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10:10 PM ET, January 15, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
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
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.
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 …
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.
Shannon Clark / CenterNetworks:
MacWorld 2008 San Francisco Post-Keynote Activity Recap
Ryan Block / Engadget:
MacBook Air: plenty more details
Discussion: Podcasting News and Valleywag
Arn / MacRumors:
First Look at the MacBook Air
Discussion: Gizmodo and Engadget
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.
Michael Gartenberg / JupiterResearch:
iTunes Does Movie Rentals & Apple TV Update - First Take
Discussion: Guardian Unlimited
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Video Podcasts: The Sleeping Giant on AppleTV
Discussion: TechCrunch and MacUser
Robert Andrews / paidContent.org:
Jobs' Macworld Keynote: Movie Rentals, Apple TV ‘Take-Two’ Target Widescreen Viewers
Discussion: Macworld UK and Crave
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
Discussion: Valleywag, Mashable! and Tech Ticker
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.
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Dreamhost Overbills Customers $7.5 Million; Uses Homer Simpson To Deliver Apology  —  There's a fine line between humor and condescension; more than a few customers felt that hosting provider Dreamhost crossed that line today.  —  The company overbilled nearly every customer, by a total $7.5 million dollars.
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:
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Samwer Brothers invest in Facebook
Discussion: FaceReviews and Reuters
Miguel Helft / Bits:
Another Media Exec Leaves Yahoo  —  As Yahoo narrows its focus on a few key priorities, it's not surprising to see those whose projects fall outside those areas leave the company.  And Yahoo's media group, whose once lofty mission to produce original, Hollywood-style content has been scaled …
Discussion: paidContent.org and Mashable!
GigaOM:
700 MHz Auction Update  —  So 214 bidders have been approved for the forthcoming 700 MHz spectrum auction, which starts on Jan. 24.  The big bidders include AT&T, Verizon and Google.  These bidders will go after 1,200 licenses.  —  The bidding will conclude on March 24; down payments will be due by April 11.
 
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 More Items: 
Josh Catone / ReadWriteWeb:
Happy Birthday: Wikipedia Turns 7 Today
InfoWorld:
Weak memory pricing hurts Intel revenue
MG Siegler / ParisLemon:
Spore To Come Simultaneously To the Mac and PC
Discussion: CNET News.com
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Meebo Widget Strategy Paying Off
Discussion: VentureBeat
Light Reading:
AT&T Begins Massive Battery Replacement
Greg Sandoval / CNET News.com:
Move over Netflix, VOD services; here comes Apple
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Intel to launch 15 Montevina CPUs in May
Discussion: Gizmodo
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
Google Developing Mac Version Of Picasa, Due To Be Released This Year
 Earlier Items: 
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Breaking: Mozilla Hires Humanized Founders
Nicole Maestri / Reuters:
Borders readies to take over Web site
Discussion: paidContent.org
GigaOM:
Google's Achilles Heel
Erica Ogg / CNET News.com:
Moxi maker cuts staff by half, loses CEO
Josh / Redeye VC:
The earlier the better...  Most VC's typically “pass” …
Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo:
Apple Announces Time Capsule Server for Wireless Time Machine Backup
Discussion: Engadget and Hardware 2.0
Patrik / F-Secure Antivirus Research Weblog:
First Rogue Cleaning Tool for Mac
 

 
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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