Techmeme: Google Earth downloaded more than one billion times (Brian McClendon/Google LatLong)

7:00 PM ET, October 5, 2011

Top Items:

Xbox 360 Teams Up With Entertainment Leaders to Transform TV — AT&T, BBC, Comcast, HBO, Rogers, Telefónica, Televisa and Verizon are among providers rolling out new TV entertainment services on Xbox LIVE. — A new era in television begins this holiday where your entertainment …

Ben Rudolph / The Windows Blog:

Control Your Xbox with your Windows Phone Using the Xbox Companion App — Earlier today you probably spotted the big, big news from our pals over on the Xbox team. They're bringing a new world of entertainment to your living room and making it faster, funner (yes, that's right, funner) and easier to find.

Discussion: TechNet Blogs, IntoMobile, GeekWire, msnbc.com, LiveSide.net, WPCentral.com, Connected Planet Online, Engadget, TheUnlockr, WinRumors, The Next Web and Neowin.net

Brier Dudley / The Seattle Times:

Xbox becomes TV hub with Comcast, FiOS, HBO; no Frontier — Microsoft today confirmed the lineup of TV services that will be available this holiday season through the Xbox 360 console. It's a huge step for Microsoft's longtime goal of expanding the console beyond gaming and into an entertainment hub.

Discussion: Guardian, BetaNews, PC Magazine, GeekWire, BGR, Joystiq, Between the Lines Blog, GigaOM, Electronista and Telecompetitor

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Xbox Live TV: What's inside? Silverlight

Discussion: Wired

Ina Fried / AllThingsD:

Exclusive: Sprint Confirms It Will Offer Unlimited Data Plan for iPhone — Sprint will indeed offer unlimited data plans when it starts taking iPhone orders later this week, AllThingsD has confirmed. — “We will be offering the benefit of our unlimited plans that start at just $69.99,” said spokeswoman Michelle Leff Mermelstein.

Erica Sadun / TUAW:

iPhone 4S: What can you say to Siri? — Curious about the iPhone 4S's new voice assistant feature? So were we. — TUAW tracked down a set of example phrases that the new Siri voice assistant is capable of understanding. It turns out that Siri can handle many categories of voice interaction.

Discussion: iDownloadBlog.com, Lifehacker, PC World, everythingiCafe, MacStories and Internet Evolution

Brad McCarty / The Next Web:
Apple will now give you up to $200 for your old iPhone 4

Discussion: 9to5Mac, Gizmodo, App Advice, everythingiCafe, FreakGeeks, Gadgetell and Apple

Josh Ong / AppleInsider:
Apple showcases iPhone 4S camera with high-resolution sample photos

Discussion: UberMobile Blog, PC World, 9to5Mac, Gadget Lab and everythingiCafe

Reuters:

Exclusive: Microsoft considers bidding for Yahoo: sources — (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp is considering a bid for Yahoo Inc, resurfacing as a potential buyer after a bitter and unsuccessful fight to take over the Internet company in 2008, sources close to the situation said on Wednesday.

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Not So Much on a Microsoft Bid for Yahoo (They're Crazy, But Not That Crazy) — Is this investment-banker-hype week and nobody told me? — It certainly seems so from all the almost ridonkulous rumors about everyone and their mother being “imminently poised” to make a bid for Yahoo.

Discussion: Guardian, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Tech Trader Daily and GMSV, more at Mediagazer »

Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:

Oracle vs. Salesforce.com's Benioff goes WWE: We're being played — Summary: Oracle cancels a keynote from Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff and the crowd goes wild. Suddenly, this feels more like a pro wrestling match. — Oracle cancels Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff's keynote …

Discussion: CNET News, The Register, TechCrunch, Tom Foremski, AllThingsD, Beagle Research Group, LLC, @benioff and deal architect

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Live from a restaurant: Marc Benioff's Oracle OpenWorld keynote

Discussion: Business Insider and @stevenjayl

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
Marc Benioff Yanked From Oracle OpenWorld Speech

Discussion: The Register, Inquirer, Digits, eWeek, CNET News, Bits, @benioff, Ars Technica, PR Newswire, CNET News, Beagle Research Group, LLC, Venture Capital Dispatch, ITworld.com and The Register

Zach Epstein / BGR:

Apple's fall from grace — Apple was a company that could do no wrong. Phones that dropped every other call... Location tracking scandals... Antennagate... A CEO who constantly parked his $130,000 sports car diagonally in handicapped spaces... Apple didn't have to roll with the punches …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Reuters, AllThingsD, @carnage4life, @eldon and Daring Fireball

MG Siegler / parislemon:
Apple's “Fall From Grace”

Discussion: @manan, Marco.org and BGR

Brian McClendon / Google LatLong:

Google Earth downloaded more than one billion times — How large is one billion? One billion hours ago modern humans were living in the Stone Age. One billion minutes ago, the Roman Empire was flourishing. If you traveled from Earth to the Moon three times, your journey would measure one billion meters.

Discussion: Computerworld, Engadget, Digits, 9to5Google, Mashable!, Search Engine Journal, The Next Web, TechCrunch and Softpedia News

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

Exclusive: LinkedIn Has Bought Contact Management Start-Up Connected — LinkedIn has acquired Connected, a small contact management start-up that unifies and dynamically updates users' connections on email, social networks, calendars and phones, according to sources close to the company.

Discussion: GigaOM, Social Markets and Connected Life

DigiTimes:

Apple iPhone 4S announced, ‘5’ likely to arrive in late 2012 or 2013 — Defying some expectations that Apple would introduce the iPhone 5 - an entirely new model supporting 4G - the company instead rolled out the iPhone 4S - an update of the existing iPhone 4.

Discussion: Cult of Mac, iSuppli, Techland, MobileSyrup.com, I4U News, PadGadget, Business Insider and everythingiCafe

Dan Primack / Fortune:

What Federated paid for Lijit — Federated Media paid just “south of $100 million” in stock to acquire Lijit Networks, Fortune has learned from multiple sources. The deal was announced earlier this month, but without any financial details. — Lijit is a Boulder, Colo.-based provider …

BBC:

India launches Aakash tablet computer priced at $35 — Millions of students will have access to the tablets, officials hope — India has launched what it says is the world's cheapest touch-screen tablet computer, priced at just $35 (£23). — Costing a fraction of Apple's iPad, the subsidised Aakash is aimed at students.

Discussion: Times of India, indiatoday.intoday.in, Computerworld, Engadget, paidContent, Business Insider, PE Hub Blog, Electronista, TeleRead, Digits, VentureBeat, India IT Blog, Technologizer, Liliputing, Hardware 2.0 Blog and Network World, Thanks:over2venu

Royal Pingdom:

Facebook now as big as the entire Internet was in 2004 — At the recent F8 conference Facebook revealed that they now have 800 million active users. Europe, with Russia included, has a population of 727 million. We now have a social network that is so large that it could fill …

Discussion: Business Insider and ReadWriteWeb

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Global Ad Revenues From Social Networks To Reach $5.4B In 2011; $10B In 2013 — Ad revenue from social networks worldwide is expected to reach $5.54 billion this year, according to eMarketer estimates, and will double by 2013. eMarketer is taking into account a number of popular social networks …

Discussion: VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, eMarketer, Business Insider, Mashable!, Marketing Pilgrim and The Next Web, more at Mediagazer »

Paul Graham:

Why Startup Hubs Work — If you look at a list of US cities sorted by population, the number of successful startups per capita varies by orders of magnitude. Somehow it's as if most places were sprayed with startupicide. — I wondered about this for years.

Samsung Tomorrow Global:

Samsung to request preliminary injunction orders against Apple iPhone 4S — Samsung Electronics will file separate preliminary injunction motions in Paris, France and Milano, Italy on October 5 local time requesting the courts block the sale of Apple's iPhone 4S in the respective markets.

Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Samsung seeks iPhone 4S sales ban in France and Italy

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Jason Kilar: Hulu Plus is becoming major money maker — Hulu CEO Jason Kilar said today that the company's Hulu Plus paid subscription service is going to bring in more than half of its revenue in within the next 12 months. Kilar made this estimate in a blog post about Hulu's Q3 performance …

Discussion: Hulu Blog, Media Decoder, paidContent and Hollywood Reporter, more at Mediagazer »

Ann Carrns / Bucks:

BankSimple to Go Live on Web Next Month — BankSimple, a Web-based banking service, says it is finally going live and expects its first customers to begin receiving their debit cards by early November. — The site still won't be available to all comers right away.

Discussion: The Next Web

Bloomberg:

Apple Tops HTC as Nokia Customer Loyalty Falls — IPhone users are most likely to buy their next handset again from Apple Inc. (AAPL) as Nokia Oyj (NOK1V)'s customer loyalty dropped for the first time, a survey shows. — About 93 percent of iPhone owners in the U.S. and 88 percent in the U.K. …

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CIO challenge 5: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs? — Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series! After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …

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