Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, has renewed his attacks on some of the Web's biggest companies, alleging in a lawsuit that they are guilty of infringing patents on technology created by Interval Research, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based venture which Allen and Xerox veteran David Liddle launched in 1992 and closed in 2000. A suit filed against Apple, Google, Facebook, eBay, AOL, Netflix, Yahoo, YouTube, OfficeMax, Office Depot and Staples by Allen earlier this year was rejected as "too vague" by a judge, who gave Allen until Dec. 28 to amend it, according to The Seattle Times. "Just …

Culture Map has the year in 2010 social media from the perspective of a high school student. For him it was notable for the day that will live in infamy: The day his mom Facebook chatted him from downstairs. "This entire episode only lasted a minute or so. Nevertheless, it made me realize something: in 2010, social networking transformed from a trend to an integral part of our everyday lives." He also recounts the experience of taking a Twitter hiatus and coming back to the service this year to discover all his friends were now using it. …

"Wake up, Geek Culture. time to die," proclaims comedian Patton Oswald in Wired. He prefaces his rant by saying he's not a nerd, but was one "back 30 years ago when nerd meant something." To Oswalt, this is the year in review, as he recounts how the culture has shifted forever off its access and geeky obsession (in proper nerd fashion he uses an obscure Japanese word to describe this obsession, "otaku") has hit the main stream. "There are no more hidden thought-palaces -- they're easily accessed websites, or Facebook pages with thousands of fans," he says. …

Peter Vetserbacka, the maker Angry Birds (he holds the title "Mighty Eagle" at Rovario) tells Tech N' Marketing that Android is "challenging for developers," and theta he prefers working with Apple's iOS. And Angry Birds is pretty much the most important thing you can do with your phone, so take heed. How important? The game has been downloaded 50 million times and is played 200 million minutes a day. According to Vetserbacka, "That number compares favorably to anything, including prime time TV, which indicates that 2011 will be a big year in the shift of advertisers' attention …

Salon's Glenn Greenwald has responded to Wired's double response to his criticism in response to Wired's Manning/Lamo-gate coverage on Wikileaks. Too meta new media journalism for you? Wait there's more. At the heart of the sniping are accusations hurled by both parties about who are the more credible responsible journalists and who has smeared whom, including Wired's assertion that Greenwald smeared the New York Times smear piece on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Are we having fun yet? The whole sordid mess is laid out in Greenwald's 3,200-word (maybe) final word in Salon.

Now that Google has passed on Groupon and the group-buying platform is worth like a bajillion dollars (give or take $5 to 10$ billion), let the postmortems begin. Groupon's latest round of equity financing, in which it is seeking to raise $950 million, would be the biggest since Pixar's in 1995, reports Reuters. Groupon say analysts, needs the money to grow. And it will get it they tell Reuters: "Michael Wolf, director of management consulting firm Activate, said that there may be high demand for the offering because Groupon is seen as a hyper-growth company whose …

On BBH Labs blog Saneel Radia offers his take on the influence of collaborative consumption platforms, using Rachel Botsman's TEDX talk as a launching point. "If you're in the business of selling goods or services, you should likely spend at least some time thinking about the consequences of such a trend," writes Radia. "If consumers are going to collaborate anyway, the bigger impact of crowds on marketer business may be in how products are bought and used, rather than how they're made or developed (or the growing space in between led by Groupon)," says Radia. He offers …

The me-too services crowding Netflixes space are multiplying by the minute. Following in the footsteps of Best Buy and Walmart, Sears-Kmart has launched its own movie download service. So called Alphaline Entertainment is actually powered by Sonic's RoxioNow, the same as similar services from Best Buy and Blockbuster. "It's all very familiar, down to the $3.99 rent / $19.99 new release purchase pricing that we love to hate," writes Endgadget. Sonic was acquired by Rovi last week though, "it doesn't appear that Sonic's sale to Rovi or the addition of DivX to the company's fold has affected …

While Apple is busy celebrating the arrival of the Beatles in the United States like some over-eager teenager at Shea Stadium Google is building a cloud-based music service for this century. As a leaked (and bug-filled) player indicates, Google may be close to realizing its promise of a streaming music player for the web and Android. GigaOm reports that the service would likely cost $25 a year. "That service would likely depend on licensing arrangements between Google and the record labels," the blog writes. "And it would compete with a number of existing third-party music streaming services, …

Action at under-the-regulatory-radar exchange markets trading shares of hot private tech companies such as Facebook has raised a few eyebrows at the SEC. It's unclear what specific activity has caught the attention of the SEC, but Wall Street brokerages have formed investment pools to invest in the companies. "Over the last year, several private exchanges have matched up buyers and sellers of shares in these fast-growing companies. Though the volume remains thin, the number of transactions is increasing each month," explains Dealbook. Sorkin chalks up the development of the markets to shifting IPO practices, in which companies wait …