Techmeme: Conference of egos (Steven Hodson/WinExtra)

4:10 AM ET, April 4, 2008

Top Items:

Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:

Seesmic Acquires Popular Twitter AIR Client Twhirl — San Francisco video/chat startup Seesmic has acquired Twhirl, a popular application created by German developer Marco Kaiser that allows users to access the Twitter service directly from their desktop, and also cross post to other services like Pownce and Jaiku.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Ross Mayfield's Weblog, paidContent.org, Mashable!, ProgrammableWeb and The Last Podcast

Loïc Le Meur / Loic Le Meur Blog:

20 reasons why Seesmic acquired Twhirl — As TechCrunch just announced, Seesmic just acquired Twhirl. And here are 20 ways it will benefit the Seesmic community —Staying in touch with your friends using microblogging is much easier using a client than through your browser

Discussion: Podcasting News, The Universal Desktop, NewTeeVee, ReadWriteWeb, The Blog Herald and bub.blicio.us

Rafe Needleman / Webware.com: Video chat startup Seesmic acquires Twitter client Twhirl

Google Public Policy Blog:

Cone of silence (finally) lifts on the spectrum auction — For three weeks at the end of January and early February, a small team of us holed up in double super secret “war rooms” in Mountain View, CA and Washington, D.C. to bid on Google's behalf in the FCC spectrum auction.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Engadget, CNET News.com, Gearlog, InformationWeek Weblog and Phone Scoop

Owen Thomas / Valleywag:

Facebook hires away Google's top chef — Is it “poaching” when a company steals a rival's chef? At Google, executive chef Josef Desimone scrambled cruelty-free eggs by the truckload. Now Facebook has hired him to replace steam-heated trays of takeout with the kind of free food Googlers are used to.

Tom Neumayr / Apple:

iTunes Store Top Music Retailer in the US — Apple® today announced that the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com) surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number one music retailer in the US, based on the latest data from the NPD Group*. With over 50 million customers, iTunes has sold …

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Fox Interactive Media To Miss Revenue Targets; Chief Revenue Officer Out Amid Reorganization — Amidst all the excitement over the MySpace Music announcement today is another story about the fate of parent company Fox Interactive Media. FIM, the division of News Corp. that controls MySpace …

Discussion: CNET News.com, Silicon Alley Insider, paidContent.org, The Social Web, MarketingShift, Orbitcast and Reuters

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:

Microsoft: June 30 Windows XP cut-off set in stone — Microsoft made it official on April 3: There will be no new reprieves for Windows XP (other than on Ultra Low-Cost PCs). — Some customers and partners had been hoping the company might extend again the deadline for all PC makers …

Discussion: TechWeb, Techlog, Microsoft, Tech Tracks, GottaBeMobile, BetaNews, Engadget, Electronista and Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog

Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Microsoft will extend life of Windows XP—again

Discussion: Download Squad, One Microsoft Way and Smalltalk Tidbits …

Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
Microsoft extends XP Home 2 years—for budget laptops only

Discussion: TechSpot, Associated Press and Gizmodo

Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:

Rumor: Ad network Federated Media raises $50M from Oak Hill Capital Partners, at $200M valuation — The ad network Federated Media has raised $50 million at a $200 million pre-money valuation from private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, I've heard from a source, with investment bank Savvian helping to broker the deal.

Discussion: Quintura blog, Valleywag, CenterNetworks and TechCrunch

Owen Thomas / Valleywag:

The bubble to end all bubbles? — Are we in a bubble? Far too late to be asking that question, says Chris Nolan, a former Valley newspaper gossip who now runs a startup, Spot-On. She weighs in on the current market crisis and its effects on the tech business.

Chris Nolan / Spot-On: No More Bubbles — Finally, they're talking regulation on Wall Street.

New York Times:

MySpace and Record Companies Create Music Site — SAN FRANCISCO — In the latest effort by the ailing music industry to bolster its declining prospects, three of the four major music companies have struck a deal with MySpace to start an music Web site. — As part of the deal …

Tim / craigslist blog:

Finally: Craigslist Launches a Blog of Their Own — A month after we launched craigslistblog.org, the good people at craigslist launched their own blog. Oh, and shortly thereafter, I received the following request from their CEO, Jim Buckmaster, to shut ours down: … This was my response:

Discussion: mathewingram.com/work and Valleywag

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Craigslist Launches Official Blog

Discussion: craigslist blog, DygiScape, STARTUP CHATTER, ReadWriteWeb, Kelsey Group Blogs, Download Squad, Bloggers Blog and The Blog Herald

Nicholas Carlson / Valleywag:

South Park kills 10 YouTube memes for good — Viacom continues to pursue a $1 billion lawsuit against Google's YouTube for allowing video piracy. On Viacom's Comedy Central, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone aren't helping their corporate parent's legal case.

Steven Hodson / WinExtra:

Conference of egos — In an environment that is meant to be the breeding ground that show cases the best of start ups the conferences that dot the calendars throughout Silicon Valley and the rest of the tech world the opening shots of a Tolkien One Conference to rule them all has been sounded.

Discussion: The Last Podcast, SheGeeks and Jeremy Toeman's LIVEdigitally

Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
TechCrunch v DEMO Smackdown! Calacanis Blasts IDG, Offers Shipley a Job

Discussion: Scripting News, CenterNetworks, Geek Gestalt, mathewingram.com/work, Stage Two Consulting, The Guidewire, The Drama 2.0 Show, Technosailor and Furrier.org

David Pogue / New York Times:

A Camera for the Shot You Missed — When you're a professional gadget reviewer, you see plenty of cellphones, music players, camcorders and computers. But in two weeks, Casio will offer an entirely new device for sale, the first of its kind: a time machine. — Now, the Exilim EX-F1 is not a time machine in the H. G. Wells sense.

Discussion: Jeremy Toeman's LIVEdigitally and michael parekh on IT

Internet Crime Complaint Center:

Reported Dollar Loss From Internet Crime Reaches All Time High — Washington, D.C. — According to the 2007 Internet Crime Report, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received 206,884 complaints of crimes perpetrated over the Internet during 2007. Of the complaints received …

Discussion: Macworld, Defense in Depth and Slashdot

Laura M. Holson / New York Times:

Mobile Phone Industry Takes Aim at the iPhone — LAS VEGAS — Last year, the wireless industry obsessed over the iPhone. This year, the industry is buzzing about how to beat it. — Touch screens, the mobile Internet and devices packed with multimedia capabilities dominated the discussion …

Discussion: textually.org

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