Techmeme: Fourth quarter Amazon Kindle sales in the millions (Zach Epstein/BGR)

10:35 PM ET, December 13, 2010

Top Items:

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.”

Chris Lambert / Google Mobile Blog:

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

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: L.A. Times Tech Blog, PC Magazine, PC World, Gadget Lab, GigaOM, IntoMobile, Softpedia News, Android Community and Pulse2

Ben Kolada / Inorganic Growth:

Google adds to NFC with Zetawire — Google continues to gobble up startups, and we've just uncovered a deal that supports its near field communications (NFC) ambitions. We've learned that Google recently picked up Zetawire, a Canadian startup focusing on mobile payments transactions.

Discussion: Digital Trends, eMoney and Electronista

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch: Google Bought Stealthy Mobile Payments Startup Zetawire

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: IntoMobile, 9 to 5 Mac, CNET News, TiPb, Engadget, Pulse2, TUAW, Electronista, iLounge, MacStories, MacRumors, SAI and Edible Apple

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

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: PC Magazine, Digital Trends, Digits, Bruce Clay Blog, WebProNews, Pulse2, VentureBeat, PC World, Inquirer and eWeek, more at Mediagazer »

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

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 …

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.

Discussion: VentureBeat

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

Zach Epstein / BGR:

Fourth quarter Amazon Kindle sales in the millions — In a post on Amazon.com's Kindle user forums Monday morning, an Amazon official has shed some light on Kindle sales in Q4. Posting via an official Amazon user account called “The Amazon Kindle team,” the company official stated that Amazon has sold …

Discussion: Daring Fireball and SlashGear

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: Forrester Blogs, Podcasting News, L.A. Times Tech Blog, ReadWriteWeb, Fast Company, Forrester Research, Bits, GigaOM, Mashable!, SiliconANGLE, Computerworld and The Next Web

Klint Finley / ReadWriteWeb:

Foursquare Searching for Data Scientist - A Sign of Things to Come? — Foursquare has an open position for a data scientist. Specifically, the company is looking for someone with “experience with prediction or recommender systems, search and ranking algorithms, and classification algorithms.”

Discussion: About Foursquare and The Next Web

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

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

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.

Discussion: Everything webOS

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: Pulse2, The Next Web, Examiner, ZDNet and Help Net Security

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.

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

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:

Microsoft puts the finishing touches on Small Business Server 2011 — On December 13, Microsoft released to manufacturing two of its upcoming small-business-focused servers: Windows Small Business Server 2011 (codenamed SBS 7). — Microsoft RTM'd both the Windows Small Business Server 2011 Standard …

Discussion: TechNet Blogs, MSDN Blogs and WinRumors

Ben Rooney / Tech Europe:

Amazon's WikiLeaks Response Threatens Cloud Computing … Amazon's removal of WikiLeaks from its servers threatens the future of cloud computing and jeopardizes the huge potential growth of its adoption, according to a leading industry figure. — Dr. Joseph Reger, Chief Technology Officer …

Discussion: GigaOM, Data Center Knowledge, Virtually Speaking Blog and DailyFinance

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

Comcast's ‘Xcalibur’ Seeks The Edge On Google TV — Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) is testing a new set-top box that would bring together Web and TV programming, reports The Wall Street Journal. Little is known about the product because Comcast hasn't decided whether to deploy it more broadly …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Company Town

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