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11:20 PM ET, August 25, 2010

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Robin Schriebman / Gmail Blog:
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.
RELATED:
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
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 …
Sean Hollister / Engadget:
Google introduces Call from Gmail, free calls to US and Canada (update: impressions)  —  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 …
Brad McCarty / The Next Web:
Google calls: Not a Skype-killer, but still a viable option.
Discussion: GigaOM
David Pogue / New York Times:
New Kindle Leaves Rivals Farther Back  —  Too bad there's not a reality TV show called “America's Most Freaked-Out Tech-Company Meetings,” where you watch classic panicked board meetings.  For example, when the Apple employee left an iPhone 4 prototype in a bar.
Discussion: TechCrunch
Kevin Rose / Digg Blog:
Digg Version 4  —  I'm excited to announce that today we opened up the newest version of our Digg platform.  We've been working hard on this next evolution of Digg (what we've been calling “v4") and everyone here is really looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the changes we've made.
RELATED:
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Digg Trying Hard — Maybe Too Hard — to Stay Relevant  —  The new version of Digg finally launched for all users today, although the site had some teething problems for much of the morning.  It was unavailable for almost two hours, and remained slow for some time afterward …
Thanks:michaelklurfeld
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
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.
Kim-Mai Cutler / Inside Facebook:
Slide's Max Levchin Becomes a VP of Engineering at Google  —  Max Levchin, who was the chief executive of Slide and a PayPal co-founder, has landed a new title at Google as a vice president of engineering, we've confirmed with the company.  It's the latest leadership adjustment since …
Tim Conneally / BetaNews:
Adobe updates Web-based Photoshop, no longer demands membership  —  Now approaching its third year online, Adobe's Web-based photo editing suite Photoshop Express underwent a significant redesign which launched Wednesday.  Adobe Photoshop Express Editor, Organizer, and Uploader are included in the refresh.
Discussion: Download Squad
RELATED:
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Y Combinator's Biggest Demo Day Yet Draws Throng Of Investors  —  It's that time of year again: dozens of Silicon Valley's top investors have packed Y Combinator's offices in Mountain View, CA for the eleventh Demo Day, where the latest batch of YC companies show off what they've built (and look to secure their next round of funding).
RELATED:
Adam Smith / Adam Smith's Blog:
Thoughts After Y Combinator Demo Day
Discussion: VentureBeat
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
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: Fortune, NBC Bay Area and AppleInsider
RELATED:
Peter Burrows / BusinessWeek:
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 .
RELATED:
Quora:
Why does the Facebook Places icon so obviously contain a “four” in a “square”?  —  I've seen many people point this out on Twitter/etc, and all of them have had a (predictably) disparaging tone.  Facebook must have been aware of the allusion to Foursquare in their new icon - how do they benefit by this?
Discussion: TechCrunch
Mike Luttrell / TG Daily:
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 …
Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:
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 …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Twitter Reverts Its Facebook App As Facebook Continues Friend Blockade  —  Remember back in June when we wrote about Twitter's update to their Facebook app that allowed you to see which of your Facebook friends were also using Twitter?  Remember when Facebook blocked that functionality about five minutes later?
Discussion: Digits
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
SCVNGR's Secret Game Mechanics Playdeck  —  Some companies keep a playbook of product tips, tricks and trade secrets.  Zynga has an internal playbook, for instance, that is a collection of “concepts, techniques, know-how and best practices for developing successful and distinctive social games”.
Discussion: SmoothSpan Blog and Android and Me
Joab Jackson / PC World:
Red Hat Offers Its Cloud APIs as Industry Standard  —  As the industry call for cloud interoperability grows more fervent, open-source enterprise software company Red Hat has submitted its cloud platform, Deltacloud, to the DMTF (Distributed Management Task Force) as a potential standard …
Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:
Bing's Market Share Up 51% In Past 12 Months  —  Bing's search engine market share has risen 51% in the U.S. over the past 12 months according to Nielsen stats announced today.  —  According to Nielsen, Bing's market share in July 2010 was up to 13.6%, a 51% jump from its 9% market share in July 2009 …
Discussion: Nielsen Wire, Neowin.net and WebProNews
Mark Hachman / PC Magazine:
IBM Describes Fastest Microprocessor Ever  —  PALO ALTO—IBM revealed more details of its 5.2-GHz chip on Tuesday, the fastest microprocessor ever announced.  Don't bet that you'll ever be able to buy it, though.  —  At the Hot Chips 2010 conference here, IBM executives described the z196 …
Discussion: Electronista, SlashGear and Obsessable
Emily Glazer / WSJ Blogs - WSJ:
It's Still Too Early to Value Location Services, Businesses Say  —  Are location-based services going to be the next social-networking step for businesses?  —  The big debate lately has been whether Facebook's new location-sharing service, Places, will overwhelm pioneers like Foursquare.
Discussion: SiliconANGLE
Caitlin Fitzsimmons / All Facebook:
Now QR Codes Can Generate Likes On Facebook  —  Technology that brings together the real world and the virtual world of Facebook seems to be becoming the next big thing.  Last week Facebook launched its location check-in service Places.  Yesterday we wrote about a Coca-Cola festival in Israel …
Discussion: SFGate, Thanks:srikardhanakoti
Graeme Wearden / Guardian:
Shareholder trading values Facebook at more than $33bn  —  With shares selling for up to $76, investors are calculating social networking site is worth nearly twice as much as Yahoo!  —  Facebook is now being valued at more than $33bn (£21.3bn) as investors try to secure a stake …
Discussion: The Social, broadstuff and DealBook
Evan Selleck / SlashGear:
Sharper Image Literati eReader Unveiled, Features Color LCD and $159 Price Tag  —  Even if tablets are seemingly the focus of the tech industry right now, and even if most of those tablets work just fine as eReaders in of themselves, that's not stopping the eReader market from pumping out more and more of the devices.
Ian Sherr / Wall Street Journal:
Online Coupons Get Smarter  —  Groupon, Rivals Add Personalized Bargains, Staff as Some Merchants Gripe  —  When Jennifer London cut a deal with Groupon Inc. to promote her smoothie shop in an email, she wasn't sure how many people would show up for discounted drinks.
 
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 More Items: 
Danah Boyd / Technology Review:
Why Privacy Is Not Dead
Thanks:rawmeet
Kevin Poulsen / Threat Level:
WikiLeaks Airs Classified CIA Memo, But Real Message Is No Secret
Discussion: The Register, Geek.com and Boing Boing
Tom Simonite / Technology Review:
A Search Service that Can Peer into the Future
Thanks:albertonardelli
Jon Stokes / Ars Technica:
Evolution, not revolution: a look at AMD's Bulldozer
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Encrypted and obfuscated? Your P2P protocol can still be IDed
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Qualcomm Services Labs unveils four cool mobile services startups
Discussion: VatorNews, Mashable! and TechCrunch
 Earlier Items: 
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Why Motorola Bought 280 North
Discussion: Computerworld and PC World
Jay Baer / Convince and Convert Blog:
Is Starbucks the Most Dangerous Competitor to Facebook?
Mark Milian / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Podcaster Leo Laporte, the everywhere man
Adam Vaughan / Guardian:
Apple blocks iPhones from green ranking scheme
Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
Defense official discloses cyberattack
 

 
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”

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

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
 
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