Top Items:
AOL Mail Blog:
An Open Letter to Gmail: Happy Halloween! We love your costume! — Happy Halloween Gmail! We knew you would have the best costume at the party, and who can blame you? We think it's great that you're using this holiday to pay homage to the one who started it all, who got 35 million people online …
Betsy Schiffman / Epicenter:
Online Ad Prices Hit the Skids With the Stock Market — Online ad rates — across all the major search engines — apparently tanked one day a couple weeks ago, just when the stock market went to hell and talk of a world world depression heated up. Paul Edmondson, CEO of ad management platform YieldBuild.com …
Discussion:
The Noisy Channel
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 …
Discussion:
Beyond Search
Dong Ngo / CNET News:
No more pirated DVDs from China...maybe — The MPAA doesn't want to make it easy for you to copy DVDs; DVD Shrink does. — If you've been copying DVDs using some made-in-China DVD player, think about taking good care of the device, as you might not be able to buy a replacement.
Discussion:
TECH.BLORGE.com
Nicholas Thompson / Epicenter:
Now Official: No One In Tech Can Defend McCain — There is apparently not a single prominent person who supports John McCain's technology policies and is confident enough to go out there and debate in favor of them. — As readers of this blog know, after publishing the Wired Scorecard a couple weeks ago …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Silicon Alley Insider, MuniWireless, GamePolitics News, PR Newswire, The 463, Gizmodo and digg.com
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.)
Kevin Maney / Portfolio:
The End of This Blog — Kevin Maney writes: If Tech Observer looks a little sparse from here on, that's because it is dead. — Some of you may have already seen the news that almost all of Portfolio.com's staff is getting cut, and the site will be reformulated as something less costly and ambitious.
Discussion:
MediaMemo
Gmail Blog:
Almost new in Labs: SMS Text Messaging for chat — Oh snap. Last night, we started rolling out a new feature to Gmail Labs that lets you send SMS text messages right from Gmail. It combines the best parts of IM and texting: you chat from your computer and reach your friends no matter where they are.
Discussion:
Google Watch, SlashPhone, Googling Google, VoIP Watch, Webware.com, Google Operating System, Lifehacker, InformationWeek and webmonkey
Sam Diaz / Between the Lines:
Should Facebook be tapping users for cash? — It hasn't even been a month since Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg told a German blog that growth, not monetization, was the priority for the social networking site. In fact, he even went so far as to say that he didn't see a revenue plan coming into play for three more years.
RELATED:
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
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 …
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.
