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3:00 PM ET, January 31, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Spectrum Auction: C Block Hits Reserve Price  —  A bid of $4.7 billion this morning for the most valuable group of wireless licenses in the Federal Communications Commission auction for 700Mhz spectrum pushed the price over the minimum price the government set.
RELATED:
Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
Open access for all: prime 700MHz Block C hits reserve price  —  After 17 rounds, the 700MHz spectrum auction has finally hit its one of its most closely watched targets: bidding on Block C has surpassed the Federal Communications Commission's mandated $4.638 billion reserve …
Discussion: CircleID and Digital Daily
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
700MHz auction exceeds $10 Billion, open-access just one bid away  —  With weeks still to go, your dysfunctional Uncle Sam is briskly rubbing his hands at having raised more than $10 Billion from the 700MHz auction.  This, after just 16 rounds of bidding.  But we're not happy to say the least.
Discussion: Electronista
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Spectrum Auction: The C-Block Bidding Is Over at $4.7 Billion
Discussion: Gizmodo
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Someone - Maybe Verizon - Topped Minimum Bid For Key Spectrum Block …
Discussion: MobHappy and Bits
Amazon.com:
Amazon.com to Acquire Audible.com  —  Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Audible Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBL).  —  Audible.com is the leading online provider of premium digital spoken word audio content, specializing in digital audio editions of books …
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Amazon.com buys Audible; March into digital content distribution continues  —  Amazon.com's march into digital distribution of content continues-this time with plans to acquire Audible for $300 million.  —  In a statement on Thursday, Amazon said it will acquire Audible …
Associated Press:
Amazon buying Audible.com for $300M
Discussion: The Tech Report
RELATED:
BBC:
Pirate Bay hit with legal action  —  Four men who run one of the most popular file-sharing sites in the world have been charged with conspiracy to break copyright law in Sweden.  —  The Pirate Bay's servers do not store copyrighted material but offer links to the download location of films, TV programmes, albums and software.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
The Pirate Bay Makes $4 Million a Year on Illegal P2P File-Sharing, Says Prosecutor
Discussion: TorrentFreak
Chris Williams / The Register:
‘Facebook fatigue’ kicks in as people tire of social networks  —  Shhh!  Can you hear a hiss?  That's the sound of naughty facts deflating the social networking balloon a tad.  —  Whisper it, but numbers from web analytics outfit comScore have confirmed what the chatter in bars and cafes …
Doug Sherrets / VentureBeat:
Google's Marissa Mayer: Social search is the future  —  At an event in August, Marissa Mayer, Google's leading VP in search, said social search hasn't shown much promise, but if it does, Google would be in a good position to incorporate it.  I wrote about that here.
Discussion: Search Engine Land
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Google, Facebook Battle For Computer Science Grads.  Salaries Soar.  —  Google and Facebook are fighting hard to hire this years crop of computer science graduates, we've heard, and ground zero is Stanford.  Most of the class of 2008 already have job offers even though graduation is months away.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Meebo Turns Chat Rooms Into A Web Service  —  Today, Web-based IM and chat room provider Meebo is releasing full-fledged APIs for its Meebo Rooms that will allow Websites to embed chat functionality in an automated fashion.  Currently, Meebo Rooms can be embedded on sites or blogs manually …
Holovaty.com:
In memory of chicagocrime.org  —  It's with mixed feelings that I announce the end of one of my projects, chicagocrime.org.  This site has been serving Chicago residents since May 2005.  I hope you'll indulge me in a brief retrospective.  —  Chicagocrime.org was one of the original map mashups …
Nicholas Carr / Guardian:
The internet rewards the lazy and punishes the intrepid  —  As GPS transceivers become common accessories in cars, the benefits have been manifold.  Millions of us have been relieved of the nuisance of getting lost or, even worse, the shame of having to ask a passerby for directions.
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Good news for TiVo: court upholds patent claims against Echostar  —  The TiVo vs. EchoStar case got another little push towards finally ending today, as the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that EchoStar had indeed infringed part of TiVo's “time warp” patent.
 
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 More Items: 
Stephanie Kang / Wall Street Journal:
TNS Aims to Take Bite Out of Nielsen
Mattj / Dopplr Blog:
Dopplr Raumzeitgeist 2007: Where we went last year
Discussion: Lifeblog and /Message
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google Q4 Earnings Preview: Meaningful Upside Expected
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
TiVo To Share Research Data With CBS
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Egypt says lay off music, movie downloads after 'Net outage
James Sherwood / The Register:
B&O reveals self-calibrating robo TV
Discussion: Gizmodo and Ubergizmo
Anne Becker / Broadcasting & Cable:
Showtime, Brightcove to Take Emmy Awards Screening Online
John P. Falcone / Crave: The gadget blog:
Apple TV: Best of the movie rental set-tops?
Discussion: CNET News.com
 Earlier Items: 
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Gartner: Apple To Double U.S., Europe PC Share By 2011
Twitter Blog:
We had a rough night. But now we're back.
Paul Miller / Engadget:
RIM's BlackBerry Remote Stereo Gateway to offer Bluetooth music streaming
Steve O'Hear / The Social Web:
OpenSocial should be renamed “OpenGadgets”
Discussion: Snipperoo
Bloomberg:
India, Mideast Suffer Internet Disruption
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
MacBook Air's custom-built CPU going PC?
Lior Ron / Google LatLong:
Find more with Google Maps
George Ou / Zero Day:
Even SSL Gmail can get sidejacked
 

 
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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