Techmeme: Developer Joe Hewitt Tears Into Android's Definition Of “Open” (Jason Kincaid/TechCrunch)

1:20 PM ET, October 20, 2010

Top Items:

Apple Special Event, October 20, 2010 — Watch streaming video live from the special event starting at 10:00 a.m. PDT.

Discussion: Boy Genius Report, Macworld, Tech Check, Bits, Fortune, ReadWriteWeb, 9 to 5 Mac, App Advice, SiliconANGLE, Mashable!, MacStories, iClarified, I4U News, Gear Live, Softpedia News, TiPb, Geek.com, USA Today, TUAW and WinBeta

Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:

Live from Apple's ‘Back to the Mac’ event — Okay, we're in our seats in the theatre, and some smooth jazz is playing. The perfect complement to our huge huge breakfast.

Discussion: Digits, Fortune, Silicon Alley Insider, MacRumors, Digital Daily, TUAW, iHackintosh, SlashGear, Shoutpedia, BlogsDNA, The Huffington Post, Ars Technica and PC Magazine

Vlad Savov / Engadget:
Apple announces iLife '11

Discussion: SlashGear and CrunchGear

Thomas Ricker / Engadget:

11.6-inch MacBook Air detailed — So, we've just been discussing the rumored, and long overdue, MacBook Air refresh with a trusted source. This person recently had a working model in their possession for a few minutes and managed to glean quite a bit of detail that would seemingly confirm Apple's plan …

Andrew Munchbach / Boy Genius Report:

Apple's website outs iLife '11, new Macbook Air, mystery product — Ahead of its “Back to the Mac” media event scheduled for this afternoon, Apple's own discussion forums have outed several of the company's new products set to be introduced later today. Categories for iPhoto '11 …

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Developer Joe Hewitt Tears Into Android's Definition Of “Open” — In Silicon Valley, there are few developers more respected than Joe Hewitt — he helped create Firefox, he built the indispensible development tool FireBug, and he was also responsible for both Facebook's ‘Touch’ mobile website …

Discussion: Velocity, Silicon Alley Insider, GMSV, p2pnet, 9 to 5 Mac, GottaBeMobile, Pulse2, Phone Arena, @vanelsas, eWeek, Electronista, Engadget, VentureBeat and Reuters

Jim Balsillie / Inside BlackBerry:
RIM Responds to Apple's ‘Distortion Field’

Joe Wilcox / BetaNews:
What is Steve Jobs so afraid of?

Discussion: Inquirer, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, eWeek, Roughly Drafted and Computerworld

Darren Murph / Engadget:

Verizon to sell Galaxy Tab starting November 11th for $599.99 — Well, we finally have a price on this thing! America's largest carrier has announced plans to sell Samsung's Galaxy Tab for... $599.99. The 3G, Android 2.2-based unit (which will be loaded with V CAST apps, of course) …

Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:
At $600, Is Verizon's Android Tablet DOA? Maybe Not.

Discussion: DSLreports and Liliputing

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Google Engineer Builds Facebook Disconnect — Tired of the endless unsolicited entreaties to “Connect via Facebook” as you surf the web? Excited for Y Connect and want to keep a clean palate beforehand? Scared about Facebook not necessarily having your best interests at heart when it comes to privacy?

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Download Squad, Geekosystem and Tech Report

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Google Ventures Invests In Local Deals Site Signpost — No, it's not what you're thinking — Google Ventures didn't just invest in a Groupon clone. But the search giant's VC arm is taking a stake in a local deals startup called Signpost, which looks to help you find the best deals in your neighborhood (more on that in a moment).

Discussion: alarm:clock, VatorNews, Screenwerk, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, SiliconANGLE and MediaPost Raw

David Gelles / blogs.ft.com:

Square doesn't work with iPhone4 (Updated) — Square, the much-hyped mobile credit card processing system created by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has a big problem: it doesn't work with the iPhone4. — In a blog post buried deep in the support section of Square's website …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Thanks:dgelles

Om Malik / GigaOM:

State of the Internet: Mobile Web's Explosive Growth — In 1999, it was the rapid growth of wired web services that was the top story. Fast-forward to today, and it's the massive and seemingly unstoppable growth of the mobile Internet that's all the rage.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and Beet.TV

Vlad Savov / Engadget:

Lenovo says no Android tablet in US until Honeycomb; no Windows 7 tablet, period — If you happen to be enthusiastic about Lenovo, tablets, and your American residency, look away now. Lenovo still plans to ship the Android-based LePad in China some time soonish, but its US roadmap can pretty much be summed up as “wait and see.”

Discussion: VentureBeat, PC Magazine, TechCrunch, SlashGear, IntoMobile, PhoneDog.com, Silicon Alley Insider, Liliputing, Softpedia News, Android Phone Fans, TechSpot, Android Community, GottaBeMobile, Electronista, The Next Web, Gearlog and MobileBurn.com

Declan McCullagh / CNET News:

Google ditches all Street View Wi-Fi scanning — Google has no plans to resume using its Street View cars to collect information about the location of Wi-Fi networks, a practice that led to a flurry of privacy probes after the company said it unintentionally captured fragments of unencrypted data.

Discussion: GigaOM, Search Engine Land, priv.gc.ca, Guardian, GMSV, Digital Trends, Gizmodo, ReadWriteWeb, Pulse2, Android Phone Fans, Wi-Fi Networking News, MWD Tech News, Search Engine Watch, dailywireless.org, Engadget, WebProNews and TECH.BLORGE.com

Austin Carr / Fast Company:
Canada, Spain Find Google Violated Privacy Laws, Collected Loads …

Discussion: CNET News, TechEye, THINQ.co.uk, Mashable!, PC World, priv.gc.ca, Inside Google and Search Engine Land

Avner Ronen / Boxee Blog:

Boxee Box Ships on Nov 10th, RSVP for the launch event in NYC — We just got final confirmation from D-Link that the Boxee Box will start shipping on Nov 10th. Boxee and D-Link will have a launch event in NYC to celebrate and demo the Boxee Box, complete with Boxee 1.0.

Discussion: Gizmodo, SlashGear, Mashable! and Lifehacker

Dan Goodin / The Register:

Compromise turns Kaspersky site into malware hub — Hackers exploit buggy app — The US website for anti-virus provider Kaspersky was caught pushing malware to its users for three and a half hours on Sunday after it was compromised by criminal hackers. — The attack first came to light …

Discussion: Download Squad, Security Week, Kaspersky Lab Forum, Help Net Security, V3.co.uk, eWeek, Computerworld, Softpedia News and Go Rumors

Ashlee Vance / New York Times:

Microsoft Agrees to Unbundle Software in Deal With City — New York City has put the squeeze on Microsoft, negotiating a bulk software purchasing deal that should lower technology costs for the city and give government workers access to more modern applications.

Discussion: All about Microsoft Blog, TechCrunch, Electronista and MSDN Blogs

Jennifer Van Grove / Mashable!:

First Look: Starbucks Digital Network Is Here — Beginning Wednesday, Starbucks customers who use the free Wi-Fi at more than 6,800 U.S. company-operated stores will be greeted with the Starbucks Digital Network (SDN) — an exclusive content network curated by the company and designed to enhance the customer's in-store experience.

Discussion: AppleInsider, paidContent, Gizmodo, The Social, Pulse2, The Seattle Times, MWD Tech News, Stowe Boyd, ThinkMobile and TechFlash, more at Mediagazer »

Greg Sandoval / CNET News:

Studios once owned Netflix, bailed too soon — What would have happened had the studios held on to the Netflix stock they once owned? — The Wrap, a blog that covers Hollywood, reminded us in a story today that in the 1990's Warner Bros. was looking for leverage in negotiations with video-rental chain, Blockbuster.

Discussion: The Wrap

Greg Sandoval / Media Maverick:

Porn studio a step closer to revealing pirates' IDs — Few film companies are assailing piracy with the vigor of Third World Media. — Third World Media (TMW), a porn studio headquartered north of Los Angeles, filed a lawsuit two weeks ago against 1,568 unnamed individuals …

Discussion: the Econsultancy blog, TG Daily, Computerworld and PlagiarismToday

Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:

webOS 2.0 review — When it comes to webOS 2.0 (now actually called HP webOS), it almost felt like we'd never see the version number, let alone get to review it. It's been an intense few months for Palm: after floundering in the early part of the smartphone wars, it was scooped up by HP for a tidy sum of $1.2b.

Discussion: Gadgetell, Telegraph, ThinkMobile, UK Gadget and Tech News …, GottaBeMobile, Ars Technica, Electronista, Gizmodo, internetnews.com, GeekSmack, Gearlog, Computerworld, The Tech Herald … and WinBeta

Paul Graham:

The New Funding Landscape — After barely changing at all for decades, the startup funding business is now in what could, at least by comparison, be called turmoil. At Y Combinator we've seen dramatic changes in the funding environment for startups. Fortunately one of them is much higher valuations.

cdixon's posterous: A few comments on Paul Graham re superangels

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