BRADLEY J. FIKES
Staff Writer nctimes
CARLSBAD ---- The world's richest man chatted quietly in a corner of the plush reception room Tuesday evening. The man who popularized the online world talked up the most underrated media baron. And the technology world's most charismatic leader bantered with San Diego's most durable digital music pioneer.
Respectively, they were Microsoft's Bill Gates, America Online's Steve Case, USA Interactive's Barry Diller, legendary Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs and MusicMatch Chief Executive Dennis Mudd.
That roomful of super-achievers was just the beginning of "D: All Things Digital," a three-day conference about how digital technology is reshaping life around the globe.
The high cost
They, other technology and media leaders, and about 400 attendees who paid $2,500 to $3,000 apiece gathered at Carlsbad's luxurious Four Seasons Resort Aviara for the conference. Held by the Wall Street Journal, the conference was hosted by Journal technology writers Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.
Digital music, sports, electronic commerce, handheld computers, even wine were all spotlighted in the conference, which ended Thursday morning. The Internet itself, technology's big thing during the late '90s, was nearly an afterthought here, likened to a utility like electricity you expect to be there.
Aside from the discussion, the conference included the extras that separated these conferencegoers from the hoi polloi: comfortable leather chairs from Steelcase instead of the usual hardbacked seats, complimentary airport pickup in Infiniti cars.
A grand key chain
Even the tchotchkes were of a higher order: a 64-megabyte key chain drive from search engine king Google, a 2-inch-square digital camera from Adobe, a metal and orange plastic calculator reeking of industrial design, and even a compact disc of music by Mossberg.
The highlights included a heated debate on digital music with Jobs; Mudd; Hilary Rosen, chairwoman and chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America; Jack Valenti, president and chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America; Rob Glaser, chairman and chief executive of RealNetworks; and Joe Kraus, co-founder of DigitalConsumer.org.
Gates had the floor at the opening dinner Tuesday, questioned by Mossberg and Swisher about the future of technology, but his remarks were off the record.
He and the other speakers appeared in the Four Season's large banquet hall adorned with huge portraits of, yes, Gates, Jobs and other panelists portrayed in The Wall Street Journal's distinctive line-drawing style.
Tech-moguls-turned-sports-moguls Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, and Ted Leonsis, part owner of the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards, delivered a passionate discussion of sports and technology.
A matter of keeping up
Less emotional but no less informative: a panel with Diller and Meg Whitman, president and chief executive of eBay; and the "do no evil" duo of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of search engine Google.
Donna Dubinsky, co-founder of organizer and communicator-maker Handspring Inc., said the conference helped her keep up with what is happening elsewhere besides her focus of information technology. Handspring's other co-founder, Jeff Hawkins, invented the Palm Pilot, the first truly popular handheld computer, and on Thursday, he gave a sneak preview of products under development.
"I tend to be buried in this IT world, so it's a nice time to look up and try to understand what's going on in the areas that are a little more peripheral to what I do," Dubinsky said.
Handspring's helpers
Handspring is no stranger to San Diego: Qualcomm Inc. is an investor, and Carlsbad-based AirPrime makes radios for Handspring's products using Qualcomm's Code Division Multiple Access technology.
"This, being a telecom center, has really become an important place for us," Dubinsky said. "We don't have an office here, but we travel here quite frequently meeting various telecom partners."
The communal experience
Mavericks owner Cuban made $2 billion selling the Internet broadcast company Broadcast.com to Yahoo in 2000. He is known for constantly trying to blend technology with sports. He bought laptop computers for all his players, and put wireless Internet connections in spectators' seats.
But Cuban said experience has made him modify his "technology first" attitude. In some cases, technology detracts from sports: People in the stands should be egging one another on and not be distracted by gadgets.
"Our selling point with the Mavericks is based on the communal experience," Cuban said. "You want to be part of a cheering crowd. You want to get excited. One of the things I learned is we don't sell basketball ---- we sell entertainment.
"We sell sore throats. We sell sore hands from clapping, and I've evolved to the point where I don't want a device in someone's hand. I don't want them looking at a monitor for replays ... part of what they're buying is something they can't get anywhere else ---- the chance to stand up and scream. ... We have to be the answer to the question, what do you want to do tonight?"
Maturity is an answer
That said, Cuban still advocates technology to reinforce sports, and sports to reinforce technology, by bringing in new ways for fans to keep informed and interact with the players and one another.
"We're in two mature industries," Cuban said. "Technology is a mature industry. Sports is a mature industry."
For example, e-mail is hardly new, but applying it to sports to strengthen the bond is new. Cuban estimated that he gets about 200 e-mails a day. High-definition television also keeps fans interested in seeing games, said Cuban, chairman of HDNet, an all high-definition TV network. Fan chat rooms, messaging on mobile devices and other interactive methods help fans communicate with one another, keeping their attention on sports.
"(Fans) are telling us, 'I want to buy, I love to talk,' " Cuban said. "Technology enables us to get to them, grab them in, pull them in, make it easy for them to come in and lock them in. Whether it's highlights, whether it's translated versions of pre- and post-game reports in Chinese, German, Italian, whatever it may be ... technology allows us to go out and grab people by the throats, remind them what's coming up, and reinforce their passion for the sport and eat up as much of their time as possible using technology."
Palm and Handspring
Whatever you call them, handheld computers or PDAs are seemingly everywhere. Representatives of Palm Computer, its rival/partner Handspring and other hardware-makers showed off new versions of their gadgets Thursday morning.
Palm Inc. demonstrated how its new Tungsten C handheld and software called Gphone can place phone calls over a wireless connection such as the increasingly popular "WiFi" networks. The calls can either go through the Internet to another WiFi-connected device, or over the standard telephone network to someone with a wire line and cell phone.
The cost advantage is that phones calling off the network don't have to pay long-distance charges, said Ken Wirt, Palm's senior vice president of sales and marketing.
Explaining gibberish
Wirt successfully made a call on the stage using a WiFi system from one Tungsten C to another held by Swisher. To make a call over the system, however, it's necessary to turn the gibberish of Internet numbers into names. That's done through a directory service Palm offers for $10 a year for unlimited calls.
Calls that go from a wireless Internet system to the phone network will cost about 2 or 3 cents a minute for domestic calls, Wirt said.
Jeff Hawkins, Handspring co-founder, showed a sneak preview of a new communicator device the company is developing for its Treo line. The prototype has a slightly smaller size and brighter screen than its current Treo communicators, which combine a digital organizer with a cell phone.
Hawkins explained that Handspring incrementally reduces the size of its products to make them easier to carry, while not making them so small as to be impractical. Also, a smaller device works better as a cell phone.
So far, Hawkins said, Handspring's customers have gone along with each change.
"One of the major criteria we wanted for the next generation of the Treo was to make it look more stylish, make it look more like a phone," Hawkins said.
As the conference wound down, Mossberg and Swisher said they intended to have another conference next year. Although they did not commit to return to the Four Seasons in Carlsbad, most of the audience members they asked said they enjoyed the venue.
Contact staff writer Bradley J. Fikes at (760) 739-6641 or bfikes@nctimes.com.
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