Top Items:
BBC:
Blackberry reveals failure cause — The maker of the Blackberry wireless e-mail device says an insufficiently tested software upgrade was the cause of this week's network failure. — Blackberry's US and North American users lost their service on Tuesday and Wednesday as a result of the problem.
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Ian Austen / New York Times:
R.I.M. Offers a Reason for BlackBerry Failure — The installation of an insufficiently tested piece of software set off a chain reaction that eventually cut off BlackBerry service to more than five million users in North America users, the devices' maker said late Thursday.
Valleywag:
PODCASTING: Battle over — and Apple won — Can we officially declare the end of the podcasting boom? Sure, internet users will continue to subscribe to audio files, the experience will become ever more like interactive radio, and existing broadcasters will supply their programs in chunks — just like the visionaries predicted.
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Dave Winer / Scripting News:
Oh Valleywag — I think they're all smoking crack down there, or abusing small animals, or sticking things in orifices god never intended things to be stuck in, or maybe all of the above (at the same time), because their brains seem to be shrinking, visibly, every day.
Discussion:
The Last Podcast
Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:
Amazon Sues Alexaholic...Everyone Loses — Alan Graham published a great account of my discussion with Jeff Bezos about Alexaholic (now Statsaholic at the Web 2.0 Expo on Monday. Entitled Amazon sues Alexaholic...Everyone Loses, Alan's blog entry does a good job of summarizing the the conversation …
Discussion:
Overclocked, TechFold, Mashable!, WebProNews, Deep Jive Interests, Chuqui 3.0, Profy.Com and New Web Order
Stefanie Olsen / CNET News.com:
Google draws privacy complaint to FTC — Three public-interest groups are expected to file a joint complaint on Friday with the Federal Trade Commission calling for an investigation into the potential threat to consumer privacy posed by Google's planned acquisition of DoubleClick.
Ron Nixon / New York Times:
U.S. Database Exposes Social Security Numbers — The Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of people who received loans or other financial assistance from two Agriculture Department programs were disclosed for years in a publicly available database, raising concerns about identity theft and other privacy violations.
Karen / Official Google Blog:
Collaborating with Marratech — As a company, we thrive on casual interactions and spontaneous collaboration. So we're excited about acquiring Marratech's video conferencing software, which will enable from-the-desktop participation for Googlers in videoconference meetings wherever there's an Internet connection.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Download Squad, John Furrier, Startup Meme, J. LeRoy's Evolving Web, Digital Markets, VentureBeat, Epicenter, IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband, InsideGoogle, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Connecting the Dots, mathewingram.com/work, SearchViews, Between the Lines, CyberNet Technology News, Sramana Mitra on Strategy, WebProNews, Vecosys, StartupSquad.com, Microsoft News Tracker, NewTeeVee, Google Watch, dailywireless.org and Harold Jarche
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Kelly Yamanouchi / Denver Post:
Southwest reaching for Wi-Fi in sky — Southwest Airlines is exploring how to put Wi-Fi Internet service on its airplanes, as the no-frills carrier seeks to add some frills. — Southwest plans to outfit a few planes with in-cabin wireless Internet service that would "allow for e-mail …
Pete Cashmore / Mashable!:
MySpace News...Kinda Sucks — Update: Ironically, I just saw this post at the top of MySpace News. Feel free to vote for it. — Mashable was the first blog to announce the imminent launch of MySpace News on Wednesday evening, but now the site is live, it seems to, well, suck a little bit.
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Winda Benedetti / MSNBC:
Were video games to blame for massacre? — Pundits rushed to judge industry, gamers in the wake of shooting — Jack Thompson, a Florida attorney and opponent of violent video games, said Va. Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui played 'Counter-Strike,' Valve Software's popular multiplayer game.
BBC:
Users force Dell to resurrect XP — Responding to customer demand Dell has restarted selling new PCs with Windows XP installed on them. — The decision reverses a policy begun in January that meant Windows Vista was the only operating system available on almost all new home machines.
alarm:clock:
Podcast Advertising Firm PodBridge Raises $8.5M More — By most accounts podcast advertising has been very disappointing. There is just not enough podcast listeners for advertisers to scale as they can with Adsense or other buys. But a couple of research groups keep publishing glowing reports about the future.
Cathryn Atkinson / Globe and Mail:
Internet hosts should be made to pay for libellous statements, suit contends — The hosts of the speed-of-light world of Internet blogs and interactive websites that publish anonymous commentary should be forced to pay when reputations are damaged, says a former Green Party staff member who is suing three such sites.
Discussion:
WebProNews
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John Battelle / John Battelle's Searchblog:
NEWS ANALYSIS: MICROSOFT GENERAL COUNSEL ON DOUBLECLICK AND ANTITRUST — I had an interesting call today with Brad Smith, the general counsel of Microsoft. I was eager to understand Microsoft's position on the Google/Doubleclick deal, and to parse the issues swirling around the companies decision to …
Gizmodo:
Override Your Buddy's Lame Ringtone — This is just a practical joke waiting to happen. Emotive got the funding they needed—$7.7 million—from a variety of investors, including Warner Music Group, to create a product that can override the callee's ringtone. It is called a "Push Ringer."
Ogle Earth:
Oh the irony: Google Earth ban in Sudan is due to US export restrictions — I've been sending emails to people located in Sudan asking if they could corroborate the Sudan aid worker's strange report of no longer being able to download copies of Google Earth locally, though still being able to access the data servers.
Discussion:
Compiler
