IT Buoy

Earlier this week, BoomTown had lunch with Michelangelo “Mike” Volpi, the high-profile tech exec who turned into a venture capitalist recently at Index Ventures. We also did a video interview (see below) about his new life as an investor, based in London, although Volpi did manage to leave out the big news. That would be a just-inked $25 million investment by Index from its growth equity arm in wireless home music system maker Sonos, as well as a new board seat there for Volpi. (Sonos’ hot new S5 unit is pictured here.) In an interview this morning, Sonos CEO John MacFarlane said the money would be used for expansion at Sonos, which is just about to introduce its products into China and Japan. “This investment is going to help us grow,” said MacFarlane. “We have wind at our back and this will help us a lot in keeping up that momentum.” MacFarlane said the focus for Sonos, which has garnered $65 million in investments–from BV Capital and mostly angel investors–with the Index investment included, is growth. He declined to give Sonos’ valuation in the new round. The private company has been profitable, MacFarlane said, but its goal is to break even, as it takes advantage of interest in its devices globally

BoomTown is always up at 5:30 am PT, but now I will apparently be joined by twitch-fingered Apple fanboys waiting for the iPad pre-order rush to begin this morning. Currently, the Apple Store online has this note of heady anticipation (A Post-It ? Katie, surely you could do better!): Getting the actual magic tablet into your grubby mitts will have to wait three more weeks until April 3, when the Wi-Fi-only version comes out, followed soon by the 3G iPad. Meaning it will be a month of me doing videos of overstimulated dudes in line at Apple (AAPL) stores. Until then, here are a couple of my videos from the iPhone debut in late June 2007 in Palo Alto and San Francisco :

The “Twilight” saga, which seems to have just ended with the release of the second film in the series, “New Moon,” in November, is baaaaack . And, of course, the Internet is huffing and puffing over this one, “Eclipse,” set for June, since its trailer just came out. In the clip, it looks like Bella and Edward are still not together (as in not doing it). Good Lord, wasn’t that the plot of the last movie and the one before that? Plus, the Wolfman Kid is back, as part of the freaky love triangle. Then again, to be fair, Harry Potter is still battling Voldemort. The next movie in that series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the first of a two-parter, comes out in mid-November.

While there have surely been a lot of departures of talent at MySpace over the last year, including two major shifts in top management, one of the more interesting guessing games of late concerning the social networking company has been over the fate of well-known tech wunderkinds Hadi and Ali Partovi. According to many sources inside and outside the company, that’s just the discussion the pair of serial entrepreneurs has been having with its newest leaders, as well as with News Corp. (NWS) digital head Jon Miller. (News Corp. owns MySpace, as well as Dow Jones, which owns this site.) In all likelihood, said sources, the Partovis will remain at MySpace for the next several months, though they are likely to move eventually to more senior advisory or special-project roles there in order to pursue longtime outside investing and entrepreneurial interests. “They’re definitely staying for now,” said one source. “But it’s the ‘how’ is what’s being worked out.” There are many shifting scenarios as the sides hash it out, said sources, but MySpace execs are keenly interested in avoiding the appearance that the company is in the grip of a talent drain, especially with such high-profile innovators. Still, in an interview with BoomTown at MySpace’s Beverly Hills, Calif., HQ earlier this week (you can see part of that chat in the video below ), Co-President Jason Hirschhorn said that there are likely to be a lot more departures at the company, as well as arrivals

Finally, after much advance leakage, the Federal Communications Commission will unveil its National Broadband Plan on Tuesday, March 16. The two key questions about the effort to get the United States up to speed, so to speak, with decent digital access: Will it be toothless or not and will there be any money to pay for it, given the cash-strapped federal government? A possible highlight of the plan concerns whether spectrum should be allocated for a free or inexpensive high-speed wireless service. It was a notion mentioned by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski at a meeting in Washington, D.C., earlier this week. This is not an idea that telecom providers have warmed to in the past, of course, since they so enjoy sticking it to consumers with spotty service and high prices. And if the report proposes the restoration of some regulations lifted in the previous Republican administration, you can be sure the Prada-wearing political lobbyist brigade will be at the ready. What the FCC opus will surely point out is the obvious: The U.S. needs high-speed access to improve dramatically across the nation, especially for poorer citizens and in rural areas