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3:20 PM ET, October 14, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Live from Apple's “spotlight turns to notebooks” event  —  9:08AM PT - We've got a little less than an hour to go, so we'll just kind of be loitering outside Apple Town Hall, waiting to spot Steve and the unicorn that is his new MacBook Pro.  —  We're at Apple HQ!
RELATED:
Paul Miller / Engadget:
Apple's all-new MacBook Pro packs new NVIDIA GPUs, glass trackpad  —  Oh, don't act so surprised.  A refresh of Apple's long-in-the-tooth MacBook Pro line was pretty much the only sure thing slated for today's event, and Apple certainly delivered.  As for looks, you probably know the score by now …
John Mahoney / Gizmodo:
Next-Generation MacBook Ditches the Plastic, Becomes MacBook Pro Mini  —  Joining the MacBook Pro, Apple's MacBooks, their best-selling mac ever, also received a complete hardware re-tooling today, with rejuvenated hardware packed inside a brand-new aluminum case, thus putting one of the final stakes …
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Apple finally refreshes Cinema Display: 24-inch, LED backlit, $899  —  Another rumor to tick off the list, Apple just announced the 24-inch Cinema Display.  LED-backlit, check; Mini DisplayPort, check; $899 list price, check; MagSafe adapter, check.  In fact, it has a tri-pronged cable that also includes USB .
Discussion: Gizmodo, Infinite Loop, Apple and Reuters
Adam Frucci / Gizmodo:
New MacBooks Get Glass Trackpad with New Multitouch Gestures, No Buttons  —  One of the biggest new features in the new MacBooks that Apple just unveiled is the glass trackpad, one that ditches the button in favor of turning the entire trackpad into a button.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Contains Spoilers  —  Engadget just posted the first real picture and accurate description I've seen in public of the new 15-inch MacBook Pro, set to be announced later today.  It's the real deal.  Major visible changes from the previous MacBook Pros:  — A new iMac-style black border around the display.
Ben Jones / TorrentFreak:
Bush Signs Draconian Anti-Piracy Law  —  Over in California, champagne corks are popping.  In the offices of the MPAA and RIAA, lawyers turned lobbyists are dancing jigs.  In houses all around the US however, people are left dumbfounded by the passage of a bill based on appeasement to big money …
RELATED:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Bush's New Copyright Czar Is Going To Do About As Much Good As His Drug Czar
Discussion: PC Magazine
Fawn Johnson / Wall Street Journal:
Bush Signs Anti-Piracy Bill
Discussion: Salon and White House
John R. Wilke / Wall Street Journal:
Google, Yahoo Seek to Avoid Antitrust Suit Over Ad Deal  —  Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. are in talks with the Justice Department in an effort to head off an antitrust challenge to their proposed advertising agreement.  —  The settlement negotiations are at an early stage and it isn't clear whether …
RELATED:
Steven Musil / CNET News:
Report: Justice Dept. talking with Yahoo, Google
Discussion: Reuters
Yun-Hee Kim / Wall Street Journal:
Samsung Plans to Tackle U.S. PC Market  —  HONG KONG — Samsung Electronics Co. is making a foray into the U.S. notebook PC market, taking on established players such as Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Apple Inc.  —  The South Korean company, more well-known in overseas markets …
Discussion: Ars Technica
RELATED:
Peter Kafka / Silicon Alley Insider:
More Competition For Steve Jobs: Samsung Entering US PC Market
Discussion: Yahoo! Tech, Gearlog and Electronista
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
JS-Kit, the widget company for dummies, gets boost  —  JS-Kit, the Silicon Valley company that makes it easy for bloggers to add comments, polls, product reviews or ratings system to their website, has gotten a boost when it most needs it.  —  It has raised $3.6 million in a second round …
Yahoo! Search Blog:
Yahoo! Search Hits the Airwaves  —  A little over four years ago, we launched our own search engine and became a principal in the search business.  Our focus since then has been the same - building the best search experience to give users a fast, easy and intuitive way to get straight to their answers.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Mint Leaves Beta, Brings A Bunch Of New Features With It  —  Mint, the personal finance startup that won last year's TechCrunch 40, has launched a host of new features including investment tracking, 401k managment, and more flexible budget sheets.  CEO Aaron Patzer says that the new features finally …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Angel Investor Ron Conway Speaks (About His Wise-Up-Silicon-Valley Missive)  —  Of course, the stock market had to come roaring back and it had to be extra sunny on the very day I was scheduled to have lunch with well-known Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway to talk about the worrisome state of the digital sector.
Discussion: The Drama 2.0 Show
Vishesh Kumar / Wall Street Journal:
Economic Woes Hit HDTV Sales  —  Satellite, Cable Providers Could Suffer as Consumers Scale Back on Pricey Purchases  —  Reeling from a stock-market crash and a looming recession, consumers may finally be putting the brakes on the purchase of pricey luxury items like high-definition televisions.
Discussion: NewTeeVee
Matt Cutts / Gadgets, Google, and SEO:
Free links to your site  —  I can't believe a new feature from Google isn't getting more notice, because it converts already-existing links to your site into much higher quality links, for free.  The Google webmaster blog just announced that you can find the pages that link to 404 pages on your site.
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
AOL - Yahoo Merger NOT A Done Deal, Says Time Warner Source*  —  A source close to AOL told us earlier that Yahoo's acquisition of AOL was a done deal.  However, another senior source at Time Warner emphatically denied this.  We apologize for the head-fake.
Discussion: Portfolio, Epicenter and HipMojo.com
Andy Space / 9 to 5 Mac:
Microsoft declares war on the ‘Apple tax’  —  Microsoft is on the warpath once again, with some Redmond executive slamming Apple for putting a tax on Macs and suggesting (in a kind of roundabout way) that Macs aren't really more secure than Windows.  (Yeah, right)...
Steve O'Hear / The Social Web:
Top Digger helps launch Tip'd, a Digg clone for financial news  —  Tip'd, which launched today, describes itself as “a place for investors... to meet, share, discuss, comment, and vote on what's happening on both Wall Street and Main Street.”  Essentially, it's another Digg clone targeting a particular vertical.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
BillShrink Grows By $8 Million With Plans To Expand To New Markets  —  BillShrink, a startup that aims to help users save money across a variety of vertical markets, has closed an $8 million Series B funding round led by Trinity Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners.
Discussion: VentureBeat, Webware.com and Rev2.org
Ben Kuchera / Ars Technica:
Microsoft undercuts Wii value with $20 Xbox 360 HDD promo  —  As we head into the holiday season, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft will try every trick in the book in order to maximize sales.  One of the best weapons Microsoft has is its price point; after the September price drop …
Discussion: TechSpot and Obsessable
Microsoft:
Microsoft Unveils Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2  —  Update builds on momentum behind software-powered unified communications and voice.  —  Today, Microsoft Corp. debuted Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 (R2), an update to the award-winning Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.
Fresh Thinking:
What are Industry Benchmarks?  —  A little known gem within FreshBooks is our FreshBooks' Report Card Service ™ which gives you an analysis of your business, and compares your business to other businesses in your profession.  —  What you do with your report card is up to you …
John Leyden / The Register:
Storm botnet blows itself out  —  But will the zombie network rise again?  —  Security watchers Marshal claim the infamous Storm botnet is no more, after waning spam emails finally dried up altogether last month.  —  Other security researchers have noted a similar decline …
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
AT&T goes wild with texting, announces four QWERTY phones  —  If you're into that whole SMS craze and you're on AT&T, you're in luck — four times over.  The carrier's gone ahead and announced not one, not two, but four QWERTY-equipped dumphones today, including a dual slider and a Pantech being billed as …
Discussion: AT&T, textually.org and Electronista
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
McCain Campaign Sends Letter To YouTube Defending Fair Use  —  from the what-the...?  dept  —  This is impressive, and somewhat unexpected.  It's rather rare to see politicians (other than maginal ones, at least) showing any sort of recognition of fair use.
Discussion: NewTeeVee and Lessig Blog
Long Zheng / istartedsomething:
Microsoft survey teases “Oahu”: affordable consumer-version of the Surface computer, hypothetically  —  Would you like your own Microsoft Surface computer but don't own a hotel chain, telephone company, Las Vegas casino, television network or themepark?  If so, you need to sign yourself up for some Microsoft market research.
Discussion: All about Microsoft
 
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 More Items: 
EULA Dialog / XenServer Feed:
Project Kensho Technology Preview
MarketWatch:
Wizzard Media & WatchMojo Team to Expand Distribution of Extensive Video Catalog
Discussion: NewTeeVee and HipMojo.com
Kevin Poulsen / Threat Level:
Cybercrime Supersite ‘DarkMarket’ Was FBI Sting, Documents Confirm
beu blog:
2009 Google Flash SEO
Discussion: Search Engine Land
Clint Boulton / eWeek:
Brightcove 3 SAAS Video Platform Wins Endorsement from Sun Microsystems
Discussion: Contentinople and CloudAve
internetnews.com:
Microsoft Sues DHL over Spilled Xboxes
Discussion: Techdirt
Troy D. Brown / BlackBerryNews.com:
Verizon Offers The Storm Hands On In Select Markets
 Earlier Items: 
John Leyden / The Register:
MS roll out exploit prediction with Patch Tuesday
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Larry Lessig On How To Save Remix Culture
Discussion: ZDNet Government
BlackBerry Storm Mobile Phone Reviews:
Video Of The BlackBerry Storm 9500 Mobile Phone In Action
Cyrus Farivar / Salon:
Company gives computers to its employees — for keeps
Discussion: Zoli's Blog
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Wi-Fi Gets a Boost With Quantenna Chips
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A New York judge finds Sirius XM liable for a difficult subscription cancellation process; Sirius says it will appeal but abide by a new “click-to-cancel” rule

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Sources: NBCUniversal Vice Chairman Bonnie Hammer plans to leave the company at the end of the year; she has been with the company since 2004

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
A growing number of podcasters, including Tim Ferriss, are moving away from interviews to monologues or co-hosts, as some well-known guests can be overexposed

 
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