Google and AOL have signed a deal that extends the search and advertising partnership between the two companies for another five years. The agreement also includes mobile search and adds a content sharing partnership with YouTube. In a statement, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said, “After nearly a decade-long partnership in search, we’re looking forward to expanding our global relationship to mobile search and YouTube. All aspects of our partnership will be improved by this deal.” The..   show all text

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This series is brought to you by HTC EVO 4G, America’s first 4G phone. Only from Sprint. The “First to Know” series keeps you in the know on what’s happening now in the world of social media and technology. Welcome to this morning’s edition of “First To Know,” a series in which we keep you in the know on what’s happening in the digital world. We’re keeping our eyes on three particular stories of interest today. iTunes 10 and Ping Ar..   show all text

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Samsung has finally spilled the details about its long-awaited tablet computer, the Galaxy Tab, during a press conference at the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin. Samsung calls its tablet a “smart media device,” and Galaxy Tab definitely has the specifications to back it up: Android 2.2 support, a Cortex A8 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM and 16/32 GB of internal memory with the possibility of upgrading through microSD memory cards. Furthermore, there’s a 7 inch TFT-LCD ..   show all text

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Apple made a lot of announcements today, from the new Apple TV to the Ping social network for music built into iTunes 10. Because Apple is entering some new market segments (or, in the case of Ping, some new markets, period) Apple is now a direct competitor to a number of other companies already in the social music and streaming content space. Boxee, Rdio and Roku have all issued statements in response to Apple’s latest moves and what, if anything, it means for the future of those startup..   show all text

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As he was boasting that Apple is activating 230,000 iOS devices a day at Apple’s San Francisco event yesterday, Steve Jobs took the opportunity to accuse competitors of boosting their numbers when it comes to device activations. “We think some of our friends are counting upgrades in their numbers,” said Jobs, most probably referring to the recent figures from Google, whose Eric Schmidt claimed 200,000 activations daily in August 2010. Google has quickly responded to Jobs&rsquo..   show all text

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This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. Name: Kembrel Quick Pitch: A private store for students that can be accessed entirely through Facebook, from browsing to checkout. Genius Idea: Launched by two students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business school, Kembrel..   show all text

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Twitter has just announced the service’s official iPad app. It’s free and comes with a slew of touch interface bells and whistles built right in. The app is intended to allow for seamless navigation between tweets, photos, web pages, videos and other media and updates. It’s also usable even for those who don’t have Twitter accounts. Twitter for iPad [iTunes link] has a few new UI touches that you haven’t seen elsewhere. These features are custom-designed for the la..   show all text

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iTunes 10 is now live and available for download. It comes bundled with its own killer feature: music-centric social network Ping. Announced just this morning, the new iTunes/Ping one-two combo pack a mighty punch. But can this dynamic duo deliver on its promise to revitalize music-based social networking? And will Ping be the MySpace killer all the tech pundits are speculating about? We don’t have all the answers, but we do have a few first impressions to share with you. We were definite..   show all text

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Mocha frappuccino and soy latte lovers rejoice: Starbucks is rolling out its Starbucks Card Mobile App for BlackBerry tomorrow, September 2. In September 2009, Starbucks introduced its Starbucks Card Mobile app for iPhone and iPod touch, enabling the owners of those devices to reload their Starbucks payment cards, monitor their rewards cards and even pay for their purchases at 16 stores in Seattle and the Silicon Valley region. In June, the coffee company extended its mobile payment system to 1..   show all text

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is diving deeper into Google and Verizon’s proposed net neutrality framework with a public notice and inquiry into two of net neutrality’s key issues. The FCC’s seven-page public notice [PDF] tackles two of the key proposals from the Google-Verizon framework: “Specialized Services” and net neutrality/open internet principles for the mobile wireless Internet. The Google-Verizon proposal has received heavy criticism for exc..   show all text

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We’ve all done it — surfed on over to the book of faces, our hearts racing and pupils dilating with excitement, let our cursors linger over those oh-so-powerful words, “Remove From Friends,” and clicked away with the maniacal glee of a serial killer. Still, there aren’t too many among us who have the skill, nay, the expertise to cut ties without cutting deep. At this point, some of you may be reminiscing about the sepia-tinged past, those glory days when, if you di..   show all text

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Microsoft has completed the development of its forthcoming Windows Phone 7. The mobile OS has reached the release to manufacturing (RTM) stage, the company announced today. All that remains now is for networks and manufacturers to work on the final integrations of WP7 so that it is prepared for its release. While an official release date has not been announced, most reports pin October as Microsoft’s target time for launch. “Windows Phone 7 is the most thoroughly tested mobile platf..   show all text

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At Apple’s special event today, the company announced a redesigned and re-formulated Apple TV. As expected, the new device comes with support for Netflix, streams content and offers affordable rental pricing for TV shows. The new Apple TV will be available later this month (you can pre-order it now) for $99.99. While most of the changes to the device were expected, not everything that was predicted was announced. For instance, although the new device sports an A4 processor like the iPhone..   show all text

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If I were MySpace, I would be shaking in my boots. Earlier today, Apple launched iTunes 10, the latest rendition of its wildly popular music software. Really though, iTunes 10 is just a vessel for Ping, Apple’s new music-centric social network. Available immediately to iTunes’s 160 million+ users through the desktop, iPhone and iPod touch, Ping is a social network where users can follow their friends and their favorite artists. As Apple CEO Steve Jobs described it, Ping is Facebook ..   show all text

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Target will be the first retailer to sell Facebook Credits in its stores come Sunday. The Facebook Credits gift cards will be available in $15, $25 and $50 denominations at all 1,750 Target locations and at Target.com. The cards will soon make their way to two or three additional national retailers, according to USA Today. Facebook Credits is a virtual currency redeemable for primarily in-game Facebook purchases. In Farmville, for instance, gamers can use Facebook Credits as a currency, in lieu..   show all text

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Ultimate Ears, a subsidiary of Logitech, have set loose another pair of custom earbuds that will make ears swoon and wallets groan. The Ultimate Ears In-Ear Reference Monitors feature three individually tuned and balanced armature speakers in each earbud, with 32dB of noise isolation. This triple speaker format allow the monitors to reproduce highly specific audio in virtually any environment. Ultimate Ears has also eliminated the the standard Y connector found on many headphones, in favor of t..   show all text

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This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. In addition to writing for their human readers, web writers and bloggers have to consider the digital web crawlers employed by search engines like Google. Your business can’t skip the task. Since most would-be readers use search engines to find blog posts, you need to make sure that Google ranks your site highly whe..   show all text

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Motorola’s new Android-based smartphone, the Defy, boasts an interesting combination of solid features and ruggedness that will appeal to users prone to splashing, dropping and scratching their phone. If you saw the Defy and read its specifications, you’d think it’s just another Android smartphone: it sports a 3.7” touchscreen display with a 480 x 854 pixel resolution, an 800 MHz CPU, a 5-megapixel camera with a flash, aGPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a microUSB jack. However,..   show all text

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Travelers and city adventurers looking for a better way to harness geolocation data for their own amusement, get ready: Gowalla is releasing a brand new beta feature designed to crowdsource the best a city has to offer. Gowalla Highlights is a web-based product that currently consists of 18 place-based questions that query members about their favorite date night locales, watering holes, spots for people watching or celebrity sightings, etc. The power of the product is in the aggregate. Gowalla ..   show all text

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Sweden’s chief prosecutor has reopened a rape investigation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Recently, Assange was accused with crimes of molestation and rape by the Swedish authorities. Assange has denied the allegations, claiming they are “without basis,” and later calling the case a “smear campaign” against him and WikiLeaks. The rape charges were soon dropped by Eva Finne, chief prosecutor in Stockholm, but after the lawyer of the allegedly assaulted w..   show all text

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At the mention of an “e-reader,” most people think Kindle or Nook, but if you just want the device, sans the deal with the content provider, Sony has a nice little trio of e-readers on offer, and they’ve all just been upgraded with several important improvements. Sony’s 5-inch Pocket Edition e-reader is now called PRS-350 and the 6-inch Touch Edition is called PRS-650; both are available now for $179.99 and $229.99 respectively. The 7-inch Daily Edition is now called PRS..   show all text

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It seems as if the ads for Sony’s upcoming movie The Social Network — you know, the Facebook movie — are everywhere on the Internet. They’re here on TechCrunch, they’re on VentureBeat, they’re on Techmeme — they’re just about everywhere but Facebook itself. In fact, they’re even on rival MySpace. In fact, the movie is sponsoring a whole section of the other social network. Yes, the Facebook movie is sponsoring MySpac..   show all text

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I didn’t realize it at the time, but when I fell in love with it as a kid that radio was one of the original

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Electronic Arts’ wildly successful Madden NFL franchise has made the leap from the Xbox to Facebook. The gaming giant has launched Madden NFL Superstars, the company’s second social game since it acquired social game maker Playfish. The company’s first social game, FIFA Superstars, is one of Facebook’s most popular apps with nearly 4 million monthly active users. Madden NFL Superstars isn’t a port of the popular console games; it’s a completely new experience..   show all text

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Most plants require sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to survive. We’ve found one that requires Facebook fans and wall posts. Meet Eater is a “real garden that feeds on social interaction.” It is an experiment in human interaction and design, focused on rebuilding the connection between human being and plants. Here’s how it works, according to its creator: “Meet Eater is rigged up with a system to register physical contact and social media interaction. Watering is..   show all text

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Serving up search results based on what your friends clicked: It’s been a hot topic lately, and one that Facebook has seen fit to claim as its own. The social networking goliath has just won a patent covering a certain type of search algorithm, one that is largely based on the interests and clicks of a user’s friends and friends-of-friends. Specifically, the patent is for “ranking search results based on the frequency of clicks on the search results by members of a social netw..   show all text

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Apple has announced that it will be live streaming its September 1 “special event,” where the company is expected not only to reveal a new line of iPods, but a new version of Apple TV as well The announcement is surprising. Historically, Apple has not provided live video for any of its keynotes or special media events. It’s unclear what prompted the tech giant’s change of heart, but you will be able to watch Steve Jobs revealing Apple’s newest line of products for ..   show all text

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At Apple’s special event Wednesday, the company is expected to roll out a new Apple TV that includes support for Netflix. These latest reports from Bloomberg corroborate rumors of an iOS-based Apple TV that surfaced this spring. With Netflix available on the iPad and the iPhone, an offering for the television set certainly makes sense. I’ve long argued that the original Apple TV failed to really gain traction with buyers because it was too limited in its media offerings. The reason..   show all text

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Boasting a star-studded roster of investors, New York-based startup Chartbeat has raised a $3 million Series A. The cash infusion is led by Index Ventures and rounded out by the likes of Ron Conway, Jeff Clavier, Jason Calacanis, Chris Sacca’s Lowercase Capital and Betaworks. Betaworks is the NYC-based startup incubator and investment firm where Chartbeat, Bit.ly and a few others got their start; the firm currently holds shares in Twitter, Groupon, Tumblr and a slew of other startups in t..   show all text

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In conjunction with the Mashable & 92Y Social Good Summit, we are proud to be working with the United Nations Foundation and 92nd Street Y to host the first ever UN Week Digital Media Lounge. The conversation about the world’s biggest challenges no longer belongs to a small set of voices — it is a global conversation with an increasingly online pulse. As the world’s leaders convene in New York, the UN Week Digital Media Lounge offers a dedicated venue that is completely wi..   show all text

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