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As much as we appreciate you reading Mashable, we realize you probably spend at least a little bit of time perusing some of the celebrity gossip blogs. And if you’re really obsessed, you might even read blogs maintained by actual celebrities, or participate in a celebrity’s social network (just not Nick Lachey’s, we hope).

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—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:CBS Acquires Gossip Digg Clone for $10MHOT or NOT Moves into Celebrity Gossip with New SiteCelebuzz Confirms Apocalypse is Upon Us with Celeb-Focused Social NetworkWidgetbox Launches Gossip Widget Collection for BeboHOT or NOT Launches New Celebrity-Focused FeaturesMySpace and TMZ: Now This Makes SenseGet Your Celebrity Gossip To-Go: TMZ Now on AOL Mobile

earfl is like Twitter for phone calls. Instead of sending in an SMS update, you can just dial a number and say a little something. The recording will be linked to your account on the Web, and can then be shared with family and friends. Attach an image if you’d like–this makes audio recordings (especially those from the phone) more interesting.

Stories can be rated, commented upon, emailed out to friends, or embedded into other social networking profiles or websites. earfl also features groups, so you can connect with others regarding a particular topic of interest. Another useful feature is the ability to send a recording to another user and invite them to participate. For this option, earfl will actually grant them a redemption code that allows them to submit a recording without having to set up an account.

Each public story has a ShareThis button, so items can easily be spread to most major social media networks and bookmarking sites. And while ShareThis allows these stories to be sent to other microblogging tools like Twitter, an automated option for users would be helpful as well, especially if they’re looking to diversify their content for redistribution purposes.

Even though we’re seeing a lot of development in this industry, with BT acquiring Ribbit and a number of other applications finding ways to leverage vocal commands and conversions for multimedia purposes, earfl still fights an uphill battle, as there are a number of other services (besides Twitter) like Pownce and Utterz that are present in the microblogging domain and support multiple file types. To that end, having additional options like speech-to-text conversion and SMS and email distribution options could help earfl straddle more aspects of the microblogging market.

There’s a new battleground for digitally ditributed content brewing in the most unlikeliest of places — home videogame consoles. Last week there was the rather shocking announcement that Sony’s PlayStation 3 would soon be home to movie and television content. Not to be outdone, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which has had video content downloads since last November, is now courting the BBC and all of its TV shows and HD programming. While the soothing tones of the BBC are not usually what we associate with xBox, the deal, which Microsoft is “working diligently on,” would add some much needed gravitas to a portfolio currently dominated by South Park and UFC Fights.

Source:Valleywag
MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe may not be your friend (that’s the other co-founder, Tom Anderson), but he does hold a few powerful people near-and-dear. Including, Portfolio reports, Wendi Deng, the wife of News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch. Portfolio surmises that DeWolfe’s friendship with Deng might help convince her husband to meet DeWolfe and Anderson’s $50M compensation demand to stick around for another year. We think that DeWolfe has the wrong target in mind. While it might be easier for him to spend time with Deng — they’re both on the board of MySpace China — we think he should be buttering up News Corp heir apparent Peter Chernin, who recent fillings revealed to be the highest paid person at News Corp.

Source:Valleywag

It’s not an existential question. But in case you’re wondering where the lovely and talented Owen Thomas has gone, the answer is Hawaii. With his spouse. Leaving me to fill his extremely large (but stylish) shoes. So who am I? The short answer is that I am a refugee from the late, great Business 2.0 Magazine–ok the October issue is coming out, but it’s the last one. This is a collector’s item, people! But my stint at the New York Post is probably the most relevant to Valleywag. OK, I was a business reporter, but I sat next to Keith Kelly and across from the King of All Gossip Columnists Richard Johnson–something must have rubbed off. I’ll report, you decide. And you don’t need to see a picture of me–I look fabulous, especially sitting here in my pj’s.