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Genentech's (And Apple Board Member) Arthur Levinson Leaves Google Board — Genentech chairman Arthur D. Levinson is resigning from Google's Board of Directors, the Mountain View company announced earlier this morning. His departure comes shortly after Google Chairman and CEOEricSchmidt resigned …
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Arthur Levinson Resigns from Google's Board of Directors — Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced today that Dr. Arthur Levinson has resigned as a member of the company's Board of Directors, effective immediately. Levinson has been on the Google Board since April 2004.


Why Email No Longer Rules... And what that means for the way we communicate — Services like Twitter, Facebook and Google Wave create a constant stream of interaction among users—for better or worse. — Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its reign is over.
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Screenwerk, Fast Company, TechCrunch, CloudAve and Houston Chronicle TechBlog, Thanks:mrinaldesai


Windows Vista: A Review Recap — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer isn't so sure about how folks are going to respond to Windows 7. As Mary-Jo Foley says in a ZDNet blog post, Ballmer told Bloomberg that “The test feedback (on Windows 7) has been good, but the test feedback on Vista was good.
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Posterous Catches Friendfeed — Since it was acquired, I have basically abandoned Friendfeed. I love the service, but I am waiting to see how the team integrates it into Facebook. — Unsurprisingly, traffic to the Friendfeed site has plummeted since the acquisition in August.


Spotify competitor Deezer raises €6.5 million Series B round — [France] - Music search and discovery engine Deezer has raised €6.5 million in a second round of financing, bringing the total amount invested in the French upstart to approx. €12.2 million.


Ellison rips IBM, shows off Sun-Oracle benchmarks, offers $10M prize — On Sunday night Larry Ellison took the stage at his annual event, Oracle OpenWorld in San Francisco, and came out swinging like a samurai warrior with a newly-sharpened sword. His main target: IBM.


Only 17 venture capital firms raise money in Q3 — fewest in 15 years — Venture capitalists are a breed in decline. — Just 17 venture capital firms raised new funds in the third quarter of 2009, the smallest number of number of firms in any quarter since the third quarter of 1994 …

‘Amateur’ IBM brings down Air New Zealand — Mainframe power failure strands thousands — The boss of Air New Zealand has launched an astonishing attack on IBM after a catastrophic system crash crippled the airline and left passengers stranded. — The massive IBM letdown …


Training to Climb an Everest of Digital Data — MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — It is a rare criticism of elite American university students that they do not think big enough. But that is exactly the complaint from some of the largest technology companies and the federal government.


LG Unveils Solar Powered E-Book Reader — If we were stuck on a desert island with only one book, this recently unveiled solar e-book would be at the top of our list! Designed by LG Display, the sleek reader features a wafer-fin photovoltaic cell that provides it with a steady stream of solar energy.
Discussion:
lgdisplay.com, OLED TV Display Lighting …, dailywireless.org, DailyTech, Newlaunches.com, I4U News, Gearlog, Gadgetell, Engadget and Slashdot


Sky Songs service ‘will rival iTunes’ — BSKYB will next week launch its digital music service, Sky Songs, in a move designed to challenge the domination of iTunes and Spotify in the music downloads business. — After lengthy delays, the satellite broadcaster has signed deals with music suppliers EMI …
Discussion:
Fast Company, BBC, TechCrunch Europe, Financial Times, The Register, Tech Central, 9 to 5 Mac and Music Ally


100 years of Big Content fearing technology—in its own words — It's almost a truism in the tech world that copyright owners reflexively oppose new inventions that do (or might) disrupt existing business models. But how many techies actually know what rightsholders have said and written for the last hundred years on the subject?

Industry heavyweights demand fewer standards bodies — The CTOs of some of the word's leading IT&T vendors - including Cisco and Microsoft - and some of the largest telcos - including BT, NTT and Telstra - have joined forces in a bid to rationalise what they see as an excess of different …

Google Expected to Beat Q3 Estimates as Online Ads Look Up — Google is expected to beat consensus estimates when its announces third-quarter financial results after the bell Oct. 15. Bernstein Research said it expects Google to beat consensus expectations modestly, raking in earnings per share …


The $1.5 billion scramble for Vente Privee by Gilt, eBay and Amazon — [France] On stage at last year's Le Web an argument broke out between co-founder Loic Le Meur and TechCrunch's Michael Arrington over whether Europe was capable of producing a ‘big win’ Web company or whether Skype was, perhaps, just a one-hit wonder.