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Google Chrome for the holidays: Mac, Linux and extensions in beta — There was nothing more excruciating for me as a kid than seeing the presents pile up under the Christmas tree but knowing that I couldn't open them until Christmas morning. On the Google Chrome team …
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Google Operating System, eWeek, Technologizer, Between the Lines, Google Mac Blog, Chromium Blog, CNET News, PC World, Computerworld, The Register, TechCrunch, Maximum PC, Webmonkey, InformationWeek, Search Engine Journal, SFGate, Softpedia News, The Microsoft Blog, Quick Online Tips, IT PRO - Today, Mashable!, The Tech Report, SlashGear, ReadWriteWeb, Geek.com, ithinkdifferent, AdaptiveBlue Blog, 901am, jkOnTheRun, Google Code Blog, ChannelWeb, TechSpot and blogs.barrons.com
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Google Chrome For Mac Is Here! — The wait is over. Google Chrome for Mac is now available in beta. It's still missing a few features that are in the Windows version (like support for extensions), but the browser is lickety-split and more-or-less stable. — I've been holding off really using Chrome until now.
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Mashable!, Chromium Blog, Engadget, PC World, Telegraph, Ars Technica, CNET News, MacRumors, VentureBeat, Neowin.net, 9 to 5 Mac, AppleInsider, Download Squad, TUAW and InformationWeek


New Digital Publishing Venture Boasts Access To 144 Million-Plus Audience; Squires Talks — Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith (NYSE: MDP), News Corp (NYSE: NWS). and Time Inc. are making it formal: the five publishers are equity partners in a new digital publishing venture with grand designs.
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Now's the Time, Finally: Publishers Announce Their “Hulu for Magazines.” Next Up: Building It. — So here you go: The magazine industry is finally ready to announce that it is forming a joint venture to distribute and sell digital versions of its products.


Exploring a new, more dynamic way of reading news with Living Stories — There's been no shortage of talk recently about the “future of news.” Should publishers charge for news online? How do they replace lost sources of revenue such as classified ads? How will accountability journalism endure?


CONFIRMED: Saul Hansell Quits The New York Times For AOL — Confirming our earlier report, AOL says it hired New York Times tech writer Saul Hansell. — Saul will be the first employee of Seed.com, AOL's platform for freelance contributors to its 80+ media sites.


What does AT&T's ‘Mark the Spot’ app say about service quality? — Do you have AT&T as wireless carrier? Are you happy with the network service quality? I encourage Betanews readers to respond in comments to these questions, which are suddenly surreal now that AT&T has released the “Mark the Spot” app for iPhone.
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Offline Gmail graduates from Labs — Almost a year ago, we launched Offline Gmail in Gmail Labs. By installing Offline Gmail, you're able to use the normal Gmail interface to read and write mail, search, and organize, even when there's no internet connection.
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Obsessable, ReadWriteWeb, CNET News, eWeek, Geek.com, Technologizer, Softpedia News, Neowin.net, jkOnTheRun, Download Squad and Lockergnome Blog Network

Dell Rings Up $6.5 Million in Sales Using Twitter Promotions — Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — Dell Inc., relying on social- networking sites to drum up sales of personal computers, said its promotions on Twitter have helped generate more than $6.5 million in orders for PCs, accessories and software.


Study: Redbox Will Destroy the Entertainment Industry — If you thought the movie 2012 was disaster porn, just wait for the entertainment apocalypse that Redbox's dollar-a-night movie rentals will bring about. That, in a nutshell, is the bottom line of a new report (PDF, hat tip to Video Business) …


Dragon Dictation comes to the iPhone. Wow. — Put this into the 'I didn't think they could ever get this to work on an iPhone' category. — I'm talking about Dragon Dictation [iTunes link] from Nuance, the developers of the very popular Dragon Naturally Speaking for the PC.
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Andy Ihnatko's Celestial Waste …, Nuance is a leading provider …, Macworld, jkOnTheRun, 9 to 5 Mac, MacRumors, MobileCrunch, Download Squad, Maximum PC, Phone Arena, Digital Inspiration, The Apple Core, iLounge, BusinessWeek, blogs.chron.com, AppScout, TechStartups.com, The iPhone Blog, Advocate's Studio, Mashable!, GottaBeMobile.com, Engadget Mobile and Mobile Tech Addicts


Apple reveals best-selling iTunes content, iPhone apps of 2009 — Apple this week revealed the most critically acclaimed and best selling content of the year in the iTunes Store, the world's most popular online music seller and mobile application destination.
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CNET News, mocoNews, App Advice, Mashable!, IntoMobile, Gadget Lab, MacRumors and Softpedia News


Dell Vostro V13 hands-on impressions: ‘yes’ — What if you took an original Adamo, shaved a couple pounds off the weight and a grand off the price? You'd end up with something pretty close to the new Dell Vostro V13. We just got a quick look at the machine, and while some of the cheaper materials Dell …


VeriFone follows Square's lead with its own iPhone credit card payment system [Updated] — PAYware Mobile. Courtesy of VeriFone — Not to be outdone by tech visionary Jack Dorsey — one of the brains behind Twitter — and his Square cellphone payment start-up, point …


Changing your perspective — As an avid travel planner or discerning house hunter, you might always be looking for another view of a location before you make your final decision. On the Google Maps team we're always looking for ways to make search experiences like this more useful for you.


Dan Abrams' Mediaite To Launch Tech News Site And Other Verticals — Dan Abram's recently launched media gossip and analysis site Mediaite, has steadily gained traction as a media news blog and today is announcing expansion to other news verticals, including technology, fashion and sports.


Alert! Facebook Pages Are Changing: Are You Ready? — In late October, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the head of Facebook Platform, Ethan Beard, provided insight into the future of the platform in the company's inaugural road map address. — Overlooked by almost every marketer …

The Facebook Movie is Coming Next October — ComingSoon.net has learned that Sony's Columbia Pictures has set an October 15, 2010 release date for director David Fincher's The Social Network, written by Aaron Sorkin and starring Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake, Andrew Garfield and Joe Mazzello.


Fighting fraud online: taking “Google Money” scammers to court — “Use Google to Make 1000s of Dollars!” or “Easy Cash with Google: You Could be Making up to $978 a Day Working from Home!” You may have seen offers like these using Google's name or logo that sounded too good to be true.
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eWeek, Search Engine Land, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, PC World, VentureBeat and CNET News


Yahoo's Bartz: ‘Things Are Looking Up’ — Asked about the disparity between online media usage and internet ad spending at UBS Media Week, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz said that the gap was in part because internet advertising had initially over-sold itself: “I think internet advertising oversold itself …

New Cloud-based Service Steals Wi-Fi Passwords — For US$34, a new cloud-based hacking service can crack a WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) network password in just 20 minutes, its creator says. — Launched Monday, the WPA Cracker service bills itself as a useful tool for security auditors …


Cooliris Express unveiled — Free utility makes immersive photo and video walls easy to create and share — Cooliris has launched Cooliris Express, a free online tool that lets consumers quickly build customizable and immersive walls of photos and videos to post and share from their Websites, social networks, and blogs.
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internetnews.com


Thunderbird 3 Officially Released with New Features, Improved Look — Windows/Mac/Linux: A whopping two years at its second major release, Mozilla's popular desktop email client Thunderbird is now available as the new and improved Thunderbird 3.0, and there's a lot to love in the new Thunderbird.

How Microsoft stacks up against Google's latest search and mobile wares — Hoping (unsuccessfully so) to head off the glowing press Google was bound to get this week for its “future of search” preview, Microsoft showed off some of its latest enhancements to Bing last week.


Apple updates Airport client software — Apple released Airport Client Update 2009-002 today fixing some minor issues in Snow Leopard's wireless access software. A restart is required. — Update: Apple also released MacBook Pro EFI 1.8 firmware update for MacBook Pro 5,1 and 5,2.


France's Sarkozy takes on Google in books dispute — GEISPOLSHEIM, France (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesday he would not let his country's literary heritage be taken away by a “friendly” large American company, in a thinly veiled challenge to Google

Support for Windows 2000, Windows XP SP2 ends next July — Support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 as well as Windows 2000 ends on July 13, 2010. — Microsoft has issued a reminder this week that it will stop providing support for Windows 2000 and Windows XP Service Pack 2 on July 13, 2010.
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Computerworld