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12:45 AM ET, October 31, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Court Greatly Limits Software And Business Method Patents  —  from the huge-victory-for-innovation dept  —  I don't say this often, but it looks like the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) — or “the patent court” — got a big one mostly right.
RELATED:
Reuters:
US appeals court rejects business method patents  —  A U.S. patent appeals court ruled on Thursday that business methods, such as Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) one-click to buy goods on the Internet, cannot be patented.  —  The case was closely watched …
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:   Appeals court deals severe blow to business method patents
The Official Google Blog:
What we learned from 1 million businesses in the cloud  —  The reliability of cloud computing has been a hot topic recently, partly because glitches in the cloud don't happen behind closed doors as with traditional on-premises solutions for businesses.  Instead, when a small number …
RELATED:
Clint Boulton / eWeek:
Google Brings Premier Edition SLA to Calendar, Docs, Sites, Talk Apps
Discussion: Webware.com
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Apple hires top IBM chip designer and blade server guru  —  Apple's decision to hire Mark Papermaster away from IBM could mean that its Xserve lineup is taking on a more prominent role.  —  (Credit: Apple)  —  Updated throughout at 4:55 p.m. PT with additional details and comment from IBM.
RELATED:
John Markoff / New York Times:
I.B.M. Sues to Block Executive's Move to Apple  —  SAN FRANCISCO — I.B.M. sued one of its top executives on Thursday in an attempt to prevent him from taking a position at Apple.  —  The company said that the executive, Mark Papermaster, who until last week had been manager in charge …
Discussion: Edible Apple
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Google Now Indexes Scanned Documents  —  Google has announced that it will now begin including scanned documents in its search results - a feat that requires an immense amount of processing power and advanced image recognition technology.  Unlike standard text documents …
Discussion: GigaOM
RELATED:
Evin Levey / The Official Google Blog:
A picture of a thousand words?
Discussion: Search Engine Land and Crave
Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:
Talks Over Google-Yahoo Search Deal Fail to Progress  —  The likelihood that Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. will walk away from their planned search partnership has risen, say people familiar with the matter.  —  The two Internet companies have so far failed to reach an agreement on their partnership …
RELATED:
Reuters:   Yahoo, Google may walk away from search deal: reports
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
Microsoft Updates Live Mesh: Worldwide Availability, Mac and Windows Mobile Clients  —  Today, Microsoft will release a major update for Live Mesh, its consumer oriented cloud storage and synchronization service.  Among these updates are more granular permissions for sharing folders …
RELATED:
Arn / MacRumors:
Opera Browser Not Allowed in iPhone App Store  —  The NY Times profiles Opera Software, the company that distributes the Opera browser for multiple platforms.  According to the article, however, Apple is not allowing an iPhone version of the browser into the App Store:
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
Google Clarifies Its OpenID Implementation  —  Update: We've been contacted by members of the OpenID community who argue that we've mischaracterized the controversy in this post.  Additional complications not discussed here include the now-ceased process of whitelisting domains that could use Google OpenID.
RELATED:
Google Code Blog:
Moving another step closer to single-sign on
CPSC:
PC Notebook Computer Batteries Recalled Due to Fire and Burn Hazard  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firms named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product.  Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
RELATED:
Paul Buchheit / FriendFeed Blog:
Share your FriendFeed activity on Twitter  —  We want to make it easier for you to share your FriendFeed activity on the web services you're already using.  Now you can publish your FriendFeed updates directly to Twitter.  —  To enable this feature, go to your Account page and find the 'Post …
Discussion: Webware.com, Mashable! and Regular Geek
RELATED:
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:   Publish FriendFeed updates to Twitter — a snake that eats its own tail?
Charlie Sorrel / Gadget Lab:
8 Things to Expect in the Next iPhone Update  —  One of the great things about the iPhone is the regular software updates.  Free and automatic improvements are piped, hot and steaming, to your pocket computer.  —  We don't know exactly when the next version of the iPhone operating system …
Discussion: MacDailyNews and digg.com
Sara Silver / Wall Street Journal:
Some Shed Their Gadgets by Turning to One: iPhone  —  Lower-income households are turning in force to Apple Inc.'s iPhone and may be doing so to save the cost of a separate broadband connection and music devices, according to the media measurement firm comScore Inc.
Discussion: Macsimum News and MacRumors
Chloe Albanesius / PC Magazine:
Motorola Delays Cell-Phone Spinoff, Drops Platforms  —  Motorola confirmed Thursday that it will eliminate its MOTOMAGX and Symbian platforms in order to focus on the Google Android, Windows Mobile, and P2K 3G solutions.  The company will also delay plans to spin off its mobile business into a separate entity.
RELATED:
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Motorola: No Google Android ‘GPhones’ Til Next Christmas
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Pirate Bay Talk: How To Dismantle a Billion Dollar Industry  —  Pirate Bay co-founders Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij gave a keynote speech at the Hack In The Box Security Conference 2008, entitled “How to dismantle a billion dollar industry - as a hobby.”  The two discuss how The Pirate Bay grew …
Discussion: digg.com
Kurt Mackey / Ars Technica:
More on the Windows 7 UI: new taskbar will be mandatory  —  While we haven't yet gotten our hands on a Windows 7 build with the new taskbar, we did talk to Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky about the various UI changes and what we can expect at release time.  —  It's not a surprise …
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Study: Google runs more than 10 million Web sites  —  There's no doubt Google is a vast power on the Internet, but because the company uses its own software to host Web sites, it's possible to see just how powerful.  —  Specifically, Google operates about 10.5 million Web sites in October …
PBS:
Azure Blues: Microsoft and the electric power industry have a lot in common.  —  It isn't very often I get to apply Moore's Law to a non-Information Technology business and rarer still that I can then relate the whole thing back to Microsoft, so I'm going for it.  Here's what the solar power industry can teach us about Microsoft:
Discussion: Microsoft Watch
Sam Diaz / Between the Lines:
Sun posts $1.67 billion loss on write-off  —  updated: Sun Microsystems reported a loss for the first quarter of its fiscal 2009 year of $1.67 billion, or $2.24 per share, on revenue for $2.99 billion, down from $3.22 billion for the first quarter of 2008 (statement).
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google Local Business Hijacking: Microsoft Acquires Yahoo, Becomes Escort Service  —  Mike Blumenthal has been diligently covering how local listings can be hijacked in Google Maps.  He's also been frustrated that Google doesn't seem to be fixing the local hijacking problem.
 
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 More Items: 
Michael Calore / webmonkey:
OMG! Gmail Adds SMS Chat
Discussion: Google Watch and CostPerNews
Stephanie Condon / CNET News:
The first wiki president? Obama adviser votes ‘yea’
Discussion: PC Magazine
Peter Bright / One Microsoft Way:
Ars@PDC: Windows 7's streamlined UAC
Discussion: OSNews
David Pogue / Pogue's Posts:
The MacBook Makeover  —  Apple's bestselling MacBook laptop just got its 2008 makeover.
 Earlier Items: 
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Google to AdSense users: Please don't dump us in crap economic times
Discussion: AppScout and SitePoint Blogs
Erica Sadun / Infinite Loop:
Accept credit card payments from your iPhone
Discussion: MacBlogz
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Facebook Using DMCA Notices To Takedown Private Videos?
Discussion: All Facebook
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Revenue Crisis: Here Come The Pro Accounts
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Big Guns Come Out In Effort To Show RIAA's Lawsuits Are Unconstitutional
Discussion: Brier Dudley's blog