Top Items:
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
GrandCentral To (Finally) Launch As Google Voice. It's Very, Very Good. — GrandCentral, a phone management service that first launched in 2006 and was acquired by Google for $50+ million in 2007, hasn't been in the news much lately. Other than a few good natured jabs at their marketing gimmicks and coverage of outages, that is.
Discussion:
CNET News, Tech Trader Daily, Reuters, Forbes, Technologizer, Between the Lines, VentureBeat, Pat Phelan, SiliconAngle and New York Times, Thanks:atul
RELATED:
The Official Google Blog:
Here comes Google Voice — We've just started to release a preview of Google Voice, an application that helps you better manage your voice communications. Google Voice will be available initially to existing users of GrandCentral, a service we acquired in July of 2007.
David Pogue / New York Times:
One Number to Ring Them All — If Google search revolutionized the Web, and Gmail revolutionized free e-mail, then one thing's for sure: Google Voice, unveiled Thursday, will revolutionize telephones. — It unifies your phone numbers, transcribes your voice mail, blocks telemarketers …
John Battelle / John Battelle's Searchblog:
Can Google Find Its Voice? — This is going to be a very big deal. Or forgettable. — I am not sure which. — I had a conversation with a NYT reporter about this today. (Story here, but I was not quoted). It made me think. First off, this product was not launched by Eric, Sergey, or Larry.
Discussion:
CloudAve
Peter X. Deng / Facebook Blog:
Welcome to Your New Home Page — Last week, we shared our philosophy behind the new updates and changes on Facebook to give you a better understanding of why we make certain product decisions. We explained how we've been mapping out the Social Graph, or the network of connections that exist in the world …
Discussion:
Technologizer, ReadWriteWeb, RotorBlog.com, Search Engine Journal, eWeek, Technology Live, Inside Facebook and CNET News
RELATED:
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Facebook's Real-Time Homepage Goes Live Today — Today Facebook is rolling out the update to user homepages that brings a new look, enhanced filter system, and most importantly, realtime updating. Real-time updates are Facebook's response to Twitter, which has been able to thrive …
Jenna Bilotta / Google Reader:
Google Reader is your new watercooler — One of the things that we love best about Reader is the ability to easily share interesting items with your friends. In fact, we like it so much that we've been adding bunches of new sharing features over the last year including choosing friends to share with …
Discussion:
The Official Google Blog, louisgray.com, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, Google Blogoscoped, TechCrunch and Mashable!, Thanks:atul
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
Worlds.com CEO: We're ‘Absolutely’ Going To Sue Second Life And World Of Warcraft — Worlds.com CEO Thom Kidrin is putting the entire virtual worlds industry on notice: His company claims the idea of a scalable virtual world with thousands of users is its patented intellectual property …
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Is Apple About To Shuffle The Headphone Industry Again? — Is Apple (AAPL) in the process of reinventing the way mainstream headphones are designed for the second time this decade? — Ten years ago, I was the only guy on the train wearing earbuds. Thanks to Apple's iPod, now everyone is.
RELATED:
Chris Dannen / Fast Company:The Gross Inconvenience of the New iPod Shuffle
Discussion:
blogs.chron.com
John Timmer / Ars Technica:
Lithium breakthrough could charge batteries in 10 seconds — A new version of lithium battery technology can either provide a higher storage density than current batteries, or can charge and discharge as fast as a supercapacitor, emptying its entire charge in under 10 seconds.
RELATED:
Zach Spear / AppleInsider:
Apple releases iTunes 8.1, Front Row Update 2.1.7 — As anticipated, Apple on Wednesday evening delivered iTunes 8.1 with performance enhancements, support for CD imports to iTunes Plus, and new Genius features. Separately, the company also updated its Front Row media application.
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Valley Exec Twitters Through Home Break-In — (See also: Jon Stewart On Twitter: “I Have No Idea How It Works, Or Why It Is") — A strange man broke into Revision3 COO David Prager's home last night. — Did David call the police? No, he updated Twitter and turned on a live video stream at Ustream.
Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint.com:
G1 “cupcake” update coming April … T-Mobile has confirmed that it will be bringing the “cupcake” software update to the G1 mobile phone in April. — The news will mean users of the Android handset will get an onscreen keyboard as well as a host of other features to improve the performance of the handset launched last November.
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Apple orders 10-inch touchscreens for mystery product — Adding fuel to rumors of a so-called “netbook” under development inside Apple, Reuters is now citing its own sources in saying the touchscreens ordered by the company measure 10 inches diagonally. — In a report published early Wednesday morning …
RELATED:
Associated Press:
EBay's PayPal envisions doubling in size by 2011 — SAN JOSE, Calif. - EBay Inc.'s name may conjure images of online auctions, but the company is hoping to turn attention to its second-largest business — PayPal — which it expects to blossom significantly in the next few years.
RELATED:
Susan Wojcicki / The Official Google Blog:
Making ads more interesting — At Google, we believe that ads are a valuable source of information — one that can connect people to the advertisers offering products, services and ideas that interest them. By making ads more relevant, and improving the connection between advertisers and our users …
Discussion:
Associated Press, michaelzimmer.org, Web Analysis …, CloudAve, Ars Technica, PC World, Epicenter, Squash, The Noisy Channel, The Technology Liberation …, BetaNews, BBC, InformationWeek, TG Daily, HotHardware.com News, Technology Live, DailyTech, Search Engine Journal, ClickZ, GMSV, The Technology Chronicles and The Register
Leo Ting / Google Mobile Blog:
New Image Search Results for Android and iPhone — Today we launched a new Image Search results page for Android, iPhone, and iPod touch in the US, the UK, and Japan. — With the new Image Search results, you can easily scan up to 20 images on a single results page and get the details for images that interest you.
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:
Truemors: The Rumor Is No Updates in a Month — Truemors is a place to share rumors that you hear. We reviewed the service when it launched nearly two years. Trumeors was started by very popular web personality Guy Kawasaki and was sold to NowPublic for an undisclosed sum.
Thanks:atul
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Zuckerberg gets poked off Forbes billionaire list — A while back we predicted that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was in danger of losing his title as the world's youngest billionaire due to the maddening ascent of teen diva Miley Cyrus. But, Forbes magazine says, Mark Zuckerberg …
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Can Media Take Tips from Twitter? Techmeme's Experience as Case Study — Can media organizations leverage the social web to get story tips faster than they could through traditional methods? A number of news aggregators believe so and are looking to Twitter for tips.
Thanks:mrinaldesai
Anita Barci / Checkout:
Google Checkout fees in 2009 — When we launched Google Checkout in 2006, we set out to create a fast, secure online shopping experience for our users. Now in our third year of helping merchants increase sales and attract user interest, we're announcing the decision to move …
Microsoft:
Microsoft Releases Open Tools to Enhance Scientific Research Efforts Building on Science Commons Ontologies — Breakthrough collaboration helps researchers make easier connections on the Web. — The nuggets of information necessary for science to progress are often hard to find …
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
SocialMedia Launches Interactive “Word of Mouth” Social Ads — SocialMedia, a company that specializes in advertising across social networks, has released a new form of advertising dubbed the “WOMI”, or Word of Mouth Impression. WOMI campaigns present visitors with ads asking them for some kind …
Thanks:pinksherpa
Phil Glockner / ReadWriteWeb:
Media Cloud Leverages Calais to Track News Trends — Media Cloud, a new project from the Berkman Center at Harvard University, has an ambitious goal: It will do the heavy lifting of analyzing stories from thousands of traditional news sources, analyzing the semantics of the content through Calais …
Wall Street Journal:
Nortel Is in Talks to Sell Key Units to Rivals — Nortel Networks Corp. is in talks to sell its two main businesses to rivals, a sign the firm could break itself apart rather than emerge from bankruptcy as planned. — Much remains in flux at the Toronto maker of telecommunications equipment …
Jim Dwyer / New York Times:
The Officer Who Posted Too Much on MySpace — In pictures, Vaughan Ettienne is a champion bodybuilder of surreal musculature. In conversation, he is polite and thoughtful. — And in the looking glass of his computer screen, he becomes a man of fierce, profane views on how to keep law and order.
Discussion:
Glass House
