Techmeme: Google Samsung Nexus S pricing: $529 unlocked, $199 with two-year contract (Marin Perez/IntoMobile)

11:40 PM ET, December 6, 2010

Top Items:

Introducing Nexus S with Gingerbread — The very first Android phone hit the market in November 2008. Just over two years later, Android's vision of openness has spurred the development of more than 100 different Android devices. Today, more than 200,000 Android devices are activated daily worldwide.

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

TechCrunch Review: Google Nexus S — For the last few days we've been using the Google Nexus S, manufactured by Samsung, with the new Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” operating system. This is a phone that was designed with direct input from the Google Android team.

Discussion: SAI, MobileCrunch, Gizmodo, Engadget, AppleInsider, PC World, BGR, Telegraph, BetaNews, Gadget Lab, LAPTOP Magazine, ITworld.com, Android Community, TmoNews, PhoneDog.com, Inquirer, AndroidGuys, I4U News, GottaBeMobile, Techie Buzz, Softpedia News, SlashGear and Android and Me, Thanks:alexia

Marin Perez / IntoMobile:

Google Samsung Nexus S pricing: $529 unlocked, $199 with two-year contract — The Google Nexus S with Android 2.3 Gingerbread looks like a killer superphone and with the pricing, Google appears to have learned from its mistakes with the Nexus One. — You'll be able to stroll …

Discussion: The Seattle Times, Engadget, BBY.com, SAI, pocketnow.com, LAPTOP Magazine, Phones Review, Shoutpedia, techblog.dallasnews.com and Android Community

Android Developers Blog:

Android 2.3 Platform and Updated SDK Tools — Today we're announcing a new version of the Android platform — Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). It includes many new platform technologies and APIs to help developers create great apps. Some of the highlights include:

Abraham Murray / The Official Google Blog:

Discover more than 3 million Google eBooks from your choice of booksellers and devices — Today is the first page in a new chapter of our mission to improve access to the cultural and educational treasures we know as books. Google eBooks will be available in the U.S. from a new Google eBookstore.

Adobe:
Adobe Announces Adoption of eBook DRM by Google

Discussion: Adobe Digital Publishing

Mathew Ingram / GigaOMtech:
Google's New Bookstore Cracks Open the E-book Market

David Karp / Tumblr Staff Blog:

Downtime — Yesterday afternoon, during planned maintenance that was not intended to interrupt service, an issue arose that took down a critical database cluster. This brought down our entire network while our engineers worked feverishly to restore these databases and bring your blogs back online.

Discussion: VentureBeat, TechCrunch and The Next Web

Dan Frommer / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

TUMBLR IS BACK! — Tumblr is on its way back up after an extended outage that started yesterday. — While the outage was certainly a bad and stressful thing for the company, it shouldn't cost it too many users, provided it doesn't become a habit. (And provided there wasn't a massive data loss.)

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, Gawker and Mashable!, more at Mediagazer », Thanks:boodycw

Dwight Silverman / Houston Chronicle:

Consumer Reports: AT&T is the worst carrier — Consumer Reports is out with its latest survey of cell phone service by its members, and AT&T is now ranked as the worst in the country, as well as the worst in Houston. — In the 2009 survey, AT&T was at the bottom of the list locally, but came in next-to-last nationally.

Discussion: IntoMobile, Consumer Reports …, BGR, Mobilized, Gizmodo, L.A. Times Tech Blog, MobileBurn.com, SlashGear, 9 to 5 Mac, MacRumors, NBC Bay Area, TiPb, TechFlash, BerryReview.com, The Microsoft Blog, PhoneDog.com and techblog.dallasnews.com, Thanks:dsilverman

Kathy Kristof / CBS Money Watch:

Online Retailer Charged with Fraud, Threats — DecorMyEyes founder Vitaly Borker — also known as Tony Russo and Stanley Bolds — was arrested Monday and charged with defrauding customers of his online eye wear company and making repeated and violent threats to customers who attempted to return defective goods.

Discussion: Search Engine Watch, Computerworld, L.A. Times Tech Blog and SAI

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
DecorMyEyes Merchant Vitaly Borker Arrested After NYT Piece On Google Rankings

Discussion: PC Magazine, New York Times, CNBC and The Social

Gmail Blog:

A Priority Inbox update: time savings, new features, and your feedback — It's been a couple of months since we first launched Priority Inbox. Since then, we've heard from a number of you who've found it helpful in combating information overload, and we've seen evidence of this in aggregate too.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Technologizer and The Next Web

Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:

Verizon may pay Apple to keep iPhone away from T-Mobile, Sprint — With the launch of the Verizon iPhone widely expected in early 2011, the wireless carrier may pay Apple to keep its smartphone off of rival networks Sprint and T-Mobile. — Analyst Shaw Wu with Kaufman Bros. said in a note …

Discussion: BGR, PC World, MarketBeat, Fortune, App Advice, Electronista, Cult of Mac, GigaOM, Digital Daily, SlashGear, MacStories, TmoNews, SiliconANGLE, eWeek, CNET News, Thoughts from the Sidelines, PhoneDog.com, TechFlash, IntoMobile, 9 to 5 Mac, GottaBeMobile and SAI

Alex North / Google Wave Developer Blog:

Introducing Apache Wave — One of the best outcomes from November's Wave Protocol Summit was a proposal for Wave to enter the Apache Software Foundation's incubator program. Apache has a fantastic reputation for fostering healthy open source communities that create great software.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and Mashable!

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Russia's DST Out of Twitter Funding Race, With Kleiner Poised to Take the Deal — According to sources close to the situation, the aggressive Russian investment outfit DST Global is out of the running to fund Twitter. — Instead, the prize is almost certainly going to Kleiner Perkins …

DigiTimes:

Foxconn to ship iPad 2 by the end of February 2011 — Foxconn Electronics' (Hon Hai Precision Industry's) plants in Shenzhen, China have recently been notified they will ship Apple's iPad 2 within the next 100 days with initial shipments to reach 400,000-600,000 units, according to sources from Taiwan-based component makers.

Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac, Electronista, Edible Apple, The Next Web and CrunchGear

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

Android Hardware Button Order — The four hardware buttons — back, menu, search, home — are in different orders on different phones. The Nexus S buttons are in a different order than other Samsung Galaxy S phones — and in a different order than the Nexus One.

Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:

iTunes sending out free movie rentals — Apple today started sending out free iTunes movie rental codes to many iTunes users. This seems to be random and we have no idea why they're doing this. Maybe to promote the rental service? People not renting enough movies?

Discussion: The Next Web, Thanks:markgurman

Kirk Hiner / Appletell:

Appletell exclusive: Mac App Store to open December 13th? — An inside source has just told us that Apple is targeting a Monday, December 13th launch of the Mac App Store. The company apparently told developers to have their software prepared for a launch as early as Monday the 6th of this month …

Discussion: PC Magazine, BGR, PC World, The Digital Home, TechSpot, LAPTOP Magazine, eWeek, GigaOM, I4U News, Digital Trends, BlogsDNA, MacStories, Electricpig.co.uk and Softpedia News, Thanks:aczafra

Matt Hamblen / Computerworld:

Amazon to demo Kindle for the Web on Tuesday — Demo is one day after Google announces eBooks; Battle shapes up between two Internet giants — Computerworld - Amazon plans to demonstrate a new version of Kindle for the Web on Tuesday, one day after Google launched its Google eBooks and eBookstore strategy.

Discussion: Digital Trends and PC World

Paul Graham:

Founder Control — Someone we funded is talking to VCs now, and asked me how common it was for a startup's founders to retain control of the board after a series A round. He said VCs told him this almost never happened. Ten years ago that was true. In the past, founders rarely kept control …

Discussion: SiliconANGLE

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:

Cord Cutting Could Get Costly for ESPN — ESPN released new data Monday calling into question the number of people that have canceled their cable bills. But while ESPN seeks to downplay the effect that cord cutters have, it may already feeling the hurt from the drop in pay TV subscribers — to the tune of $1.3 million per month.

Discussion: ESPN MediaZone, paidContent, CrunchGear and SAI

Milo Yiannopoulos / Telegraph:

Dark forces gunning for Google — Microsoft has been funding an organisation seemingly set up to make trouble for the search giant. — Last week's announcement that Google is to be investigated by the EU for allegedly giving preference to its own services and advertisers in search rankings …

Discussion: Search Engine Land, SAI and Techie Buzz

Tony Romm / The Politico:

White House to continue copyright crackdown — The Obama administration is just getting started in its mission to shut down rogue websites that illegally share copyrighted content such as movies and music. — The White House's intellectual property czar, Victoria Espinel …

Discussion: Techdirt

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