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2:10 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.
Andrew Munchbach / Boy Genius Report:
Verizon Tweet: Palm Pre early next year  —  Oh the soap opera between the Palm Pre and Verizon Wireless — it's denied, it's confirmed, it's tweeted.  VZWOffers has reiterated announced that Verizon will indeed have the Pre “early” next year.  America's largest carrier will seemingly …
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.
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 …
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
Facebook 1.7 Now Available for Download!  —  * Update: Facebook 1.7 is now live on the App World client as well!  There were some rumors floating around the forums that Facebook 1.7 would make its debut today, and it looks like they panned out to be true!  The update isn't live on App World just yet …
Paul Carr / TechCrunch:
NSFW: Why Seth MacFarlane's Microsoft Guy is the end of television, and the world  —  “I won't be happy til the whole world hates me.”  Not my words, for once, but those of Seth MacFarlane on stage last year at Carnegie Hall.  The audience laughed, as well they might ("he was on the Internet …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Discussion: Mashable!, TECH.BLORGE.com, Crave and Pulse2, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Robert McMillan / Computerworld:
Mozilla blocks Microsoft's buggy Firefox plugin  —  Mozilla developers have blocked a Firefox plugin that was quietly pushed out by Microsoft, saying that it presents a security risk.  —  Mozilla developers have blocked a Firefox plugin that was quietly pushed out by Microsoft, saying that it presents a security risk.
Natasha Singer / New York Times:
When 2+2 Equals a Privacy Question  —  TIME to revisit the always compelling — and often disconcerting — debate over digital privacy.  So, what might your movie picks and your medical records have in common?  —  How about a potentially false sense of control over who can see your user history?
 
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 More Items: 
Schneier on Security:
The Commercial Speech Arms Race
Discussion: Geeking with Greg, Thanks:atul
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
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
3 Nifty iPhone Apps For News Consumption On The Go
Stephen Marche / Wall Street Journal:
The Book That Contains All Books
Discussion: TeleRead and Kindle Review, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Carl Malamud / O'Reilly Radar:
Law.Gov: America's Operating System, Open Source
 

 
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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