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Great Moments In Journalism: The TechCrunch40 aftermath
Congratulations to entrepreneur Aaron Patzer, pictured above with an oversized novelty check. His financial-services startup Mint was the big winner in this week's TechCrunch40 conference, bringing home the $50,000 prize for being the "best in show." So, what was the overall view of TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis's big event? This take, sent to us late last night from an out-of-town journalist, explains it better than we could. I'm drunk. But that's okay, because my editor spiked my TechCrunch piece. "This isn't what we expected at all," he said of the show, having been lured by the big-brain judges and the presumption that Arrington's top-secret reveal would be another iPhone. I suspect the next such blind event will have trouble getting reporters to show up, except the sort such as Wired who make themselves part of the story. These effectively worked for Arrington this week, publishing what he wanted when he wanted. Given the endless...

Online Video: Does NBC actually have a video strategy?
NBC has announced yet another new video product -- and left behind a wake of confusion. NBC Direct, which is launching this fall, will offer ad-supported downloads of its popular properties that can be viewed up to a week after they air on television. A convenient feature for anyone wanting to watch the shows on their time, for free. But NBC's video strategy, since its break up with iTunes, is exploratory at best. It's testing out this download service, while selling episodes on Amazon Unbox, and presumably continues to offer streaming content from its website. And what's to happen to Hulu.com, its YouTube-killing venture with News Corp.? It looks like someone can't make up his mind, or is taking the precaution of not putting all its video eggs in one basket.

Digital Music: Trent Reznor advises fans to fight the good fight, pirate
Trent Reznor, frontman for Nine Inch Nails, is on the warpath against his record label, Universal Music Group. In Sydney, Reznor kicked off the NIN concert with an appeal to the crowd to steal his music until the labels realize they're ripping people off. This follows his attack on the recording industry while playing the Beijing Pop Festival earlier this month. He asked Chinese fans who couldn't obtain legal copies of his album to download it off the Web. Reznor views labels as greedy entities -- charging progressively more for records without passing any additional revenue to artists. Once the band's contract with Universal is finished, Reznor plans to sell music directly to his fans for about $4 an album.

Google: Is Eric Schmidt's love life putting shareholders in danger?
We hear that Marcy Simon, the PR consultant briefly installed in Google's New York office, is more than a mere mistress to Google CEO Eric Schmidt. The rumors are resplendent: That Schmidt funded Simon's acrimonious divorce; that he is separating from his wife Wendy; that he is buying a $25 million Manhattan apartment in which to live with Simon. But why should anyone care about such tawdry personal details? If the latter two bits of hearsay have any truth to them, then shareholders should be extremely worried.A divorce would put part of Schmidt's multibillion-dollar Google stake on the market, potentially depressing the share price. And a recent study has found a strong correlation between the purchase of an expensive house by the CEO and a drop in his company's shares. Schmidt likes to laugh off his affairs, telling confidants, "What can I say? I just like the ladies." (We note the use of the plural, especially since Schmidt appears to have a habit of two-timing.)It's time...

Social Networks: Who digs Digg's new social features?
The biggest problem with becoming an extremely popular website with extremely vocal and loyal users, like the social news site Digg, is ... being extremely popular and having extremely vocal and loyal users. Your audience can never be pleased: Some want new features, others want old features refined, and others want no changes at all. While the newly introduced social-network features seem unobtrusive, and in keeping with Digg's headline-rating focus, most Diggers simply want commenting improved and a promised images section added. And they're enraged that the new features were revealed in an old-media BusinessWeek exclusive prior to appearing on Digg's own blog.Kevin Rose isn't just balancing the competing interests of Digg's loyal users, of course. Whenever a founder starts talking about "the users," hold onto your wallet. Rose also has to balance the interests of Digg's investors, for whom the BusinessWeek exclusive seems tailored. And then there's the wildcard of Rose's...

Trophies: Bill Watkins, the delightfully candid CEO ...
Bill Watkins, the delightfully candid CEO of hard drive manufacturer Seagate Technology, teams up with former Seagate CEO Steve Luczo to buy professional lacrosse team the San Jose Stealth. [National Lacrosse League]

IPhone: With Apple's lineup of European carriers ...
With Apple's lineup of European carriers for the iPhone taking shape, speculation has already turned to the Asia market. KTF, a Korean wireless carrier, is already talking about their negotiations and declaring a Korean iPhone will use the WCDMA platform rather than EDGE/GSM. In other words, expect KTF to join the ranks of Steve Jobs's spurned, unhappy ex-girlfriends when Apple actually announces its Pacific partners. [The Korea Times]

Online Advertising: Google Gadget Ads excite advertisers and no one else
It's no surprise that Google wants to continue to grow its dominant online advertising position by introducing new types of ads. But Google Gadget Ads? The new media-rich, live-feed, interactive and shareable ads using iGoogle's widget platform -- mini-webpages embedded in other pages, in other words -- may have marketers and the pushers of "conversational marketing" (ugh) excited with buzzwords like "user interactivity," "greater engagement," and "sharing", but that raises the obvious question: will actual people, the targets of these widgetized ads, be equally excited? Unlikely.When advertisers are allowed greater interactivity and "richness" of media, they usually produce the same, hackneyed advertising-disguised-asgames that are more offputting than standard online ads. Enabling new updates or live data via RSS won't improve the lack of creativity in ads. It will only confuse the advertisers. It will probably take years for advertisers to produce a handful of successful...

GooglePhone: Portfolio.com speculates on Google's disruptive ...
Portfolio.com speculates on Google's disruptive entrance into the telecom industry. Consistent with Valleywag's dismissal of Google handsets, the article focuses on Google (and others) toppling the existing carriers by using newly available wireless spectrum and Wi-Fi with open handsets rather than mimicking the existing models of closed networks and closed hardware. [Portfolio.com]

Outdoor Advertising: Is Google getting into the billboard business?
Mike Blumenthal, who blogs on Google's local-search efforts, serendipitously spotted a billboard for Google's 800-GOOG-411 in upstate New York. Search Engine Land thinks it's a test to see if advertising will boost usage of the directory service. I have a different theory: Google is interested in expanding into all forms of advertising, including the $7 billion outdoor market -- billboards, that is. Perhaps it's purchased some billboard space, in the hopes of using its dynamic, auction-based ad-selling system to resell it at a profit. Until it finds buyers, it may be using the billboards to promote its own services. Certainly, an 800 number makes more sense than a website as the subject of a roadside ad. (Photo courtesy of Understanding Google Maps)

Wireless: Silicon Valley, you don't deserve free Wi-Fi either
Free wireless access is a pipe dream. San Francisco quickly learned that lesson after EarthLink dropped, punctured, and then torched the ball. The SF public Wi-Fi project is still reeling from the toxic fumes of that flameout. Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network's more ambitious Wi-Fi project, which, as the name suggests, aims to blanket Silicon Valley with free Internet signal, is no longer confident it can pull it off. "We're prepared to scrap the whole project," said Joint Venture CEO Russ Hancock. Like San Francisco, it's no longer confident it can pull together enough advertising dollars to make it work. It's also lacking essential elements like leadership and a business model. And so ends another pie-in-the-sky vision.

VoIP: Say hello -- and goodbye -- to Ooma
Ooma, the voice-over-Internet gadget maker founded by entrepreneur and celebrity doppelganger Andrew Frame, finally makes its official debut. Starting today, the $399 box, which routes calls from regular phones over the Internet, goes on sale to the general public. Now you won't have to rely on blog giveaways to get your hands on the device. Assuming you want to.To entice potential customers, Ooma created the commercial above to get viral attention about its product. Ooma "creative director" Ashton Kutcher -- Mr. Demi Moore himself -- produced the clip, which features an unfortunately dressed creepy kid actor and more quick cuts than an anime cartoon. We already had our doubts about the viability of the service. This doesn't help.

Followup: Ameritrade knew about security breach in 2005
Estimates pegged TD Ameritrade's initial security breach to, approximately, October 2006. Well, they were wrong. Network World got ahold of emails from a security expert to Ameritrade dating back to January 9, 2006. Valleywag commenter Snarkosaurus claims to have evidence that the online stock broker was hacked as early as December 2005. Not only does this mean Ameritrade was hacked almost two years ago, but the company has known about it for an equal span of time. The reason the company offered for not notifying the 6 million or so affected accounts sooner? It didn't know how the information was getting out, so there was nothing it could have done. If you work for Ameritrade security, apparently ignorance is bliss.

Acquisitions: Nokia snaps up mobile advertising firm
Nokia is leaping into the mobile advertising arena with its plans to acquire Enpocket, which sprinkles mobile Web pages with video and banner ads. With mobile phones seen as one of the great unmapped frontiers of advertising, Nokia is preparing to battle with other prospectors like AOL's Third Screen Media and Google, which just announced AdSense for Mobile. Of course the big problem, as Advertising Age points out, is that consumers are hardly begging for ads on their phones' cramped screens. But advertisers are attached to the long-held vision of location-based advertising, stalking their customers through the streets, pinging them with coupons for nearby stores.

Online Video: Tivo seeking cash for its living-room war machine
Everyone wants a piece of TiVo's living-room real estate. The maker of digital video recorders is going to have a tough time fending off Sony's PlayStation 3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Netflix-in-a-box VuDu, Apple TV, and a host of other video-recording gadgets from its turf. No doubt this pending threat influenced TiVo to signal its intention to raise $100 million in fresh financing to fund expansion and development. It's going to need all the help it can get. One intriguing note: One of TiVo's listed financing options is debt. It's rare for a tech company to borrow money, instead of just selling shares, and the credit environment is hardly favorable. But it could be a last-ditch financing avenue if Wall Street has no appetite for more TiVo shares.

Videogames: In a bid to fill its drab stores with candy-stained ...
In a bid to fill its drab stores with candy-stained youths, RadioShack is stocking its shelves with videogames this holiday season. Select stores will carry holiday blockbuster titles and foist accessories and cables upon unwary consumers. [Joystiq]

Videogames: Ira Becker, a former executive at troubled ...
Ira Becker, a former executive at troubled tech-trade publisher Ziff Davis, has raised half of a planned $3 million in financing for his videogame-focused "online review and advertising" website, called What They Like. John Davison, a former editor at Ziff, is also involved in the startup. [PaidContent]

Clips: The return of Internet Commenters
When I first saw CollegeHumor's original "Internet Commenters" clip, my thought was, "Brilliant -- but a one-hit wonder, and an exception to the rule that Internet video sucks." Not so. Now, with an even funnier sequel out, I'm thinking that this is an idea with legs -- and that CollegeHumor could succeed, where so many others have failed, with original online videos.

Geek Love: Julia Allison breaks up with her nerd boyfriend
How typical: Julia Allison, the New York dating columnist and TV personality, has broken up with her boyfriend, Vimeo founder Jakob Lodwick. By blog post. In response to an email from him. Yes, she has, at last, become one with the byways of Silicon Valley. Gawker has the blow-by-blow. So why should anyone on this coast care? Only to note the spread of our unfortunate social mores eastward. The Allison-Lodwick relationship, according to his email, was sexless. The couple, instead, bonded by talking about blogging and business plans. Lodwick never even had a chance to unseat software blogger Joel Spolsky -- yes, he's the one she wrote about -- as the ultimate object of Allison's carnal attentions. (Photoillustration by Gawker)