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6:00 PM ET, January 15, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
MacBook Air doesn't have a user-replaceable battery  —  We sort of understood it with iPods, and we grudgingly accepted it with the iPhone, but the MacBook Air has a sealed, non-user-replaceable battery, and that means we're suddenly a lot less in love.  We're digging for details …
RELATED:
Jason Chen / Gizmodo:
MacBook Air Hands-on  —  Here's our take on the MacBook Air.  It's super light, super fragile, and super small.  If you just tap the screen lightly, the whole thing closes because it's so light.  The keyboard looks a little weird because it's black on the aluminum, but the keyboard feels great.
Devin Coldewey / CrunchGear:
MacBook AirHead: why Apple's new laptop is basically useless  —  First, let me just say that the Air is an extremely impressive piece of technology.  The miniaturization, the optimization of space, the blatant disregard for current standards — it's everything a revolutionary machine should be.
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Sizing it up: MacBook Air vs. the rest
Discussion: Furrier.org
Tom Neumayr / Apple:
Apple Premieres iTunes Movie Rentals With All Major Film Studios  —  New Apple TV Software Lets You Rent Movies Directly from Your Widescreen TV  —  Apple® today announced iTunes® Movie Rentals featuring movies from all the major movie studios including 20th Century Fox …
RELATED:
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
Apple TV Take 2: $229, No Computer Required, Direct Rentals (Netflix Screwed)
Discussion: Engadget and MacRumors
Michael Gartenberg / JupiterResearch:
iTunes Does Movie Rentals & Apple TV Update - First Take
Discussion: Guardian Unlimited
David Chartier / Infinite Loop:
Macworld.Ars: iTunes HD movies only for rent on Apple TV
Discussion: Gizmodo
Mathew / mathewingram.com/work:
Hey, Steve — you broke the Internet  —  Thanks for all the great toys, Uncle Steve, but did you have to go and break the Internet?  I and about 7,000 other people were all signed up to get Twitter updates from MacRumors, but I never saw a single one — and in fact the entire Twitter.com network …
RELATED:
Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed:
Steve Jobs Proves the Interweb Can't Beat TV ... Yet  —  Live media events are great, when they work.  But watching live services like Twitter collapse around the Steve Jobs keynote this morning provides more great examples (if needed) why the Interweb isn't yet TV.
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:   Twitter Fails Macworld Keynote Test
Ryan Block / Engadget:
Live from Macworld 2008: Steve Jobs keynote  —  Thanks for joining us for our live Macworld 2008 keynote coverage!  We're in, so click on, all our real-time updates are posted just after the break.  —  Note: this time we're updating from bottom to top, with the latest updates below.
RELATED:
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
Steve Jobs Keynote Live From Macworld  —  Below is the transcript, in reverse chronological order, from the Steve Jobs keynote at the Macworld Expo.  Thanks for tuning in!  —  10:44am: Newman stopped talking, Steve thanked everyone for coming, lots of applause, its over.
Apple:
Apple Enhances Revolutionary iPhone with Software Update  —  Apple® today announced a free software update for its revolutionary iPhone™ that allows users to automatically find their location using the redesigned Maps application*; text message multiple people in one message …
RELATED:
Clint Ecker / Infinite Loop:
Macworld.ars: iPod touch users to pay $20 for iPhone applications
Discussion: Engadget and Mickeleh's Take
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Breaking: Samwer Brothers Invest In Facebook  —  Serial German entrepreneurs Alexander, Marc and Oliver Samwer have invested in Facebook, we've heard from a very reliable source - presumably as part of Facebook's recent $15 billion valuation round with Microsoft.  We are still trying to nail down the size of the investment.
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
VMware Acquires Thinstall to Take Virtualization to the Desktop  —  Unless you're an information technology manager or a Wall Street banker still drooling over VWware's $32 billion market cap, virtualization is not sexy.  But it soon might be, with VMware's agreement to buy desktop virtualization startup Thinstall.
Discussion: VentureBeat and eWeek
RELATED:
Erica Ogg / CNET News.com:
Moxi maker cuts staff by half, loses CEO  —  If you were eagerly anticipating Digeo's Moxi Multi-Room HD digital media recorder, don't hold your breath.  —  The Kirkland, Wash.-based company revealed significant changes Tuesday, including the cancellation of two previously announced product lines …
Victoria Shannon / International Herald Tribune:
Amazon.com is challenging French competition law  —  PARIS: The online retailer Amazon.com said Monday that it would pay €1,000 a day in fines, rather than comply with a court ruling upholding French limits on price discounts for books.  —  The company decided to pay …
Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo:
Apple Announces Time Capsule Server for Wireless Time Machine Backup  —  At Macworld 2008, Apple just announced Time Capsule, a full Airport Extreme base station with 802.11n wireless and four Ethernet ports, plus server grade hard drives to back up all of the Leopard Macs in the house.
Jason Lee Miller / WebProNews:
Net Neutrality Groups Press FCC  —  Call for swift and decisive action against Comcast  —  Free Press, the organization behind SaveTheInternet.com, responded to the Federal Communications Commission's expressed intent to investigate Comcast and Verizon Wireless over alleged content blocking.
Discussion: InfoWorld and IDG News Service
Patrik / F-Secure Antivirus Research Weblog:
First Rogue Cleaning Tool for Mac  —  We've just found the first Mac rogue application and it's called MacSweeper.  —  It claims to clean your Mac from compromising files and it will always find something to fix/clean but the only way to do so is to buy the program.
 
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 More Items: 
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
Google Developing Mac Version Of Picasa, Due To Be Released This Year
Eric Pfanner / New York Times:
Shake-Up at EMI Clouds Future of Its Artists
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Breaking: Mozilla Hires Humanized Founders
Discussion: Compiler and Ajaxian
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Intel: Fourth quarter worries were well founded
Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:
Listen to Pandora Internationally with Global Pandora
Nicole Maestri / Reuters:
Borders readies to take over Web site
Discussion: paidContent.org
GigaOM:
Google's Achilles Heel
 Earlier Items: 
Greg Howlett / Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim:
Kudos to Yahoo! Search Marketing
Josh / Redeye VC:
The earlier the better...  Most VC's typically “pass” …
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
Electronic Arts will bring ‘Spore’ to the Mac this year
Discussion: ParisLemon and Kotaku
Alex Serpo / CNET News.com:
A tenfold improvement in battery life?
Emma Hall / AdAge:
Wanna Be a Popular Social Networker? Prepare to Pony Up
Discussion: WebProNews
Robby Stein / Official Gmail Blog:
New Gmail for the iPhone
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Analyzing Comcast's spinoff of cable networks, purposefully structured with low debt: the move might be a signal to the industry that it's time to consolidate

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
James Harding says the Tortoise-Observer deal could create a profitable media group and there isn't a guaranteed future for the Observer with the Guardian

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Tubi launches Scenes, a mobile feature that lets viewers watch 60-to-90-second trailer-style clips from its library to help with content discovery

 
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