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Wow, this is big. Small, but big. Last night Om Malik‘s GigaOmni Media announced the acquisition of jkOnTheRun, which I believe is the premier gadget blog with an end user’s perspective. James Kendrick founded jkOnTheRun, and Kevin Tofel joined him over a year ago. This is really cool news for everybody involved:

jkOnTheRun: Giga Omni Media acquires jkOnTheRun!

What does this mean for jkOnTheRun?

First and foremost you can rest assured that the coverage you have come to expect from us will continue. jkOnTheRun will continue to bring you all the information about the gadgets and technologies that make your jobs easier and your lives a little bit better. That we can promise you will not change. We will continue to show you not only the technology of the day but how you can leverage it to your best advantage. We will also continue to detail for you what technology we are using and what we do with it.

I know in recent days there has been a lot of soul searching on the blogosphere about where blogging is headed. Anyone who is interested in seeing what it takes to be a passionate blogger just needs to read some of James’ and Kevin’s posts to understand how to do it right. I’m glad that these guys are being rewarded for their hard work, and also glad that Om is going to allow them to develop a wider audience through this acquisition. Congratulations all around!

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Image via CrunchBase

Engadget, the standard bearer for blogging in general and especially gadget blogging, is losing it’s other founding editor, Ryan Block. Along with Peter Rojas, Ryan and the gadget-crazed writers at Engadget pushed the envelope for technology coverage like no one else has this decade. I briefly met both of them in New York a couple of years ago at a Weblogs gathering, and can say that both of them are great guys. They’ve supplied us gadget-crazed readers with the latest news, whit and wisdom for a long time. Peter left a few months back, and now it’s Ryan’s turn to move on. From Ryan’s announcement:

Some news from the editor’s desk – Engadget

Suffice it to say, Engadget has developed into one of the most vital, respected technology media brands of the decade. And not unlike the gadget industry we cover, the site and the medium have changed and matured immensely in the past few years. It wasn’t so long ago that Peter and I were scraping around, pitching stories to Slashdot, scrambling to get press passes, and just generally struggling to get a blog taken seriously in a magazine’s world. Today it’s easy to take take for granted that a publication like this even exists — but I don’t think anyone, especially us, ever thought Engadget would become what it has.

Good luck with your future endeavors Ryan.