Week in Review: The chip industry’s future, Adwhirl’s acquisition and more

If you haven’t kept up with tech business news during the past week, this post will get you up-to-speed. First, here are the five most popular stories that VentureBeat published in the last seven days. Looks like our readers really wanted to hear about the game industry:
The coolest and scariest things coming in the chip industry’s future — “At the Hot Chips chip design conference at Stanford University this week, chip researchers spelled out some of the toughest computing problems of the future and the solutions to deal with them. … They talked alternately about running into technological brick walls, and about ways to get around them. But they warned that the ever-increasing cost of making the newest chips will have an impact on the entire food chain of electronic products where chips are used.”
Which video game console should you buy? — “Now that the seasonal price cuts have finally arrived for video game consoles, the console makers are positioned for the fall selling season. The question for gamers is which console is the best bargain.”
EA’s chief creative officer describes game industry’s re-engineering — “The world of video games is changing and the companies involved in it have to adapt to a broader and less hardcore market, said Rich Hilleman, the chief creative officer of Electronic Arts. While Hilleman covered familiar territory, he did so with more candor than most corporate executives and he offered interesting insights into how to deal with the ‘re-engineering’ of the video game business.”
Seed is the new Series A for VCs — “It may be too soon to pop the champagne, but the mood in the venture community appears to be slowly improving. … What is most noteworthy about the recent increase in funding activity is the structural change occurring in the market for early stage investments.”

Game maker Blizzard buys time to fortify online game service Battle.net — “Blizzard Entertainment delayed its mammoth game, Starcraft II, until next year because the online game service that goes with it, Battle.net, needed an upgrade. Today at Blizzcon, the company’s annual event for the Blizzard fans, the company did its best to explain that Battle.net is undergoing a major overhaul.”
And here are five stories from other parts of the tech world that we thought were important, thought-provoking, or just fun:
Admob buys mobile ad aggregator AdWhirl — takes out major threat — “Admob, a leading mobile advertising service, is acquiring AdWhirl, a service that aggregates ads from mobile ad networks. In an interview confirming the deal, Admob chief executive Omar Hamoui told VentureBeat the move was made to create an open and transparent mobile ad exchange.”
Apple’s Snow Leopard may stop you from doing your job — “Reviewers haven’t trashed Snow Leopard, especially given its nearly-free price. But none of the most influential Mac product review experts are excited by it. And all of them hit problems.”
Twitter co-founder Stone doesn’t care about “Teens don’t Tweet” talk — “We’re back at it again. After Morgan Stanley let a 15-year-old write a research report this summer on how teens consume media that said young people don’t use the microblogging network, a ‘Teens don’t tweet’ refrain spread throughout the blogosphere.”
Govt’ gives out $300M for advanced vehicles, “Clean Cities” — “The U.S. Department of Energy just announced that it will provide $300 million in stimulus funds to 25 projects aimed at putting 9,000 more alternative-fuel vehicles on America’s roads, and building the infrastructure needed to power them, including 542 fueling and charging stations across the country. All told, these projects — now under the banner of the DOE’s long-standing “Clean Cities” program — could cut petroleum use by up to 38 million gallons a year. That’s nearly 1 million barrels of oil.”
Aboomba tests a new fundraising strategy: Get married — “With venture investing still down, and the VC industry likely to shrink even further, what’s a cash-strapped startup to do? The soon-to-be-married couple behind stealth-mode web company Aboomba decided to take a fresh approach: Ask their wedding guests for funding.”