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8:10 PM ET, January 15, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
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.
RELATED:
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 …
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.
Discussion: Venture Chronicles
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Sizing it up: MacBook Air vs. the rest
Discussion: Furrier.org
Arn / MacRumors:
First Look at the MacBook Air
Discussion: Gizmodo and Engadget
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.
Nicholas Carlson / Valleywag:
Now we know what Twitter's good for: not much
Discussion: CenterNetworks
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
Twitter Fails Macworld Keynote Test
Discussion: Mashable!
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)  —  Holy crap, Jobs admitted Apple TV failed at getting computer content to the square screen.  Apple TV Take 2 requires no computer, you can rent from iTunes directly from the box—movies and music—and it's only $229.
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Video Podcasts: The Sleeping Giant on AppleTV  —  While Steve Jobs talked for a long time Tuesday at Macworld Expo about the movie rental feature of iTunes and Apple TV, he spent only a short time demonstrating its capabilities for podcasts.  In fact, the ability of Apple TV to view podcasts …
Discussion: MacUser
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: Byte of the Apple and Gizmodo
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
Brian Bergstein / Associated Press:   IBM to add software for Apple devices
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.
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Samwer Brothers Invest in Facebook
Discussion: Reuters and Portfolio.com
Josh Jones / DreamHost Blog:
Um, Whoops.  —  Hello.. how's your morning going?  —  I hope it's been a little better than mine.  —  We had a teensy eensy weensy little billing error last night... my first clue something was up when I saw this morning's daily billing report (so far): $7,500,000.
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:
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.
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.
GigaOM:
Google's Achilles Heel  —  Does Google not, like everyone else, have an Achilles heel?  —  Before I attempt to answer that question, let me just say right up front that when it comes to this topic, I am highly biased.  I want Google to have competition.  —  Biased or not, however …
 
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 More Items: 
Miguel Helft / Bits:
Another Media Exec Leaves Yahoo
Discussion: Mashable!
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
2008 shaping up to be “Year of Filters” at colleges, ISPs
Tami Casey / Market Wire:
Alltel's Over-the-Air Music Syncing Service to Be Powered by mSpot
Greg Sandoval / CNET News.com:
Move over Netflix, VOD services; here comes Apple
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Breaking: Mozilla Hires Humanized Founders
Nicole Maestri / Reuters:
Borders readies to take over Web site
Discussion: paidContent.org
Erica Ogg / CNET News.com:
Moxi maker cuts staff by half, loses CEO
 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” …
Alex Serpo / CNET News.com:
A tenfold improvement in battery life?
Discussion: last100
Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo:
Apple Announces Time Capsule Server for Wireless Time Machine Backup
Victoria Shannon / International Herald Tribune:
Amazon.com is challenging French competition law
Robby Stein / Official Gmail Blog:
New Gmail for the iPhone
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Sara Fischer / Axios:
PBS and a public TV affiliate in Minnesota sue the Trump administration, saying his executive order to cut federal funding violated PBS' First Amendment rights

Max Tani / Semafor:
The California State Senate opens an inquiry into whether Paramount's reported $15M proposed settlement with Trump violated bribery and unfair competition laws

Chris Willman / Variety:
Taylor Swift acquires the rights to her first six albums from Shamrock Capital; sources say the deal was in the mid-$300M range

 
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