Techmeme: Diaspora, The Open Facebook Alternative, Soars Past $50,000 … (MG Siegler/TechCrunch)

5:35 PM ET, May 13, 2010

Top Items:

Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:

Adobe targets Apple in ad campaign launched today, publishes open letter from founders — If you're reading Engadget today (and let's be honest, you're reading it right now), then you might have noticed that Adobe has launched a pretty full-force campaign to call out Apple on its anti-Flash mission.

Adobe:

Our thoughts on open markets — The genius of the Internet is its almost infinite openness to innovation. New hardware. New software. New applications. New ideas. They all get their chance. As the founders of Adobe, we believe open markets are in the best interest of developers, content owners, and consumers.

Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:

Well, These New Zuckerberg IMs Won't Help Facebook's Privacy Problems — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his company are suddenly facing a big new round of scrutiny and criticism about their cavalier attitude toward user privacy. — An early instant messenger exchange Mark had with a college friend …

Discussion: Scobleizer, MediaPost, Gawker, VentureBeat, NBC Bay Area and msnbc.com

Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:

Facebook Downplays Today's Privacy Meeting — One day after we learned about an all hands privacy meeting at Facebook, the company has confirmed the meeting but is clarifying what's being discussed. The company has told us, “We have an open culture and it should come as no surprise …

Discussion: BetaNews, MediaPost, Search Engine Land, CNN, Inside Facebook, Digits, Gadgetell, TG Daily and The Huffington Post

New York Times:
A Bewildering Tangle of Options

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, Digital Daily, Download Squad, BuzzMachine, TechCrunch, Computerworld, Technologizer, Geekosystem and The Huffington Post

Kim-Mai Cutler / VentureBeat:
Why Mark Zuckerberg needs to come clean about his views on privacy

Discussion: Gawker and PC World, Thanks:aragni

Caroline McCarthy / CNET News: Facebook's follies: A brief history

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Exclusive: Google To Add Tethering, Wifi Hotspot To Android 2.2 Froyo — Google added a plastic desert sculpture of a frozen yogurt outside of their Android building today (here's Eclair, the last version), indicating the imminent arrival of the next version of the Android operating system, Android 2.2, AKA Froyo.

Jim Finkle / Reuters:

Special Report: Can that guy in Ironman 2 whip IBM in real life? — (Reuters) - In the movie “Ironman 2,” Larry Ellison makes a cameo appearance as a billionaire, playboy software magnate. It is a role he knows well. He is playing himself — chief executive of Oracle Corp …

Discussion: The Register, Tech Trader Daily, Guardian, NBC Bay Area and Silicon Alley Insider

Bob Evans / InformationWeek: Larry Ellison On Sun Ex-CEO: Blogging Was Silly Diversion

comScore, Inc.:

Americans Received 1 Trillion Display Ads in Q1 2010 as Online Advertising Market Rebounds from 2009 Recession — Facebook Was Top Display Ad Publisher in Q1, AT&T Ranked as Top Advertiser — comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released an overview …

Discussion: The Life and Times of AdMob, paidContent, The Microsoft Blog, Tech Trader Daily, TechCrunch, Computerworld and MarketingVOX

IAB:
Internet Advertising Revenues Hit $5.9 Billion in Q1 '10 …

Discussion: MediaMemo, paidContent and TechFlash

Juan Carlos Perez / Computerworld:
Facebook takes U.S. lead in display ad impressions in Q1

Discussion: MediaPost

Boy Genius Report:

Exclusive BlackBerry tablet information — Been wondering about that BlackBerry tablet device you have been hearing about lately? We have some exclusive information to share with you. We have confirmed with multiple sources that the 8.9″ BlackBerry tablet will be strictly a “companion” device.

Discussion: ZDNet, PC World, BerryReview.com, GottaBeMobile, Mashable!, Fone Arena, SlashGear, CrunchGear, Erictric, Liliputing, BB Geeks, TechSpot and Silicon Alley Insider

Chris Burritt / Bloomberg:

Wal-Mart May Sell IPad This Year in Electronics Push — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may start selling Apple Inc.'s iPad in 2010 in some U.S. stores as it competes with electronics chains for consumers who want to connect their e-mail, movies, games and music. — “We anticipate being able …

Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac, TUAW, CrunchGear, AppleInsider, The Next Web, Gadget Lab, I4U News, Macsimum News, GottaBeMobile, EverythingiCafe, Geek.com, Digital Daily and Erictric

Lev Popov / Facebook Blog:

Staying in Control of Your Facebook Logins — At Facebook, we're constantly working on new ways to protect you from scams and help you keep your account and information secure. Today, we're announcing some new tools and systems designed to keep the bad guys out and keep you abreast …

Discussion: TechCrunch, CNET News, ReadWriteWeb, TNW Social Media, Associated Press and Lifehacker

Paul Miller / Engadget:

New iPhone in Vietnam spotted running iPhone OS 4? — This is a bit of a confusing one, but we just got tipped an additional shot of this 4th generation iPhone that leaked out in Vietnam, but this time with a big twist: it appears to be running iPhone OS 4.

Discussion: Associated Press, SlashGear, Geek.com, Boy Genius Report, All Facebook, 9 to 5 Mac, TiPb, ithinkdifferent, I4U News, Erictric, Pocket-lint, Mobile Entertainment and TUAW

Ryan Lawler / NewTeeVee:

Hulu: HTML5 Isn't Ready for Prime Time — UPDATED: Hulu rolled out a number of updates to its video player today, including making it bigger, adding adaptive bitrate streaming, improving content recommendations and enabling users to receive more personalized ads.

Discussion: MediaPost, AppleInsider, Silicon Alley Insider, SlashGear, CenterNetworks, MediaMemo, Edible Apple and Gizmodo, Thanks:natehermes

Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:

Air Force may suffer collateral damage from PS3 firmware update — When Sony issued a recent PlayStation 3 update removing the device's ability to install alternate operating systems like Linux, it did so to protect copyrighted content—but several research projects suffered collateral damage.

Discussion: CloudAve, SlashGear and Engadget

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Diaspora, The Open Facebook Alternative, Soars Past $50,000 In Micro-Funding [Update: Now Past $100,000] — Whenever a service rises to popularity, an “open” alternative is usually close behind. The problem is that most of these alternatives never go anywhere, let along get close to the service they're trying to supplant.

Discussion: TNW Social Media, This is going to be BIG!, Computerworld, CNET News, Mashable!, ZDNet and ReadWriteStart

Peter Parkes / The Big Blog:

The next big step - say hello to group video calling — Today we're offering you a preview of our brand new version of Skype, which supports group video calling for up to 5 people. — With the latest version, you'll be able to bring the whole family together for a chat, for lunch, or even for a birthday.

Discussion: Skype Garage, BetaNews, ReadWriteWeb, gHacks technology news, Disruptive Telephony, Mashable!, The Next Web, Techland and VoIP & Gadgets Blog

John Gruber / Macworld:

This is how Apple rolls — Like other products, the iPad will start small, but grow large — This is how the designers and engineers at Apple roll: They roll. — They take something small, simple, and painstakingly well considered. They ruthlessly cut features to derive the absolute minimum core product they can start with.

Vladislav Savov / Engadget:

Skype VP says company isn't developing software for Windows Phone 7 — Consider the bombshell dropped. Skype, the godfather of VoIP apps and an increasingly ubiquitous piece of mobile as well as desktop software, has just let it be known that it's not planning on bringing its goodies to Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 OS.

Discussion: App Advice, WMPoweruser.com, Smarthouse, Phone Arena, I4U News, Techi.com, Boy Genius Report, TG Daily, Softpedia News, SlashGear, TNW Mobile, MobileCrunch, DailyTech and Unwired View

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Let's Try This Again: How Much Web Video Is Really iPad-Ready? — Steve Jobs says there's no reason to cling to Flash video on the Web, because most Web video also works on the H.264/HTML5 standard he's supporting. — But Adobe (ADBE) says the majority of the Web's video uses its Flash standard.

Discussion: Post Tech and Daring Fireball

Naoko / Wikimedia blog:

A new look for Wikipedia — Wikipedia has some new improvements, thanks to the hard work and dedication of over half a million beta testers and volunteers who worked with the Wikimedia User Experience team over the last year! With a beta testing group of 635,000 people and an 83% user retention rate …

Discussion: Computerworld, TechCrunch, TNW Social Media, Softpedia News, ReadWriteWeb, ResourceShelf and Switched

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