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11:25 AM ET, August 12, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Gmail Blog:
We feel your pain, and we're sorry  —  Many of you had trouble accessing Gmail for a couple of hours this afternoon, and we're really sorry.  The issue was caused by a temporary outage in our contacts system that was preventing Gmail from loading properly.  Everything should be back to normal by the time you read this.
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Gmail outage the latest cloud stumble; Where's the offline synching?  —  Google's Gmail outage on Monday was the latest stumble for nascent cloud computing services, which are becoming the lifeblood for small businesses and startups.  The Gmail outage-along with Amazon's stumbles of late-raises …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Systemwide GMail Outage
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Lenovo intros the monstrous ThinkPad W700, and we get our hands all over it (updated with Wacom video demo)  —  Like your laptops to be over-achievers?  Like, the really annoyingly stacked variety of over-achiever?  Enter Lenovo's newest outrage — the ThinkPad W700.
RELATED:
Adrian Covert / Gizmodo:
Lenovo ThinkPad W700 Has a BUILT-IN Wacom Tablet and Professional Grade Screen
Discussion: Gadgetell, OhGizmo!, GottaBeMobile and Crave
Xavier / notebooks.com:
ThinkPad W700: Lenovo Intros Biggest ThinkPad Yet (videos)
Discussion: GottaBeMobile
Michelle Thatcher / Crave:
Lenovo set to announce ThinkPad W700
Discussion: eWeek
Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
Some Web Firms Say They Track Behavior Without Explicit Consent  —  Several Internet and broadband companies have acknowledged using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers, according to letters released yesterday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Shawn / TmoNews:
Android may be here sooner then we think  —  We're hearing rumor after rumor that Android has been delayed, and pushed back to 2009.  Well TmoNews is jumping into the pool or rumors, calling BS on those other rumors, and putting in our vote of confidence on a presale of the Android phone on September 16th, 2008.
Brent Csutoras:
TWITTER LIMITS FOLLOWING TO 2,000  —  Twitter has always been looking for better ways to combat spammers and it appears they have recently added a new measure to combat one aspect of gaming.  —  User can now only add up to 2,000 followers before being limited and receiving this error message.
RELATED:
Dave Winer / Scripting News:
Twitter limiting followers to 2000
David Risley:
Twitter Limits to 2000 Follows. Could They Charge To Lift The Limit?
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
The Much Anticipated DataCase Launches: Turn the iPhone Into A Wireless Drive  —  The much anticipated DataCase application for the iPhone launched this morning.  —  The app, which costs $6.99, turn your iPhone into an easy-to-use wireless storage device that can be access by any other device on your wireless network.
Discussion: CrunchGear and TUAW
Justin Berka / Infinite Loop:
Phishing e-mail appears in MobileMe disguise  —  A few weeks ago, a number of MobileMe users in the UK were affected by a billing glitch that led to Apple placing a £121 hold on their accounts, which isn't something you want when you've just signed up for a free trial.
Discussion: The iPhone Blog
RELATED:
Macworld:
Phishing scam targets MobileMe users
Discussion: Infinite Loop
Royal Pingdom:
Social network popularity around the world  —  With the help of Google data, we have looked at 12 of the top social networks to answer a simple, but highly interesting question:  —  Where are they the most popular?  —  The social networks we included in this survey were MySpace, Facebook …
Discussion: Webware.com
Stephanie Condon / The Iconoclast:
States may tax iTunes, other digital downloads  —  If you enjoy buying music from iTunes, movies from Amazon.com's Unbox, or computer software from anywhere, be warned: the halcyon days of tax-free digital purchases may be over.  —  With retail e-commerce sales now estimated to exceed $130 billion a year …
Brad Stone / Bits:
Shutterfly Finally Gives Photos Wings  —  Shutterfly, one of the first photo sharing sites on the Internet, has survived the dot-com bust and competition from the likes of Kodak and Hewlett-Packard.  —  But the recent wave of popular Web 2.0 photo sites like Flickr, Slide, Photobucket and RockYou …
Discussion: CenterNetworks
Chris Albrecht / NewTeeVee:
Vongo is Gone-go  —  This certainly isn't shocking: Starz Entertainment has shut down online movie service Vongo.  A visit to the site shows the following message:  —  The writing was on the wall for the service when the company announced Starz Play, a white-label movie download service for Verizon, in May.
Steve Weis / Google Online Security Blog:
Keyczar: Safe and Simple Cryptography  —  Cryptography is notoriously hard to get right and if improperly used, can create serious security holes.  Common mistakes include using the wrong cipher modes or obsolete algorithms, composing primitives in an unsafe manner, hard-coding keys in source code …
Hank Williams / Why does everything suck?:
UI Guru Jakob Nielsen's Site Is Unreadable  —  Ok, this is only half a dig.  Jakob is one of the most respected writers and thinkers about user interface on the web.  He is clearly bright, and he writes intelligent and useful things.  In fact I quote Jakob and reference his work all of the time.
Discussion: TomsTechBlog.com and Alertbox
TG Daily:
AMD split rumors accelerating  —  San Francisco (CA) - Hector Ruiz' time at the AMD as we know it today is coming to an end.  Ruiz recently stepped down from his role as CEO, but kept his position as chairman of the board with the purpose of launching AMD's Asset Light and Asset Smart strategies …
Discussion: Engadget
 
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 More Items: 
Ionut Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Photo Albums in Google Docs
Discussion: webmonkey
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
3G iPhone Connection Problems Chip-Related?
Noah Shachtman / Danger Room:
Estonia, Google Help ‘Cyberlocked’ Georgia (Updated)
Forbes:
Iteration # 419: Is Google a Content Company?
Heather Dougherty / Hitwise Intelligence:
Google's share of US searches hits 70%
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Verizon now touting own ‘Visual Voice Mail’ service
John Koller / PlayStation.Blog:
Madden NFL 09 PSP Entertainment Pack Now Available
Discussion: I4U News and Engadget
Matthew Lasar / Ars Technica:
Congressional Dems back porn-free wireless broadband network
 Earlier Items: 
Maggie Shiels / BBC:
‘Pump and Dump’ conmen targeted
Discussion: Techdirt and Virtual Economics
Jemima Kiss / PDA:
Is Amazon's Kindle the iPod of the book world?
Discussion: The Register, Reuters and Epicenter
Cornelia Dean / New York Times:
Handle With Care  —  Last year, a private company proposed …
Jon Brodkin / Network World:
Loss of customer data spurs closure of online storage service ‘The Linkup’
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:
AOL Integrates buy.at and Goowy to Create Affiliate Widgets
Discussion: Webware.com
Matthew Miller / The Mobile Gadgeteer:
Congratulations Apple, you made the iPhone less stable than Windows Mobile
Discussion: jkOnTheRun
Dan Kaplan / VentureBeat:
MOG, platform for music blogs, launches vertical ad network
Brad Stone / New York Times:
Global Trail of an Online Crime Ring
 

 
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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