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12:30 PM ET, November 5, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
The Official Google Blog:
Transparency, choice and control — now complete with a Dashboard!  —  Today, we are excited to announce the launch of Google Dashboard.  Have you ever wondered what data is stored with your Google Account?  The Google Dashboard offers a simple view into the data associated with your account — easily and concisely in one location.
Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:
Motorola's Droid Is Smart Success for Verizon Users  —  Verizon Wireless customers tend to love the company's fast 3G network.  But many tech-oriented Verizon loyalists gripe about the carrier's high-end smart phones, which haven't matched the cachet and versatility of the Apple iPhone sold by AT&T (T).
RELATED:
David Pogue / New York Times:
Call It an ‘App Phone’ (A What?)  —  Last week, I reviewed not one, but three new phones.  You'd think that would be enough for a while, but fall is peak season for new mobile devices, and another major release — Motorola's Droid — is upon us this week.  —  But before we get to today's big review of the Droid, we need a noun.
Adam Lashinsky / Fortune:
The decade of Steve  —  How Apple's imperious, brilliant CEO transformed American business.  —  (Fortune magazine) — How's this for a gripping corporate story line: Youthful founder gets booted from his company in the 1980s, returns in the 1990s, and in the following decade survives two brushes with death …
The Official Google Blog:
Introducing Google Commerce Search: Finding holiday gifts faster  —  The holiday season is right around the corner, so online retailers are gearing up for spikes in traffic.  When people go to shop online, search is big part of finding the right product, whether they're looking for a gift or just something for themselves.
RELATED:
Taylor Wimberly / Android and Me:
Has the T-Mobile HSPA 7.2 rollout begun?  Yes!  Confirmed.  —  Earlier today we reported that T-Mobile's HSPA 7.2 upgrade was still on track for 2009.  One of our readers Ted left an interesting comment: HSPA has been lit up in Chicago!  I just tested it and got 6.8 Mbps!
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
I Love the Smell of Settlement in the Morning: Skype Founders Set to Get 10 Percent, Option to Buy Three Percent More and Two Board Seats  —  According to several sources close to the situation, barring any unforeseen delay, a deal to settle the Skype imbroglio is likely to be announced around the time the markets open tomorrow.
Discussion: GigaOM and p2pnet, Thanks:atul
Dan Goodin / The Register:
Tech titans meet in secret to plug SSL hole  —  Web authentication busted on Apache, IIS  —  Researchers say they've uncovered a flaw in the secure sockets layer protocol that allows attackers to inject text into encrypted traffic passing between two endpoints.
Pew Internet:
Social Isolation and New Technology  —  This report adds new insights to an ongoing debate about the extent of social isolation in America.  A widely-reported 2006 study argued that since 1985 Americans have become more socially isolated, the size of their discussion networks has declined …
John Cox / Network World:
Verizon confirms Droid tethering option, hefty price tag  —  Motorola Droid smartphones to match capability of Apple's iPhone  —  Verizon has confirmed that customers will have the option of connecting a laptop to their new Motorola Droid smartphones, on sale tomorrow, using the phone as a wireless modem.
Discussion: DSLreports and Mashable!
Zachary M. Seward / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions the news consumer of the future  —  For all the bluster about Google as an enemy of the news industry, you might be surprised to learn that Eric Schmidt, the company's CEO, is kind of a triumphalist for mainstream media, big newspapers, and print.
Discussion: GigaOM and The Equity Kicker, Thanks:atul
Imad / Moblin Blogs:
Moblin v2.1 project release for netbooks and nettops - it's here  —  The Moblin™ project steering committee today announces the project release of Moblin v2.1 for Intel Atom* processor-based netbooks and nettops.  This project release includes the broadest feature additions …
Dan Goodin / The Register:
Twitter fanatic glimpses dark side of OAuth  —  ‘Secure’ authentication can be anything but  —  A mobile enthusiast and professional internet strategist got a glimpse of OAuth's dark side recently when he received an urgent advisory from Twitter.  —  The dispatch, generated when Terence Eden tried …
Andy Ihnatko / Chicago Sun Times:
iCan't stand by and watch Droid ad smear iPhone  —  Verizon's ubiquitous “iDon't” commercial has been peppering TV for weeks now.  It makes two conventional mistakes in advertising.  It's not clear that it's an ad for the Verizon Droid phone, a remarkable new handset made by Motorola …
Twitter Status:
Testing new tweet notifications  —  We're starting a limited test of notifications on twitter.com for when you have new tweets.  So if one of the folks you follow has tweeted since you loaded your homepage, you'll get a little notice saying “1 new tweet” that, when clicked, will display the new content.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
RealNetworks to Lay Off Four Percent of Staff Today  —  The Seattle area is going to get another jobless jolt today, with RealNetworks (RNWK) planning to lay off four percent of its workforce, sources said.  —  That's a small number-just about 70 people out of its 1,700-person staff …
Douglas MacMillan / Business Week:
Private Online Shopping Sites Cash In  —  A Virtual Velvet Rope  —  The most exclusive club in town may be just a few mouse clicks away.  Invitation-only shopping sites with names like Gilt Groupe and Rue La La are gaining popularity online.  They're generating millions of dollars in revenue …
Discussion: 901am
John Cook / TechFlash:
Plumber vs. Programmer: A face-off over an online directory  —  For more than 30 years, Evan Conklin has practiced plumbing in the Seattle area fixing broken water heaters, leaky faucets and malfunctioning toilets.  And during those three decades, Conklin has seen a lot of crap in the business world.
Discussion: Screenwerk
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
CrunchPad Dead?  Delayed By Higher-Than-Expected Costs?  —  The CrunchPad, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington's entry into the gadget business, is still missing in action.  —  Are higher-than-expected costs to blame?  —  One story we heard from a few people on a recent trip to California …
Jonny Evans / 9 to 5 Mac:
Dating habits of iPhone users revealed  —  Hey, fresh this morning from the spurious but strangely amusing iLifestyle desk comes a breakdown of the dating habits of iPhone users..  —  According to Retrevo (remember them, they told Apple what to charge for its current fantasy tablet product last week) …
Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:
Tell the FCC to say no to Hollywood's insane “Selectable Output Control” kill-switch … Yes, you read that right.  The studios want the right to randomly switch off parts of your home theater depending on which program you're watching.  And the FCC is taking this bats**t proposal seriously.
Discussion: Gizmodo, NewTeeVee and PC Magazine
The Paperboy / Gizmodo:
Microsoft Courier's Swipes, Snips and Scribbles: The Leaked Interface  —  We've seen slides and videos of Microsoft's Courier booklet in action, but nothing has quite explained how all of these things actually work.  This document explains Courier's interface, gestures and features more in-depth than ever before.
Antuan Goodwin / CNET News:
Garmin communicates with your car via ESP  —  We stopped by Garmin's booth at the 2009 SEMA Show expecting a new GPS device or news of another OEM integration deal, but we stumbled upon something even better.  Sometime next year, Garmin's Nuvi GPS devices will gain the ability to communicate with your car through ESP.
Discussion: NaviGadget and Engadget
Ville Heiskanen / Bloomberg:
Research In Motion May Buy Back $1.2 Billion in Stock  —  Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) — Research In Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry phone, will repurchase as much as $1.2 billion in shares to compensate investors as its growth slows.  —  The company will buy as many as 21 million shares …
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac
Om Malik / GigaOM:
SlingMedia Founder Invests In Clicker, Joins BOD  —  Ever since Blake Krikorian left Sling Media, the place shifting startup that he sold to Echostar for $380 million in September 2007, he's been lying low.  Instead of trying to build yet another startup, he has been spending time trying …
Discussion: NewTeeVee
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch Europe:
Digital music startup Deezer debuts desktop client, premium offering  —  [France] Paris-based Deezer is not waiting for Spotify to expand into new territories and is moving forward with its own plans pretty quickly.  The French startup recently raised $9.5 million (€6.5 million) …
Discussion: paidContent
Mayumi Negishi / Reuters:
Microsoft CEO eyes Yahoo partnership outside U.S  —  TOKYO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday the company could look to extend its search engine partnership with Yahoo outside the United States, if it gets regulatory approval.
Nicole Lee / Crave: The gadget blog:
LG Chocolate Touch is now official  —  We've been waiting for months for Verizon to finally unveil the latest in the line of LG Chocolate phones, and it's here at last.  The LG Chocolate Touch VX8575 is officially available today, making it the first touch screen version of the Chocolate phone lineup.
Discussion: Electronista
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Isabella Products and AT&T launch two-way sharing digital photo frames  —  Isabella Products is announcing Vizit, a two-way interactive digital photo frame that will share photos via AT&T's wireless network.  —  Most web-connected digital photo frames can display pictures via flash memory cards or receive them over the Internet.
Discussion: Engadget, Electronista and Gizmodo, Thanks:enauzer
 
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 More Items: 
Jeffrey R. Young / Chronicle of Higher Education:
Music Industry Changes Tune of New Program to Fight File Sharing
Discussion: p2pnet
T3.com News:
Motorola Droid not coming to T-Mobile or O2 in the UK
Discussion: Android Phone Fans
John Cook / TechFlash:
Frazier Technology Ventures to dissolve; Madrona hires Jordan
Discussion: PE Hub Blog
Telegraph:
BBC website suffers outage
Jeff Smykil / Ars Technica:
Developers stealing from developers: an App Store tale
Discussion: Edible Apple
 Earlier Items: 
Mallary Jean Tenore / poynter.org:
Texas Tribune's Launch ‘Just the Beginning’ of Databases, What's to Come
Yvo / YvoSchaap.com:
Facebook and MySpace security: backdoor wide open, millions of accounts exploitable
Discussion: TechCrunch
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
A Little Perspective (Digg, Twitter, Facebook)
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
CNN Explains the Cloud ... Badly
Discussion: CNN and Behind the Scenes, Thanks:enauzer
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Offerpal Tries Out A New CEO. Shukla, Queen Of Scams, Is Out.
Discussion: VentureBeat and Forbes
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Ofcom rules that five GB News programs presented by Conservative politicians have broken its due impartiality rules and puts the channel “on notice”

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Authentic Brands licenses Sports Illustrated's publishing rights to The Players' Tribune owner Minute Media for 10 years, with plans to keep the print edition

Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTuber MrBeast announces a deal with Prime Video for Beast Games, a reality-competition show with 1,000 contestants, promising the winner a $5M cash prize

 
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