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SAN DIEGO--The Demo community--an august group of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and technology reporters--gave a fond farewell Wednesday afternoon here to longtime Demo managing director Chris Shipley.

As is well known, Shipley is leaving the helm of Demo, having now officially handed off the reins to VentureBeat founder Matt Marshall.

But as just about the last official act of DemoFall 09, Pat McGovern, the founder and chairman of IDG, which owns the Demo conferences, led the audience in a standing ovation for Shipley.

Prior to that sentimental moment, meanwhile, seven Demo God winners were announced, as well as the two winners … Read more

According to research firm IDC, Apple has dropped from the No. 4 purveyor of laptops in the U.S. last year to No. 5 this spring. The firm estimates that Apple has shipped 12.5 percent fewer laptops than the same time last year, even as it maintained its 7.6 percent market share.

Leapfrogging Apple to take the No. 4 spot is Toshiba, now estimated to be shipping 7.7 percent of all laptops in the U.S., thanks to system such as the Mini NB205 Netbook. If you're keeping score, IDG estimates that Dell remains No. 1, … Read more

A middle-aged man in a faded NeXT T-shirt raised his hand for the microphone. If IDG wanted to save Macworld, he said, it should hold a "schwag-fest," where Macolytes could bond over swapping tchotchke from Macworlds past.

The Mac community had its say Wednesday night, at least for one evening. Whether IDG, the organizer of Macworld, takes up the suggestion is another question.

IDG World Expo vice president and general manager Paul Kent hosted the discussion, which saw several hundred people pack into a room at San Francisco's Moscone Center to discuss the future of the event.… Read more

Macworld Expo will go on in 2010 without Apple's participation, but what will it look like? And will anybody show up?

We might get an idea Wednesday evening, when IDG World Expo plans to hold a town-hall style meeting open to Macworld attendees to solicit ideas for the future of the show. Apple stunned IDG in December with its decision to pull out of the show completely. It also pulled CEO Steve Jobs from his usual starring role and had Phil Schiller deliver what was widely considered one of Apple's most lackluster Macworld keynote speeches in years.

A … Read more

After Apple informed IDG that CEO Steve Jobs would skip next month's Macworld, the news left the conference sponsor in a state of shock.

The announcement "completely blindsided" IDG, according to a source familiar with the negotiations, coming just weeks before the event was scheduled to take place. IDG World Expo, a division of tech publishing giant IDG, had no reason not to expect Jobs would make his customary appearance at Macworld. Then came the word from Cupertino.

What is not clear is when Apple decided Jobs would skip the keynote. The source indicated that Apple had … Read more

The yearly Macworld Expo is a place for Apple fans to get their hands on new products, hobnob with like-minded Mac fans--and to see chief executive Steve Jobs in the flesh.

The question is whether the largely local attendee base will still be compelled to attend after Apple's announcement Tuesday that Jobs won't deliver the next Macworld keynote speech and that this will be its final year of participating in the event at all. The Macworld Expo doesn't have a huge economic impact on the city of San Francisco. (It's attended mostly by local people, so … Read more

Om Malik, the head of the Giga Omni Media group of tech blogs, said on Friday he is moving his ad business from John Battelle's Federated Media to a new advertising network IDG launched in March.

The companies, which have partnered for three years (and weathered differences of opinion involving a scandal over "conversational marketing" in which the writing of Malik, Battelle, and other bloggers was featured in ads for Microsoft), are splitting amicably. They are characterizing the move as them having grown in different directions, according to Malik and Federated Media Publisher Chas Edwards.

Giga Omni … Read more

PC World Editor in Chief Harry McCracken has announced that he will leave the magazine after 14 years. His last day will be June 2.

"I've decided to step down as editor in chief and launch a technology site of my own--one that I'll build from scratch and launch this summer," McCracken wrote on his blog. He told media publication MinOnline that the new venture would give him more hands-on time with tech products, but gave no further details.

The announcement comes just over a year after McCracken resigned his post in a dispute with management … Read more

Harry McCracken is back at PC World, one week after he resigned in a dispute with management over stories that were critical of advertisers.

PC World announced his return in a story on its Web site, in which it also revealed that PC World CEO Colin Crawford will leave that post to return to his prior role inside International Data Group, publisher of PC World, as executive vice president, online. Sources said last week that Crawford pressured McCracken to kill stories that were critical of advertisers, especially one titled "Ten Things We Hate About Apple." McCracken said last … Read more