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10:20 AM ET, May 12, 2010

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
BBC:
Microsoft Office 2010 takes aim at Google Docs  —  Microsoft is preparing to launch its latest weapon in its ongoing battle with Google.  —  The software giant will launch its flagship product Office 2010 to businesses on 12 May.  —  The latest version of the software has a free online component - called Office Web Apps.
Discussion: Telegraph, ZDNet and T3.com News
RELATED:
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Forrester: Google still a distant Office competitor  —  For all the noise about — and from — Google giving Microsoft a run for its money in the office/productivity market, the reality is rather different, according to Forrester Research.  —  New Forrester data, released on May 11 …
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Microsoft Predicts Fastest-Ever Adoption of New Office Software  —  Microsoft Corp. expects customers to adopt the new version of Office at the fastest pace in the software's 20-year history, helping reverse a sales slump and fend off competition from Google Inc.'s Web-based programs.
Discussion: CNET News and Fudzilla
Jeff Bertolucci / PC World:
Google: Skip Office 2010, Use Docs Instead  —  As Microsoft prepares to launch Office 2010, the latest version of its venerable productivity suite, Google is persuading longtime Office users to ditch Redmond's apps and upgrade to Google Docs instead.  —  A pitch posted Tuesday …
Discussion: The Register, ZDNet and Fortune
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Next generation iPhone unscrewed from Vietnam (update: video!)  —  The kids at Taoviet have really outdone themselves.  From the looks of these images, the Vietnamese site has nabbed an honest to goodness 4th generation iPhone — a 16GB model to be exact.  It's clearly pre-production judging …
RELATED:
Niraj Sheth / Wall Street Journal:
Verizon, Google Developing iPad Rival  —  Verizon Wireless is working with Google Inc. on a tablet computer, the carrier's chief executive, Lowell McAdam, said Tuesday, as the company endeavors to catch up with iPad host AT&T Inc. in devices that connect to wireless networks.
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Verizon in Talks With Google About an iPad Rival  —  Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile carrier, is in talks with Google Inc. to develop a tablet computer that would rival Apple Inc.'s iPad.  —  The computer will run on Google's Android operating system, Marquett Smith …
Matthew Miller / ZDNet:
Will HTC make the rumored Verizon Android tablet?
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch:
Early adopters, rejoice: AT&T begins rolling back upgrade eligibility dates for the next iPhone  —  Okay, I've got big news.  Really - you're going to want to sit down for this one.  Ready?  Apple.. is going to release a new iPhone this year.  Probably next month.  —  Why is your jaw not dropping?
RELATED:
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
How Much are iPhone 3GS Owners Going to Pay For the Next iPhone?
Discussion: SlashGear
Gmail Blog:
Drag images into messages  —  Recently, we launched a feature that allows you to drag an attachment from your computer right onto Gmail.  —  I've always been a fan of the inserting image lab, so I naturally wondered if it would be possible to combine the two.
Jason Calacanis / The Jason Calacanis Weblog:
The Big Game, Zuckerberg and Overplaying your Hand  —  Important TechCrunch50 Message: At the bottom  —  Rights: Please do not post on the web (it's dead)  —  Last Wednesday, 10AM, Las Vegas.  —  The South Point Hotel and Casino, a couple of miles off the strip.  The
Discussion: Computerworld and ReadWriteWeb, Thanks:atul
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Digg's Biggest Problem Is Its Users And Their Constant Opinions On Things  —  There's a saying I love: “a camel is a horse designed by committee.”  A variation is “a volvo is a porsche designed by committee.”  Some of the best product advice I've ever heard goes something like “damn what the users want, charge towards your dream.”
Artem Russakovskii / Android Police:
EXCLUSIVE: AndroidPolice.com's Nexus One Is Running Android 2.2 Froyo.  How Fast Is It Compared To 2.1?  Oh, Only About 450% Faster  —  Folks, we have a Nexus One.  We also have Froyo.  In fact, we have the two mixed together in the most delicious frozen-yogurty Android 2.2 kind of way you can imagine.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Exclusive: Mozilla CEO John Lilly to Step Down and Head to Greylock (Plus Departure Email!)  —  John Lilly, the well-regarded CEO of Mozilla, is preparing to give up his post at the open-source software nonprofit foundation, which is also a for-profit start-up.
RELATED:
Jessica Guynn / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Mozilla CEO John Lilly speaks about his future and the future of Firefox
Discussion: Associated Press
Jim Dwyer / New York Times:
Creating a Network Like Facebook, Only Private  —  How angry is the world at Facebook for devouring every morsel of personal information we are willing to feed it?  —  A few months back, four geeky college students, living on pizza in a computer lab downtown on Mercer Street …
New York Times:
Facebook Executive Answers Reader Questions  —  Last week we asked readers to submit questions about Facebook and its approach to privacy, which Elliot Schrage, vice president for public policy at the company, had agreed to answer.  —  We sifted through roughly 300 questions left by readers …
RELATED:
Eric Eldon / Inside Facebook:
Analysis: Some Facebook Privacy Issues Are Real, Some Are Not
Discussion: TechCrunch, CloudAve, Technologizer and Maximum PC, Thanks:atul
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Jason Calacanis To Speak At TechCrunch Disrupt, And He Wants To Buy You A Ticket  —  We have parted ways with our long time TechCrunch50 business partner, Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis.  Sometimes, having more than one bull in the china shop can get a little messy.
RELATED:
Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:
TechCrunch50 off as founders part ways
Discussion: VentureBeat
Valve / Steam:
Steam For Mac Launch Details Revealed  —  May 11, 2010 - Valve announced that Steam will launch on the Mac platform this Wednesday, May 12.  —  On subsequent Wednesdays, additional collections of Mac titles will become available, each designed to highlight specific functionalities of Steam on the Mac.
Michelle Chen / Google Mobile Blog:
Google Maps for Android Gets Biking Directions, Navigation Shortcut, Sharing, and More  —  Starting today, Google Maps for mobile has a few new ways to help you and your friends quickly get to where you're going whether you're on 4 wheels or 2 (or maybe even 3).
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Is Google Getting Back Into The Gaming Business?  —  Google has tended to stay away from the gaming world for the most part.  The search giant did have Lively, a browser-based virtual world that could be embedded into other websites, but that was deadpooled in 2008.
Discussion: Download Squad and Softpedia News
Cade Metz / The Register:
Yahoo! to open source floating Google-Amazon crossbreed  —  Our cloud is your cloud  —  Early next year, Yahoo! intends to open source its internal “cloud serving” platform, described as something halfway between Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud and Google's App Engine.
Discussion: Network World
Johnathan Nightingale / Mozilla Security Blog:
Plugin Check for Everyone  —  It's been a few months since I wrote about the work our plugin check team has been doing, but there are a couple of pretty excellent pieces of news I'd like to share, most notably: the Mozilla plugin check now works for users of other browsers as well.  —  Plugin Check: A Refresher
 
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 More Items: 
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
With smarter chips, TVs and other gadgets have become computers
Discussion: CNET News, Tech Eye and Fortune
Lee Fang / Think Progress:
Telecoms' Secret Plan To Attack Net Neutrality: Target Video Gamers …
Discussion: Boing Boing, Thanks:victorzapanta
Jeff Whatcott / Brightcove Blog:
Solving the Online Video Monetization Puzzle
Discussion: Brightcove, Mashable!, Beet.TV and VideoNuze, Thanks:josh_hawkins
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Amazon Spying On Your Ebook Highlighting
Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:
Facebook Makes Ad Inroads
Jennifer Valentino-DeVries / Digits:
Service for Private Google Searches Shuts Down
Ryan Tate / Gawker:
Protect Yourself Against Facebook's New Hacker Path
Discussion: WebProNews
 Earlier Items: 
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
HP App Lets You Pin Any Webpage to a Location
Discussion: Google Maps Mania, Thanks:hpnews
Marc Flores / LAPTOP Mag:
Verizon Tests LTE in Boston, Wows Coffee Shop Customers
Devindra Hardawar / VentureBeat:
Mozilla's Firefox 4 vision looks a lot like Google Chrome
Ryan Stewart:
Examples of Flash Content Running on Android
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Internal memo: Hearst Magazines president announces layoffs as part of a decision to “reallocate resources” to “continue our focus on digital innovation”

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced she will leave the agency on January 20; she was the first woman to be confirmed to lead the agency

Lachlan Cartwright / The Ankler:
Sources: MSNBC renewed Rachel Maddow's contract early this fall, but with a pay cut; MSNBC bosses' plan to shake up daytime and weekend programming

 
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