The digerati are merciless when it comes to fail whales. When Tumblr, the blogging platform, experienced technical difficulties in February, one user created a parody site, Stumblr, to poke fun at the misfortune.

So it was only a matter of time before someone took the time to make light of Amazon's ongoing cloud computing trouble -- which is gaining the nicknames Cloudburst and Cloudgate, and spawned the #EC2 hashtag in reference to the Elastic Cloud Compute service at the center of Amazon's troubles.

A good-natured jab came on Thursday from Indaba, an Amazon EC2 customer as well as a digital music sharing and remix site used by more than half a million artists.

Indaba, whose site was one of the many that relied on Amazon's servers, launched a Site Down Jam! contest, giving away a base track and challenging its users to create a song about the misfortune.

Entrants get an "I Survived the Amazon EC2 Cloud Meltdown of 2011" badge for their Indaba profile pages. The winner is to be crowned Site-Down Jam All-Star and receive a $100 gift certificate for, where else, Amazon.

Amazon, the leading online retailer, is the leading provider of cloud computing services. The service outages for customers such as Indaba are believed to be widespread, though Amazon so far hasn't said how many users have been affected.

Last month, Amazon launched its Cloud Drive service, which offers space on Amazon servers where users can store music and other files and play them back from the cloud. The service, ideally, would free consumers from having to store their media files on multiple devices -- laptops, smartphones, tablets.

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-- Alex Pham and Nathan Olivarez-Giles

twitter.com/alexpham

twitter.com/nateog

 
Once upon a time, when articles about video game stories appeared on sheets of glossy paper that were bound together with glue, a 19-year-old named Geoff Keighley got the idea to go hang out with the developers of Half-Life as they put the final touches on the game and write about it.

The resulting story, "The Final Hours of Half-Life," published in 1998, pulled back the curtains on a little-known world of game developers and shed light on the grueling, caffeine- and adrenaline-fueled lives of the coders, designers and testers at Valve Software.

Thirteen years later, Keighley, who went on to host a television show on video games called "GT.TV" on MTV's Spike channel, is making the leap to mobile, releasing an iPad app that features his story on the making of Portal 2, the most recent game released by Valve.

 What's changed? For one thing, Valve and its founder, Gabe Newell (right), is now a powerhouse developer with titles such as Counter-Strike, Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress under its belt. And with game distribution going digital, its Steam platform for downloadable games on PCs and Macs, the Bellevue, Wash., company is in the catbird seat.

The app is also an example of how game journalism is evolving to attempt to reach a younger generation of readers who are less likely to be sitting in front of a computer or flipping through paper magazines. With embedded videos, music, and links galore, the $1.99 app kicks up the article's production value a notch. But the writing and reporting is still solid old school.

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-- Alex Pham

twitter.com/AlexPham

Photo: Valve founder Gabe Newell, holding a prototype of the gun used in Portal 2. Credit: Valve.

Pandora Media, maker of the popular Internet radio service, said it had been served with with a subpoena from a federal grand jury that is probing how personal data are shared among smartphone applications.

The disclosure, first reported by Bloomberg, came in documents that Pandora filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing, in the form of an amendment to the company's plans for an initial public offering, said the grand jury had been convened to "investigate the information sharing processes of certain popular applications that run on the Apple and Android mobile platforms."

The Oakland, Calif., company said it was told that it was "not a specific target of the investigation," and that "similar subpoenas were issued on an industrywide basis to the publishers of numerous other smartphone applications."

Pandora and other apps collect information on users -- including their locations, preferences and socio-economic backgrounds -- to help them sell products and send targeted ads.

Although such practices are commonplace, they may be called into question as federal regulators and lawmakers voice privacy concerns over how such information is tracked and shared. Here's a paragraph in the filing about how Pandora could be affected:

In particular, government regulators have proposed “do not track” mechanisms, and requirements that users affirmatively “opt-in” to certain types of data collection that, if enacted into law or adopted by self-regulatory bodies or as part of industry standards, could significantly hinder our ability to collect and use data relating to listeners. Restrictions on our ability to collect, access and harness listener data, or to use or disclose listener data or any profiles that we develop using such data, would in turn limit our ability to stream personalized music content to our listeners and offer targeted advertising opportunities to our advertising customers, each of which are critical to the success of our business.

Regulators are starting to devote more attention to mobile devices and the applications that run on them as consumers increasingly access the Internet through smartphones and tablets. Pandora, for example, has 80 million listeners, the majority of whom use the streaming music service via cellphones such as the iPhone.

-- Alex Pham

Apple Inc. is changing the rules about how e-books can be sold and accessed via its iPhone and iPad devices -- a move that may get the attention of regulators, one analyst said.

Apple on Tuesday said it was changing its rules to require any vendors who sell books to iPhone and iPad users through their websites to also allow users to buy books inside the app. Until now, companies such as Google and Amazon have routed iPhone app users to their own book sites to purchase books they could download into the app. But Apple is now probably going to force those booksellers to change their apps.

"We are now requiring that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app with in-app purchase," said a statement by Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller.

Sony sparked an outcry Monday night when it said the latest version of its e-reading app had been rejected by Apple over related issues.

James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research, saw the move by Apple as a way to force more transactions to be funneled through its app store, where Apple receives a 30% cut of any sale.

"One way to look at this is that Apple is leveraging its monopoly power"over the iPad and iPhone platforms," McQuivey said. "One could argue that Apple is simply maximizing shareholder value by leveraging its platforms."

But McQuivey cited two potential drawbacks to Apple’s approach.

By dictating where digital books can be sold and turning away developers such as Sony, Apple may be squelching innovation, he said.

Secondly, such restrictions could be interpreted as restraint of trade, which is frowned upon by federal regulators such as the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

"I wouldn’t be surprised if phones were ringing at the FTC today about this," McQuivey said.

Sony unveiled its newest portable gaming console, code-named NGP, Wednesday night in Tokyo, as the consumer electronics giant attempts to loosen Nintendo's iron grip on the market.

The NGP, a temporary name that stands for next-generation portable, is a remake of the PlayStation Portable, which has been on the market since December 2004. While Sony has sold more than 62 million PSPs since, the device has trailed far behind Nintendo's DS, which has sold 144.6 million since November 2004.

The device, scheduled to be released late this year for the Christmas shopping season, is expected to have a 5-inch, multitouch, organic LED display with roughly four times the resolution of the current PSP. It will also boast the graphics capability of its larger sibling, the PlayStation 3 living room console. Equipped with two cameras, front and rear-facing, the device will also have an accelerometer to sense motion, much like the iPhone.

One key feature is its ability to connect to the Internet via 3G and Wi-Fi, as well as its GPS connection, for location-based applications. Such capabilities would potentially allow users to make calls, though Sony made no mention of it being used as a phone.

Among the titles expected to be released alongside the device later this year are Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty and Sony's Killzone, Uncharted, and LittleBigPlanet.

While Sony did not announce a price, many analysts expect it to sell for $299 or higher, potentially putting it above the reach of mainstream consumers. The PlayStation 3 currently sells for $300.

Analysts remain skeptical of Sony's chances for dethroning Nintendo, which is set to release its newest portable device, the 3DS, on March 27 for $250.

"It remains unclear whether there is mass market potential for high-end portable games," wrote Colin Sebastian, analyst with Lazard Capital Markets in a note to investors. "We note that Sony’s PSP did not meet initial sales expectations despite offering the highest quality graphics on a portable device at that time."

Nintendo itself is struggling with losing momentum for both its once-hot Wii game console, as well as slowing sales for its current portable console, the DSi. The Japanese game company on Thursday lowered the number of DS consoles it expected to sell its fiscal year ending March 31, to 22.5 million, down from 23.5 million predicted earlier.

Meanwhile, Sony said it would begin selling PlayStation One titles on Google's Android marketplace, leveraging the operating system's popularity to sell its catalog of games. The move would help round out Android's game offerings, which have been relatively sparse compared with Apple's iPhone App store.

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-- Alex Pham

twitter.com/AlexPham

Image: Sony's next portable game console, code-named the NGP. Credit: Sony Computer Entertainment.

It's no secret that users of Amazon's Kindle and Barnes & Noble's nook digital book readers can "lend" copies of the books they've purchased to friends.

But imagine if your universe of friends consisted of millions of people, not just the five or six people in your book club. The lending library suddenly becomes much more interesting.

That's what EBookFling wants to create. The site, which officially kicks off Wednesday morning but was up and running Tuesday, ultimately will let users borrow books listed by other members -- for free.

Here's how it would work. Users can list any digital book they've purchased. When another member requests to borrow it, EBookFling sends the book owner a message with step-by-step instructions for lending it. Each time the user lends a book, they earn a credit, which can be used to borrow other members' books. Each lending period lasts 14 days.

At the moment, the site is only registering new subscribers and letting them submit the titles they're willing to lend. Users won't be able to start borrowing for a month or so while the site ramps up to a full launch, according to Nick Ruffilo, chief information officer for EBookFling.

For those wondering whether this is legal, Ruffilo said that the service is perfectly legitimate and allowed by the lending policies set by Amazon for the Kindle and Barnes & Noble for the nook. Messages to Barnes & Noble and Amazon were not immediately returned.

"Legally, this is using a feature that already exists," Ruffilo said. "It fits with the terms of use."

Ruffilo admits that book publishers aren't likely to embrace EBookFling with open arms, especially if digital lending leads to a why-buy-when-you-can-borrow attitude as consumers continue to fret about the economy.

"Logically, one could say that publishers can end up losing money," Ruffilo said. "It would be hard to argue with that, because it’s not incorrect. But it’s also not the whole picture."

Ruffilo argues why publishers should actually welcome his service.

"When you borrow a book written by an author you've never read before, you may become a fan and buy her other books and maybe her future books too," he said. "Books themselves are great marketing. New genres pop up all the time, like steampunk. You may not know what it's about, but once you get a chance to try it, you might be open to buying it. We’re providing a discovery and marketing venue."

For now, the New Jersey-based startup doesn't need financial assistance from publishers. The site is backed by BookSwim, a profitable, privately held book rental service that operates much like Netflix. The service lets subscribers borrow physical books via mail for a monthly fee ranging from $23.95 for 3 books checked out at a time to $59.95 for 11 books.

Still, the service needs some cooperation from publishers, which ultimately get to decide whether they enable the lending feature for Amazon and Barnes & Noble. If lending eats into sales, publishers may reduce the lending period or opt out of the feature altogether.

-- Alex Pham

When YouTube unveiled the list of winners for its second annual symphony orchestra on Tuesday morning, the results provided a good cross-section of the online video site's evolving audience, with a dash of serendipity thrown in.

Sure, there was the audition from the Jordanian woman who recorded herself playing the cello while sitting on a camel. And a candidate from Illinois played music by blowing on a jar filled with blue liquid that is manipulated using a yellow dish-washing glove, an instrument the candidate invented and called an "udderbot." That was to be expected.

Also to be expected was the unexpected, simply because the Web excels at surfacing surprises. One was Paolo Calligopoulos, a violinist from Sao Paolo, Brazil, who submitted a serious entry, but then tossed in a second video of himself improvising on an electric guitar. It was the second submission that dazzled the judges and won Calligopoulos a solo spot on the orchestra.

But there were also audition videos submitted by hundreds of serious, classically trained musicians, including Sophie Tang, a student at the University of Southern California who gave a spirited performance of Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4 on her violin.

Andrew Chilcote, a student from Irvine studying the bass at the New England Conservatory in Boston, performed a no-frills piece that landed him a spot in the YouTube Symphony Orchestra.

You'd think they were trying out for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Alas, they were auditioning for an orchestra that's about as ephemeral as the Web itself. The 101-member orchestra will gather for just one week in March in Sydney, Australia, to practice and then perform a concert on March 20th conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas and, of course, streamed live on YouTube.

You can check out other submissions on YouTube's Symphony Orchestra page.

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-- Alex Pham

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Ever since Foursquare took off at last year's South by Southwest, one question continues to vex many of its users: What's it for?

For some, it's a game of capturing the flag for their local coffee shop. For others, it's about being able to say they're a Foursquare power user with a dozen badges to prove it.

At the same time, most users have another nagging question about location-based technologies -- are they oversharing? Why does the world need to know they're at the 24-hour Fitness on Sunset Boulevard, atoning for all those Christmas cookies?

Neer, a location-based application for Android and iPhones, tries to address both of those questions. Let's start with the first question: Why? The engineers at Qualcomm who came up with the app says families, tight social circles or work groups whose members meet often can use Neer to track one another's comings and goings to coordinate everyday activities.

Did the kids get picked up? Is now a good time to start dinner? Is a colleague still in her office, or has she already gone home for the night? Those are some of the use cases Neer wants to address.

As for the second question having to do with privacy and putting out too much personal information, Neer is designed so information is shared only within one's personal groups. Unlike Foursquare, users and their locations aren't searchable.

Neer adds a second layer of obscurity to thwart snoops. Locations are called by their generic names, not their actual map coordinates. It's assumed that when a user gets a ping informing them that their spouse has arrived at "work" or "soccer practice," they already know where those places are.

The app also lets users determine when certain people on their lists receive notices. Work colleagues, for example, can see location activity only on weekdays and only between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. You can also use the app to send group messages, such as "Free beer in cafeteria now!"

So why is a San Diego-based chip company coming out with a location app? Qualcomm, which showed Neer at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, wants to give users more excuses to use their smart phones, for which Qualcomm develops much of its technologies, explained Ian Heidt, Neer's director of business development.

Right now, Neer is accurate only within a couple of blocks. But as Qualcomm and others refine the technology to more accurately pinpoint locations using wireless signal characteristics, Heidt sees a day when users can be located within a couple of yards. That is, if they want to be found.

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-- Alex Pham

twitter.com/AlexPham

Correction: A previous version of this post said all Bravia TV and Sony Blu-ray owners could get access to Time Warner Cable's video-on-demand service. In fact, only Time Warner subscribers would be able to tap into the service.

Sony Corp. said at the Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday that it has inked an exclusive deal with Time Warner Cable to build the cable company's programming into its Bravia television sets and Blu-ray players later this year.

The deal lets Time Warner subscribers access the cable company's on-demand content without an advanced digital video recorder or set-top box, said Phil Molyneux, president of Sony's U.S. consumer electronics business.

The announcement is part of Sony's strategy to pack as many entertainment options as possible into its TV sets and other devices capable of connecting to the Internet.

Howard Stringer, Sony's chairman, said the company had already sold 50 million such devices and planned to push out more in the coming year.

Aside from connected devices, Sony's big push this year continues to be 3-D, on screens both large and small. The company introduced a $250 personal video camera capable of recording in 3-D. Called the 3-D Bloggie, the gizmo comes with two lenses to capture the left and right stereoscopic images and plays them back on an LCD screen that doesn't require glasses to view.

"We've obviously placed a lot of emphasis on 3-D," Stringer said. "This year, 3-D gets personal."

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-- Alex Pham

Twitter: @AlexPham

Photo: Phil Molyneux, President of Sony's U.S. consumer electronics business, holds a Bloggie 3-D personal video camera at CES. Credit: Alex Pham / Los Angeles Times

There's no love lost between Jason Calacanis and Mike Arrington, arguably two of the most visible players in the fast-moving world of technology start-ups.

So it may come as no surprise to some that Calacanis, chief executive of the Mahalo search engine based in Santa Monica, on Monday announced in an e-mail he has filed a lawsuit against Arrington over TechCrunch 50, a San Francisco technology conference that Calacanis alleges the two erstwhile business partners jointly own.

Arrington in September sold his blog, TechCrunch, along with the conference, to AOL for an estimated $25 million to $40 million.

Arrington hinted in a post on his blog two weeks ago that Calacanis threatened to sue over ownership of TechCrunch 50, which was at one point a prestigious venue for start-ups to present their companies. Arrington this year renamed the conference TechCrunch Disrupt.

The mud-slinging has been messy thus far. In his Nov. 3 post, Arrington accused Calacanis of being "so drunk the night before the last day of the 2008 conference that he couldn't show up to be on stage until hours after the event started." Ironically, Arrington's post also responded to rumors about him being addicted to prescription medication.

Is this fight just a tempest in a high-tech teapot?

Perhaps. Calacanis is betting that it's more than just unpleasant words fired over the Internet. In the same e-mail in which he announced his lawsuit, Calacanis said he's starting his own conference for start-ups seeking funding. Dubbed Launch, Calacanis promised "Dramatically lower ticket prices" than TechCrunch and "No Boring Panels, No Immature Distractions."

There will be plenty of that in the lawsuit.

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-- Alex Pham

Top photo: Jason Calacanis. Credit: Stephen Osman / Los Angeles Times. Botton photo: Mike Arrington. Credit: Randy Lynn Beach / Los Angeles Times.