The XBIZ Weekly Tech Watch

This week's Tech Watch includes looks at new online applications and a physical plugin appliance from Google designed to make searching local files easier and safer.

• A quad-core laptop has finally hit the United States marketplace.

• A new social networking website combines networking with Evite-style functionality: Plazes.com. It's also compatible with the iPhone.

• Google now offers a great new way for security-minded webmasters to search their websites without worrying about intrusion: the Google Mini Search Appliance, which hooks into your local server and searches your files behind a firewall.

• For Mac users, FastMac is now offering a universal Mac laptop charger.

• Who wouldn't want a standup arcade cabinet full of classic games in their house?

• A new USB laptop speaker looks a little like a rearview mirror and adds a handy speaker to your laptop instantly.

• After one day of restricting consumers to only being able to buy one iPhone each, AT&T has lifted that restriction. Consumers can each now buy three.

• This link isn't in English, but click here to get a look at the new HTC Touch Diamond, a possible iPhone competitor.

• For the philanthropically minded, this $6,800 Mac laptop includes a charitable donation in its price.

• In the world of social networking, Facebook has banned the use of Google Friend Connect, a new application that lets regular websites add basic social networking functionality.

• For adult professionals who are also mainstream movie buffs, a new online application called PopTok combines emoticons and movie quotes into one obnoxious whole.

HubSpot promises to optimizes websites everywhere to attract more traffic.

Spellr.us is accepting early registrations as it prepares to launch a new online spellcheck service for websites.

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