News from ZDNet | | Google's third quarter results shine, Google+ hits 40 million users The search giant's quarter was really about its owned and operated sites, which accounted for 69 percent of revenue in the third quarter. Read more | Larry Page: Google+ is just beginning, will become 'automagical' Google+ is off to a pretty good start for a brand new social network, but Google has even higher ambitions for this product. Read more | RIM's Lazaridis: 'You expect better of us' after outage Research in Motion's inability to quickly fix its largest-ever worldwide outage has been frustrating, co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said on Thursday. Read more | Weak PC sales, Apple to ding Microsoft's Windows sales, say analysts Microsoft's Windows revenue may come in lighter than expected because of sluggish PC unit growth, Apple's popularity and delayed purchases due to Windows 8 publicity. Read more | Microsoft is right, the classic Start Menu is inefficient, but I'm not sure the Start Screen is the answer Is the Windows 8 Start Screen the right replacement for the classic Start menu? Read more | Ubuntu Linux 11.10: Unity comes of age (Review) Ubuntu's new GNOME-based Unity desktop isn't a toy anymore. It's a great desktop in its own right. Read more | IdeaPad U300s: Hands on with Lenovo's first Ultrabook (photos) The Ultrabooks are coming, and Lenovo's first model is looking really sweet. The IdeaPad U300s is as thin as can be and fast as lightning. It is presented in photos for this quick look. Read more | StatCounter: Windows 7 overtakes XP Good news for Windows 7 fans ... but be careful about putting too much stock in a single data source. Read more | Verizon tweaks privacy policy for ad targeting based on physical address Verizon started a program where advertisers can target Verizon Online customers by physical address. Read more | Box to offer iPad, iPhone owners 50GB of free storage Box is bringing its generous TouchPad promotion to the iPhone and iPad. Read more | 100% uptime, always-on, always-available services ... and other tall tales One hundred percent uptime may be impossible, blogs Rachel Dines, but there are technologies that will get you very close to providing always-on services. Read more | Europe versus Facebook: The law protects program logic, not data Facebook says it doesn't have to hand over all your personal data because that's how the law works. Europe versus Facebook argues that the law protects program logic, not data. Read more | Big Data: we have the technology, but not the vision Big Data's big questions, explored in a chat with Todd Walter, CTO of Teradata. Read more | Five iOS 5 secrets Well, OK, not secrets, but you still might want to check out these neat little tricks! Read more | Verizon flips switch on home energy management service Verizon is the latest mega-company to try to help residential customers reduce power consumption, but without a social aspect its service will be a tough sell. Read more | The greatest security vulnerability: You You are the weakest security link but you can be fixed. The fix is simple to say out loud but not so simple to do. Read more | |  |  | About this newsletter | The Tech Sanity Check newsletter gives you my picks for the top tech stories of the day on the products, people, and ideas that are revolutionizing the planet. Jason Hiner TechRepublic Editor in Chief
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