Top Items:
Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:
The CLIQ, Storm2 Join Long Parade of iPhone Threats — (See Correction & Amplification below.) — It's raining smart phones. No, make that super-smart phones, the type of hand-held computer, like Apple's iPhone or the models powered by Google's Android software, that browse the Web well …
The Anti LumberJack / Gizmodo:
Barnes and Noble's E-Reader Like a Kindle/iPhone Chimera: First Photos and Details — Barnes and Noble's late to e-books. But the company's new gadget—first seen here—should address the weaknesses of all other readers with multiple screens, each playing to tech strengths.
Discussion:
PC World, Tech Beat, Android and Me, Engadget, Mashable!, ChannelWeb, MediaFile, Mobilewhack.com, Gearlog, eWeek, Gadgetell, jkOnTheRun, Gadget Lab, AppleInsider, Pocket-lint.com, CNET News, TeleRead, Obsessable, TG Daily, The Next Web, Silicon Alley Insider, CrunchGear, Electronista, Maximum PC, Technologizer, Smalltalk Tidbits …, Ubergizmo, SlashGear, DVICE, 9 to 5 Mac, The Toybox and Fast Company
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Want That Early Chrome OS Build? You Got It. — The hits keep on coming from Jonathan Frederickson, the TechCrunch reader who turned our initial revelation of a “chromeos” folder on the Chromium build site into a full-on walk through. Today, he's doing what Google won't: Making the early Chrome OS build available for download.
Discussion:
Living in a Google World, The Next Web, PC World, Google Watch, Erictric, Redmond Pie, Gizmodo, LinuxWorld.com, geeksmack.net and Electricpig.co.uk
Mark Wilson / Gizmodo:
Walmart Offering $45 Unlimited Cellphone Plan Nationwide — Walmart has been beta testing their exclusive Straight Talk no-contract wireless service for months, but now the retailer will offer two low-cost wireless plans nationwide starting October 18th, including an unlimited plan for just $45.
Discussion:
PR Newswire, Technologizer, IntoMobile, L.A. Times Tech Blog, PC Magazine, MobileCrunch and Mobilewhack.com
Jenna Wortham / Bits:
UrbanSpoon Makes It Easier to ‘Scope’ Out Restaurants — Most people using the UrbanSpoon iPhone application give their phones a vigorous shake to serve up a list of restaurants in the immediate vicinity. — But now they have a new way to find a place to get a bite: Aim the iPhone …
Zachary M. Seward / Nieman Journalism Lab:
How The Huffington Post uses real-time testing to write better headlines — From direct mail to web design, A/B testing is considered a gold standard of user research: Show one version to half your audience and another version to the other half; compare results, and adjust accordingly.
Olga Kharif / Business Week:
Wi-Fi Is About to Get a Whole Lot Easier — A consortium that includes Intel, Cisco, and Apple is set to release new technology called Wi-Fi Direct that will turn a slew of gadgets into hotspots — Going Wi-Fi is about to get a lot easier. For many consumers, setting up an in-home Wi-Fi connection point is something of a hassle.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Mashable!, PC World, Ars Technica, PR Newswire, Wi-Fi Networking News, Associated Press, NEWSFACTOR, BetaNews, internetnews.com, GottaBeMobile.com and gdgt
RELATED:
AppleInsider:
Mac sales grow 11.8% as Apple takes 9.4% U.S. market share — Mac sales saw double-digit growth in the third quarter of 2009, maintaining Apple's position as the fourth-largest U.S. PC manufacturer, according to new data released Wednesday from IDC. — Overall, Apple came in fourth for U.S. vendors …
Tim Danton / PC Pro:
Acer 3D laptop review: first look — dual-booting Android and Windows 7 netbook at today's global press conference: it also revealed the world's first mainstream 3D laptop, the Acer Aspire 5738PG (at this point, I should point out to Acer that if Apple launched a 3D laptop it probably wouldn't give it a terrible name like 5738PG).
RELATED:
Sebastian Rupley / GigaOM:Acer's Dual-Boot Netbook, Liquid Phone: More Open Doors for Android?
Discussion:
The Register, Engadget, IntoMobile, NEWSFACTOR, Mobile Knots, DisplayBlog and Maximum PC
Ina Fried / CNET News:
Lawsuits filed over Sidekick outages — It was only a matter of time, but the T-Mobile Sidekick issue has now spilled over to the courthouse. — A number of lawsuits have been filed, including two filed in federal court in Northern California on Wednesday that allege both negligence …
Laura June / Engadget:
Acer: we'll overtake Dell as world's number two PC maker... soon — Acer's President Gianfranco Lanci is talking some big talk these days, but not completely without reason. The Taiwan-based computer manufacturer says it does not expect to see a decline in revenue this year over last …
Ellen McGirt / Fast Company:
Intel Risks It All (Again) — How Sean Maloney and brand guru Deborah Conrad are helping Intel's first carpet-dweller CEO reengineer the company once known as Chipzilla — and free the bong. — When Paul Otellini, Intel's famously reserved CEO first heard the news, he got quiet.
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Applause For Finland: First Country To Make Broadband Access A Legal Right — Kudos to the Finnish government, which has just introduced laws guaranteeing broadband access to every person living in Finland (5.5 million people, give or take). — This is reportedly a first worldwide.
Discussion:
CNET News, Gizmodo, Techdirt, Tech Beat, Boing Boing, DSLreports, Technology Liberation Front, IntoMobile, PC World, Technologizer, Texas Startup Blog, geeksmack.net and The Next Web, Thanks:atul
Blogger / Dial-a-Phone:
Motorola Comeback Plan Revealed — With all that talk about the Motorola Sholes, Tao, A855 going on, we decided it was time for a little bit of digging. And look what we've stumbled across, only Motorola's Q4 2009 and Q1 2010 Roadmap! — The Roadmap shows Motorola's Medium and Higher Tier Social Smartphones.
Gina Trapani / Lifehacker:
Google Wave's Best Use Cases — Last week we asked a simple question: How will you use Google Wave? Over 600 responses later, we're sending Wave nominations to the people who had the best use cases. Here are a few. — Education: Increasing Interactivity and Collaborative Learning
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Owen Van Natta / MySpace:
MySpace Adds Top Talent to Executive Ranks — Today MySpace is pleased to announce several new executive appointments that support our technology and partnership goals. First, Nada Stirratt has joined MySpace in the role of Chief Revenue Officer, effective immediately.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Striving For Four Billion Mobile Users, Twitter Strikes SMS Deal With Largest Indian Carrier — In the U.S., many of us use Twitter through its website or through a third-party client that uses its APIs. But an original key to Twitter, and one that remains very important to reaching the widest possible audience, is text messaging.
Discussion:
PC World, VentureBeat, Times of India, Twitter Blog, TELECOM TALK, WATBlog.com, paidContent, AppScout and MediaNama
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Is Steve Jobs more popular than Jesus? — Apple's CEO tops two polls in one week. Will no one rid us of these meddlesome lists? — Photo: Apple Inc. — Last Thursday, Oct. 8, an Agenda Setters panel named Steve Jobs the most influential individual in the global technology industry …
Dan Nosowitz / Gizmodo:
Next-Generation Flip MinoHD: Sleeker Design, Double the Memory — The newest Flip MinoHD was just announced, and it's a lot like the first-gen, but with upgrades all around. You've got double the memory, a much sleeker aluminum design, bigger screen and HDMI port. Sweet!
Don Reisinger / CNET News:
Samsung delivers Blockbuster, Amazon on-demand video — Samsung announced on Wednesday that on-demand video services from Blockbuster and Amazon are coming to some of its home entertainment products. — Blockbuster OnDemand, which allows people to rent or purchase video content on a one-off basis …
Discussion:
Electronista
HardMac.com:
Future Mac Pro: Apple to Enjoy Short-Term Exclusive Use of Future Xeon CPU? — According to one of our sources, Apple is finalizing the future Mac Pro models. They are currently testing the last evolution of Xeon CPU, known as Gulftown, that Intel only demoed a couple of times so far.
Karen Pinchin / Globe and Mail:
Bands see Web as friend and foe in quest to make it big — While technology can help bands get noticed, musicians say it's also the biggest impediment to achieving success — Victoria — Special to Globetechnology.com — Before he signs a new band to his independent music label …
Motoko Rich / New York Times:
Libraries and Readers Wade Into Digital Lending — Kate Lambert recalls using her library card just once or twice throughout her childhood. Now, she uses it several times a month. — The lure? Electronic books she can download to her laptop. Beginning earlier this year, Ms. Lambert …
Jeff Weiner / The LinkedIn Blog:
LinkedIn: 50 million professionals worldwide — As of early this morning, LinkedIn has 50 million users worldwide and we're growing that figure at roughly one new member per second. When LinkedIn launched in 2003, it took 477 days — almost a year and four months — to reach our first million members.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, MediaPost, bub.blicio.us, Mashable!, VentureBeat and Search Engine Watch, Thanks:mariosundar
Juan Carlos Perez / Computerworld:
Bugs hit Google Docs after recent upgrade — IDG News Service - Google Docs users are having problems printing, exporting and uploading certain files, the company acknowledged, as it is rolling out a set of upgrades to the hosted office productivity suite. — In two separate postings …
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Layar Brings Augmented Reality Browser To The iPhone (Screenshots) — Half an hour ago, I just had an iPhone 3GS. Now, I have an iPhone 3GS with Layar installed. — It was one of the main questions I had for the Dutch company, which markets an augmented reality browser …
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
AT&T Attacks Google Voice Again — This Time With Nuns — Is this nun praying for Google Voice? — AT&T today countered Google's claims that it's blocking Google Voice calls to rural areas because they're directed to free conference call lines and sex hotlines engaged in the dubious practice …
Roger Thompson / AVG Blogs:
Hacked Facebook applications reach out to exploit sites in Russia — All the social networking sites have issues with calling out to exploit pages. Usually what happens is that someone's website gets hacked, and because they link to it from their MySpace or Facebook page …
Discussion:
Computerworld
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
What 5% Drop? ComScore Says Bing Search Share Stayed Steady In September — Earlier this month, a couple reports came out suggesting that Bing's search market share took a hit in September. Hitwise reported that Bing's share of U.S. searches was down 5 percent (in absolute terms, it was a half-point drop to 8.9 percent share).
