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Previewing Google Friend Connect: Website owners can make any site social — Easily insert social features to make “any app, any site, any friends” a reality — Tonight at Campfire One at the Googleplex (http://code.google.com/campfire/ ), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) will announce …
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Groundswell, O'Reilly Radar, ReadWriteWeb, Digital Daily, A VC, VentureBeat, Mashable!, Washington Post, Between the Lines, Silicon Alley Insider, Search Engine Land, STARTUP CHATTER, ReadWriteTalk, Web Worker Daily, WebProNews, Somewhat Frank, Compiler, The Blogging Times, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, The Social Times, CostPerNews, Searchviews, Online Media Cultist, 901am, Brij's One More Idea and broadstuff
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Google Confirms Friend Connect — As we reported on Friday, Google will be launching its own Data Portability effort called Friend Connect. It will be announcing more details about the preview later tonight, but in a press release this morning it confirms:
Discussion:
Portfolio.com, FaceReviews, John Battelle's Searchblog, The Social Web and The Social Times


Google brings Friend Connect to the masses — As expected, Google has unveiled a preview of Friend Connect, a way to add social features to a Web site without programming. — David Glazer, director of engineering at Google, described Friend Connect as plumbing for the rest of the Web.
Discussion:
InfoWorld, Webware.com, The Social Web, The Inquisitr, Search Engine Watch Blog, The Real McCrea and Techdirt

AT&T now showing “iPhone Black” model in device listing — AT&T Wireless, Apple's exclusive iPhone provider in the United States, is now listing a second model of the iPhone in its device database called “iPhone Black,” AppleInsider has been informed. — The finding, discovered by a reader …
Discussion:
Byte of the Apple, 9 to 5 Mac, CrunchGear, BetaNews, Gizmodo, Unwired View, MobileWhack.com, The Boy Genius Report and Engadget
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3G iPhone: Steve Jobs to deliver keynote June 9 — Although no official announcement has been made, Apple public relations confirmed to Fortune that Steve Jobs will deliver a keynote address on June 9, the first day of the 2008 World Wide Developers conference.

Microsoft and RIM to Bring Windows Live Services to BlackBerry Smartphone Customers — Agreement will enhance the communications experience on BlackBerry smartphones through popular Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger services. — Microsoft Corp. and Research In Motion (RIM) …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, One Microsoft Way, Ars Technica, Microsoft Subnet's blog, LiveSide, mocoNews.net, Mashable!, eWeek and Gadgetell
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RIM Introduces the BlackBerry Bold Smartphone — Top of the line BlackBerry smartphone features premium design and unprecedented performance; perfect for business professionals and power users. — Waterloo, ON - For customers seeking a smartphone that makes a bold statement, Research In Motion …
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DailyTech, TeleRead, TechCrunch, Digital Daily, Phone Scoop, BerryReview.com, RCR Wireless News, InformationWeek Weblog, LAPTOP Magazine, PhoneNews.com, Bus error, Silicon Alley Insider, Technology Live, Gizmodo, Gadget Lab, MobileWhack.com, Alec Saunders SquawkBox and Alice Hill's Real Tech News


Bold new BlackBerry 9000 to take on expected 3G iPhone — RIM said “hello” to the iPhone this morning when it introduced the long-anticipated BlackBerry 9000, also known as the BlackBerry Bold. Aside from its dashing good looks, the Bold has tweaks under the hood that not only improve upon …

Twitter Beats (Wow, By 3 Minutes) The USGS With China Earthquake News — Hey, I like Twitter, but this entire thing Robert Scoble started about how Twitter had news of the Chinese earthquake before the US Geological Survey seemed absurd. Did it really? As it turns out, probably so — by about three minutes.
Discussion:
CNET News.com
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Twitter and the China earthquake
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New York Times, Data Center Knowledge, CNET News.com, Little Red Blog, CNN, Computerworld, Global Voices Online, broadstuff, Switched and SarahLacy.com

Ars Technica Has No Shame, But That's Nothing New — MG Siegler has this well-justified rant against uber-tech news site Ars Technica. His basic complaint is that Ars Technica is “really good at stealing other's ideas” because they ripped off a piece he did likening the global spread of the iPhone to the game of Risk.
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HBO In Your Pocket — Apple is close to announcing it has signed a deal to sell HBO programs and movies on the iTunes website, according to HBO employees involved in executing the agreement. — The deal marks the first time that Apple has agreed to a separate price structure for a content provider, one of the employees said.
Discussion:
CNET News.com, Mashable!, paidContent.org, NewTeeVee, GigaOM, Silicon Alley Insider, AppleInsider, Gizmodo, Engadget and iPodNN

Raikes tapped as Gates Foundation CEO — The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said on Monday that longtime Microsoft executive Jeff Raikes will be the organization's next chief executive. — Raikes announced in January he would be stepping down as president of Microsoft's Business Division, the unit that includes Office.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
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Microsoft exec Raikes named Gates Foundation CEO — Bill Gates, preparing to shift to full-time philanthropy at the end of June, has chosen one of his longtime Microsoft lieutenants as the chief executive of his foundation. Jeff Raikes, the retiring Microsoft Business Division president …
Discussion:
All about Microsoft


Apple rings up four new iPhone deals in Asia — The week opens with fresh reports of iPhone agreements with overseas carriers, as Apple (AAPL) continues its push to roll the Web-browsing cellphone out beyond the United States and Europe. — The Wall St. Journal, BBC and other sources reported …
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Powerset Launches Showcase For User Search Experience — Today marks another milestone for San Francisco based contextual search engine Powerset. They've launched a showcase for their user search experience - effectively the search engine minus the web crawl.
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Powerset Launches “Understanding Engine” For Wikipedia Content
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WebProNews

EYE-FI UNVEILS AUTOMATIC GEOTAGGING AND HOTSPOT CONNECTIVITY WITH EYE-FI EXPLORE — Partnerships with Skyhook Wireless and Wayport will Enable Users to Automatically Map Images and Upload Photos On the Go — BURLINGAME, Calif., May 12, 2008 — Today Eye-Fi, Inc. (www.eye.fi) …
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Bloomberg L.P. Names Norman Pearlstine Chief Content Officer — Appointment Reunites Pearlstine with Bloomberg News Founder Winkler — Bloomberg today announced that it has named Norman Pearlstine its Chief Content Officer, a newly-created position. In this role Pearlstine will partner …


Sprint's inferno: Churn baby churn — Sprint Nextel said Monday that it has lost more than 1 million customers in the last year. — Sprint, which has been busy of late with a WiMax joint venture with Clearwire and alleged takeover overtures from Deutsche Telekom, provided a healthy dose …