Techmeme: Ten nations call on Google to better defend privacy (Agence France Presse)

3:30 PM ET, April 20, 2010

Top Items:

Brian Lam / Gizmodo:

A Letter: Apple Wants Its Secret iPhone Back — Well, how can I explain this? I got some interesting calls today. It was Apple. And they wanted their phone back. — This phone was lost, and then found. But from Apple's perspective, it could have been considered stolen.

Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:

How Apple Lost the Next iPhone — The Gourmet Haus Staudt. A nice place to enjoy good German ales. And if you are an Apple Software Engineer named Gray Powell and you get one too many beers, it's also a nice place to lose the next-generation iPhone. — The 27-year-old Powell …

John Herrman / Gizmodo:

Why Apple Couldn't Get the Lost iPhone Back — It's such an obvious question: Why couldn't Apple track this phone down? As it turns out, they may have had two chances to get it back - and blown them both. The timeline of the night goes something like this: On March 18th …

Foster Kamer / Runnin' Scared:
Gizmodo's iPhone Scoop: The Nick Denton Interview

Discussion: Gawker

Bloomberg:
Apple Gets IPhone Prototype Back After Lawyer Sends Letter, Gizmodo Says

Discussion: Digits, RustyBrick, Inc. and BetaNews

priv.gc.ca:

Letter to Google Inc. Chief Executive Officer — The Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Jennifer Stoddart, and the heads of the data protection authorities in France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom sent the following letter …

Agence France Presse:

Ten nations call on Google to better defend privacy — SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Officials from 10 nations have banded together to demand that Internet giant Google better defend people's privacy. — “While we hear corporations such as Google pay lip service to privacy, we don't always …

Discussion: Venture Chronicles

Boy Genius Report:

BlackBerry OS 6.0 screenshots, details! — If you're a BlackBerry fan, there is probably not a single thing you have been looking forward to more than what we have right here — screenshots and full details of RIM's upcoming operating system, OS 6.0. One of our AT&T sources has not only showed us …

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, The Toybox, Business Hacks, MobileCrunch, CrackBerry.com blogs, SlashPhone, I4U News, Electronista, Digital Trends, Electricpig.co.uk, Erictric, Know Your Cell, TiPb, IntoMobile, Phones Review and Engadget

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Steve Jobs Reiterates: “Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone” — Apple CEO Steve Jobs is on a roll. While he's probably had better days than today, he's lately been shooting off emails left and right in response to customers' concerns. We just were sent what appears to be one such Jobs response …

John Hanke / The Official Google Blog:

Introducing Google Places — Today the Local Business Center is becoming Google Places. Why? Millions of people use Google every day to find places in the real world, and we want to better connect Place Pages — the way that businesses are being found today — with the tool …

Discussion: eWeek, Silicon Alley Insider, Understanding Google …, USA Today, Mashable!, ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Screenwerk, Search Engine Journal, the Econsultancy blog, Erictric and Domain Name Wire

Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb: Beyond Street View: Google Photographers Begin Going Inside Businesses

Tom Krazit / Relevant Results:
New features, new name for Google Places

Discussion: VentureBeat, paidContent, Search Engine Land, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Softpedia News and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Thanks:atul

Apple:

iPad Wi-Fi + 3G Models Available in US on April 30 — Apple® today announced that the Wi-Fi + 3G models of its magical iPad™ will be delivered to US customers who've pre-ordered on Friday, April 30, and will be available in Apple retail stores the same day starting at 5:00 p.m.

David Drummond / Washington Post:

Our challenge: Keeping the Internet open — The Internet is one of the world's most important means of free expression. Yet censorship of the Web is growing; more than 40 governments censor information today, up from about four in 2002. And some governments are blocking …

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, ReadWriteWeb, CNET News, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, Silicon Alley Insider, Threat Level and Associated Press

Alex Wilhelm / The Next Web:

Google Launches ‘Government Request Tool’ To Show Censorship Requests — Google is, for good or ill when it comes to your personal information, a strong advocate for public access to as much data as possible. Google is acting on that today by launching a new tool that shows the number content removal …

Discussion: The Official Google Blog

Patrick Goss / TechRadar.com:

Google CEO talks about Chrome OS devices — Aiming to be first successful new platform this millennium — Google CEO Eric Schmidt has talked about the eagerly anticipated Chrome OS devices, insisting that the price point will remain at around £200 to £275 and that he would …

Discussion: Gizmodo, Techland, Gadget Lab, SlashGear, Liliputing, I4U News, GottaBeMobile, Neowin.net and Electronista

Mike Melanson / ReadWriteWeb:

Facebook Shutters Facebook Lite — Facebook just announced via its Facebook profile that the ultra-lightweight version of its website, Facebook Lite, is no more. — The site, which many (including us) called yet another Twitter imitation, had only been live since last September but now redirects to the main Facebook homepage.

Discussion: paidContent, All Facebook, Computerworld, Mashable!, Switched and Erictric

Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:

This is What a Tweet Looks Like — Think a tweet is just 140 characters of text? Think again. To developers building tools on top of the Twitter platform, they know tweets contain far more information than just whatever brief, passing thought you felt the urge to share your friends via the microblogging network.

Discussion: CNET News and dygiscape, Thanks:atul

Joe Wilcox / BetaNews:

10 questions to ask before buying iPad — On Friday night, I bought an iPad nearly three months after giving 12 reasons why I wouldn't. An unexpected reason came up: My wife's MacBook Pro died. I reckoned she could temporarily use the tablet (which cost way less than any new Mac laptop) …

Discussion: Lockergnome Blog Network, TUAW and Technology Questions

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Tumblr Raises Another $5 Million From Spark and Union Square. Now It Wants Your Money. — Who wants to bet on a Web company with lots of users but very little revenue? The same people who bet on it before. Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures have poured another $5 million into Tumblr …

Discussion: GigaOM, Fast Company, alarm:clock, Mashable!, paidContent, Daily Patricia, VentureBeat and TechCrunch

Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:

Will FaceCash, the mobile payment application, kill the credit card? — A Silicon Valley company with a noteworthy founder has created a mobile payment system called FaceCash that it hopes will one day displace credit cards. — You might be tempted to write this off as too audacious.

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:

Microsoft to roll out its newest Great Plains ERP release with Office 2010 hooks — On April 20, Microsoft announced it will make available the final version of its Great Plains 2010 ERP offering, a product three years in the making, as of May 1. — Dynamics GP is one of four different ERP lines developed and sold by Microsoft.

Discussion: eWeek, Microsoft and Softpedia News

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

Apple Releases iPhone OS 4 Beta 2 and SDK to Developers — Apple today released via the iPhone Dev Center its second beta version of iPhone OS 4 and the associated Software Development Kit (SDK) for developers to use in creating and updating applications. The initial versions of iPhone OS 4 …

Discussion: Engadget

John D. Sutter / CNN:

‘Skinput’ system turns hands into buttons — Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) — In Chris Harrison's ideal world, mobile phones would be the size of matchbooks. They'd have full-size keyboards. They'd browse the Web. They'd play videos. — And, most importantly, you'd never have to touch them.

Jack Neff / AdAge:

Nielsen: Facebook's Ads Work Pretty Well — When Social Ads Collide With Stated Interests, Awareness Goes Up — BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) — It pays to have fans on Facebook if you want your ads to work there too, according to the first public study to come out of the collaboration of Nielsen Co. and Facebook.

Discussion: MediaPost, Mashable!, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, VatorNews, TechCrunch, paidContent and Jon Burg's Future Visions

Ian Betteridge / Technovia:

Has Gizmodo broken the law with its iPhone story? — I am not a lawyer. But I do play one on the weekends. — More importantly, over the years I've become intimately familiar with the law as it affects journalists on both sides of the pond. I've covered cases like the “trade secrets” …

Discussion: Daring Fireball

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

As Abbott Flocks From Palm To Twitter, Pass Becomes The First Twitter CTO — Last Friday, news hit that Michael Abbott, Palm's head of software and services, the man in charge of its webOS platform, was leaving the company. The news, which broke via a regulatory filing …

Discussion: FierceMobileContent and AppScout

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 3:30 PM ET, April 20, 2010.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Techmeme Sponsor Posts:

Meta:

Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few — Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.

Tribe AI:

Build AI products that matter — Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact. We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.

Zoho:

CIO challenge 5: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs? — Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series! After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …

Hamming: