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12:55 PM ET, November 14, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
John Markoff / New York Times:
Google Is Taking Questions (Spoken, via iPhone)  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Pushing ahead in the decades-long effort to get computers to understand human speech, Google researchers have added sophisticated voice recognition technology to the company's search software for the Apple iPhone.
Business Wire:
Sun Microsystems Aligns Business with Global Economic Climate and Amplifies Growth Opportunities Across Open Source Platforms  —  SANTA CLARA, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA - News) today announced a series of changes designed to align its cost model …
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Margaret Kane / CNET News:
Sun restructures, lays off up to 6,000  —  Sun Microsystems has announced a restructuring that will involve layoffs of 15 percent to 18 percent of its global workforce.  —  The company also announced a reorganization of its software operations and the departure of Rich Green, executive vice president of software.
Ashlee Vance / New York Times:
Crisis Spreads to Tech Sector as Sun Plans to Cut Work Force  —  Joining a rapidly growing list of technology companies reeling from the financial turmoil, Sun Microsystems, which sells server computers, has started a broad restructuring that could see up to 6,000 employees lose their jobs.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Dan Lyons / Real Dan Lyons Web Site:   Sun to cut 6,000  —  See the press release here.  It's classic Sun doublespeak.
Chris Kanaracus / PC World:   Sun Reorganizes, Cuts up to 18 Percent of Workforce
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Sun Microsystems to cut 5,000 to 6,000 jobs
Discussion: Inquirer and TMCnet
Timothy Prickett Morgan / The Register:
Sun slashes up to 6,000 jobs
Discussion: OStatic blogs
Trevin Chow:
Introducing the Microsoft Store US  —  We previously launched Microso ft Store internationally in the UK, Germany and Korea.  I'm now happy to announce that we have officially launched Microsoft Store for the U.S!  —  With this launch, our customers in the U.S. are able to buy …
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Microsoft launches online store: Is there deeper meaning here?  —  Microsoft has launched something long overdue: An online store.  Yes Virginia, you can download Windows.  —  The launch is a bit quiet.  Trevin Chow, a senior program manager at Microsoft, announced the “first-party” store on his blog.
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Introducing the Microsoft Store
Dawn Kawamoto / CNET News:
Microsoft launches second retail site
Discussion: PC World, The Mac Observer and I4U News
Royal Pingdom:
The world's most super-designed data center - fit for a James Bond villain  —  This underground data center has greenhouses, waterfalls, German submarine engines, simulated daylight and can withstand a hit from a hydrogen bomb.  It looks like the secret HQ of a James Bond villain.  —  And it is real.
Discussion: Data Center Knowledge and Gizmodo
BBC:
European debut for ‘$100 laptop’  —  Europeans will soon be able to buy their own XO laptop.  —  The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organisation is planning to sell the devices via online store Amazon's European outlets from 17 November.  —  The machines will be sold under the Give One …
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Jack Schofield / Guardian:
$100 OLPC to reach Europe, at £268
Discussion: TheNextWeb.com and p2pnet
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
GirlInYourShirt: $75 Buys Your Startup Marketing For A Day  —  I imagine more than a few startups will take Jenaé up on her offer to wear your startup shirt and talk about your company for a day.  It's $75, and she posts videos on her site, YouTube, Seesmic and Viddler, posts pictures on Flickr and tweets about it all as well.
Discussion: AppScout and The Drama 2.0 Show
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
October Game Sales: Nintendo Wii Kicking PS3 Butt  —  Nintendo (NTDOY) is eating Microsoft (MSFT) and Sony's (SNE) lunch in the console wars, the NPD Group says.  —  Look at the sales figures for consoles in October:  — Wii: 803,000 consoles  — Xbox 360: 370,000  — PS3: 190,000
RELATED:
Vivek Wadhwa / Business Week:
Engineering: Suddenly Sexy for College Grads  —  As the financial crisis deepens, science and math grads who once flocked to investment banking are now considering jobs in engineering  —  Early in his college career, Tyler Bosmeny assumed that after graduating, he would do what hundreds …
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Businesses warming up to the iPhone  —  Businesses are gradually getting used to the idea of using iPhones in the enterprise, but Apple has a long way to go.  —  (Credit: Apple)  — Home - News - Apple  —  Apple  —  November 14, 2008 4:00 AM PST  —  Businesses warming up to the iPhone
Discussion: wmpoweruser.com
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Universal Music Group: We're Still Selling Tunes, Amazingly  —  Universal Music Group, the world's biggest music company, insists the music business isn't dying.  Yesterday, it released numbers to help bolster its case.  —  UMG saw sales drop 6.2 percent in the last quarter, parent company Vivendi disclosed yesterday.
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Is the VC Model Broken?  Far From it  —  Update: Adeo Ressi, the serial entrepreneur behind the venture-capital rating site TheFunded, has been getting a lot of attention for a presentation he gave at Harvard Business School in which he argued that the VC industry is “broken.”
Martin Peers / Wall Street Journal:
Google's Consumers Are Checking Out  —  Google's business model is revealing its Achilles' heel.  —  The Internet giant's big perceived advantage over traditional media has long been its consumer-driven business model.  Whereas traditional media has more of a marketer-driven approach …
Discussion: Valleywag
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google Finally Starts Firing Slackers?  —  “It used to be nearly impossible to get fired for general underperformance” at Google, a reader tells us.  But times have changed.  Read >  —  What The Heck Happened To The Site?  —  Henry Blodget |  Nov. 13, 5:16 PM |  12
Discussion: Beyond Search
Business Technology:
How Old Is Your Work Computer?  —  It used to be that every three years, workers would get brand new computers from their businesses' tech departments.  But for many those days are over.  —  The reason: Delaying computer upgrades is one of the easiest ways for a tech department to cut its budget.
Discussion: Wall Street Journal
Kate Greene / Technology Review:
The Coming Wireless Revolution  —  Gadgets that operate over television frequencies promise to transform the wireless landscape.  —  If you believe some radio researchers and engineers, within the next couple of years, high-bandwidth, far-reaching wireless Internet signals will soon blanket the nation.
Discussion: The Pondering Primate
 
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 More Items: 
David Kravets / Threat Level:
Lawyer: Guns N' Roses Uploader to Walk
Discussion: The Register
Brian Crecente / Kotaku:
Is Take-Two Thinking of Subscription-Based GTA and BioShock?
Discussion: Negative Approach and Destructoid
Lester Haines / The Register:
Hubble snaps planet orbiting distant star
Discussion: Gearlog and NASA
Marguerite Reardon / CNET News:
Smartphones drive demand for Web browsing
Discussion: TechSpot
Alex Castle / Maximum PC all:
Why is Google Running Ads for Known Malware Sites?
Discussion: DailyTech, Slashdot and digg.com
Joel Hruska / Ars Technica:
AMD Fusion now pushed back to 2011
Discussion: Hardware 2.0
 Earlier Items: 
Kim Dixon / Reuters:
Lawmaker Plans Bill on Web Neutrality
Discussion: Search Engine Watch and Inquirer
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Entrepreneurs Ask VCs for Cash Back
Electronista:
Alienware intros $1K Area-51 750i
Discussion: SlashGear and Gizmodo
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
Invest Like It's 1998: Microsoft Stock Hits 10-Year Low …
Discussion: Associated Press
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
The Very Curious Microsoft-Facebook User Data Relationship
Paul Boutin / Valleywag:
Federated Media slashes rates to $5 CPM
Discussion: The Blog Herald
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Analyzing Comcast's spinoff of cable networks, purposefully structured with low debt: the move might be a signal to the industry that it's time to consolidate

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
James Harding says the Tortoise-Observer deal could create a profitable media group and there isn't a guaranteed future for the Observer with the Guardian

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Substack, very deliberately, tries to have it both ways by saying publications on their platform are independent while presenting them all as parts of Substack

 
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