Top Items:
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
Lala's Spectacular New Music Service — For a couple of months now, I've been using a music service that's been in a quiet (but open) beta period. It's been kind of amazing. That service is the all-new version of Lala, and it's officially throwing its doors open to the public today.
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Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Lala May Have Just Built The Next Revolution In Digital Music — Call me a skeptic. When Lala came to our offices last week trying to convince me that music was heading to the cloud, and that they were going to help lead the transition, I wasn't convinced at first.
Discussion:
The Equity Kicker, Pulse 2.0, Silicon Valley Watcher, Coolfer, Gizmodo and Maximum PC all
Peter Burrows / Tech Beat:
Lala Plays a New Song. — Tomorrow, Lala Media Inc. will announce an interesting new approach to selling digital music. It's based on a new type of license it secured with the four major labels and 170,000 indie labels, that lets consumers pay a dime to own a song that they can listen …
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Scott Rafer: The Facebook Platform is Dead — When speaking at the Facebook developer conference today in Berlin, Scott Rafer declared that Facebook platform dead. He posted statistics including one that I posted that suggests Facebook widgets are dead. Lookery's own statistics …
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
Google CEO Wants to Be President Obama's Tech Chief — Did you know? Besides sitting on Apple's board of directors, Google CEO Eric Schmidt has been an informal adviser to Barack Obama's presidential campaign. In fact, he lurves Obama so much that's he not just going to endorse him …
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Tom Lowry / Business Week:
The Short List for U.S. Chief Technology Officer — Barack Obama has pledged to name a cabinet-level CTO to oversee a job-creating national broadband buildout if he's elected. Big names abound — Barack Obama says that the U.S. is not doing nearly enough to create jobs through technology.
Discussion:
Mashable!, TechCrunch, PC World, Scobleizer, CircleID, DSLreports, Broadband Politics, Computerworld Blogs and Wall Street Journal
Paul Boutin / Wired News:
Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004 — Thinking about launching your own blog? Here's some friendly advice: Don't. And if you've already got one, pull the plug. — Writing a weblog today isn't the bright idea it was four years ago. The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis …
Discussion:
Digital Inspiration
PBS:
Ctrl-Alt-Del: Did Apple reboot an important product announcement? — Apple last week introduced a pair of very nice notebook computers that, not at all surprisingly, looked like riffs on the MacBook Air. The company in a separate announcement released 600 high-definition television episodes through the iTunes Store.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Brightstorm Raises $6 Million For Online Video Tutorials — If high-school education is failing in the U.S., maybe Web video can help. Founded last April, Brightstorm is a Web video site that brings bright, talented teachers together with students who need some extra help.
Richard MacManus / ReadWriteWeb:
Twine Launches 1.0 Version - Eyes Facebook, Google Reader, Delicious, Digg, ... When Twine announced itself to the world exactly one year ago, it claimed to be “the first mainstream Semantic Web application”. However despite raising millions of dollars in its quest to bring the Semantic Web …
Discussion:
The Semantic Web, Download Squad, AppScout, Technology Review, Outside the Lines and VentureBeat
Sydney Morning Herald:
Spam flood goes on despite bust — Last week's bust of the largest spam operation in the world, which was run by a Queensland resident, has had no measurable impact on global spam volumes. — The spam gang, known by authorities and security experts as HerbalKing, was responsible for one-third of all spam …
Steve Rubel / Micro Persuasion:
RSS Adoption at 11% and it May Be Peaking, Forrester Says — Forrester Research today published a new report on the state of RSS. In short, while there are bright spots, it does not paint the picture of a technology that's going mainstream anytime soon. — On a positive note …
John Markoff / New York Times:
Beware the Digital Zombies — REDMOND, Wash. — In a windowless room on Microsoft's campus here, T. J. Campana, a cybercrime investigator, connects an unprotected computer running an early version of Windows XP to the Internet. In about 30 seconds the computer is “owned.”
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Bloglines Returns to Challenge Google Reader - Thank Goodness — Popular RSS reader Bloglines says it's solved the much publicized recent problems with feed updating that lead smaller services to pursue its users and Google Reader triumphalists to declare the RSS reader market all zipped up.
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Rob Bushway / GottaBeMobile:
Dell and N-Trig: I've Had It — In many ways, the Dell Latitude XT Tablet PC has become one of my favorite Tablet PCs. It is very thin, light, has ample room on the wrist pad for typing, has a scroll wheel, and is generally pleasant to use in portrait mode. It goes to sleep and resumes very quickly.
Lou Cabron / 10 Zen Monkeys:
The Great Google Rebellion — Thursday Google unveiled a new design for its iGoogle homepage service. Unfortunately (according to one geek), it's “a big unwanted piece of crap.” — In an email interview today, Google defended the changes. But Google won't let users switch their home pages …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Imeem For Android Takes The Jukebox In The Sky And Puts It In Your Pocket — What good is an endless jukebox in the sky if you can only listen to it while you are sitting in front of your computer? Imeem answers that with what is certainly the best Android app I've seen (or heard) so far.
Stephanie Condon / CNET News:
Groups ask networks, YouTube to alter takedown protocol — With just two weeks left until the presidential elections, a coalition of public interest groups is calling on both broadcast networks and YouTube to modify their approaches to copyright infringement claims that involve political content.
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wmpoweruser.com:
Two new HP devices revealed — HP's mysterious new smartphone entrants have been revealed, and certainly look stylish enough. Apparently the result of bringing the design in-house the HP Ipaq VoiceMessenger and DataManager feature unique looks. — HP Ipaq DataManager
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
Wikia lays off 30 percent of staff — Bid goodnight to Jimmy Wales's dream of cashing out on Wikipedia, the world's largest collection of infrequently asked questions. The vehicle for his scheme, a derivative for-profit startup called Wikia, is imploding.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Beyond Search, The Register, Pulse 2.0, The Social and WebProNews
Ken Schachter / Red Herring:
Where Congress Puts Its Own Money — Congressional lawmakers are best known as spenders, allocating trillions of dollars for both guns and butter, but they also are investors with an affinity for technology blue chips. — Three of the four most popular investments of the members of the House …
Discussion:
Techdirt
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Please Fix The iPhone: A To-Do List For Steve Jobs — iPhone addicts love their iPhones, but nothing is perfect. Customer feedback for Apple just went public on Please Fix the iPhone. The site let's iPhone owners, or anyone else, list and vote on the features that most need fixing on the iPhone.
Shawn Brown / Android Community:
Google removes applications just before launch — As people start receiving their pre-ordered T-Mobile G1 phones, they are going to be very disappointed to find that the 50+ applications that were reported in the Android Market have now been stripped down to only 13.
Amy Thomson / Bloomberg:
Google Being More Careful Amid Slump, Schmidt Says — Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc., owner of the world's most popular Internet search site, will make fewer acquisitions and slow hiring amid the global economic turmoil, Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said.
Nick / Rough Type:
The cost of First Click Free — The web you see when you go through Google's search engine is no longer the web you see when you don't go through Google's search engine. — In a note on my previous post, The Centripetal Web, Seth Finkelstein points to Philipp Lenssen's discussion of a new Google service …
Claire Cain Miller / New York Times:
Popularity or Income? Two Sites Fight It Out — SAN FRANCISCO — In the aftermath of the dot-com bust, many chastened venture capitalists pledged never again to finance an idea scribbled on a cocktail napkin with no viable business model. Too many poorly conceived companies like Pets.com and Webvan had flamed out.
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Trends in the Living Networks
