Links: Google acquisition with Wharton ties, CoTweet trying paid services and More

DEFINITE READS

Gawker’s Valleywag blog profiles Omar Hamoui, who founded AdMob, the mobile advertising company Google recently purchased for $750 million, while at Wharton. H/T Philly Tech News

The Philadelphia Business Journal’s Peter Key gives IndyHall Labs the profile treatment. Can we just talk about this being the photo they were given?

As we first tweeted, WHYY’s It’s Our City blog reports that the Iranian state is expected to charge Elkins Park native Josh Fattal of espionage. As we earlier reported, he may likely be the son of a Chester County electronics industry magazine publisher.

After the jump, news on CoTweet, Sunoco shopping a move from Center City and five other stories, including our best read piece of the week.

Read more

Community gathers for IndyHall anniversary and Two Guys’ 100th episode

Photo from Flickr user dirty_jerzee99

Tucked away in Old City bar National Mechanics, more than 100 gathered on Tuesday night to celebrate the second birthday of the East Coast’s premier coworking space IndyHall along with the 100th episode of Two Guys On Beer, a local beer podcast.

It was Philly’s first foray into fall weather with temperatures dipping in to the high seventies and giving the city a much needed respite from overbearing heat and humidity only a week ago.

Free pints of Flying Dog Brewery’s Dogtoberfest surely didn’t hinder the festive atmosphere.

Read more

Two IndyHall software projects featured in MacUpdate bundle

Does anyone get a little nostalgic when it comes to bundled software?

In the 90s it meant getting 25,000 games packed onto a CD or a complete reference library from researchers you never heard of: Mayo Clinique? Not so much.

But last night at midnight when MacUpdate announced its $49.99 Mac OS X spring promo bundle, it meant being able to grab licenses for two local Macintosh development projects along with nine other professional applications on the cheap.

Like, a $470 discount.

Included in the package, alongside well-known apps like Parallels Desktop 4 and Tech Tool Pro 5, is Old City’s own Multiplex and RipIt applications. By themselves, the companion DVD applications cost $53.

Read more

Friday Q&A: Amy Hoy of Slash7 and Twistori

If you have never seen Twistori in action, go look. Seriously, I’ll wait.

The popular Web site and screensaver scans Twitter for uses of a handful key phrases such as “I hate,” “I love” and “I wish” and displays the Tweets anonymously and in real time, offering a revealing look into the life of people you may never meet. The site arranges the Tweets into a beautiful cascade of bright colors on a dark background that could suck you in for hours.

Amy Hoy and Thomas Fuchs, the couple behind the mesmerizing service, have just just released a desktop version where users pick their own keywords to be displayed. The application was one of the first ads on Twitter, was featured on Apple.com and has been covered by ReadWriteWeb among many other outlets.

Hoy may reside in Austria, but you can’t tell the story of Twistori without mentioning Philadelphia.

The desktop application was released through IndyHall Labs with the help of the hosts of  Two Guys on Beer, Dave Martorana and Johnny Bilotta. Hoy has been to the city several times, and was even there the day IndyHall opened.

We chatted with the Maryland-native as she closed the business day in Vienna about the recent release of Twistori’s Desktop app and her thoughts about her recent appearance on the popular tech podcast This Week in Tech.
Read more

Shop Talk: ‘Two Guys’ on cheap video podcast production

Johnny Bilotta and David Martorana produce Two Guys On Beer on the cheap.

It ain’t a bad week to be a beer lover in Philadelphia. For Johnny Bilotta and David Martorana of the Old City-based Two Guys On Beer video podcast, Philly Beer Week is sure to be a busy one.

The show, which demands deliciousness from the brews it tests, is coming up on its 60th episode, which is no small feat for a low-to-no budget production released twice per week. According to the duo, the podcast has grown a steady national viewership of 700 to 2,000 viewers per episode, and they’ve been considering syndication models that could end up planting it on the face of news Web sites anywhere.

Now that we’re half through the city’s week-long hoppy, malty escape from all things mixed-drink, Technically Philly has a confession. Last week during an interview for Shop Talk, when we told the show’s co-host and co-producer Dave Martorona to take it easy on the suds, we didn’t mean a word of it. We’re expecting Two Guys to make it their day job. Fortunately, Martorona proved that the show can afford a break from worrying about the production back-end, when he shared with Technically Philly some tips for aspiring vid-casters.

Read their advice on production and distribution, and check out Two Guys’ shooting rig, which includes a steal of a deal from EBay, after the jump.

Read more

IndyHall Labs gaining momentum and legal model

Last week, IndyHall Labs launched a new Web site highlighting their four flagship products and announced that two of the products, Multiplex and MultiFirefox, were chosen as Apple Staff Picks in the Apple’s Mac download directory. As a result, Multiplex has seen a spike in traffic and an increase in sales of the discounted, Pre-v1.0 version of the ripped-DVD cataloging software.

Labs is gaining momentum since the software incubator was first announced last year, perhaps the most since iSepta, a Labs initiative, made headlines with Philadelphia Metro last May. We called Alex Hillman, a partner in Independents Hall, the organization responsible for Indy Hall Labs, to see what all the buzz is about.

Read more