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Pick of the Day

TechCrunch/OfferPal Drama–Much Ado About Very Little

By Sean Ryan
Chairman, Meez.com

Sean Ryan

So the inevitable “offers are scams” story finally blew on to the scene last week at the Virtual Goods Summit when TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington attacked OfferPal’s Anu Shukla for having misleading offers (e.g. sign up for Netflix, get 10,000 coinz) as a core part of her business.

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Friday, November 6, 2009

Judge Orders BlueBeat.com to Pull Down Beatles Songs, Other Music; the Psycho-Acoustic Simulation Defense

By Eric Savitz
Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily

Eric Savitz

You should not be surprised to learn that a federal judge yesterday ordered BlueBeat.com to immediately stop selling Beatles songs and other music from its site, rejecting a goofy assertion that the company had copyrights on the songs via the use of something called “psycho-acoustic simulation.”

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Jimmy Wales on Wikipedia Quality and Tips for Contributors

By Andrew LaVallee
Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Andrew LaVallee

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales said Friday that the online encyclopedia aspires to be a higher-quality source of information but added that mainstream publications could learn from its disclaimers and community features.

“Our goal is to make Wikipedia as high-quality as possible. Britannica or better quality is the goal,” he said during a question-and-answer session at the ad:tech conference in New York.

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Using Online Tools to Save Time During the Search

By Jon Gray
Contributor, Laid Off and Looking, The Wall Street Journal

Jon Gray

My productivity lapses don’t come from Facebook. My problem is a combination of world news sites and Twitter. Using RescueTime, an online time management tool, I’ve named two productivity goals for myself. One goal sets my unproductive time at less than 90 minutes per day. The other sets my highly productive time at greater than five hours per day.

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High Hopes for Tackling Terror

By Yukari Iwatani Kane
Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Yukari Iwatani Kane

Blowing away terrorists, apparently, never gets old.

The new videogame Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, set to hit stores Tuesday, is a sequel spawned by sequels. But rather than following the frequent pattern of franchises fading as they age, Modern Warfare 2 is the most highly anticipated game of the season.

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E-Commerce Health Is in the Eye of the Beholder

By Geoffrey A. Fowler
Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Geoffrey A. Fowler

Depending on whom you ask, U.S. online shopping is either in unprecedented decline–or one of the only bright spots in American retail.

On Thursday, comScore reported that U.S. online spending in the third quarter slipped two percent to $29.6 billion versus last year.

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Stephen Fry’s Twitter Wobble: I Know Just How He Feels

By David Schneider
Writer, Guardian.co.uk

David Schneider

Although my passport has me down as British, anyone monitoring my computer use over the last few months would know I should really have dual nationality as a citizen of the UK and of Twitter.

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Developers Stealing From Developers: An App Store Tale

By Jeff Smykil
Writer, Ars Technica

Jeff Smykil

If you are Paul Haddad of TapBots, LLC, it isn’t unusual to get requests for contract work.

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Buying Twitter Followers?

By Stephen Baker
Senior Writer, BusinessWeek

Stephen Baker

I’ve been carrying out a small experiment in one of the areas of greatest potential abuse of social media: Twitter marketing.

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Social-Media Pranksters Had Fun With Walmart’s Caskets

By Craig Daitch
Writer, Ad Age

Craig Daitch

When it comes to social media, it’s best to start with a solid listening strategy.

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Almost Famous: Brizzly’s Chris Wetherell

By Drake Martinet
Intern, All Things Digital

Drake Martinet

brizzly1

A new feature wherein All Things Digital looks at up-and-coming and innovative start-ups you should know about.

This week: A video visit with, some questions for and a few pertinent stats about Chris Wetherell and his creation, Brizzly, a Web-based social media reader.

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The Sluggish Pace Toward an IPO

By Scott Austin
Lead Editor, Venture Capital Dispatch, The Wall Street Journal

Scott Austin

In light of Ancestry.com’s IPO today, tech site Vator.tv calculated the average age of the venture-backed tech companies that have gone public this year.

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Thursday, November 5, 2009

Activision Q3 Edges Guidance; No Change In Full Year View

By Eric Savitz
Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily

Eric Savitz

Activision Blizzard this afternoon posted slightly better-than-expected Q3 results, and reiterated its previous guidance for the full year.

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A View of Atherton From Real-Estate Agents

By Pui-Wing Tam
Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Pui-Wing Tam

Atherton, Calif., is the mansion Mecca for many of Silicon Valley’s tech multi-millionaires. And so far in 2009, even though home sales and median property sale prices in the town have slowed from a year ago, The Wall Street Journal found that there hasn’t been as little activity as some techie buyers might think.

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Facebook “What People Are Up To,” MySpace “What People Are Into,” News Corp. Exec Says

By Andrew LaVallee
Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Andrew LaVallee

News Corp.’s digital chief said Thursday that the company’s social-networking property MySpace is going in a different direction than rival Facebook, based on how its members socialize and share interests.

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Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s Take on Silicon Valley Wannabes

By Jessica E. Vascellaro
Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Jessica E. Vascellaro

Eric Schmidt is brimming with Bay Area pride.

In the 33 years that the Google CEO has lived in the Bay Area, Schmidt says he has watched a long list of regions try–and fail–to create technology capitals of Silicon Valley’s scale.

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EMI Sues Site Over Beatles Songs

By Ethan Smith
Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Ethan Smith

The Beatles catalog finally became available for paid digital downloading, but not the way the band’s record label, EMI Group Ltd., intended.

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Clever Fools: Why a High IQ Doesn’t Mean You’re Smart

By Michael Bond
Contributor, New Scientist

Michael Bond

Is George W. Bush stupid?

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Gestures as a Language, Not a Technology

By Jeffrey Sambells
Blogger, jeffreysambells.com

Jeffrey Sambells

Personally, I’m all about innovation.

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Wireless Tech Taking a Toll on Earth Science and Astronomy

By Larry Greenemeier
Writer, Scientific American

Larry Greenemeier

Nearly lost amidst the breathless anticipation of all things wireless–whether it’s the latest smart phone, free Internet hot spot or GPS navigation system–is the potential impact these gadgets may have on scientific instruments that likewise need access to the electromagnetic spectrum.

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Featured Partner

Wind Pole Ventures Tackles Faulty Wind Data

By Martin LaMonica
Senior Editor, CNET

Martin LaMonica

Wind farms aren’t just about putting steel into the ground. A start-up is carving a business out of getting better wind-speed data to predict electricity output.

Read More »

From CNET

Tech in Pictures

Featured Video

... Americans are not as isolated as has been previously reported. We find that the extent of social isolation has hardly changed since 1985, contrary to concerns that the prevalence of severe isolation has tripled since then.”

From the Pew Internet & American Life Project study on Social Isolation and New Technology

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This is a section of the All Things Digital Web site featuring posts from around the Web, from other Dow Jones properties and also original pieces we solicit. The section is now explicitly labeled that it comes "from other Web sites."

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