hype 
26 posts and columns on hype
Video: BoomTown Versus Texas Hipsters and Cheddar Cheese Cats at SXSW
As it turned out, BoomTown did not succumb to hipster poisoning on my sojourn this past weekend to Austin, Texas and the famous South by Southwest festival. The annual gathering, which has interactive, music and film elements, started last week and is still going strong–fueled, as far as I can tell, by beer, blogging empanadas and excessive start-up hype.
Microsoft Really Won’t Have an iPad Killer for CES
Yes, once again Microsoft will have new tablets from various PC makers, but don’t expect anything revolutionary. Nor will that be Steve Ballmer’s main area of focus in his annual Sin City address.
Viral Video: Abusing the Apple iPad
I suppose it is too juicy a gadget not to make fun of–or, say, completely destroy. That would be Apple’s magical iPad, which has been riding a media-hype wave of huge proportions since its debut earlier this year. Thus, it is time to do a little bashing. Literally.
Location, Location, Location: Foursquare Nabs $20 Million in VC Funding at $95 Million Pre-Money Valuation (Plus Blog Posts, of Course!)
After a very long and decidedly strange funding journey, Foursquare has finally officially landed a new round of $20 million in venture funding, with Silicon Valley’s Andreessen Horowitz leading the new investment. BoomTown reported last week that the new deal was in the bag, which puts Foursquare at $95 million pre-money valuation. Interestingly, it is only the New York-based social location start-up’s second round, and includes it current investors.
What's Worse Than iPad-Was-Coming Hype? Perhaps iPad-Is-DOA Hype or the IPad-Will-Save-Media Hype!
While a lot of the hype around the upcoming Apple iPad has thankfully died down, reaching its crescendo at the unveiling of the tablet last month, the buzz of two kinds building now is perhaps worse: That it is a doomed consumer device or that it is a miracle for publishers. Here’s my prediction: We won’t know until the end of March when it is actually released.
Prankster Jason Calacanis Talks About His Apple iPad Hoax (Warning: Cute Baby Alert!)
While in Los Angeles for a brief second on Friday, BoomTown motored over to the Brentwood home of puckish entrepreneur Jason Calacanis to talk to him about his prank tweets the night before the introduction of the iPad last week. On Tuesday night before the much hyped launch of the newest device from Apple, Calacanis let loose with a series of over-the-top posts to Twitter, claiming he was a beta tester for the iPad tablet computer–assertions that some in the mostly mainstream media took too seriously. Was it a jump-the-shark moment for journalism?
Chartastic: Counter-Programming Apple Hype With Yahoo's Earnings Deck
Move on! No iPad to unveil yet! But here is yet another bit of distraction for those not interested in the Apple invasion of all things tech media later today, as well as for those who can’t get enough data and pretty charts about Yahoo and its fourth-quarter earnings.
Viral Video: Counter-Programming Apple Hype With "Lost" Parody
For those who don’t care one bit about the rollout of the Apple tablet later this morning by CEO and ringmaster Steve Jobs, here is an incredibly funny song parody poking fun at the mysterious ABC television hit, “Lost.” The show is premiering the first episode of its final season next week, and the Fine Brothers want some answers about the convoluted plot of the often vexing show.
Invasion of the iPad Snatchers: My First Jobs Keynote Ever
After all these years of covering tech, BoomTown is a little embarrassed to admit that I have never attended in person one of the legendary keynote speeches delivered by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. This year I finally said yes–to an invite to the Wednesday event, at which a new tablet computer is likely to be unveiled to the fervent Apple faithful, but it immediately made me think of the iPods, oops, pods, in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” Note to self: Do not fall asleep.
Apple’s Tablet: MacBook Airbus?
If the bandwidth-guzzling iPhone is truly the “Hummer of cellphones,” as the New York Times dubbed it last year, you might figure that Apple’s coming tablet will swill data like an Airbus. That might be true eventually, but initially, analysts say, the tablet is not likely to put much strain on the mobile broadband infrastructure of whatever carrier it ends up with, whether Verizon or AT&T.
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