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Google Chrome (BETA) — Since we first released Google Chrome, the development team has been hard at work improving the stability and overall performance of the browser. In just 100 days, we have reached more than 10 million active users around the world (on all seven continents, no less) and released 14 updates to the product.
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As Chrome leaves beta, here's an update on the Mac version — Google officially announced that its web browser, Google Chrome, has left beta testing status behind today. That's great news, the browser is amazing. But there's a problem — it still only runs on Windows.


CBS Interactive/CNET Re-Org: The Complete Memo — CBS (CBS) paid $1.8 billion for CNET last summer, and today it is dealing with the consequences: A re-org and layoffs. CBS execs won't release specifics on the firings and wont't say how many people were let go altogether.
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Now Flickr is hit by Yahoo layoffs — Thought the Yahoo layoffs were over? Not quite... today it seems that George Oates, a high-profile member of the Flickr team and one of the site's early employees, was told that she was being given the chop too. She's recently been in Australia …

Apple's Mac OS X 10.5.6 Update may be around the corner — Apple this week is believed throwing the finishing touches on Mac OS X 10.5.6, the last planned maintenance and security update for Leopard during the 2008 calendar year. — Developers on Wednesday were reportedly equipped …


Our Maps Are Googley Now — Redfin just released a new version of the site. In addition to improving our short sale detection in Orange County and parts of LA and making our neighborhood pages a little more discoverable from the map page, we switched to using Google Maps exclusively instead …
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Santa visits Nintendo early: Wii sales more than doubled in November — Nintendo sold more than 2 million Wii game consoles in the U.S. last month, more than double the number it sold in November 2007, according to Reggie Fils-Aime, president of the Japanese company's North American division.
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Not Tonight Dear, I'd Rather Blog — Men have always faced challenges when it comes to romance. Here's a sign that technology may have raised another hurdle. — An online survey commissioned by Intel has found, among other things, that 46% of women would rather go without sex for two weeks than give up the Internet for that long.
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The Noisy Channel


NFL Launches “Game Rewind”, Every Game On-Demand In HD With No Commercials — Today, the NFL launched a new video on-demand service called Game Rewind that lets you watch every NFL game in HD quality, with no commercials. The service, which costs $19.99 for the season or $4.99 for a week pass …
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Engadget HD


Apple working on 3D Mac OS X user interface (images) — A series of Apple patent filings published this week reveal the Mac maker has spent a considerable amount of time outlining a new multi-dimensional interface for Mac OS X that would make better use of screen real estate by increasing …
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Crave, CrunchGear, The Register, Technologizer, The Toybox, AppScout, Appletell, MacRumors, SlashGear, StartupNorth, Engadget, MacBlogz, TUAW, Edible Apple, The Mac Observer and MacDailyNews

Jobless techies turning to crime — Impoverished techies and IT workers who have been made redundant will go rogue in 2009, selling corporate data and using crimeware, reports predict. — The credit crunch will drive IT workers to increasingly use their skills to steal credit card data …

OMG: Russia entrepreneur looks for $$$ from ;-) — How much would you pay for a ;-)? A Russian businessman has trademarked the emoticon — or combination of punctuation marks — used to convey a wink in text messages and e-mail. — Oleg Teterin, president of the mobile ad company Superfone …
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TECH.BLORGE.com

Breaking: Apple left out? AT&T brings back iPhone online and at-home activation — Yes! AT&T is now offering the iPhone online with home activation. I found this by looking for info on another phone, but found this advert when landing on their site. At first, I figured I was reading it wrong …


Digeo Unveils New Moxi HD DVR — 11 months after blowing up their prior destined-for-retail DVR(s), Digeo's web site and Amazon have spilled the beans on the for-real model that'll be available for sale... shortly? While they've published all sorts of specs (500GB hard drive …
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Engadget HD


RadioShack Introduces 3G Netbook Utilizing AT&T's Mobile Broadband Service to Help People Stay Connected — Innovative portable notebook technology for $99.99 when combined with qualifying AT&T mobile broadband service — FORT WORTH, Texas, Dec 11, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX …
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Liliputing


The Facebook Virus Spreads: No Social Network is Safe — “Koobface” is the name of the Trojan worm that's been making its way through the social networking site Facebook lately, but to the site's users, it's been simply known as “the Facebook virus.” That name will soon become a misnomer …
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digg.com

JetBrains Delivers Meta Programming System Beta — Resource Library: — JetBrains, maker of the popular IntelliJ IDEA Java tool set, announces the beta version of its Meta Programming System for application development. JetBrains' MPS encourages the use of DSLs and code generation.
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InfoWorld


Lady Blog Network BlogHer Gives Bloggers a Pay Cut — BlogHer, a women's ad network/publishing network and conference organizer, is cutting the amount it pays to its blog partners by 10 percent. That's really sort of a double cut, since the blog owners/writers in its network get paid based …
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Valleywag

Facebook, Google and MySpace Represent the Future of Web Registrations — We have the browser wars, the search engine wars and the social network wars — so where will the next digital battle take place? It's among services that offer third-party logins for publishers, which sounds as unsexy as it gets …


Windows Live Sync Is Now Available For Windows And Mac [updated] — Windows Live Sync is now Live at http://sync.live.com. The team just announced it on their new blog: … The old FolderShare blog and newsgroup will retire, but the team is not leaving you in the cold.

Wall Street Beat: IT Forecasts Slashed — With CIOs reporting budget revisions, market analysts slashing expectations for tech sector growth, and companies as diverse as Yahoo, Hynix, Texas Instruments and Sony cutting sales forecasts and jobs this week, there is no bottom clearly in sight for IT.

App Store Lessons: Creative uses of promotional codes — With App Store becoming more and more crowded, building attention for your application has increasingly been difficult, so it's time to get clever. Fifth Ace Productions decided to use some of its 50 free promo codes in a rather creative way …
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NEWSFACTOR


MapQuest Local Gets More Social with Twitter; Adds Jobs — Twitter — When our team set out to build MapQuest Local, we wanted it to be very different than the “local experience” found historically online. One of our early objectives was to make MapQuest Local more social - connect people and ideas in a local area together.

Apologies for organizational issues at LeWeb — I will write a longer post as I do every year to recap what went well and what did not go well at LeWeb this year. Many things went well fortunately and I am still reading the huge feedback from the participants in the room and thousands of people who watched the live online stream.


Video game sales continue ‘blistering’ pace in November, NPD says — Shrugging off the effects of a downbeat economy, the video game industry posted a 10% sales increase in the U.S. last month to $2.91 billion, up from $2.64 billion in November 2007, according to market research firm NPD Group …
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Bits


Addonics' USB-to-NAS adapter: all your external HDDs, now network accessible — Storage junkies, your dreams have just been made into reality. Addonics has just introduced a marvelous new piece of kit, the simple-yet-useful Network Attached Storage Adapter.

White House Opposes FCC Free Wireless Internet Plan — WASHINGTON - Bush administration officials are trying to put the brakes on the Federal Communications Commission's plan to encourage a free, national wireless Internet plan, which the agency could approve next week.