A curated selection of the day’s most newsworthy tech stories from all over the Web.
- Next week, Facebook, which is on track to reach sales of $2 billion this year, will release a new facial recognition feature called Tag Suggestions that automatically suggests who users should tag in photos. Whenever users choose to tag people in their photos, Tag Suggestions will step in and offer up suggestions about who the friends in the photos are. (Bloomberg and Mashable)
- Twitter raised $200 million during its latest round of funding, giving it an estimated $3.7 billion valuation. The social network also has two new board members: Flipboard founder Mike McCue and ex-DoubleClick head David Rosenblatt. (AllThingsD)
- Speaking of Flipboard, the most recent update now includes support for Google Reader and Flickr, as well as better sharing features and user interface tweaks. (ReadWriteWeb)
- Time magazine chose Mark Zuckerberg as its “Person of the Year.” Here’s the profile.
- According to DigiTimes, Mac fans can reportedly look forward to at least four new MacBook Pro models with slightly updated cases, a new iMac with a different screen size and potentially lower price point, OSX Lion updates, and the adoption of Intel’s new “Sandy Bridge” chip architecture. (Fortune)
- YouTube is negotiating to buy web video production company Next New Networks. The acquisition, if it goes through, would signal YouTube’s first serious foray into producing original content. (New York Times)
- eBay acquired Critical Path Software, a developer that worked on eBay’s iPhone app and other mobile apps like StubHub, eBay Classifieds, and Shopping.com. Terms of the deal were not revealed. (AllThingsD)
- Microsoft released the 2.0 version of the Bing search app for Apple iOS. New features include Facebook Likes for search results, in-app checkins to Facebook and Foursquare, and perhaps most importantly, Streetside, a Google Streetview-like component that some argue gives a better view of shops and businesses by letting users strafe down the sidewalk while zooming in and out. (engadget)
- Oracle announced Cloud Office 1.0, a cloud-based productivity suite with spreadsheet, text and presentation applications intended to square off against the likes of Microsoft Office and Google Docs. Cloud Office will be integrated with Oracle Open Office and compatible with Microsoft Office, as well. (PCWorld)
- Google came close to buying either Rhapsody or Spotify, two subscription-based streaming music services, but internal squabbles among three different groups for control ultimately led to those plans being scrapped. (Business Insider)
- What makes the new Nexus S so important? Just pure, unadulterated Android with no trialware, bloatware or crapware. (Fortune)
- Meet the LG Optimux 2X, an Android device that will be the first smartphone to market sporting a dual-core processor. Expect features like Nvidia’s 1 Ghz Tegra 2 chipset, a 4-inch screen, 8 megapixel rear came, 1.3 megapixel front cam, Android 2.2, and 1080p HD video capabilities. The Optimux 2X hits Korea next month and Europe and Asia soon after. A U.S. launch date hasn’t been announced (yet). (VentureBeat)
- According to a new survey from eMarketer, American adults now spend roughly two-and-a-half hours a day on the web, up 6% from compared with a year ago. (TechCrunch)
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