Top Items:
Gmail Blog:
Gmail Labs graduation and retirement — We launched Gmail Labs over a year and a half ago as a playground where engineers can come up with new features and let your input help decide which are good ideas and which don't quite work out. Any engineer at Google can come up with feature …
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CNET News, Softpedia News, Gizmodo, gHacks technology news, Techie Buzz, Pocket-lint, pluGGd.in and Lifehacker
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Rachel Donadio / New York Times:
Larger Threat Is Seen in Google Case — ROME — Three Google executives were convicted of violating Italian privacy laws on Wednesday, the first case to hold the company's executives criminally responsible for the content posted on its system. — The verdict, though subject to appeal …
Discussion:
thebigmoney.com, Silicon Valley Watcher, Wall Street Journal, fierceonlinevideo.com …, Tech Trader Daily, Gawker and YouTube Blog, Thanks:ritubpant
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Lee Gomes / Forbes:
Google And The Law — Not every Web ruling will be this silly. — BURLINGAME, Calif. — The criminal convictions of Google executives by an Italian court on account of a video posted by a Google user are every bit as inane as commentators all around the world are saying they are.
Kim-Mai Cutler / VentureBeat:
Google real-time search adds status updates from Facebook Pages — Facebook status updates from Pages will start showing up in Google's real-time search results today. — It's the first time the search giant has indexed content from the world's largest social network in its real-time results.
Discussion:
Softpedia News, TechCrunch, Search Engine Land, Erictric, All Facebook, Inside Facebook, Search Engine Journal, Mashable! and Geekword
Jolie O'Dell / ReadWriteWeb:
An In-Depth Look at Microsoft's Spy Guide — We recently reported that a watchdog site, Cryptome, was removed from the Web for refusing to take down a copy of a Microsoft document. — This document, called the Microsoft Online Services Global Criminal Compliance Handbook, or “spy guide …
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Robert Quigley / Geekosystem:Site Leaks Microsoft Online Surveillance Guide, MS Demands Takedown …
Discussion:
The Register, Gawker, Gizmodo, GamePolitics News, Neowin.net, Fast Company, ReadWriteWeb, The Spam Diaries and Silicon Alley Insider
Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch:
Sprint to launch 4G network in at least 8 major markets this year — If you're reading this, chances are pretty good that you're not on a 4G connection. Why? Because outside of a handful of cities, 4G connections just don't exist yet. — Take Sprint's WiMax network, for example …
Steven Musil / CNET News:
Report: Teen gets 15 years for Facebook blackmail — A Wisconsin teenager convicted of using Facebook to blackmail classmates into sex was sentenced to 15 years in prison, according to an Associated Press report. — Anthony Stancl, 19, plead no contest in December to two felonies …
Discussion:
JSOnline
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Foursquare's First Television Commercial Airs Tonight On Bravo [Video] — First Google, now Foursquare. Hot on the heels of Google's first Search television ad (run during the Super Bowl, no less), the location-based social network Foursquare is gearing up to do the same thing tonight.
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, The Next Web, BIA/Kelsey Blog, Silicon Alley Insider and EveryJoe, Thanks:atul
Marc Benioff / TechCrunch:
The Facebook Imperative — Editor's note: This guest post is written by Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. In it, he explains why enterprise software should take its cues from Facebook and become more social. I quit my job at Oracle in 1999 because I couldn't stop thinking …
Chris Velazco / MobileCrunch:
Android's “Blapkmarket” pirated app repository goes down hard — Now, before we enter the breach, I think it bears repeating that MobileCrunch and indeed the rest of the TechCrunch network in no way condone software/application piracy. Developers work too hard for responsible members …
Jason Goldberg / fabulis:
citibank is so not fabulis — Hi everyone. Jason Goldberg here, founder and ceo of fabulis. — In a bit of strange and disturbing news, fabulis discovered today that someone(s) at Citibank had decided arbitrarily to block fabulis' bank account due to what was described to us on the phone as “objectionable content” on our blog.
Eric Zeman / InformationWeek:
Skype Yanks Windows Mobile App From Site — For some unknown reason, Skype is no longer making Skype and Skype Lite available to the Windows Mobile platform. Skype's support page says, “We felt that Skype Lite and Skype for Windows Mobile were not offering the best possible Skype experience.”
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Yelp Hit With Class Action Lawsuit For Running An “Extortion Scheme” — Two law firms, Beck & Lee from Miami and The Weston Firm in San Diego, have filed a class action lawsuit in Los Angeles federal court alleging unfair business practices by local business review and rating website operator Yelp.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Nintendo's Cammie Dunaway shows off the large-screen DSi XL (video) — The new Nintendo DSi XL arrives in the U.S. on March 28. But Cammie Dunaway, executive vice president at Nintendo of America, showed me the product up close today during our interview in San Francisco.
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Engadget
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Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:
Mac Quicken Gets Deductions for Iffy Upgrade — Despite all of the success Apple (AAPL) has had with its Macintosh computers, the Mac has lagged behind Windows in personal-finance software. — The most popular program in the category, Intuit's Quicken, comes in a Mac version.
Computerworld:
Baidu: Registrar ‘incredibly’ changed our e-mail for hacker — IDG News Service - A hacker who took down top Chinese search engine Baidu.com last month broke into its account with a U.S. domain name registrar by pretending to be from Baidu in an online chat with the registrar's tech help, according to a lawsuit filed by Baidu.
Discussion:
Domain Name Wire
Mark Doherty / FlashMobileBlog:
Battery Performance with Flash Player 10.1 on Nexus One — It appears that there has been some confusion from the community at large surrounding battery performance. This was caused by my colleague Michael Chaize publishing an amazing video of Flash Player 10.1 demos on Vimeo.
Discussion:
Engadget, Softpedia News, Android and Me, Phone Arena, The Apple Core, Electronista, Phones Review, Gizmodo and Recombu, Thanks:sjespers
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
Apple Removes Explicit Option From iTunes — The joy didn't last long. According to an iPhone developer, the new “Explicit” option available this morning on the App Store submission software is now gone. He just got off the telephone with Apple, who confirmed the removal.
Discussion:
MobileCrunch, Pocket-lint, TiPb, Fonehome.co.uk, Macworld, Kotaku, Fast Company, bub.blicio.us, Mobile Industry Review, Phones Review, App Advice, Silicon Alley Insider, TG Daily, Neowin.net, MacNN, Cult of Mac, AppleInsider, Recombu, MacRumors, iLounge, The Huffington Post, TUAW, 9 to 5 Mac and Mashable!
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Lady Gaga generates 25 percent of Vevo's traffic — It's hard to measure just how big a cultural force singer Lady Gaga has become but Vevo, the start-up music-video site took a stab at it on Wednesday. — Ted Mico, executive vice president of digital for Interscop, Geffen …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Facebook Checks-In On Loopt — Facebook has been doing background checks, known as due diligence, on the location-based social network Loopt, a source with knowledge of the talks tells us. Generally speaking, due diligence of this kind is only performed when a company is in acquisition or fundraising talks.
Jeffrey Burt / eWeek:
HP Offers Data Center Services to SMBs — HP is bringing some of the data center consulting services it offers enterprises to the SMB space, and is packaging the services in such a way to make them easier to get through channel partners. — Hewlett-Packard is looking to give owners …
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
Demand Media Adds Editorial Advisory Board; Includes UCLA, USC Deans, Ex-Lifetime CEO Andrea Wong — It's a tried-and-true tactic: in the face of criticism about quality and methods, enlist an advisory board of experts and/or respected figures in the field.
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BuzzMachine
Associated Press:
Blockbuster posts 4Q loss of $435M as woes deepen — DALLAS - Blockbuster Inc. suffered a fourth-quarter loss of $435 million as its video rental stores struggled to attract consumers who are increasingly getting their movies through the mail, vending machines and high-speed Internet connections.
Dave Kellogg / Kellblog:
The Database Tea Party: The NoSQL Movement — Adam Smith's invisible hand never rests. Just five years ago, the database market looked like a static, three-player $10B/year oligopoly where the primary forces were inertia and profit-taking. Today, some five years later …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Hot And Bothered: Walmart Shutting Down Vudu's Adult Section — When it was announced that retailer Walmart would buy streaming movie startup Vudu a couple days ago, a number of sites wondered what it would mean for Vudu's adult content. Here's what it means: bye bye.
