A few days ago, it was Mahalo. Today, it’s French blogger Loic Le Meur’s turn to see his account suspended from Google’s video sharing site YouTube, along with hundreds of his videos.

Reading his post, where he begs the video sharing site to let him have access to his account, Le Meur has obviously been surprised by YouTube decision to suspend his online presence on the site. On the other hand, Mahalo Daily producer Tyler Crowley tells ValleyWag that “he [Crowley] received a number of violation notices in quick succession, triggering YouTube’s “three strikes, you’re out” account suspension policy — even though Mahalo Daily is part of the YouTube partner program. “ Read the rest of this entry »

On Wednesday Silicon Valley gossip blog Valleywag posted an article rumoring that TechCrunch is going to be bought by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. Nicholas Carlson reports that a startup founder overheard a group of TechCrunch people celebrating the sale. It’s said that the deal is done, but that TechCrunch will not announce it until August, at the August Capital meet-up event. Another source corroborated this claim. New Corp denied it.

Talks of a possible sale of the nearly 6 milion pages view monthly tech website have been going around for a while. Last week’s sale of PaidContent to the U.K.’s Guardian Media for $30 million fueled speculation that the TechCrunch founder, Michael Arrington is trying sell soon, though it might be more difficult, as he is rumored to be looking for a deal in the $100-million range. Read the rest of this entry »

Didier Lomdard, CEO and Chairman of France Telecom-Orange Group, just released the english edition of his new book, entitled “The Second Life of Networks”, along with co-author Georges Nahon and Gabriel Sidhom. Dominique and I were at the release of the book. Didier Lombard flew directly from Paris to hold his book signing in San Francisco (pictures), “the anchor for technological innovation in Silicon Valley.”

The Book Explains How Upcoming Technologies Will Bring New and Exceptional Opportunities for Human and Social Progress But Calls For Specific Changes and Reforms. Read the rest of this entry »

The Great 3G geek-out is starting to make Harry Potter fans look cool. Watching the whole thing unfold has been very amusing and kind of amazing.

Apple [APPL] reports that one million iPhone 3Gs were sold in the phone’s first weekend – more than twice the originally predicted sales of 450,000 – for an estimated 330 million dollars. In comparison, the original iPhone took 74 days to reach a million sales. Read the rest of this entry »

Our friends at Ubergizmo.com were right to cover the rumor back in February 2008. Movie rental service Netflix [NFLX] and Microsoft [MSFT] are joining forces for a movie-streaming partnership for Xbox 360. The software giant announced the deal at the E3 Media and Business Summit in Los Angeles.

“The new Xbox experience represents the first time in history that a mass-market consumer electronics device has been re-invented through free software, giving people more fun and intuitive ways to interact, play, and enjoy entertainment content,” Microsoft said in a statement.

The partnership gives Microsoft access to a slew of advantage to put to use on its gaming console. Not only does the company get the over 10,000 movie and television library Netflix owns, but it also gets access to its large customer base. Read the rest of this entry »

Apple, Inc. [AAPL] has filed suit against Psystar, maker of Mac clones. Originally called “OpenMac,” Psystar’s “OpenComputer” sells for as low as $399, pre-installed with Mac OS X Leopard. Apple does not permit the installation of its operating system on non-Apple products.

The Miami-based IT consulting company began selling their Mac clones in April under rather strange circumstances, including listing false addresses and being dropped by the company processing their credit-card orders. Some thought Psystar was just a hoax; others believed it was a dummy company set up by Apple. But the OpenComputer began shipping in April, benefiting from the hype and receiving generally positive reviews. OpenComputer’s initial sales exceeded company expectations. In June, Psystar began selling Xserve, an Apple-server clone. Read the rest of this entry »

Less than a week after its release (our coverage), Google’s [GOOG] virtual world Lively already has a porn problem. While Lively model and original vitural world sensation Second Life is well known for its sexual activities, Lively was meant to be acceptable for users aged 13 and over. But, as of now, sex-themed rooms have been popping up all over the place.

“We’ve received complaints about recently created ‘sex rooms’ in Lively, and we take these complaints seriously,” announced Lively’s help center website on July 10th.

Lively’s Community Standards explicitly forbid explicit material. “We don’t allow nudity, graphic sex acts, or sexually explicit material. This includes making sexual advances toward other users. Read the rest of this entry »

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has ruled that Comcast [CCS], the nation’s largest cable company, is in violation of the agency’s policy regarding unrestricted access to the Internet because of their move to block peer-to-peer file-sharing.

FCC chairman Kevin Martin concluded that Comcast is in violation of the four principles the agency created in 2005 to regulate Internet usage, namely one that states broadband Internet access should be widely available and open to all consumers at a reasonable price.

At the outset of the implementation of these Internet regulations, Comcast openly questioned whether the FCC has the authority to regulate the Internet in such a manner.

Consequently, the country’s largest cable provider opted to arbitrarily block file-sharing applications such as BitTorrent, an online program that enables users to share large files and software including television shows. Read the rest of this entry »

eBay [EBAY] has announced that it will ban the sale of dog and cat fur on their German-language sites in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, beginning Tuesday. This is in response to complaints from animal rights groups, who claim that vendors are selling fur and faux-fur products made from the pelts of dogs and cats.

eBay attracted the attention of animal rights groups when a cat-fur coat was posted for sale on their French site in February. Dog and cat fur, produced mainly in China and distributed primarily in the U.S. and Europe, is sold in unlabeled or mislabeled fur products. Millions of cats and dogs – many domestic – are killed for their fur each year. Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s UPDATE: Today’s hottest trends on Google in about a website that we covered earlier this year. So I thought it would be an good opportunity for you to revisit our post.

A free national database, MissingMoney.com, is helping Americans reclaim missing money quickly and easily.

Ever wondered if you have any unclaimed money, such as utility deposits or cash left in a bank account? Chances are you might. According to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA), there is an excess of unclaimed property funds totaling $32.8 billion. Furthermore, one in eight Americans has some missing money to claim. Read the rest of this entry »