Top Items:
Richard Waters / Financial Times:
Google unveils 'custom' searches — Google will on Tuesday launch a customisable search engine that users can carry on their own blogs and other websites, a move that potentially opens up a big new market for its search listings and related advertising. — Marissa Mayer, vice-president …
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Robert Levine / Fortune:
Unlocking the iPod — Jon Johansen became a geek hero by breaking the DVD code. Now he's liberating iTunes - whether Apple likes it or not. — (Fortune Magazine) — Growing up in a small town in southern Norway, Jon Lech Johansen loved to take things apart to figure out how they worked.
Discussion:
The Technology Liberation …, Techdirt, Between the Lines, IPcentral Weblog, Blogging Stocks and Slashdot
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Jingle gets $30M to grow its free directory assistance service — (Updated below with comments from chief executive George Garrick) — Jingle Networks, a Menlo Park start-up which provides free phone directory assistance, has raised a whopping $30 million more in venture capital — upping the ante in what is now a crowded field.
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Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Jingle Networks Has Now Raised Over $60 million — Like Skype, the main attraction of Jingle Networks is to destroy a fat existing market. Skype gave users a way to bypass costly telephone calls by routing them over the internet for free. Jingle Networks, through its 1-800-Free-411 service …
Discussion:
Screenwerk
Joe / Techdirt:
Does High-Definition Video Suddenly Make Video Conferencing More Desirable? — from the big-bets dept — Cisco is getting a lot of attention today as it unveiled a new video conferencing system that promises to make video calling feel close to human contact.
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Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Is Vista ready? Microsoft testers weigh in — Microsoft officials obviously believe Windows Vista is ready, given that it is set to release it to manufacturing within weeks, if not days. But what do some of its toughest testers think? — With millions kicking Windows Vista's tires …
Discussion:
TechBlog
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Paul Thurrott / windowsitpro.com:
Exclusive: Microsoft Overcomes Final Vista Hurdles, Heads to RTM — A week and a half ago, online reports about an internal countdown clock at Microsoft verified my early 2006 report that the software giant was pushing for an October 25 Windows Vista release to manufacturing (RTM) date.
Carlo / Techdirt:
Security Researchers Cry Wolf On RFID Credit Cards — from the bark->-bite dept — Two security researchers allege that the contactless payment solutions credit-card companies have begun building into their cards are relatively insecure, and transmit sensitive information without any encryption.
Business 2.0:
Microsoft's big nightmare: free online apps — A new generation of browsers is about to make Web applications better than downloadable desktop software. — (Business 2.0 Magazine) — The browser is the new OS. Yes, we've heard this before, and if you're quietly groaning right about now, I can understand why.
Jeff Sandquist / Microsoft 10:
Meet Our New 10 Team Mate — Awhile back I posted a video where I talk about a new opening on our team. The position has now been filled. Thank you everyone who sent an email, a resume or posted a video talking about why they want to join our team. We were simply blown away …
Ryan Block / Engadget:
The iPod turns five — Hard to believe it, but a half decade ago today Steve Jobs stood up in front of a small crowd and introduced an "MP3 music player... that plays all of the popular open formats of digital music, MP3, MP3 VBR, WAV, and AIFF," a device that changed the consumer electronics industry forever.
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Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:
Real Sharing vs. Fake Sharing — In a recent brainstorming session about Web 2.0, I made the observation that "harnessing collective intelligence" is the pattern that opened the Web 2.0 era, but that "Data is the Intel Inside" is the pattern that will bring it to a close.
Discussion:
CrunchNotes, Greg Yardley's Internet Blog, Rough Type, Publishing 2.0 and Digital Micro-Markets
Gizmodo:
Kanguru $1k Drive Not For the Poor — We always make it a point of carrying around a spare USB drive, and as much as we'd love to bump up from our 3GB drive to a 32GB drive, $1,499 is a smidgen over out budget. But if you've got that kinda dough, the 32GB Flash Max Drive has a rugged aluminum exterior …
David Berlind / Between the Lines:
Found: 1 black 30 GB video iPod. Is it yours? — If this isn't a test for how the blogosphere can get things done, I'm not sure what is. As a part of this test, if you happen to read this blog entry and you have a blog, please spread the word and let's see if the viral nature of the blogosphere can help this iPod find its owner.
Discussion:
TechEffect, Thomas Hawk's Digital …, Confused Of Calcutta, VoIP & Gadgets Blog and Doc Searls Weblog
Kevin J. Delaney / Wall Street Journal:
Google Adjusts Hiring Process As Needs Grow — Google Inc.'s recruiting process is legendary in Silicon Valley. Tales abound of job candidates who suffered through a dozen or more in-person interviews, and applicants with years of work experience who were spurned after disclosing they had so-so college grades.
Allison Randal / O'Reilly Radar:
The Problem of Email — I have a problem, and its name is "email". Many people have the same problem. Not many have it quite as badly as I do. When I say "my inbox is out of control", people respond "Yeah, mine too. I spent 5 hours this weekend and knocked it down from 3,000 messages to 50 messages and I feel so much better."
Carrie Johnson / Washington Post:
AOL Fraud Prosecutors Stop Short Of the Top — Time Ran Out Before Cases Could Be Made — One of the government's most highly touted accounting-fraud investigations — into questionable advertising deals at America Online Inc. around the time it merged with Time Warner Inc. …
Gizmodo:
Gumstix Sized Computer...Kinda — At bout 1 inch by 5 inches, you're floored at the thought of this little PC chomping away at bits in your pocket, aren't you? Their 400xm-cf is a french fry-size computer capable of connecting to a network and letting network admins test and diagnose to their hearts content.
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
HD telepresence arrives — Sigh, I thought this story was embargoed until tomorrow morning but I guess not. I should have known the rules. If PR says 8 a.m. on Monday that really means 6 p.m. Sunday night. — Anyway, I'm editing the video now and it'll be up in the morning.
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Venture capitalists open spigot — especially for Web 2.0 & energy — For the third quarter in a row, U.S. venture capitalists poured more money into private companies than they did last year. They invested $6.36 billion in the third quarter, five percent more than last year.
Greg Sandoval / CNET News.com:
BitTorrent lands new hardware deals — Three hardware manufacturers will embed file-sharing software BitTorrent into their consumer products. — Asus, Planex and QNap will include BitTorrent's peer-to-peer technology in products such as wireless routers, media servers and network storage devices …
