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3:55 PM ET, February 20, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Nick White / Windows Vista Team Blog:
Update on Windows Vista SP1 Prerequisite KB937287  —  We've heard a few reports about problems customers may be experiencing as a result of KB937287, the servicing stack update I blogged about last week, and I wanted to provide a quick update for you.  Immediately after receiving reports of this error …
RELATED:
Brandon Hill / DailyTech:
Microsoft Makes Windows XP SP3 RC2 Publicly Available
Discussion: Engadget
Jason Mick / DailyTech:
Vista SP1 Update Process Kills Some PCs, Microsoft Responds
Discussion: Engadget and Microsoft Watch
Reuters:
Sharper Image files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Retailer Sharper Image Corp has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing declining sales, three straight years of losses and litigation involving its Ionic Breeze air purifiers.
RELATED:
Adam Frucci / Gizmodo:
Sharper Image Files for Bankruptcy; You'll Need to Go Elsewhere …
Discussion: Digital Daily and Electronista
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
HP's UMPC 2133 to cost $630 when shipping in April?  —  A report by the Commercial Times says that HP will launch its 8.9-inch UMPC in April for “more than” NT$20,000 or about $630 bucks.  Sure sounds like the UMPC 2133 we showed you yesterday, eh?  That's about right when you compare it to the $300, entry-level 7-inch Eee PC.
RELATED:
Chippy / UMPCPortal:
HP UMPC to feature VIA Inside.  Not Intel.  —  The HP UMPC news is everywhere and I think it's obvious from the response that this UMPC represents something special.  The comparisons range from the Eee PC to the Macbook AIR.  Just think about that for a minute.  Is this a single device that could compete in multiple markets?
Discussion: Engadget, jkOnTheRun and GottaBeMobile
Ina Fried / CNET News.com:
Gates on Yahoo: It's the people  —  PALO ALTO, Calif.—Bill Gates is willing to pay a lot for engineering talent.  —  Asked what makes Yahoo worth more than $40 billion, Gates pointed not to the company's products, its huge base of advertisers or its market share, but rather to the company's engineers.
RELATED:
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Gates On Yahoo Acquisition: It's The Engineers We Want
Discussion: CNET News.com
Brandi Stewart / Fortune Small Business:
eBay seller strike starts, listings dip  —  EBay's listings appear to be down 3% since this week's seller strike began, but separating the boycott's effects from standard daily fluctuations is a tricky task.  —  (FORTUNE Small Business) — Monday marked the start of a week-long eBay (EBAY …
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Price War!  Telcos Swoon As Analysts Chop Ests on Verizon, AT&T, Qwest, Sprint; How Low Can Prices Go?  —  Fearing a price war is shaping up in the wireless sector, the Street is dumping telco shares.  —  Credit Suisse telecom analyst Christopher Larsen this morning reduced his rating …
RELATED:
Reuters:
Sprint expected to undercut rivals' call plans  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - No. 3 U.S. mobile service provider Sprint Nextel Corp (S.N) is expected to offer flat-rate calling plans at up to a 40 percent discount to its rivals, hurtling the industry into a price war, analysts said on Wednesday.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
GenieTown Launches To Tackle Local Services  —  Palo Alto-based Genie Town launches this morning.  They're trying to crack the local services nut - a huge market, but one that a lot of the big guys are eyeing, too.  —  The company says they are addressing the long tail of local services.
Chris Williams / The Register:
BBC mulls dropping Flash as iPlayer meets iPhone  —  iDontbelieveit!  —  The BBC is considering ditching Adobe's Flash system for its iPlayer streams to improve the video quality of the on-demand service, it said on Tuesday.  —  The news came alongside an announcement that iPlayer …
Discussion: Adobe, last100 and All News Feeds
Brooke Crothers / CNET News.com:
Dell launches Inspiron notebooks with ‘Penryn’ chip  —  As expected, Dell is now offering Inspiron notebook PCs with the Intel Core 2 Duo “Penryn” chip as an optional configuration.  This is the first time that Dell has included the 45-nanometer processor as an option in the consumer-oriented Inspiron line.
Jason / Signal vs. Noise:
The New Backpack's First 24 Hours  —  Yesterday's big Backpack update was a huge success.  It was the best day in Backpack's history — even better than the last big update in July '07 and add anywhere in Oct '07.  —  We usually don't share numbers, but we thought we'd break tradition …
Ashkan Karbasfrooshan / HipMojo.com:
Why Most VC-Backed, Ad-Supported Companies Are Doomed to Fail  —  Most of the web projects out there are ad-supported, or intend to be ad-supported.  —  While a lot of companies are bootstrapped, most are financed by angel investors or venture capitalists.
Discussion: VC Ratings
Matt Martin / GamesIndustry.biz:
GDC: Molyneux despairs at “tragic” state of PCgaming  —  Warcraft, The Sims “sucking the air out of PC market,” says Lionhead boss  —  Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux has said that the PC gaming market is in a tragic state, with two blockbusters hogging sales and stagnation in the casual market.
Discussion: Kotaku, Massively and videogaming247
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
That Didn't Take Long At All: $89 Million Australian Internet Filters Called A Failure  —  Last August the Australian Prime Minister announced plans to spend many millions of dollars to offer free internet filters that parents could use to keep their kids from surfing porn.
Discussion: WebProNews, DSLreports and Mashable!
 
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 More Items: 
Scott Ferguson / eWeek:
Hurd: HP Consolidation Project Moving Along
Ludwig Kietzmann / Joystiq:
Joystiq live from the Microsoft GDC keynote
N'Gai Croal / Level Up:
Exclusive: Nintendo Announces Plan to Launch Its WiiWare Download …
Mike Magee / Inquirer:
Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Sun sued
Discussion: Engadget
Ryan Block / Engadget:
Microsoft announces games for Zune via XNA Studio
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Google & Its 99 Broadband Balloons
Discussion: DSLreports and MobHappy
Shel / Global Neighbourhoods:
Forrester's New Online Communities Report
Jonathan Richards / Times of London:
Hacker breaks link between iTunes and the iPod
 Earlier Items: 
David F. Gallagher / Bits:
Wikileaks Site Has a Friend in Sweden
Joshua Karp / The Boy Genius Report:
Blackberry email goes down...again
Mercury News:
From Mercury News staff and wire services
Doug Aamoth / CrunchGear:
Wired tells us how to convert HD DVD to Blu-ray
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
EU Invests $22 Million in Next-Generation BitTorrent Client
Luke Plunkett / Kotaku:
Wii Fit To Launch In US On May 19
Darrren Waters / BBC:
Brain control headset for gamers
Dan Fost / New York Times:
They're Working on Their Own, Just Side by Side
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
As the DirecTV-Disney carriage dispute continues, DirecTV nudges customers to Fubo or Sling and offers a $30 credit, and Disney offers $30 off Hulu with Live TV

Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Sinclair ousts Ken Solomon, CEO of the Tennis Channel since 2005, citing his time spent advising Dr. Phil McGraw's company as a growing distraction

Taylor Lorenz / Taylor Lorenz's Newsletter:
The Tenet Media case highlights both the lack of transparency in the creator economy and the threat this poses to media integrity

 
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