Yet Another Social Network Launches, But At Least With An Epic Press Release

• September
• 7

I’ve ignored more press releases in my time than I care to remember, but I still scan, and sometimes even read, a bunch of them every single day. Comes with the territory, and I’ve long accepted that – I’m sure a lot of PR folks think of those as necessary evil almost as much as we do. Almost.

But as boring as it is to read the same frickin words over and over and over and over again, there are certain times – albeit very, very few – where we manage to distill some actual useful information from the writings (but please, again, stop using words like “leading” and “award-winning” in the first paragraph all the time. Pretty please?).

And then there the rare ones that put a smile on our face. Press releases we actually enjoy reading. Not because they’re ballsy (it’s easy to provoke and get attention by running your virtual mouth) but because they’re whimsy and just the right degree of ballsy, rather. More information: click here

Once a Dynamo, the Tech Sector Is Slow to Hire (Catherine Rampell/New York Times)

• September
• 7

Catherine Rampell / New York Times:
Once a Dynamo, the Tech Sector Is Slow to Hire  —  For years the technology sector has been considered the most dynamic, promising and globally envied industry in the United States.  It escaped the recession relatively unscathed, and profits this year have been soaring.
More information: click here

BaseApp Brings Easy Basecamp Alerts to Mac OS X (Mashable)

• September
• 7

Mashable – If you're a Basecamp user running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, you just might love the new menu bar application BaseApp. More information: click here

Oracle names ex-HP CEO Mark Hurd co-president (AP)

• September
• 7

AP – Oracle Corp. has announced former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Mark Hurd is joining the database software maker as co-president. More information: click here

Oracle Hires Former HP CEO Mark Hurd As Co-President

• September
• 7

Oracle has confirmed that former Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd has found a cushy place to land after one of this year’s messiest tech scandals, Hurd will be joining the company as Co-President alongside his close friend and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.

This comes as no surprise judging by yesterday’s rumors of his hire coupled with the fact that Ellison came to Hurd’s defense during the controversy surrounding allegations of harassment by former HP contractor Jodie Fisher.
More information: click here

DataViz, Makers of Documents To Go, apparently acquired and now owned … (Kevin Michaluk/CrackBerry.com blogs)

• September
• 7

Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
DataViz, Makers of Documents To Go, apparently acquired and now owned by Research In Motion  —  DataViz, makers of the popular Documents To Go application, announced sad news today for Palm fans.  Though the company started out developing for Palm, they are not going to proceed in developing the Documents To Go solution for Palm WebOS.
More information: click here

Merger Mania: Corp Dev Execs Talk For An Hour About Who They’d Buy And Why

• September
• 7

We’d heard this was a great discussion but haven’t been able to get our hands on the footage until now. On July 29th senior corporate development executives from Cisco (Derek Idemoto), Facebook (Michael Brown), Google (Amin Zoufonoun), Microsoft (Fritz Lanman), Twitter (Jessica Verilli) and Yahoo (Taylor Barada) convened at Startup2Startup to talk about what kinds of companies they want to buy, and why.

The panel was moderated by CODE Advisors founder Michael Marquez, who was also a former corp dev executive at both Yahoo and CBS. He put together a panel of buyers that will represent most or all of the M&A activity in the online space over the next year or so, with the possible exception of AOL.

My favorite part is at 27:30 where each panelist says the top acquisitions that the person to their right should make. Watch everyone’s body language – lots of nervousness up there on stage. But the entire hour is worth watching if you’re even thinking about selling your company right now.
More information: click here

Polls Show Netizens Oppose Craigslist Censorship (PC World)

• September
• 7

PC World – Web-based polls and views express online show popular opinion is against the censoring of adult services ads on Craigslist. A poll at Mashable shows 71 percent of the respondents voted no to the question "Should Craigslist's Adult Services be censored?" Meanwhile, the Washington Post asked its readers, "Do you agree with Craigslist's decision?" to block access to its Adult Services section. Fifty-two percent of them said no. More information: click here

E.U. Could Investigate Chinese Subsidies to Modem Makers (PC World)

• September
• 6

PC World – The European Commission is considering opening a second enquiry to investigate if China is illegally subsidizing tech companies that produce wireless modems. More information: click here

Nike iPhone app keeps track of where, how fast you run (Sid Yadav/VentureBeat)

• September
• 6

Sid Yadav / VentureBeat:
Nike iPhone app keeps track of where, how fast you run  —  There was a time when going out for a run meant putting on some sneakers and leaving for a jog around the park.  But if you need any indication of how far we’ve come, take a look at Nike’s latest Nike+ GPS app for the iPhone, released today on Apple’s App Store.
More information: click here