1. Fever Pitch: It’s Droid Day, Enjoy The Moment.  permalink

Fever Pitch: It’s Droid Day, Enjoy The Moment.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch

If you are a tech lover, there is nothing quite like the launch day of a much hyped new gadget. Expectations run high. And since those expectations are rarely satisfied once you have the special little device in hand, it's a moment to savor. In the hours before you own it, that device is perfect in every way. It will make you happier, a better ...

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Www.networkworld.com
Does anyone in tech pay attention to unemployment numbers? Hard to buy that new gizmo when you don’t have a job, right? Verizon confirms Droid tethering option, hefty price tag   —  Verizon has confirmed that customers will have the option of connecting a laptop to their new Motorola Droid smartphones, on sale tomorrow, using the phone as a wireless modem. The carrier won't say exactly when customers can do this tethering but they are exact about what it will cost: typically, an extra $30 per month, doubling Droid-related ...

Tim Stevens / Engadget
Does anyone in tech pay attention to unemployment numbers? Hard to buy that new gizmo when you don’t have a job, right? Verizon confirms DROID tethering cost, will ask subscribers to double-down on their data plan   —  Just a few days ago Verizon made the less-than-shocking confirmation that DROID tethering was coming, but wouldn't say how much it would cost. Now that the hardest of hardcore fans are already waiting in line, disconnected from the world at large, the company is unleashing the bad news: it'll be $30. That doubles the cost of the required data ...

2. Andreessen On Skype: “This Is One Of The Most Important Companies On the Internet.”  permalink

Andreessen On Skype: “This Is One Of The Most Important Companies On the Internet.”
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch

Earlier this morning, Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis settled their lawsuits with eBay and a syndicate of investors in return for a 14 percent stake in the company they founded. The lawsuits were complicating the spin-off of Skype from eBay because the Skype founders still controlled the service's underlying peer-to-peer technology. In an ...

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Erica Ogg / CNET
Skype founders wrestle back $400m share of company CNET News Daily Podcast: Skype, eBay move forward   —  eBay will move forward with selling its stake in Skype, the company said Friday, now that a licensing dispute over the software that underlies Skype's service has been settled. eBay will get $1.9 billion in cash in the deal, which will close by the end of the year. Also on the podcast: Smartphone sales rise, the Motorola Droid has its coming out ...

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch
Skype founders wrestle back $400m share of company Confirmed: Skype Founders Settle With eBay And Others, Get 14% Stake In Skype, Not 10%   —  eBay has just announced that it has reached a settlement with the founders of Skype , clearing the way for the sale of the Internet communication company to a consortium formed by private equity firm Silver Lake Partners , Andreessen Horowitz and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Index Ventures , a historical investor in Skype, is not ...

3. MSNBC Having A Bad Friday  permalink

MSNBC Having A Bad Friday
MG Siegler / TechCrunch

I think it's safe to assume their Twitter account has been hacked. Update : Yep. Now suspended .

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4. TextPlus 2.0 Hits The App Store For Free Texting  permalink

TextPlus 2.0 Hits The App Store For Free Texting
Daniel Brusilovsky / TechCrunch

textPlus , a text messaging app that's powered by GOGII , has just hit the App Store. textPlus lets any iPhone or iPod Touch send free text messages to any cell number by using in-app advertising to cover its costs. There is no limit on how many text messages you can send per month, it's just a matter of getting WiFi, 3G or an Edge connection. ...

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Rafe Needleman / Reporter
TextPlus 2.0 Hits The App Store For Free Texting Reporters' Roundtable 9: The business of app stores   —  This week on the Roundtable: the App Store revolution. Something funny has happened to software. While the model we all grew up with for the distribution of software was mostly to buy it through retail channels or other resellers, or maybe direct from manufacturers, another model emerged and has proven successful by Apple: the App Store. In this ...

Macworld
TextPlus 2.0 Hits The App Store For Free Texting IPhone Superguide comes to App Store   —  Macworld's iPhone Superguide is now on the App Store. Despite numerous delays, many of them the fault of Apple's app-review process.

5. Europe’s Biggest Paper Blocks iPhone Browsers To Force Sales Of Its App  permalink

Europe’s Biggest Paper Blocks iPhone Browsers To Force Sales Of Its App
TechCrunch Europe / TechCrunch

So much for the coming mobile nirvana of free mobile content - at least for iPhone users in Germany. Today Europe's biggest newspaper, BILD-Zeitung , intends to use, in effect, brute force to compel users buy its new iPhone app. The paper tabloid is to block anyone using an iPhone browser from accessing its website. Now, readers will not only ...

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Jessica Dolcourt / The Download Blog
Europe’s Biggest Paper Blocks iPhone Browsers To Force Sales Of Its App Popular iPhone movie app flops on BlackBerry   —  Flixster's Movies app just isn't up to snuff on BlackBerry.

Mike Clark / Near Field Communications World
Europe’s Biggest Paper Blocks iPhone Browsers To Force Sales Of Its App Apple testing RFID-enabled iPhone?   —  Einar Rosenberg, who runs the Near Field Communications Group on Linkedin.com, has reported the following: Had to share this news. A highly reliable source has informed me that Apple has built some prototypes of the next gen iPhone with an RFID reader built in and they have seen it in action. So its not full NFC [...]

6. The Just Because We Love You TwitterPeek Giveaway #Crunch  permalink

The Just Because We Love You TwitterPeek Giveaway #Crunch
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch

If you're a Twitter freak and think that a dedicated Twitter device is just the thing for you, read on. This week we saw the launch of the TwitterPeek , a cute little device built by Peek that will do just about anything you want it to do, as long as all you want it to do is access Twitter. It won't surf the web. It won't make phone calls. It won'

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Major Nelson / Xbox Live
The Just Because We Love You TwitterPeek Giveaway #Crunch Twitter, Facebook, Last.FM and Xbox 360 Family Settings   —  As some of you might be aware, those under the age of 18 are not able to access Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm in our public preview . I want to you let you know that this will remain the case when it launches to the world soon. We made this decision because as it stands now, parents aren’t able to use Family Settings to customize which of ...

MG Siegler / TechCrunch
The Just Because We Love You TwitterPeek Giveaway #Crunch Brizzly Marries Groups And Twitter Lists   —  When it was first unveiled at our Realtime Crunchup in July, easily one of the best features of the web-based Twitter client Brizzly was Groups. Basically, it allowed you to sort your Twitter followers into subsections, to make specific groups of users easier to follow. Of course, with Twitter's new Lists functionality , you can basically do the ...

7. YouTube Is Falling Apart Again  permalink

YouTube Is Falling Apart Again
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch

The ads are destroying YouTube. At least this one is. It is a video ad for sustainable energy company from Spain called Acciona . Yeah, I had never heard of them either. The video starts with this Euro-dude in a suit starting to blow up and crack apart like he's made from plaster. Halfway through, the actual video player crack in half, and all ...

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Liz Gannes / NewTeeVee
YouTube Is Falling Apart Again YouTube Comment Search Battle: “Sucks” Edges Out “Rocks”   —  YouTube is playing around with real-time comment search in the vein of web darling Twitter. The new YouTube “test tube” feature provides a continuously updating list of current comments on the site and surfaces popular overlaps of conversation as trending topics. Being that YouTube is such a popular site, it’s quite possible ...

Digg.com
YouTube Is Falling Apart Again Will Ferrell and Adam McKay Talk YouTube   —  Burrdugg, on 11/06/2009, -0/+4Finally now I can watch the videos on YouTube. The media player on Funny or Die is broken. allisonV12, 9 minutes ago, -0/+0The Will Ferrell comedy has been dead for at least 3 or 4 movies past,Funny or Die channel on YouTube...how appropriate

8. Marissa Mayer Chosen As A Glamour Magazine Woman Of The Year  permalink

Marissa Mayer Chosen As A Glamour Magazine Woman Of The Year
Leena Rao / TechCrunch

Google's Vice President of Search Product and User Experience Marissa Mayer was recently profiled in a Vogue Magazine article that offered a in-depth glimpse into the exec's lifestyle, loves, career and fashion preferences. Now, Mayer has been named as one of Glamour Magazine's 2009 Women of the Year. Joining Mayer on the list are a variety of ...

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Lawrence Chang / Google Mobile Blog
Marissa Mayer Chosen As A Glamour Magazine Woman Of The Year Get Google Mobile App at Best Buy stores   —  If you're a regular reader of the Google Mobile Blog , then you've probably installed or accessed our mobile applications on your phone at one point or another. You may have even shown our applications to your friends and explained how to get them. Or perhaps you've been the recipient of some helpful mobile tips from a friend of yours. In any case,

Www.glamour.com
Marissa Mayer Chosen As A Glamour Magazine Woman Of The Year Marissa Mayer   —  She is a Woman of the Year because: “She has been a powerhouse of creativity and business acumen for one of the world’s most innovative companies. Marissa Mayer is leading the way in keeping America number one.” —Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and 2002 Woman of the Year

9. Gowalla Hops Onto Android Via The Mobile Web  permalink

Gowalla Hops Onto Android Via The Mobile Web
MG Siegler / TechCrunch

Up until now, if you wanted to use the location-based service Gowalla on the go, you had to have an iPhone. Today, that expands to Android. But rather than building an app, Gowalla has extended support to Android using the mobile web . This works because Android's browser is closely tied to the device and is able to access location information, ...

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Laura June / Engadget
Gowalla Hops Onto Android Via The Mobile Web LG to announce Snapdragon-boasting Android phone, Korea-bound in 2010   —  It's looking like LG will be offering an Android phone boasting Qualcomm's hot Snapdragon chip -- which has recently squeezed its way into handsets such as the Xperia X10 and Acer's Liquid . The new LG mobile phone is expected for the Korean market in the second quarter of 2010. While the device is still unnamed and specs are still a mystery, LG ...

Admin / Infoworld News
Gowalla Hops Onto Android Via The Mobile Web Who's in charge of Android development: Google or developers?   —  Onlookers say that Google is in charge of Android development, despite pitching the software as a community project. But experts say that could be the only way Google can ensure that the software is actually released. The Android development process may reflect a reality in the open-source environment, as some groups forego the community in an ...

10. Zynga CEO Mark Pincus: “I Did Every Horrible Thing In The Book Just To Get Revenues”  permalink

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus: “I Did Every Horrible Thing In The Book Just To Get Revenues”
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus said earlier this week that he intends to make sure his company's games don't include scammy offers in the future. Our full background on this story is here . But what he didn't say in that blog post is that Zynga has been scamming users from the beginning quite intentionally as part of their revenue model. Rather, he ...

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Barb Dybwad / Mashable!
To zwink or not? FishVille Launches on Facebook; It’s Like Underwater FarmVille   —  We were sort of surprised to discover how many of you proclaim your love for FarmVille , the social farming sim game from Zynga. We reported that the company had trademarked the name FishVille last month, and speculated that an aquatic derivative of the wildly popular social game might be in the works. And indeed it was, with FishVille launching ...

11. With Brizzly In Good Health, Director Of TV’s House And Others Invest In Thing Labs  permalink

With Brizzly In Good Health, Director Of TV’s House And Others Invest In Thing Labs
MG Siegler / TechCrunch

Brizzly is on a roll right now. Just yesterday, it became the first web-based Twitter client to implement Lists , and last week it rolled out Facebook support . Today brings good news for its parent company: More funding. At the end of this month, Thing Labs will close a $600,000 round which is basically an extension of its Series A from back in ...

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Darren Murph / Engadget
With Brizzly In Good Health, Director Of TV’s House And Others Invest In Thing Labs TiVo's AN0100 802.11n WiFi adapter hits the FCC, stirs up imaginations   —  TiVo's Wireless G USB network adapter has been out and about since late 2005, so to say an 802.11n version is past due would be understating things dramatically. At long last, it seems as if high-speed network access is coming to the heralded DVR , with an AN0100 802.11n AP recently splashing down at the FCC. There's no instruction manual or ...

Sean Fallon / Gizmodo
With Brizzly In Good Health, Director Of TV’s House And Others Invest In Thing Labs Myka ION HD Player Is the First To Deliver Both Hulu and Boxee   —  You may remember Myka from their BitTorrent player , but now they are bringing Hulu, Boxee and NVIDIA ION graphics to the table with the Myka ION . Apparently, Myka goes beyond Hulu and Boxee allowing you to run other full PC applications like XBMC and "browse to any web site and play video content directly onto your TV." Thre is no mention of ...

12. Chomp Eats Up Some Seed Funding. Next, Will Bite Into The Mobile Space.  permalink

Chomp Eats Up Some Seed Funding. Next, Will Bite Into The Mobile Space.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch

It's not yet clear what Chomp exactly is, but we do know that it's a rather hot property right now. It took the still stealth start up just 10 days to raise a nice seed round from Ron Conway and a few other big name angel investors, we hear. So what do we know? Well, the company is definitely in the mobile space. In fact, it's a "BIG mobile play,"

13. Infosys Co-Founder Adds Another $91 Million To Venture Fund  permalink

Infosys Co-Founder Adds Another $91 Million To Venture Fund
Leena Rao / TechCrunch

More good news for Indian entrepreneurs! Infosys co-founder and chairman N. R. Narayana Murthy's new VC firm, now called Catamaran Venture Fund, just added a whole lot more money to its coffers. A few weeks ago, we reported that Murthy was turning to “the dark side” after selling a large amount of company shares in order to set up a venture ...

14. Zillow Starts Charging For Leads. Will Lenders Retaliate?  permalink

Zillow Starts Charging For Leads.  Will Lenders Retaliate?
Leena Rao / TechCrunch

Zillow, a popular real-estate listings site, recently tweaked the pricing model in its marketplace for mortgages, angering many of the lenders who pay Zillow for customer leads. A few weeks ago, the site announced that it will be introducing a new pricing model for these leads to lenders. Zillow's mortgage marketplace, which launched in 2008, ...

15. TechCrunch Europe ChristmasCrunch – It’s A Realtime Holiday!  permalink

TechCrunch Europe ChristmasCrunch – It’s A Realtime Holiday!
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch Europe

It is time for the second annual TechCrunch Europe ChristmasCrunch ! Yes folks it's our annual TechCrunch Europe meetup and Festive Christmas party, in one handy package. This year we're taking a different tack - basing it around one of the the hottest themes right now, namely the rise of realtime streams. We've seen the emergence of Twitter, ...

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TechCrunch Europe / TechCrunch
TechCrunch Europe ChristmasCrunch – A Realtime Holiday   —  It is time for the second annual TechCrunch Europe ChristmasCrunch ! Yes folks it's our annual TechCrunch Europe meetup and Festive Holiday party, in one handy package. This year we're taking a different tack - basing it around one of the the hottest themes right now, namely the rise of realtime streams. We've seen the emergence of Twitter, ...

16. HTC Hero + Spotify now available at 3 UK website and stores  permalink

HTC Hero + Spotify now available at 3 UK website and stores
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch Europe

[UK] Much-hyped digital music service Spotify recently announced a deal with carrier 3 UK that would bring its mobile service to 3 customers. Well, that offer is now live, as announced on the Spotify blog minutes ago. Spotify Mobile will initially be available only on the HTC Hero, the first Android handset to launch on 3 UK. To buy, head on ...

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Reviews.cnet.com
HTC Hero + Spotify now available at 3 UK website and stores HTC Droid Eris photos   —  The HTC Droid Eris is similar to the HTC Hero, but it's more rectangular and it lacks the protruding "chin." Also, it has a darker color.

Www.bestbuyinc.com
  —  Best Buy Mobile and Google will work together to bring innovative mobile services to more customers looking to maximize their smartphones MINNEAPOLIS, November 5, 2009 – Best Buy Mobile, the mobile specialty retail unit of Best Buy Co., Inc., today announced a retail partnership with Google™ that will help bring Google Mobile App to consumers ...

17. Mobile Premier Awards opens its competition  permalink

Mobile Premier Awards opens its competition
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch Europe

Each year we happily promote the Mobile Premier Awards because we think they are among the best initiatives for mobile startups, especially in Europe. Here’s the info: The Mobile Premier Awards recognize the year’s best in Mobile Startup Innovation and are the largest open, global startup competition in the mobile industry. The awards are ...

18. ScamVille: New Offerpal CEO Admits Mistakes, Makes Bold Promises  permalink

ScamVille: New Offerpal CEO Admits Mistakes, Makes Bold Promises
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch

Yesterday Offerpal Media changed CEOs. Cofounder Anu Shukla , who just last week denied that her company engaged in any questionable advertising on social gaming applications, was replaced by veteran startup executive George Garrick . For all the background, see our Scamville post and the related updates at the end. Garrick, who has been the CEO ...

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Www.niemanlab.org
ScamVille: New Offerpal CEO Admits Mistakes, Makes Bold Promises Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions the news consumer of the future   —  For all the bluster about Google as an enemy of the news industry, you might be surprised to learn that Eric Schmidt, the company’s CEO, is kind of a triumphalist for mainstream media, big newspapers, and print.

Nick O'Neill / All Facebook
ScamVille: New Offerpal CEO Admits Mistakes, Makes Bold Promises Facebook Surpasses 325 Million Users   —  Facebook has continued to grow at an impressive rate throughout the year, most recently announcing the 300 million user milestone. According to Facebook’s own advertising statistics though, the company is now beyond 325 million users and continuing to grow. The story has become relatively repetitive at this point: Facebook is growing like a [