Top Items:
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
Valleywag cuts 60 percent of staff — We would never sugarcoat someone else's layoffs. Why ours? Gawker Media, our publisher, has told me to cut Valleywag's costs, in anticipation of an advertising recession. In response, I have laid off associate editors Nicholas Carlson and Jackson West and reporter Melissa Gira Grant.
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Nick Denton / Gawker:
Friday Is Always Black — Yes, it's true: Gawker's sibling sites are laying off 19 people. This site is one of those that will be expanding. The internal memo is after the jump. Gabriel Snyder of W magazine will indeed be replacing me as managing editor and we are hiring two more reporters in short order.
Saul Hansell / Bits:Gawker Cutbacks an Early Indicator of Ad Slowdown
Discussion:
Editor and Publisher
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz, star engineer quit — CEO Mark Zuckerberg has just informed Facebook's staff that his long-restive cofounder, Dustin Moskovitz, is leaving the company. Adding to the blow: Moskovitz, left, is taking with him Justin Rosenstein, right …
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Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:
Facebook Co-Founder Departs To Build “Extensible Enterprise Productivity Suite” — Update: An email from Moskovitz about his departure has surfaced. We've published it, too, below. — Rumors started to leak earlier today that Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz (right) …
Connie Guglielmo / Bloomberg:
SEC Examining False Report on Apple Chief Jobs — Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the origin of a false report on a CNN citizen journalist Web site that Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs had a heart attack and was hospitalized.
Discussion:
AppleInsider, Industry Standard, ChannelWeb Complete Feed, L.A. Times Tech Blog and Macsimum News
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Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Apple Denies Steve Jobs Heart Attack Report: “It Is Not True” — “Citizen journalism” apparently just failed its first significant test. A CNN iReport poster reported this morning that Steve Jobs had been rushed to the ER after a severe heart attack (story and screenshot below).
Discussion:
E-Commerce Times, PC World, Between the Lines, CNET News, US News, Business Technology, 9 to 5 Mac, Bits, Byte of the Apple, Epicenter, Valleywag, Irregular Enterprise, Feeds, Center for Citizen Media, Industry Standard, TG Daily, AppScout, Macworld, The Register, GMSV, BBC NEWS, BetaNews, MacUser, AppleInsider, iPhone Savior, Cult of Mac, PSFK, CloudAve, Obsessable, DigiDave, TechCrunch, Tech Check with Jim Goldman, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Deadspin, BloggingStocks, RexBlog.com, Gawker and L.A. Times Tech Blog
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Steve Jobs Had No Heart Attack...And Citizen Journalism Just Failed — What could possibly be bigger news than the supposed heart attack suffered by Apple CEO Steve Jobs? The fact that it's simply not true. The rumor which spread like wildfire across the internet this morning was based …
Discussion:
Normalkid, mathewingram.com/work, Hardware 2.0, VentureBeat, Apple Watch, The Inquisitr, sarahintampa, SitePoint Blogs, CNET News and Mashable!
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Yahoogle Delayed: Online Ad Partnership Being Scrutinized Further — Yahoo and Google have agreed to delay their online search advertising partnership to give the Justice Department more time to evaluate the deal. — A Yahoo spokesman confirmed the move in a statement …
Discussion:
The Technology Chronicles, Silicon Alley Insider, Bits, paidContent.org, CNET News, Epicenter and Washington Post
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Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Latest iPhone Software supports full-screen Web apps — One unpublicized feature introduced by Apple's latest iPhone software updates is the ability save Web apps to the home screen and have them launch in full-screen mode without the Safari wrapper, essentially mimicking the experience of a native app.
www.hardwarezone.com Tech News:
ASUS Launches Fashion-Friendly Eee PC Model, S101 — Taipei, Taiwan — ASUS launches the Eee PC S101, an exquisitely designed netbook for fashion forward individuals who view style as as much of a factor of success as substance. The Eee PC S101 builds upon the industry-pioneering form factor …
John Timmer / Ars Technica:
Sony goes after Kindle with new, touchscreen eBook reader — In a press event in New York City, Sony introduced a new model in its Reader line that it hopes will catch the attention of a public and electronics press that might be forgiven for thinking that Amazon's Kindle is the only game in the eBook town.
Discussion:
Technologizer, E-Commerce Times, The Mobile Gadgeteer, Boy Genius Report, TechSpot, TG Daily and Gearlog
Apple:
Apple TV: About Apple TV software updates — Products Affected — Apple TV — Refer the table below for Apple TV Software Update 2.2 features: — How To — HD TV shows — Purchase the leading HD TV shows directly from the iTunes Store. (US only) — Movie browsing by actor and director
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Bank robber hires decoys on Craigslist, fools cops — In an elaborate robbery scheme that's one part The Thomas Crowne Affair and one part Pineapple Express, a crook robbed an armored truck outside a Bank of America branch in Monroe, Wash., by hiring decoys through Craigslist to deter authorities.
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Zune services on Win Mobile = ‘Pink’ — CEO Steve Ballmer reiterated this week that Microsoft has decided against building its own Zune phone. (Chairman Bill Gates said the same thing back in January 2008, for those keeping score at home.) — Ballmer also noted this week that Microsoft …
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Microsoft denies companywide hiring freeze — Microsoft on Friday said it is reviewing its hiring plans amid the economic uncertainty, but denied a report that it has instituted a companywide hiring freeze. — IDG News Service reported Friday that Microsoft had instituted a hiring freeze, citing a source who had seen a company memo.
Arn / MacRumors:
Fring Enables VoIP Calls Over Wi-Fi for iPhone with Skype Support — Fring has released the iPhone version of their service today as a free download in the App Store. — Fring allows you to chat and interact with others on a variety of networks including Skype, MSN, GoogleTalk, AIM, Yahoo, Twitter, and ICQ.
PBS:
Data Debasement: Cloud computing will change the way we look at databases. — Last week I was in Boston to moderate a panel at the MIT Technology Review's Emerging Technologies Conference — one of those tech shindigs so expensive I can only attend as hired help.
Heather Dougherty / Hitwise Intelligence:
MSN Cashback successfully attracting visitors — This week MSN announced the launch of SearchPerks!, a new promotion that rewards visitors that use Live Search with tickets redeemable for various prizes. The latest endeavor is separate from the Live Search Cashback rebate program launched a few months ago …
Joe Tartakoff / The Microsoft Blog:
Windows update proposed to notify class in Vista case — Plaintiffs' lawyers in the “Windows Vista Capable” lawsuit hope to notify the estimated 15 million potential class members in the case, in part, via an automatic Windows update. — In a filing today, attorneys at Gordon Tilden Thomas & Cordell …
Discussion:
Download Squad, InfoWorld, Valleywag, Gadgetell, Electronista, The Mac Observer and Microsoft Subnet's blog
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
What's Your Tweet Worth? Um, . . . Nothing. — A month ago, I wrote about a company called TwittAd that lets you auction off ads on your Twitter page. Now, the company is sponsoring WhatsYourTweetWorth?, a vanity site where you enter your Twitter name, and it tells you how much your Tweets …
Brad Linder / Download Squad:
Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex beta available: Don't install it on your laptop yet — Canonical has released the first beta versions of Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex and its KDE counterpart, Kubuntu 8.10. Both feature a whole slew of new features and updates. [But first thing's first.
Discussion:
OSDir.com
Brad Linder / Download Squad:
Figure out how much gas money you need with Cost To Drive — Planning a road trip in the near future? Cost To Drive is a web application that can help you figure out how much cash to take out of the ATM before you hit the road. Sure, you could certainly get a rough estimate by dividing …
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Judge Won't Allow Researchers To Reveal Report On E-Voting Machines — from the it's-not-like-we-have-an-election- coming-up-that-use-these-machines dept — You may recall that earlier this year, after some serious problems were discovered with Sequoia's e-voting machines in New Jersey …
