Google Chrome for the holidays: Mac, Linux and extensions in beta
There was nothing more excruciating for me as a kid than seeing the presents pile up under the Christmas tree but knowing that I couldn't open them until Christmas morning. On the Google Chrome team ...
MySpace buries Imeem
Here's an interesting study in contrasts. When MySpace acquired iLike back in August, MySpace left the site mostly intact. The iLike home page is still there, you can still add iLike's music-finding...
New Digital Publishing Venture Boasts Access To 144 Million-Plus Audience; Squires Talks
Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith (NYSE: MDP), News Corp (NYSE: NWS). and Time Inc. are making it formal: the five publishers are equity partners in a new digital publishing venture with grand designs.
CONFIRMED: Saul Hansell Quits The New York Times For AOL
Confirming our earlier report, AOL says it hired New York Times tech writer Saul Hansell. — Saul will be the first employee of Seed.com, AOL's platform for freelance contributors to its 80+ media si...
Dell Vostro V13 hands-on impressions: ‘yes’
What if you took an original Adamo, shaved a couple pounds off the weight and a grand off the price? You'd end up with something pretty close to the new Dell Vostro V13. We just got a quick look at ...
The Open Government Directive has dropped. Here's what's in it — and why it's a big deal.
and why it's a big deal. — So we finally have our hands on the long-awaited Open Government Directive. In just eleven pages, it lays out the Obama Administration's vision for what transparent, parti...
Offline Gmail graduates from Labs
Almost a year ago, we launched Offline Gmail in Gmail Labs. By installing Offline Gmail, you're able to use the normal Gmail interface to read and write mail, search, and organize, even when there's ...
Apple updates Airport client software/silences loud Superdrives
Apple released Airport Client Update 2009-002 today fixing some minor issues in Snow Leopard's wireless access software. A restart is required. — Update: Apple also released MacBook Pro EFI 1.8 fi...
Study: Redbox Will Destroy the Entertainment Industry
If you thought the movie 2012 was disaster porn, just wait for the entertainment apocalypse that Redbox's dollar-a-night movie rentals will bring about. That, in a nutshell, is the bottom line of a n...
Exploring a new, more dynamic way of reading news with Living Stories
There's been no shortage of talk recently about the “future of news.” Should publishers charge for news online? How do they replace lost sources of revenue such as classified ads? How will accounta...
Windows Server and Windows Azure come together in a new STB organization: the Server & Cloud Division
Microsoft is announcing today the formation of a new organization within the Server & Tools Business that combines the Windows Server & Solutions group and the Windows Azure group …
Hostess Gets Pie on its Face in Domain Dispute
Decision in domain dispute favorable to non-use of domains for bad faith argument. … Hostess, the bakery that sells treats such as Twinkies and Ding Dongs, has lost a domain dispute over Hostess.com. ...
Faster apps for a faster web: introducing Speed Tracer
Do you ever wonder what's going on inside the browser when a webpage doesn't load or respond as quickly as it should? Many developers do, especially when trying to build powerful web applications for...
Dell Rings Up $6.5 Million in Sales Using Twitter Promotions
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) — Dell Inc., relying on social- networking sites to drum up sales of personal computers, said its promotions on Twitter have helped generate more than $6.5 million in orders for PCs...
‘You In?’ — Yahoo! Launches Campaign to Inspire Kindness Around the World
Yahoo! Launches Campaign to Inspire Kindness Around the World — Kindness is contagious this holiday season. Based on the belief that it doesn't take a great deal of money or time to spread happiness...
Microsoft and NetApp sign cloud deal
The three-year collaboration agreement will focus on private and public cloud management — Microsoft and data storage company NetApp announced today a three-year agreement that cements what had alre...
VeriFone follows Square's lead with its own iPhone credit card payment system [Updated]
PAYware Mobile. Courtesy of VeriFone — Not to be outdone by tech visionary Jack Dorsey — one of the brains behind Twitter — and his Square cellphone payment start-up, point …
What does AT&T's ‘Mark the Spot’ app say about service quality?
Do you have AT&T as wireless carrier? Are you happy with the network service quality? I encourage Betanews readers to respond in comments to these questions, which are suddenly surreal now that AT&T...
Cisco Has ‘Little Interest’ in Selling Smart Phones
CEO John Chambers says he'd rather work on the networking that supports products from RIM, Apple, and Palm — (Bloomberg)—Cisco Systems Inc. Chief Executive Officer John Chambers said the company has...
Cooliris Express unveiled
Free utility makes immersive photo and video walls easy to create and share — Cooliris has launched Cooliris Express, a free online tool that lets consumers quickly build customizable and immersive ...
@ Vevo Launch: Google's Schmidt: The Music Industry Will Finally Make Money Selling Music Online
The Vevo launch party has been going on for an hour and executives and stars are ready to take the stage. I spoke briefly with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt, who told me that Vevo …
Streaming will never stop downloading
Far from being a cure for the industry's woes, substituting streams for downloads wastes bandwidth, reduces privacy and slows innovation — Someone convinced the record and movie and TV industries th...
Yahoo's Bartz: ‘Things Are Looking Up’
Asked about the disparity between online media usage and internet ad spending at UBS Media Week, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) CEO Carol Bartz said that the gap was in part because internet advertising had initi...
How Microsoft stacks up against Google's latest search and mobile wares
Hoping (unsuccessfully so) to head off the glowing press Google was bound to get this week for its “future of search” preview, Microsoft showed off some of its latest enhancements to Bing last week.
Offline Gmail graduates from Labs
Almost a year ago, we launched Offline Gmail in Gmail Labs. By installing Offline Gmail, you're able to use the normal Gmail interface to read and write mail, search, and organize, even when there's ...
Google Chrome For Mac Is Here!
The wait is over. Google Chrome for Mac is now available in beta. It's still missing a few features that are in the Windows version (like support for extensions), but the browser is lickety-split an...
LaLa Was Bought By Apple For $17 Million, Not $80 Million
Sometimes you have to apply the smell test to what your sources are telling you, and the rumors we're hearing about Apple's purchase of music service LaLa are definitely smelling a little off. $80 mi...
Dragon Dictation comes to the iPhone. Wow.
Put this into the 'I didn't think they could ever get this to work on an iPhone' category. — I'm talking about Dragon Dictation [iTunes link] from Nuance, the developers of the very popular Dragon N...
Seagate finally makes move from hard drives to flash storage
Seagate makes about $10 billion a year in revenues from its 30-year-old hard drive business. But today, after two years of study, the company is launching a new flash memory storage business.
Fighting fraud online: taking “Google Money” scammers to court
“Use Google to Make 1000s of Dollars!” or “Easy Cash with Google: You Could be Making up to $978 a Day Working from Home!” You may have seen offers like these using Google's name or logo that sounded...
Faster apps for a faster web: introducing Speed Tracer
Do you ever wonder what's going on inside the browser when a webpage doesn't load or respond as quickly as it should? Many developers do, especially when trying to build powerful web applications for...
Apple reveals best-selling iTunes content, iPhone apps of 2009
Apple this week revealed the most critically acclaimed and best selling content of the year in the iTunes Store, the world's most popular online music seller and mobile application destination.
A Million People Riding Google Wave. Most Of Them On Their Stomachs.
The first time you go surfing, it's a pretty significant achievement to just stand up on the board and ride a wave. Most people never leave their stomachs, or when they do, they fly face first into t...
Exclusive: MSN Inks New Deal With Wonderwall Creator BermanBraun for Online Lifestyle Site
MSN will announce a new deal with BermanBraun-the Hollywood production company run by former Yahoo media chief and well-known television exec Lloyd Braun (pictured here)-to create …
New Cloud-based Service Steals Wi-Fi Passwords
For US$34, a new cloud-based hacking service can crack a WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) network password in just 20 minutes, its creator says. — Launched Monday, the WPA Cracker service bills itself a...
NPR Makes Its Mobile Website Appalicious (And Readies An Android App)
National Public Radio has the fourth most popular news app in the iTunes store in the U.S., but now it is taking some of that Appalicious goodness to the mobile browser. Today it launched a new versi...
Microsoft labs tests a Wikipedia of average Joes
The EntityCube listing for Microsoft Research chief Rick Rashid. — Think of Microsoft's latest labs effort as the software maker's attempt to give everyone their own Wikipedia entry. — Dubbed Enti...
Forecast: Online Will Take More Ad Dollars Than Newspapers By 2015
Is the upswing in effect? Three industry forecasts are raising their expectations for next year's ad spend... Magna Global is predicting a six-percent rise, GroupM just .8 percent, and ZenithOptimed...
Apple appeals $21.7 million patent infringement decision
After a patent holder was awarded $21.7 million from Apple last week over technology related to cache memory, the Mac maker has officially appealed the court's decision. — On Dec. 4, Apple filed its...
Daylife gives publishers self-updating topic pages
Daylife, a company that gives online publishers access to content from some 8,000 media sources, is making it easier to run entire sections of curated content. — The New York company, which launched...