Here’s it seems like–despite of, or perhaps because of our proximity to the celebrity center of Hollywood–the people I hear most as idols in the high tech industry are way more subdued and under the radar. In fact, even though most folks in high tech here (given the carpet bombing coverage of Silicon Valley companies) know the tech celebrities of Silicon Valley, only the “in-the-know” folks seem to be aware of the huge successes here. I’m sure everyone’s seen Intel’s big advertising push “ Our rock stars aren’t your rock stars “–comparing the firm’s technologists to celebrity rock stars.

Los Angeles-based SodaHead.com , the social question-and-answer and polling startup headed by former MySpace VP of Operations Jason Feffer, is morphing its focus towards the social news area, saying last night that the company is looking to become a "social newspaper." SodaHead is venture backed by Mohr Davidow Ventures and the Tech Coast Angels, as well as angel investor Ron Conway. According to SodaHead.com, the site is looking to create a forum to discuss breaking news and "hot topics" which are important to users on the site. The site--which originally

Los Angeles-based Big Stage Entertainment , a venture-backed startup developing 3D animation technology used to create avatars, said this morning that the firm has created a new application which works on the Apple iPhone. The firm said that users can also post and share that content to Facebook, MySpace, or via email. Big Stage is venture backed by According to Big Stage, its iStage software, which allows users to create photo-realistic avatars, allows users of the iPhone to create a realistic, animated 3-D model of their face in minutes, and insert that into branded content.