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12:50 PM ET, January 28, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Adam Sherwin / Times of London:
From today, feel free to download another 25 million songs - legally  —  After a decade fighting to stop illegal file-sharing, the music industry will give fans today what they have always wanted: an unlimited supply of free and legal songs.  —  With CD sales in free fall and legal downloads yet …
RELATED:
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Yahoo (YHOO) Going Forward With “Drastic” Layoffs—Source  —  A source close to Yahoo reports that Jerry Yang has decided to go forward with aggressive layoffs.  The source believes the layoffs will be announced on the company's conference call this week and that the final number will be likely …
RELATED:
USA Today:
Yahoo encounters a fork in the road
Discussion: WebProNews
Fast Company:
Is the Tipping Point Toast? … —Duncan Watts, Yahoo! Research  —  Read the Article ›› |  Archives |  Subscribe  —  FEATURES  —  Is Your Marketing Strategy a Recipe for Failure?  —  FEATURE The Fast Interview: Marketing maven Seth Godin on why it's hard to sell meatballs and why those Bud TV Super Bowl ads fail.
RELATED:
Ashkan Karbasfrooshan / HipMojo.com:
Digital Video Content Producer LX.tv Acquired for $10M by NBCU?  —  According to PaidContent.org, NBC acquires LX.tv: … This would be the second pure content acquisition I can think of.  Last year CBS acquired Wallstrip for $4M (at the time it was reported that it was $5M).
RELATED:
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:
NBCU Unit Acquires Video Start-Up LX.TV; Will Expand Local Programming
Discussion: CNET News.com
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Google Lego Logo: Google Offers Lego 50th Birthday Wishes  —  Google has a special logo up on the Google home page today.  The Google logo is made up of legos, to celebrate Lego's fifty-year birthday.  —  Google's culture has always had a special place for lego.
Ina Fried / CNET News.com:
Livescribe reveals it has a Pulse  —  It may not be quite as rapid as the company had hoped, but Livescribe is ready to show the world its Pulse.  —  The digital pen company showed off a prototype of its technology at last year's D: All Things Digital conference, but missed its goal of shipping by year's end.
RELATED:
Adrian Covert / Gizmodo:
Livescribe Pulse Smartpen Digitally Copies Notes, Records 3D Audio
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
LEGO Brick Timeline: 50 Years of Building Frenzy and Curiosities  —  The LEGO brick turns 50 at exactly 1:58 p.m. today, January 28, 2008.  This timeline shows these 50 years of building frenzy by happy kids and kids-at-heart, all the milestones from the LEGOLAND themed sets to TECHNIC and MINDSTORMS NXT …
Ben Kuchera / Opposable Thumbs:
Mole: 80GB PS3 dead, 120-160GB with Dual Shock 3 incoming  —  Our inside source of all things video gaming has been right almost every time it comes out of the shadows to give us information, so I'm going to dispense with the back story.  Wherever his or her information is coming from, it's usually solid.
Verizon:
Verizon Caps Successful Year With Strong 4Q Results  —  Significant Gains in All Strategic Areas; Verizon Wireless Leads Industry in Key Metrics; Continued Strong FiOS and Enterprise Strategic Services Growth  —  4Q 2007 HIGHLIGHTS  —  37 cents in EPS and 62 cents in adjusted EPS (non-GAAP) …
Nick Gonzalez / TechCrunch:
Break.com Launches Ad Network For Dudes  —  At times lewd, geeky, disgusting, and most of the time funny, Break.com has managed to pull in an audience of 18 million unique visitors that stay an average of 7.5 minutes each session, says the company.  (Comscore says 3.9 million uniques in the U.S.).
Discussion: HipMojo.com and NewTeeVee
Market Wire:
Zvents Launches “Federated Local Search” for Advanced, Integrated, and Relevant Local Search Results  —  The First Local Search Engine to Provide a Localized Version of Google's Universal Search  —  Zvents today announced the launch of Federated Local Search, which provides users with a blended, comprehensive local search engine.
Discussion: Screenwerk and Natural Search Blog
Galen Gruman / InfoWorld:
How to get Windows XP after June 30  —  San Francisco - Two weeks ago, InfoWorld launched a petition campaign to save Windows XP.  So far we???ve gotten more than 70,000 signatures, thanks to a passionate response from a wide range of XP users.  We hope we can persuade Microsoft …
Discussion: CrunchGear
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Ribbit Readies An Amphibian Attack On Voice Apps  —  Ribbit, the startup that is building a platform for Voice 2.0 apps, is creating a Web-based phone service for consumers codenamed “Amphibian."  The point of Amphibian is both to demonstrate the capabilities of Ribbit's technology and to serve …
Joseph Weisenthal / paidContent.org:
Gore-Backed Current TV Files For $100 Million IPO; $63.7 Million 2007 Revs; Losses Mount  —  A first look into the books of Al Gore's cable network: Current Media (parent of Al Gore-backed Current TV) has filed for a $100 million NASDAQ IPO, trading under the ticker “CRTM”.
Discussion: CNET News.com and bub.blicio.us
Nick Gonzalez / TechCrunch:
Imeem Gobbles Up A Young Startup, Anywhere.FM  —  After less than a year in operation, the team at Anywhere.FM reached an early payday today when veteran social music service Imeem gobbled them up for an undisclosed sum, most likely in a cash and stock mix.  The iTunes-style web music player …
Lewis Page / The Register:
‘100% accurate’ face recognition algorithm announced  —  Psychology researchers at Glasgow University say they have increased the accuracy of automated face recognition to 100 per cent.  If the claims are true, this development will have far-reaching consequences for privacy and security in modern society.
Discussion: Gizmodo and Ubergizmo
Josh Catone / ReadWriteWeb:
2008: The Year Web 2.0 Hits the Enterprise, Says Forrester  —  According to Forrester Research, there will be “strong demand” for web 2.0 tools in the enterprise in 2008.  Even though 42% of enterprises say adding web 2.0 tools is not on their agenda, according to a Q3 2007 survey …
Discussion: Between the Lines
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
SmugMug's Private Pics Are Public  —  There's a massive privacy hole over at photo hosting site SmugMug.com.  The site claims to have over 270 million photos, and as I've failed to convince the site makers this vulnerability is worth fixing, I'm posting it here now as a warning …
 
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 More Items: 
Stuart Elliott / New York Times:
Is It a Recession? Marketers Seem to Think So
Discussion: WebProNews and BloggingStocks
Shel / Global Neighbourhoods:
I'm Joining Scoble at FastCompany TV
Discussion: Roam4free
Sean Cooper / Engadget:
Skyfire browser for Windows Mobile is game changing, does Flash
Discussion: Gadgetell
AnandTech:
ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2: 2 GPUs 1 Card, A Return to the High End
GigaOM:
Skype On the Go  —  If there's one ongoing user request …
Discussion: VoIP Watch
Karl / DSLreports:
Pirate Bay Owners To Be Charged This Week …
Discussion: InfoWorld and Reuters
InfoWorld:
PayPal buys Fraud Sciences for $169M
Mike Yamamoto / Crave: The gadget blog:
An all-in-one media hub that will turn heads
Discussion: Gizmodo
 Earlier Items: 
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
SKYFIRE BRINGS DESKTOP-QUALITY BROWSING TO YOUR PHONE
Dan Farber / Between the Lines:
Hubdub weds prediction markets to news
Andrew Adam Newman / New York Times:
Scientology Writes; Gawker Rises
BBC:
2007's best selling game revealed
Jordan Golson / Valleywag:
Apple subsidizing Apple TV with movie rentals revenue?
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Why Is Business Week Telling People They Can't Link To Its Site?
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:
DEMO: Iterasi Lets You Save The Internet One Page at a Time
Michael Barbaro / New York Times:
Target Tells a Blogger to Go Away
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Internal memo: Hearst Magazines president announces layoffs as part of a decision to “reallocate resources” to “continue our focus on digital innovation”

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced she will leave the agency on January 20; she was the first woman to be confirmed to lead the agency

Lachlan Cartwright / The Ankler:
Sources: MSNBC renewed Rachel Maddow's contract early this fall, but with a pay cut; MSNBC bosses' plan to shake up daytime and weekend programming

 
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