David Chartier / Ars Technica:
Hands on: Safari 4 beta fast, mixes polish, rough UI edges  —  Apple on Tuesday released Safari 4 beta, a new version of its browser for Mac OS X and Windows.  This update brings a bunch of new features, including a flashy new Top Sites view, a completely redesigned Windows […]

Nate Lanxon / CNET News:
Safari 4 benchmarked: 42x faster than IE 7, 3.5x faster than Firefox 3  —  Proving itself a staggering 42 times faster at rendering JavaScript than IE 7, our benchmarks confirm Apple’s Safari 4 browser, released in beta today, is the fastest browser on the planet.

Hearst Corporate Site:
STATEMENT ON SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE COST-SAVING INITIATIVES  —  Hearst Corporation announced today that its San Francisco Chronicle newspaper is undertaking critical cost-saving measures including a significant reduction in the number of its unionized and nonunion employees.

Sundar Pichai / Google Public Policy Blog:
Browsers powered by user choice  —  Last month the European Commission confirmed that it had sent a statement of objections to Microsoft about the tying of Internet Explorer to the Windows operating system, which it said “harms competition between web browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer […]

Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
Google Announces Pricing for App Engine: Allows Developers to Scale Beyond Free Quotas  —  Google today finally announced its pricing plans for its App Engine service.  Google’s App Engine allows developers to run their web applications on Google’s infrastructure and, until today, was only available in a free, but restricted, version.

Microsoft:
Microsoft Security Advisory (968272)  —  Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Excel Could Allow Remote Code Execution  —  Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a vulnerability in Microsoft Office Excel that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Excel file.

Acacio Cruz / The Official Google Blog:
Update on Gmail  —  The Gmail outage that affected many consumers and Google Apps users worldwide is now over.  Users should find that they’re able to access their email now without any further problems.  —  Before you can access your Gmail, you may be asked to fill in […]

MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Apple launches a new iTunes Pass feature for groupies  —  Is there an artist you love?  I mean really love, as in you’ll buy anything they do before you have any idea what it is?  A lot of people probably do, and for them, Apple has a new feature on iTunes […]

Patrick Wintour / Guardian:
Facebook risks ‘infantilising’ the mind  —  Social network sites risk infantilising the mid-21st century mind, leaving it characterised by short attention spans, sensationalism, inability to empathise and a shaky sense of identity, according to a leading neuroscientist.

Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Apple releases public beta of Safari 4 browser  —  Apple on Tuesday announced a public beta of Safari 4, a new version of its share-gaining web browser that packs a powerful new JavaScript engine and support for the latest web standards.  —  Dubbed “Nitro,” the engine in Safari 4 …