Roundup: DEMO gods announced: Plastic Logic wins, lots of hardware launched, Google antitrust probe again

The DEMO gods — the best presenters at the DEMOfall 08 conference in San Diego — were announced this evening. The overall winner was Plastic Logic, the maker of a plastic display ebook reader. (Our story on them). Other DEMO gods were Microstaq, SpinSpotter, Wild Pockets from Sim Ops Studio, Maverick Mobile Solutions, Awind, Invision, iKnow! from Cerego, YouGotPhoto from UGA Digital, MixMatchMusic, and FusionIO.

Google gains market share in search — Google accounted for 71 percent of all U.S. searches in the four weeks ended Aug. 28, 2008, according to Hitwise. Yahoo! Search, MSN Search and Ask.com each received 18 percent, 5.3 percent and 3.4 percent respectively.

SOASTA raises $6.4 million round — SOASTA, a provider of cloud-based testing solutions, raised a second round of funding from venture capitalists. New investor Formative Ventures led the round, with participation from Canaan Partners and The Entrepreneurs Fund.

BlueTrack debuts: Microsoft confirms it will launch more accurate mouse tracking technology with blue LEDs.

FusionOne unveils content developers network — The company that makes backup services for Verizon also announces five new partners as CTIA gets under way in San Francisco.

HP ships the Voodoo Envy 133 laptop — Dubbed the MacBook Air killer, HP is shipping its new Voodoo Envy 133 notebook computer. Voodoo also launched a new desktop for gamers.

RIM debuts new clamshell version of BlackBerry — This new BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 is making its debut today at the fall CTIA show.

Opera teams up with Nvidia, Symbian — Browser software maker Opera Software has teamed up with the Symbian Foundation led by Nokia as well as Nvidia in a bid to make headway in the mobile browsing market.

More on Google antitrust problem — A chronicle of how Google became a target in Washington.

TC50: Akoha is launching its new mystery game today. The company shared 100 starter kits with VentureBeat readers. Click here for the Akoha Mystery Starter Kit.