Techmeme: Former Googler Launches Disconnect, Browser Extension That Disables … (Alexia Tsotsis/TechCrunch)

7:20 PM ET, December 13, 2010

Top Items:

Introducing the Google Latitude app for iPhone — “Where are you?” — Starting today, you'll never again have to answer (or ask) that question when you're on the go with your iPhone. With the new Google Latitude app for iPhone, you can see where your friends are and now …

Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:

Why Google Latitude breaks for me — This morning Google Latitude was released to the iPhone. I will use it, but it's totally breaking for me. Here's why: — 1. Google Contacts breaks at somewhere over 10,000 contacts. It stops letting you add new contacts. It doesn't even break gracefully or consistently.

Discussion: TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb and SiliconANGLE

Nick Bilton / Bits:

Microsoft to Announce New Slates Targeting the iPad — A decade ago Bill Gates, founder and former chief executive of Microsoft, presented a new class of computing to the world: a Tablet PC that offered a fully functional computer with the “intuitive aspects of pencil and paper.”

Discussion: ZDNet, The Seattle Times, SAI, The Next Web and Daring Fireball

Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:

Once Again: Should Google Be Allowed To Send Itself Traffic? — The question of Google's right to refer traffic to its own sites is once again in the center of policy debate. The European Commission is looking at this issue as part of its larger anti-trust investigation against Google.

Discussion: VentureBeat

Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:
Rivals Say Google Plays Favorites

Discussion: Digits, PC World, Inquirer, Google Public Policy Blog, eWeek, Between the Lines Blog, MediaPost, Pulse2, Bruce Clay Blog, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Search Engine Land, CNET News, Tech Report and Financial Times, more at Mediagazer »

Horace Dediu / asymco:

Verizon Strikes Out in Smartphones [Updated] — [Updated] — [ITG sent an explanation of their methodology and there is no indication that the data represents inside information.] — ITG Investment Research analyst Matthew Goodman is forecasting monthly sales record for all of Verizon's devices …

NR Sethuraman / Reuters:

Toshiba plant to make LCD panels for Apple: report — (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp will spend about 100 billion yen ($1.19 billion) to build a factory for making small LCD panels, mainly to supply to Apple Inc's iPhones, the Nikkei business daily said. — The company's wholly owned unit …

Discussion: CNET News, 9 to 5 Mac, SAI, Pulse2, MacRumors, TiPb, Electronista and MacStories

Mike Luttrell / TG Daily:

Samsung unveils $1,000 “Luxury” Galaxy Tab — One of the main draws of Android-based tablets is that they offer a more affordable alternative to the iPad. However, Samsung doesn't see it that way as the company will soon be launching a version of its tablet computer for around $1,000.

Discussion: PC World, IntoMobile, Pulse2, GigaOM, Android Community and Softpedia News

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

Google Bought Stealthy Mobile Payments Startup Zetawire — Lately, Google has been showing off Android phones with NFC chips in them that can power mobile payments. The newest Android, the Nexus S, is the first to ship with an NFC (near field communications) chip, and the technology could be the key to getting into mobile payments.

Ben Kolada / Inorganic Growth:
Google adds to NFC with Zetawire

Discussion: eMoney and Electronista

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Former Googler Launches Disconnect, Browser Extension That Disables Third Party Data Tracking — You remember Facebook Disconnect, the browser extension that allowed you to remove Facebook Connect functionality from websites? After 50K active users in two weeks and hitting …

Discussion: Search Engine Land, Pulse2, Techie Buzz and SecurityWeek.Com

John Cook / TechFlash:

Goldman Sachs predicts tough times ahead for Microsoft in 2011 — Goldman Sachs technology analyst Sarah Friar sees challenging times ahead for Microsoft in 2011 as it attempts to address the threat from tablet computers such as the iPad and mobile operating systems such as Android.

Discussion: Between the Lines Blog, CNET News, VentureBeat, The Microsoft Blog, Tech Trader Daily, SAI, ConceivablyTech and Computerworld, Thanks:toddbishop

Jodiolson / Twitter Blog:

Hindsight2010: Top Trends on Twitter — From earthquakes and politics to popstars and hashtags, Twitter Trends are a window into what the world is talking about. In this edition of #Hindsight2010, we offer our list of the biggest Trends of the year. — An astounding 25 billion Tweets were sent in 2010.

John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:

With iPad Apple Will Claim 12 Percent of PC Market in 2011 — Some 54.7 million tablets will be sold next year and of those, 37.2 million will be iPads. That's the forecast from Goldman Sachs's Bill Shope, who says exploding sales of the device may well make Apple “one of the largest vendors …

Discussion: NBC Bay Area

Kevin Allocca / YouTube Trends:

Welcome to YouTube Trends — Sometimes waiting for popular new videos to hit your inbox / chat window / wall / feed / mobile / pager / two-way radio can be frustrating. Sometimes keeping up with the latest YouTube fad can be hard to do. Sometimes you want to know more about what's happening from where it's happening.

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, SAI, GigaOM, Softpedia News, Lost Remote, SocialTimes.com and Digital Inspiration …, Thanks:beet_tv

Nancy Luna / Orange County Register:

McDonald's hacked, customer data stolen, chain says — The personal data of McDonald's customers — including emails and phone numbers — has been “obtained by an unauthorized third party,” the chain has told its most loyal burger fans. — Late Friday, McDonald's sent an email …

Discussion: Examiner, Inquirer, Pulse2 and The Next Web

Mia Quagliarello / YouTube Blog:

Double rainbows, annoying oranges and bed intruders: the year on YouTube — It's time to rewind back through the YouTube videos that people in the U.S. and around the world were watching and searching for in 2010. These lists of most-watched videos reflect the people …

Discussion: Pulse2, NetworkEffect, Computerworld, Geekosystem, Pocket-lint, SAI, Laughing Squid, Softpedia News and Associated Press

Jennifer Valentino-DeVries / Digits:

Internet Now as Popular as TV, Survey Shows — The average U.S. consumer now spends as much time online as watching television, according to research being released today by Forrester. — To technophiles, it might seem strange to think of people ever watching TV more than they surfed the Web.

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, ReadWriteWeb, Bits, Fast Company, Forrester Research, Forrester Blogs, Mashable!, GigaOM, The Next Web and SiliconANGLE, more at Mediagazer »

David Yonge-Mallo / Gmail Blog:

Gmail web app for iPhone and Android in 44 more languages — Last year, we launched a new mobile Gmail experience for iPhone and Android-powered devices. Since then, those of us who use Gmail in English could go to gmail.com from our mobile browsers and get most of the same features we're used …

Discussion: Google Mobile Blog and IntoMobile

Sean Hollister / Engadget:

Motorola's 10-inch Honeycomb tablet meets Mr. Blurrycam, shows off Verizon logo — By now you're probably familiar with this slate, seeing as how Google's Andy Rubin recently unveiled it on stage, but we're willing to bet you've never seen the top edge — you know, the part now bearing …

Discussion: Pulse2, VentureBeat, GottaBeMobile, Techie Buzz, iThinkDifferent, AndroidGuys, Pocket-lint, Geek.com and SAI

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Bing Adds Natural Language To Flight Search — Bing has just made a small improvement to travel search, adding the ability to add natural language queries to flight search. So instead of selecting your airport, destination, dates or other options to conduct a flight search …

Discussion: Bing

Elizabeth Woyke / Mobilized:

Analyst: HP WebOS Tablet Coming In March — The world already knew that HP planned to release a tablet PC running webOS, the operating system it acquired when it purchased Palm. HP has been vague on the timing of this webOS tablet, however, preferring to say “early 2011” instead of a more exact date.

Verne G. Kopytoff / Bits:

Yahoo May Cut 5 Percent of Its Staff — Yahoo, the beleaguered Web portal, plans to cut up to 650 jobs as soon as Tuesday, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. — The layoffs come as Carol A. Bartz, Yahoo's chief executive, tries to reduce costs amid sluggish growth in Yahoo's online advertising business.

Kerry A. Dolan / Shades of Green:

Frenzy For Facebook Shares Heats Up With A New Auction — If you've been wanting to buy Facebook shares, you have at least $100,000 cash to spare, and you meet some high net worth hurdles, this could be your week. — Facebook is still private and probably won't list its shares on the stock market until 2012.

Thanks:forbestech

JR Raphael / Computerworld:

Buyer beware: Android Market policies are about to change — Google's getting ready to roll out a long overdue overhaul of its Android Market — but the upgrade isn't all good news. — Google officially announced the plans for the revamped Market late Friday, just in time for this week's launch …

Discussion: BGR, IntoMobile, Technologizer and Inquirer

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 7:20 PM ET, December 13, 2010.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Techmeme Sponsor Posts:

Meta:

Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few — Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.

Tribe AI:

Build AI products that matter — Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact. We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.

Zoho:

5 common accounting mistakes — This is a guest post by Yaali Bizappln Solutions. A lot of businesses manage their customers and finances on separate platforms. This disconnect often leads to missed invoices …

Hamming: