New Nook coming soon? Barnes & Noble has sent out a media invite for an event next Tuesday, October 26th. Speculation is that the company will announce a next-generation Nook. 5:55PM. .

Hacked U-Verse Android App For Non-AT&T Phones Released. A bad news for you if you have an AT&T U-verse subscription for viewing television at home and happen to sport a non-AT&T Android phone. The official AT&T U-verse app for Android phones is not compatible with handsets that are not carried by Ma Bell herself. However,... 5:55PM. .

RIM Co-CEO Slaps Steve Jobs And His "Distortion Field" (RIMM, AAPL). RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie has responded to Steve Jobs' disses from yesterday's Apple earnings call , slapping Jobs with a blog post called "RIM Responds to Apple’s ‘Distortion Field’." In his post, Balsillie argues that 7-inch tablets (like RIM's forthcoming... 5:55PM. .

10 Incredible Modern Art Homes That Will Hold Value In A Bad Market. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater stands alone as perhaps the definitive example of a home that is a work of art. But, that’s not the only one. There are many other notable properties that can also qualify as real estate pieces of art and the best news is —... 5:55PM. .

The Body Of A Bank CEO Washes Up On A Michigan Lake Shore. Finally we have the beginnings of a resolution to the story of David Widlack, the missing CEO of a Michigan bank, who's unknown whereabouts have been haunting news reports since September. Duck hunters discovered a body, which was later determined to be Widlack, in marshland... 5:55PM. .

Facebook beta app bumps to v1.4, preps for webOS 2.0. The bleeding-edge Facebook beta client app developed by Palm today received an update to version 1.4, adding in new features to take advantage of webOS 2.0 . Right now the only feature that those of us on webOS 1.4.5 can take advantage of is the Open New Card command, available... 5:55PM. .

Elvira: "I'm Not a Witch.". Video Link. The Christine O'Donnell remix you've all been waiting for.... 5:55PM. .

Are drug companies paying your doctor? Find out with this database.. The investigative reporting project ProPublica has released a searchable database of MDs who take payola from drug companies. Are the drug companies paying your doctor, and possibly influencing his or her decisions about your medical needs? Search here: Dollars For Docs.... 5:55PM. .

Webpage Builder DevHub Sees Engagement Spike After Embracing Gamification. Silicon Valley loves its buzzwords. And amid the current standbys like "Location-based" and "Social",  there's a word that seems to be popping up more and more: Gamification. The basic idea is to incorporate game mechanics, like badges and points, into sites that don't... 5:55PM. .

Electronic theft surpasses physical theft for the first time. For the first time ever, more companies are suffering from electronic theft than from physical theft, according to the " Annual Global Fraud Report " (PDF) by risk consultancy Kroll (via CNET ). The theft of information or electronic assets was reported by 27.3 percent of... 5:49PM. .

Socialcast Adds Social Media to Enterprise Apps. The new Socialcast Reach is designed to integrate social media conversations with traditional enterprise apps. 5:48PM. .

Yahoo Tops Q3 Profit Forecast. Buoyed by strong display advertising sales, Web pioneer bested analysts' expectations for its third-quarter profits, but fell short of overall revenue projections. 5:48PM. .

MediaRover syncs iTunes music and metadata on up to eight computers. Filed under: Utilities , Windows , Macintosh MediaRover is a free app that syncs iTunes libraries across up to eight Windows or Mac machines. That means songs you add to one machine's library will be available on your other machines, and any changes you make to iTunes playlists... 5:48PM. .

Sammy's Diary. Currently I'm taking a minute out of partying, yes I know it's a Tuesday but it is my birthday after all, and I'm having a great day with friends. So how have I been using my mobile devices. Well the... 5:48PM. .

Address Book Recovery Rescues Your Lost Contact Details from the Void [Downloads].

Responsible Lending Checklist Rates Your Bank on Its Fairness [Banks]. # banks How does your bank stack up against others? How do you know what to ask so you don't hit surprise fees and costs? The Center for Responsible Lending has a worksheet with red and green flags for your inquiring mind. More » 5:46PM. .

Flip Remotes Face Down to Keep Them on the Couch [TV]. # tv If the smooth backs of your remote controls lend themselves to your remotes sliding off the couch, into the cushions, and out of your reach, flip them over and use the rubber buttons as a non-slip "mat" to keep them stationary. More » 5:46PM. .

QuickCal Mobile Adds Month and List Views, Improves Fonts on iPhone [Updates]. # updates We dig how QuickCal makes entering calendar events into your iCal/iPhone calendars far more friendly and less time-consuming , and now the developer has made QuickCal's iPhone version easier to actually look through. He's added a list view and month view that allow for... 5:46PM. .

Do You Keep Your Work Computer On After You Leave? [Video]. # readerpoll A surprising number of workers leave their computers on at night after they leave. The combined energy usage of even modern, energy-efficient systems is significant, as shown in this video. What do you do when it's quitting time? More » 5:46PM. .

Exploratorium breaks ground at Pier 15. Exploratorium breaks ground at Pier 15 5:45PM. .

Good Vibrations to open near Bloomies. Good Vibrations to open near Bloomies 5:45PM. .

Cree Tumbles: FYQ1 Rev Misses; Q4 View Light. Shares of light emitting diode maker Cree (CREE) are down $4.15, or almost 8%, at $48.85, after the company missed fiscal Q1 revenue estimates, and its own target, and Cree forecast the current quarter's profit and sales below estimates. Q1 revenue was up almost 60% at $268.4... 5:44PM. .

DJ Hero 2: Mix, Battle, Scratch with Two Turntables and a Mic. If you're not really down with strumming a fake guitar in Guitar Hero, perhaps you'd prefer to try your skills on the 1s and 2s . We're talking turntables here: scratching, mixing, and rapping with the new DJ Hero 2 game. Released today from Activision, the makers of Guitar... 5:38PM. .

Yahoo Beats Earnings, but Misses Revenues Again. Yahoo beat analysts estimates for third quarter earnings Tuesday, but missed the mark on revenue expectations for the third consecutive time. Continue reading Yahoo Beats Earnings, but Misses Revenues Again Yahoo Beats Earnings, but Misses Revenues Again originally appeared on... 5:38PM. .

RIM responds to Steve Jobs earnings call on RIM numbers. RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie trots out the distortion field, For those of us who live outside of Apple's distortion field, we know that 7″ tablets will actually be a big portion of the market and we know that Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real... 5:38PM. .

THQ Secures UFC License Until 2018 [Zuffa, LCC Extends THQ's License to Make UFC Games Until 2018]. Earlier today, THQ announced that they had made a deal with current UFC license-holder Zuffa, LLC that will allow them to produce UFC games until 2018. That means that you can expect to see UFC game flooding the market between now and then, since UFC Undisputed 2009 sold so well... 5:36PM. .

Yahoo Delivers Passable Earnings Report. The third quarter was not unkind to Yahoo, judging from a just-released earnings report. Yahoo managed to meet or beat analysts' forecasts in most respects, and its stock is now heading up in after-hours trading as a result. To hit the highest notes first: Yahoo reported... 5:36PM. .

Are QR Codes Ready for Their Close-Up? QR codes are still waiting for their break-out moment. But the 2D barcodes, which trigger URLs or information when scanned, continue to gather quiet momentum that could finally tap into the potential of the technology. Here's a look at some of the latest developments. 5:36PM. .

Cord Cutters Episode 1: NewTeeVee's First Web Series! We here at NewTeeVee love talking about the world of cord-cutting, because it's where everything we're passionate about converges. And that's why we're taking our passion for this phenomenon to the next level with the launch of Cord Cutters , our first original web series. 5:35PM. .

Tweetie 2 For Mac "Not Not Happening", Developer Confirms. Pretty much since the launch of Tweetie 2 for the iPhone a year ago, it seems like everyone has been clamoring for a Tweetie 2 launch for Mac as well. The project was very much in the works , and then developer Loren Brichter, and his Tweetie franchise, were acquired by Twitter... 5:35PM. .

Sign Up Now To Get The Google Investor Newsletter. Calling all GOOG enthusiasts... Sign up now to receive the Google Investor newsletter. What is it? The Google Investor offers a compilation of important news and trends affecting Google, along with our own analysis and commentary. You'll receive this newsletter straight to your... 5:35PM. .

The future of Tweetie and the Mac. A tweet from @MacHeist provides clarification on another tweet from Twitter founder Evan Williams. Williams commented a few days ago that Twitter was not "actively investing" in Tweetie for the Mac at this time. Williams' tweet caused quite a stir. Since the acquisition of... 5:32PM. .

Android 3.0 Gingerbread Gets the Blurry Photo Treatment. The leaked photo isn't the best in the world--in fact, it's one of the most illegible that we've seen in a while. Still, anything purporting to be Android 3.0-related is certainly enough to pique our interest. Phandroid has the image , and we can't really do much with it beyond... 5:28PM. .

Apple's 'Back to the Mac' event is tomorrow at 1PM ET / 10AM PT -- we'll be there live! What will happen tomorrow? A new version of OS X? Tiny MacBook Airs? Verizon iPhone announcements? Tomorrow never knows... but Steve Jobs probably does. Even if we can't predict the future, we can at least follow along with the present, right? That's exactly what we'll be doing... 5:28PM. .

Feds Launch Foreclosure Probe, and Chicago Halts Evictions. Federal agencies are investigating foreclosure processes after some major banks have said they would either review or suspend foreclosures because of possible errors. And Chicago-area law enforcers are halting foreclosure-related evictions until banks provide them with proper... 5:28PM. .

FarmVille Breaks Facebook Privacy Rules, Report Says. Several of Facebook's most popular applications, including the social game phenomenon which is FarmVille, are being accused of breaking the privacy rules of the social network by sending their users' personal information to ad companies.Facebook, even though it is the biggest... 5:26PM. .

Yahoo's Bartz: 'One Byproduct Of Change Is Always Movement Of People'. [Ongoing] Under pressure from frustrated investors, Yahoo ( NSDQ: YHOO ) CEO Carol Bartz started off her company's earnings call this afternoon by defending her tenure at the company so far, listing off eight accomplishments, including "bringing down operating... 5:25PM. .

Assassin's Creed Creative Director Left Ubisoft To Lead New THQ Studio [Assasin's Creed Creative Director To Head Up New THQ Studio After Leaving Ubisoft]. Out with the old, in with the new we guess. New studios seem to be popping up at least as fast as old ones are closing, as Patrice Desilets' beard has just signed on with THQ to head up the imaginatively-named THQ Montreal. When he left Ubisoft earlier this year, leaving a giant... 5:25PM. .

Eloqua Report Offers Tips on Lead Generation & Email Marketing. Marketing automation has made it possible for a small sales staff to contact and monitor 1,000 of customers with just a few key strokes, but such ease of use has its downside. Just because you can send out mass mailings, doesn't mean you should. 1,000 randomly targeted emails... 5:25PM. .

Yahoo growth slows, but profits double due to HotJobs sale. Search provider Yahoo generated twice as much profit in its third quarter this year than last year after selling its job-seeking site HotJobs, bringing in nearly $400 million despite slowing revenue growth, according to its financial results for the third quarter released today.... 5:25PM. .

Onkyo's new Windows 7 tablets now available in the US... for a price. Onkyo has a habit of launching interesting looking products in Japan which are then never officially released in countries. Fortunately, there are companies out there who are more than happy to purchase Japanese products and pass them onto the rest of the world for a fee. And... 5:25PM. .

Drought Forecast Looks Bleak. Leading climate scientists warn that a trend of widespread, increasingly intense and long-lasting drought is underway. 5:25PM. .

Antarctic Robot Goes Where Others Don't Dare. A high-tech autonomous robot navigating the frigid waters of Antarctica now should be able to tell us what's happening to the ice. Meet Gavia. 5:25PM. .

New iPhone variant in field testing, may be 2011 Verizon model. Apple is reportedly in the final testing stages of a fourth-generation iPhone variant first referenced in iOS 3.2. That device, which has the product code iPhone3,2 , is widely expected to be a CDMA-compatible iPhone that has been rumored to launch on Verizon in early 2011.... 5:25PM. .

NSA's CryptoKids and /b/'s PedoFriends: Separated at Birth? Noah Shachtman from Danger Room points us to a newly discovered collection of NSA mascots, designed to promote "cybersecurity awareness" to young citizens of the motherland. The NSA CryptoKids poster lacks names, though, so Rob Beschizza added them, below...... 5:25PM. .

Time Warner Cable may offer its customers ESPN3 streaming access as early as next Monday, Oct. 25.. Time Warner Cable may offer its customers ESPN3 streaming access as early as next Monday, Oct. 25 . Join the conversation about this story » 5:25PM. .

Twitter Revolutionizes Sports Fandom, While Killing Human Interaction. I live in a small town in the woods of New Hampshire. Don't really know the neighbors, live hundreds (or thousands) of miles away from family and friends. But when I click on Game 3 of the NLCS this afternoon, I'll have 380 of my closest pals plopped down on the couch next to... 5:25PM. .

Facebook Stops Posting Photo Memories Of Your Ex. Have you ever had photos of your ex show up on Facebook? Apparently enough people had run into the problem and were angry about it (some angry enough to create a group to protest). Fortunately, Facebook has fixed the problem. According to an update posted to the group, which was... 5:25PM. .

Why An SAP Press Conference Actually Held My Attention. I followed the press conference this morning from SAP TechEd. And I came away a bit shocked. It was actually interesting. SAP held my attention. Really. Chief Tecnology Officer Vishal Sikka talked about semantic technologies and sharedconversations he had with VMWare CEO Paul... 5:23PM. .

Nukotoys Wants to Become the Silicon Valley's Next-Generation Toy Company. Internet-connected toys are a major focus of the toy industry this season, but according to Nukotoy's co-CEO Doug Penman, connecting the online and "real" world just is not in the DNA of the regular large toy companies. NukoToys is made up of numerous Silicon Valley veterans and... 5:23PM. .

Tech industry gives Obama the cold shoulder. The US tech industry is reportedly very unhappy with President Barack Obama and his controversial economic policies. read more 5:18PM. .

Intel Invests Billions In Building Super-Tiny Chips. Get ready for the next generation of computer guts. Intel announced this week that it is investing up to $8 billion on a new chip development fabrication plant in Oregon and upgrades to plants in Oregon and Arizona. But here's all you really need to know: expensive manufacturing... 5:17PM. .

RIM's Jim Balsillie hits back at the Steve Jobs rant, Apple's 'distortion field'. You had to know that Steve wouldn't get away with putting his five minute, competition-slamming manifesto out into the ether without some snap back from the competition. We've already heard responses from TweetDeck and Andy Rubin , and now RIM's co-CEO Jim Balsillie has issued a... 5:17PM. .

Liveblogging Yahoo's 3Q Earnings: Busy, Busy, Busy (So Go Away Tim Armstrong!). Here we go with the Yahoo third-quarter earnings call starring CEO Carol Bartz, who has some–in the immortal words of Ricky Ricardo–'spaining to do. Yahoo turned in a much-needed solid quarter earnings report, with slightly better-than-expected earnings, although... 5:15PM. .

Windows is 'open' in Steve Jobs' world. Apple CEO Steve Jobs yesterday declared that when people hear the word "open," they think "Windows." And no, he didn't mean the pane-glass variety of windows on buildings that let in light; he was attempting to convince listeners at the company's... 5:15PM. .

CHART OF THE DAY: It Took U.S. Stocks Way Longer To Respond to Inflation Than Israeli. Last week we showed you how Israeli stocks surged as a result of hyperinflation (nominal terms) in the country. We wondered how U.S. stocks performed during roughly the same time period, a time epitomized by stagflation and rising oil prices in the U.S. While the S&P 500... 5:15PM. .

Commodities Trader Pranks CFTC With Spoof Letter. Yesterday the CFTC got a surprise when Phillip McBride Johnson wrote the commission a funny response to one of their requests for comment. Both the CFTC and the SEC regularly request comments from traders about issues currently up for debate. In this case, the CFTC wants to hear... 5:15PM. .

Taiwanese Animation Shows How The Internet Is Dangerous For Children. Here's Next Media's animation on the dangers the Internet poses to children. (Complete with a special guest appearance by Google's robot car ): Join the conversation about this story » 5:15PM. .

Check Out The Awesome 10 Point Plan Of The 'Rent Is 2 Damn High' Party. Jimmy McMillan, of the Rent Is 2 Damn High party, is the talk of the town after his stunning performance at last night's ridiculous NY gubernatorial debate. McMillan, AKA Papa Smurf, got 2,615 votes in his 2009 campaign for mayor. He's a bit crazy, but we wouldn't be surprised... 5:15PM. .

The Virtu Constellation Quest--Now In Gold [Already High Priced Vertu Constellation Quest Phone Now Boasts Gold Accents]. To be fair, looking at the new Vertu Constellation Quest phone, it's not immediately apparent whether that's actual gold on that phone or not. But after some digging, it turns out, it is. You'll likely remember when, just a week ago, we brought out word about the Vertu... 5:15PM. .

Off & Away lands $2 million for luxury hotel auction service. Off & Away has landed $2 million in fresh capital, money that the Seattle company will use to expand its luxury hotel room auction service. Madrona Venture Group led the round, bringing total financing in the company to $3.35 million. 5:15PM. .

RIM Fires Back At Apple. Steve Jobs was full of the smack talk yesterday, mentioning that Apple has passed RIM, and he doesn't think they're going back. The CEO of the BlackBerry makers — Jim Balsillie — hasn't taken this sitting down, and has issued a response (emphasis added): "For those of us who... 5:15PM. .

QOTD: A RIM Shot for Steve Jobs. QOTD: A RIM Shot for Steve Jobs "For those of us who live outside of Apple's distortion field, we know that seven-inch tablets will actually be a big portion of the market, and we know that Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real Web experience. We also... 5:15PM. .

Juniper Drops on Q3 Revenue Miss; Year View Light. Shares of networking equipment maker Juniper Networks (JNPR) are down $1.55, or 5%, at $28.99, and were lower than that at one point, after the company this afternoon reported revenue short of analysts' estimates, and offered a somewhat weak year revenue projection. Juniper's Q3... 5:15PM. .

Yahoo: Earnings double but revenue is flat. Yahoo reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter today, but sales were in-line.The company reported net income of $396 million, up from $186 million in the year-ago quarter, or 29 cents per share, a 126 percent gain. Revenue, excluding traffic acquisition... 5:15PM. .

T-Mobile FCC memo cites Android app that caused network chaos. Remember, back in 2007 -- you know, Year One BTAS (Before The App Store) -- when Steve Jobs gave Apple's rationale for keeping the iPhone a closed platform versus allowing native app development? "Cingular doesn't want to see their West Coast network go down because some... 5:15PM. .

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood Gets 'Record Number of Preorders' for Ubisoft. Ubisoft isn't bragging, or anything. The French video game publisher just wanted to let you know that its upcoming title, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, has received more pre-orders than any game in the history of the company. Ubisoft hasn't actually issued any preorder numbers ,... 5:15PM. .

iRobot let's us meet the bots (they aren't all vacuums). I had a chance to stop by an iRobot event last week and learn all about the company. I'm not sure about everyone else, but I used to just think of iRobot as "the Roomba guys". The company actually has an impressive story behind it. I'm not easily won over, but after listening... 5:15PM. .

Bank of America Bondholders Demand Repurchases of Questionable Bonds. Some big investors, including Pacific Investment Management Co. and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, are seeking to force the largest U.S. bank by assets to buy back as much as $47 billion in mortgage-related bonds. Continue reading Bank of America Bondholders Demand... 5:15PM. .

Should we believe Steve Jobs? Steve Jobs has claimed Apple would never make certain products--and yet it eventually did. So why should we believe him now when it comes to a smaller iPad? Originally posted at Fully Equipped 5:15PM. .

X-ray phone flashes its guts for all to see. If you're into all the tiny modules that work together to let you make a call and send a text message, this phone might be for you. Unfortunately, it's Japan-only for now. 5:15PM. .

Sample Android 3.0 tablets rumored for CES 2011. A pair of DigiTimes articles claim that Google has notified their partners that it is finalizing the next build of Android. Originally posted at Android Atlas 5:15PM. .

Yahoo 3Q Earnings Slides: The Good, the Bad and the Revenue Ugly. BoomTown will begin livebombing, oops, liveblogging the Yahoo third-quarter conference call in five minutes, but please peruse the slides the Internet giant has provided. Here is a primer: Net income: Slightly above Wall Street expectations with operating margins improving... 5:15PM. .

SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 19, 2010. Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Faces Spanish Lawsuit Over Street View Data Collection Data protection officials in Spain have filed a lawsuit over Google's collection... 5:15PM. .

Symbian's Executive Director steps down for 'personal reasons'. Nokia may have recently released the shiny new Symbian^3-powered N8 , but not all is going well in Symbian World. Lee Williams, Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation, has decided to leave the company for "personal reasons." Former CFO Tim Holbrow has been appointed as the... 5:15PM. .

Investing site KaChing gets classier as Wealthfront. KaChing, a startup backed by partners from some of the best-known venture capital firms, just celebrated the one-year anniversary of the launch of its investment website by revamping its website and announcing a new name -- Wealthfront. The Palo Alto, Calif. company says... 5:03PM. .

Mozilla Wants Everyone to Have a Web App Store. Mozilla today announced a proposed open ecosystem for web apps that's built on standards such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The concept sounds great in theory, as developers won't need to rely on a centralized storefront, but does the web really need yet another app store? 5:03PM. .

RIM Responds to Steve Jobs Statements. That didn't take long. After Android Chief Andy Rubin creepy / geeky tweet, here comes the RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie defending BlackBerry against Steve Jobs' assumptions and statements. As usual in the industry, he refers to Apple's "distortion field". Unlike Steve Jobs,... 5:03PM. .

Facebook Groups: A Consumer Feature that Doubles as Tool for Brand Marketers? The following is a brief excerpt from the October 2010 edition of the Facebook Marketing Bible, the comprehensive guide to marketing your company, app, or brand on Facebook. Facebook Groups -- and much of Facebook itself -- was not originally intended for marketing... 5:03PM. .

The Storm Might Not Be Over Yet: BlackBerry Storm3 spotted in VZW's inventory. Oh Rumor Mill; what a fickle beast you are. Just weeks ago, you told us that the BlackBerry Storm 3 for Verizon was dead before it even arrived -- and now, here you are sitting in Verizon's inventory system. 5:03PM. .

The smartphone is the...video camera. PhoneArena has been posting lots of videos shot with iPhone 4 and Nokia N8. Like the following: That's from a smartphone. At night. Pretty nice, you ask me. 5:03PM. .

Mad Men, Week 13: It's all Glen's fault.. John, I believe baby Glen (just kidding!)—baby Gene—was tucked away in a crib. So it would be safe to go consult Jessica Pare about her Magic Kingdom. But this brings up a larger parenting question. [ more ... ] 4:56PM. .

Bits: Wealthfront Loses the Sound Effects. KaChing, an investing Web site, is taking itself more seriously. It's now calling itself Wealthfront. 4:56PM. Technology.

Yahoo 3Q Profit Doubles, Revenue Still Lackluster. The company's performance may further test the patience of investors waiting for the Internet company to snap out of a four-year financial funk. 4:56PM. Technology.

Western Digital Unveils 3TB Caviar Green Hard Drive. If you're running a little low on space for all of your music, movies, and photos, or you're planning on building a NAS to keep all of your files backed up, Western Digital's new 3TB Caviar Green Hard Drive brings you storage space and energy efficiency all in the same package.... 4:55PM. .

webOS 2.0 review. When it comes to webOS 2.0 (now actually called HP webOS), it almost felt like we'd never see the version number, let alone get to review it. It's been an intense few months for Palm: after floundering in the early part of the smartphone wars, it was scooped up by HP for a tidy... 4:55PM. .

Goldman Sachs Compensation Drops by 21% as Earnings Fall. Goldman Sachs Group cut its compensation outlays for the first nine months of the year by 21% from a year earlier, as the giant investment bank responded to a drop in earnings by reducing salaries and benefits. Continue reading Goldman Sachs Compensation Drops by 21% as Earnings... 4:55PM. .

This Android Pumpkin Gets the Green Guy into the Halloween Spirit. We still prefer him in green, but everybody's favorite android doesn't look all that bad in a nice pumpkin orange shade. This creation is the work of obvious Android enthusiast David Watson who posted the image to his Flickr page after open sourcing the pumpkin and hacking into... 4:55PM. .

New Command & Conquer Officially in Development at Visceral. A high ranking executive working for publisher Electronic Arts has talked about the existence of a new Command & Conquer video game, which is under development at the Visceral division of the company and which might be officially revealed in the near future.Nick Earl, who is the... 4:53PM. .

First look: Acer TimelineX 1830T-68U118, an 11.6-inch powerhouse. This Netbook-sized 11.6-inch Acer may be small, but it has the innards of a full-sized laptop. 4:53PM. .

Lowered expenses help Yahoo beat Q3 expectations. Spinning off assets like HotJobs helped Yahoo eke out a profit once again this quarter, though things are still a yawn as the company remains beset by takeover rumors. 4:53PM. .

Canada slaps Google for Street View Wi-Fi intercepts. Canada's privacy commissioner says, however, that matter is resolved if Google deletes data and agrees to improve privacy training. 4:53PM. .

Recruiters to Accept Openly Gay Applicants. WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has told military recruiters they must accept applications from openly gay individuals as part of the military's obligation to comply with last week's federal court ruling that deemed the current policy on homosexuals "unconstitutional." Pentagon... 4:53PM. .

Google Demo Slam Debuts Tomorrow, But What Is It? A new Google project, Google Demo Slam , will be unveiled tomorrow. No word yet on what exactly it is, and the Flash website offers only a few vague clues thus far: "Technology is awesome. Learning about it isn't. Until now." Click to read the rest of this post... 4:52PM. .

HTC denies shipment delay problem. In a follow up to yesterday's story in which HTC's stock plummeted upon news of "shipment delays" in regards to Windows Phone 7, HTC has come out denying such charges. ZDnet is reporting by personal communication with HTC that no such delays are occurring and that HTC are... 4:52PM. .

Samsung Omnia 7 Now Up For UK Pre-Order [T-Mobile UK Now Offering The Omnia 7 For Pre-Order, First WP7 Up For Sale In The UK]. Great news! The folks at T-Mobile UK are now accepting pre-orders for the Samsung Omnia 7 – a Windows Phone 7 device. What's notable about this is that it's the first Windows Phone 7 device to go up for pre-order in the United Kingdom. The price is a little steep without... 4:52PM. .

Buddy Media locks down $23M to help marketers get facetime on Facebook. Buddy Media, the Facebook page-management service for brands and businesses, said today it has raised $23 million in mezzanine financing as it attempts to keep up with booming growth and capture the attention of deep-pocketed institutional investors. Buddy Media uses its... 4:52PM. .

NetSpend IPO, Backed by Oak and JLL, Soars 18%. IPOs can be worth the wait. Just consider NetSpend, which went public Tuesday and surged 18% in afternoon trading. The offering will provide a strong gain for investors JLL Partners and Oak Investment Partners. The NetSpend IPO was slated to launch last week but opened today at... 4:52PM. .

MacHeist Confirms Tweetie 2 for Mac Is Still Coming. MacHeist Confirms Tweetie 2 for Mac Is Still Coming Ev's tweet even took me by a bit of a surprise because we've been in contact with Loren Brichter (@lorenb), developer of Tweetie, ever since the bundle happened and even though Twitter has acquired his company,Atebits, he's... 4:52PM. .

See that "Sports" tab up at the top of the site? That's Business Insider's new site about the business of sports &nd.... See that "Sports" tab up at the top of the site? That's Business Insider's new site about the business of sports – Sports Page. Check it out! Join the conversation about this story » 4:52PM. .

Western Digital Up on FYQ1 Beat; Units Up 16%. Shares of disk drive maker Western Digital (WDC) are up 45 cents, or 1.5%, at $30.65, after the company this afternoon beat fiscal Q1 revenue and earnings expectations. Q1 revenue for the three months ending September rose 9% to $2.4 billion, beating analysts' consensus $2.35... 4:52PM. .

On Gmail Priority Inbox. If I have't already thanked you for this great new feature for my great Gmail, thank you. 4:52PM. .

The smartphone is the...gaming console. I lost my brother to Modern Combat. As I've told you before. One of the core business models -- and modes of living -- for the foreseeable future is: Boring is Death. We are never disconnected. We can always play, by ourself or in groups, wherever we are, whatever the time. 4:52PM. .

Palm regains its mobile mojo with webOS 2.0. HP-owned Palm seems to have regained some of its mobile mojo with the launch of webOS 2.0 and the Pre 2. read more 4:46PM. .

The return of the soccer rioters.. Last Tuesday, a riot broke out at a soccer game in Italy. Its perpetrators were a group of right-wing Serbs who had traveled to Genoa to watch their national team play Italy—or, as it turned out, not to watch it play, since the game was called off after just seven minutes. The... 4:46PM. .

Blizzard Sues Starcraft II Cheat Creators Under Dubious Copyright Theory. Video game company Blizzard often appears to be a study in contrasts. At times, it seems to recognize the changing nature of the technology landscape, embracing scarcities , giving people reasons to buy and even coming out against DRM . But, at the same time, it tried to... 4:46PM. .

Intel investing up to $8 billion in 22nm chips, creating US jobs. Intel has announced plans to invest between $6 billion and $8 billion on its next-generation 22nm manufacturing process across several existing US factories in Arizona (Fab 12 and Fab 32) and Oregon (D1C and D1D), along with construction of a new development fabrication plant in... 4:46PM. .

Verizon Wireless Tiered Pricing Plans Coming This Month - Report. Coming soon to a Verizon Wireless handset near you: tiered pricing. According to reports, the new pricing plan is coming in little over a week. Interestingly, if all goes according to the rumors, Verizon may actually hang onto its unlimited data option--of course, if you want... 4:45PM. .

PlayStation 3 Owners Get Netflix Streaming Without the Disc. Yesterday it was the Nintendo Wii , today PlayStation 3 owners are the ones who get to enjoy streaming video from Netflix without leaving their couches, and without having to keep the Netflix disc in their DVD trays. Just fire up your PlayStation 3, head to the XrossMediaBar... 4:45PM. .

Mozilla counters Chrome Web Store with new cross-browser Open Web Apps spec. Filed under: Mozilla , Browsers With the official launch of Google's Chrome Web Store fast approaching , Mozilla today unveiled what they're calling 'Open Web Apps'. Basically, this takes the idea behind Chrome's Web Store and makes it available for all desktop and mobile... 4:45PM. .

Yahoo earnings rise, but sales come up short. Yahoo posted third-quarter earnings Tuesday that topped Wall Street expectations, but sales just missed forecasts -- a result sure to disappoint investors hoping CEO Carol Bartz would pull a rabbit out of her hat. 4:45PM. .

Notion Ink Opens Early Developer Registration for Adam Tablet. While the Notion Ink Adam still hovers in the land  of "we'll believe it's actually coming out when we see it," the team is opening up early developer registration for those developers who want to get in the advanced time working on apps tailored to the device. Two hundred... 4:45PM. .

Hannah Waterman Is Thrilled to Have Her Curves Back. Last year, ex-EastEnder Hannah Waterman unveiled a much slimmer and fit body, which she got after she was criticized in the media for her ballooning weight. Now, she’s happy to say she’s gained a few pounds again. Waterman, whose weight has often been tabloid fodder,... 4:43PM. .

amazon.com. I've gotten a few recommendations for Elgato EyeTV HD DVR for HD cable and satellite. 4:42PM. .

NFL fines James Harrison $75,000; Dunta Robinson $50,000. NFL fines James Harrison $75,000; Dunta Robinson $50,000 Join the conversation about this story » 4:42PM. .

Tweetie 2 for Mac is not dead, just taking longer than expected.. Tweetie 2 for Mac is not dead, just taking longer than expected . Join the conversation about this story » 4:42PM. .

Forget The Republican Landslide And Worry About The REAL Avalanche About To Bury America. Mid-term elections are, generally speaking, a zero sum game. The out-of-power voters are highly motivated to vote, to express their exasperation with the in-crowd and send a message. The in-party's voters are disheartened and discouraged and therefore less likely to vote. Three... 4:42PM. .

Tribune Company CEO Randy Michaels tells The Chicago Tribune: "I work here today and I'm still working." The Tribune.... Tribune Company CEO Randy Michaels tells The Chicago Tribune: "I work here today and I'm still working." The company's board is expected to call for Michaels' resignation . Join the conversation about this story » 4:42PM. .

Good News: The Economy's Most Aggressive Job-Cutter Is Almost Finished. From Deutsche Bank: If historical patterns of tax collection and hiring remain intact, the job cuts will soon end. Join the conversation about this story » 4:42PM. .

The French Government's Plan To Save The News Business? Give Away Papers. France expects to give away another 210,000 free newspaper subscriptions to citizens aged 18-24 over the next year, in a state intervention designed to help save the country's news media by regaining young readers. 4:42PM. .

A Pedal Powered Submarine? Try The Scubster. [The Scubster Pedal-Powered Submarine Requires Air Tanks, Dives to 20 Feet]. We all know that one of the most green forms of travel on the face of the earth is the bicycle. It consumes no power other than that which you provide via the pumping of your legs against the pedals. But for those who long to travel under the sea and don't much like the [...] 4:42PM. .

Filmmaker Schools Pirates On Correct Way To Rip His DVD. Most days the news surrounding torrent sites, the scene and piracy is dominated by lawsuits, busts and other negative stories. But every now and then there is a ray of light that brightens the day. Today we bring you the story of a filmmaker who didn't complain when he saw that... 4:42PM. .

Memo to Malcolm Gladwell: Nice Hair, But You Are Wrong. Author Malcolm Gladwell argued in a recent piece for New Yorker magazine that the influence of Twitter and other social-media tools on social activism has been over-stated, but as Twitter co-founder Biz Stone notes in an essay of his own, this argument has some serious flaws. 4:42PM. .

Verizon set to launch tiered data plans on October 28th. Back in July, rumors were floating that Verizon Wireless was slated to kill its unlimited data plan, and introduce tiered versions similar to what AT&T now offers. Today the Wall Street Journal is reporting that tiered data plans are set to roll out on October 28th. In an... 4:42PM. .

Facebook Changes Photo Memories to No Longer Show Your Ex-Boyfriends or Ex-Girlfriends. In response to numerous complaints, Facebook has changed its Photo Memories sidebar module to no longer display friends who a user was formally listed as in a relationship with. The feature shows thumbnails of old photos tagged with friends while a user browse photos, friends,... 4:42PM. .

HRP-4C: THE HERPENATOR. Earlier today on Boing Boing, my colleague Mark published an upbeat little post about a cute Japanese female robot dancing with cute Japanese female humans. Well, the party's over, people. Our friend Keef Bartkus (editing South Park is his day job) says: Everyone is so excited... 4:42PM. .

The Rent is Too Damn UP: A Remix. Rob asked for a remix in yesterday's post, and boy, did Joe Sabia ever provide. The Rent is Too Damn "Up" - A Remix.... 4:42PM. .

ParkMerced has new owner. ParkMerced has new owner 4:42PM. .

Hackers give the T-Mobile G2 a monstrous speed boost. Though on paper it might not seem like the fastest phone around, the T-Mobile G2′s 800 Mhz CPU is actually pretty friggin' speedy. Of course, that hasn't kept the hacking community from trying to get things moving even faster -- and they've done it. Oh, have they done... 4:42PM. .

AMD Radeon 6000 Series Specs Trickle Out. I'm reasonably certain the first reviews of the new AMD Radeons will hit the Net on Friday, so until then we'll have to make due with leaked slides and the like. It's both an exciting and depressing time: excited to see what AMD has in store, but depressed to know that my once... 4:42PM. .

Yahoo Q3 EPS Beats, Rev In Line; Q4 Revenue View Light. Shares of Yahoo! (YHOO) are down 11 cents, or 0.7%, at $15.38 up 3 cents at $15.52 down 3 cents at $15.46 after the company this afternoon reported Q3 revenue just shy of estimates but beat on the bottom line. Q3 revenue of $1.125 billion, excluding traffic acquisition costs,... 4:42PM. .

PlayStation Move Shooting Attachment out now for $20, still blindingly beautiful. Our inexplicable love affair with the PlayStation Move Shooting Attachment (apparently the official name for the thing) is well documented . So what's new? Well, it's out now. Sony is releasing it into the wilds of retail for $20, alongside The Shoot ($40), an on-rails shooter... 4:41PM. .

Dow Dives Below 11,000 on China Rate Hike, Earnings. Stocks fell sharply Tuesday after a surprise rate hike from China's central bank and mixed quarterly earnings reports led to heavy selling in technology, materials and energy stocks. Continue reading Dow Dives Below 11,000 on China Rate Hike, Earnings Dow Dives Below 11,000 on... 4:40PM. .

Yahoo earnings: Earnings double but revenue is flat. Yahoo reported better-than-expected earnings for its third quarter today, but sales were in-line.The company reported net income of $396 million, up from $186 million in the year-ago quarter, or 29 cents per share, a 126 percent gain. Revenue, excluding traffic acquisition... 4:33PM. .

Juniper whacked after revenue comes in light. Juniper's earnings had a familiar theme to them relative to other technology companies. The bottom line is solid to strong, but revenue relative to analysts' expectations is off a smidge. 4:33PM. .

Apple number 65 on Newsweek's list of green companies. Newsweek has published their list of the most environmentally-friendly companies , and Apple is ranked number 65 out of 500. While it didn't make the top 10 (Dell is number one), Apple improved significantly from last year when it placed 133rd. The rankings considered a number... 4:33PM. .

HP Unveils webOS 2.0, Palm Pre 2. Six months after acquiring Palm, HP rolls out its new mobile OS and smartphone in hopes of gaining ground in the competitive enterprise and consumer device market. 4:32PM. .

Transparency Activist, Public Domain Scholar, Legal Blogger, and Imprisoned E-Voting Researcher Win Pioneer Awards. San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is pleased to announce four winners of its 2010 Pioneer Awards: transparency activist Stephen Aftergood; public domain scholar James Boyle; legal blogger Pamela Jones and the website Groklaw; and e-voting researcher Hari... 4:32PM. .

Hedge funds are back. Too bad for you.. Individual investors are boycotting the stock market, while hedge funds have regained their swagger after wandering in the wilderness. 4:32PM. .

Android Overtakes iPhone in Ad Revenue in Latest Millennial Media Mobile Mix. No one needs to tell you that Android is growing, eating up more and more market share, and quickly becoming the dominating smartphone platform, but from time to time people like to publish reports to remind us all of just how well Android is doing. In the latest Mobile Mix from... 4:32PM. .

Hacked Kaspersky Website Infected Users with Scareware. Malware pushers have managed to compromise a Kaspersky Lab website on Sunday and direct users looking to download the vendor's applications to scareware.According to various reports, including on Kaspersky's own support forums, the compromise occurred on the USA download... 4:30PM. .

Live blog: Apple gets 'Back to the Mac' Wednesday. Apple is hosting a special press event Wednesday focused on the Mac, which CNET will be covering live. There will also be a preview of the next version of Mac OS X. Originally posted at Circuit Breaker 4:30PM. .

Live blog: Apple gets 'Back to the Mac' tomorrow. Apple is hosting a special press event Wednesday focused on the Mac, which CNET will be covering live. There will also be a preview of the next version of Mac OS X. 4:30PM. .

Barclays And HSBC Also Exposed To U.S. Foreclosure Crisis (HBC, BCS, BAC). The current mess over mortgage foreclosures is not just impacting big American names like Bank of America and Wells Fargo, but others as well. Barclays, the buyer of bankrupt Lehman Brothers assets, and HSBC are two British banks with significant exposure to the U.S. mortgage... 4:29PM. .

Why Sports Ticket Pricing Should Resemble Airline Ticket Pricing. Michigan International Speedway will repeat its practice of increasing ticket prices as events draw near, the Sporting News reports. General admission tickets will cost $10 through January, increase to $25 in February, and take another $5 hike in March. Though the pricing model... 4:29PM. .

30 Suicides In India Caused By Uber-Aggressive Microfinance Organizations. State legislators in India have implemented strict new microfinance laws due to allegations that as many as 30 people committed suicide because of coercive lending methods, the AP reports . Lenders have not taken the news well, and a group of India's largest microfinancers -... 4:29PM. .

The Future of Search Looks a Lot Like the Present (on Steroids). Another Search Engine Strategies conference, another conversation about the future of search. It's a regular topic, but one that never loses relevance, as the search landscape continues to change dramatically, even between conferences. Look at all Google has done this year, for... 4:29PM. .

Commissioner: "Google Contravened Canadian Privacy Law". This isn't at all Google's week when it comes to international regulations and the company's collection of sensitive WiFi data. First came the news it might be fined $3.3 million in Spain. Now there's been an official declaration that Google broke Canadian privacy laws. Jennifer... 4:29PM. .

Two things about electric cars the Wall Street Journal missed. We read a lot of stuff about green cars and, lately, most of it's about electric cars. Sometimes the coverage is unquestioning and adulatory. More often it's cranky and dismissive. But major media outlets are working hard to understand the complexities of what is a huge, slow,... 4:29PM. .

RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie fires back at Steve Jobs, Apple. RIM's co-CEO, Jim Balsillie has also fired back at Steve Jobs, who said during Apple's Q4 2010 conference call that RIM would need to change into a software company to catch up to iPhone and iPad. Balsillie's statement: "For those of us who live outside of Apple's distortion... 4:29PM. .

Conan O'Brien is putting the choice of debut guest for his new TBS show to a vote. Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, anyo.... Conan O'Brien is putting the choice of debut guest for his new TBS show to a vote. Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, anyone? The show, titled "Conan," premieres Nov. 8. [ h/t Lost Remote ] Join the conversation about this story » 4:29PM. .

Stephen Colbert Storms Off "The View" After Defending "Papa Bear" Bill O'Reilly. Stephen Colbert went on "The View" today. Not surprisingly, the conversation turned to last week's Bill O'Reilly incident , in which "View" co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar stormed off the set after the outspoken Fox News Channel anchor said: " Muslims killed us on 9/11 ."... 4:29PM. .

Live Prayer iPhone app. I give to Food For the Poor -- and you can too! I mentioned them on this site a while back as a great organization helping Haiti. I think they do great work. They have notified me of a "live prayer" 'app' for the iPhone which some of you may be interested in:... 4:29PM. .

No HTC Android tablet for a while. I blame Bjork.. Steve Jobs mocked the 7-inch tablet form factor yesterday. In case you care. I think more important is that today HTC announced they will be delaying launch of *any* Android tablet til Q2 2011. I expect that to be the earliest date. Meaning there will really only be two... 4:29PM. .

In Rural China, Students Use Phones To Learn To Read. In many parts of the developing world, mobile phones have leapfrogged literacy, reaching places books and newspapers are rarely seen. In rural China, researchers with the Mobile & Immersive Learning for Literacy in Emerging Economies (MILLEE) Project are using those phones... 4:22PM. .

Mozilla Shows Off Plans for an Open Web App Store. Mozilla has released more details about its soon-to-arrive Open Web Applications platform. There are two key components: a directory where users can browse available web apps, and a new dashboard that will be baked into the browser interface, where users can install and manage... 4:22PM. .

How much will a gold Vertu Constellation Quest set you back? About $27K, turns out. Feeling that Constellation Quest , but think it'd look a little better in brilliant yellow? Break open that piggy bank. Oh, and while you're at it, break open several dozen more piggy banks... and maybe even a real bank or two. We're hearing that the world's Vertu boutiques will... 4:21PM. .

Online ad revenue from Apple's iPad grows 316% in Q3 - report. Advertising revenue generated from iPad users increased 316 percent in the third quarter of calendar 2010, as the number of advertisers also grew by 94 percent. 4:21PM. .

Steve Jobs: Apple will use $51B for big moves, not 'stupid' ones. Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs hinted this week that his company is eyeing a few major acquisitions with its massive $51 billion in cash, with just "one or more" deals possible in the near future, rather than a spending spree. 4:21PM. .

Don't Dismiss 7-Inch Tablets Because of Steve Jobs. During Apple's earnings call, Steve Jobs wiped away the possibility that Apple will release a seven-inch tablet. "The seven-inch tablets are tweeners: too big to compete with a smartphone, and too small to compete with an iPad," Jobs said. Tablets must be at least 10-inches to... 4:21PM. .

MetroPCS starts prepaid phone cards. With its new By the Minute calling cards, MetroPCS offers prepaid voice calling, text messages, and data use. Originally posted at Dialed In 4:19PM. .

flickr.com. I want to connect my Verizon set top box to my Mac Mini through EyeTV.. 4:19PM. .

Yahoo Tops Earning Expectations. Yahoo turned in a much-needed solid quarter in its third-quarter earnings report, with solid revenues increases and earnings. Wall Street has been watching Yahoo's performance closely this quarter. due to the swirl around the company over takeover scenarios, departed execs and... 4:19PM. .

Stocks CRUSHED: Here's What You Need To Know (GS, BAC, UUP, KO, JNJ, AAPL, IBM, SPY, SLV). Anyone could have predicted that it was going to be an ugly day. But you would have had a hard time predicting HOW it would be so ugly. But first, the scoreboard: Dow: -165 NASDAQ: -43.48 S&P 500: -19 And now, the top stories: The day really started at 4:30 PM ET yesterday... 4:18PM. .

Yahoo Says Display Ad Sales Up 17 Percent. Yahoo ( NSDQ: YHOO ), which has been under pressure to turn around its flagging performance, couldn't afford to miss analyst estimates this quarter. And it did not. But it didn't exactly surprise either, posting earnings results in line with the mediocre results analysts... 4:18PM. .

Our Morning Tweets 10.19.2010. Is the iPad Really the Savior of the Newspaper Industry? http://on.mash.to/anl8Ue — @paidContent Mark Zuckerberg on "The Social Network"'s Biggest Flaw: http://bit.ly/8XWz7Y (via @TheAtlantic) — @paidContent One-Third of US Adults Skip Live TV http://bit.ly/c4HnzG //... 4:18PM. .

Social Media is Good, Trust Me. In light of  the recent privacy breech on Facebook, it's no wonder most internet users don't trust social media. Only 16% have faith, says a study by Vision Critical with forums and blogs scoring even lower. Who do we trust? The only online source is news, I'm assuming they... 4:18PM. .

Majek's Goldilocks: A Sign of Things to Come. At a time when the world is wondering if Apple will do to the video industry what it did to the music industry, and if the iPad will save print news from online obsolescence, independent startups like Majek Pictures are challenging the status quo for TV. 4:18PM. .

Updated BlackBerry PlayBook specs include 64GB model, high capacity battery. When Research in Motion introduced the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet a few weeks ago, the company mentioned it would come in 16GB and 32GB models. Now it looks like there will also be a 64GB model for users who want a little extra (or rather, double) the storage space on their 7... 4:18PM. .

Apple changes words in order to change the debate. Google likes to characterize Android as "open" and iOS/iPhone as "closed." That puts Apple in a tough spot. Arguing for a closed system when the competition is offering an open one makes you seem like the bad guy. But change the words being used and it becomes an entirely... 4:18PM. .

Version Updates, Extension Prices, Rivals Sweating: Chrome Web Store Nears Launch. When I heard that Mozilla would be outlining their own open web app ecosystem for the first time today, my immediate thought was that this was to pre-empt the Chrome Web Store. I still think that, but I think the timing may be even more calculated now. From what I can gather,... 4:18PM. .

kaChing Gets $100M under Management and Gets All Wall Street with a New Name. kaChing is trading its blingy Web 2.0 image for something more befitting the Wall Street powerhouse it wants to become. The company is renaming itself Wealthfront today, ringing the closing bell of the NASDAQ, and announcing a shift in focus from talented amateurs to... 4:18PM. .

CHART OF THE DAY: The iPhone Is Now Almost Half Of Apple's Revenue (AAPL). Apple's iPhone business continues to surge . The company's phone division is now by far its biggest: An $8.8 billion business last quarter, representing more than 43% of Apple's overall sales, and growing more than 90% year-over-year. Meanwhile, the Mac had its best quarter ever... 4:18PM. .

LIVE: Yahoo Earnings (YHOO). Yahoo's earnings release just hit , we're reading it now... First trickle of news coming in from CNBC, and it looks like a beat on EPS, miss on revenue. Yahoo is getting trashed on CNBC, called a dead man walking. Youch! In the meanwhile, here's what the Street is looking for :... 4:18PM. .

Xbox.com getting avatar editor, Windows Phone 7 web games. Microsoft has announced that tomorrow morning at 5AM EST, Xbox.com and the Xbox forums will be going down. When the site comes back, it will not only have a fresh new look but some added functionality as well. For a sneak peek of what's coming, you can check out Major Nelson's... 4:12PM. .

Conan puts first guest to Twitter vote. Conan O'Brien returns to television on TBS on November 8th, and he's asking his Twitter fans to pick the show's first guest. Twitter-stars Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber are among the choices, but also some highly unlikely options like Pope Benedict XVI, the Sultan of Brunei and... 4:12PM. .

Microsoft Launches Office 365, Bringing Millions Into The Cloud. Between upgrades and updates, making sure your software is the latest and greatest can be an expensive time-suck -- for the software maker as well as you. Which is why we're slowly but surely moving to the cloud. The latest indication of that shift came today when Microsoft... 4:11PM. .

BioShock's Rapture reproduced in Minecraft. No gods or kings. Only awesomeness. A team of BioShock superfans recreated the city of Rapture in MineCraft. This took some serious time and commitment, but the results are impressive, so long as you've played BioShock enough to recognize what's going on. Part two of the video... 4:11PM. .

Apple iPad Alternatives: 10 Devices That Can Be More Useful. Apple's iPad is undoubtedly an important product in today's industry. It delivers outstanding functionality at a price that most consumers are comfortable paying. More importantly, it works extremely well, which makes it all the more appealing to customers who want to start... 4:11PM. .

More Leaks Proving The Release Of Chrome Web Store. As You all know that "Google Chrome webstore is launching sometimes this month", more details have started emerging on the net. Recently Google system blog reported that Google Chrome's extension gallery started to display the prices. As Google previously announced that there... 4:11PM. .

Chrome Web Store launch may be imminent. Filed under: Google , Browsers If you spend any amount of time over at the Google Chrome Extension Gallery you may have spotted a subtle change on some of the listings: the addition of a price tag. The Google OS blog was lucky enough to nab a screenshot of the Most Popular page... 4:11PM. .

Verizon Wireless steps toward tiered data pricing. Verizon Wireless will soon offer a $15 a month service that gives smartphone users 150MB of data as a promotion to better compete against AT&T's tiered wireless service. 4:09PM. .

Presto Chango: KaChing Becomes Wealthfront. Today, the execs at kaChing, a social investing site, are ringing the closing bell at the Nasdaq--actually, it is more of a button-pushing--to herald in a complete shift for the Palo Alto, Calif. start-up. That includes a new name for the year-old company--it is now officially... 4:09PM. .

Google Cuts Ad Contracts in China as Search Share Drops Again. Google, which continues to lose search market share to rival Baidu in China, yesterday confirmed that they terminated the contracts of seven large AdWords resellers. Meanwhile, Google's search market share in China dropped from 27.3 percent in the Q2 to 24.6 percent in Q3,... 4:09PM. .

Free Xbox 360 In Austria With Windows Phone 7 Purchase [Austrian Carrier A1 Bests AT&T, Gives Away A Whole Xbox With New WP7 Phone]. Our man Steve just told you about a deal with AT&T where they're giving away a Zune and Zune Pass with a Windows Phone 7 phone purchase. Well, with typical European elitism, Austrian carrier A1 has upped the ante. Instead of just offering a Zune, they're offering a Xbox... 4:08PM. .

First Medal of Honor DLC Announced In EA Press Release [EA To Release Two Redesigned Maps & New Multiplayer Mode As DLC For Medal of Honor]. EA announced earlier today that they would be releasing a free little bit of DLC for their modern-day war shooter Medal of Honor – of course, next to the word free, there was an asterisk, as there always is. The DLC will be free to all of those who have registered their... 4:08PM. .

AT&T Offers Free Zune To Windows Phone 7 Buyers [Pre-Order A Windows Phone 7 Gets You A Month of Free Zune Pass With AT&T, But When It Comes To Free Stuff, They're Not Alone]. Got to give it to the folks at AT&T and Microsoft, folks–they know how to sweeten a deal. If you pre-order a Windows Phone 7 with AT&T, they'll throw in a free month of Zune Pass at no extra charge. The odd part about this is that it's only part of the pre-order... 4:08PM. .

Rumor PaTroll: Walking Dead Has Guts, Roth Not Clowning Around. Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - Don't Worry: Gore Abounds In Zombie TV Show The Walking Dead Just because they are going to a network with their zombie show doesn't mean that The Walking Dead had to tone down their material one bit. (More on Techland: Walking Dead To Shamble Into... 4:08PM. .

HP introduces webOS 2.0 and the Palm Pre 2 [recap]. It finally happened - HP and Palm formally introduced the world to the Palm Pre 2 and HP webOS 2.0. We dove right in to give you everything we could on the latest Palm handset and the newest version of the webOS operating system. HP webOS 2.0 HP introduces webOS 2.0 webOS 2.0... 4:08PM. .

Change the words and you change the debate. Google likes to characterize Android as "open" and iOS/iPhone as "closed." That puts Apple in a tough spot. Arguing for a closed system when the competition is offering an open one makes you seem like the bad guy. But change the words being used and it becomes an entirely... 4:08PM. .

Giganews' Retention Now At 800 Days. How did I miss this? Giganews , the biggest Usenet provider out there by some margin, now has 800 days of binary retention. A year and a half ago I wrote a similar story , but the number was 365 days of retention. Man, I remember the days when I had two days of retention!... 4:08PM. .

Sprint To Simply App Purchases By Launching A Mobile Wallet. Sprint's director of open enablement Kevin McGinnis told FierceMobileContent during an interview at the recent CTIA Enterprise & Applications conference that Sprint will unveil a new mobile wallet solution giving subscribers greater flexibility over how they purchase... 4:08PM. .

HTC denies report of Windows Phone 7 shipment delays. A report on October 18 that HTC had discovered issues with its Windows Phone 7 devices that could lead to delivery delays is being denied by HTC. 4:02PM. .

App Review: Kingsburg (née Kinsburg) rolls strategy and frustrating your opponents into one fun game. In September, a board game app based on the 2007 game Kingsburg took the gaming community by surprise. We often hear about upcoming board game ports way in advance of their release, but Kingsburg appeared so suddenly on the App Store [for US$4.99 ] that someone submitted it as... 4:02PM. .

Microsoft Unwraps Office 365 Cloud Computing. Office, Exchange and Sharepoint are all part of the software giant's new Office 365 offering. 4:02PM. .

Mophie Juice Packs for iPhone 4, iPad en route to Apple Store. We have some details for you on Mophie's upcoming Juice Pack Universal line . Ready? Okay: available at the Apple Store sometime this month (and at Mophie's website now), all the new models, including Air ($80), Boost ($60), Reserve ($40) and Powerstation ($100), are compatible... 4:02PM. .

KaChing Becomes Wealthfront. One year ago, I wrote about KaChing, an investment site that aimed to provide a better option than mutual funds for small investors, by letting them map their portfolios to the investment strategies of expert professional investors and talented amateurs. It was an intriguing... 4:01PM. .

New recalled Tylenol linked to shut plant. The adult Tylenol that was recalled this week was made at the same shuttered Fort Washington plant that produced all of Johnson & Johnson's problematic children's Tylenol medicines, CNNMoney confirmed Tuesday. 4:01PM. .

HotSuite Updates, Now with Facebook Support. While HootSuite is a total solution for managing your social network presence, Android users have been missing out on a major element: Facebook support. When the HootSuite team announced that their app would now be free for all to download on mobile platforms, it was promised... 4:01PM. .

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow PlayStation 3 Patch Incoming. Konami, the publisher of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, has confirmed that it will be releasing a patch for the PlayStation 3 version of the title, after many users reported save game problems.The Castlevania franchise has finally managed to transition into 3D successfully, after... 3:59PM. .

Here Is Why We Choose Coca Cola Over Pepsi, And White iPhones Over Black. Why do people choose Coca Cola over Pepsi ? The answer is simple, really – because the folks over at Coca Cola have created a brand that evokes a warm and fuzzy response from your brain. Sheena Iyengar, author of the best selling book The Art Of Choosing , tells us that... 3:59PM. .

Verizon, T-mobile to follow AT&T's tiered data footsteps. New rumors suggest that both Verizon and T-mobile plan to introduce cheaper, limited data plans to its subscribers in the coming weeks. The new options are similar to capped data plan options that AT&T unveiled right before the iPhone 4 launched this summer, with one... 3:58PM. .

Last one to leave Symbian please turn out the lights. Shite. Even Symbian is abandoning Symbian. Though still no mention of this to be found at Symbian.org , reportedly the CEO of Symbian packed his bags and left. With each passing day, it becomes more and more clear that Symbian is the product of a different age. No one makes... 3:58PM. .

WD's New 3TB Drive Packs More Storage Than 32-Bit Can Handle. Western Digital claims its newly-announced 2.5 TB and 3 TB Caviar Green hard drives are the largest capacity SATA drives on the market. But WD admits that these bigger drives need a little bit of help working on older systems. "Drives with capacities in excess of 2.19 TB... 3:52PM. .

Facebook App Breach Gets The Attention of Congress. Facebook's latest privacy breaches have gotten the attention of Congress. US Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) and Joe Barton (R-TX) have written a joint letter (PDF) to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, interrogating him on what the company knew about third-party applications... 3:52PM. .

Now You Can Even Google the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Israel Antiquities Authority and Google are teaming up to publish the Dead Sea Scrolls online. The approximately 1,000 scrolls, managed by the IAA, were discovered in a series of caves near the Dead Sea in the West Bank. Dating from the second and first centuries, B.C.E.,... 3:52PM. .

What should you do if you're attacked by a mountain goat? Washington state officials have shot a mountain goat that gored and killed a hiker on Saturday in Olympic National Park. How do you defend yourself against a mountain goat attack? [ more ... ] 3:52PM. .

Advertisement:. 3:52PM. .

Palm Pre 2, webOS 2 Launched. After much speculation regarding the fate of Palm in the wake of the company's $1.2 billion purchase by HP, the handset manufacturer today unveiled the latest evolution in its smartphone platform--the Palm Pre 2 and webOS 2. Because everyone loves a sequel, right? The Pre 2... 3:51PM. .

HP Palm Pre 2 with WebOS 2.0 Confirmed for Verizon Wireless. HP has introduced WebOS 2.0, a "significant" update to the Palm OS. It will debut on the new Pre 2 smartphone on the Verizon Wireless network in "the coming months." - Hewlett-Packard has introduced WebOS 2.0, the long-promised update to the open-source OS it... 3:51PM. .

China Boosts Interest Rates, Raising Fears World Growth May Slow. China surprised international markets Tuesday by raising key interest rates for the first time in three years. The action, taken primarily for domestic reasons, caused a worldwide sell-off driven by the worry that it could cause the Chinese economy to slow down. Continue reading... 3:51PM. .

What is Steve Jobs so afraid of? By Joe Wilcox , Betanews There's a saying that the more you have, the more you fear losing it. Apple's CEO made a surprise appearance during yesterday's fiscal 2010 fourth quarter earnings call. Jobs said he couldn't resist participating, given Apple's record $20.34 billion... 3:51PM. .

Mozilla unveils prototype cross-platform Web app store. By Tim Conneally , Betanews Software company Mozilla on Tuesday unveiled its plans for Open Web App stores for distributing, selling, and managing rich Internet applications built in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Mozilla's concept is similar to the Chrome app store Google discussed... 3:51PM. .

HanDBase Launches on Android for the Organization Obsessed. Those who just can't function normally without having every aspect of their life filed away and organized might finally be able to do away with their nervous jitters thanks to the release of HanDBase for Android. Those jitters just from the coffee you say? Yeah…sure.... 3:51PM. .

Universities pen harsh words to note-selling site. Students find themselves in the crosshairs as California State University system demands that new Web site NoteUtopia stop enabling the sale of class notes. 3:49PM. .

China's Has Just Started Ban Of Rare Earth Metal Exports To The US. China has just halted the export of some rare earth metals to the US, NYT reports. “The embargo is expanding” beyond Japan, said one of the three rare earth industry officials, all of whom insisted on anonymity for fear of business retaliation by Chinese authorities.... 3:48PM. .

BlackBerry Storm 3 Slighted In Verizon Inventory System [Insiders Report That Storm 3 Added To Big Red's Database, Is The New Touchscreen BB Coming Soon?]. It's been a long journey for the BlackBerry Storm 3. The alleged follow up to the first two Storm phones was first spotted in spycam photos from Indonesia, but then, we were told that those weren't real, that those were just a refresh of the Storm 2. Then we were told that the... 3:48PM. .

NEC MultiSync EX231W Monitor Shown Off [The NEC MultiSync EX231W Monitor Goes For Low Power and Light Weight]. Say what you will about processors and RAM–without a good quality monitor your entire computer experience is an imaginary experience dependent wholly on your own memory (and I'm not talking RAM) to get anywhere. And that's why I'm happy to bring up the new monitor from... 3:48PM. .

The new realities for startups. Tom Clement : There's been a lot of talk about new realities for entrepreneurs, venture capital and startups. Over the last few years, investors have looked at low returns and battened down the hatches. Certainly the landscape has changed, and it is time to find new strategies... 3:48PM. .

The Loadout for 10-19-10: New Games to Attack Your Week With. Welcome to the Loadout. Our philosophy is that the working week is a recurring boss battle that you'll need the proper weapons to take down. The supplies at hand won't always be pretty but you might just be able to hold out until the weekend. Green means add it to your arsenal,... 3:48PM. .

Cool Tools: Wanderfly Inspires Travel Getaways. Have a hankering to take a few days off and go somewhere? A new startup called Wanderfly, which launched today, wants to help inspire you. Type in your approximate travel dates, budget, duration and interests, and Wanderfly will serve up a set of glossy options. 3:48PM. .

Opening up the mobile wallet. Among the most transformational aspects of mobile are the effects it's having on consumer purchases. In the same way that plastic has more or less killed cash as the legal tender of choice, mobile will eventually kill plastic -- and perhaps sooner than you might expect . In case... 3:48PM. .

Two For Tuesday: Oops and Homemade Spacecraft. To own a video camera is to be able to capture the world in motion, which is a pretty amazing thing. But what happens when people let their cameras go -- either by dropping them or sending them into space? Even more amazing stuff. 3:48PM. .

Salesforce preps Chatter for iPad lift-off. Salesforce.com is prepping a Chatter interface that frankly may be better than the Web experience. 3:41PM. .

iShred jumps up the charts thanks to viral video. Last Saturday, we posted this video of the band Atomic Tom singing with their iPhones on the B train over the East River. Since then, the video has gone viral, nabbing more than a million views on YouTube. But the band isn't the only group benefiting from the attention -- we... 3:40PM. .

Microsoft builds a Cloud City with Office 365. Microsoft has announced its Office 365 platform, which integrates SharePoint, Exchange, Lync and Office into a single dynamic cloud service. read more 3:40PM. .

AMD: efficiency will soon be more important than core count. Today, Advanced Micro Devices and Intel are competing over which company's processors have the most cores. AMD says that the core war will end soon and will instead be replaced by an efficiency war. In the coming years, useful on-die specialized computing capabilities will be... 3:40PM. .

Dear Dan Bull: A Case Study In Musical Innovation. Two quick announcements. First, this is the latest in our "case study" series, of content creators doing interesting things online, and seeing what we can learn from them. The case studies now have their own tab if you want to check out previous case studies. Second, this... 3:40PM. .

Murdoch Takes on Ticketmaster With "Foxtix". Billionaire media magnate Rupert Murdoch already holds a giant stake in the worlds of books, newspapers, magazines, television--and soon he'll add ticket retailing to his empire. Yesterday an Australian subsidiary of Murdoch's News Corp, called News Limited, launched... 3:39PM. .

Deadline Looms for Laid-Off GM Workers to Claim Ohio Jobs. Autoworkers laid off from a General Motors plant in Orion Township, Mich., have until the end of the day Tuesday to decide whether to take jobs at the automaker's Lordstown assembly plant, some 250 miles away in neighboring Ohio. Continue reading Deadline Looms for Laid-Off GM... 3:39PM. .

Major refresh coming to Xbox.com. Those who visit Xbox.com tomorrow will be welcomed by a vast overhaul that will deliver online games, an avatar editor, and much more. Originally posted at The Digital Home 3:37PM. .

Cruising the wasteland strip in Fallout: New Vegas. The follow up to one of 2008's best games provides more of what we've come to love from the Fallout series. 3:37PM. .

Sorenson to shrink video links with Vid.vu. There's a new URL shortener in town, but it's not for everyone. Sorenson Media's Vid.vu aims to make Web video links a little easier to swallow. 3:37PM. .

In Case You Missed It: Sheila Bair Gave Banks A Several Hundred Million Dollar Gift This Morning. The FDIC announced this morning that they will not be going through with the scheduled increase for deposit insurance for America’s banks. The reason for the roll back in premiums comes as a result of a downward revision of the losses the FDIC faces: The FDIC has updated... 3:36PM. .

Sponsor post: Sponsor post: 2 Weeks Until Digital Media Conference West in SF! The 2nd Annual Digital Media Conference West event kicks off with a packed day of in-depth discussions and networking focused on the top business issues impacting digital media companies, including online video, social media, mobile entertainment, and the relationship between... 3:36PM. .

Need Willpower? Clench Up. Clenching your muscles at the moment of decision can help boost self-control, research finds. 3:36PM. .

English Heritage claims it owns every single image of Stonehenge, ever. SteveMars sez, "Every photo image library got this by email today. 'We are sending you an email regarding images of Stonehenge in your fotoLibra website. Please be aware that any images of Stonehenge can not be used for any commercial interest, all commercial interest to sell... 3:36PM. .

What VCs Really Mean When They Use The Excuse, "It's Too Early For Me To Invest". Sometimes, early stage companies hear investors say that it’s “too early” for them to invest. It’s a puzzling response when most VC’s are considered “early stage”. The definition of “early” seems to be inconsistent, and the... 3:36PM. .

Salesforce preps Chatter for iPad. Salesforce.com is prepping a Chatter interface that frankly may be better than the Web experience. 3:30PM. .

Reports: Verizon to offer cheaper, limited data plan; not killing unlimited plan. Verizon Wireless will reportedly offer a monthly data plan that is less expensive than the existing unlimited data plan but will also impose limits on its usage, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal today.However, unlike AT&T, which eliminated an unlimited when... 3:30PM. .

Picking Stocks: It Has a Good Beat, And I Can Dance To It. Our friends over at Wired Science are reporting that Twitter can predict the stock market -- which is just silly. Everybody knows that you pick stocks based on skirt length or who wins the Super Bowl or by blindfolding your monkey and letting him throw darts. But forget... 3:30PM. .

Bits: Are AT&T and Verizon About to Square Off Over Pricing? The competition between AT&T and Verizon is heating up, this time over pricing plans. 3:29PM. Technology.

Revenue Streams for Journalists. As many more journalists seek to create their own newsrooms, whether online or cross-platform, the keep-you-up-at-night question remains the same. Who is going to pay us?  How do we sustain these ventures? (I have written here at LR  about my own Journalism start-ups,... 3:29PM. .

Power mad modder rips the keys out of his Epic 4G, calls it a gamepad (video). Sometimes a mod is more than just a mod: it's a manifesto. When Phawx over at BrainLazy decided to take an X-Acto knife to his Epic 4G's keypad, he knew what he was doing: both challenging Apple's place in the world of cellphone-based gaming and encouraging other manufacturers... 3:29PM. .

iOS Browser Review: iCab Mobile. Filed under: Commercial , iPhone , Browsers Apple's mobile incarnation of Safari on iOS is certainly one of the best mobile browsers in the business. It's pretty fast, handles rendering well, and will even sync bookmarks with your desktop. But it's not perfect - there are many... 3:29PM. .

The Truth About Weight Loss Pills: They're Not Magical, Don't Work. With the number of overweight and obese people on the rise in every country, it’s no wonder this is proving to be a very lucrative market for weight loss pills. The only problem is, they don’t really work.Over the past couple of years, more and more drug companies... 3:27PM. .

Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 Cheats XVII (DS). Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2007 is a video game developed and published by Japanese company Konami exclusively for the Nintendo DS. As its name says, it is part of the extremely popular Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise and is just one of the many video games that were inspired by the long... 3:27PM. .

BlackBerry Storm 3 appears in Verizon systems. The BlackBerry Storm 3 is like of those horror movie killers from the '80s: it's alive, then you think it's dead, and then you learn that it's alive again. Last month we heard that the Storm 3 had been canned by VZW, but a recent rumor suggested that the phone was very much... 3:26PM. .

Xbox Live's Major Nelson Talks Updating Avatars On Xbox.com [Major Nelson: Players Can Customize Their Avatar On Xbox.com After Xbox Live Update Tomorrow, Among Other Changes]. Have you ever found yourself wanting to edit your Xbox Live avatar, only to realize you were nowhere near your Xbox? Well, tomorrow will be your lucky day then, as Microsoft is integrating the ability to customize your avatar from anywhere in the world with their Xbox Live... 3:26PM. .

As Handset Makers Go Android, Top Symbian Exec Goes Away. Lee Williams today stepped down from his executive director role at The Symbian Foundation, reportedly due to personal reasons. When interviewed on camera last year, Williams argued against Android's "evil" approach and named handset makers who were unhappy with Google. Today,... 3:26PM. .