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12:15 AM ET, November 12, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Justin Uberti / Gmail Blog:
Say hello to Gmail voice and video chat  —  I'm a big user of Gmail chat.  Being able to switch from email to chat as needed, all within the same app, is really great for productivity.  But people can only type so fast, and even with our new emoticons, there are still some things that just can't be expressed in a chat message.
RELATED:
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
Google launches video chat for Gmail  —  Google is rolling out video and voice capabilities for the chat function that is embedded in the Gmail interface.  It's a bare-bones voice and video-conferencing service, but it's simple to install and use and is a very good addition to Gmail.
The Official Google Blog:
Tracking flu trends  —  Like many Googlers, we're fascinated by trends in online search queries.  Whether you're interested in U.S. elections, today's hot trends, or each year's Zeitgeist, patterns in Google search queries can be very informative.  Last year, a small team of software engineers began …
RELATED:
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Who's Got The Flu?  Google Flu Trends Reveal State-By-State Activity  —  Wondering if it's just you or if others have the flu, too?  Google's announced a new tool that tells you.  Google Flu Trends allows you to see flu activity across the United States.  —  How's Google doing this?
Miguel Helft / New York Times:
Google Uses Searches to Track Flu's Spread
Discussion: The Noisy Channel and SearchViews
Chris Alden / Six Apart News & Events:
Changes at Six Apart  —  Earlier today, I published the following message on our internal company blog.  For those members of our community who wanted to know about the changes at Six Apart today, I've reposted it here publicly for reference.  —  Today we are making some changes at Six Apart.
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Apple may turn to carbon fiber for lighter MacBook Air  —  Apple enthusiastically claimed ownership to the world's thinnest notebook earlier this year with the introduction of the MacBook Air, but is rumored to be unsatisfied with the system's weight, which it now hopes to drop below 3 pounds.
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Facebook Now Worth About $4 Billion, Revenue Light  —  Facebook's common stock is now changing hands in private sales at about a $4 billion valuation, a source says (unconfirmed).  And Facebook CFO Gideon Yu is indeed trying to raise money in Dubai, the source says (also unconfirmed).
Discussion: VentureBeat and HipMojo.com
Robert McMillan / PC World:
Microsoft Security Patch Was Seven Years in the Making  —  Some security patches take time.  —  Seven-and-a-half years, in fact, if you count the time it's taken Microsoft to patch a security issue in its SMB (Server Message Block) service, fixed Tuesday.  This software is used by Windows …
Aviv / MacBlogz:
AT&T iPhone Tethering Plan Specifics, No Unlimited Plan?  —  AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega has recently announced the arrival of an official iPhone tethering plan.  While we already knew the plan was in development prior to his announcement, little information pertaining to specific tethering offerings has been revealed.
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
Digital dealmaker and a dozen others out at Wired  —  A quarter of the 50-something employees in Wired.com's San Francisco newsroom are gone, a source tells us — and with them, the bubbly delusion that Wired would not just report on the transformation of media by technology, but be a part of the revolution as well.
Discussion: CNET News
RELATED:
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Condé Nast Web Arm CondéNet's Turn for “Across the Board” Cuts
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
Obama's Twitter goes silent  —  @barackobama: Please update your Twitter.  Since last Tuesday's historic election, Barack Obama's Twitter account hasn't sent any messages.  Some Internet President-Elect!  He didn't even use Twitter to announce his transition website, change.gov …
Discussion: Guardian and DygiScape
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
BlackBerry Storm hitting Verizon on November 24th, pre-launch on 20th?  —  We just got our hands on this document detailing the latest release dates for the Storm on Verizon.  Just be careful, we have all learned that target launch dates come and go quicker than a Sprint subscriber.
Business Technology:
Handicapping Obama's Tech-Czar Search  —  Now that Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said he's not interested, speculation over the nation's chief technology officer job is becoming a nerdy guessing game.  —  President-elect Obama (pretty techie himself, with his Flickr page …
Discussion: Todd Biske and deal architect
PC World:
Amazon to Sell OLPC's XO Laptop Starting Nov. 17  —  One Laptop Per Child confirmed it will start selling the XO laptop through Amazon.com on Monday.  —  The XO laptop will be sold through Amazon in the same way as the G1G1 program, where a consumer donates US$400 for two laptops …
Discussion: TechFlash, Crave and Beyond Binary
John Mahoney / Gizmodo:
Best Buy's Gift Card is a Tiny Audio Speaker  —  Who is the consultant that told all of the big boxers that it would be a good idea to turn this year's holiday gift cards into some sort of tangible object?  They are raking it in right now.  First Target made this year's gift cards into digital cameras …
Marguerite Reardon / CNET News:
Cisco details tech plans for new Yankee Stadium  —  A picture of the new Yankee stadium in the Bronx set to open in April 2009.  —  NEW YORK - Cisco is teaming up with the New York Yankees to offer baseball fans an interactive experience at the ballpark and eventually bring that experience to their living rooms.
Discussion: Engadget
Marc Flores / Boy Genius Report:
Full details on the Verizon Wireless Nationwide Connect Plan  —  Listen up, Verizon folks!  Your carrier (or soon to be carrier if this news sways you) will soon be offering the Nationwide Connect Plan that has been passed around the rumor mill lately.  As of November 16 …
Discussion: IntoMobile
Microsoft:
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-069 - Critical  —  Vulnerabilities in Microsoft XML Core Services Could Allow Remote Code Execution (955218)  —  Version: 1.0  —  General Information  —  Executive Summary  —  This security update resolves several vulnerabilities in Microsoft XML Core Services.
Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
Consumers Aren't Shopping Online, Either  —  It is not only retail stores that are feeling the pinch as shoppers close their wallets just ahead of the holiday season.  E-commerce sales, though still growing faster than retail, are hurting, too.  —  E-commerce spending growth slowed …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Loopt Jumps Ahead Of Facebook And MySpace On iPhone.  Told You.  —  Facebook and MySpace have great mobile apps.  At least, they're great if you're satisfied with a subset of the features you get on their normal websites.  But they don't yet take advantage of location/presence features on the iPhone and other platforms.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Paul Boutin / Valleywag:
Current TV's official body count: 30 gone, 30 shuffled  —  This just in: Current TV's director of public relations sent us an email designed to be printed in its entirety.  (Thanks for that.  Since Valleywag fired everyone else, I spend way too much time editing.)
Discussion: paidContent.org, Gawker and NewTeeVee
Udi / VideoSurf:
Never get Rick-Rolled again!  —  The most annoying thing about online video is that you don't always get what you want.  Too often, you're led astray by misleading thumbnails and mischievous Rick-Rollers.  —  To help with this problem, we use advanced algorithms to intelligently identify …
Ben Worthen / Business Technology:
SAP Gets Serious About Online Software  —  SAP will introduce a new hire Tuesday.  However, the real news isn't the man but his title: executive vice president of large enterprise on demand.  —  That title is tantalizing because it implies a major strategic shift for SAP that the company hasn't so much as hinted at previously.
Discussion: deal architect
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Would You Manage Your Money Through The Newspaper?  —  Wesabe and the UK Telegraph Think You Might  —  Online money management service Wesabe and the UK newspaper giant The Telegraph have entered a partnership to offer co-branded tools on the Telegraph website.  It's a daring move, we can't help but admire it.
Cade Metz / The Register:
Netizens sue NebuAd, data pimping ISPs  —  More woe for American Phorm  —  Fifteen American netizens have sued behavioral ad targeter NebuAd and several of its data pimping ISP partners, alleging wiretapping, packet forgery, and browser hijacking.  —  Filed Monday in a California federal court …
Discussion: Ars Technica and Between the Lines
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Google Patents Searching Through Multiple Categories At Once  —  from the this-is-non-obvious?  dept  —  Every week, when new patents are issued, I usually scan through various patents issued to certain companies.  Each week, Microsoft usually has somewhere between 40 to 60 new patents.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
CBS Kills CNET Music Site It Never Launched  —  One way for a big media company to avoid the embarrassment of shutting down a Web site-just avoid launching it altogether.  That's what CBS has done with “Juke,” a music site that CNET had started assembling last spring and planned to launch this fall.
 
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 More Items: 
Elinor Mills / CNET News:
Energy industry at risk of cyberattack, survey says
Niclas Mika / Reuters:
Philips develops “intelligent pill”
Discussion: Electronista, CrunchGear and Gizmodo
Saulius / Pixelmator | Weblog:
Pixelmator Team Releases Pixelmator 1.3 Tempo
Discussion: PC World, MacUser and TUAW
PC World:
Is Our Internet Future in Danger?
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols / PC World:
The Next Windows: 7Up or New Vista?
Discussion: Smalltalk Tidbits …
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Five Rules For Winning Facebook's Developer Competition
 Earlier Items: 
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
iPhone Exploit Undermines App Store Security, Lets Devs Update …
Business Technology:
Who Did Nortel Cut?
Discussion: Valleywag
Chris Leckness / Mobility Site:
Review : HTC FUZE from AT&T
Discussion: jkOnTheRun
David Chartier / Infinite Loop:
iTunes Store finally gets a bargain bin for movies
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
DeepDyve: Indexing the Deep Web
Discussion: Computerworld and VentureBeat
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Trippin' With Trip: One Man's View Of Carnage To Come
Discussion: Unwired View and The Open Road
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Internal memo: Hearst Magazines president announces layoffs as part of a decision to “reallocate resources” to “continue our focus on digital innovation”

Lachlan Cartwright / The Ankler:
Sources: MSNBC renewed Rachel Maddow's contract early this fall, but with a pay cut; MSNBC bosses' plan to shake up daytime and weekend programming

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced she will leave the agency on January 20; she was the first woman to be confirmed to lead the agency

 
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