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12:25 AM ET, December 16, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:
Rumor: New Mac Mini Coming to Macworld 2009  —  Apple will launch an upgrade to its low-end desktop, the Mac Mini, at January's Macworld Expo in San Francisco, according to an Apple corporate employee who contacted Wired.com.  —  The source, who wished to remain anonymous (to keep his job) …
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Apple Loses Shine as Mac Sales Slow  —  PC Maker Eschews Discounts Even as Rivals Slash Prices and Consumers Pull Back; Worries for 2009  —  Even Apple Inc. is beginning to suffer in this year's dismal holiday season, and worries are mounting the recession will weigh on its business next year.
Discussion: Edible Apple
Aidan Malley / AppleInsider:
Mac mini makeover considered likely for Macworld
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac
Apple:
About the Mac OS X 10.5.6 Update  —  The Mac OS X 10.5.6 Update is recommended for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard versions 10.5, 10.5.1, 10.5.2, 10.5.3, 10.5.4, and 10.5.5.  It includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.  —  Installation recommendations
RELATED:
9 to 5 Mac:
10.5.6 here...snappieness™ ensues  —  10.5.6 is out, go grab it from Software update (377mb here!) or via the standalone installer.  —  Here are the details or check below.  It looks like there are many performance improvements in this one!  Yes, we are feeling the snappieness™, are you?
Edward Kirk / iPhone Alley:
Warning: Mac Update 10.5.6 Breaks DFU Mode For iPhone, iPod Touch  —  in - news - DFU mode - hacking - iPhone Dev Team - iTunes - Mac - PwnageTool - QuickPwn - Software Updates - unlocking  —  Mac users with a hacked iPhone or iPod touch should beware: Apple released update 10.5.6 for Mac OS X over the weekend.
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac and TUAW
Erica Sadun / Infinite Loop:
Breaking: 10.5.6 update disables direct iPhone Pwnage jailbreak
Discussion: InformationWeek and OhGizmo!
Yahoo! Developer Network Blog:
Yahoo! Mail rolls out a smarter inbox  —  You may have seen today's news announcing the next generation of Yahoo! Mail — rolling out a “smarter inbox"experience to users.  One way to make an inbox smarter: make applications that can work within it, opening up Yahoo! Mail to content and services built outside the Yahoo! network.
RELATED:
Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:
Yahoo Announces Next Steps in Open Strategy  —  Yahoo has invited the press to an event in San Francisco today where it will announce the next steps in its open strategy (details found here).  —  As GigaOm speculated over the weekend, we should be hearing details about the deployment of applications on Yahoo Mail.
Ryan / Yahoo! Mail Blog:
Take a tour of Yahoo! Mail's new smarter inbox
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Yahoo Mail, other properties get more social, open
Discussion: SitePoint and Bits
Mussie Shore / The Official Google Blog:
@Twitter: Welcome to Google Friend Connect  —  We know many of you enjoy using Twitter to see what people are talking about and to let others know what you've been up to, whether it's sharing a YouTube video or checking in on your friend's tweets.  To help you and your Twitter network stay connected …
RELATED:
Anil Dash / Movable Type:
The Web is in Motion via Movable Type Pro
Discussion: TechCrunch
Times of London:
Revealed: Amazon staff punished for being ill  —  Amazon, Britain's most popular website for Christmas shopping, is making its staff work seven days a week and threatening them with the sack if they take time off sick.  —  The company charges among the lowest prices for products ranging …
Deborah Gage / San Francisco Chronicle:
Google off list of 20 most trusted companies  —  (12-14) 16:40 PST SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook, Apple, Yahoo, Verizon and FedEx for the first time have made an annual ranking of the top 20 most trusted companies in the United States.  —  Google, however, dropped off the list …
Associated Press:
Hasbro dropping suit against makers of Facebook game Scrabulous  —  NEW YORK — Hasbro is dropping its lawsuit against the makers of a popular online version of board game Scrabble.  —  According to documents filed in U.S. District Court in New York, Hasbro dropped the lawsuit Friday.
Discussion: paidContent.org and CNET News
RELATED:
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Hasbro Finally Drops Scrabulous Suit
Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog
Janna Anderson Lee Rainie / Pew Internet:
The Future of the Internet III  —  A survey of internet leaders, activists and analysts shows they expect major tech advances as the phone becomes a primary device for online access, voice-recognition improves, artificial and virtual reality become more embedded in everyday life, and the architecture of the internet itself improves.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
The Extraordinary Happenings At BitTorrent  —  “I have never seen anything like this” said a corporate law partner at a large silicon valley law firm.  He was referring to the undoing of a $17 million venture round at BitTorrent and subsequent recapitalization that we reported yesterday.
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
Facebook's new value: $1.3 billion?  —  With more than 120 million users, Mark Zuckerberg's social network continues to grow, kudzu-like.  And yet it is worth far less today than the $15 billion it commanded a year ago.  Why is that?  —  One could talk about Facebook's fast-growing headcount …
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Dimitris Pagkalos / XSSed syndication:
New highly critical Facebook XSS vulnerabilities pose serious privacy risks  —  Facebook users are susceptible to phishing attacks and ID theft due to some new highly critical cross-site scripting vulnerabilities.  —  Security researchers Zeitjak, David Wharton, Daimon and p3lo …
Discussion: All Facebook and Zero Day
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
The myth of the 99-cent killer app  —  Stung by criticism from frustrated developers, Apple (AAPL) redesigned its increasingly crowded iPhone App Store last Friday to showcase the most popular paid applications in each category — Books, Business, Games, etc. (See here.)
Discussion: Macworld, CNET News and Infinite Loop
Financial Times:
Ex-Vodafone chief set to rule out Yahoo move  —  By Andrew Parker in London and Chris Nuttall in San Francisco  —  Arun Sarin, the former head of Vodafone (pictured left) has decided not to pursue the possibility of becoming the next chief executive of Yahoo.
John Cook / TechFlash:
BlueKai gets $10.5 million to help advertisers target shoppers  —  In these tough economic times, not many startups are raising funds, especially at higher valuations than previous venture capital rounds.  But Bellevue-based BlueKai, a 13-person startup led by online advertising executive Omar Tawakol …
Discussion: paidContent.org
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Amazon's MP3 Store, One Year In: No iTunes Killer; Probably Won't Be  —  Amazon has been selling digital music from all the big music labels for nearly a year now.  It's the first major challenge to Apple's hammer lock on that business.  So how did it do?  —  If you view Amazon's MP3 store …
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Portland Gets WiMAX Service  —  Web surfers in the Pacific Northwest will soon join the denizens of Baltimore, Md., in their ability to get WiMAX service.  Although those in Baltimore are still surfing under the old Xohm brand offered by Sprint, Clearwire plans to launch …
Discussion: Brier Dudley's blog
Brian Cornell / Google Mobile Blog:
Your Maps in Your Hands for the Holidays  —  Just in time for the holidays I'm proud to present to you My Maps Editor by Google, now available for download in Android Market!  In just four months of my 20% time and with a little help from the 20% time of my coworkers this application has gone …
Discussion: Unwired View and WebProNews
 
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 More Items: 
internetnews.com:
Apple, Oracle Lead Tech Stocks Lower
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
Tina Reinvents the Web
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Frank Quaratiello / Boston Herald:
Boston author Ben Mezrich pens tale of Facebook's founders
Discussion: The Social, All Facebook and Gawker
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0:
AMD's new dual-core Athlon processors
Discussion: eWeek and The Register
Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
Hyper-Local News Service Outside.In Grows
Discussion: VentureBeat
Associated Press:
Blogger pleads guilty to G N' R leak
Cory Bohon / TUAW:
Walmart creates iPhone compatible site
Discussion: Appletell
 Earlier Items: 
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Let Your Boss Find Your Facebook Friends
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Microsoft Sales Vet Leaves, After Consolidation Post-Qi Lu Hire
Ted Dziuba / The Register:
Native Client d**k-swinging met with fake Googasm
Mark Wilson / Gizmodo:
PS Home Hacked, But the Door Was Wide Open
Scott Rosenberg / Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard:
Google Blog Search loses its bearings
Ed Sperling / Forbes:
Recession Predictions  —  Some Silicon Valley execs forecast …
 

 
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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