Google in talks to build Facebook competitor:

Google Inc has held talks with gaming companies as it looks to develop a new service to compete with social networking website Facebook, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Internet giant has had talks with makers of online games for the service including Playdom Inc, Electronic Arts Inc’s Playfish and Zynga Game Network Inc  Reuters

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In-demand comic-book creators are getting the star treatment

The now-familiar complaint at Comic-Con International is that the event has become too much about movie stars and not enough about comic-book creators but, on closer inspection, there’s a new wrinkle at the massive San Diego expo: In-demand comic-book creators are getting the star treatment themselves and not just by their loyal readers.

Mahfood Consider, for instance, the rock-star schedule of comic book artist Jim Mahfood, a.k.a. Food One: On Saturday, he’ll be signing oversize prints from upcoming comic book “Marijuanaman,” along with his collaborator Ziggy Marley (yes, that Ziggy Marley) and that night he will be “freestyling” live art at the Soda Bar, flinging paint onto blank canvases as enthusiasts watch on.  L A Times

The Odds Are Increasing That Microsoft’s Business Will Collapse

As recently as a few years ago, Microsoft was still arguing that the future would be Windows-centric. Sure, there would be millions of connected devices, the company said, but they would all orbit around the desktop PC, which would remain the center of the personal tech universe (and, thus, remain an ongoing source of immense “platform” profits). The explosive uptake of iPhones, iPads, and Android-based devices is increasingly making this view seem preposterous.

The desktop PC isn’t the center of anyone’s universe anymore. The Internet is. And the Internet doesn’t require Windows.

Measure your social networking clout – new tool

You may have hundreds of followers on Twitter, but how much “Klout” do you have?

Plug your Twitter name into Klout.com to find out — in numerical, ranked form. The San Francisco site is among the social media startups vying to become the standard for measuring users’ online influence.   Money via NewFiction

Droid X versus iPhone 4

Apple’s next challenger is here. The Motorola

Apple’s next challenger is here. The Motorola Droid X that Verizon planned to announce next week turned up on Engadget today. How does the next Android superphone stack up to a new iPhone?  Venture Beat

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Guggenheim and YouTube Seek Budding Video Artists

For artists, being included in a museum exhibition generally means first having to penetrate the well-guarded gates of a prestigious art gallery. But now the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and YouTube are aiming to short-circuit that exclusionary art-world system, at least briefly, in much the same way that other hierarchical systems have been blown apart in the Internet age.  NY Times

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4G wireless technology: A look at what’s ahead

The first cellphone in the U.S. to use fourth-generation wireless technology — better known as 4G — debuted this month with the promise of super-fast download speeds, smooth video streams and even video chat. The phone came from Sprint Nextel Corp.; Verizon Wireless plans to launch its 4G network this year, with AT&T Inc. to follow in 2011.  LA Times

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Microsoft unveiled the name of its latest video-game technology: Kinect.

The device, when attached to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 video-game console, lets people play games by gesturing, moving their bodies or speaking.

Kinect is key to Microsoft’s effort to become the focal point of living room entertainment. Its Xbox 360, when connected to broadband Internet, is already capable of playing on-demand movies via Netflix and also lets viewers rent high-definition movies and TV shows, in addition to downloadable games.  LA Times

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Take-Two gets a hit with Red Dead Redemption

The video game industry looks to have won the West. Or, given sales for video games this year, maybe it’s the West that has won the industry.

Take-Two Interactive reported Tuesday that Red Dead Redemption, the video game set in the Old West that the company released on May 18, has sold more than 5 million units to retailers worldwide.

That elevates the game to mega-hit status after less than a month on store shelves. The last game to sell more copies so quickly was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, in November.  LA Times

Group lists top five social media risks for businesses

The top risks, which are laid out in an ISACA research paper, are viruses and malware, brand hijacking and lack of control over corporate content. Rounding out the top five are unrealistic expectations of customer service at “Internet-speed” and noncompliance with record management regulations.

Pironti said ISACA isn’t warning companies not to use Web 2.0 tools or to not fully embrace social networking. However, he said they need to go into it with their eyes wide open to the risks as well as the benefits.  Computer World

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