Techmeme: Live from Apple's ‘Back to the Mac’ event (Joshua Topolsky/Engadget)

3:00 PM ET, October 20, 2010

Top Items:

Brian Barrett / Gizmodo:

New MacBook Airs: Faster, Lighter, Instant On, 30 Day Standby Power — It's been two years since the last MacBook Air refresh, but Apple's made up for lost time: the redesigned MacBook Air weighs 2.9 pounds, lasts 30 days on standby power, and rocks complete unibody construction. And a storage secret.

Discussion: blogs.ft.com, Digital Daily, TechCrunch, Apple, TUAW, DailyTech, Softpedia News and Engadget

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, BaltTech, Techie Buzz, Joystiq, Digital Daily, Boy Genius Report, Gizmodo, I4U News, Geek.com, SlashGear, blogs.chron.com, iHackintosh, Techland, Shoutpedia, TUAW, The Huffington Post, BlogsDNA, MacNN, Ars Technica and PC Magazine

Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:

Mac OS X Lion: Sneak Peek — Mac OS X 10.7 Lion is here. It's a beautiful evolution of the previous version, with a more elegant interface. Here's everything you need to learn about it, a visual guide to its best features. Updating live — As we predicted, Mac OS X is going in the same direction as the iPad.

Discussion: Apple, App Advice, AppleInsider, 9 to 5 Mac, Mashable!, CrunchGear, TUAW, Engadget and dailywireless.org

Vlad Savov / Engadget:

Apple announces iLife '11, $49 upgrade or free with every new Mac, available today — There you have it. Shockingly enough, iMovie, iPhoto, and GarageBand have all been modernized sufficiently to merit having their names appended with '11. iPhoto '11 is taking the early demo lead in the live event, with hot new slideshow themes.

Discussion: Apple, Podcasting News, Gizmodo, 9 to 5 Mac, Ars Technica, CrunchGear, AppleInsider, CNET News, Gearlog, SlashGear and The Next Web

Chris Burns / SlashGear:
Apple FaceTime for the Desktop and Laptop Announced, Beta Available Today

Discussion: TechCrunch, 9 to 5 Mac, Apple, MacRumors, Engadget, TiPb and Gizmodo

Donna Tapellini / Consumer Reports Electronics Blog:
Live from Apple: iPhoto 11 gets Facebook enhancements, better book publishing

Discussion: TUAW

Nicholas Deleon / CrunchGear:
Say Hello To The Mac App Store: Like The iOS App Store, But For Your Mac

Discussion: Engadget, TechCrunch, mocoNews, VentureBeat and AppleInsider

Apple:
Apple Special Event, October 20, 2010

Adam Ostrow / Mashable!:

“Angry Birds” Publisher Acquired for $20 Million by Electronic Arts [REPORT] — The publisher of the popular “Angry Birds” mobile game — Chillingo — has reportedly been acquired by Electronic Arts for $20 million in cash. — An EA spokesperson tells Reuters that, “By acquiring Chillingo …

Discussion: Reuters, TechCrunch, App Advice, Silicon Alley Insider, BoomTown, IntoMobile, Company Town, GeekSmack, Android Community and Gizmodo

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: Verizon, DSLreports, PhoneNews.com and MediaPost Raw

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:

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, p2pnet, Silicon Alley Insider, GMSV, Inside BlackBerry, GottaBeMobile, Pulse2, Phone Arena, 9 to 5 Mac, @vanelsas, eWeek, Electronista, Engadget, VentureBeat, Reuters and iClarified

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: VatorNews, alarm:clock, 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

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.”

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

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, V3.co.uk, Help Net Security, eWeek, Computerworld, Go Rumors and Softpedia News

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 and MSDN Blogs

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: The Toybox Blog, Gizmodo, Gearlog, SlashGear and Lifehacker

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.

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

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

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

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

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Google Demo Slam Hopes To Be American Idol For Tech Demos — A couple days ago, we noted the existence of demoslam.com, a mysterious little website operated by Google. Since it only contained a temporary landing page powered by Flash, it was hard to tell exactly what it would be. But now we know.

Discussion: The Official Google Blog, Search Engine Watch, ReadWriteWeb, Search Engine People Blog and Mashable!

Kelly Hodgkins / IntoMobile:

Samsung working on a new platform for mobile phones and TVs — Samsung is reportedly working on a new platform that will power both its mobile phones and TVs. Details on the underlying OS are sparse as the platform is still under development with no target launch date.

Discussion: Reuters, PR Newswire and MobileBurn.com

Enterprise Desktop Alliance:

Macs Will Increase Their Market Share in the Enterprise by 57% — Survey of IT Administrators sees Mac Growth in Double Digits Through 2011 — A survey of IT administrators conducted by the Enterprise Desktop Alliance revealed that Macs will be the fastest growing systems in the enterprise through 2011.

Discussion: Macworld, 9 to 5 Mac and THINQ.co.uk

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