I'll Take Stingy for $5, Alex

Hacks/Hackers has a very welcoming attendance policy and routinely waives fees for students so that no one gets shut out. But if your portfolio's aggregate revenue teeters up into the billions, just pry your hands off the fiver, dude.

App Maker, App Maker, Build Me an App "Did you know Spotify only has 53 apps?" a tipster wrote in Betabeat earlier this week. We had not. But considering how quickly third-party apps helped grow sites like Twitter and Facebook, it didn't seem like a good sign. That might be why the tipster reported that Spotify is asking big publishers to help them get saturation. Perhaps the meetings went well. At last count, Spotify's app store is now up to 57.

Scobleized After that phreakin Pheed Forbes piece was passed around, prolific blogger and "technology evangelist" Robert Scoble decided it was time to sign himself up for the new social network, which has gained popularity with celebs like Miley Cyrus and Paris Hilton and purports to rival Twitter. "Great, another social network. Yes I Pheed," he tweeted, almost like a humblebrag, along with a link to his Pheed feed. But the new site didn't seem to live up to the Scobleizer's exacting standards. "I am on Pheed but so far I prefer Facebook," he wrote on his Pheed. " Personally it is Twitter's fault that this was born. Twitter refuses to innovate. Lists, there, suck, for instance. It is why I moved much of my time to Facebook. Anyway, now I can say I Pheed too!"

Power tweeter and Radar writer Alex Howard (a.k.a. @digiphile) took Mr. Scoble to task for his impolite introduction. "You came here just to say you prefer other places and that Twitter features 'suck?' Ouch. Wonder how people here will interpret that introduction. :)" Hey, it wouldn't be an early social network if the tech elite weren't arguing on--and about--it.

Thiel Treasure Facebook and Paypal investor Peter Thiel is apparently having investment discussions with Airbnb. If all goes well, a $150 million or so investment from Mr. Thiel would make Airbnb very valuable, to the tune of $2.5 billion. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the Wall Street Journal reports details of the deal are still up in the air, but Airbnb investors Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital are still on board for the second round as well. Now if only we could convince Mr. Thiel to list his mansion on Airbnb...

Sing Me to Sleep Gizmodo blogger Sam Biddle shared an earnest college memory with his devoted Twitter followers. "You're my favorite TV channel, no lie," he tweeted at MTV Jams, a hip hop music video channel from MTV. "I spent a sad amount of time watching MTVJ in my apt. senior year." Perhaps Mr. Biddle should consider becoming a Rap Genius site member?

As always: Overheard a juicy tidbit about impending departures or imminent acquisitions? Dying to dish about startup blunders or frothy financing? Holler at your girls: tips@betabeat.com We've also implemented an anonymous tip box for you covert tipsters out there; you can find it on the top-right corner of our homepage.

News hackers Juan Muller and Joe Cullen. Photo: Daniel Bachhuber

The winner of this weekend's news games hackathon hosted by journalist/developer group Hacks/Hackers at CUNY's journalism school this weekend was created by a professional newsroom programmer, Associated Press developer Julian Burgess. In Whose Headline, players match headlines to their publications. It has the simple, sticky satisfaction of solitaire, but you gain a top-level sense of what's going on in the world at the same time. Is "DRUGGY DAUGHTER BOOMERANGS WHITNEY" from The National Enquirer, the New Yorker or The Onion? "Attorney generals slam 'binge-in-a-can' drink"--The New York Daily News, Forbes or The Guardian?

Unfortunately, not all the apps were really news games. Context, which also got a prize, allows readers to comment and annotate articles inline. Great, but where's the fun in that? "A newsgame is an application of journalism in videogame form," according to the Newsgames project at Georgia Tech.

The problem is, news games are difficult and rare; there are not many good examples of them. Maybe it's because using game mechanics as a gimmick to attract readers feels un-journalistic in some way. "I’m not comfortable journalistically with badges, rewards, basically tricks, to drive traffic," video game journalist Heather Chaplain said during a panel at the event.

Co-organizer Daniel Bachhuber said he wasn't disappointed in the lack of truly gamesy news games, but he wishes they'd used a word other than "hackathon" to describe the event. "I think it came together pretty well," he said. "Reinventing how news is consumed doesn't happen in a day. I also think that we need a better word... hackathons have a technology focus, and I think non-developers are turned off.