Top Items:
Katie Hafner / New York Times:
And if You Liked the Movie, a Netflix Contest May Reward You Handsomely — Netflix, the popular online movie rental service, is planning to award $1 million to the first person who can improve the accuracy of movie recommendations based on personal preferences.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Controversial PayPerPost Raises $3 million — We first covered PayPerPost when it launched three months ago. — The service is a marketplace for advertisers to pay bloggers to write about products for a fee. Commenters to our original post wee polarized into those violently for and those againt the product.
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Rob Hof / Tech Beat:
Unrepentant PayPerPost Gets Funding — Three months after getting slammed by BusinessWeek's Jon Fine, TechCrunch's Marshall Kirkpatrick, and a gazillion bloggers, PayPerPost is crying all the way to bank. The Orlando-based startup, which matches advertisers with bloggers willing to write …
Discussion:
CrunchGear
Oliver / MobileCrunch:
Nakama.ca Makes it Easy to Be Seen and Heard. Another MC Exclusive — Toronto based Nakama.ca (don't be confused, it's dot "ca" for Canada the dotCom isn't them) has a new take on making it easy to share your images, video and even your thoughts (via voice recordings).
David Hornik / VentureBlog:
Yahoo Hack Day — I spent this weekend at Yahoo's open Hack Day and it was an incredible event. Inspired by past internal hack days, the folks at the Yahoo Developer Network decided to hold an event open to the public. For most of the day Friday, developers from around the world (literally) …
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Michael Liedtke / Associated Press:
Google buys garage that launched Internet's top search engine — SAN FRANCISCO - Internet search leader Google Inc. has added a landmark to its rapidly expanding empire - the Silicon Valley home where co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin rented a garage eight years ago as they set out to change the world.
Jake Ludington:
Zune and iPod Photo Comparison — I got face time with a Zune this weekend and decided to look at how the form factor compares to the 80GB iPod I picked up a few days ago. The Zune weighs considerably less than the iPod, although I didn't have a scale on hand to get exact comparison.
Discussion:
Don Dodge on The Next …, Gizmodo, Mobility Site, CrunchGear, OhGizmo!, Ubergizmo and digg
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Brady / O'Reilly Radar:
I'm going to become a Fonero — I want WiFi everywhere. I want to be able to boot up my laptop anywhere and be able to connect from my neighborhood park. I want to be able to use Skype from the street. That's why I really like the idea behind FON, a wireless sharing startup, where members share each other's WiFi.
Discussion:
Mark Evans
Kotaku:
411 On PSP GPS — ITmedia Games has shots, as well as new info, on the upcoming PSP GPS attachment and the software that will take advantage of it. The (pictured) MAPLUS navigation system will ship in December and have GPS mapping and navigation functions tailored for folks walking, biking …
Softwarepirate / The Software Pirate:
The PS3's worst enemy — Sony's had a lot of problems stirring up excitement with the PS3. Manufacturing problems, launch shortages, high prices, lackluster launch titles (Metal Gear Solid 4 isn't worthy a $660 investment) are just a few of the issues that have made gamers pretty nervous about getting Sony's Grey Goose of a console.
Frank Barnako:
Rocketrboom's ad price: $80K a week — Andrew Baron seems to have shaken off the heartbreak of separation and gotten down to business. While Amanda Congdon, with whom he co-founded Rocketboom, is on a coast-to-coast trip in a Ford Hybrid, Baron is newly-focused.
Jeff / The Jeff Pulver Blog:
With Some Startups, "Parents Just Don't Understand" — After spending the past week reading various perspectives on some of the recently funded (mostly) mobile focused VoIP startups, I find it amazing how some members of the Blogosphere feel as if they have an inside track to the future success of one or more of these startups.
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Andy Abramson / VoIP Watch:Being On The Inside — Jeff Pulver has made some very valid points …
Discussion:
Alec Saunders .LOG
Joris Evers / CNET News.com:
Hackers claim zero-day flaw in Firefox — SAN DIEGO—The open-source Firefox Web browser is critically flawed in the way it handles JavaScript, two hackers said Saturday afternoon. — An attacker could commandeer a computer running the browser simply by crafting a Web page that contains …
Ryan Block / Engadget:
Cowon's N2, successor to the A2 throne — It's been a hell of a long time since Cowon launched its Engadget Award-winning A2, but we freaking finally have a worthy successor to their flagship media player, and like so many other Korean-built devices it's no slouch when it comes features.
Joris Evers / CNET News.com:
Second third-party fix out for Windows bug — For the second time in as many weeks a group of security professionals has released a third-party fix for a Windows flaw that is actively being used in cyberattacks. — The group, calling itself the Zeroday Emergency Response Team, or ZERT …
ResourceShelf:
The Word "Mashup" Key to Newly Registered Google Domain Names — The new domain names keep pouring out of the Googleplex and this time they all use the word "mashups." Not for maps or another Google service but search. — Like we always do, we'll set aside some space …
Jason Calacanis / The Jason Calacanis Weblog:
AIM Light (or "AOL is a brand for elite users... not just your mom") — One thing I've been pushing for at AOL since I got here almost a year ago (wow, has it been that long?!??!) is a light version of AIM. Ted Leonsis, Jim Bankoff, and Jon Miller and I have had countless discussions …
roughlydrafted.com:
Cousins, Identical Cousins — The iPod shares a similar price point and feature set with the iTV. That helps provide some clues of what the iTV will be able to do. Both need primarily to decompress audio and video from a hard drive, but instead of creating output for headphones and a small display …
