The site is the work of Peter Rojas, who helped build Gizmodo and Engadget, and Ryan Block, who took the torch from Rojas after he moved on. Gizmodo and Engadget are the best known and most powerful of the new generation of gadget sites, which makes Rojas and Block revered by the gadget gang. That’s why we’ve been hearing about gdgt, in dribs and drabs, for many many months.

But as well known as Rojas and Block are, they’re still going to have to work hard to make a dent in the crowded field. In addition to the two blogs they created, the gadget spectrum includes everyone from staid players like CBS’s (CBS) CNET to rumor sites for Apple (APPL) obsessives, like MacRumors, to sites for real obsessives, like the handful of people who still own Palm (PALM) Treos. (And, of course, there’s All Things Digital’s Walt Mossberg, who bestrides all of this like the colossus he is, and is also my boss. Hi, Walt!)

Rojas and Block argue that their site is different because it’s not going to be driven by editors but by the site’s users, who will gather there to swap info, stories, rumors, opinions, etc. In other words, Facebook for gadgets, though I gather they’d recoil if they heard that. The other pitch, though they won’t spell this out, either: Their site takes a bunch of features and content that you can find other places and presents them in a better way.

There’s a bunch of nifty features, like a gadget-finder that lets you find products via specs instead of brands, and the site seems to be pretty slick. But it’s better if you have a look yourself instead of having me describe it. And gdgt.com won’t really hit its stride until actual users start using it. I look forward to hearing what they have to say about my upcoming phone dilemma: iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre or Blackberry Tour?

But as much as Rojas and Block argue that this is a community site, it’s their names and reps that have people interested in the project. And that’s what has convinced investors to plow money into an ad-supported Web site in an era when the economy sucks and there are way too many ad-supported Web sites.

The duo won’t discuss funding, but I’m told that last fall they were discussing investments of up to $1 million, but ended up taking less than that via a group of VCs and angel investors. I don’t have a complete list of investors, but people familiar with the company tell me that early-stage investor True Ventures led the round, which also included New York-based incubator Betaworks and Mahalo’s Jason Calacanis.

Calacanis’s name will resonate with longtime followers of the tech blog world: He was one of the founders of Weblogs Inc., which created Engadget as a rival to Gawker Media’s Gizmodo, and hired Rojas away from Gizmodo. Calacanis eventually sold Weblogs Inc. to Time Warner’s (TWX) AOL for a decent pile of cash, some of which I believe ended up in Rojas’s lap.

Click the image below to see a screenshot of what gdgt’s homepage ought to look like.

What does it look like when one of the world’s richest men unleashes a box full of mosquitoes at a high-end conference? That’s what Microsoft (MSFT) founder Bill Gates did at the TED gathering earlier this week in a much-discussed stunt.

And now you can see for yourself:

Less exciting than it sounded, right? Here’s the thing: The mosquito bit is just the publicity-generating part of Gates’s talk, which is a thoughtful discussion of the problems the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is focused on, and the methods the nonprofit is using to try to solve them.

Modest title: “How I’m Trying To Change The World Now.”

You can see the complete speech here, and it will require 20 minutes of your time. But it’s free, and worthwhile.

The video comes from TED’s–that’s the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference, by the way–“TedTalks” page, which is slowly releasing clips of this week’s conference for those of who couldn’t make it to Long Beach this year.

I’m looking forward to seeing Elizabeth “Eat Pray Love” Gilbert’s presentation, which seemed to generate lots of buzz; you can see what various Twitterers (including our own Walt Mossberg) had to say about the conference here.

Besides the where and when (10 a.m. at the Morgan Library in midtown), the company hasn’t provided any other details. But I’ll note that the last time Amazon (AMZN) held a New York press conference, in November 2007, it was to unveil Kindle 1.0. When CEO Jeff Bezos spoke to Walt Mossberg at All Things Digital in May 2008, he wouldn’t peg a time frame for a new Kindle iteration. But it seems reasonable to expect a new one more than a year after the launch of the initial version.

Hi there. Welcome to a new blog/column/site/space carved out for me by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher, who’ve invited me to join the AllThingsD.com team.

I’m a pretty boring person, but if for some reason you’re interested in verifying that, you’ve got some options.

I also hope that MediaMemo is descriptive enough of a name. But in case you’re wondering: I’ll be writing, frequently, about the ongoing battle between the established media business and the technology that is reshaping it day by day. It’s a pretty big beat, and an exciting one.

But enough about me. Let’s talk about you.

Specifically, let’s talk about how you can make MediaMemo a whole lot better: By giving me feedback. Tell me what I’m missing, what I got wrong, what I need to take a closer look at. Praise is fine, too. But I’ve got a thick skin, and what I really need is an honest, thoughtful input from the best sources out there: You folks.

So please, drop me a line, as frequently as you’d like. You can sound off on any particular post by leaving a comment. Or if you’d like to be a bit more discreet, you can contact me directly: peter@allthingsd.com.

I look forward to hearing from you. Now, let’s get to work.

[Image credit: Oskay]