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11:55 AM ET, October 18, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Verizon's anti-iPhone gets its first commercial: ‘Droid Does’  —  We knew Verizon Wireless would soon be throwing caution to the wind in an effort to sway uncommitted smartphone buyers towards Big Red, and it looks like the November-bound Motorola Droid will be VZW's anti-iPhone.
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Verizon Droid Is The Real Deal  —  Verizon and Motorola finally lifted the curtain on their new Droid Android phone yesterday.  Make no mistake, this is Android's flagship product, and the first phone that will pose a significant threat to Apple's iPhone.  And it will be available very soon, possibly as early as the end of this month.
Andrew Munchbach / Boy Genius Report:
Verizon Tweet: Palm Pre early next year  —  Oh the soap opera between the Palm Pre and Verizon Wireless — it's denied, it's confirmed, it's tweeted.  VZWOffers has reiterated announced that Verizon will indeed have the Pre “early” next year.  America's largest carrier will seemingly …
Ashlee Vance / New York Times:
Forecast for Microsoft: Partly Cloudy  —  RAY OZZIE, the chief software architect at Microsoft, bristles when asked whether people think that new versions of his company's flagship software — like Windows and Office — are exciting.  —  “It's tremendously exciting,” he exclaims defensively …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
This Used To Be My Playground  —  Maybe you've read some of the stories this past week about how FriendFeed's traffic is way down following their sale to Facebook.  The stats don't look good, as the site's traffic may have plummeted as much as 30% following its peak just prior to the sale.
Discussion: louisgray.com and scobleizer's posterous, Thanks:atul
Paul Carr / TechCrunch:
NSFW: Why Seth MacFarlane's Microsoft Guy is the end of television, and the world  —  “I won't be happy til the whole world hates me.”  Not my words, for once, but those of Seth MacFarlane on stage last year at Carnegie Hall.  The audience laughed, as well they might ("he was on the Internet …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Coming Soon: a Mozilla App for the iPhone  —  Earlier today when I interviewed Mozilla CEO John Lilly onstage at the Play conference, an annual confab organized by the students of Haas School of Business at the University of Berkeley, he hinted that Mozilla was going to launch a brand …
Discussion: ithinkdifferent and 9 to 5 Mac
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's Squirrel project revealed... as the Square iPhone Payment System  —  Remember the Square iPhone Payment System we told you about back in August?  If you'll recall, the device — which involves an iPhone app and associated dongle — enables an iPhone or iPod touch …
Discussion: Mashable!, TECH.BLORGE.com, Crave and Pulse2, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Robert McMillan / Computerworld:
Mozilla blocks Microsoft's buggy Firefox plugin  —  Mozilla developers have blocked a Firefox plugin that was quietly pushed out by Microsoft, saying that it presents a security risk.  —  Mozilla developers have blocked a Firefox plugin that was quietly pushed out by Microsoft, saying that it presents a security risk.
Kurt Kleiner / New Scientist:
New camera promises to capture your whole life  —  A camera you can wear as a pendant to record every moment of your life will soon be launched by a UK-based firm.  —  Originally invented to help jog the memories of people with Alzheimer's disease, it might one day be used by consumers to create …
Natasha Singer / New York Times:
When 2+2 Equals a Privacy Question  —  TIME to revisit the always compelling — and often disconcerting — debate over digital privacy.  So, what might your movie picks and your medical records have in common?  —  How about a potentially false sense of control over who can see your user history?
J. Nicholas Hoover / InformationWeek:
The Custom URL Shortener  —  My first thought when I saw that the federal government had created its own URL shortener was: what a waste of time and effort.  The more I think about it, the more I wonder why other large organizations with popular Websites haven't done this for their links.
 
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 More Items: 
Schneier on Security:
The Commercial Speech Arms Race
Discussion: Geeking with Greg, Thanks:atul
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
MPAA: Antipiracy is now ‘content protection’
Discussion: TorrentFreak and Techdirt
Steven Sande / TUAW:
The future of TV on your iPhone is ATSC Mobile DTV
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
3 Nifty iPhone Apps For News Consumption On The Go
Stephen Marche / Wall Street Journal:
The Book That Contains All Books
Discussion: TeleRead and Kindle Review, Thanks:mrinaldesai
 Earlier Items: 
Carl Malamud / O'Reilly Radar:
Law.Gov: America's Operating System, Open Source
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Android 2.0 First Look: Fresh Face, Sick Speed
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Shepard Fairey Responds To The AP: Yes, I Lied.  But It Was Still Fair Use.
Discussion: paidContent, Thanks:daniel_levine
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Ben Sherwood and Joanna Coles take minority stakes in The Daily Beast; Sherwood will be CEO and publisher, and Coles will be chief creative and content officer

Laurence Peter / BBC:
Russia's Ministry of Justice labels BBC Russian correspondent Ilya Barabanov and science reporter Asya Kazantseva as “foreign agents”; both now live abroad

Sahil Patel / The Information:
Sources: Disney plans old-style TV channels within Disney+, with a continuous, scheduled stream of shows that are focused on certain genres like Star Wars

 
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