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4:40 PM ET, November 19, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Caesar Sengupta / The Official Google Blog:
Releasing the Chromium OS open source project  —  In July we announced that we were working on Google Chrome OS, an open source operating system for people who spend most of their time on the web.  —  Today we are open-sourcing the project as Chromium OS.  We are doing this early …
RELATED:
Brad Linder / Download Squad:
Google ChromeOS: It's basically a modified browser that runs web apps  —  Google is holding a press event to talk about the upcoming Google Chrome Operating System.  The company is not ready to release the OS yet, and won't actually have a finished product ready for another year.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Video: Chrome OS For Dummies  —  Still not sure why Google is building its own operating system?  It created this animated video to try to explain why the Web needs a new OS, and why that OS should be Chrome.  Google just showed the video at its Chrome OS press event which MG is liveblogging.
Ben Parr / Mashable!:   Google Chrome OS: 5 Ways It's Completely Different
Max Wang / DigiTimes:
Apple tablet PC reportedly delayed until 2H10, with OLED model now included  —  Apple reportedly plans to postpone the launch of its tablet PC from an original March launch schedule to the second half of 2010, as the vendor has decided to switch some components and plans to launch a model using …
RELATED:
Ian Paul / PC World:
The Apple Tablet Is Dead  —  Apple tablet rumors started verging into the ridiculous Thursday morning with reports that Apple has pushed back the project's launch date yet again.  Those same sources are saying Apple is developing a high-end tablet that could retail for as much as $2000, according to Digitimes.
Biz / Twitter Blog:
What's Happening?  —  Twitter was originally conceived as a mobile status update service—an easy way to keep in touch with people in your life by sending and receiving short, frequent answers to one question, “What are you doing?”  However, when we implemented the service, we chose to leave something out.
Ken Harrenstien / The Official Google Blog:
Automatic captions in YouTube  —  Since we first announced captions in Google Video and YouTube, we've introduced multiple caption tracks, improved search functionality and even automatic translation.  Each of these features has had great personal significance to me, not only because I helped to design them, but also because I'm deaf.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
AOL: We Need to Fire 2,500 “Volunteers”  —  AOL, which has already told investors it will spend up to $200 million firing a good chunk of its staff, has now told employees.  The company is looking for “up to 2,500 volunteers,” CEO Tim Armstrong told his staff today.  That's a third of AOL's payroll.
Jennifer Van Grove / Mashable!:
Foursquare Goes Global With Launch in 50 New Cities  —  Right on the heels of Foursquare's API release, the location-based mobile application and game is announcing another big rollout to cities across the world.  —  Just one month after releasing Foursquare to 15 new cities in the US and Canada …
Ina Fried / Crave: The gadget blog:
Livescribe pen gets an app store  —  The Livescribe app store, now in beta, allows users to download applications to their pen ranging from inexpensive games to a pricey—but handy—Bar Mitzvah tutor.  —  (Credit: Livescribe)  —  It took a little bit longer than the company had hoped …
Alex Williams / ReadWriteWeb:
MindTouch Cloud: The Open Source Alternative to Sharepoint and Salesforce.com?  —  Sharepoint is the big giant in the enterprise collaboration space.  Salesforce.com is now in the market with Salesforce Chatter, a service that embraces Facebook, Twitter and the applications within Force.com.
Brian Womack / Bloomberg:
Facebook Common Stock Valuation Jumps 42% to $9.5 Billion  —  Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) — The price of Facebook Inc. stock on exchanges for private companies has jumped as much as 42 percent in the past four months as membership of the site topped 300 million users and the company turned cash flow positive.
Discussion: GigaOM, DailyFinance and BloggingStocks, Thanks:atul
Paul Graham:
Apple's Mistake  —  I don't think Apple realizes how badly the App Store approval process is broken.  Or rather, I don't think they realize how much it matters that it's broken.  The way Apple runs the App Store has harmed their reputation with programmers more than anything else they've ever done.
Thanks:atul
Gabe Rivera / Techmeme News:
Droid, iPhone, and Pre: meet the new Techmeme Mobile  —  Today we're introducing Techmeme Mobile, a new mobile version of Techmeme optimized for popular smartphones.  Techmeme Mobile loads much faster on phones thanks to a sparser page format in which tabs and “Discussion” links load on demand.
Terry Maxon / AIRLINE BIZ:
American offers tool to find if your flight will have Wi-Fi  —  If you're flying Friday to New York LaGuardia from D/FW Airport, you can't get Wi-Fi on American's flights that depart at 6:10 a.m., 7:15 a.m. or 11 a.m. But if you take the 8:15 a.m., 9:05 a.m. or 10:05 a.m. flights, your airplane will be equipped with Wi-Fi.
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
Is There Any Point to the World's First Wireless USB Drive?  —  I get that it is cool technology, but I don't get the Imation Pro WX.  It's the world's first Wireless USB disk drive, sure, but there are already drives that are Wi-Fi enabled.  So, how is this different?
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Mozilla reveals 2008 revenue: $79 million  —  The Mozilla Foundation's revenue grew 5 percent to $79 million in 2008, with its Firefox search-ad deal with Google still the biggest benefactor, the organization said Thursday.  —  The figure is notable for an open-source effort, but the growth tapered off significantly.
Discussion: Mitchell's Blog
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
The OS Opportunity  —  A few weeks ago, in a piece here titled “Herd Mentality”, I argued that PC makers who want to succeed should create their own OSes: … Hardware and software both matter, and Apple's history shows that there's a good argument to be made for developing integrated hardware and software.
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Gmail Users Better-Connected, More Likely to Tweet than Members of other Webmail Services  —  The social media data company Rapleaf has just released the final parts of their 3-part study involving the demographics and online behavior of webmail users.  In the first part of the study …
Bill Perry / mobileperry:
Ovi Store - the First 5 Months  —  2009 has sure gone by quickly and being mid-November, 2010 is rapidly approaching.  For those of you who are mobile developers or are following the various mobile application stores available in market I thought I would give another update regarding Ovi Store …
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Amazon Slashes Palm Pre To $79.99; Pixi Now $24.99  —  The smart phone price war rages on.  —  In the latest example, Amazon.com (AMZN) has slashed the price of the Palm Pre to $79.99 with a two-year service plan from Sprint (S); they're also throwing in free activation of the phone.
Discussion: Gearlog, CrunchGear and Mashable!
Pui-Wing Tam / Digits:
Textbook-Rental Service Chegg Raises $57 Million  —  Chegg.com, an online textbook-rental company, said it has raised $57 million in venture capital, in a sign that venture investing may be reviving. … The amount of funding that the Santa Clara, Calif., company raised is unusual given …
Discussion: paidContent
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Facebook Upgrades Their Photo Uploader Tool  —  This evening Chris Putnam of Facebook announced that the company is launching an upgraded version of their photo uploader, immediately available for testing as on of Facebook's Prototype applications.  Over time Facebook has had issues …
Rafe Needleman / CNET News:
Going rate for acquisitions at Intuit: $170 million  —  Last night I asked Justin Kitch, who sold his company, Homestead.com, to Intuit in 2007, how much Intuit paid for the company.  “$170 million,” he said.  “No,” I said, “That was Mint.  How much was Homestead?”  —  “It's funny, isn't it?” he said.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
TweetPhoto CEO Says Too Much In Interview, Gets Fired.  And That's Just The Beginning...  This story just screams amateur hour, although I can't figure out exactly who's the amateur.  Maybe everyone.  A CEO says too much in an interview and gets fired.  Lawyers go after the blogger to get content removed.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
AOL Also Likely to Eye Sale of MapQuest-Is Microsoft a Possible Buyer?  —  Yesterday, BoomTown wrote about AOL's efforts-including hiring investment bankers-to sell its ICQ instant-messaging unit.  —  But that's probably not going to be the end of the shedding of assets at the online site.
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:
SimpleGeo navigates from stealth to beta  —  Location awareness is hot, from gamelike social services such as Foursquare and Gowalla to platforms such as Google Latitude.  Now one start-up is hoping to make it as easy for any company to integrate into a Web or mobile service as it is for retailers to use PayPal.
Discussion: TechCrunch
 
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 More Items: 
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Quanta Android Smartbook hands-on plus Qualcomm tablet prototype [Video]
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Boku gains momentum with mobile payments for social games
Discussion: CNET News and Business Wire
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
Now Facebook Page Owners Can Target News Feed Stories By Location and Language
Alexandria Sage / Reuters:
Sony says e-readers in demand, shipments delayed
Discussion: eWeek and Wall Street Journal
Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:
Like.com Buys Fashion Sharing Site Weardrobe
Discussion: TechCrunch
 Earlier Items: 
Mark Walsh / MediaPost:
Verizon App Offers All-In-One Easy Access to Social Nets, Twitter
Mark Hachman / PC Magazine:
Microsoft Sees ‘Natal’ as Your Next TV Remote
Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson / Financial Times:
Spotify US launch delayed by record labels' concerns
Discussion: paidContent
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
The Latest News From Bing
Discussion: LiveSide