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:
Techdirt, CNET News, Bits, Digital Daily, TechCrunch, mocoNews, Post I.T., NBC Bay Area, Tech Daily Dose, Engadget Mobile, FierceWireless and Electronista, Thanks:mrinaldesai
RELATED:
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.
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.
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, TechCrunch, eWeek, blogs.ft.com, Bits, Between the Lines, The SiliconANGLE, Mashable!, Dealscape and AppScout
RELATED:
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.
Discussion:
PC World, FierceMobileContent, Nerd World, BloggingStocks, MarketingVOX, Wall Street Journal, Rough Type, TechFlash and Guardian
Bill Tancer / Hitwise Intelligence:Twittered Out? — On the heels of yesterday's rumor that Twitter …
Discussion:
Mashable!, VentureBeat, Traffick, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Tech Trader Daily, ReadWriteWeb and digg.com, Thanks:mrinaldesai
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.
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, Search Engine Journal, TechCrunch, Search Engine Land and Mashable!, Thanks:mgcreed
Ben Galbraith / Ben Galbraith's Blog:
Going to Palm with Dion — Do you remember how much the Web used to suck? — Not so long ago, we Web developers would have to constantly educate product managers and other business stakeholders about the limitations of HTML; we would often contrast it with so-called “rich client” technologies.
Discussion:
InfoWorld, techno.blog, Palm Developer Network Blog, eWeek, The Register, The Web Life, PreCentral.net and The Official Palm Blog
RELATED:
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 …
AndroidGuys:
Google Responds [CYANOGATE '09] — You know something's a pretty big deal when Google feels obligated to respond to a situation. Such is the case with the recent situation going down between the Android team and Cyanogen. Today sees Dan Morrill dropping by the official Developer blog …
RELATED:
Nilay Patel / Engadget:Google hits Android ROM modder with a cease-and-desist letter
Discussion:
The Register, Android Phone Fans, Maximum PC, Android and Me, Android Central, MobileCrunch, Techgeist, TweakTown News, AndroidGuys, GigaOM and Gizmodo, Thanks:atul
Boy Genius Report:
Confirmed: Verizon Wireless will sell the Palm Pre — We've just confirmed this with one of our ninjas: the rumor of Verizon Wireless passing on adding the Palm Pre to its line-up is totally and 100% bogus. We don't have any other information to share at this time but hopefully those analysts stay …
RELATED:
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:Analyst: Reports that Verizon Snubbed Palm “Off Base”
Discussion:
MobileCrunch, Mobile Roar, E-Commerce Times, Engadget Mobile, WebOS Arena, DSLreports, Gizmodo, IntoMobile, EverythingPre, FierceWireless, Between the Lines, TechSpot, Fast Company, I4U News, TheStreet.com, techblog.dallasnews.com, Bloomberg, PreCentral.net, Computerworld, The Toybox and Tech Check with Jim Goldman
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:
CNET News, The Microsoft Blog, MacDailyNews, Techgeist, Mobile Roar, TechSpot, Electronista, Engadget Mobile, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, WMExperts, DVICE, Seeking Alpha, Gizmodo, WMPoweruser.com, MobileTechWorld, TechFlash, ithinkdifferent, OakLeaf Systems, GottaBeMobile.com, ParisLemon and Engadget, Thanks:mgcreed
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
Shelby Bonnie / TechCrunch:
Let's Kill The CPM — Editor's note: This guest post is written by Shelby Bonnie, the CEO of Whiskey Media. He co-founded CNET in 1993 and was the Chairman and CEO from 2000 to 2006. He served as Chairman of the IAB from 2001 to 2003. Whiskey Media is a content platform with three sites …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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, The Tech Report, Maximum PC, blog.laptopmag.com, Netbooked, GottaBeMobile.com and techeblog.com
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 …
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.)
Ryan Tate / Gawker:
Meet Twitter's Self-Appointed Nemesis — The revenues of Jason Fried's scrappy Chicago startup are estimated at maybe $10 million annually. Twitter, meanwhile, is about to deposit ten times that in its already-stuffed bank account. Which helps explain why Fried's sniping has reached mocking extremes.
