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There is a lot of chatter in the blogosphere about the recent $100 million investment in Twitter at a $1 billion valuation, but most of it based on speculation. Twitter and Facebook are private companies. You cannot get the facts simply by typing a stock symbol into Yahoo Finance. Our mission at ReadWriteWeb is to add to the facts, not just the speculation. Rather than posting confidential information that someone has leaked to us, we prefer to start with publicly available data.

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  Twitter has risen to prominence as the most popular micro-blogging service around. If you’re underwhelmed with the Twitter web site and looking for more features you’ll definitely want to check out the five Twitter clients showcased here.
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  On the heels of Twitter’s latest fundraising round valuing it at a reported $1 billion, data suggests the site’s growth may be slowing. Twitter.com’s marketshare of visits peaked in June then declined into this month…
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  Although it’s yet to earn any significant revenue, Twitter is about to get a major infusion of cash.
  According to The Wall Street Journal, the microblogging service…

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• Social game Spymaster partners with Super Rewards to make money across platforms

Venture Capital investment in green technology companies has jumped to tie pre-recessionary levels, according to a new report out of Greentech Media. With $1.9 billion spread over 112 deals, this year’s third quarter trounced figures from earlier this year, signaling a stronger than anticipated comeback for the sector, which took a beating during the economic downturn last fall.

To put the recent numbers in context: the second quarter this year saw $1.2 billion distributed across 85 deals, which beat out the first quarters miserable $836 million and 59 deals.

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  Research In Motion shares took a beating on Friday and several analysts cut their ratings on the stock after the company posted disappointing sales for its fiscal second quarter and ratcheted down expectations for the current one…
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  Raising $100 million is newsworthy for any company, but when it happened to Twitter this week, it also seemed to raise a hundred million eyebrows. Most notable was the company’s $1 billion valuation…

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• Yet Another E-Reader–With a Stylus This Time

As our hearing impaired readers are no doubt aware, AT&T has been offering its Instant Messaging Relay service since early this year, allowing folks to use AIM to communicate through an operator over the telephone in a manner similar to TDD devices. Now the company has announced an upgrade to the service that will allow real-time communication between callers.

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  Let’s just be brutally honest here: Garmin-Asus’ nuvifone G60 is basically the Duke Nukem of phones. We’ve been following it since before Garmin and ASUS formed their joint venture…
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  We’ve already seen AT&T’s 3G MicroCell picked up by a few desperate Charlotteans, but for those residing in North Carolina’s only city to own a professional sports championship (sorry…
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  The one major draw of having GPS navigation software on your smartphone is that the phone is probably connected to a network that can give more info than just directions, but the screen is just so damn small…
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  The AT&T iPhone update to enable MMS just hit for us, so check your iTunes to see if you have it too. Just plug in your iPhone and hit the “Check for Update” button.
  Many people are saying that the update runs fine…

• Garmin-Asus nuvifone G60 finally ready for AT&T: $300 on October 4?
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• Now AT&T Wants the FCC To Investigate Google Voice
• AT&T, Google trade barbs over Google Voice while FCC listens in
• AT&T Starts Enabling MMS on U.S. iPhones
• AT&T’s iPhone MMS Carrier Update Is Live
• The AT&T iPhone MMS update is now live
• Happy MMS on the iPhone day, AT&T customers!

The overall best iPhone Twitter app, Tweetie, is about to seriously leapfrog everybody else with version 2, with everything you could want—offline reading—and way, way more.

The extent of its offline powers alone is impressive: Not only is there caching, but it remembers your exact place in the app, and you can bookmark, follow block or Instapaper while offline. All of it’s ust synced when you go online.

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  This Ping app by the guy who made PushGmail is a mix between text messaging and instant messaging. What you need to know is that it’s free and it’s fast.
  Ping is designed to look like the SMS app, and behaves much the same way…
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  Peek — the handheld, bare bones email device which recently celebrated its first birthday — has just launched a deal that’s actually quite a deal. You can now get a Peek Pronto (the latest model) with lifetime service for $299…
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  Chances are, your phone—yes, even your iPhone—supports Stereo Bluetooth, but not that many people actually use the feature. We’ve gathered up the best A2DP headphones to either a) figure out why…
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  Let’s take a second to reflect upon how far we’ve come, from phone owners without the near-decade-old service that people don’t really use that much, to people with it…

• Ping is Like a Free SMS Client For iPhone and iPod Touch Users
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• Tweet Reel iPhone App Sends 640 x 480 Video to Twitter
• Bluetooth Headphone Battlemodo: The Best Isn’t the Best
• TomTom car kit for iPhone will run $120
• Tweet Reel Gives iPhone Users 640×480 Video Upload to Twitter
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• Note to Apple: Please Put This in the iPhone, Now
• Twitter iPhone balloon nears Nerdgasm Event Horizon
• Apple Taking More Active Role In iPhone 3.1 Battery Life Troubleshooting

We’re used to seeing this message flash across the Apple Store every time Steve Jobs graces the stage – but on a random evening at the beginning of the work week? That’s a bit strange.

Any guesses as to what’s in the oven? The latest whispers around the Interwebs all suggest that iMac and MacBook revisions are on the way – but they weren’t expected to trickle out for a few more days. Might they be sneaking out a bit early? Perhaps. Might Apple just be adjusting their gradient-y drop shadows and bumping some margins? Perhaps. We’ll see soon enough.

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  The i-Toc is really what you would call a “mystery watch.” It has two overlapping disks that are graduated from light to dark and the point of absolute black – or whatever color you’ve bought – marks the hour and minutes hand…
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  New iMacs aren’t just coming soon, they’ve been rolling out for two weeks, according to AppleInsider. They’re thinner and look more like the LED Cinema Display, with mystery features that make them the “most versatile ever.

• The i-Toc: A very cool watch
• Rumor: New, Thinner iMacs Rolling Off Factory Lines, Maybe With Blu-ray and Mystery Features
• Jabra wants you to be excited about their Stone headset
• Today’s Menu: Steve Jobs In Two Styles
• Apple Taking More Active Role In iPhone 3.1 Battery Life Troubleshooting
• Follow Giz Gallery ‘09 on Twitter!
• RAmos Android event scheduled for next week, mystery MID getting real?

If the relationship between Apple and Mac CPU provider Intel was any closer, the two companies might have to start labeling their record collections and discussing whether to keep the wagon wheel table. In an intriguing technology demonstration last week, it was pointed out that the in-development Intel ultrafast optical connection called Light Peak was being shown on a rather elaborate hackintosh, running good old Mac OS X. This raised an eyebrow or two, but the background story seems to be just as interesting.

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  Remember how Intel showed off its new, advanced optical standard — Light Peak — this past week on a Hackintosh? Well it turns out there’s more to that story than you probably know…
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  Microsoft and Intel this summer both snapped up companies with technology that helps software developers build programs that take advantage of multicore chips. Last…
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  IDF Intel has introduced its first Atom-based system-on-a-chip for consumer electronics kit. Formerly known by its codename, ‘Sodaville’, the part is officially called the Atom Processor CE4100.
  The 45nm chip’s Atom core is joined by 2D/£D engine…

• Apple dictated Light Peak creation to Intel, could …
• Intel, Microsoft Gorging on Multicore Programming Startups
• Intel Still Trying to Put Smarts Into the Boob Tube
• Intel and VMware get their RAS on
• Intel debuts Atom SoC for set-tops
• Intel invests $500K in Canada’s TransGaming
• Microsoft and Intel port Silverlight to Linux
• Intel Wants You to Age Gracefully, at Home
• Intel pledges ‘big leap’ in integrated graphics performance
• LucidLogix marries graphics chips that hate each other

Remember how Intel showed off its new, advanced optical standard — Light Peak — this past week on a Hackintosh? Well it turns out there’s more to that story than you probably know, and it all leads back to some revealing facts about the connection… literally and figuratively. Engadget has learned — thanks to an extremely reliable source — that not only is Apple complicit in the development of Light Peak, but the company actually brought the concept to Intel and asked them to create it. More to the point, the new standard will play a hugely important role in upcoming products from Cupertino.

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  If the relationship between Apple and Mac CPU provider Intel was any closer, the two companies might have to start labeling their record collections and discussing whether to keep the wagon wheel table…
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  Microsoft and Intel this summer both snapped up companies with technology that helps software developers build programs that take advantage of multicore chips. Last…

• Is Apple behind the development of Intel’s Light Peak?
• Intel, Microsoft Gorging on Multicore Programming Startups
• Intel Still Trying to Put Smarts Into the Boob Tube
• Intel and VMware get their RAS on
• Intel debuts Atom SoC for set-tops
• Intel invests $500K in Canada’s TransGaming
• Next-Generation iMacs Already in Production?
• Apple ready and waiting with redesigned iMac line
• Microsoft and Intel port Silverlight to Linux
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