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10:40 AM ET, October 19, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Boy Genius Report:
Motorola Droid hands on!  —  We absolutely nailed this puppy to the wall over and over and over again, so it's only fitting we'd be doing the first actual unveiling, right?  We're not going to get too in-depth though, that will come at a later time.  Here are some brief thoughts before the photos:
Christina Warren / Mashable!:
Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App  —  On Thursday WolframAlpha launched its developer API, which should allow large and small developers (as well as businesses and educational institutions) to harness the power of the computational knowledge engine to enhance their own applications or products.
RELATED:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Wolfram Alpha Miscalculates What Its iPhone App Should Cost  —  Apple wasted little time approving Wolfram Alpha's new iPhone app, which we hinted at last week.  Just a few days after they submitted it to the store, Apple sailed it right through the approval process with such speed …
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Rock Band Hits The App Store  —  The much anticipated and hyped Rock Band for iPhone and iPod Touch is out!  We first scooped the news of the launch of the app a few weeks ago.  Shortly afterwards, Rock Band for the iPhone/iPod touch was officially announced by Electronic Arts.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Plastic Logic Shows Off a (Quick) Look at its Kindle Killer: Meet the Que  —  Plastic Logic, which has been talking up its coming e-reader for some time now but hasn't actually started selling it, has a little more to say: It will have more to say about its coming ereader in a few months.
FoneFrenzy:
Bigger News for Verizon Than Motorola's Droid  —  This weekend was chocked full of Verizon and Motorola news.  Earlier this month, Verizon and Google had a joint news conference debuting the new Motorola Droid and announcing a partnership to leverage high-speed network and open Android platform for wireless innovation.
Amy Schatz / Digits:
Facebook and Twitter Founders Join Net Neutrality Wars  —  Fed up with a barrage of letters that arrived at the FCC last week from net-neutrality opponents (or lawmakers urging a cautious approach toward the new rules), a coalition of Internet companies are urging the FCC chairman to hold steady.
Steve / The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs:
NY Times all but says it: Ballmer must go  —  Ashlee Vance gets access to Ballmer and delivers a death blow.  The Borg, Vance says, is on a “long and winding course toward irrelevance.”  Seriously, this is a devastating piece.  Money quotes (lots of them) after the jump.  I'm still reeling.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Vevo Gets its Investor: Abu Dhabi Media Joins “Hulu for Music Videos”  —  Vevo, the music industry's version of Hulu, now has its own version of Providence Equity, the outside investors who took a flyer on the Web TV and movie joint venture: Abu Dhabi Media Company has purchased a stake …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Google Expands “Going Google” Ad Campaign Worldwide  —  Google continues to hit milestones with Google Apps - 2 million businesses and 20 million users in over 100 countries and 40 languages (up from 1.75 million businesses in June).  And they aren't slowing down the advertising, either.
Mike Shaver:
.NET Framework Assistant (ClickOnce support) unblocked  —  We received confirmation from Microsoft this evening that the Framework Assistant add-on is not a mechanism for exploiting the vulnerabilities detailed in the earlier post, so we've removed it from the blocklist.
Microsoft:
Microsoft Update on Sidekick Data Restoration  —  The Danger / Microsoft team is continuing to work around the clock on the data restoration process.  We apologize that this is taking so long, but we want to make sure we are doing everything possible to maintain the integrity of your data.
Sean Percival / Sean Percival's Blog:
Gawker Redesign: Hybrid of Blog, Facebook and Twitter  —  I've always been a big fan of the designs and layouts used by Gawker blogs throughout the years.  They seem to always been trying something new and they iterate often.  While some blogs push the same tired look from years ago, Gawker continues to innovate.
Jessica E. Vascellaro / Digits:
Photo-blogging Site DailyBooth Raises $1 Million  —  Money continues to rain down on so-called “real-time” startups-Web sites, like Twitter, that are devoted to helping users share details about their lives as they happen.  The latest example: a fledgling two-person company called DailyBooth …
Discussion: TechCrunch and Pulse2, Thanks:atul
Mark Suster / Both Sides of the Table:
VC Seed Funding is Dead, Long Live VC Seed Funding!  —  This is part of my ongoing series about Raising Venture Capital.  This posting was inspired by an email from Rajat Suri who wrote me an email in response to Chris Dixon's blog post (link below) from August, which recently re-ran …
Discussion: Feld Thoughts
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
HubSpot Closes $16 Million Series C Round Led By Scale Venture Partners  —  Digital marketing startup HubSpot has raised a third round of funding to the tune of $16 million, bringing the total invested in the Cambridge, MA company to a healthy $33.5 million.
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Zoho Projects Now Integrated With Google Apps  —  Web-based productivity suite Zoho has continued to integrate its products with Google in order to make it easier to use Gmail and Zoho apps simultaneously.  Last summer, Zoho, a web-based software suite that includes document …
Discussion: Softpedia News
Jenna Wortham / New York Times:
Face-to-Face Socializing Starts With a Mobile Post  —  Twitter and Facebook ask users to answer the question: What are you doing right now?  —  But for many urbanites in their 20s and 30s, two other questions are just as important: Where are you, and can I come join you?
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, Glass House and Bits, Thanks:atul
Amy Thomson / Bloomberg:
Verizon Plans to Sell Mobile Service in Discounted TV, Internet Packages  —  Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) — Verizon Communications Inc., the second-largest U.S. phone company, will sell its mobile-phone service at a discount when customers buy home-phone, television and Internet access.
Scobleizer's Posterous:
Twitter Lists; Limitations, bugs, impact, and brilliance  —  First off, I +love+ the new list feature that's coming to Twitter.  Last week more than 1,000 people were randomly added to a beta of the new feature.  What does it do?  It does a few things (TechCrunch wrote an article …
David Carr / New York Times:
A Newsroom Subsidized?  Minds Reel  —  Those of us who work in traditional media have spent a fair amount of time wondering what part of the implosion in advertising revenue is cyclical (ad buying is suffering because of the recession) and what part is secular (we're making horse buggies).
Discussion: The Biz Blog and BuzzMachine
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch Europe:
Google loses Europe COO Ben Legg to European Directories  —  European Directories has announced a big win this morning with the appointment of Ben Legg as Chief Operating Officer.  —  Legg joins the Dutch/British company from Google, one of its main competitors, where the man served …
 
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 More Items: 
Craig Settles / GigaOM:
Gates Foundation Proposal: Linchpin to National Broadband Strategy?
Claudine Beaumont / Telegraph:
Microsoft to open Apple store rival in Arizona
Kevin J. O'Brien / New York Times:
Nokia Tries to Undo Blunders in U.S.
Discussion: /Message, Seeking Alpha and atmaspheric
Dan Grabham / TechRadar.com:
24 years of Windows package design
Discussion: digg.com
Rob Walker / New York Times:
The Song Decoders  —  On first listen, some things grab you for their off-kilter novelty.
 Earlier Items: 
Dan Nosowitz / Gizmodo:
Postal Service Mail Handler Steals 2,200 GameFly Rentals
Discussion: Maximum PC
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
A Digital Magazine Without Links Is a CD-ROM
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Pixel Qi e-ink / LCD hybrid display to debut on tablet next month?
Reuters:
Software pirates hijack Windows 7 China debut