Top Items:
Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:
Diaspora Co-Founder Ilya Zhitomirskiy Passes Away At 21 — Late last night, word began to spread around the tech community that one of Diaspora's four co-founders, Ilya Zhitomirskiy, had passed away. With much sadness, we've now confirmed this terrible news with the Diaspora team.
Discussion:
CNET News, GigaOM, AllThingsD, @joshconstine and @stevesilberman
Ryan Kim / GigaOM:
WhatsApp bucks convention, quietly builds a messaging titan — The group messaging app market has gone through all kinds of changes in the last year with the acquisitions of Beluga and GroupMe, the introduction of Facebook Messenger, Apple's iMessage and Google's Huddle and the travails of Kik and its struggles with RIM .
Thanks:jtemple
Zach Epstein / BGR:
Kindle Fire could be hotter than iPad this holiday season, study finds — Amazon's upcoming Kindle Fire could be the hottest tablet on the market this holiday season, with demand that may even surpass Apple's blockbuster slate, the iPad 2. Results from a recent survey published …
Discussion:
GigaOM, Internet2Go, Fortune, CNET News, Pulse2, Examiner, eWeek, ITProPortal, The Tech Trade and Retrevo
RELATED:
Adam Nash / Psychohistory:
Zynga, Equity & Tough Decisions — A couple of days ago, a story broke in the Wall Street Journal about Zynga “leaning” on some early employees to surrender portions of their equity. Not surprisingly, this blew up a bit in the press, leading to a wide number of articles talking …
Discussion:
The Escapist, @danprimack and @semil
Dominic Rushe / Guardian:
US court verdict ‘huge blow’ to privacy, says former WikiLeaks aide — Decision made to open Twitter account of Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir, who is taking the case to the Council of Europe — • Birgitta Jonsdottir: How the US Justice Department legally hacked my Twitter account
Discussion:
Guardian, TechSpot, ZDNet, Pulse2, @birgittaj, Stowe Boyd, Digital Trends, Slashdot, WL Central and London Calling Blog
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
How Google, eBay, And PayPal Are Gearing Up For A Very Mobile Holiday Shopping Season — Online holiday shopping reached record levels in 2010. And e-commerce spending is up this year. All signs point to consumers spending even more online this holiday season.
Discussion:
VentureBeat and VatorNews, Thanks:leenarao
Todd Haselton / BGR:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 earns record-breaking $400 million in 24 hours — Soldiers, let's agree to a quick armistice. Activision Publishing announced on Friday that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which exploded onto store shelves this past Wednesday, has set an all-time sales record …
Rip Empson / TechCrunch:
People Now Watch Videos Nearly 30 Percent Longer On Tablets Than Desktops — It may come as no surprise, but Americans are watching more and more online video. In fact, they're practically jonesin' for it. According to comScore's numbers, 182 million Americans watched online video content in September …
Discussion:
PC Magazine, iDownloadBlog.com, Lost Remote and All Facebook
Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:
The iPhone 5 Was Real, Says A Source Who Played With A Prototype — Remember how disappointed everyone was back in October when Apple announced an iPhone 4S and not an iPhone 5? — Everyone had been led to believe by scores of reports that there would be a revolutionary new iPhone with a bigger screen and a new slimmer look.
Discussion:
Between the Lines Blog, Examiner, I4U News, iPhone Alley, MacPost, Softpedia News, Ubergizmo, Redmond Pie, MacRumors, iDownloadBlog.com, WebProNews and Apple Bitch
Roy Goldenberg / Globes Online:
Google to set up Israeli incubator in 2012 — The incubator will be in Tel Aviv and initially host about 20 pre-seed stage start-ups that are developing open code technologies. — Google Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) plans to open an incubator in Israel in August 2012.
Discussion:
The Next Web and The Domains
Michael Mace / Mobile Opportunity:
Lessons From the Failure of Flash: Greed Kills — Adobe's decision to stop development of mobile Flash has deservedly gotten a lot of attention online. It's a sad story for Adobe and Flash developers: a dominating standard on the PC web failed to get traction in mobile, and will now be abandoned gradually in favor of HTML 5.
Discussion:
Tom Green, Techie Buzz, Etiole, Technologizer, Engadget, FT Tech Hub and Adobe Blogs
Jennifer Preston / New York Times:
Cain Camp Turns Google Searches to Its Benefit — Searching Google for information about “Cain Sharon Bialek” and other keywords related to the sexual harassment allegations against Herman Cain? — Instead of the most recent news report popping up first on Wednesday …
