• Zuckerberg: ‘I am a prophet’ – "Mark Zuckerberg has revealed that he is a prophet, declaring that he had foreseen that people will soon have no qualms about displaying every minute detail of their private lives on the internet.

  Zuckerberg revealed his gift during a staged interview with Michael Arrington at the TechCrunch awards this weekend."

• Google Agrees to Stop Scanning, Uploading China Authors’ Books – "Google Inc., trailing Baidu Inc. in China’s online search market, has agreed to meet demands from a local writers’ group that it stop scanning and uploading books to the company’s online library without authors’ permission."
• Net Neutrality Faces Appeals Court " – The FCC and Comcast got their day in court Friday afternoon on the net neutrality issue. A three-judge federal appeals court followed a line of questioning that seemed to favor Comcast, but a decision may not come for months."
• Writing iPhone apps using open-source software – "Simon Brock takes a real-world look at open-source software for writing iPhone applications, and explains how to use it"
• 10 cool new toys from CES – "As we hunted through thousands of tech displays at the show this year, these 10 products particularly grabbed our attention. It's hard to say which, if any, of the new technologies shown at CES this year will become a hit with consumers.

  But these 10 new toys proved to be useful, unique or just plain strange."

• AWOL SDK kicks off Nexus One backlash – "After the hype comes the backlash – and in the fast moving world of smartphones, the whole cycle only takes a day.

  So on Thursday the new Google Nexus One smartphone was going to turn the mobile business model on its head, and some ardent Google fans even thought it was a groundbreaking handset design. By Friday, there was already mounting anger among programmers and target consumers, about delays in the software developers' kit (SDK), poor support and likely Android fragmentation."

• PrevX U-turn on Windows update Black screen of Death claim – "PrevX has backtracked on earlier claims that a Windows update caused Windows machines to lock up with a so-called "Black Screen of Death".

  An updated blog post from the UK-based software security firm withdraws earlier claims that a recent Microsoft update caused a glitch that resulted in affected PCs displaying only the My Computer folder on a blank screen. PrevX's new line is that changes in the Windows Registry that trigger the behaviour might be caused by malware or some other factor, which it is yet to pin down, but not the Windows update that it earlier held culpable."

• AT&T: Not As Lousy As Everyone Thinks? – "Is it possible that AT&T is getting a bad rap? It is hard to be sympathetic to such an unsympathetic company, but suppose AT&T isn't quite as bad as everyone assumes? Or more likely, that other carriers aren't much better?"
• UK climate expert steps aside after hacked e-mails – "The head of a British climate research institute has stepped aside after hacked e-mails were seized upon by skeptics as evidence that the case for global warming has been exaggerated."
• Twitter creator wants to give away Square, his credit card payment gadget – "Twitter was just the beginning. After dreaming up the innovative communication medium, Jack Dorsey is looking to revolutionize another core aspect of society — money.

  On Tuesday, Dorsey announced his new start-up, Square, which will let anyone with a cellphone or iPod become a merchant and accept credit card payments."

• Google vs. Microsoft – Google, Microsoft Bing Trade Search Blows as They Exit 2009 – "I've made a point to point out how Google and Microsoft duel each other in search.

  Actually, of late it's been Bing that's been beating Google to certain things. Case in point, Microsoft announced its deal to index Twitter tweets on stage at the Web 2.0 Summit in October. Google followed hours later by pre-announcing its own Twitter deal."

• Google Alters News Indexing to Accommodate Pay Walls – "In a bid to appease publishers, Google has updated its search programs, allowing publishers who charge for their content to limit users to only five free page views per day."
• TechBytes: Facebook Privacy Changes – "Facebook has announced a major overhaul to its privacy controls. The social networking site is simplifying its settings, offering users three options. Members can share their content with only friends, friends of friends, or everyone. Facebook is also giving users the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content they create or upload. The changes will be rolling out in the coming weeks. Facebook also announced that it's hit another membership milestone with more than 350 million users."

Social Media and Customer Service are working hand-in-hand, as companies discover new ways to incorporate new media into their marketing and business plans.

Lufthansa Airlines has recently introduced MySkyStatus. When you go to the MySkyStatus page, you simply input your flight information and your Twitter and Facebook pages will be updated automatically with your flight schedule information, including departures and arrivals.

I’m sure it won’t be long before most US airlines implement something similar.

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There are a lot of ways that you can now send emails and update your Twitter, Facebook and blog. Smartphones make it easier to do so when away from your computer. What if you don’t have a smartphone yet, or access to all of the handy apps that are available? Or what if you do, but want a quick easy way to do it?

Dial2Do is a free site that does these things for you. You call a number. Say what you want posted, then finish with “Twitter”, or “email” etc. They transcribe it and take care of the rest.

From the site:

Dial2Do lets you do common tasks by just calling a number and speaking. Use it to send EMAIL or TEXT messages, record REMINDERS to help you remember things, post updates to your TWITTER or JAIKU stream and LISTEN to your favourite internet content. It’s easy and handsfree..

For more info: watch the tutorial video here and read the FAQs.

Note: There are currently 26 countries that this site works in [though it only works in English]. See the listing on the FAQs page.

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• Microsoft opens Marketplace to the masses – “Microsoft’s on-device marketplace is now available for Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1, allowing older phones to download the very latest in farting applications.Microsoft reckons there are more than 800 applications in the Marketplace: we assume that’s worldwide, as the UK offering seems somewhat Spartan. But everything you might want is there* along with the inevitable fart-noise apps that seem to be the killer application for smartphones these days.”
• Sports Authority To Sell Nintendo Wii – “Sports Authority will begin selling Nintendo products, including videogaming consoles and the Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus games, at some of its stores later this week, the sporting-goods retailer said.”
• Apple’s Black Friday discounts leaked – “Though it’s still a full 10 days away, Boy Genius Report got tipped off about what may be a major retail sale in the offing from Apple.According to the rumor, complete with flyer (pictured), Apple will be offering the following deals on the Friday after Thanksgiving:

  * up to 30% off on all iPods (except iPhone and iPod shuffle)
  * up to 25% off Macs
  * up to 15% off all accessories as well as Apple software and hardware.”

• Univision se hace amigos con YouTube – “Univision Communications and Google’s YouTube have cut a deal to put much of the Spanish broadcaster’s content on the video website. If you’re looking to catch up on the network’s popular telenovelas there, though, you’re out of luck.”
• ‘Unfriend’ Chosen as Oxford Dictionary’s 2009 Word of the Year – “Proving that social networking is a huge cultural force, the New Oxford American Dictionary has chosen ‘unfriend’ as its 2009 Word of the Year (WOTY). To unfriend means to remove someone from your friend list on a social network like Facebook or MySpace. The new word is an excellent choice as the 2009 WOTY because of its “currency and potential longevity,” according to Christine Lindberg, Senior Lexicographer for Oxford’s US dictionary program.”
• Adobe Upgrades Air and Flash: Mobile and Multi-Touch Support Added – “Adobe Systems will offer on Tuesday beta versions of upgrades to its core Flash Player and Adobe AIR technologies, with Adobe touting mobile device accommodations for the Flash Player.”

• YouTube Direct to Link Media Companies and Consumers’ Video – “YouTube has signed up NPR, Politico, The Huffington Post and The San Francisco Chronicle for YouTube Direct, a new method for managing video submissions from readers.
  Politico is among the media sites that will use YouTube Direct, to be available Tuesday, to solicit and select video submissions.The new feature, to be formally introduced on Tuesday, is a tool to make it easy for YouTube users to submit clips that news media companies can choose to highlight. The site plans to sign up other media partners.”
• The shifting sands of net debate – “The sand and deep blue sea of Sharm el-Sheikh are a magnet for winter sun worshippers – a place to have serious fun. This week, though, it is also somewhere to do some serious thinking about the future of the internet.”
• U.S. teens report ‘frightening’ levels of texting while driving – “A quarter of U.S. teens ages 16 to 17 who have cellphones say they text while driving, and almost half of Americans ages 12 to 17 say they’ve been in cars with someone who texted while behind the wheel. Teens say their parents are texting fanatics, too.Those findings are in a report released Monday by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.”
• Verizon Mocks AT&T’s Ad Lawsuit, Commenting “The Truth Hurts” – “The nation’s largest wireless provider fires back in courtAT&T and Verizon, the nation’s second largest and largest telecoms, respectively, are at open war. With Verizon’s new Droid phone looking to challenge the iPhone as the reigning media smartphone, the pair wage battle in the court room over Verizon’s commercials which depict AT&T’s poor 3G coverage.”