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.
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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.
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.
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.
Miguel Helft / New York Times:
Google Uses Searches to Track Flu's Spread — SAN FRANCISCO — What if Google knew before anyone else that a fast-spreading flu outbreak was putting you at heightened risk of getting sick? And what if it could alert you, your doctor and your local public health officials before the muscle aches and chills kicked in?
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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:
HipMojo.com
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.
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Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Condé Nast Web Arm CondéNet's Turn for “Across the Board” Cuts — Here's the deal: If you work at a media company that hasn't had layoffs recently, just go ahead and assume they're coming. — This afternoon's installment-CondéNet, which manages some, but not all …
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Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
iPhone 2.2 Release Just 10 Days Away — According to the consistently reliable iPhone Hellas, the iPhone OS 2.2 update will appear even sooner than we all expected. Barring any sudden plan changes, the iPhone Hellas people are saying the upgrade will be available on November 21.
Discussion:
Digital Daily, Homotron.net, MacRumors, Unwired View, IntoMobile, SlashGear, VentureBeat, Gadget Lab and Lifehacker
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Five Rules For Winning Facebook's Developer Competition — Facebook will announce the five winners of its latest FbFund competition for application developers on December 8. Each of the five will win a $225,000 grant. The Facebook investors who fund the competition won't take any equity …
Discussion:
All Facebook
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Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Trippin' With Trip: One Man's View Of Carnage To Come — Every month, Trip Chowdhry, the one-man band who covers all things tech under the moniker Global Equities Research, writes a piece he calls Silicon Scoop on current trends and gossip from the Valley. It's always a good read …
Martin / Security and the Net:
AVG virus scanner removes critical Windows file — An update for the AVG virus scanner released yesterday contained an incorrect virus signature, which led it to think user32.dll contained the Trojan Horses PSW.Banker4.APSA or Generic9TBN. AVG then recommended deleting this file …
Discussion:
Computerworld, Gadgetell, DailyTech, CNET News, blogs.chron.com, PC World, Christopher Null and AppScout
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 …
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 …
Business Technology:
Who Did Nortel Cut? — It was no surprise that Nortel, reporting a $3.41 billion loss, said it would keep slashing jobs, this time on the order of 1,300. More unusual are some of the names on the list: four executives who CEO Mike Zafirovski recently recruited from IBM, Broadcom and EMC in an effort to turn the company around.
Discussion:
Tech Confidential
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
DeepDyve: Indexing the Deep Web — DeepDyve is a new search engine that is aimed at students, academics, and knowledge workers. DeepDyve's mission is to index the ‘deep web’ that is hidden behind pay walls and subscription fees. We first looked at DeepDyve in September …
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.
Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:
Facebook Tries to Woo Marketers — Firm's ‘Engagement Ads’ Amplify Its Push to Curry Favor With Madison Avenue — Despite its surging Internet audience, Facebook Inc. has yet to prove it can wring steady revenue out of advertisers. Now it's trying a new tactic to woo Madison Avenue.
Discussion:
BoomTown, Business Technology, Venture Chronicles, Tech Beat, Screenwerk, Lightspeed Venture …, Guardian, p2pnet, Pulse2 and Kelsey Group Blogs
Chippy / UMPCPortal:
Free PDF Report. Ultra Mobile Computing Buyers Guide. — To all the websites, companies and visitors that I've learned so much from in the last few years, here's something back. The 5-part, 11,000 word, 28-page Ultra Mobile Computing Buyers Guide as a single re-flowable PDF file.
David Chartier / Infinite Loop:
iTunes Store finally gets a bargain bin for movies — The glory days of grabbing that $5 DVD at the road trip pit-stop or Target checkout counter have finally made their digital transition to the iTunes Store. — With a new section unfortunately called “This Week's Great Movies Under $5” …
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
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
iPhone Exploit Undermines App Store Security, Lets Devs Update And Run Arbitrary Code — We have stumbled across a severe flaw in iPhone security that allows third party developers to update and execute arbitrary code from their applications at will, totally circumventing Apple's App Store approval process.
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.)
Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:
Vivian Schiller Leaves NYT; Joins NPR As New CEO — This one is a shocker: Vivian Schiller, the longtime head of NYTimes.com's digital efforts, has left the company, and has joined National Public Radio as its new CEO. She succeeds Dennis Haarsager, who has served as interim CEO since March …
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols / PC World:
The Next Windows: 7Up or New Vista? — Running away as fast as it can from Vista , Microsoft rolled out an alpha version of Windows 7 at its recent Professional Developers Conference . But is Windows 7 going to be 7Up, the Un-Vista, or is it going to be (gag) New Vista ?
