Around the Web 5.19.09: Daimler invests in Tesla, Palm Pre due June 6, exercise games overwhelm

Tesla Motors, which makes the all-electric Tesla Roadster, sold a 10% stake in the Silicon Valley company to auto giant Daimler. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times

-- The Palm Pre gets a launch date: June 6. The company's best hope for competing in the smartphone market will cost $199.99 after rebates with a two-year contract. CNet

-- Er, yeah, June 6 is two days before the Steve Jobs-less Apple developers conference. Is Palm trying to own the news cycle? CrunchGear

-- The movie industry is booming. Video games based on movies? Not so much. Company Town

-- Boston loses more relevance in the high-tech ecosystem as Greylock Partners moves to Silicon Valley. Bits

-- Old meets new: Automaker Daimler took a nearly 10% stake in Tesla Motors, the Silicon Valley electric car company. Wired

-- Can an algorithm help stem an employee brain drain? Google is trying to find out. Silicon Alley Insider

-- Wolfram Alpha, a new kind of search engine supported by 10 terabytes of data from thousands of sources, finally launched. LAT

-- How many exercise video games is too many? VentureBeat

-- Chris Gaither

Around the Web 5.11.09: 'Star Trek' gadgets, Hulu backlash, Craigslist pig pile

Alex Baldwin in a commercial for Hulu, which is winning audiences and making enemies. Credit: Hulu

-- Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams go drinking just like the rest of us: in anonymity. NYT

-- Once derided as Clown Co., Hulu is catching on big-time. But it may have to pull shows off the service to preserve relationships with cable and satellite providers. LAT

-- Danny Sullivan flips the discussion: Newspapers keep asking Google to pay for their stories. So should Google ask newspapers to pay for their reporters' use of Google? Daggle

-- Craigslist pig pile: Attorneys general are stepping up the anti-Craigslist rhetoric, trying to get the site to do more to get rid of prostitution ads. LAT

-- A bill designed to curb cyber-bullying casts too wide a net, causing some to dub it the Censorship Act. Ars Technica

-- WSJ.com and other News Corp. news sites are working on a micro-payments system to get Web surfers to pay for their articles. PaidContent.org

-- The European Union appears ready to hit Intel with hefty antitrust fines. News.com

-- The "Star Trek" gadgets that actually exist today. SF Gate

-- Chris Gaither

Around the Web 5.4.09: Big-screen Kindle, turnover at Valleywag, BlackBerry Curve dominance

Precision Dynamics Vice President Robin Barber shows off high-tech wristbands. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

-- Can Kindle save the newspaper industry? A big-screen version of the device, designed for newspapers, magazines and textbooks, is reportedly due out Wednesday. NYT via MediaMemo

-- Why it won't save the newspaper industry. TechCrunch

-- Owen Thomas is leaving Valleywag. The people he has tormented rejoice. Gawker

-- Consumers bought more BlackBerry Curves than iPhones in the first quarter. Silicon Alley Insider

-- In theme parks, microchips turn colorful wristbands into admission passes, cashless debit cards, hotel room keys and a form of identification to reunite lost kids with parents. LAT

-- But do they get stock grants? Visiting with Google's goat herd. TechCrunch

-- Just convicted in Sweden of assisting copyright infringement, the Pirate Bay founders could soon face similar charges in Italy. IDG via CIO

-- What the Trend explains why things are hot on Twitter. TechCrunch

-- Venture capitalist Fred Wilson: There are some good companies out there waiting to go public, and the IPO market will start opening by the end of the year. A VC

-- Sprint Nextel posted a big quarterly loss and is reportedly in late-stage talks to outsource its cellular network to Ericsson to save money. CNet and MocoNews

-- Chris Gaither

Around the Web 4.27.09: Twitterers complain about spam, Qualcomm settles with Broadcom, Facebook opens up

An image from Six Days in Fallujah, a game from Konami and Atomic Games. Credit: Atomic Games

-- Six Days in Fallujah, the controversial video game about the battle in Iraq, is rumored to have been canceled because of public outcry. Asahi via Guardian

-- Qualcomm agreed to pay Broadcom $861 million to put to bed a long-standing dispute over chip technology. The deal means that innovations in cellphones could now move faster. VentureBeat

-- Apple and Verizon Wireless are reportedly talking about bringing the iPhone to the can-you-hear-me-now network. MocoNews

-- Heirs of author John Steinbeck are joining other authors' representatives to ask a federal judge to delay by four months the deadline for authors to decide whether to join the Google Books settlement. NYT

-- Facebook is opening up its platform even more to outside developers. Silicon Alley Insider

-- Former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta takes over today as CEO of MySpace. BoomTown

-- Does Twitter need a "report as spam" button to deal with an apparent rise in unwanted tweets? TechCrunch

-- Chris Gaither

Around the Web 4.17.09: Ashton Kutcher wins race to 1 million on Twitter, Oprah joins too, YouTube shows underwhelm

Ashton Kutcher became the first Twitter user to hit 1 million followers. He streamed the run-up to a million live on UStream. Credit: Sweet One via Flickr

-- Four members of the Pirate Bay torrent search engine were found guilty of sharing copyrighted files in Sweden. A judge sentenced them to a year in prison and hit them with big fines. CNet

-- Ashton Kutcher squeaked past CNN to become the first Twitter user with 1 million followers. TechCrunch

-- He'll do his victory lap on Oprah Winfrey's show, where he'll presumably show her how to tweet. NYT 

-- Maybe he'll tell her not to tweet in all-caps? Silicon Alley Insider

-- Unimpressed by the line-up on YouTube's new TV and movie site? You're not alone. Valleywag and PaidContent

-- What does Omid Kordestani's changing role mean for Google? VentureBeat

-- Apple's strategy of premium pricing despite the recession may be catching up. Its share of the computer market slipped in the first quarter, IDC says. Macrumors

-- Chris Gaither

Around the LA Times: Time Warner scraps broadband caps, YouTube goes Hollywood, Google growth slows

There was so much news on Thursday that we're doing a special LA Times-only version of Around the Web. Here's a roundup of the tech stories that appeared in this morning's Los Angles Times.

-- After striking deals with movie and TV studios, YouTube went Hollywood, setting up a new section of its website for long-form professional videos. LAT 

-- DirecTV and Comcast reached settlement deals with the Federal Trade Commission. The allegations were weird: that the company called people on the Do Not Call List to suggest that they join the Do Not Call List. LAT

-- Time Warner Cable has put on hold, at least for now, a "tiered pricing" plan that would have charged heavy broadband users more money. LAT

-- Google's earnings report shows that not even the Internet's biggest player is immune to the recession. LAT

-- The video of Susan Boyle, the 47-year-old Scottish singing phenom, is the most viewed by far on YouTube this month. LAT

-- Video game sales slid in March because there were no blockbuster titles like last year's Nintendo classic, Super Smash Bros: Brawl. LAT

-- John Madden's retirement from TV won't mean the end of his blockbuster football video game. LAT

-- Chris Gaither

Activision denies Genius allegations in DJ game dispute [UPDATED]

Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, developed by Genius Products, is at the center of the company's lawsuit against Activision. Credit: Genius Products

Another day, another twist in the battle of the disc jockey video games.

First, a quick primer: Genius Products has been working on a game called Scratch: the Ultimate DJ, and it hired a small design firm, California 7 Studios, to do a lot of the heavy lifting. A lawsuit filed this week alleges that Genius and Activision Blizzard, a game publishing giant, started talking about collaborating on a game. When they couldn't reach a deal, Activision, which is creating its own game, DJ Hero, went ahead and bought 7 Studios.

Big problem: 7 Studios was still under contract with Genius. Tempers flared, lawyers got involved.

It's looking now as if the judge in the case issued a bench ruling Wednesday. The Los Angeles County Superior Court hasn't issued any paperwork on the decision, so we're still piecing together what the judge actually said based on the small shreds of information the two sides have provided. But here's our best read:

Genius seems to have won one early victory: Activision and 7 Studios were told to return some of the assets they allegedly wouldn't hand over, including game code and custom turntables used to control the game. Genius said it was "very pleased" and now "able to complete our game in a timely manner."

But after declining to comment Wednesday, Activision unloaded its PR guns today, issuing a statement that trashes Genius and denies wrongdoing:

Activision Publishing strongly denies the allegations made by Genius Products and Numark Industries and believes that the claims are disingenuous and lack any merit. Yesterday, the L.A. Superior Court found that there was no evidence of any wrongdoing by Activision and refused to grant any restraining order against Activision.

These allegations are nothing more than an attempt by Genius to place blame for the game's delay, as well as to divert attention from the cash flow, liquidity and revenue challenges Genius detailed in its March 30, 2009, SEC filing. By their own admission in October 2008, the game had fallen behind in production, which was well before Activision had any involvement with Genius, Numark or California 7 Studios regarding the game.

The lawsuit will have no impact on Activision's upcoming DJ Hero(R) game, a turntable-based music game that the company has been independently developing.

Activision purchased 7 Studios on April 6, 2009 to bolster its development capabilities. 7 Studios had continued to develop Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, and Activision did not interfere with or delay their efforts to complete the game. In fact, Activision provided the fledgling developer with much needed financing during these difficult economic times.

We'll update you as we find out more.

CORRECTED 2:45 p.m.: A previous version of this post said Activision acquired 7 Studios to help make DJ Hero. In fact, Activision won't say why it bought 7 Studios.

-- Chris Gaither

Around the Web 4.13.09: Twitter worms spread, Steve Jobs still working, Facebook

Ads for "Deadliest Catch" will be all over Microsoft properties after a seven-figure ad deal. Credit: Discovery Channel

-- Two worms are spreading on Twitter, leaving unwanted messages. A Brooklyn teen says he did it because he was bored. BNO News

-- Working from home? Steve Jobs is apparently still helping to run Apple, including work on the company's netbook project. WSJ via VentureBeat

-- Books with gay and lesbian themes were pulled from Amazon.com's sales rankings over the weekend. Amazon blamed a "glitch." Jacket Copy

-- Microsoft beat Google and Yahoo to land a seven-figure ad deal to promote Discovery Channel's "Deadliest Catch" series on TV, the Web, cellphones and video games. Silicon Alley Insider

-- Fox and movie theater owners are squabbling over who should pay for 3-D glasses. USA Today

-- Intel's profit report Tuesday should set the tone for tech earnings. Mercury News

-- The Skype founders seem to have a decent shot at buying back the service from EBay. GigaOm

-- Is Facebook responsible for a lower GPA? Or are people with lower GPAs just on Facebook more? CNet

-- Why Google isn't really the middleman for news. TechCrunch

-- Chris Gaither

Around the Web 4.6.09: IBM-Sun breakdown, clean-smelling truckers, new anti-Mac ads

Heriberto Perez Jr.'s truck runs on liquefied natural gas. Credit: Ann Johannson / For The Times

-- Sun Microsystems customers can't feel good about the company's failed merger talks with IBM. ZDNet

-- A trucker from Fontana faced tough questions from his wife because he didn't come home smelling like tailpipe anymore. His secret: a rig that gets 95% of its drive train from liquefied natural gas. LAT

-- Samsung plans to launch three phones running Google's Android operating system this year. Ars Technica

-- High school students in San Francisco are using GPS-enabled cellphones and Facebook to track their carbon footprints. SF Chron

-- By starting to charge for its photo storage service, Kodak is showing that what 'sfree on the Web now won't necessarily be free tomorrow. LAT

-- Concerns are building that Google's scanning of orphaned books (out of print but still under copyright) is creating a digital-books monopoly. NYT

-- Sony is reportedly in talks with YouTube about adding full-length movies to the video-sharing giant. CNet

-- Microsoft's new commercial enrages Apple users by saying Macs are "so sexy" but too expensive. Silicon Alley Insider

-- A glitch in the Los Angeles Police Department's geocoding system has made a block in downtown L.A. the most dangerous place on the map. LAT

-- Chris Gaither

Around the Web 3.30.09: Online ad dollars still growing, labels join Google for music downloads in China, video games help vision

A Redbox customer returns a DVD at an Albertsons in Santa Monica. Hollywood studios worry the system could undercut DVD sales. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho / Los Angeles Times

-- Google has signed up the four major record labels for a free music download service in China. The labels get a cut of the ad revenue. Ars Technica

-- Is Facebook making college reunions pointless? We already know what our classmates are up to. NYT

-- Here's a study to show mom: Playing video games may be good for your vision. Booster Shots

-- Why the new Skype iPhone app, available Tuesday, doesn't actually threaten AT&T. Silicon Alley Insider

-- Redbox's vending machines dispense dollar-a-day DVDs to consumers -- and worries to Hollywood. LAT

-- Online advertising revenue is slowing down (what isn't these days?) but still grew 10% last year. TechCrunch

-- A major spy operation seems to be looting files from computers across the world, including those of the Dali Lama's office, researchers say. NYT

-- Laid-off workers get connected with potential jobs through social networking. LAT

-- Chris O'Brien: The patent system is broken, and now's the time to fix it. Mercury News

-- Chris Gaither