Top Items:
Richard Whitt / Google Public Policy Blog:
Response to AT&T's letter to FCC on Google Voice — This afternoon AT&T filed a letter with the Federal Communications Commission, alleging that Google Voice is preventing its users from making outbound calls to certain phone numbers with inflated access charges, and asking the Commission to intervene.
Discussion:
Bits, TechCrunch, mocoNews, Digital Daily, Tech Daily Dose, NBC Bay Area, Post I.T., Electronista, Engadget Mobile and FierceWireless, Thanks:mrinaldesai
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Cecilia Kang / Post I.T.:
AT&T Accuses Google of Violating Telecom Laws; Google Rejects Claims — AT&T asked the Federal Communications Commission Friday afternoon to look into Google's alleged blocking of some phone calls through its Google Voice service, a practice the phone giant called a violation of federal telecommunications laws.
Discussion:
Mashable!
Reuters:
AT&T: net neutrality should apply to Web firms too — WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT&T Inc said any new “net neutrality” rules imposed by U.S. regulators need to apply to Web companies like Google Inc as much as to phone companies to ensure a level playing field.
Twitter Blog:
New Twitter Funding — There's a lot of talk today about our financing. Yesterday we closed a significant round of funding with a group of investment firms that we're excited to publicly thank: Insight Venture Partners, T. Rowe Price, Institutional Venture Partners, Spark Capital, Benchmark Capital, and Morgan Stanley.
Discussion:
Fast Company, Tech Trader Daily, TechCrunch, Hitwise Intelligence, blogs.ft.com, eWeek, Dealscape, Traffick, ReadWriteWeb, Between the Lines, Bits, The SiliconANGLE, Mashable! and AppScout
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Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Early Twitter Backer Union Square Sits This One Out — Twitter CEO Evan Williams thanked a long list of investors in his blog post today formally announcing his newest funding round. Not included: New York's Union Square Ventures, which has been one of the messaging service's most prominent backers …
Brad Stone / New York Times:
Twitter Appears Set to Raise $100 Million, Valuing It at $1 Billion — SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter has trained people to compress their thoughts into 140 characters and given a public stage to both dissidents in Iran and voluble stars like Shaquille O'Neal. — Now the start-up appears to have chalked up another achievement.
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
AT&T Activates MMS Functionality for U.S. iPhone Users — As previously scheduled, AT&T has activated MMS for iPhone 3G and 3GS users in the United States, bringing to an end months of speculation and waiting since software support for the feature was introduced in iPhone OS 3.0 in mid-June.
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog, Computerworld, NEWSFACTOR, VentureBeat, Macworld, CNET News, MobileCrunch, Cult of Mac, Phone Arena, AppleInsider, Engadget, The iPhone Blog and iPhone Savior
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Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Exclusive Interview With Steve Ballmer: Products, Competition, The Road Ahead — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer visited Silicon Valley on Thursday for his annual meeting with top venture capitalists to talk about Microsoft product strategy. This was his first visit to Silicon Valley since announcing …
Discussion:
WMPoweruser.com, The Microsoft Blog, Techgeist, CNET News, MacDailyNews, Electronista, TechSpot, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Mobile Roar, WMExperts, Engadget Mobile, DVICE, MobileTechWorld, Seeking Alpha, Gizmodo, TechFlash, ithinkdifferent, OakLeaf Systems, GottaBeMobile.com, ParisLemon and Engadget, Thanks:mgcreed
Hiroko Tabuchi / New York Times:
Apple's Shadow Hangs Over Game Console Makers — TOKYO — As video game giants like Sony and Microsoft touted their new gizmos at the Tokyo Game Show this week, industry executives had more than the coming holiday sales season on their minds. — Apple's recent foray into video games …
Chris Kern / The Official Google Blog:
Jump to the information you want right from the search snippets — For most search results, Google shows you a few lines of text to give you an idea of what the page is about — we call this a “search snippet.” Recently, we've enhanced the search snippet with two new features that make it easier …
Discussion:
Google Webmaster Central Blog, Computerworld, TechCrunch, Search Engine Land and Mashable!, Thanks:mgcreed
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Mozilla coders join Palm, apparently jabbing Apple — Two prominent Web-based programming advocates have left Mozilla for Palm, arguing that the time has come to use browsers to bypass Apple's controlling role in mobile applications. — Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith …
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John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Analyst: Reports that Verizon Snubbed Palm “Off Base” — Analysts who follow Palm (PALM) are already rolling their eyes over TheStreet.com's claim that Verizon (VZ) has balked at adding the company's new Pre handset to its lineup. In a research note this morning, Deutsche Bank's Jonathan Goldberg dismissed it as “off base.”
Discussion:
MobileCrunch, Bloomberg, Mobile Roar, WebOS Arena, Engadget Mobile, E-Commerce Times, EverythingPre, Fast Company, DSLreports, FierceWireless, Gizmodo, IntoMobile, TechSpot, I4U News, TheStreet.com, Between the Lines, techblog.dallasnews.com, Computerworld, PreCentral.net, The Toybox and Tech Check with Jim Goldman
Nik Cubrilovic / TechCrunch:
Squidoo Backs Down On ‘Brand Campaign’ As Many Are ‘Not so Happy’ About It — Squidoo founder and author Seth Godin has backed down on creating company pages by default as part of their new ‘Brands In Public’ service that launched a few days ago. The idea behind the new service is that brands …
Erin Geiger Smith / Silicon Alley Insider:
VERDICT: Why Gawker Will Win The McSteamy Sex Tape Lawsuit — We all know the details by now: — Grey's Anatomy's McSteamy, his wife, and what is apparently a very good friend made a sexless sex tape. Gawker posted the video and McSteamy and wife (hereinafter referred to collectively as “McSteamy") sue.
Discussion:
The Smoking Gun
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
Microsoft: Google Chrome Frame makes IE less secure — Microsoft does not recommend that Internet Explorer users install Google Chrome Frame, in order to avoid having more security issues. — The release of Google Chrome Frame, a new open source plugin that injects Chrome's renderer …
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
RIM signals price war potential; Fallout could be substantial — Research in Motion's second quarter sounded alarm bells and may have signaled a smartphone price war, according to analysts. The company's contention that it would target a ‘more mainstream’ market was viewed as a sign …
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Video: Phoenix Instant Boot BIOS starts loading Windows in under a second — Phoenix is showing off a few interesting things at IDF, but the real standout is their new Instant Boot BIOS, a highly optimized UEFI implementation that can start loading an OS in just under a second.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, TweakTown News, blog.laptopmag.com, The Tech Report, Netbooked, Maximum PC, GottaBeMobile.com and techeblog.com
Gavin Newsom / Mashable!:
San Francisco Launches City App Store — This guest post was written by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who was elected to the position in 2003 and reelected in 2007. In this guest post, Mayor Newsom details the launch of a City App Store, the DataSF App Showcase, a new web site …
Gus Sentementes / BaltTech:
Sticky situation: WhoGlue v. Facebook — By now, you may have heard about WhoGlue Inc., a tiny Baltimore tech firm, launching a lawsuit this week against Facebook for infringing on a key patent that essentially covers social networking and privacy features. (Here's my original story from yesterday.)
Julian Lee / Sydney Morning Herald:
Google Maps to be plastered with ads — THEY know where you are and where you have been but now, with the help of internet mapping technology, advertisers are trying to predict what you want. — In the coming weeks Google will put logos for fast food chains, coffee shops, hotels and travel agents on its popular maps site.
Michael Learmonth / AdAge:
Warner Inks Deal to Bring Green Day, Madonna, U2 Back to YouTube — Label Also in Talks to Join Vevo, the ‘Hulu for Music’ Initiative — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Warner Music Group has completed a deal with YouTube that will bring back music videos for Green Day, U2, Madonna and other artists …
Network World:
Microsoft, researchers release new operating system project: Barrelfish — Barrelfish attempts to treat a multicore server as if it were a distributed network. — You've likely heard of Microsoft's next-gen operating system projects Midori and Singularity, but earlier this month researchers released …
Discussion:
BetaNews, All about Microsoft, ithinkdifferent, CodenameWindows, fiercecio.comwatch and Slashdot
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Google hits Android ROM modder with a cease-and-desist letter — So this is interesting: apparently Google's hit the developer of the Cyanogen modded Android ROM with a cease-and-desist letter, asking him to stop distributing the closed-source Google apps like Gmail, Maps, and YouTube.
Discussion:
The Register, Android Phone Fans, Maximum PC, Android and Me, Android Central, MobileCrunch, Techgeist, TweakTown News, AndroidGuys, GigaOM and Gizmodo, Thanks:atul
Steve DelBianco / CircleID:
On New Domains and ICANN Accountability, More Questions than Answers — The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) went before a Congressional panel this week to defend its plan to create an unlimited number of new Internet domains (like .web, .food, etc.) I was a witness …
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
Windows 7 PCs to go on sale early — Windows 7, which is scheduled to launch on October 22, will be available nine days early via PC purchases from system builders, also called small custom PC makers. — If you've been putting off buying a new PC because you're waiting for Windows 7 to ship, you're in luck.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Browser Plugin Shareaholic Passes 1 Million Downloads, Closes Seed Funding — It is notoriously difficult for browser plugins to gain traction — getting users to download anything massively raises a service's barrier to entry. But Shareaholic, a plugin that makes it easy to share content across …
