Top Items:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Google Testing Google Voice Desktop App Internally — Last November Google acquired Gizmo5, a VoIP service that competed with Skype by making P2P VoIP calls as well as making and receiving calls with POTS (normal landlines) and mobile phones. — Gizmo5 fills some of the holes in the Google Voice product …
Discussion:
Softpedia News, Erictric, The Next Web, Search Engine Journal, greg hughes and VoIP Watch
foursquare:
On foursquare, cheating, and claiming mayorships from your couch... Hey all - — Some of you may have noticed that we rolled out the first version of our “cheater code” - an attempt to catch some of the folks that are checking in from their couches to steal mayorships.
RELATED:
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Holy Cow Did Twitter's Top Investor Drop A Bombshell On Twitter App-Makers Today — Twitter could buy or build its own photo-uploader and mobile app, squashing third-party developers in its way, Twitter investor and Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson implicitly warned in a post this morning.
Discussion:
Scripting News
RELATED:
Fred / A VC:
The Twitter Platform's Inflection Point
Discussion:
GigaOM, Pretzel Logic, Leigh's Blitherings, SocialTimes.com, broadstuff, TechCrunch and Howard Lindzon, Thanks:atul
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
The iPad — Back in December, here's how I concluded my piece on what I expected from Apple's then-still-unannounced tablet: … After the iPad was announced, I got two types of emails from readers. The first group saying they were disappointed, because they had been hoping I was right …
Jim Hoskins / Almost Done:
AdLib - Apple's secret iPad web framework? — I know, I know, enough news about the iPad already! I haven't picked one up yet because I'm much more keen on having a device with 3G access. However, this isn't about the iPad itself, but something very interesting I stumbled upon while playing with the iPad Simulator.
Tim Wu / Slate:
The iPad is Steve Jobs' final victory over the company's co-founder Steve Wozniak. — In 2006, professor Jonathan Zittrain of Harvard Law School predicted that over the next decade there would be a determined effort to replace the personal computer with a new generation of “information appliances.”
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Kindle coming to Target on April 25? — We've always wondered if and when Amazon would get the Kindle into brick-and-mortar stores to counteract the see-it-with-your-eyes marketing advantage held by competitors like Barnes and Noble, and it looks like we just got our answer …
Discussion:
Fast Company, Technologizer, Electronista, Silicon Alley Insider, Kindle Review and TechFlash
Kevin Krolicki / Reuters:
Japan's video game visionary: the console is dying — TOKYO (Reuters) - Hideo Kojima, one of the world's most famous video game creators, sees a future for digital entertainment outside the box — outside any box. — Kojima, whose “Metal Gear Solid” games have sold more than 27 million copies …
Discussion:
VG247, GamingBolt.com, Switched, TG Daily, GoNintendo, MTV Multiplayer, Joystiq and Edge Online
Ole CaveLie / Google Mobile Blog:
Google Maps 4.0 for BlackBerry adds Search by Voice, Google Buzz, Starring, Labs, and More — We've been rolling out new versions of Google Maps for mobile at a fast pace lately, and the first Google Maps for BlackBerry update of 2010 is a big one. For version 4., we've added new features …
Discussion:
CellPassion, Search Engine Journal, Black Web 2.0, Phone Arena, Mashable!, 901am, The Next Web, CrackBerry.com blogs, Phone Scoop, MobileContentToday and Ubergizmo
MacDailyNews:
Justin Long: Apple's ‘Get a Mac’ commercials ‘might be done’ — “For a decade, Justin Long has acted in commercials, TV shows, studio features, and independents, many comedies and a few dramas. He's also done more than his share of voice work for animated fare... Long recently spoke …
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple rejected iPad app for using pinch to expand gesture — Apple refused to accept one iPad application to its App Store until the proprietary “pinch to expand” multi-touch gesture, which is found in Apple's own Photos application, was removed, a developer has told AppleInsider.
John Markoff / New York Times:
H.P. Says New Device Could Revolutionize Computer Chips — PALO ALTO, Calif. — Hewlett-Packard scientists on Thursday will report advances demonstrating significant progress in the design of a new class of diminutive switches capable of replacing transistors as computer chips shrink toward the atomic scale.
Nicholas Carr / Rough Type:
The iPad Luddites — Is it possible for a Geek God to also be a Luddite? That was the question that popped into my head as I read Cory Doctorow's impassioned anti-iPad diatribe at Boing Boing. The device that Apple calls “magical” and “revolutionary” is, to Doctorow …
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Get your e-book on the iPad (and keep all the royalties) — Tunecore has been a boon for musicians like Trent Reznor, who pay the Brooklyn-based company a flat fee of $40 or so and then see their music available for sale on Amazon, iTunes, and eMusic. The copyrights all remain in the artists' hands …
Tim Conneally / BetaNews:
Windows 7 SP1 leaks, available now — In March, the Windows team announced the upcoming release of Service Pack 1 for Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008 R2, but did not set a date of availability. — At the time, Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc said, “For Windows 7, SP1 includes only minor updates …
Mike Melanson / ReadWriteWeb:
Google Earth Fills In The Blue Parts — If you thought Google's Street View was ambitious, or even Google Earth, then the companies latest efforts to “fill in the ‘blue’ part of the planet” on Google Earth puts the rest to shame. That “blue part”, after all, comprises more than 70% of the planet's surface.
David Kushner / Mother Jones:
Inside WikiLeaks' Leak Factory — WikiLeaks has revealed the secrets of the Pentagon, Scientology, and Sarah Palin—and the explosive video of a US attack on civilians and journalists in Iraq. Meet the shadowy figure behind the whistleblower site. — Post Comment
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Gowalla Adds Real-time Feeds and Activity Streams For Maximum Mashup Action — Location based social network Gowalla quietly released a big new feature today: real-time PubSubHubbub feeds for check-ins by people and at locations. Hello, mashups and 3rd party apps of the future!
Discussion:
louisgray.com
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
iPad Sales Estimated to Have Already Surpassed 500,000 — Advertising firm Chitika earlier this week rolled out a running tally calculating the number of iPads accessing the Internet via the device's Safari browser based on unique hits to its network of advertisements.
Hitwise:
Ask share of searches increases for fourth straight month — Experian Hitwise announced today that Google accounted for 69.97 percent of all U.S. searches conducted in the four weeks ending March 27, 2010. Yahoo! Search, Bing and Ask received 15.04 percent, 9.62 percent and 3.44 percent, respectively.
Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:
UK Parliament Hurriedly Approves Online Piracy Law — The UK government's controversial Digital Economy Bill was voted for by a majority of House Of Commons MPs Wednesday night - giving music labels, movie studios and other sections of the creative industries a landmark “graduated response” …
Discussion:
paidContent, The Next Web, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb, Guardian, Techdirt, The Register, Ars Technica and iGeneration
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
uTorrent Download Speeds Beat Vuze By 16% — For nearly half a decade uTorrent and Vuze have been two of the leading BitTorrent clients. If we leave out China, the two applications together hold three quarters of the market share which equals close to 100 million users a month.
Heather Horn / The Atlantic Wire:
Is It Aggregation or Stealing? — Snazzy, easy-to-use, one-stop hub Newser is one of many aggregation sites out there (The Atlantic Wire should know—we're one, too). Aggregation has its upsides and downsides: there are those who claim shortening and collecting is a useful service …
Sascha Segan / Gearlog:
AT&T: iPad 3G is Truly Unlimited, Not 5GB — Count me corrected. I had assumed that the iPad's upcoming $30/month, AT&T 3G plan had the usual 5GB soft cap - the kind of thing where if you use more than 5GB in a month, you get a phone call from your carrier suggesting that you seek help for your Internet addiction.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, MobileCrunch, Boy Genius Report, Obsessable, I4U News, EverythingiCafe and GigaOM
Gawker.TV:
South Park Explains Everything That Is Annoying About Facebook — Tonight, South Park made comment on Facebook and its obsessives by brilliantly taking every ridiculous thing about what the social network has become and explaining it with hilariously awkward (and eerily accurate) “IRL” interactions.
Tim Conneally / BetaNews:
Skyfire: BlackBerry development just not as good as Android — Popular third party mobile Web browser Skyfire posted an announcement last week that it would be opening up alpha testing for its forthcoming Webkit-based Android browser. Within one hour of making the announcement …
Discussion:
Skyfire, Boy Genius Report, Phone Arena, MobileCrunch, CrackBerry.com blogs, Phone Scoop and Android Central
Blogger Bob / The TSA Blog:
Traveling with E-readers, Netbooks, and Other Small Gadgets (Including the iPad) — E-readers, Net Books and other small gadgets are becoming more and more popular for travelers to bring along in their carry-ons. (iPads, Kindles™, Neos, Nooks™, Sony® Readers™ etc.)
Discussion:
Technologizer, PC World, GottaBeMobile, MobileContentToday, Macworld, I4U News, 9 to 5 Mac, MacRumors Page 2 and Yahoo! News
Tom Espiner / ZDNet:
IBM denies breaking open-source pledge — IBM has rebuffed accusations that it has gone back on a promise not to enforce a group of patents if the technology is used by open-source developers. — In a blog post on Tuesday, open-source software developer Florian Mueller criticised the company for reneging on its five-year-old pledge.
