-- 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

-- 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

-- 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

-- 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

-- 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

-- 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

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

-- 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

-- 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

-- 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

-- NBA halftime ritual: Rest, water and ... tweets? ESPN

-- Google Voice's transcription service needs some work, unless a caller actually left Baratunde Thurston the following message: "never got not cathy hawk lady at four forty five central standard time missing out bye." Baratunde's Posterous

-- North Korea: It's 2009, why not give cellphones a try? LAT

-- Nearly 5 million people queued up March Madness online through the first day of the hoops tournament's second round. PaidContent.org

-- Warner Bros. is opening its archives to release 150 classic films as digital downloads or made-to-order DVDs. LAT

-- Hulu became the No. 4 video site in February, but it's still way behind YouTube. TechCrunch

-- Sexperts (and teens) cast doubts on the prevalence of sexting. SF Chron

-- Sony draws complaints from game publishers for charging them for PlayStation 3 downloads. MTV Multiplayer

-- Ngmoco, whose iPhone games have been installed more than 7 million times, raised another $10 million in funding. VentureBeat

-- Chris Gaither

-- IBM is reportedly in talks to acquire Sun Microsystems, the struggling server and software company. Shouldn't that have happened a long time ago? CNet

-- Techies at South by Southwest Interactive ignore the recession, embrace the recession. Says one, "Broke is the new chic." LAT

-- The boys are back in town. Steve Case and Ted Leonsis return to AOL to rally the troops. Wash Post

-- They were invited by new CEO Tim Armstrong, who has already been replaced as Google's head of ad sales by Dennis Woodside. AllThingsD

-- He's no Steve Jobs, but Apple SVP Scott Forstall did a serviceable job pitching the iPhone 3.0 update. CNet

-- Stash this in your how-not-to-tweet folder. I'm Not Actually a Geek

-- Failed diversity strategy or natural selection? Some 46% of Digg home page stories during the past week came from only 50 websites. (The L.A. Times is No. 27 on the list). Soshable.com

-- Computer science majors are finally starting to increase after a decade of declines. ArsTechnica

-- A privacy group asks the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google's safeguarding of personal information. TechCrunch

-- Chris Gaither

-- Yahoo is back to making original video programming but says it's got the right formula this time. NYT via NewTeeVee

-- "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon" is trying to bring geek speak to mainstream talk shows. He may attract a demographic that advertisers dig: hip, plugged-in people who don't otherwise watch much TV. LAT

-- Status update smackdown: Twitter and Facebook are increasingly overlapping and competing. SF Chronicle

-- The thrill is gone? Consumers are showing signs of Guitar Hero fatigue. LAT

-- Spot Runner, the once-hot online advertising start-up in L.A., is undertaking its third layoff in a year. TechCrunch

-- Are PCs boring? Inspired by Apple's iPhone, computer makers are focusing much of their effort these days on making souped-up smartphones. NYT

-- Digg founder Kevin Rose launched WeFollow, a Twitter directory, at the South By Southwest Interactive Festival. CNet

-- For people of a certain age, Facebook is starting to feel like a perpetual episode of "This Is Your Life." NYT

--George Kliavkoff, the guy who launched Hulu before leaving NBC Universal, has landed at Hearst. MediaMemo

-- Chris Gaither

-- High school students go online to rate each others' chances to get into colleges. LAT

-- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg outs himself as "finkd" on Twitter. VentureBeat

-- "Dancing with the Stars" contestant Steve Wozniak, who will do the cha-cha tonight, is hoping for geek support to get him through the first round. Wired

-- The "Watchmen" opening credits go online, stay online. Silicon Alley Insider

-- A new Japanese device lets you control gadgets with your face. PhysOrg via Digg

-- Wolfram Alpha, a "computational knowledge engine," tries to deliver facts better than Google can. TechCrunch

-- Good luck signing up for Facebook if your last name is Super, Pancake, Batman or Kisser. Wash Post

-- Jetpacks make a comeback. Crashes are inevitable. WSJ

-- Crimedex: social networking for law enforcement. NYT

Corrected: An earlier version of this post said Zuckerberg was now using Flickr under the name "finkd." In fact, he's now using Twitter.

-- Chris Gaither

-- Melinda Gates: We don't buy our kids iPhones or iPods. GeekSugar

-- The Demo 09 conference kicks off today in Palm Springs with 39 companies presenting. VentureBeat

-- A Twitter investor explains why the company walked away from takeover talks with Facebook. Business Week

-- As the goods in our daily lives transform from analog to digital, it's hard not to wonder: Where did all our stuff go? LAT

-- Marissa Mayer says rumors of her pending departure have been greatly exaggerated. Google employee No. 20 dishes on her control over the company's aesthetic, her athletic prowess and her relationship with Larry Page and Sergey Brin.  NYT and Valleywag

-- Michael Arrington returns to the blogosphere after unplugging for a month on a Hawaiian beach. TechCrunch

-- Some of the people who most need a $40 converter-box coupon for the digital-TV transition are being told they're ineligible because of where they live. LAT

-- Ten ways to improve Twitter. Six Revisions

-- David Lazarus: Newspapers are pretty pathetic at selling their content in the digital economy, but that problem is fixable. They should band together to charge for online news. LAT

-- Wi-Drive, a new high-end bus service, lets Silicon Valley commuters surf the Web, watch the news and sip coffee en route to the office. SF Chronicle

-- What's an acceptable number of words for bloggers to excerpt without going beyond fair-use laws? Silicon Alley Insider

-- Tips for using your BlackBerry more effectively. USA Today

-- Chris Gaither

-- Review: The changes to Amazon.com's Kindle 2 made a very good e-book reader even better. NYT

-- But it's no iPod. E-books aren't ready for the mainstream. Wired

-- Microsoft to 25 laid-off workers who received too much severance: Never mind on paying us back. TechCrunch

-- Microsoft's Live Search and Ask.com take the prize for best display of Oscar-related search results. Search Engine Land

-- Larry Brilliant takes the prize for best name for a scientist. Oh, he is stepping down as executive director of Google.org, the search company's philanthropic arm, as Google rethinks its nonprofit investment strategy. Silicon Alley Insider

-- Apple released the public beta of Safari 4, the next version of its Web browser. MacRumors

-- Reunion.com and Wink were folded together and renamed MyLife. CNet

-- Patent rules continue to infuriate inventors, investors. LAT

-- While most Americans were sleeping, Gmail went down. VentureBeat

-- Former EA exec Kathy Vrabeck is close to resurfacing with a new job at Legendary Pictures. The Cut Scene

-- Chris Gaither

Dustin Pedroia, the second baseman for the Boston Red Sox and the reigning American League MVP, recently visited Sony's San Diego studio to help engineers bring more reality to his video game persona.

For MLB 2009 the Show, a game due out on March 3 for PlayStation systems, Pedroia suited up in spandex and had 55 sensors attached to him. He fielded imaginary grounders, turned fake double plays and went through his elaborate batting ritual to create data the engineers could use to make him look more lifelike in the game.

As we explain in this story about the sophisticated motion-capture process used to create games:

Sports-related video games now generate around $3 billion in annual sales, and enthusiasts have come to expect near-perfect fidelity. That means replicating a professional athlete's every tic and nuance.

The genre has benefited tremendously from computing advances that enable developers to render games that feel like the real deal: the angle of the sun shining into the stadium, the reaction of the crowds, the athletes' movements and facial expressions.

Check out the video above to see engineers put Pedroia through his routines. Motion capture is the latest subject in our Work of Play series, which looks at music composers, lawyers and other interesting professions created by the multibillion-dollar industry.

-- Chris Gaither

Video credit: Alex Pham / Los Angeles Times

Housekeeper Marina Ortiz sprays the liquid known as miracle water on a desk at the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica. Credit: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times.

-- Microsoft to laid-off workers: Oops, we overpaid your severance and need that money back. TechCrunch

-- Lose at Street Fighter IV? Cripple your opponent's Xbox Live connection! Ars Technica

-- Across the world, a handy concoction of salt and tap water whose ions have been scrambled by an electrical current has become known as the miracle liquid. LAT

-- A national campaign is in the works to teach kids the three Cs of Internet safety: cyberethics, cybersafety and cybersecurity. USA Today

-- The Yahoo media group in Santa Monica may get its management reorg even sooner than the rest of the company. BoomTown

-- Seven ways to improve your laptop's battery life. TechRadar

-- What is all this texting doing to teenagers' attention spans, social lives, writing abilities and family connections? Textually

-- Nick Denton picked Oscars day to announce he was folding Defamer, the L.A.-based gossip site, into Gawker. Deadline Hollywood Daily

-- For Web surfers, the Google habit is tough to break. Antitrust regulators are paying attention. NYT

-- Netscape founder Marc Andreessen and longtime business partner Ben Horowitz launched a venture fund. PaidContent.org

-- Chris Gaither

-- Two minutes with the Android G2: close to perfection. Gizmodo

-- Game review: Killzone 2 is technologically flawless and a sight to behold, but it's not that once-in-a-lifetime game everyone was hoping for. LAT

-- Victorious in its crusade against Facebook's terms-of-use change, Consumerist says "now we can all go back to sending each other digital cupcakes without Big Brother watching us." Consumerist

-- Google has reason to worry about President Obama's choice for antitrust chief. VentureBeat

-- Even as localized Web ads are poised to shrink, ReachLocal, a Woodland Hills company, is trying to build a mini-Madison Avenue stretching across the country. WSJ

-- Air your dirty secrets in 140 characters or less with SecretTweet. Jacket Copy

-- Verizon.net says it's looking for ways to stop being used by so many spam-spewing zombies. Security Fix

-- Google won a lawsuit brought by a Pittsburgh couple who claimed that including photos of their house on the Street View mapping program violated their privacy. CNet

-- But it starts a new legal fight with TradeComet.com, which accuses Google of antitrust violations. NYT

-- The recording industry and Internet radio sites still don't have a deal over royalties. PaidContent.org

-- Industrial Light & Magic shares a Flash program that shows Iron Man's suit from the inside out. Hero Complex

-- Chris Gaither

After months of dancing around the subject, former EBay Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman today finally made it official: She's running for governor of California as a Republican.

The announcement sets up a Silicon Valley showdown: Her prime competition from the GOP ranks looks to be Steve Poizner, the former high-tech executive who became California's insurance commissioner. Poizner made a fortune selling his start-up SnapTrak, to San Diego-based Qualcomm in 2000.

As Michael Finnegan writes today in a Times story about the gubernatorial contest, the candidates each are so rich from their success in high-tech business that they can afford to spend millions of dollars campaigning. He writes:

As a first-time candidate, Whitman faces enormous risks. She has never undergone the intense media scrutiny that accompanies any serious bid for high office. She has only begun to meet the state's vast network of Republican Party players. And with no experience in state office, she must study quickly the panoply of issues facing the nation's most populous state, among them a surge in unemployment, substandard public schools, traffic-clogged freeways and a dysfunctional Legislature that routinely fails to overcome budget shortfalls.

Another Republican considering a run: former Silicon Valley congressman Tom Campbell. Their potential challengers on the Democratic side include Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, as well Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Whitman's chief rival: Steve Poizner, who is also a former Silicon Valley executive. (Photo: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

-- Chris Gaither