Top Items:
Robin Wauters / MobileCrunch:
Android Market grows up, hits 20,000 apps milestone — Rest assured that 2010 is going to be a big year for the Android operating system, with many new handsets finding their way to stores around the world (including Google's own phone) and an increasing number of developers building tools …
RELATED:
Colin Gibbs / GigaOM:
The Problem With Android Market's Growth — Android Market continues to grow its library in a big way, reaching 20,000 apps and doubling its library in just the last five months. But as Google's storefront begins to nip at the heels of Apple's App Store, it will need to find better ways …
Discussion:
Android Phone Fans
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Comcast Launches Its “TV Everywhere” Plan Nationwide, With an Awful Name: Say Hello to “Xfinity” — As promised, Comcast is opening up the trial of its “TV Everywhere” program, which gives its subscribers-but only its subscribers-access to extra TV programming, streamed via the Web.
Abdur / Twitter Blog:
Top Twitter Trends of 2009 — My name is Abdur and I'm part of the Research team here at Twitter. As Chief Scientist, it's my job to interpret data so we can understand and appreciate how Twitter is constantly evolving. Since it's the end of the year, we thought it would be interesting …
Darrell Etherington / TheAppleBlog:
Apple Approves Video Recording App for iPhone 2G and 3G — If you've been reconsidering your position as a jailbreaker thanks to recent security threats or Apple's strong disapproval, there's now one more reason to consider going legit. Apple just approved a new app that allows iPhones other than the 3GS to record video.
Discussion:
Hardware 2.0, PC World, The Next Web Network, TechStartups.com and MacNN, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Chrome Mac, Linux betas push browser into No. 3 spot — Passes Safari, may beat Firefox at its own game on Linux — Computerworld - The release last week of betas of Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux pushed the Google browser's share past Apple's Safari and into the No. 3 spot, a Web measurement company said today.
Macworld:
Macworld's iPhone apps of the year — We pick our 20 favorite apps of the year for the iPhone and iPod touch — Looking through Apple's App Store, it's easy to get lost in the numbers. From December 2008 to November 2009, some 90,000 apps arrived in the online store …
ABC News:
Green light for internet filter plans — The Federal Government has detailed its plan to require internet service providers (ISPs) in Australia to block a list of banned material. — When Parliament resumes next year the Government plans to introduce amendments that will require ISPs to block banned material on overseas servers.
RELATED:
Microsoft:
Microsoft Statement Regarding MSN China Joint Venture's Juku Feature — Additional information regarding the Juku beta application. — On Monday, December 14, questions arose over a beta application called Juku developed by a Chinese vendor for our MSN China joint venture.
Discussion:
internetnews.com, Seattle Times, PC World, TechCrunch, Digits, Digital Daily, paidContent, Daring Fireball, Neowin.net, Microsoft News Tracker and Beyond Binary
Brenna Ehrlich / Mashable!:
McDonald's Adds Free Wi-Fi to the Menu — In an effort to become more of a “destination” than a grab-n-go eatery, that most iconic of fast food chains — McDonald's — is now serving up free wi-fi. Starting mid-January, the restaurant will nix the $2.95 fee that it had previously charged …
Eric Eldon / Inside Facebook:
ComScore: Facebook Grew 5.6% in the US last month. Hitwise: “Facebook” Top US Search term — Facebook traffic grew by around 5.5 million users in the United States last month, according to the latest data from web traffic measurement firm comScore. This is basically in line with what we tracked over the same period.
RELATED:
Mark Milian / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
In the wild world of URL shorteners, Libya is king — Google is betting on Greenland, Facebook on Montenegro and Bit.ly on Libya. — The rise of URL shorteners — those brief links that are thriving on space-constrained networks such as Twitter — has in turn created a sort of gold rush …
Discussion:
internetnews.com
Jennifer Van Grove / Mashable!:
Foursquare Launches Location Check-ins for Facebook — Now that Foursquare has money in the bank, the New York-based startup is starting to quickly launch updates to its increasingly popular mobile location-based game. — The service recently released their API, paving the way for nifty apps …
Discussion:
The Next Web Network
PR Newswire:
Cherrypal Launches World's First $99 Laptop — New 7-inch Netbook Helps Bridge the Digital Divide; Redesigned Intel N280 Bing laptop features 13.3-inch wide screen; New Cherrypal Open Store Launched — Cherrypal, the company that brought the world's “greenest” desktop computer to market last year …
Discussion:
Technologizer, Engadget, bizjournals, TechSpot, Lockergnome Blog Network, Gadgetell, Electronista, Gizmodo Australia and Gizmodo
Keith Dsouza / Techie Buzz:
Gmail Introduces Duplicate Contact Cleaner for Merging Contacts — Quite sometime back we had told you how to remove duplicate contacts in Windows Live Hotmail and removing duplicate contacts in Yahoo Mail, back then Gmail did not have the ability to remove duplicate contacts.
Grant Gross / Computerworld:
AT&T offers new position on net neutrality — IDG News Service - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission should back away from creating strict nondiscrimination rules requiring broadband service providers to carry all Internet content, because such net neutrality rules could hurt investment in networks, AT&T told the FCC today.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
ASCAP Now Demanding License From Venues That Let People Play Guitar Hero — We've been detailing how the various collection societies around the globe have been trotting out all sorts of dubious reasoning to try to get more people to pay up for a license. In the US, ASCAP has been particularly …
Discussion:
GamePolitics News
HardMac.com:
Details concerning the Xeon processors with 6 cores — New information shown by Intel lets us learn some more on the future Intel processors in 6 cores engraved in 32 nm that we soon expect to see equipping the Mac Pro. To start, contrary to the forecasts, these processors will keep the name of Core i7 and will not be called Core i9.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, AppleInsider, MacRumors, O'Grady's PowerPage, SlashGear, 9 to 5 Mac, TUAW and Gizmodo
Leander Kahney / Cult of Mac:
AT&T Responds to Fake Steve's Operation Chokehold — AT&T has dismissed Fake Steve's Operation Chokehold protest as an attention-getting stunt. — Fake Steve is calling on disgruntled AT&T customers to bring AT&T's data network “to its knees” at 12 noon PST this Friday, December 18.
Project Honey Pot:
1 Billion Spammers Served — Our 1 Billionth Spam Message — On Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 06:20 (GMT) Project Honey Pot received its billionth email spam message. The message, a picture of which is displayed below, was a United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) phishing scam.
Michael Bürge / Google LatLong:
More information, fewer clicks — Earlier this year, we proclaimed that “1000 is the new 10” when we began showing small dots on the map for all your local search results. This has been a great way to get a better understanding of the density of certain listings - for example …
Yahoo! Search Blog:
Get More Personally Relevant Results When You Search for Local Businesses — We just made it easier to search for local businesses. Starting today, you can see the Yahoo! local business shortcut when you search for a business, even if you don't include your location in your query.
Ryan Naraine / Zero Day:
Adobe confirms PDF zero-day attacks. Disable JavaScript now — Malicious hackers are exploiting a zero-day (unpatched) vulnerability in Adobe's ever-present PDF Reader/Acrobat software to hijack data from compromised computers. — According to an advisory from Adobe …
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
JS-Kit Finally Ditches Its Name, Rebrands As Echo With Some Big Partners In Tow — Last July, we covered the initial debut of JS-Kit's Echo, a real-time commenting system.This morning during a media conference call, the CEO Khris Loux announced that in light of the success of the product …
Robert Andrews / mocoNews:
Guardian's iPhone App Sold 9,000 Downloads In First Two Days — Guardian.co.uk's new iPhone app got some favourable reviews upon its release on Sunday night. Even more favourable - it shifted 9,000 in the first two days, Guardian News & Media told us. — At £2.39 a pop in the UK …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Yahoo Sticks With “It's Y!ou,” Expanding Pricey Ad Campaign by Pushing “Hero Products” and Relevance — When Yahoo launched its massive advertising campaign-featuring the tagline, “It's Y!ou"-earlier this fall with splashy events in New York and slick marketing rollouts all over the U.S., not everyone at the Internet portal loved it.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
PC World:
Smartphone Sales Increase Disappoints, Says Gartner — Smartphones grabbed a smaller-than-expected part of overall mobile phone sales in 2009, and Nokia is largely to blame, according to market research company Gartner. — In 2009 smartphones will represent 14 percent of overall unit sales to end users …
Colin Gibbs / GigaOM:
Verizon's Affair With Wi-Fi Heats Up — Verizon Wireless's love affair with Wi-Fi heated up again today with the carrier's announcement that its broadband subscribers can now connect to thousands of hotspots in North America at no additional charge. Subscribers with Verizon laptop cards …
Paul Lilly / Maximum PC:
CPT Claims “World's Largest” Capacitive Touch Panel — Thanks in part to native support in Windows 7 and falling LCD panel pricing (price fixing allegations notwithstanding), the time is right for touch technology to really take off on the desktop. Enter Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) …
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Google files for Nexus One trademark — The mystery of the Nexus One continues to grow ever deeper, but we can pretty much confirm Google's planning to sell something under that name: the search giant filed an intent-to-use trademark application for “Nexus One” on December 10th …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Ebooks For Dummies: Wiley Joins 150 Publishers In The Scribd Store — Book publishers are increasingly embracing digital books, and not just on Amazon's Kindle. Today, John Wiley and Sons, Barnes and Noble imprint Sterling Publishing, Chronicle Books, and the University of Chicago Press announced …
