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11:25 AM ET, January 31, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
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 …
RELATED:
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 …
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Amazon adds Audible to its digital empire  —  Amazon just announced an agreement to acquire Audible Inc. The move, once approved by the Feds and shareholders, leaves Audible.com's 80,000 strong library of audiobooks, radio programs, newspapers, and such in the hands of Amazon.
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:   Amazon.com: Will you recognize it in 10 years?
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
Amazon acquires Audible for $300 million
Discussion: Webware.com
Joseph Weisenthal / paidContent.org:   Amazon Buying Audible In Deal Worth $300 Million; Should Boost Kindle Content
Josh Catone / ReadWriteWeb:
Amazon Web Services: Bigger Than Amazon
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.
Discussion: Virtual Economics and TorrentFreak
RELATED:
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Pirate Bay Admins Charged with Assisting Copyright Infringement  —  “The operation of The Pirate Bay is financed through advertising revenues.  In that way it commercially exploits copyright-protected work and performances,” said prosecutor Hakan Roswall in a statement.
Dan Farber / Between the Lines:
How resilient are the Internet pipes?  —  The majority of Internet and international telephone traffic travels goes under the sea.  When two submarine cables in the Mediterranean Sea were cut (most likely by ship anchors) on Wednesday, Internet connectivity in the Middle East and in parts of Asia cratered.
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
India, Mideast Suffer Internet Disruption
Discussion: Between the Lines and p2pnet
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 …
RELATED:
Kristen Nicole / Mashable!:
Meebo Rooms Launches API and an Ad Network to Monetize It
Discussion: CenterNetworks and AppScout
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 …
MG Siegler / ParisLemon:
Instapaper, A Beautifully Simple Bookmarking Tool  —  Instapaper, a new site by Tumblr employee Marco Arment, simply put will easily be one of the websites I visit most this year.  It may very well be the easiest and most beautifully minimal bookmarking site ever created.
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.
Discussion: HipMojo.com and Rough Type
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.
Discussion: Ars Technica and Slashdot
Alex Johnson / MSNBC:
Cell phone directory rings alarm bells  —  An online directory that claims to provide 90 million mobile telephone numbers is raising concerns among cell phone users and privacy advocates about unwanted callers who rack up the minutes on their calling plans and the difficulty of opting out of the list.
Mark Evans:
Taking Twitter Seriously  —  Twitter can be easily dismissed as IM-Lite or a tool for people with short attention spans but, interestingly enough, it is also starting to gain traction as a serious communications tool for people to communicate about serious stuff...like politics.
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
MacBook Air's custom-built CPU going PC?  —  That special Intel processor found in the MacBook Air could be getting a lot less special.  PC Advisor, citing “a source familiar with Intel's plans,” claims that a pair of PC makers will use the MBA processor.  Not that this would be unexpected.
Discussion: Electronista, PC Advisor and Gizmodo
George Ou / Zero Day:
Even SSL Gmail can get sidejacked  —  When Robert Graham demonstrated how Web 2.0 wasn't safe at last year's Blackhat, it was thought that at least the SSL mode (HTTPS) of Google Gmail would be spared from sidejacking.  That presumption now appears to be false according to this updated blog posting from Graham.
Discussion: Connecting the Dots
 
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 More Items: 
Peter Pachal / DVICE:
See the MacBook Earth, Water and Fire
Discussion: Ubergizmo and Digg
Dan Farber / Between the Lines:
The state of IT risk management
Steve O'Hear / The Social Web:
OpenSocial should be renamed “OpenGadgets”
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Putting photos into public domain
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
@ SIIA: This Used To Be A Media Culture; Now It's An “Engineer Culture”
Discussion: BoomTown and ContentBlogger
Daily Mail:
The high-speed sports car that turns into a boat at the touch of a button
Discussion: jkOnTheRun and Digg
Tony Smith / The Register:
Dell developing Google Android handset, moles claim
Antony Bruno / Billboard.Biz:
Report: Kids Using Paid, Pirate Download Sites
Discussion: iLounge and Insanely Great Mac
 Earlier Items: 
Jeffrey Silva / RCR Wireless News:
Class action nails T-Mobile USA over texting services
Macessity:
Slim is in !!!  —  This stand is designed specifically for Apple slim keyboard's fans.
Discussion: Engadget, Gadget Lab and Macworld
Lior Ron / Google LatLong:
Find more with Google Maps
Scott Morrison / Wall Street Journal:
Top Google Trio Made 20-Year Pact
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Free utility condenses Windows Vista from 15GB to 1.4GB
Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:
Multitouch Interface Is Starting to Spread Among New Devices
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Microsoft to Yahoos: Come Work Here! (MSFT/YHOO)
Discussion: WebProNews
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Garmin announces the nuvifone
 

 
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”

Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
National World, one of the UK's biggest newspaper groups, gets a £56.2M buyout offer from shareholder Media Concierge, a 40% premium to its Nov. 21 stock price

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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