arrington

Two prominent technology writers are reporting vastly different stories about what Apple paid for music service Lala.

Peter Kafka, from The Wall Street Journal-owned blog All Things Digital, cited anonymous sources in a Monday report who said Apple plunked down $80 million for Lala. In a story published Tuesday, Michael Arrington at TechCrunch cited his own sources who disputed that price and said Lala was acquired for $17 million.

I wish I knew who was right, but my reporting came up with nothing solid. I will say that from the second I heard Kafka's number I was skeptical. After … Read more

If you've ever sat around with friends and mourned the death of the mixtape, you'll certainly appreciate the first half of today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast. While Jeff was at home for the break, he stumbled upon a a collection of old cassette tapes including the Cool Side/Awesome Side mix you see up there. It's got a solid collection of '90s hits including "Mr. Jones" by Counting Crows, Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun," and, of course, "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

I spy "Crazy" and something that starts with "Livin...," which I can only assume to be Britney Spears and Ricky Martin. Just kidding, Jeff, but seriously--we've all pulled some pretty embarrassing stunts in a pathetic attempt to win a girl's heart, so stick around to witness the humiliation.

Speaking of death, we're (kind of) sad to see the demise of the CrunchPad. The brainchild of TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington and Fusion Garage, the CrunchPad was supposed to be an aluminum tablet computer with a 12-inch LCD screen running Ubuntu Linux and Webkit browser. Unfortunately, Arrington reported today that the CrunchPad project is officially dead. We're disappointed that we'll never be able to test the product ourselves, but we're sure that Arrington has something else up his sleeve.

We imagine that a lot of you guys will be traveling by plane for the holiday season, but what if you were forced to hand over your iPod to security agents to check it for pirated music at the airport? Sounds like a nightmare, but Wilson tells us that the Australian government is apparently proposing a plan to search iPods and other MP3 players for illegally downloaded songs, punishable by heavy fines or even jail time!

From a technological stand point, we're not even sure how the government plans on checking for purchased vs. bootlegged music. At the end of the day, it's always comforting to know that you'll NEVER get busted for listening to The 404, and isn't that the most important thing?

Next year will probably see new tablet computers from Apple and maybe even Microsoft. What do these companies know that our panel does not? Featuring Ryan Block and Harry McCracken.

Reporters Roundtable # 5: Tablets' uncertain future

It's the obligatory Tablets edition of the Roundtable, this time with even more great and smart tech journalist entrepreneurs from Gdgt (Ryan Block) and Technologizer (Harry McCracken). Watch or listen for the content. Click to the full story to see the notes we used when recording.… Read more

We started seeing prototype photos of the CrunchPad back in April. Back then we described it as, "a mobile computing device as envisioned by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington...The project's goal was to design and build a thin, light touch-screen PC without a physical keyboard or onboard hard drive. Instead, the system and its custom operating system would be entirely focused on Web browsing and using Web-based apps."

Since then we've seen precious little official news about the project, so it's small wonder that online tongues were wagging today about an article published by The Straits Times … Read more

TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, who last year boldly proclaimed TechCrunch would break every embargo it agreed to, apparently has broken his own embargo and leaked some news about his little consumer electronics side project, the CrunchPad.

OK, maybe he didn't really break his own embargo, but we wouldn't put it past him. The fact is Arrington says he's "just about nailed down the final design for the device" and that he'll have "first working prototypes" in a few weeks.

Arrington has been posting progress reports on the creation of the CrunchPad, which … Read more

It's far from being on store shelves, but some additional details and photos of the CrunchPad, a mobile computing device as envisioned by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, have been released. The project's goal was to design and build a thin, light touch-screen PC without a physical keyboard or onboard hard drive. Instead, the system and its custom operating system would be entirely focused on Web browsing and using Web-based apps.

"I wanted something I couldn't buy, and found people who said it could be built for a lot less than I imagined," writes Arrington on his site. &… Read more

It looks like Michael Arrington has changed his mind about the value of the Demo conference in the wake of the announcement that VentureBeat CEO and editor-in-chief Matt Marshall will be taking over the tech conference after this year.

And, more notably, he's indicated that his tech conference, TechCrunch 50, won't be held at the same time as DemoFall this year, as it famously was in 2008.

"I'll certainly go to (DemoFall)," Arrington said Thursday. "I think we're on different weeks this year."

DemoFall 09 is scheduled for September 21-23 in San … Read more

When Demo 09 kicks off Monday in Palms Springs, Calif., the high-technology showcase conference that prides itself on putting cutting-edge companies in front of A-list venture capitalists and journalists will do so in perhaps the worst economic environment in modern tech history.

Exhibitors at Demo pay well into five figures for the privilege of giving a six-minute presentation to a room full of influencers--many of whom have paid up to $3,000 to be there. So one could wonder whether the show can maintain its relevancy while companies are shedding record numbers of jobs, when credit is as tight as … Read more

I really liked Elias Bizannes' analysis of the rise of Michael Arrington's TechCrunch, not the least reason being that I, too, have wondered why I like TechCrunch so much. Or, rather, how to replicate what I like most in TechCrunch. (Also, as a lawyer, I suppose I like the idea that even lawyers can become rich and famous. :-)

While Bizannes takes his reader through Arrington's self-promotion and opportunistic focus on a somewhat fatuous Web 2.0 industry, two things he calls out strike me as the reason that I read TechCrunch.

Quality of content and frequency of … Read more