Top Items:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Did Facebook Shut Down Slide's Top Friends? How Very MySpace Of Them — MySpace used to be notorious for simply banning third party widgets that didn't play nice ("not playing nice" generally meant any kind of advertisements in the widgets, but it was very arbitrary). Those days are long gone.
Discussion:
STARTUP CHATTER, Digital Media Wire, FaceReviews, HipMojo.com, Running With Foxes and Startup Meme
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Elinor Mills / CNET News.com:
Facebook suspends app that permitted peephole — Vancouver-based computer technician Byron Ng, who likes to prod social networks for holes and other errors, stumbled across a way to learn more about Facebook users than you're supposed to be able to—prompting Facebook to suspend the Top Friends application late on Wednesday.
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:Breaking: Top Friends Vanishes From Facebook Platform
Discussion:
Mashable!
Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo:
Dell Dock Puts a Little Mac OS X Into Vista Studio Laptops — Dell's Studio Laptops will be getting a little touch of the Mac OS when they ship, thanks to the Dell Dock, a launcher that cleans up the Vista desktop in the most charming, albeit derivative, way. Below you can see “Before” and “After” images of the cleanup:
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Ed Bott / Ed Bott's Microsoft Report:
Intel stays behind the curve ... again — The Inquirer is making a big fuss over Intel's decision to continue using Windows XP instead of migrating to Windows Vista. A stunning rebuke, obviously, leading to a rousing chorus of “I told you so.” — Except that there's nothing new here.
Discussion:
Lockergnome
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Steve Lohr / Bits:
Et Tu, Intel? Chip Giant Won't Embrace Microsoft's Windows Vista — Intel, the giant chip maker and longtime partner of Microsoft, has decided against upgrading the computers of its own 80,000 employees to Microsoft's Vista operating system, a person with direct knowledge of the company's plans said.
Discussion:
Digital Daily, Business Technology, Beyond Binary, ParisLemon, Personal Technology, Gizmodo and Microsoft News Tracker
Austin Bogues / New York Times:
Laptop Searches in Airports Draw Fire at Senate Hearing — WASHINGTON — Advocacy groups and some legal experts told Congress on Wednesday that it was unreasonable for federal officials to search the laptops of United States citizens when they re-enter the country from traveling abroad.
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itmanagement.earthweb.com:
The Mouse Is Dead — You're probably using a mouse today, but you may never buy one again. All the planets are aligning against this humble pointing device. — The computer mouse has long been associated with the PC, but in fact it was invented during the Kennedy administration (in 1963) …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Yahoo Issues Letter Defending Google Deal: No Free Milk For Microsoft — In a letter to shareholders that reminds me of the saying “why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free,” Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and CEO Jerry Yang explain why it chose a search deal with Google over Microsoft.
Discussion:
Electronista, WebProNews, Search Engine Watch Blog, Valleywag, Silicon Alley Insider, Docu-Drama, Joe Duck and Microsoft Watch
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Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Joss Stone: Piracy is Brilliant, Music Should be Shared — Joss Stone, who won a Grammy last year, loves music, but hates the the music industry. In a recent interview she said that - unlike herself - most artists are brainwashed by the industry, and she encouraged people to share her music.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Xobni Gets Even Better With LinkedIn Data For Your Contacts — Xobni, the email startup that we've described as “The Superplugin for Outlook”, has partnered with LinkedIn to automatically pull contact information from the popular professional network. Xobni will now draw from public profiles …
Jason Mick / DailyTech:
Women With Long Fingernails, Fat Fingers Complain About iPhone — IPhone just not cutting it for those with manicures, fat fingers — Apple Inc. has seen some wild complaints, from iFires to widespread outrage over its locking policies. But complaints about manicures and chubby fingers?
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Winklevosses AboutFacebooked! — Ah, the Winklevosses! — They lost. — In court, I mean, not in rowing! — But I am sad to say BoomTown is deeply uninterested in the long-running legal struggle between Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the hot social networking site …
Janko Roettgers / NewTeeVee:
This Fall's TV Shows: Now on P2P Networks — This summer's TV season has barely started, but net-savvy TV fans are already downloading pilots of shows slated to premiere this fall. A whole bunch of pilots have found their way onto torrent sites in recent days, and file sharers …
Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
Judge upholds $107,834 in attorneys' fees award against RIAA — One of the most closely-watched file-sharing cases is a step closer to an end. A federal judge has awarded exonerated RIAA defendant Tanya Andersen $107,834 in attorneys' fees, a figure that isn't exactly what either party wanted.
Ben Worthen / Wall Street Journal:
Web Domains Could Expand Broadly Under New Plan — The organization that oversees Internet addresses is expected Thursday to approve a proposal to create an unlimited number of so-called top-level domains — the familiar suffixes like “.com” at the end of Web addresses.
