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3:50 AM ET, September 6, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Deborah Gage / San Francisco Chronicle:
Microsoft tries to explain Seinfeld ad  —  Did you “get” the new Microsoft commercial?  Apparently, some people didn't, so Microsoft officials were calling reporters Friday to explain it.  —  The Redwood, Wash., company started airing a commercial Thursday night in which comedian Jerry …
Discussion: The Inquisitr, TechBays and TechCrunch
RELATED:
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Microsoft Works to Perfect Windows Vista  —  An advertising blitz intended to help Microsoft polish the tarnished brand of its Windows Vista operating system began this week with a head-scratcher of a commercial.  —  The ad features Jerry Seinfeld flexing some new shoes, Bill Gates adjusting his shorts and no mention of Vista.
Discussion: Technologizer
Electronista:
Microsoft to copy Apple Genius strategy
Discussion: Gizmodo and MacDailyNews
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Microsoft Ads: First Phase To “Engage Consumers, Spark Conversation”
Microsoft:
Microsoft Kicks off new Windows Campaign with Star Power
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Joost To Kill Desktop Client  —  Exclusive: In what is likely to be a major shift in the company's strategy, peer-to-peer startup Joost is going to stop making its desktop client.  The decision to suspend the client is likely to be announced soon, I am told.
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Screenshots And Video Of The New Joost  —  So much for Joost's carefully prepared plans to release a browser version of their TV over IP service later this month.  News leaked this morning that Joost would be abandoning their year old XUL based desktop client in favor of a browser based service that's more like Hulu and YouTube.
Discussion: NewTeeVee, CyberNet and TechSpot
Ryan Stewart / The Universal Desktop:
What went wrong with Joost's desktop client?
Discussion: SitePoint Blogs and ReadWriteWeb
Josh Lowensohn / Webware.com:   Hands-on with the new Joost: Software still required
Daniel Terdiman / CNET News:
Are Demo and TechCrunch50 fragmenting their audiences? … Update, 12:36 p.m. PDT: Business Week now says it is planning to send a reporter from its print side to DemoFall to complement the online reporter it is sending to the TechCrunch50.  —  If you're a fan of high-tech product announcements, next week could well be heaven for you.
RELATED:
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
A user guide to following DemoFall and TechCrunch50
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
iPod nano 4G leaked in actual, factual, really-real spy photo  —  Look, you know the drill here.  This may be the painstaking result of some CAD-school-dropout's nights home alone, or the latest in cheapo knock-offs from the Far East.  You may be looking at a Photoshop spackled together …
Discussion: MacNN, MacRumors, iPhone Savior and Digg
Matt Cutts / Gadgets, Google, and SEO:
Twitter added nofollow to “www.” links in their Bio field  —  Yesterday John Battelle emailed me to ask about Rae's post.  This will be a little inside baseball to some people who don't live and breathe search and Twitter, but I figured I'd take what I emailed to John, add some pictures, and post it here.
Clive Thompson / New York Times:
Brave New World of Digital Intimacy  —  On Sept. 5, 2006, Mark Zuckerberg changed the way that Facebook worked, and in the process he inspired a revolt.  —  Zuckerberg, a doe-eyed 24-year-old C.E.O., founded Facebook in his dorm room at Harvard two years earlier, and the site quickly amassed nine million users.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Xbox 360 defects: an inside history of Microsoft's video game console woes  —  When his fourth Xbox 360 video game console died in April, Chris Szarek wasn't surprised.  —  The Chicopee, Mass. gamer was accustomed to the hardware failures that became known throughout the Internet as RROD …
Discussion: Kotaku and Slashdot
RELATED:
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
First look: Firefox 3.1 alpha 2 officially released  —  Mozilla has officially announced the availability of the second Firefox 3.1 alpha.  This release includes support for the highly-anticipated HTML 5 “video” element and a handful of other features that move the browser forward.
Discussion: ZDNet.com.au, Hardware 2.0 and Digg
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Analyst braces clients for “underwhelming” Apple event  —  American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu put out a call to clients on Friday, saying they should be prepared for a slight letdown at Apple's event next Tuesday unless chief executive Steve Jobs pulls a rabbit from his black turtleneck.
Discussion: Infinite Loop and Digital Daily
Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:
Microsoft Missing the Boat on Mobile?  —  Yesterday's Microsoft Watch had an incisive article about Microsoft's failure to compete in the mobile phone marketplace.  Echoing my own assertions that Microsoft's obsessive focus on competition with Google in search is a massive distraction …
Discussion: eWeek
Alana Taylor / MediaShift:
Old Thinking Permeates Major Journalism School  —  “Nowadays it's essential for journalists to blog,” says Professor Mary Quigley to a class of 16 NYU journalism students.  The class is titled “Reporting Gen Y (a.k.a. Quarterlifers),” and it's one of the few NYU undergrad journalism classes that focuses on new media.
Steve Rubel / Micro Persuasion:
How Search Will Revolutionize Social Networking  —  Social networking is on fire. eMarketer predicts that in the US the category will reach 44.3% of Internet users by year's end.  According to Google Insights, related searches are up 3,000% over the last four years.
Discussion: Blog World Expo Blog
 
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 More Items: 
Electronic Arts UK Community:
I sporelord100 says all you spore creachers will run and hide …
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Maximizing Profits Doesn't Mean Screwing Your Customers
DJ Josef Prša:
iPhone controlled R/C car [english]
Simon Owens / MediaShift:
Digg Puts Focus on Politics, Bringing Charges of Liberal Bias
Discussion: Digg
Eric Goldman / Technology & Marketing Law Blog:
426,487 Reasons Why Metatags Still Matter (In Court)—Venture Tape v. McGills
Dailymotion Blog:
Dailymotion Partners with the One Laptop Per Child Foundation
Dan Goodin / The Register:
Crimeware giants form botnet tag team
Discussion: eWeek
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Twitter's Corporate Users Get A New Marketing Tool
Discussion: Portfolio.com
 Earlier Items: 
Scott / UKMac.net:
iPod Touch and iPhone Slow Synching Problem Fixed
Kaj Arnö:
The rumours on Monty resigning
Steve Litchfield / All About Symbian:
First impressions of the Nokia N96, plus photo samples
Discussion: IntoMobile and Engadget Mobile
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
Valleywag mangles Marc Andreessen, and we think he likes it
Qblogger / Windows Home Server Team Blog:
10 Computers & 10 Users
Jeremy Kirk / PC World:
Researchers Build Malicious Facebook Application
Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
At ESPN, Play-by-Play Goes Virtual
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
Full PRADA II specifications!
 

 
From Mediagazer:

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

Evan Drellich / New York Times:
The MLB is planning national packages for streaming companies to bid on in 2028, when its national TV deals with ESPN, Fox, and Turner expire

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Tubi launches Scenes, a mobile feature that lets viewers watch 60-to-90-second trailer-style clips from its library to help with content discovery

 
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