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President Obama says he's never used Twitter
Obama said even though he's never used Twitter, he's not a fan of China's censorship of the service.
U.S. President Barack Obama was asked by Chinese students what he thinks of China's censorship of Twitter. In reply he said, "I have never used Twitter but I’m an advocate of technology and not restricting internet access."This came as a bit of a surprise to some people who assumed that at least some of the tweets coming from the official Barack Obama Twitter account (which has over 2.6 million followers) were coming from the President himself. It turns out the staff is responsible for all of it.
Obama has fostered a reputation as a pro-tech politician though, with social media playing a role in his election. He also generally holds pro-tech stances on issues like net neutrality.
Around the web: TechCrunch (24 comments)
, Techmeme , ReadWriteWeb (15 comments) , guardian.co.uk (25 comments) , blogs.telegraph.co.uk (5 comments) , pcworld.com , gawker.com (4 comments) , news.softpedia.com Profile pages: Twitter, Twitter, Inc., tweet, Microblogging, Social networking
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Microsoft Office 2010 beta leaked to BitTorrent trackers
Microsoft's response to the news was restrained. The official beta release comes next week.
Microsoft Office 2010 beta build 14.0.4514.1009 has leaked onto torrent trackers, and while it requires keys to function, it accepts keys from the previous Technical Preview version, so folks who have already been testing it but who want to upgrade to the beta build with all its improvements before the official launch next week can do some law-breaking to get their hands on it.When asked about this leak, Microsoft just said, "We recommend that people do not download code from unauthorized sources." Now there's some restraint. But if it's just a beta version then we suppose there's no financial harm done with this particular breakout of piracy.
That's not an endorsement, mind you. Ahem!
Around the web: news.cnet.com (2 comments)
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Rupert Murdoch's News Corp to ditch Google "within months"
News Corp will move its sites behind pay walls, hoping to change the rules of the new media game. Will that save traditional media or seal its fate?
Jonathan Miller, chief digital officer of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, said that News Corp will remove its web properties from Google listings within "months or quarters." The company is trying to steer the media away from the traffic-driven model that blogs have excelled at but that traditional media outlets have struggled with.
"We believe that the value of high quality content is not recognized online so something needs to happen," he said.
Bloggers and new media enthusiasts are unsurprisingly calling this suicide, arguing that the traffic Google provides is essential to success, that consumers of media primarily find their information via search engines, and that (to borrow a clichéd but time-tested idiom) information wants to be free.
They might be right, but as Miller says, the next two years will tell. For the sake of discussion, here's another legitimate point that doesn't get said as much on blogs: news outlets that don't live and die by the fickle whims of the social media hive mind, the demands of advertisers, and the arcane art of search engine optimization might in some cases have a leg up in giving reasoned and non-sensationalist reporting.
Or it could be suicide. Stay tuned. We promise not to put up a pay wall, so you can keep coming here to see updates on how it pans out—fair enough?
Around the web: Telegraph Connected
, Techmeme (9 comments) , mashable.com (2 comments) , Alley Insider (7 comments) , econsultancy.com , I4U News , gawker.com (4 comments) , techcrunch.com (51 comments) Profile pages: Search engine, Google, News Corporation, Google, Blog, Walled garden
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Google SPDY protocol to speed up the web, Xbox Live gets Facebook and Twitter Tuesday, Microsoft denies Windows 7 was inspired by Mac OS X
Google is working on an application-layer protocol called SPDY (pronounced "speedy") that it claims increases web page load times by as much as 55%. The protocol doesn't replace HTML, but rather augments it, taking over certain tasks where HTML is not ideal. Google has developed a version of its Chrome web browser that uses SPDY, and is opening the project up to the web community for further development and optimization.
The Xbox 360 game console's Xbox Live network will get Twitter and Facebook functionality in an update due out Tuesday, November 17th. The interface fits in nicely with the Xbox 360's other NXE applications.
Microsoft representative Brandon LeBlanc ran a blog post today saying that the marketing manager who said Windows 7 was aiming for "a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics" was "inaccurate and uninformed." He also posted a couple of links detailing the design process for Windows 7.
Thing is, it's very hard not to notice that the new Windows 7 taskbar borrows liberally from Mac OS X's dock. That's not a bad thing, and I've even admitted that the Windows 7 taskbar is superior to the dock in some ways. But hey, you can't go off message, can you?
Around the web: blog.chromium.org (10 comments)
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YouTube to stream 1080p video within a few days
The announcement is another step in YouTube's attempt to class up with high-end, professional-quality content.
YouTube's Hunter Walk revealed at the NewTeeVee Live event that YouTube will be rolling out 1080p FullHD video streams within the next few days with a new widescreen player.
YouTube began offering HD videos up to 720p several months ago, but very few services offer 1080p because of the substantial bandwidth that resolution eats up. Walk said videos are already being re-encoded. It seems that YouTube is serious about providing professional-quality content, not just user-submitted video blogs, home videos, and the like.
We've embedded GigaOM's live NTVL event video below in case this sort of thing piques your interest.
Around the web: newteevee.com
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Bing now uses Wolfram|Alpha data, Google offers double storage at same cost, Microsoft rep says Windows 7 inspired by Mac OS X
Bing has teamed up with ambitious answer engine Wolfram|Alpha to provide in-engine answers to questions related to health, mathematics, and more. Wolfram|Alpha data will appear at the top of Bing results after you search for certain things. This seems like a better application of the Wolfram|Alpha vision than the data appearing on Wolfram|Alpha's own website, and it gives Bing a leg up over Google, whose commitment to a minimalist model means you'll have to take more steps to access certain bits of info.
Google is making moves too, though. It just announced that it's offering twice as much storage for the same price if you're not satisfied with the free storage that comes with a Google account used for Gmail, Picasa, and other apps. You can now get 20 GB for $5 per year, for example.
Microsoft partner group manager Simon Aldous admitted that Microsoft tried to "create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics" for the new Windows 7 operating system. On the other hand, he insisted that the core technology behind Windows is more stable than that of the Mac OS. We're not quite sure about that, but fair enough.
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HP to acquire 3Com networking giant for 2.7 billion dollars
Major computer manufacturer HP has just announced that it will purchase router manufacturer 3Com for 2.7 billion dollars. The purchase is being made so HP can make headway in the server, cloud computing, and networking fields where 3Com is strong but where HP is only scratching the surface. It looks likely that the deal will go through next year.
We're not sure this will be a huge deal for you if you're merely a personal electronics consumer, but this will have implications for businesses that use network storage and the like. Plus, you don't see a 2.7 billion dollar acquisition every day, you know?
Around the web: hp.com
, techmeme.com , nytimes.com , blogs.zdnet.com , blogs.barrons.com (4 comments) , sramanamitra.com , techcrunch.com (11 comments) , blogs.wsj.com (3 comments) Profile pages: HP, cloud computing, server, 3Com
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Google offers free airport Wi-Fi for the holidays, Motorola Droid sales reach 100,000 over the weekend (probably), LinkedIn and Twitter team up
Google has signed on to provide free Wi-Fi in 47 United States airports over the holidays, including Las Vegas, San Jose, Boston, Baltimore, Burbank, Houston, Indianapolis, Seattle, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, St. Louis, and Charlotte. The Wi-Fi will be free up through January 15th.Bloomberg reports that Motorola "probably" sold 100,000 Droid smartphones in the weekend following the handset's launch—a fairly impressive number, although its adoption is still a long way from standing up to that of the iPhone.
Around the web: Daring Fireball
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Google moves on mobile advertising with AdMob acquisition, Apple Mac OS Snow Leopard 10.6.2 fixes guest account bug, Rupert Murdoch will take News Corp sites off of Google
Google has purchased mobile display advertising company AdMob for $750 million in stock. The company's assets will be integral in Google's strategy for monetizing the mobile web in the future.Apple released version 10.6.2 of its Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system today. The update fixes the previously reported critical guest account bug that leads to massive loss of personal data, along with a few minor issues which are listed over at AppleInsider.
News Corporation head honcho Rupert Murdoch is planning to make his web news sites pay properties next year, and he just said in an interview that he'll make a major play: removing all the sites from Google listings. News Corp is big enough that this could be a notable blow to Google.
Around the web: googleblog.blogspot.com
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Skype founders keep 14% of company, LinkedIn gets a redesign, Boxee beta to be available December 7
Skype's founders and eBay have come to an agreement on the terms of the sale of Skype to private investors. The founders will retain 14% of the company, not 10% as originally stated. Soon Skype will no longer be the property of eBay; that was a short-lived and fruitless arrangement if we've ever seen one.
Professional social networking site LinkedIn has received a user interface overhaul. The most notable change is the addition of a top navigation bar, but several smaller adjustments have been made too.
The beta version of the Boxee streaming web video software will finally launch on December 7th, and it won't just be the alpha version with a few bug fixes. Boxee's founder has promised a new user interface and better search features in the new version.
Around the web: TechCrunch
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