Erica Sadun / The Unofficial Apple Weblog:
iPod/iPhone firmware update 1.1.4 released  —  Just connected my iPhone to iTunes.  More details as they come in.  —  1:30: I’m downloading the software now… To download directly, the direct links are iPhone and iPod.  (Do let me know if I messed either of those up.)

Royal Pingdom:
Social network downtime in 2008  —  This is a list of 14 of the largest social networks in the world, and how much downtime they have had so far in 2008. … As we mentioned in a recent report, Bebo’s downtime has increased significantly lately and has had by far the most downtime […]

Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Sun completes MySQL purchase; Eyes more open source acquisitions  —  Sun said Tuesday that it has completed the purchase of MySQL for $1 billion and CEO Jonathan Schwartz indicated the company plans to keep shopping for open source acquisitions.  —  “Open source is really in the DNA of Sun […]

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Estimates Put Internet Advertising at $21 Billion in U.S., $45 Billion Globally  —  Two reports are out today on the size of the Internet advertising market.  The Interactive Advertising Bureau has a preliminary estimate of $21.1 billion for U.S. Internet ads in 2007, a 25 percent increase over 2006.

Tom Neumayr / Apple:
iTunes Now Number Two Music Retailer in the US  —  iTunes Customers Top 50 Million  —  Apple® today announced that iTunes® (www.itunes.com) is now the number two music retailer in the US, behind only Wal-Mart, based on the latest data from the NPD Group*.

Blake Robinson / ReadWriteWeb:
BricaBox - The Beginning of Social Content Platforms?  —  BricaBox is a new type of service that combines elements of social networking and content creation into a medium it calls a “social content platform.”  The NYC-based startup hopes to do for social content what Ning did for social networks.

Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Google Shares Slide On Weak Paid Click Data; Is The Crumbling Economy Dragging Down The Search Business?  —  Google (GOOG) shares are down sharply this morning after new data from comScore shows what appears to be a material weakening in the company’s advertising business.

Amit / Digital Inspiration Technology Blog:
Wow!  All Gmail Users Are Given Two Separate Email Addresses  —  You probably know how to create multiple email aliases in Gmail by adding the plus symbol and dots to your Gmail username but there’s something more interesting.  —  When you create a Gmail account, you actually get two […]

Lance Ulanoff / Fox News:
Facebook’s Death Spiral Has Begun  —  Facebook’s long, slow, and, for some, sad decline into oblivion has begun.  —  A recent report from The New York Times stated that the company is going to try to make it easier for members to get off the service.  This is a clear […]

Apple:
Apple Introduces New MacBook and MacBook Pro Models  —  Multi-Touch Trackpad Comes to MacBook Pro  —  Apple® today updated its popular MacBook® and MacBook Pro notebook lines with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors, larger hard drives and 2GB of memory standard in most models.