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2:20 PM ET, November 4, 2010

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
David Pogue / New York Times:
Kinect Pushes Users Into a Sweaty New Dimension  —  With the money Microsoft has spent on failed efforts to design hardware, you could finance a trip to Mars.  —  Its failures make up quite a flop parade: WebTV.  Spot Watch.  Ultimate TV.  Ultra Mobile PC.  Tablet PC.  Smart Display.
RELATED:
Brendan Sinclair / GameSpot:
Kinect has problems recognizing dark-skinned users?  —  GameSpot testing suggests facial recognition features of Microsoft's motion-sensing camera system might not work properly for some gamers.  —  Source: In testing the Kinect, two dark-skinned GameSpot employees had problems getting the system's facial recognition features to work.
Piero Sierra / The Windows Blog:
Video Kinect brings Messenger video chat to the Xbox 360  —  It's here!  Xbox Kinect is now available in the US - and soon, around the world.  At Windows Live, we're very excited about this because it gives our more than 300 million Messenger users worldwide a new way to stay connected with their Messenger friends.
Discussion: The Next Web
Tim Carmody / Gadget Lab:
How Motion Detection Works in Xbox Kinect
Discussion: Neowin.net, FM Blog and TechFlash
Zach Epstein / BGR:
Apple confirms MacBook Air bugs internally  —  The sleek new MacBook Air models unveiled late last month are the slimmest computers Apple has ever produced — but the manufacturer still managed to find the space to pack in a few troublesome bugs.  Early MacBook Air adopters have taken …
Pew Internet:
4% of online Americans use location-based services  —  In its first report on the use of “geosocial” or location-based services, the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life project finds that 4% of online adults use a service such as Foursquare or Gowalla that allows them to share …
RELATED:
Joshua Brustein / Bits:
Location Services Have Not Caught On, Report Says  —  Checking in at Monique's Chocolates in Palo Alto, Calif.  —  Tech companies, venture capitalists and retailers have expressed no small amount of enthusiasm for location-based Web services, which allow users to “check into” locations …
Discussion: eWeek
Jay Yarow / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Foursquare Growing Just As Fast As Twitter Did In Its Early Days  —  Location based services like Gowalla and Foursquare are still used by just 4% of the online population, according to new data from the Pew Research Center.  —  It might sound small, but we assume it was closer to 0% last year.
Discussion: MarketingVOX
Krishna Panicker / The Big Blog:
Introducing the new Skype for Mac, now available in Beta  —  It was worth the wait - the new Skype 5.0 is now available for Mac today in beta, introducing a revamped look and feel that simplifies navigation and provides a more Mac-like experience.  For example, the Skype app has been brought together …
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Intel Light Peak tech coming—will Apple follow?  —  A technology developed by Intel and backed by Apple is expected to appear earlier than previously thought, paving the way for very-high-speed connections on both PCs and Macs.  —  Light Peak is now on track to appear in products in the first half of 2011 …
Rob Jackson / Phandroid:
How Facebook is Pulling an Android... and Why  —  If you think Facebook's announcements of Single Sign-On, Places API and Deals Platform were a disappointment, you and I disagree, and I'll tell you why.  Grab a few Red Bulls, blast some Ronald Jenkees, and turn off your phone - I can't be interrupted and I have some explaining to do.
RELATED:
Nick Eaton / The Microsoft Blog:
Finally, someone at Microsoft says tablets are cannibalizing netbooks  —  I finally got someone at Microsoft to admit that tablets are cannibalizing netbooks, something research and financial firms have been starting to report in recent months.  On Monday I spoke to Gavriella Schuster …
Chris Emery / Princeton University:
FTC appoints Princeton computer scientist Felten as chief technologist  —  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has named Edward Felten, a Princeton professor of computer science and public affairs, as the agency's first chief technologist to help guide government policy in an era …
James Joaquin / Xmarks Blog:
Xmarks: Alive and Kicking … I'm pleased to announced that we're in the final stages of completing a sale of Xmarks to a new owner who is 100% committed to keep our great browser sync service running smoothly.  —  The Xmarks service will evolve to have both a free component and a premium component …
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Hulu Plus Opens to All, No Invite Needed  —  Hulu Plus, the premium version of online video hub Hulu, has now opened its doors to all interested users, according to a post this morning on the company's corporate blog.  —  Says Rob Wong, Director of Product for Hulu, users no longer need an invitation to sign up for Hulu Plus.
RELATED:
Jonny Evans / 9 to 5 Mac:
Samsung Galaxy unseats iPhone as No.1 in Japan  —  Apple's taken a bit of a bump in Japan, where Samsung's recently-introduced Galaxy S Android-powered smartphone has outsold the iPhone — the first time in 18+ weeks iPhone's been kicked off of the number one slot.  —  Admittedly the figures only reflect one week's sales.
Ryan Kim / GigaOM:
Windows Phone 7 Attracts Interest As Development Platform  —  Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 is not out of the gate and yet it's already doing a solid job convincing developers, advertisers and publishers that it has a future, according to a new report from Millennial Media.
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Samsung Galaxy S first smartphone to be Wi-Fi Direct certified  —  Samsung has generally been on the cutting edge when it comes to giving its smartphones the latest and greatest in terms of compatibility, with the Omnia being the first DivX certified handset in America this month two years ago.
Stewart Mitchell / PC Pro:
Microsoft details Windows Phone 7 kill switch  —  Microsoft has outlined how it might use the little publicised “kill switch” in Windows Phone 7 handsets.  —  A kill switch is a tool that allows software controllers to remove certain apps or software from handsets if they pose a security or privacy risk …
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Twitter Now Has A D.C. Presence; Hires Adam Sharp As Government Liaison  —  It looks like Twitter has just hired its first government liaison.  New Twitter employee Katie Jacobs Stanton just Tweeted that Adam Sharp will be joining the company to help the “government better communicate with constituents.”
Discussion: Hillicon Valley
Erica Swallow / Mashable!:
A Glimpse at the Future of Foursquare  —  Foursquare CEO and co-founder Dennis Crowley spoke on how the location-based service plans to dominate “what happens after the checkin” at Wednesday's ad:tech conference.  Crowley delivered his remarks on the same day Facebook made several major announcements about its Places product.
Joe Stump / stu.mp:
Your city sucks!  (And so does mine)  —  It seems the the latest craze amongst entrepreneurs and, in particular, tech “hubs” is to pull out the ruler and compare penises.  As someone who's slept with three of those technology hubs I'm going to tell you that each penis has its own merits and it's own disadvantages.
Miyoung Kim / Reuters:
Samsung sees Galaxy Tab sales above 1 million units this year  —  (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co, the world's No.2 handset maker, said on Thursday consumer response to its Galaxy Tab tablet had been strong and sales of the handheld device would exceed one million units this year.
Erik Sherman / Wired In Blog| BNET:
Apple Tries To Patent Interactive Gaming with Smartphones  —  Games may have been part of the Mac for years, but Apple (AAPL) never paid genuinely strong attention to the market until the iPhone and iPod touch made the company do so.  Suddenly a tolerated software category became a driving force …
 
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 More Items: 
Google Chrome Blog:
PDF goodness in Chrome
Discussion: Google Chrome Releases, Thanks:rawmeet
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Ellison to Testify in SAP Case on Monday
Discussion: Reuters
Kim-Mai Cutler / Inside Facebook:
Facebook Wins Another News Feed Patent
Discussion: All Facebook
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Kik Messenger sees explosive start — a mobile chat better than SMS?
 Earlier Items: 
Chris Morrison / Inside Social Games:
Zynga's First Android Title Will be Texas Hold'em
Roger Cheng / Wall Street Journal:
Wireless Carriers Sow ‘4G’ Confusion
Discussion: SAI, TechFlash and BGR
 

 
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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