Techmeme: Plan the Perfect Trip with Help from Friends (Tiffany Chang Black/Facebook Blog)

5:00 PM ET, December 21, 2010

Top Items:

Clayton Morris / Fox News:

EXCLUSIVE: iPad Competitor Coming Soon From Palm — FoxNews has obtained exclusive images of Palm's forthcoming competitor to the iPad, called the PalmPad, which will debut at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show. — The Apple iPad has a solid lead in the tablet space.

Discussion: VentureBeat, GigaOM, MacRumors, SAI, 9 to 5 Mac, Erictric, Daring Fireball, Everything webOS, Pulse2, PhoneArena, Engadget, Electronista, SlashGear, PreCentral.net, Gizmodo, I4U News, Mobilized, Techie Buzz, BGR, IntoMobile, GottaBeMobile and PhoneNews.com

Erica Ogg / Crave: The gadget blog:
Is the PalmPad a recycled HP Slate?

Discussion: Everything webOS

Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:

Why everyone hates new net neutrality rules—even NN supporters — It's no surprise that those who have always opposed net neutrality weren't pleased with today's FCC order instituting it—one expects no less—but the sheer vehemence of the objections was still surprising.

Discussion: BetaNews, Datamation, Mercury News, BGR, SlashGear and Digital Society, more at Mediagazer »

The Politico:

FCC approves net neutrality rules — The Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules that will govern how Internet providers treat Web traffic and services, a move that sets the stage for a heated political battle on Capitol Hill come January. — Led by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski …

Robert Quigley / Geekosystem:

FCC Chair Julius Genachowski's Statement on the New Net Neutrality Rules — This afternoon, the FCC voted to approve a new set of rules governing online communications, its first enforceable rules on net neutrality, by a vote of 3-2. As Wired points out, the only group that seems …

Julius Genachowski / Federal Communications …: New Rules for an Open Internet

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Apple Removes WikiLeaks App From App Store — Looks like an unofficial iPhone and iPad app that let you view WikiLeaks site content and follow the WikiLeaks Twitter account on the go has been removed from the App app store earlier today. The app used to be available here (here's the Google cache).

Miguel Helft / Bits:

Why Apple Removed a WikiLeaks App From Its Store — Apple on Tuesday confirmed that it had removed from its online store an iPhone and iPad app that let users view the content on the WikiLeaks site and follow the WikiLeaks Twitter account. — Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman …

Discussion: Techdirt, Computerworld, Guardian, SAI, GigaOM, Network World, InformationWeek, ReadWriteWeb, Download Squad, The Register, Pulse2, paidContent:UK, MacStories and MacRumors

Ingrid Lunden / mocoNews:

Windows Phone 7: 1.5 Million Devices Sold, But Not To Consumers — In the last six weeks, there has been a lot of speculation over just how many Windows Phone 7 handsets have been sold since the devices hit the market. Now we have a number, sort of: 1.5 million, revealed by Microsoft's …

Discussion: The Next Web, Computerworld, SlashGear, IntoMobile, Techi.com and Techie Buzz

Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:

Shame that Microsoft and Tech Press doesn't know what a “sale” is — If you look at Techmeme right now you'll see a lot about Microsoft pushing a story that their Windows Phone 7 system is selling well. I saw lots of headlines to that effect, a few that are still on Techmeme.

Discussion: Computerworld and SAI

Microsoft:
Windows Phone 7 Sales Off to a Promising Start, First Step in a New Era of Mobile

Carolyn Penner / Twitter Blog:

Fluther Flocks to Twitter — There are now three times as many people on the Twitter team as there were at this time last year. More than half of our employees work in engineering and operations, and those teams continue to grow as we attract more and more talented people interested …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Fluther Blog, ReadWriteWeb, CNET News, paidContent, SiliconANGLE, Pulse2 and Download Squad

Liz Gannes / NetworkEffect: Twitter Triples Team in One Year, Acqhires Q&A Start-Up

Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint:

EXCLUSIVE: PlayStation phone to hit shops in April — Sources confirm to Pocket-lint launch date and release — The Sony Ericsson PlayStation phone will hit shops in April, after a February Mobile World Congress launch, sources close to the matter have confirmed to Pocket-lint.

Discussion: pocketnow.com, Examiner, SlashGear, TechSpot, Neowin.net, Android Community, MobileCrunch, Android Phone Fans, I4U News, PhoneArena, Techie Buzz and Softpedia News

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Facebook Launches Instant Personalization On TripAdvisor — Hot on the heels of bringing Instant Personalization to Clicker last week, today Facebook is announcing the latest addition to the program: TripAdvisor. The popular travel site, which includes user reviews of hotels, restaurants …

Tiffany Chang Black / Facebook Blog:
Plan the Perfect Trip with Help from Friends

Discussion: All Facebook, Inside Facebook, ReadWriteWeb, Pulse2, Tnooz, Softpedia News, PR Newswire and The Next Web

Josh Kosman / New York Post:

Google shopping for Groupon wannabe: sources — Google, whose $6 billion buyout offer was spurned by online coupon site Groupon, is in talks with much smaller rivals of the two-year-old firm, a source close to the situation told The Post. — The deal talks show that the search giant …

Discussion: Reuters, Pulse2, TechCrunch, DealBook, SAI, Adotas and Venture Capital Dispatch

Apple:

New Apple TV Sales to Top One Million This Week — Apple® today announced that it expects sales of its new Apple TV® to top one million units later this week. The new Apple TV offers the simplest way to watch your favorite HD movies and TV shows, stream content from Netflix …

Bloomberg:

Amazon Is Said to Exceed Kindle Sales Estimates by 60 Percent — Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc. is likely to sell more than 8 million Kindle electronic-book readers this year, at least 60 percent more than analysts have predicted, according to two people who are aware of the company's sales projections.

Discussion: Between the Lines Blog, SAI, Tech Trader Daily and SlashGear

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Salesforce Buys Email Contact Manager Etacts — We heard earlier today that Y Combinator-funded Etacts shut down its CRM-like email contact manager after less than a year in service. We subsequently learned that Salesforce has bought Etacts, and have confirmed the acquisition with Salesforce.

Discussion: VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, NetworkEffect and GigaOM, Thanks:bpedro

Dan Frommer / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

Roku CEO: Sales Doubled When Apple TV Launched — When Apple and Google made big moves into the “digital living room” this year, it made sense to assume that business would become a lot harder for Roku. — The Silicon Valley-based company has been selling inexpensive web TV set-top boxes since 2008 …

Discussion: Search Engine Land, Digits, eWeek, PC World, VentureBeat, Los Angeles Times, Engadget, Geek.com, Ars Technica, 9 to 5 Mac, TechSpot, Post Tech, The Digital Home, SlashGear, Yahoo! News, Electronista, Gearlog, BGR and AppleInsider

Surur / WMPoweruser.com:

IDC: Windows Phone 7 marketplace ramping up “faster than Android” — The Windows Phone 7 marketplace is ramping up faster than Android, and even when compared to the iPhone App store (red line) it does not look too bad. (WP7 graph from WP7Applist.com) — We continue to see rather odd stories …

Discussion: MobileCrunch, CNET News, IntoMobile, Engadget, Appolicious Advisor, pocketnow.com, DailyTech, Softpedia News, Electronista and WinRumors

Matthew Lynley / VentureBeat:

Cloud Engines raises $15M to turn old hard drives into private cloud servers — Cloud Engines, maker of the Pogoplug set-top appliance that turns external hard drives into private cloud servers, announced today that it has raised $15 million from Softbank Capital and Morgan Stanley.

Discussion: GigaOM

Douwe Osinga / Google Wave Blog:

Announcing Google Shared Spaces — In August, Google announced that Wave would no longer be developed as a standalone product, but that the Wave technology would survive in other products. Today, I am happy announce the launch of Google Shared Spaces in Google Labs as one of those off-shoots.

Discussion: The Official Google Blog and eWeek

Jamie Barnett / Federal Communications Commission Blog:

Moving Forward on Next Generation 911 — Today, the Commission adopted a Notice of Inquiry which initiates a comprehensive proceeding to address how Next Generation 911 (NG911) can enable the public to obtain emergency assistance by means of advanced communications technologies beyond traditional voice-centric devices.

Audrey Watters / ReadWriteWeb:

One of the “Killer Apps for Android,” Swype Opens Its Beta — Oh, the war of words between iPhone and Android fans. How it has preoccupied us this year. I won't take sides now. I own both. (Don't judge.) But I will say this: if you're an Android user, you might want to go now and join Swype's beta.

Discussion: Android and Me, Eurodroid, GT Mobiles, AppScout, Internet2Go, BlogsDNA, IntoMobile and Download Squad

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