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6:05 PM ET, October 20, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Wall Street Journal:
Google CEO Backs Obama  —  Schmidt Expands Political Role by Hitting the Campaign Trail  —  Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt will hit the campaign trail this week on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, signaling Mr. Schmidt's push for a greater voice in politics …
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Let's Be Serious: Online Display Ads Will Fall Sharply In 2009  —  For a year, we've listened to analysts passionately explain how online ad spending will power through any broader economic and advertising weakness.  Eyeballs are moving online, this story went (goes), ad dollars will follow.
Olga Kharif / Business Week:
Motorola Readies Its Own Android Social Smartphone  —  Amid a boom in social-network-friendly handsets, Motorola prepares a new entry, but its Android may not debut until 2009's second quarter  —  As the wireless world awaits the Oct. 22 debut of the first phone based on the Google-backed Android software …
Mike Elgan / Computerworld Blogs:
Call it a ‘sub-subnotebook.’ New ‘PC’ is small as a cell phone!  —  SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. — IMOVIO launched today a smaller alternative to a subnotebook — much smaller.  The new iKIT is about the size of a PDA from ten years ago, but has a QWERTY keyboard and connects to the Internet at 3G speeds via your cell phone or Wi-Fi.
Discussion: Slashdot
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
Apple Ads About Microsoft Ads About Apple Ads About Microsoft  —  Apple released a couple of new “Get a Mac” ads today, and while I wouldn't usually bother to mention that here, these ones are noteworthy: They make direct reference to Microsoft's current $300 million ad campaign for Windows.
Andria Cheng / MarketWatch:
Circuit City may shut stores to avoid filing: report  —  NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Struggling electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc. is mulling a plan to shut at least 150 stores and cut thousands of jobs to lower costs to avoid filing for bankruptcy protection, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday …
RELATED:
InfoWorld:
Researchers log keystrokes from afar with an antenna  —  Computer keystrokes can be snooped from afar by detecting the slight electromagnetic radiation emitted when a key is pressed, according to new research previewed on Monday.  —  Other security experts have theorized keyboards were vulnerable …
RELATED:
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Intel shows off working Moorestown MID device  —  Intel on Monday showed off a prototype handheld based on Moorestown, its upcoming Mobile Internet Device (MID) platform designed to enable a new generation of ultra-thin, touchscreen devices with extensive battery life.
Jim Goldman / Tech Check with Jim Goldman:
Texas Instruments Comes Up Short  —  Texas Instruments [TXN Loading...  () ] reported essentially an inline third quarter, posting 43 cents a share when the Street was looking for 44 cents on $3.39 billion.  Analysts were looking for a consensus $3.4 billion.
Discussion: Tech Trader Daily and Techland
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Two Ways Yahoo Can Blow The Mass Firings  —  Now that Yahoo employees have had the pleasure of reading about their impending fate for weeks, management will reportedly finally announce the mass firings this week.  The exact number has yet to be released—somewhere between 1500 and 3000 …
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
MSI to launch 3.5G Wind netbook next month  —  Micro-Star International (MSI) is planning to launch the Wind U120 with a built-in 3.5G module in November this year.  The netbook will feature Intel's Atom N270 processor, 1GB memory, 120GB hard drive and Windows XP and be priced around NT$18,000 …
Chris Albrecht / NewTeeVee:
CBS Tries to Make Online Viewing Social  —  Mel Brooks said the hardest thing to do was to make a person sitting alone in a room laugh out loud.  Laughter is social, and that's important to consider as watching online video on your laptop or handheld device with headphones can be a pretty isolating experience.
Kevin Rose:
Business Wire:
Sun Microsystems Reports Preliminary Results for the First Quarter Fiscal Year 2009  —  SANTA CLARA, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA - News) reported preliminary results today for its first quarter of fiscal 2009, which ended September 28, 2008.
Tom Lowry / Business Week:
The Short List for U.S. Chief Technology Officer  —  Barack Obama has pledged to name a cabinet-level CTO to oversee a job-creating national broadband buildout if he's elected.  Big names abound  —  Barack Obama says that the U.S. is not doing nearly enough to create jobs through technology.
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
BlackBerry Storm hitting Best Buy November 16th?  —  To be fair, that's what looks to be the in-stock date, not the street date as we're told.  We got our hands on a print out of a Best Buy product sheet which clearly shows the BlackBerry Storm's store in-stock date.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
SearchMe Adds Music Search With Unlimited Streaming Via Imeem Widgets  —  Okay, this has to be the coolest hack of the week.  Visual search engine SearchMe has just added a music search tab that brings back results with free, legal, unlimited full-song streams and cover art you can flip through.
Discussion: Webware.com and ReadWriteWeb
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
We've Got Exclusive Details On New Comcast Speeds, Prices - Broader DOCSIS 3.0 Launch getting very close...  Comcast will be shaking up their speed tiers as they deploy DOCSIS 3.0 upgrades, not only increasing speeds on standard tiers, but delivering new, 22Mbps/5Mbps and 50Mbps/10Mbps speed tiers.
Discussion: GigaOM
Nick / Rough Type:
The cost of First Click Free  —  The web you see when you go through Google's search engine is no longer the web you see when you don't go through Google's search engine.  —  In a note on my previous post, The Centripetal Web, Seth Finkelstein points to Philipp Lenssen's discussion of a new Google service …
Scott Ferguson / eWeek:
Intel Slashes Desktop, Server Processor Prices  —  In less than a week after reporting third-quarter financial results, Intel cut the prices on several of its high-end, Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Duo desktop processors.  In addition, Intel dropped prices on some its older Pentium chips for desktops …
Discussion: The Register and Hardware 2.0
Jonathan M. Gitlin / Ars Technica:
Microsoft gets patent for real-time f-bomb bleeping  —  Back in 2004 Microsoft applied for a patent for real-time censoring of audio streams, and now the USPTO has granted that patent.  —  As PC gamers have known for a long time, and Xbox gamers have known for a while …
Jeff / Venture Chronicles:
Blu-ray Fights the Last War  —  I wrote a couple of posts about Blu-ray that emphasized the last war aspect of the technology and ignored where consumers would ultimately be getting their entertainment from, the internet.  It will do okay but for Sony and the content owners banking on it, Blu-ray will be a disappointment.
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Hands on: Fennec alpha 1 puts Firefox on your handheld  —  Mozilla has announced the availability of the first Mobile Firefox alpha release.  The project, which is codenamed Fennec, aims to bring the desktop Firefox browsing experience to mobile devices like MIDs and phone handsets.
Sean Michael Kerner:
Linux Ecosystem worth $25 billion  —  From the “not bad for Free” files:  —  The Linux Foundation is set to release a report on Wednesday estimating that the Linux ecosystem is now worth $25 billion.  The $25 billion figure is one that I'm surprised at because its lower than other forecasts I've seen over the years.
Discussion: Valleywag
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Judge Allows Kentucky To Seize Domain Names  —  Last month, we wrote about a judge allowing Kentucky's governor to seize 141 domain names that were somehow associated with gambling sites under a bizarre interpretation of Kentucky law.  Pretty much everyone involved admits …
 
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 More Items: 
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
Second Life Offers Business Teleconferencing, Now Penis-Free
Discussion: Techdirt
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
Wikia lays off 30 percent of staff
Discussion: The Social and WebProNews
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Scott Rafer: The Facebook Platform is Dead
Discussion: StartupNorth and Sexy Widget
Shawn Brown / Android Community:
Google removes applications just before launch
Discussion: Engadget Mobile and Gizmodo
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Q4 earnings: A guide to Apple's guidance
 Earlier Items: 
Simon Sage / IntoMobile:
RIM stock drops on poor Pearl Flip sales
Discussion: Reuters and Electronista
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
RIAA Calls Another Critic Vexatious After She Points Out Flaw In RIAA Logic
Discussion: BetaNews
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
MPAA slams EFF on RealDVD
James Kendrick / jkOnTheRun:
Text messaging: great method of communication for the deaf