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Call phones from Gmail — Gmail voice and video chat makes it easy to stay in touch with friends and family using your computer's microphone and speakers. But until now, this required both people to be at their computers, signed into Gmail at the same time.
Discussion:
Google Operating System, Between the Lines Blog, Google Voice Blog, TechCrunch, GottaBeMobile, VentureBeat, The Seattle Times, Technologizer, ReadWriteWeb, Fast Company, 9 to 5 Mac, SFGate, Digital Daily, Tech Trader Daily, The Next Web, Faster Forward, Softpedia News, Hillicon Valley, I4U News, PhoneDog.com, Lifehacker, Erictric, Geekosystem, TiPb, 901am, Switched, USA Today, Boy Genius Report, SlashGear, DSLreports, GeekSugar and CNET News
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Google Voice Phone Booths To Start Popping Up In Airports, Universities — Google wants to get you hooked on Google Voice, and it's got a new weapon in its arsenal: charming red telephone booths inspired by the sort that litter the UK. Today at a press event where it announced the launch …
Discussion:
Download Squad, BetaNews, Black Web 2.0 and Electronista


Google introduces Voice in Gmail, free calls to US and Canada (update: video) — Rumors have been buzzing about since June, but Google just made it official — the company's baking Google Voice calls right into Gmail today. Like the Google Chat text, voice and video chat integrated …
Discussion:
The Toybox Blog, Mashable!, Fortune, TechSpot, Newlaunches.com, The Tech Report and Geek.com

Live Blogging The Google Voice Press Gathering
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider and Download Squad


Is this Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 9 interface? — Microsoft has delivered four developer previews of Internet Explorer (IE) 9 so far, but has yet to show off the new interface for its next-generation browser. That is expected to happen on September 15, during Microsoft's beta launch event in San Francisco.

Apple's New Video Strategy Coming Into Focus — The blogosphere has been buzzing with talk of a radically updated version of the Apple TV set-top box. It turns out Apple plans to unveil the $99 device at an event on Sept. 7, my Bloomberg colleagues and I reported today .
Discussion:
Computerworld, AppleInsider, Silicon Alley Insider, BetaNews, CNN, The Toybox Blog, NewTeeVee, MacRumors, NBC Bay Area, MacStories and iPodNN, more at Mediagazer »
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New Apple TV will have ARM processor, App Store access - report — Like the iPhone 4 and iPad, the new Apple TV will run the iOS operating system and be powered by a processor with ARM architecture, and will also have access to the App Store, according to one prominent analyst.
Discussion:
Bits, Fortune, VatorNews, everythingiCafe, New York Times, Softpedia News and Mashable!

Controlling Apple TV
Discussion:
VideoNuze and The Mobile Gadgeteer Blog


Apple Issues Invitation For September 1 “Special Event” — Apple (AAPL) has e-mailed invitations to the media for a “special event” to be held September 1 at 10 a.m. at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Previous reports suggested that Apple would be holding an event on September 7 …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Engadget, Technologizer, Ars Technica, App Advice and Digital Daily
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Is Apple Really Going To Announce A TV Gadget At An Event With A Guitar On The Invitation? — Apple has invited reporters to an event in San Francisco on Sept. 1, with this guitar as the invitation art. — This tells us it's obvious that Apple will announce updates to its music lineup at the event …
Discussion:
AppleInsider


Amazon Loses E-Book Deal — A month after jolting the book industry with a deal to give Amazon.com Inc. exclusive digital access to some of the country's best-known literary works, literary agent Andrew Wylie is largely abandoning the agreement. — The Amazon deal was struck after Mr. Wylie failed …
Discussion:
DailyFinance, New York Times, NYConvergence and Future Tense, more at Mediagazer »


Amazon: New Kindles Selling At Record Rates, U.S. Store Now Has Over 670,000 Books — Amazon has announced today that more “next generation Kindles were ordered in the first four weeks of availability than in the same timeframe following any other Kindle launch, making the new Kindles the fastest-selling ever.”
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Apple blocks iPhones from green ranking scheme — Scheme rates handsets on factors such as ecological impact of raw materials, manufacturing process and energy efficiency — • iPhone app pitches climate change science against scepticism — Apple has refused to allow its iPhones …


Hey, Digg — This 17-Year-Old Knows What You Are Thinking — Hard-core Digg users and fans of the link-sharing site — the so-called “Digg Nation” — spend a lot of their time trying to push their favorite links to the front page, competing with each other for the number of “diggs” …
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New Version of Digg Goes Live For Everyone This Morning
Discussion:
Geekosystem


Podcaster Leo Laporte, the everywhere man — Leo Laporte arrived Thursday at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank. — On Friday morning he arrived at the office of KFI AM 640, the radio station that airs his syndicated “The Tech Guy” program. At 3:42 p.m., he was back at the airport, ready to fly home to Petaluma, Calif.


Defense official discloses cyberattack — Now it is official: The most significant breach of U.S. military computers was caused by a flash drive inserted into a U.S. military laptop on a post in the Middle East in 2008. — In an article to be published Wednesday discussing the Pentagon's cyberstrategy …
Discussion:
New York Times, Computerworld, Security Watch, Gizmodo and Technology Liberation Front


Google's Gaming Advocate Leaves After Only 4 Months On The Job — In April of this year, signs started pointing to Google getting serious about gaming. That was when they hired gaming industry vet Mark DeLoura (formerly of Ubisoft, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Nintendo and others) to be their developer advocate for games.
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, Satori and Android Phone Fans

Android Revenue - Advanced Task Manager — Background — “Advanced Task Manager” is an Android application I created in February 2009. At that time, it was needed mainly to kill running services that a number of applications spawned but never ended. Some of these services would start …
Discussion:
IntoMobile, Silicon Alley Insider and FierceDeveloper
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Advanced Task Manager app maker makes $80,000 with Android app
Discussion:
Androidheadlines.com


Is Starbucks the Most Dangerous Competitor to Facebook? — Starbucks is not only offering free Wi-Fi in all stores come this fall, but also unveiling their Starbucks Digital Network that all in-store web and mobile users will have the opportunity to enjoy (it's a partnership with Yahoo!).


$750K for Flowtown's Social Marketing to Existing Customers — Yes, Flowtown is yet another social media marketing company, but it's not just another tool for monitoring customer feedback through their tweets. Flowtown takes a list of your existing customers' email addresses and delivers profiles …
Discussion:
alarm:clock, TechCrunch and VentureBeat


CollegeOnly, a Social Network Just for the University Set — When Facebook arrived at my university near the end of my fourth year, I remember feeling a huge wave of relief. — Not because I had an easy way to keep in touch with my friends after college but because the site arrived …
Discussion:
paidContent, Silicon Alley Insider and VentureBeat


Digital Chocolate sues Facebook game giant Zynga over Mafia Wars — Casual gaming company Digital Chocolate has just filed suit against Zynga, the leader in social gaming, because it says it owns the exclusive rights to the name “Mafia Wars.” — Zynga's Facebook game Mafia Wars has become …
Discussion:
Inside Social Games, paidContent, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Gamezebo, SocialTimes.com and GamePolitics News


Why Motorola Bought 280 North — Andy Rubin (Google) and Dr. Sanjay K. Jha (Motorola) join Om Malik on stage at Mobilize 2009 in San Francisco. — Motorola is buying 280 North, a tiny software and web applications start-up started by ex-Apple employees, for $20 million.
Discussion:
mocoNews and TechCrunch


3 Colombian teens on Facebook hit list killed in past 10 days — The hit list on Facebook gave the people named three days to leave the town of Puerto Asis, Colombia, or be executed — (CNN) — Three teens who were on a 69-name hit list posted on Facebook have been killed in the past 10 days …


Why We Never Talk Anymore — While perusing some Nielsen mobile trends data this morning, I was prompted to check my phone bill, and found that I've been using less than 500 minutes a month for past six months. Wow! We really don't talk anymore! — In the last few decades …
Discussion:
CNN, IntoMobile and Black Web 2.0, Thanks:atul


GameCrush Is Crushing It. Investors Agree. — San Francisco based GameCrush is part happy hour at the local bar, part old school “900 chat line.” Users come to the site to play games with others, and there's a video/audio cam. The only hitch is that you have to pay $.60/minute to do so.