodes and 8,500 movies. But in terms of delivering video content to American consumers, Apple (AAPL) is still in the bush MORE

The second-richest man at the Oscars

Steve Jobs, with his tux and his iPad, is a force to contend with in Hollywood

At the end of his amusing Infoworld post Monday about the 82nd Academy Awards, the writer who calls himself Robert X. Cringely asks a series of rhetorical questions:

"Who was the richest person in attendance? Who has the most influence and commands the biggest audience? Who's the least bound to Hollywood's old ways of doing business?"

The MORE

Apple's new pitch to Hollywood

With 8,000 movies and 50,000 TV episodes, the iTunes Store now needs to drive sales

Apple (AAPL) makes a big deal about how many apps have been downloaded from its App Store  (3 billion as of January) and songs from the iTunes Store (on track to reach 10 billion this week).

But when it comes to how many movies and TV shows it has sold, the company is pretty tight-lipped.

What Apple will MORE

Live blog: Steve Jobs presents the Apple tablet

Live coverage of Apple's Jan. 27 "latest creation" event

Posted in reverse order, newest on top. Items are timestamped in local (Pacific) time. Add three hours for Eastern.

As expected, Apple CEO Steve Jobs made a bid to create a new consumer electronics category Wednesday, unveiling a computer he calls the iPad.

The device is a 9.7-inch multitouch tablet that starts at $499 for the 16 GB model that uses MORE

Apple announcement: What to expect at today's event

The tech world turns its attention to San Francisco to see what Steve Jobs has up his sleeve

The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts was buzzing Tuesday afternoon with black-shirted Apple staffers hauling in electronics, heavy-set security  guys guarding the perimeter, TV satellite trucks jockeying for position and workers on a crane plastering the entrance way with the event's signature paint-spattered logo.

The economy may be sputtering, Bin Laden may be MORE

Apple tablet: New details leaked

"Secret" talks with publishers appear within hours in the Wall Street Journal

Here's some free advice for Silicon Valley companies visiting New York City: Don't say anything to a newspaper or book publishing executive that you wouldn't want to see on a front page the next day.

Case in point: Details of Apple's (AAPL) eleventh-hour "secret" negotiations with publishers, which Bookseller.com and 9to5 Mac reported on Wednesday morning, turned up Wednesday evening MORE

Katzenberg: 3D may take a fifth of 2010 box office

Can Steve Jobs unplug cable TV?

CBS and Disney may join Apple's $30 per month TV service, says the Wall St. Journal

This could be totally disruptive. Or it could be another "hobby" like Apple TV that never quite takes off.

In a front-page story published Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that CBS (CBS) and Disney (DIS) are "considering participating" in Apple's (AAPL) plan to offer television subscriptions over the Internet.

It was the first hint of interest MORE