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5:05 PM ET, October 18, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Verizon Droid Is The Real Deal  —  Verizon and Motorola finally lifted the curtain on their new Droid Android phone yesterday.  Make no mistake, this is Android's flagship product, and the first phone that will pose a significant threat to Apple's iPhone.  And it will be available very soon, possibly as early as the end of this month.
RELATED:
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Verizon's anti-iPhone gets its first commercial: ‘Droid Does’ (update)  —  We knew Verizon Wireless would soon be throwing caution to the wind in an effort to sway uncommitted smartphone buyers towards Big Red, and it looks like the November-bound Motorola Droid will be VZW's anti-iPhone.
Jay Yarow / Silicon Alley Insider:
Sorry, Verizon, No Physical Keyboard On The iPhone Isn't That Big Of A Deal  —  In Verizon's slam ad on the iPhone, it ticks off all the things the iPhone doesn't do.  —  For a big splashy ad, we must say we're a little underwhelmed by the problems the “iDon't” ad lists with the iPhone.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
This Used To Be My Playground  —  Maybe you've read some of the stories this past week about how FriendFeed's traffic is way down following their sale to Facebook.  The stats don't look good, as the site's traffic may have plummeted as much as 30% following its peak just prior to the sale.
Discussion: The Web Life, Thanks:atul
RELATED:
scobleizer's posterous:
The Second Life of FriendFeed?  —  Where do I spend my attention?  That's all I have.  Unlike many others in the tech community I don't have a lot of money to invest in companies.  I also don't have coding skills, so can't build stuff, so the only way I can build stuff is to spend …
Discussion: louisgray.com, Thanks:atul
Ashlee Vance / New York Times:
Forecast for Microsoft: Partly Cloudy  —  RAY OZZIE, the chief software architect at Microsoft, bristles when asked whether people think that new versions of his company's flagship software — like Windows and Office — are exciting.  —  “It's tremendously exciting,” he exclaims defensively …
Kurt Kleiner / New Scientist:
New camera promises to capture your whole life  —  A camera you can wear as a pendant to record every moment of your life will soon be launched by a UK-based firm.  —  Originally invented to help jog the memories of people with Alzheimer's disease, it might one day be used by consumers to create …
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's Squirrel project revealed... as the Square iPhone Payment System  —  Remember the Square iPhone Payment System we told you about back in August?  If you'll recall, the device — which involves an iPhone app and associated dongle — enables an iPhone or iPod touch …
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Pixel Qi e-ink / LCD hybrid display to debut on tablet next month?  —  It's been far, far too long (read: four months) since we've heard a peep from the gentle souls over at Pixel Qi, but it looks like the long, heart-wrenching wait for the hybrid display that's bound to revolutionize Western civilization is nearing an end.
Discussion: Liliputing, TeleRead and Netbooked
Reuters:
Software pirates hijack Windows 7 China debut  —  TAIPEI/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - At shops in Shanghai's bustling Xinyang market, fake Apple iPhones and Bose speakers sit neatly alongside bootleg copies of Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system, a week before its official launch.  —  “Which version do you want?
Eric Pfanner / New York Times:
France Moves to Win Back Control of Content  —  PARIS — Like Asterix, the cartoon Gaul who resists the Romans with his pluck — and a magic potion — French publishers and news providers are cooking up original ways to fight the perceived threat of cultural domination by U.S. technology giants like Google and Amazon.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Coming Soon: a Mozilla App for the iPhone  —  Earlier today when I interviewed Mozilla CEO John Lilly onstage at the Play conference, an annual confab organized by the students of Haas School of Business at the University of Berkeley, he hinted that Mozilla was going to launch a brand …
 
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 More Items: 
Schneier on Security:
The Commercial Speech Arms Race
Discussion: Geeking with Greg, Thanks:atul
Natasha Singer / New York Times:
When 2+2 Equals a Privacy Question
Paul Carr / TechCrunch:
NSFW: Why Seth MacFarlane's Microsoft Guy is the end of television, and the world
Discussion: Edible Apple
J. Nicholas Hoover / InformationWeek:
The Custom URL Shortener
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
MPAA: Antipiracy is now ‘content protection’
Discussion: TorrentFreak and Techdirt
 Earlier Items: 
Steven Sande / TUAW:
The future of TV on your iPhone is ATSC Mobile DTV
Discussion: The iPhone Blog, Macworld and ATSC
Stephen Marche / Wall Street Journal:
The Book That Contains All Books
Discussion: TeleRead and Kindle Review, Thanks:mrinaldesai
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Analyzing Comcast's spinoff of cable networks, purposefully structured with low debt: the move might be a signal to the industry that it's time to consolidate

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Tubi launches Scenes, a mobile feature that lets viewers watch 60-to-90-second trailer-style clips from its library to help with content discovery

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
James Harding says the Tortoise-Observer deal could create a profitable media group and there isn't a guaranteed future for the Observer with the Guardian

 
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