Top Items:
Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:
A Windows to Help You Forget — In just two weeks, on Oct. 22, Microsoft's long operating-system nightmare will be over. The company will release Windows 7, a faster and much better operating system than the little-loved Windows Vista, which did a lot to harm both the company's reputation …
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Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
What's wrong with Windows 7 — Reading between the lines of Walt Mossberg's review — It's a given that Windows 7, scheduled for release in two weeks, is an improvement over Vista. But how does it stack up against Apple's (AAPL) Snow Leopard? — The definitive word comes …
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Ballmer: Testers didn't ring Vista warning bells; Could the same happen with Windows 7? — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has done his best over the past year-plus to try to dampen expectations around Windows 7. He's doing it again this week during his pre-launch European tour, telling press …
Discussion:
Gizmodo
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Twitter Talking Separately to Microsoft and Google About Big Data-Mining Deals — Is there gold in them thar tweets? — Maybe so, because-according to sources familiar with the situation-Twitter is in advanced talks with Microsoft and Google separately about striking data-mining deals …
Discussion:
eWeek, internetnews.com, paidContent, Mashable!, Venture Capital Dispatch, Fast Company, GMSV, CNET News, Gawker, Silicon Alley Insider, Softpedia News, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Search Engine Journal, The Next Web, Lockergnome Blog Network, TECH.BLORGE.com, The Noisy Channel, TheStreet.com, WebProNews, ParisLemon and PR News, Thanks:enauzer
Reza Ziaei / Google Mobile Blog:
Introducing Search Options for mobile — Finding the exact information you need sometimes requires filtering and refining your search results. Earlier in the year, we launched a collection of tools called Search Options which enable you to easily and quickly do this from a computer.
Discussion:
PC World, MacRumors iPhone Blog, Search Engine Land, AppScout, Search Engine Journal, MobileContentToday, FierceMobileContent, WebProNews, Phone Scoop and ReadWriteWeb, Thanks:atul
Steve Gillmor / TechCrunchIT:
Ozzie on the realtime wave — In June, I spent several days on the Microsoft campus talking with Microsoft executives about the impact of realtime and the emerging era of cloud computing. My conversation with Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie began with a discussion of the recently unveiled Google Wave …
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
BlackBerry Bold 2 to be announced October 21 for T-Mobile, AT&T — We have it on good authority that T-Mobile and AT&T both currently plan on announcing the Bold 2 — also known as the Onyx — on October 21. As a refresher, this would be the touchpad-driven piece with model number 9700 that's …
Discussion:
Boy Genius Report, Gizmodo, Engadget Mobile, I4U News, Softpedia News, Gadgetell, IntoMobile, SoftSailor, Unwired View, Electronista, TmoNews, PR News, Electricpig.co.uk and TechVi
Joanna Stern / Gizmodo:
Sony Vaio X: World's Lightest Laptop $1300 (Actually Affordable, For a Vaio) — Sony's X comes out from its dark hiding spot. Not only is the 11-inch carbon fiber notebook super slim, but it's actually affordable on the Sony scale of economy, starting at $1,300. (Update: It's got netbook guts.)
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Fred / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
It's My Browser, and I'll Auto-Click if I Want To — Free file hosting provider MediaFire seems to think that, when you follow a link to download a file from its service, it has the right to control your browser. This is yet another example of a web site owner forgetting that it's your computer …
RELATED:
Skipper / Skipscreen Blog:MediaFire tells Mozilla to ban SkipScreen from addons.mozilla.org
Discussion:
Softpedia News
Andrew LaVallee / Digits:
IPhone Tethering Still Unavailable, AT&T Says — AT&T subscribers still won't be able to use their iPhones as wireless modems for their computers, despite the carrier's reversed position on Internet-phone applications. … Tethering, the process of using an Internet-enabled mobile device …
Discussion:
Digital Daily, AppleInsider, MacRumors, Engadget, IPHONETOUCH.BLORGE, Softpedia News, MacNN, The iPhone Blog and The Mac Observer
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
Join the Minimalist Google Homepage Prototype — You might have heard of the new experiment Google is running for its homepage, showing only logo and search box (and apparently search buttons, at times) unless your mouse moves over the page. To join this prototype, you can go to google.com …
Jennifer Vilaga / Fast Company:
FTC Responds to Blogger Fears: “That $11,000 Fine is Not True” — As you've likely heard by now, the Federal Trade Commission is trying to reign in freebie-grabbing bloggers and graft-happy social media users masquerading as unbiased critics. The agency announced an update to the FTC Act of 1980 …
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Twitter Down, Again, Just Like the Old Days — Unless the 400+ people I follow on Twitter have all gone mute at the same time, I suspect that something's wrong with Twitter, since I haven't seen a new message for the last hour or so. A quick scan of Facebook — and Twitter's own search engine …
Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch:
Yes, Rock Band is coming to iPhone. Here's proof. — A few weeks back, we got a press release from EA's PR company. It was tucked within an attachment titled “Rock Band Verizon iPhone Fact Sheet_V3.docx”. As if seeing “iPhone” behind “Verizon” wasn't strange enough …
Rosa Golijan / Gizmodo:
Iomega's StorCenter ix2-200 NAS Has Bluetooth, Time Machine, Chubby Exterior — Iomega's on to something with the StorCenter ix2-200: built-in torrent and Time Machine support, Bluetooth-based uploads from phones, remote access, and lotsa spiffy features wrapped up in an earth-friendly green gadget.
Discussion:
internetnews.com, Electronista, TUAW, Softpedia News, Engadget, Crave and The Mac Observer
Stephen Shankland / Crave:
Intel's Light Peak optical links could arrive in 2010 — In September, Intel showed off Light Peak as if it were the latest the latest hot idea out of the labs. But the fiber-optic communication technology could well be coming to near you next year rather than in some distant sci-fi future.
Venture Capital Dispatch:
VC Fund-Raising Drops, Marketing Not Worth ‘Brain Damage’ — Just like their portfolio companies, venture capital firms continue to find it difficult to raise funding compared with last year. — Through the end of the third quarter, 83 venture funds raised $8 billion …
Matt Asay / CNET News:
Cisco becomes a major Linux server vendor overnight — In the battle for supremacy among the software industry's Big Four, Cisco may be placing the biggest bets and angling for the biggest returns. Some still think of Cisco as a networking hardware vendor, but hardware is simply Cisco's beachhead …
Ppk / QuirksBlog:
There is no WebKit on Mobile — Last week I spent a lot of time on WebKit in order to produce a comprehensive comparison of all WebKits. My purpose was to prove there is no “WebKit on Mobile,” and to gain some more insight in the complicated relations between the various WebKits.
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
Microsoft mulling 128-bit versions of Windows 8, Windows 9 — Believe it or not, Windows 7's successor(s) have been in the planning and early development stages for a while now. We haven't posted anything about any of them yet, but we've been watching closely to see if anything really interesting turned up.
Steve Gillmor / TechCrunchIT:
Ozzie FUSEs social media teams in Microsoft reorg — For months now we've been wondering when Microsoft was going to start making moves in the social media space. Rumors of talks with Twitter have been swirling at all levels of the company, but now a subtle re-org may shed light …
Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Dailymotion Raises Another $22 Million As Costs Outstrip Income — French video site Dailymotion, which had already raised $43.5 million since 2006, has now has to find another €15 million ($22.1 million), as the economics of playing second fiddle to overseas vid portals continue to look challenging.
Google Webmaster Central Blog:
A proposal for making AJAX crawlable — Today we're excited to propose a new standard for making AJAX-based websites crawlable. This will benefit webmasters and users by making content from rich and interactive AJAX-based websites universally accessible through search results on any search engine that chooses to take part.
Discussion:
internetnews.com, Search Engine Land, the Econsultancy blog, Search Engine Watch and Simon Willison's Weblog, Thanks:jungleg
Robert Miller / Skype Blogs:
Skype and eBay Win Appeal in Patent Case — Robert Miller is Skype's General Counsel. — On October 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of Skype and eBay affirming a judgment from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas finding …
The Official Google Blog:
Quickly view formatted PDFs in your search results — Google search results sometimes include documents that were not originally formatted to be viewed in a web browser, such as PDFs. In the past, the only way to view these documents was to download them and open them in a separate viewer application.
Discussion:
Google Watch, Download Squad, The Register, Softpedia News, GMSV, Mashable!, PC World, CNET News, WebProNews, Lifehacker, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim and The Next Web, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Michael McWhertor / Kotaku:
Activision Lays Off Shaba's Ranks, Closes Studio — San Francisco-based developer Shaba Games is no more, according to a pair of Kotaku tipsters who wished to remain anonymous. The developer of Spider-man: Web of Shadows is said to have been shuttered by parent company Activision today.
Paul Bonanos / GigaOM:
Amie Street Raises $3.9M Series B Round — Amie Street, the online music store best known for its innovative dynamic pricing of songs, has revealed a $3.9 million second round of funding. The company has been raising the round for about a year, and inked a regulatory filing on Sept. 30, with a formal announcement expected today.
Wailin Wong / Chicago Tribune:
United Airlines launches Wi-Fi on some flights — Chicago-based carrier first testing service on flights between New York, California — United Airlines has started inflight Wi-Fi service on flights between New York and California, allowing passengers to surf the Web on their laptops and mobile devices.
