Thursday, October 28, 2010

19 new stories on The Next Web today

19 new stories on The Next Web today

Link to The Next Web

Apple Silently Pulls White iPhone 4 From Its Website [TNW Mobile]

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 03:55 AM PDT

With the white iPhone 4 delayed until next Spring, it has left analysts and consumers to speculate that the handset will never actually make it to market and whether it will be absorbed into the next iPhone product refresh.

There has been a interesting development in this story, an action by Apple itself. 9to5mac noticed that the company has silently pulled the white iPhone 4 from its product pages, leaving just the black iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS on the store.

With colour issues and light leakage plaguing the white model, perhaps Apple is taking the hard route and waiting until next Spring to roll out a completely new white iPhone device, right now it seems the most logical explanation.Image Credit



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What Could Mark Zuckerberg Buy With His $6.9 Billion? [TNW Shareables]

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 03:22 AM PDT

via – CoolMaterial



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HTC Mecha Outed On HTC Sense Website [TNW Mobile]

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 02:57 AM PDT

If you were to say you’d never heard of the HTC Mecha, we wouldn’t hold it against you, especially as the handset has only ever surfaced in a list of potential HTC codenames in the past.

Today, Engadget has posted up new references to the new HTC Mecha, taken directly from the company’s own HTCSense.com website. HTCSense.com serves as a web-based configuration and dashboard for new HTC smartphones, users are able to register on the site to take advantage of certain tracking features and location features.

If you went to register on HTCSense.com today,you would be presented with a menu option asking what HTC handset you owned. Right now, the website allows you to select a HTC Mecha handset option, a phone that hasn’t even been unveiled yet. The stock image used to represent the Mecha is currently an old Hero device so we still have no idea of what the phone will look like but we guess that from the list of codenames referenced above, it will be a GSM-enabled Android handset.



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Google Nexus Two arriving at November 8 Samsung event? [TNW Mobile]

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 02:24 AM PDT

Rumors are flying about suggesting that Google and Samsung are collaborating on a new branded Android smartphone, the Nexus Two, a smartphone that could be the successor to the popular-but-not-too-popular Nexus One handset.

Yesterday, we reported on rumors that the “new” handset would be UK-bound in time for the holiday season, in partnership with mobile retailer Carphone Warehouse. Whilst the manufacturer was not confirmed, the fact Samsung is convientently hosting an event on November 8 and launching a brand new Android smartphone has sent the rumor mill into overdrive.

Coincidence? Most possibly.

As with all rumors, facts conveniently slide into place, making what was probably a very low-key launch the next big push by Google into the handset market. If said rumors were to be true, it is suggested that the new Samsung/Google Nexus Two would be one of the first Android 2.3 (or 3.0? Definitely Gingerbread) powered smartphones, a new revision of the mobile operating system that would bring with it new features and possibly tablet support.

As Brad McCarty noted yesterday, Google CEO Eric Schmidt had somewhat denied the search giant would build another smartphone:

The idea a year and a half ago was to do the Nexus One to try to move the phone platform hardware business forward. It clearly did. It was so successful, we didn't have to do a second one. We would view that as positive but people criticised us heavily for that. I called up the board and said: 'Ok, it worked. Congratulations – we're stopping'.

An official Google phone would mean no Samsung branding within the OS but it would ensure customers receive firmware upgrades promptly from Google, without having to wait for Samsung to release the update, a problem that Galaxy S users are currently experiencing.

The most telling piece of evidence that leads me to believe we will not see the Nexus Two from Samsung on this event is the inclusion of Samsung’s Touchwiz UI on the invite. The Nexus One was free from all HTC branding and UI improvements, I imagine Google would not want Samsung’s UI on its new device.

One unfortunate outcome of this for Samsung could be that when its new product is unveiled, consumers will be disappointed with the new handset if it doesn’t turn out to be the fabled Nexus Two.Image Credit



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Please Stop Promoting Entrepreneurship! [TNW Entrepreneur]

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 01:47 AM PDT

There are a lot of initiatives to ‘promote entrepreneurship’. Seminars, books, non-profit organizations and consultants all focused on getting more people to becoming entrepreneurs.

I seriously wonder what the hell is going on there. I would argue that entrepreneurs generally don’t need any guidance or incentive to get started. Real entrepreneurs couldn’t be stopped from being entrepreneurs and there is no need to lend them a guiding hand. Just get out of the way or they will walk all over your ass on their way to their goals.

I’m sure it doesn’t hurt to inspire entrepreneurs now and then but as far as I know us entrepreneurs get our inspiration mainly by talking to other entrepreneurs or just, you know, taking a shower or a long walk in the woods.

Another thing you can do is lower taxes, make it easier to start a company and maybe give us some extra tax incentives. That kind of promotion is just fine. But the networking evenings, dinner parties and helpful articles by wannabe-entrepreneurs wanting to ‘promote entrepreneurship’? Get outta here!

Are you an entrepreneur in need of some help or comfort to get started? Just get started already. It isn’t going to get easier so take a deep breath and dive right in.

And just to prevent some confusion: no, this blog isn’t about promoting entrepreneurship. It is just a collection of stories from entrepreneurs about entrepreneurship. Our goal is to entertain and maybe inspire existing entrepreneurs. The chances of someone reading one of these blogposts, quitting their job and becomes an entrepreneur are slim, and not something that we would dare to aim for.



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Aspiring MENA Entrepreneurs: Monther AbuShaikh [TNW Middle East]

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 11:05 PM PDT

Monther AbushaikhEver since I went to MENA ICT Forum earlier this month, the results have surprised me. Meeting so many amazing people there has changed my opinion of the region and the direction it’s heading in. Thus I decided maybe it’s time to start a weekly series about Aspiring MENA Entrepreneurs. Let me know what you think.

Now I’m not saying I came across the world’s next Sergey Brin, Monther Abushaikh would probably object in his humorous way and tell me he’s too busy with whatever projects he’s working on to invent the next Google, but I know this guy is what MENA is made of. Pure potential.

If your from the Middle East then you should have heard of Ikbis, most MENA label it as: YouTube with a Middle Eastern twist, Ikbis Content Executive Mohammad Jaradat prefers to call it a Media portal instead. Either way, Monther Abushaikh is revamping it.

Lead Revamper and acting CTO since it’s launch, Monther has led the development of Ikbis, and along with an amazing 8 strong team, have made it MENA’s very own center of media gravity for images and video.

I’m not a shell power scripter, but once XKCD launched their uniXKCD I fell in love with the idea. So when I came across TwitterShell, a fun idea that provides a shell interface for twitter, I couldn’t stop telling my friends about it. To my surprise it too is a brainchild of Monther’s.

Sense a trend here? The guy doesn’t sit still, he got even more global traffic after he spent a month building Zoofs, the world’s first tweet based YouTube ranking service, launched by Jordanian Tootcorp with Monther as their CTO. Again.

One of Monther’s more promising projects was Bayarat.com the first Arabic Online Media Content Search Engine with a focus on video that attempted to solve the online Arabic media discovery problem, and did a good job at it. It’s just that dreams don’t fund web crawlers these days.

As unique as Monther may appear to be, his story is that of many. Innovative energy just waiting to get their chance to make the world a better place. We wanted to know more about him, so we asked him a couple of question via email and this is what he had to say:

Who is Monther?

Well, I am 27 years old, Jordanian, Graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from Washington State University. My main focus was robotics. Actually, I have nothing to do with web development. When i came back to Jordan, i was struck with the fact that robotics simply don’t exist here. At that point, i realized i need to focus on something else. Got my first job as web developer in  d1g.com, two years later i moved to ikbis.com as CTO. Its been an exciting 4 years, worked on lots of services, some worked, some failed but the experience is amazing.

Why launch Bayarat:

While working at ikbis, I noticed the lack of tools to find arabic video content on the internet. Most of the content were scattered between youtube, maktoob, d1g and ikbis. Finding a specific video is a complete nightmare. Bayarat was built to solve this issue. It was designed from the ground up by taking into consideration the arabic grammar and stems. It was by the far the most challenging project i’ve worked on.

My main issue was the lack of CPU processing power. Bayarat was running on 3 large amazon instances to crawl,fetch and index the web(which is really an insignificant number when we talk about crawling the internet). But for a single developer, the cost was little high. Tried everything to save cost. I even switched the entire system from ruby/python  to erlang/c++ to get a better performance. But at the end of the day it was a little too much for a single person/developer to handle so i killed it.

Nevertheless, i enjoyed every working hour i spent on Bayarat. Learned lots of things including erlang which we used to write zoofs.com. If i can get funding to focus and revive Bayarat again i will defiantly do it. I still believe its a great project that solves a major problem among the arab internet users.

How did Zoofs.com come to exist?

Zoofs went from “hey, look what i can with twitter/youtube api”  into a complete service in a crazy month. The service is growing slowly but steadily.

When we started we had a team of two working on Zoofs, Andi and myself. Currently I am maintaining the service and deploying couple of fixes every once in a while. Because Zoofs is mostly written in erlang we are having a hard time finding and hiring people to help in the development. Still, we have great hopes for it. Mashing and mixing different sets of data is always an exciting thing to do.

I'm not a Linux guy but love shell scripting, tell me about Tweetsh.com

Tweetsh is an example of a geeky fun project. I spend 70% of my time using the shell, so i thought writing a twitter shell would be the ultimate geeky experience to browse and interact with twitter. So i challenged myself to build it in 48 hours. The feedback was amazing upon the release. Received lots of emails ranged from people requesting new features to people offering to buy the code. I decided to release the code as an open source project.

Do you have any upcoming projects we should look out for?

I am currently working with 2 other developers in(abu dhabi and syria) on a service that leverage the checkin services used in the region. Its an exiting new project, very challenging. We need a month or so to go into the beta mode. I will keep you posted on any development.

Finally, creating your own startup is not an easy thing todo especially in this region. It’s extremely difficult to get funding, developers tend to avoid startups in the sake of having a steady salary option, so finding really talented people to join you is very challenging.

So there you have it, relentless in his determination Monther is heading into new domains after Bayarat didn’t work out. Some might say it was a failure, but at least he proved it can be done, successfully, even if it wasn’t self sustainable.

Know Someone Cool? Tell us about an aspiring Entrepreneur you know to cover on future posts of Aspiring MENA Entrepreneurs.



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We’re Hiring: Tech Writer in Australia? We’re hiring! [TNW Australia]

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 10:25 PM PDT

We're looking for a full time (again, maybe part time depending on the person) Australian Tech Writer with a relentless passion for Aussie technology, startups and tech culture.

You need to LOVE technology, startups, software, entrepreneurship and the idea of immersing yourself in the technology scene/culture. You'll enjoy chasing up stories and the people behind them for interviews/comment. You'll love people, events and developing relationships.You'll be keen to learn the background to a story, thrive on the paying attention to the details and above all, have a desire to be first to a story.

You should be keen to make a name for yourself within the tech circle but more importantly, interested in being part of the Internet's fastest growing technology blog and its team of global writers.

Conditions:

  • Passionate about tech
  • Fast, confident writer.
  • Natural attention to detail
  • Natural drive to get to a news story first.

Responsibilities:

  • Watching out and reporting breaking news stories, anywhere on the planet – but especially within Australia and South East Asia.
  • Reviewing startups from across the planet – but particularly within Australia.
  • Writing thoughtful discussion posts about the International technology scene; the companies involved, influencers and everything in between.
  • Attending events and conferences.
  • Interviewing influencers and companies involved in the headline.

Salary: Industry standard (once some basic milestones are met) but negotiable
Contact: rec@thenextweb.com with links to your writing (whether it be a blog post, article, report – anything that indicates you have writing talent).



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Rumors flying of CDMA iPhone 4 production in China [TNW Asia]

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 09:34 PM PDT

Two reports separate reports have hit the blogwaves today that both point to production (either underway or soonish) of the CDMA iPhone in China.

The first report is by DigiTimes, which says that Taiwanese company Pegatron is projecting it will ship 10 million CDMA iPhones in 2011, citing “sources from component makers”. Those sources say that Pegatron is hiring 10,000 new workers for its Shanghai factory, as well as installing new equipment. DigiTimes says that Pegatron CEO Jason Chang, “declined to discuss its clients, but pointed out that the increase in employees is mainly to handle growing smartphone business and he expects revenues in the first quarter of 2011 to see a strong increase.” The report also says that CDMA iPhone 4 units could start shipping as soon as December 2010.

The second report comes from CENS.com which says that Hon Hai Precision (i.e. Foxconn), “is reportedly going to ship the newest CDMA edition of iPhone 4 to Apple Inc. in 2011, according to industry sources.” That report states that Foxconn is projecting shipments of 15 million CDMA iPhone 4 units in 2011, and says,

Apple will launch the phone in early 2011 in cooperation with a couple of telecom companies as Verizon and China Telecom, in a bid to further boost its smartphone market share through exploring the CDMA segment.

So, if one or more of these reports turn out to be true (rumors of a CDMA iPhone have been circulating for awhile, so take these as you will) then it’s still unclear whether:

  1. Both Foxconn and Pegatron will produce the CDMA iPhone 4
  2. If there are other manufacturers that will also produce it (unlikely)
  3. If projected shipments in 2011 will be 10 million, 15 million or 25 million total (from the tone of the reports, we’re guessing that each company has its own projections of shipments, so that if both rumors are true and the projections are true, that should mean 25 million units in total).

Certainly murky stuff, but for Verizon, China Telecom and other subscribers on CDMA networks, perhaps there is a little more light at the end of the production tunnel – or maybe it’s just a reflection of your flashlight…DigiTimes, CENS, MacRumors, Techmeme, Image



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Does Apple own the “iPad” trademark for China? [TNW Asia]

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 08:03 PM PDT

A Taiwanese flat-screen company called Proview, says that it still owns the “IPAD” trademark for Mainland China, after selling off trademarks for other regions of the globe to a company associated with Apple in 2006 for $55,000.

Proview – which is struggling financially and whose CEO is openly admitting it needs money (its Shenzhen, China operation has had its assets seized apparently) – is claiming that when it sold the IPAD trademarks to a company called IP Application Development, which was apparently buying the trademarks for Apple, that the sale of the “global trademark” did not include two trademarks in Mainland China. Proview also registered trademarks in the EU, Mexico, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, all which we’re assuming are now in the hands of Apple (Apple purchased the US trademark from Fujitsu).

Apple has sued Proview, however, demanding that those two trademarks be transfered to it. According to the Financial Times, “in pending cases in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, Apple [has] won preliminary injunctions to stop Proview from selling off the IPAD name.” That said, the FT also points out that :

…according to online trademark databases, the ownership of the EU trademark for IPAD changed from Proview to Apple this year. Two IPAD trademarks registered in China are still shown as belonging to Proview.

Proview’s chairman, Yang Rongshan, told the FT, “We will sue them for damages in China and in the US.” China began selling the iPad in China last month in its Apple Stores and just yesterday launched its fully localized Chinese website, with the iPad starting at RMB3,988 or about $585.

Apple told the FT that it wouldn’t comment while legal action was in place.Financial Times, AppleInsider, AppleInsider, Thumb image



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Google makes some design changes to Gmail in mobile Safari [TNW Google]

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 06:25 PM PDT

Google has made a few changes in Gmail for mobile Safari for the iPhone and iPod Touch running iOS4.

The first change is a that scrolling now mimics the speed of your swiping on the screen, making longer messages easier to read through. The second change is that the toolbars within Gmail are now locked while you scroll (they used to appear after you were finished scrolling). See below for the differences:

Do you use Gmail in the browser or do you just use the iOS universal inbox? If you go to Gmail in the browser, are these welcome/noticeable changes for you? The updated interface, which Google says in a blog post makes Gmail in Safari “even more like a native app” should be live now. If you’re not seeing them, just clear your cache and refresh.Google Mobile Blog



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Ah THAT’S where the Facebook friends icon comes from [TNW Shareables]

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 04:44 PM PDT

Eject



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Android app forwards SMS to another phone – after being secretly installed [TNW Apps]

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 03:03 PM PDT

Expect Steve Jobs to bring this one up on a future earnings call: a new app in the Android Market for $1.99 called Secret SMS Replicator by DLP Mobile will – after it is secretly installed by someone that has access to your phone – forward all of your text (SMS) messages to any other cell phone number.

DLP Mobile makes no qualms about it: this is for suspicious significant others to spy on their mates, and they the developer didn’t attempt to build this for the iPhone because it knew it wouldn’t make it through the Apple App Store approval process. ”The app is unique because there is no visible icon or shortcut to access it, so once it's installed, it will continue to monitor without revealing itself,” DLP Mobile said in a press release.

In a press release today, Zak Tanjeloff, CEO of DLP Mobile said, “"This app is certainly controversial, but can be helpful to people in relationships where this type of monitoring can be useful.” In a phone interview with The New York Times, Tanjeloff told the Time’s Nick Bilton, “We can't build it for the iPhone because it wouldn't make it past the App Store approval process.” Yeah, we’d say. Obviously, this app could be used for other clandestine purposes as well – bosses spying on their employees comes to mind (not that we’re condoning any such thing, but it’s really not much of a leap, is it?).

So how do you fight back against this app? Well, according to Tanjeloff, “[keep] your phone close by, or make sure people trust you.” Swell.

What a world.

Bits Blog



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Larry Ellison slams HP, says their motto should be “steal” [TNW United States]

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 02:56 PM PDT

In the continuing saga of Oracle, HP, Leo Apotheker, and Larry Ellison, the Oracle CEO Ellison is holding nothing back. In a response to a comment from HP’s Ray Layne, Ellison had new sharp words for the technology giant.

Ellison alleges that Leo Apotheker was aware of misdeed at SAP while he was the CEO. This runs contrary to what Ray Lane has stated, that Leo had no idea of past misdeeds at SAP while in charge of that company.

The Oracle CEO released this in a statement:

HP Chairman Ray Lane has taken the position that Leo Apotheker is innocent of wrongdoing because he didn’t know anything about the stealing going on at SAP while Leo was CEO. The most basic facts of the case show this to be an absurd lie. Oracle sued SAP for stealing in March of 2007. Leo became CEO of SAP in April of 2008. Leo knew all about the stealing. In fact, Leo did not stop the stealing until 7 months after he became CEO. Why so long? We’d like to know. Ray Lane and the rest of the HP Board do not want anyone to know. That’s the new HP Way with Ray in charge and Leo on the run. It’s time to change the HP tagline from ‘Invent’ to ‘Steal’.

Aside from the hyperbolic concluding remark, Ellison is alleging that Apotheker had a hand in the previous unethical behaviors at SAP, and that the HP board is stifling that information from the public. If that is true, HP could come under heavy fire.

HP has had its own strong words on the topic, which we covered previously:

In a letter to the New York Times, HP's incoming chairman Ray Lane took a hard line against innuendo that Apotheker had been involved with past misconduct at SAP. The company, looking to clear the air around their new leader said that there was no evidence that Apotheker had behaved unethically.

For now from the outside it is ‘he said, she said,’ but expect this to shake out over the next few months. Someone is right, and the other side will eventually be forced to concede.BusinessInsider, Image Credit



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Geolocation: What if it’s not all about the money? [TNW Apps]

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 02:46 PM PDT

A number of very smart people believe that the winner in geosocial will be the company that is able to provide the most financial incentives to check in.

And it's not just talk.  Many of the leading lbs apps are racing to provide the infrastructure that will allow check-in rewards to propagate.

Gowalla just added self serve claim and deal creation for local merchants.  SCVNGR is trumpeting their 12,000 locations offering rewards, and Foursquare, of course, has stated that they see reinventing local coupons as one of their core missions.

It's hard to dispute the logic.  Why on earth would people voluntarily publish their location if not to get free stuff?

Well, here's one medium where the paid incentives model didn't win.

The Web.

Since the original Internet bubble of the late 1990s, there have been a steady stream of companies attempting to grab market share by paying users to engage.  iWon.com was a search engine that paid you to search (a tactic later copied by search also ran Microsoft.)  We've also see paid reviews sites (hey, I founded that one), paid social networking sites, paid status updates, paid blogging sites, paid video upload services, and pay to surf companies.

What's interesting is that none of these companies won their category.

Search was won by Google, which doesn't pay you to search.  Reviews was won by Amazon and Yelp, which don't pay you to post reviews.  Social networking was won by Facebook which doesn't pay you to add photos and content.  Status updates was won by Twitter, which doesn't pay you to tweet.  Blogging was won by Blogger and WordPress, neither of which pay you (though Blogger does offer some rev sharing).  Video was won by YouTube, which only recently launched revenue sharing.  And pay to surf?  Well, most people just surf.

Nobody's denying that there's a murky little corner of the web where "get paid while you surf the web!" thrives – we've all seen the blog spam.  But the point is these services haven't won – far from it.  On the web, end users have resoundingly chosen user experience, utility, and scale over paid rewards.

Which brings me to geolocation.  I see location sharing as two parts self expression, one part utility, one part game, and one part urban diary.  People that I know who are prolific users of check in services aren't in it for the money.   They're in it because they express themselves through the places they go, they like the idea of serendipitous meetups, they like keeping track of the places they've been, and increasingly, they're hooked on the game mechanics.  I don't know anybody who does it for the free stuff.

(But then again I don't know anyone who uses coupons, but Valpak does a few hundred million in revenue a year).

So what's it going to be?  Is the geosocial landscape a fierce little skirmish to see who takes some of Valpak's coupon revenue?

Or is location more fundamental than an exciting new coupon delivery channel?

My suspicion is this: we are just scratching the service in terms of how location will be integrated into existing behaviors, and that the market and use cases for geosocial are far broader than the coupon delivery race that we are now witnessing.

With many of the fledgeling geo startups seemingly focused on local coupons, perhaps there is an opportunity for some new perspectives to emerge.



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Palm Pre 2 Coming to Rogers: Confirmed [TNW Canada]

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 02:43 PM PDT

Images posted on MobileSyrup today confirm that not only is the Palm Pre 2 coming to Canada, but also that Rogers will carry it: Rogers Palm Pre 2 images surface | MobileSyrup.com. Availability is rumored for November 9th with a $100 price tag. Neither of those important tidbits have been confirmed though.

While big news for HP, the larger question is whether HP’s gamble will win with consumers.

As more info comes in, I’ll post it here.Source: Mobile Syrup, Engadget



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Flickr takes a Twitter cue; introduces suggested friends and Facebook contacts [TNW Apps]

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 01:41 PM PDT

Given that, from the start, Flickr was intended to be a social photo sharing platform, the latest move from the company comes as no surprise.

According to the Flickr blog, the site is introducing a People You May Know feature:

Suggestions are based on your contacts and the people they know. You can add contacts from the Find Your Friends page or right from the new module on your Flickr homepage. You can also designate them as a friend, family or contact right from the modules. If you need even more suggestions, just dismiss the ones that aren't interesting to you and we'll come up with some new ones! If you're not comfortable with being suggested as a contact for others, we've also made it possible to hide yourself from suggestions.

Also added to the features is a new ability to pull in your Facebook friends. Now, instead of just Gmail, Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail, you can pull from the 500 million friends you might have on Facebook.

Interestingly, Flickr rolls out the new features right on the heels of a Compete report that shows the service slipping in its ranks. According to the report, Flickr lost almost 14 percent of its unique viewers during the month of September, though nothing is postulated as to why that happened.



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Firefox 4 now delayed until 2011 [TNW Apps]

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 01:39 PM PDT

While Chrome continues to ship new versions for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, Firefox is slipping in its development schedule and will now release its fourth iteration not this year, but in early 2011.

According to an update on the Mozilla developer group, development time on Firefox 4 is taking “longer than initial estimates indicated.” This will push the 7th beta release to early November, with beta releases 8, 9, and 10 coming out through the end of the year.

That leaves the release candidate for Firefox 4 to be released in what seems likely to be the first quarter of the new year, assuming that the next four releases are on schedule. No breath shall be held among the TNW team for that coming true.

While the delays are frustrating, the development team is very upbeat about the larger product, saying:

“…great things are happening with Firefox 4. The user interface changes are converging, the graphics and layout features are wrapping up, and recently the JavaScript engine was dramatically improved. The result is a fast, capable Firefox that provides better speed and responsiveness for web applications and users.”

While that is certainly true, and while Firefox 4 is a large step forward for the browser, it seems hard to not to feel that the team is falling behind the Chrome community. What about you, do you still use Firefox?ComputerWorld, TheRegister, Mozilla, Image Credit



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Google reportedly to purchase entire NYC block for $2B [TNW Google]

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 01:22 PM PDT

According to Fortune (which sourced The New York Post), Google is “in the final stages” of purchasing the entire building that it uses for its New York City headquarters, and which comprises an entire Manhattan block.

The price tag? A mere $2 billion, about half of what the property would have sold for pre-recession. The 111 8th Ave. building lies between 8th and 9th avenues and 15th and 16th streets in the Chelsea neighborhood and is 18 stories tall, covering 3 million square feet of office space.

Google currently rents out about 550,000 square feet of the building (built in 1932 but that has a Telx ISP facility – i.e. pretty darn fast Internet), and there are other large companies such as Nike and Armani in the building as well. Could Google be thinking expansion or is it just looking at this as a wise investment?

Maybe they’re just thinking of filming their own version of “Mad Men” for Google TV? “8th Avenue Googlers” perhaps? Could this become “Googleplex East”? Time will tell. Anyway, here’s what the enormous building looks like:

Fortune, Techmeme



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Justin Bieber is the most retweeted user on Twitter [TNW Canada]

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 01:08 PM PDT

According to Klout, Justin Bieber is Twitter’s most retweeted user:Top 10 Most Retweeted Twitter Users: The Official Klout Blog:

Yes, although there is an American flag, next to his name, Justin is a Canadian (Klout acknowledges this buts says most of the RTs are from the U.S.). I think this bit of data confirms what has been tossed around for a while now: Twitter is mainstream.

Twitter isn’t the world of tech geeks. I don’t think Scoble, Mike Arrington, even Matt Mullenweg get get even close to these levels of RTs. I think it’s also telling that 4 of the 10 are not only outside of the U.S. (personally I think He Shall Not Be Named should have a U.K. flag), but non-english as well. Twitter isn’t about geeks anymore, it’s about everyone. Which is great, though I’m not sure if I should apologize on behalf of all of Canada for Justin Bieber…Source: Klout, Photo credit



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Nymgo, ShooFeeTV & Jeeran Get Intel Capital [TNW Middle East]

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 01:05 PM PDT

CashAnnounced yesterday at the World Economic Forum in Marrakech, Intel Capital has 3 new investments in the Middle East for UK-Lebanon based Nymgo, and Jordanian companies Jeeran and ShooFeeTV.

We all remember the first round of investment Jeeran and ShooFeeTV received back in May 2009 that gave them a major development push that resulted in a number of new services and features. Both companies also being apart of IV Holdings portfolio.

The funding for investments in the region comes from the $50m Intel Capital Middle East and Turkey Fund, yet the press release did not disclose the exact numbers invested in the three companies.

UK-Lebanon based Nymgo provides VoIP services via a desktop application that boasts more than 2 million downloads serving customers in more than 200 countries worldwide. Since it’s launch in 2008 it’s served more than 300 million minutes of international calls.

The three companies will be using their new found cash in different ways. Nymgo stated in the press release they going to accelerate infrastructure deployment, operations enhancement and global marketing. According to TechCrunch this recent addition Intel Capital has expanded it’s investments to 8 companies in MENA.

Jeeran founded back in 2000 is one of the region’s leading Blogging, Musical and Social Networking platforms plans to deploy city portals in each of the major Arab cities across the Middle East after the success they had with the Jeeran Amman, their version of Secret-London with Yelp-ish Social Networking twist based on their own platform.

ShooFeeTV founded back in 2006 enjoys being the region’s single undisputed Arab satellite guide and aggregator covering over 270 channels, although not the easiest to use. They’re going to use their funds to ‘enhance their working capital and expand their business model.’ Which I sincerely hope means a better User Interface and search results.

So why should you care? Well that means the region is going to get better VoIP, more Jeeran city portals, which means a lot of localized content that is desperately needed, and well, more ShooFeeTV.Image, TechCrunch



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