Top Items:
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
What we know and what we don't know about Facebook's finances — Is Facebook desperate for cash because its growth has caused costs to far outpace revenue, as TechCrunch suggests? Not necessarily. Revenue will be in the hundreds of millions, and will greatly exceed the $150 million …
Jaime Forman-Lau / The Official Google Blog:
Feed me! Google Alerts not just for email anymore — This week, our Trondheim-based Google Alerts team launched support for feeds, a highly requested feature you can use to receive alerts via the feed reader of your choice. (Of course, we think the best places to view your updates are iGoogle and Google Reader.)
Scott Moritz / CNNMoney.com:
Verizon mulls heavily-discounted BlackBerry — Free. That's Vodafone's (VOD) recently-unveiled price for the hotly-anticipated touchscreen BlackBerry Storm from Research in Motion (RIM) in the United Kingdom. — In a sign of just how desperate phone companies are to lock customers …
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Microsoft parks “I'm a PC” recording booth outside Apple Store — Microsoft Corp., engrossed in multi-million dollar marketing blitz to counter comical ads from rival Apple, Inc., is now using a portion of its budget to fuel guerilla retail tactics near the Mac maker's stores.
Discussion:
Engadget, The Microsoft Blog, Gadget Lab, Apple Watch, VentureBeat, Silicon Alley Insider, MacDailyNews, Pulse 2.0, CNET News, Gearlog, Gizmodo, Electronista, steve clayton and Redmond Pie
Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life:
Russell Beattie was Right, the Mobile Web is Dead — A couple of months ago, Russell Beattie wrote a post about the end of his startup entitled The end of Mowser which is excerpted below … I filed away Russell's post as interesting at the time but hadn't really experienced it first hand until recently.
David Hill / Medialets:
Android Market, Unleashed — Here we are a little over a week since the launch of the first Android-powered phone, the G1. As of Monday, Android Market has been open to developers to distribute their applications as they wish. We've made some more observations on how the Android Market is evolving …
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
BBC's Magic TV Detector Vans Kept Secret — As many of you probably know (especially if you live in the UK), you have to buy a license to have a TV (or even a TV tuner card for a computer). The license fees go to pay the BBC to operate. Apparently, the BBC has some secret “TV detector” …
Discussion:
Boing Boing Gadgets
Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:
Yahoo! Video Streams Surge 56% in September to Claim Second Spot to YouTube which has broken 5 Billion Monthly Videos Serve, Nielsen Online — Video streams on Yahoo! dramatically increased in September to 265 million, up 56 percent from August's 169 million.
Speaking of Security, the RSA Blog and Podcast:
One Sinowal Trojan + One Gang = Hundreds of Thousands of Compromised Accounts — The RSA FraudAction Research Lab would like to share its startling findings based on its tracking and research of the Sinowal Trojan, also known as Torpig and Mebroot. Our findings based on the data we have collected …
John Mahoney / Gizmodo:
Confirmed: New MacBooks Support 6GB RAM — While we've officially confirmed that the Nvidia chipset in the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros can theoretically support up to 8GB of RAM, Apple says the capacities for each top out at 4GB. Turns out, the actual number is right there in the middle …
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
The real reason the BlackBerry Storm doesn't have Wi-Fi or tri-band HSDPA — You might have guessed it, but the reason is Verizon! We confirmed this a little while back with one of our really top-level sources (you know who you are!) and they did, in fact, confirm our suspicions …
Jon Udell:
URI, XML, HTTP, REST, and the Azure Services Platform — When friends and family ask about the Professional Developers Conference I attended this week, I tell them it's kind of like Microsoft's State of the Union address. I've been to a number of these over the years.
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Microsoft faces uncertain financial future as it looks to the cloud — LOS ANGELES — The Ray Ozzie Era at Microsoft has begun. — The man who assumed Bill Gates' role of chief software architect unveiled a new blueprint for the company here this week, detailing plans …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Google Tweaks AdWords To Reward “Quality” (And Juice Revenues) — There is nothing like a downturn to force a company focus on the bottom line, even a company like Google whose bottom line is still growing at a healthy pace. Continuing its recent efforts to juice advertising revenues wherever it can …
Discussion:
Google Watch, Bits, A Media Circus, Search Engine Roundtable, Search Engine Watch and Inside AdWords
Mike Elgan / PC World:
Why Netbooks Will Soon Cost $99 — Subnotebooks like the Asus Eee PC, the Dell Mini 9 and the HP 2133 Mini-note will soon cost as little as $99. The catch? You'll need to commit to a two-year mobile broadband contract. The low cost will come courtesy of a subsidy identical to the one you already get with your cell phone.
Doug Beaver / Facebook Blog:
Click or Treat: Halloween Photo Bonanza — Every day's a good day for taking and sharing photos, but at Facebook, Halloween is the best of all. Our users go all out to capture the zany costumes and freewheeling spirit, typically uploading about 20% more photos than usual during Halloween week.
Discussion:
All Facebook
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
America CTO's infomercial for Obama — In exchange for his late-to-the-party endorsement of Barack Obama, Google CEO Eric Schmidt got a spot on Obama's prime-time infomercial last night. Note how Schmidt explains his decision, made only after Obama took a substantial lead in the polls …
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Microsoft's Mac unit gets new boss — Microsoft said Friday that it is changing the leadership of its Macintosh Business Unit, the group responsible for Office for Mac. — Eric Wilfrid, a product unit manager in the division, will succeed Craig Eisler, who is moving to a role elsewhere …
Discussion:
The Microsoft Blog
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Apple: Can iPhone Sales Grow In The December Quarter? — One the features of Apple's (AAPL) recent earnings report for the fiscal fourth quarter ended September was that the company sold 6.9 million iPhones, many more than some analysts expected, and enough to push the company into the ranks …
Discussion:
Digital Daily
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Economists Realizing That Current Music Industry Structure Leads To ‘Sub-Optimal Outcomes’ — from the you-noticed? dept — The music collection society MCPS PRS in the UK apparently had three economists coming from different viewpoints work together on a paper concerning the economics of the music industry on the internet today.
Chris Matyszczyk / Technically Incorrect:
Apple fanboys vs. Microsofties: A scientist's verdict — Since embracing Incorrectness, I have noticed that the passion of those who love either Microsoft or Apple seems even to exceed a Goth's passion for black eyeshadow. — The more I have come to know the two sides …
Discussion:
broadstuff
Dave Zatz / Zatz Not Funny!:
The New Xbox Experience with Netflix — Netflix Week continues (and we're not even done yet)... This morning, the New Xbox Experience (NXE) was delivered to my console. After quickly creating a non-representative (i.e. slender) avatar, I jumped right into Netflix.
Yahoo! Search Blog:
Experimental Monkeys Now Available — We often talk about the growing number of interesting SearchMonkey applications that have been built by developers. Many of the applications live in the Yahoo! Search Gallery, but quite a few aren't accepted for various reasons.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
A Spot Of Trouble At Spot Runner — There is no escape from the advertising recession. Not even for hotshot TV advertising startup Spot Runner. Despite having raised more than $111 million, half of that as recently as last May, the LA-based company may be in for a major round …
Discussion:
Screenwerk
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
BlackBerry Curve 8900 hands on — What's that? Thought we were holding out on you? Never! The BlackBerry Curve 8900, also known to the BlackBerry faithful as the BlackBerry Javelin, is the much-awaited BlackBerry Curve replacement. It's definitely been covered in depth so we won't bore you and nitpick the handset.
