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Exclusive: Twitter Raises $200 Million at $3.7 Billion Valuation; Adds McCue and Rosenblatt to Board — Twitter has completed its latest round of funding-$200 million at a $3.7 billion valuation-with Kleiner Perkins as the lead investor, according to sources familiar with the situation.
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Meaningful Growth — In the past 12 months, Twitter users sent an astonishing 25 billion Tweets and we added more than 100 million new registered accounts. In that time, our team has grown from 130 people to more than 350 today. We're thankful for every Tweet, every account …
Discussion:
Mashable!, Wall Street Journal, Bits, paidContent, Softpedia News, GigaOM, ITworld.com, SAI, CNET News, L.A. Times Tech Blog and Between the Lines Blog

New MacBook Pros with upgraded designs, Cheaper iMacs with new screen sizes in 2011 — Digitimes reports that Apple is set to unveil upgrades to both their MacBook Pro and iMac lines in the first half of 2011. The report claims that Apple has four new MacBook Pro models in store …
Discussion:
Electronista
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Apple to upgrade MacBook Pro and iMac in 1H11 — In addition to iPad, Apple is set to launch upgraded MacBook Pro and iMac models in the first half of 2011, according to sources from upstream component makers. — The sources noted that Apple plans to launch at least four upgraded MacBook Pros …
Discussion:
Fortune, MacRumors, CrunchGear, Redmond Pie, THINQ.co.uk, SlashGear, Erictric, Thoughts from the Sidelines, AppleInsider, Engadget, Softpedia News, TUAW and Edible Apple


Flipboard Adds Google Reader, Flickr and More … It has only been a couple of weeks since its last major update, but today Flipboard, the social magazine for iPad, has released yet another new version of its app into the iTunes App Store. This time around, Flipboard has added support …
Discussion:
Search Engine Watch, Forbes, SAI, Gadgetell, Technologizer, Gadget Lab, NetworkEffect, TeleRead, At Your Servers, Mashable!, iThinkDifferent, 9 to 5 Mac and ThinkMobile
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New version of Flipboard not the one I'm waiting for (but it's quite nice anyway)
Discussion:
Inside Flipboard, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Gadget Lab, louisgray.com and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, Thanks:badqat


Apple's Best Kept Secret: Ad Hoc Installs for Testing Purposes — One of the major pain points in developing mobile applications for iOS devices (iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad) is testing those apps. As we've noted before, the traditional testing method is time-consuming and cumbersome …

Making Photo Tagging Easier — Every day, people add more than 100 million tags to photos on Facebook. They do it because it's an easy way to share photos and memories. Unlike photos that get forgotten in a camera or an unshared album, tagged photos help you and your friends relive everything …
Discussion:
eWeek, Social Medium, VentureBeat, SlashGear, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Inside Facebook, Digital Trends and Erictric
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Facebook Brings Facial Recognition to Photo Tagging
Discussion:
The Next Web, The Social and Tea & Tech


LG Optimus 2X: first dual-core smartphone launches with Android, 4-inch display, 1080p video recording — That's right, it's official. Needless to say, that LG Star we recently got our paws on is very real, though it won't go by that name at retail — just as LG's own release materials had suggested …
Discussion:
Computerworld, MobileCrunch, Android and Me, Newlaunches.com, netbooknews.com, DisplayBlog, VentureBeat, The Next Web, Android Apps and techeblog.com

Oracle Takes on Microsoft, Google With Cloud Office — Oracle on Wednesday announced Cloud Office 1.0, a Web-based productivity suite that is set to give online applications from Microsoft and Google a fresh dose of competition. — Cloud Office is integrated with the on-premises Oracle Open Office …

U.S. Tries to Build Case for Conspiracy by WikiLeaks — WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors, seeking to build a case against the WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange for his role in a huge dissemination of classified government documents, are looking for evidence of any collusion in his early contacts …
Discussion:
Salon, AOL News, Threat Level and Boing Boing
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Julian Assange freed on bail
Discussion:
The Next Web, News: News blog, THINQ.co.uk and The Business Insider


Bing Releases Huge Set of Upgrades: Maps, Local, Mobile, Travel, Image Search — At the Bing Search event in San Francisco today, Microsoft unveiled a dizzying array of nearly across-the-board updates and improvements for Bing online and mobile apps. Some are minor and some are more significant.
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Bing's Dilemma: Explaining Why Users Should Switch From Google
Discussion:
Inquirer and LiveSide.net


Young and Mobile: A Global View of Cellphones and Youth — Nielsen's new whitepaper on Mobile Youth Around the World reveals that most young people with mobile phones chose their own device. In fact, across all the countries surveyed, only 16 percent of young people reported that their parents selected their mobile phone.
Discussion:
IntoMobile


Facebook Sales Said Likely to Reach $2 Billion This Year, Beating Target — Facebook Inc., the world's most popular social-networking service, is likely to generate sales of about $2 billion this year, a faster pace than originally projected, according to three people familiar with the matter.
Discussion:
Guardian, SAI, The Next Web, IR Web Report, DailyFinance and Techie Buzz, more at Mediagazer »


Home sweet Homepage — Starting today, you might notice a button on YouTube.com asking if you want to check out an experimental homepage we've been working on. It's an opt-in experiment, offering a homepage that has a real emphasis on a personalized video browsing and watching experience.
Discussion:
Softpedia News, Mashable!, Techie Buzz, Podcasting News and Erictric


Another Giant Gets Another Sexy Startup: Rackspace Acquires Cloudkick — After just two years since starting its business, Cloudkick has been acquired by Rackspace. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. — What this means for Cloudkick is a big ramp up in its operations.
Discussion:
Data Center Knowledge, Between the Lines Blog, TechCrunch and SAI


An Open Letter to Carol Bartz, CEO Yahoo Inc. — I just finished reading your demoralizing letter regarding recent layoffs at Yahoo over at All Things Digital. Although I'm only a Yahoo user, not an employee, I am a heavy user of your Flickr product — a product that I've enjoyed and loved for many years now.
Discussion:
BoomTown
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Here's Carol Bartz's Internal Layoff Memo to Beleaguered Yahoo Troops
Discussion:
The Register, Search Engine Watch and SAI


Google Goes To the Cloud For New Idea In PC System — In the personal-computer industry, where things change fast, one fact has been a constant for years: There are two major, mainstream operating systems for consumers. One, Microsoft Windows, runs on many brands of hardware and dominates sales.
Discussion:
Softpedia News


YouTube Is Said to Be in Talks to Buy Next New Networks — SAN FRANCISCO — YouTube, the video site owned by Google, is in talks to buy Next New Networks, a Web video production company, according to two people briefed on the discussions. The acquisition would be YouTube's first major foray …
Discussion:
Media Maverick, AdExchanger.com, GigaOM, Techland, Fast Company, ReadWriteWeb, paidContent, SAI and Shelly Palmer Digital Living, more at Mediagazer »


Letting everyone do great things with App Inventor — In July, we announced App Inventor for Android, a Google Labs experiment that makes it easier for people to access the capabilities of their Android phone and create apps for their personal use. We were delighted (and honestly a bit overwhelmed! …
Discussion:
MobileCrunch, SlashGear, Android News, Rumours …, Engadget, Android Phone Fans, ReadWriteWeb, mobiputing, AndroidGuys and Erictric


An Android Phone That Says ‘Google’ — As the year winds down, we've all got problems. Economic slump. Wars. Unemployment. — But look at the bright side: there's never been a better selection of really terrific cellphones. In fact, in the world of Google's Android phone operating system …


How Big Should We Let Google Get? Wrong Question — While Google is busy trying to compete with the growing power of Facebook, there are still those who believe the government needs to do something to blunt the growing power of Google. Washington Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein …
Discussion:
DealBook, Search Engine Land, Tnooz and Post Tech, Thanks:mathewi

Generations 2010 — There are still notable differences by generation in online activities, but the dominance of the Millennial generation that we documented in our first “Generations” report in 2009 has slipped in many activities. — Milliennials, those ages 18-33, remain more likely …
Discussion:
VatorNews and Search Engine Land

Apple reportedly adds new touch panel suppliers for iPad 2 — Apple has reportedly added two additional touch panel makers, Chimei Innolux and Cando, to its touch panel supplier list for iPad 2 in addition to current suppliers Wintek, Sintek Photronics and TPK Touch Solutions due to expanding market …
Discussion:
SAI, Softpedia News, TechEye, Go Rumors, 9 to 5 Mac, TiPb and MacRumors