Top Items:
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft Is in Talks To Buy Facebook Stake — SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft Corp. is in talks with Facebook Inc. about making an investment in the social-networking startup that could value Facebook at $10 billion or more, according to people familiar with the matter.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, CenterNetworks, Reuters, paidContent.org, mathewingram.com/work, GigaOM, IP Democracy, Webware.com, Read/WriteWeb, HipMojo.com, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, TechCrunch, 24/7 Wall St., Search Engine Land, FaceReviews.com, Greg Galitzine's VoIP …, Valleywag, IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband, The Viral Garden, Clickety Clack, All Facebook and ResourceShelf
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Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Microsoft reportedly eyeing Facebook stake — Microsoft is eyeing an investment in Facebook that would value the social networking company at about $10 billion. — The investment, which was reported by The Wall Street Journal citing "people familiar with the matter, connects a few dots on the social networking landscape.
Louise Story / New York Times:
Company Will Monitor Phone Calls to Tailor Ads — Companies like Google scan their e-mail users' in-boxes to deliver ads related to those messages. Will people be as willing to let a company listen in on their phone conversations to do the same? — Pudding Media, a start-up based in San Jose …
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Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Today's Terrible Idea: Pudding Media — A new start-up called Pudding Media is offering free PC-based telephone calls—if users allow the company to listen in on their conversations and serve targeted ads based on what they're talking about (NYT). This is one of the worst business ideas we've heard …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
The Mad Ad World & Cheap Calls — Technology business often goes through periods where rationality and reality are suspended. We just might be in that phase, and nothing highlights that than the launch of ad-supported phone services. In UK, Blyk, an ad-supported mobile service we wrote about eons ago launched.
Peter Svensson / Associated Press:New service eavesdrops on Internet calls
Discussion:
Newlaunches.com, Gizmodo, dslreports.com, CrunchGear, ReveNews Online Revenue … and The Raw Feed
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:'Free, With Ads' Phone Calls Trying Yet Again
Discussion:
Geek News Central
Jonathan Fildes / BBC:
'$100 laptop' to sell to public — Computer enthusiasts in the developed world will soon be able to get their hands on the so-called "$100 laptop". — The organisation behind the project has launched the "give one, get one" scheme that will allow US residents to purchase two laptops for $399 (£198).
Discussion:
Read/WriteWeb, The Browser, Cinema Blend Feeds, Daggle, broadstuff, Wikinomics, Guardian Unlimited, Between the Lines and Mashable!
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Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Buy a Laptop for a Child, Get Another Laptop Free — One Laptop Per Child, an ambitious project to bring computing to the developing world's children, has considerable momentum. Years of work by engineers and scientists have paid off in a pioneering low-cost machine that is light, rugged and surprisingly versatile.
Jeremy Kirk / InfoWorld:
Virgin drops Windows Media-based music download service — San Francisco (IDGNS) - Virgin Group Ltd. will shut down its online music subscription and download service in the U.S. and U.K. next month, leaving one less competitor for Apple Inc.'s iTunes Music Store.
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Candace Lombardi / CNET News.com:
Think tank to EU: Unbundle Windows on PCs — The Globalization Institute, a Brussels-based EU think tank, has recommended the European Union require all PCs to be sold without pre-loaded operating systems such as Microsoft Windows. — There is no reason why computer operating systems …
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Ted / Ted's Take:
"PayPal Meets MasterCard" Without The High Fees — MEDIA CONTACT: — Brad Burns — 202-776-1400 — brad.burns@revolution.com — REVOLUTION JOINED BY INDUSTRY LEGENDS AND MAJOR BANKS TO LAUNCH REVOLUTIONARY PAYMENT SYSTEM — Steve Case, Ted Leonsis, Larry Summers, David Pottruck …
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James Kendrick / jkOnTheRun:
We need a real handheld computer, who will build one? Apple of course — It's a great time to be a handheld PC enthusiast, not because there are so many good devices to choose from, because I don't think there are, but because public awareness of handheld PCs are at an all-time high.
Adam Frucci / Gizmodo:
Military: Lockheed Martin Developing 'Maple Seed' Flying Cameras — The Pentagon is giving the war profiteers over at Lockheed Martin a nice chunk of change to develop a spy camera modeled after a maple seed. Loaded up with two rockets, the wee, single-winged camera would be used …
Prince McLean / AppleInsider:
Updated Leopard requirements to exclude 800MHz systems — Just weeks ahead of its public launch, Apple Inc. has updated the minimum system requirements for its next-generation Leopard operating system to exclude 800MHz PowerPC-based Macs, AppleInsider has learned.
Discussion:
Byte of the Apple, Compiler, CrunchGear, Gizmodo, The Unofficial Apple Weblog and Ubergizmo
TDavid / Things That:
Tablet PC users will like Sketchcast for non-commerical usage — The first thing I thought of was the Tablet PC when I saw Sketchcast as a delicious popular post in my RSS reader this morning. With Sketchcast you can share drawings with or without voice all through a pen-friendly Flash interface in the browser (Firefox or IE).
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
Pownce vs Digg: Who Will Kevin Rose Back? — I've speculated previously on the growing conflict Kevin Rose has between his roles at Digg and Pownce, and now it would appear that we may finally be on the eve of Rose being forced to decide between the two. — Leah Culver, a co-founder …
Doug Aamoth / CrunchGear:
Who Else Got Burned By An 'End Of Summer' Promise? — Long Zheng of istartedsomething.com is mad. So am I, although not quite about the same thing. Zheng is brassed off that the Windows Ultimate team hasn't delivered DreamScene (basically, the ability to use a video file as your desktop background) …
Discussion:
InfoWorld
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Tubes, offering Web site editing offline, now works on mobile — Tubes, a service that lets you recreate entire Web sites for viewing and editing offline, has launched with new mobile features. — Tubes, based in Boston, is useful because many people like to work offline — for example on planes …
Discussion:
Mashable!
