Top Items:
Matt Marshall / SiliconBeat:
Zillow raises $25, joins ranks of bigger Web 2.0 companies — Zillow.com, the controversial online real estate company that provides value estimates on homes, has raised $25 million in a second round of funding. — It is controversial because it pisses off lots of real estate agents, who think providing values is their job.
Discussion:
John Cook's Venture Blog, PostBubble, Business Filter, Silicon Valley Watcher, CNNMoney.com, i-boy, Screenwerk and TechCrunch
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Om Malik / GigaOM:
The Return of The Big Money VC — Seattle-based real estate information service, Zillow.com raised $25 million, nine months after it raised $26 million. Think about it this way - Zillow has raised $3 million (or about $57 million) for every month of its 19-month existence.
Discussion:
SiliconBeat
Marguerite Reardon / CNET News.com:
Study: Net telephony quality worsening — While it's no secret that Net phone services don't offer the same call quality as traditional phones, a new study suggests that the quality of voice over Internet Protocol is actually getting worse. — Brix Networks, a company that develops monitoring tools …
Discussion:
21talks, Techdirt, GigaOM, VoIP & Gadgets Blog, InterMedia, VoIP Lowdown and broadbandreports.com
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Need / brixnet.com:
Strategic Partners Technology Partners Channel Partners — INTERNET PHONE QUALITY DROPS SIGNIFICANTLY AND STEADILY OVER LAST 18 MONTHS — From Brix Networks' TestYourVoIP.com Voice Quality Testing Portal — CHELMSFORD, Mass. — Nearly 20 percent of Internet telephone test calls experienced …
Discussion:
Good Morning Silicon Valley
Reuters:
Google offers live traffic maps on cell phones —Text+SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc. said on Tuesday that the company has begun offering mobile phone users in more than 30 major U.S. cities the capacity to view highway maps with "live" traffic data.
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ResourceShelf:
Google Mobile Adds Traffic Info on Google Maps Mobile & More Sources For Traffic Maps and Cams, Listen to Your Route — Google has added traffic info on their Google Maps Mobile (GMM) product for 30 U.S. cities. No international traffic is available. Also, Google Maps Mobile is only available …
Jay Rosen / PressThink:
Introducing NewAssignment.Net — Enterprise reporting goes pro-am. Assignments are open sourced. They begin online. Reporters working with smart users and blogging editors get the story the pack wouldn't, couldn't or didn't. They raise the money too. Q and A explains.
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Marshall Kirkpatrick / TechCrunch:
Amazon to throw its weight at video downloads — Amazon disclosed this weekend that they would be entering the video download space in mid August. AdAge reported on Saturday that Amazon Digital Video will be a subscription service operating through a desktop client.
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Reuters:
AOL founder says he is 'sorry' for Time Warner merger —Text+NEW YORK (Reuters) - Steve Case, co-founder of the one-time biggest online service AOL, apologized for the company's merger with media conglomerate Time Warner Inc. in an interview with U.S. journalist Charlie Rose.
Eric Pfanner / New York Times:
Hewlett-Packard Takes a New Tack: Being Cool — FOR weeks, an unusual Web site linked to the World Cup soccer tournament kept visitors guessing: Could this be real? — The site, FingerSkilz.tv, shows what appear to be close-up videos of a man's hand on a desk, using two fingers …
Steve Rubel / Micro Persuasion:
Technorati Teams with the Wall Street Journal — One of the tidbits that may have been lost in yesterday's Technorati announcement is that they have formed a partnership with the Wall Street Journal. The Journal now uses Technorati data to break out the most blogged stories.
Colin Campbell / Next Generation:
Jubilant Nintendo Bathes in DS Light — The continuing success of DS has encouraged Nintendo to reforecast its profits for the year ahead, up from $556 million to $711 million. The company says it expects to sell 6 million Wii consoles and 17 million Wii games this financial year.
Discussion:
Go Nintendo
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Leander Kahney / Wired News:
Why I Love Apple — I just noticed something about Apple's Mail program that perfectly illustrates why people love Apple and its products. — Like most e-mail programs, Mail's main window is divided into columns: "From," "Subject" and "Date," etc. — While I was adjusting the width of the columns …
Sky News:
Mayfair? Put It On The Card — Monopoly board game players can now pay for properties with debit cards. — Game makers Parker have phased out the standard multi-coloured cash in a new version. — Players will instead use a Visa mock debit card to keep track of how much they win or lose.
Discussion:
Business Filter, Engadget, Techdirt, Alice Hill's Real Tech News and J. LeRoy's Evolving Web
RELATED ITEMS:
Matt Mondok / M-Dollar:
Microsoft releases preview of new Microsoft.com site, disappointing error page for Firefox users — This week Microsoft released a beta preview of its upcoming website redesign. The new look and feel is much different than what's currently on the Redmond giant's homepage.
Jeff / Venture Chronicles:
No Money Down, Zero Percent Financing — If you think objectively about pricing trends in enterprise software you can easily come to the conclusion that almost all software should be free or nearly free. I'll sidestep the entire topic of open source because while that segment is certainly a participant …
Skype for Mac:
Video has arrived - If you're brave! — Finally Video has arrived on Skype for Mac! The video preview of Skype for Mac was released today. Download the video preview now. We know that you've been waiting... and waiting... and waiting... so we've decided to release video early as a preview version.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Magic 8-Ball Answers Your Questions Regarding Microsoft's 'Zune' — Q: So Microsoft has confirmed that Zune, the "iPod/iTunes killer" project that Engadget has been reporting on for a few weeks, is for real. It's a "music and entertainment" project that will involve portable players …
Scott Martin / GPS Lodge:
New GPS: Lowrance iWay 600C — On the heels of the iWay 250C announcement, Lowrance has introduced the new iWAY 600C (and you thought with the recent merger you wouldn't see anything new from Lowrance....). The iWAY 600C is the first to offer both precision street-ready and marine-ready navigation …
