IT Buoy

Start-ups that offer users big discounts via socially-charged local group-buying services are getting a lot of attention these days, especially from venture firms. Today, it’s Washington, D.C.-based LivingSocial , which just announced a $25 million Series B round, led by U.S. Venture Partners. The funding will be used to expand its footprint of cities, among other initiatives. Sites such as LivingSocial feature a “daily deal” with a huge discount from a wide range of local businesses, such as restaurants and spas. They use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to turbocharge consumers into action. This kind of thing has been tried before, of course, centering on users who group together to get discounts on items by purchasing them in bulk.

The first commercial for Apple’s iPad tablet aired during tonight’s Oscars telecast. Engadget posted the video , which we’ve embedded below. It looks sexy. Also, Apple CEO Steve Jobs is apparently attending the awards ceremony in L.A., perhaps because Pixar’s “Up” is nominated for five Oscars. (And already won one.) Read the rest of this story

BoomTown hightailed it down to the Hilton in San Francisco yesterday for the 4A annual conference. 4A stands for the American Association of Advertising Agencies , and this year’s gathering is titled “Transformations 2010.” That meant about 1,000 people from the marketing communications industry converged to hear sessions that seemed to focus almost completely on what’s causing all the transformation, with the answer mostly being: Social media and the Web. Such as a panel by the Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington on “How Social Media Has Transformed the Social Media Landscape.” Or Yahoo (YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz on “Transforming Yahoo!” Or another panel simply called: “How Social Media Is Transforming Everything.” The event goes through Wednesday. Well, I also had to transform a little after leaving my Flip digital camera in the Mini by accident and having to do this video, below, of the event with my Apple (AAPL) iPhone video camera. I am not sure I like it (my already loud voice is really loud), but you be the judge of the variety of interviews: [ See post to watch video ]

Here’s a whole lot of video from a panel discussion about the future of online video that BoomTown moderated last week in San Francisco. Held at the offices of CBS (CBS) Interactive, it was organized by Andy Plesser, the kingpin of Beet.TV , the online video news site. Plesser moderated the second half of the two-hour ( !!! ) session, and I did the first hour. One tweet of the event noted: “The Beet.TV just started and @karaswisher is already terrorizing the panelists.” I beg to differ! I was strafing the giant panel in order to tame it! The group assembled included Gregg Colvin of News Corp. (NWS) digital unit Fox Interactive, Karin Gilford of Comcast (CMCSA), Revision3’s Jim Louderback, Anthony Soohoo of CBS Interactive, Adobe (ADBE) exec Jennifer Taylor, and many, many others. Topics included advertising, creative, innovative business models and much more about the online video space. Here’s the full video, as well as an interview with me about my bad video practices (yes, I look exhausted, but the panel did last forever). And I added a third video, which is a part of the longer one, in which I asked what devices or companies the panelists thought were the most promising

Reviewers are falling all over themselves to praise a new videogame called “Heavy Rain,” which was released last week Sony (SNE) for its PlayStation 3. Developed by the Paris-based Quantic Dream, using a 2,000-page script, it’s a murder mystery in the film noir genre, with a deep and complex plot. The New York Times’s Seth Schiesel , for example, wrote on Friday, in what was a typical rave review of the “Heavy Rain”: “In terms of eye-hand coordination or ‘gamer skills,’ Heavy Rain is negligible, even trivial, in its challenge, which will offend twitch fiends. Yet this is no simplistic Choose Your Own Adventure for children. This is a wrenching, often disturbing, almost entirely gripping experience for grown-ups.” In other words, it goes without saying: Something with soul and creativity, unlike most of the shoot-em-up videogames now available. But it is not without wrenching violence, concerning itself with catching the Origami Killer, a serial killer who drowns young boys in rain water. There are four characters to play in the game, which can last up to a dozen hours, with the outcome changing depending on your actions. While a few think the game feels too much like a straight-to-DVD movie, it might also be just the kind of change that the weak games market needs to reinvigorate itself.