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12:40 PM ET, January 29, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Ben Fenton / Financial Times:
U2 manager urges ISPs to help fight web piracy  —  The music industry should shift the focus of its battle with internet piracy towards the technological industries which have “built multibillion dollar industries on the back of our content without paying for it”, according to Paul McGuinness, manager of rock group U2.
RELATED:
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
U2 Manager Says Google And Its Hippie Friends Should Pay The Recording Industry  —  from the still-haven't-found-what-i'm-looking- for... dept  —  While the IFPI and the RIAA have been actively pushing for ISP liability for file sharing, it appears some in the industry are taking it even further.
Discussion: DSLreports and ReadWriteWeb
Guardian:   Silicon Valley's hippy values ‘killing music industry’
Billboard.Biz:   McGuinness Speech In Full
BBC:
Monitored net  —  Internet law professor Michael Geist examines …
Discussion: Rough Type
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google's Newspaper Ads: Big Hopes For Small Barcodes (GOOG)  —  Google's efforts to get into the newspaper ad business have yet to yield much.  One tool it hopes will eventually change that: Small, square barcodes, like the one at the right, at the bottom of print ads.
Bobbie Johnson / Guardian:
O2 improves package for iPhone users  —  Mobile network O2 has overhauled the cost of using Apple's iPhone handset just two months after it went on sale in the UK.  —  The mobile network today announced that iPhone owners who are currently paying its lower-rate tariffs of £35 …
RELATED:
Ed Bott / Ed Bott's Microsoft Report:
Windows 7 = Vista Release 2  —  All the kerfuffle over Windows 7 - leaked memos, shaky handheld video clips of leaked builds, equally shaky tentative release schedules - is amusing.  I don't have any inside information to offer, only a perspective drawn from 17 years of watching the Windows development process in action.
Discussion: Christopher Null and Inquirer
RELATED:
Randall Kennedy / InfoWorld:
Windows 7: Will They or Won't They?
Discussion: Hardware 2.0 and WinBeta
Nikon Press Center:
THE NEW NIKON COOLPIX L18 IS AS SIMPLE AS POINT AND SHOOT  —  Compact Camera Combines Easy Operation and Unique Features for Taking and Sharing Photographs  —  MELVILLE, NY (Jan. 28, 2008) — Nikon is pleased to introduce the COOLPIX L18, a new addition to its Life Series line of digital cameras.
RELATED:
Matt Cutts / Gadgets, Google, and SEO:
11 Power Tips for Gmail  —  Wow, I can't believe how many people commented on my late-Friday night post about desired features for Gmail.  If you want to suggest something for Gmail, that thread is the better place to do it.  But looking through the comments, I saw a few requests that can already be done today.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Digg Nearly Triples Registered Users In a Year, Says Sleuth Programmer  —  The last time Digg officially announced how many registered users it has was back in March when it passed the one-million mark.  Now, programming sleuth John Graham-Cunning extracted registration dates …
RELATED:
John Graham-Cumming:
How many users does Digg have?  —  According to my calculations: around 2.7m registered users.  —  I obtained this number by finding random Digg users and extracting their user id.  The user id is in a hidden HTML form input field on each Digg user's page.  The Digg user page also gives their date of registration.
Discussion: The Next Web
WordPress.com:
Introducing Prologue  —  We're fans of Twitter around here, in fact many Automatticians have accounts, but while the format appealed to us it really just whetted our appetite for something more, like a way for each of us to share short messages about what we're doing or working on internally, or private messages between groups of folks.
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
Rapidshare To Be Forced to Shut Down Following Court Defeat?  —  Last week we reported on rumors that Rapidshare had, or was about to be, shut down, rumors that now look likely to resurface.  The company, one of the world's largest ‘one-click’ file hosting services, has lost a copyright infringement case …
Paul Miller / Engadget:
Qtrax goes “live,” tracks nowhere to be found  —  Sorry to disappoint, but Qtrax is falling just a bit short of its promised 25 million tracks at launch.  Qtrax busted out its software in “beta” this evening, but isn't offering a single song — or even a working music browser.
Discussion: CyberNet, Reuters and Slashdot
RELATED:
Daniel Shen / DigiTimes:
HTC share of Windows Mobile smartphone segment declining  —  High Tech Computer (HTC) has lost the title as the global top ranking vendor of Windows Mobile-based smartphones (excluding touch-screen models), with its share of the segment falling to below 30% currently, trailing behind Motorola …
Sam / a gthing science project:
The True Cost of SMS Messages  —  I just found out that AT&T (A-fee&fee?) is raising their text message pricing.  When I first signed up for AT&T 6 or so years ago it cost 10 cents to send an SMS message, and it was free to receive them.  —  When AT&T switched to Cingular the price of sending …
Discussion: DSLreports, CrunchGear and Slashdot
Darryl K. Taft / eWeek:
SpringSource Acquires Covalent  —  The deal will enable SpringSource to grow its capabilities in offering support and services for Apache software.  —  Open-source software maker SpringSource is buying Covalent Technologies, an open-source services provider specializing in supporting Apache software solutions.
Aude Lagorce / MarketWatch:
Motorola may exit its handset business: analyst  —  LONDON (MarketWatch) — There is a possibility that Motorola, Inc. (MOT:, , ) may exit the handset business and concentrate on becoming an enterprise and government company, Richard Windsor, an analyst with Nomura International, told clients a in note published on Tuesday.
IDG News Service:
Apple Readies MacBook Air Add-Ons  —  Apple is taking orders for an optical drive and an Ethernet adapter that plug into the MacBook Air's USB port.  —  Recommend this story?  —  With the ultra-thin MacBook Air reaching stores soon, Apple is selling accessories that make up for the laptop's skimpy features.
Discussion: MacRumors
 
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 More Items: 
Nancy Gohring / InfoWorld:
Earthlink founder steps down as Helio CEO
Discussion: E-Commerce Times
John Biggs / CrunchGear:
Woolworths supporting Blu-Ray, offering a nice tin of spotted dick for a quid off
Discussion: Gizmodo and Ars Technica
InfoWorld:
Intel likely to reveal details of Silverthorne next week
Zach Epstein / The Boy Genius Report:
KDDI Whips up Infrared on Steroids
Juan Carlos Perez / IDG News Service:
EBay Plans Lower Fees, Tighter Seller Standards
Discussion: WebProNews
Cory Doctorow / Guardian:
Copyright law should distinguish between commercial and cultural uses
Matthew Lasar / Ars Technica:
P2P users blast Comcast in FCC proceeding
Brian Prince / eWeek:
More Database Vendors Enter the Cloud
Discussion: GigaOM
 Earlier Items: 
The Register:
MySpace wins UK domain name that pre-dated its service
Discussion: Mashable!
Brent Csutoras / Search Engine Land:
How To Create Compelling Social Media Profiles
Kit Eaton / Gizmodo:
Everio GZ-HD6 is First Consumer HDD Camera to Output 1080p Using …
John Tierney / New York Times:
Hitting It Off, Thanks to Algorithms of Love
eWeek:
EU Court Delivers Blow to Copyright Holders
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
This Just In: Yahoo's Q4 Will Be “Strong” (YHOO)
Discussion: BoomTown
Rob Beschizza / Gadget Lab:
If Apple Sold Sheets Of Paper...
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: CNN is considering making network anchor Kaitlan Collins its chief White House correspondent and relocating her show from New York to DC

Manuel Roig-Franzia / Washington Post:
An interview with Alsu Kurmasheva of RFE/RL, a seasoned editor and broadcaster who spent months in a Russian prison before being released in a prisoner swap

Peter White / Deadline:
Fox and Hulu extend their content partnership, including in-season streaming rights for Fox's programming; sources: the deal is worth $1.5B over four years

 
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