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1:00 PM ET, December 31, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
30GB Zunes Failing Everywhere, All At Once  —  Right, so this is a weird one: we're getting tons of reports—tons—about failing Zune 30s.  Apparently, the players began freezing at about midnight last night, becoming totally unresponsive and practically useless.
RELATED:
Paul Davidson / Official Zune Insider Blog and Podcast:
30 gb zune issue update  —  We were made aware of a widespread issue facing owners of Zune 30 devices this morning.  We have a technical team working hard to isolate the issue right now and will update everyone as much as possible.  Thanks for your patience while we get to the bottom of this.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Large Form iPod Touch To Launch in Fall '09  —  We've got this from three independent sources close to Apple: expect a large screen iPod touch device to be released in the Fall of '09, with a 7 or 9 inch screen.  Prototypes have been seen and handled by one of our sources, and Apple is talking to OEMs in Asia now about mass production.
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Local yogurt store tells blogger that Steve Jobs is “in great health”  —  Amid a flurry of (disputed) reports and rumors about Apple chief executive Steve Jobs' “rapidly declining health,” blogger Robert Scoble did some field work to dig for the truth today.
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Dell shuffles management deck; Focuses on global units  —  Dell ended 2008 with a management shakeup.  —  The company said Wednesday that it has realigned its business to focus on four global groups: Large enterprise, public, small and medium sized business and consumer, which is already set up as a global unit.
Discussion: Business Wire and CNET News
RELATED:
Dell:
Dell Globalizes Business Groups Around Major Customer Segments
Om Malik / NewTeeVee:
Viacom to Take Jon Stewart, MTV & SpongeBob Off The Air on Time Warner Cable Networks  —  What would happen to New York if The Daily Show went off the air?  Where would hipsters get their daily Moment of Zen?  No Spongebob Squarepants either - which means the Upper East side mommies would actually have to talk to their kids.
RELATED:
Owen Thomas / Gawker:
Marissa Mayer's 2009 Resolution: Leave Google  —  What will Google be like without Marissa Mayer, the glamour nerd whose goofy laugh so neatly captures the search engine's adolescent awkwardness?  We'll know soon.  We hear the company's 19th employee is planning her goodbye.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Google's Top Ten Products (More Or Less)  —  Can you name Google's top ten products?  If you look at how Quantcast ranks Google's subdomains, you can get a sense of which Google products are the most popular, since they each have their own subdomain.  Google's main search engine tops the list …
Discussion: Search Engine Land
Steven Sande / TUAW:
Rumor Watch: New Mac mini go for launch  —  When it comes to the Mac mini, there are people out there who know everything there is to know... and now, those savvy sources are telling TUAW that they are confident a new Mac mini is set to be announced at Macworld Expo 2009 next week.
Discussion: AppleInsider, MacRumors and SlashGear
Joey deVilla / Global Nerdy:
The Air Force's Rules of Engagement for Blogging  —  You've probably seen many articles on companies and organizations saying that they take social media seriously.  Here's one such organization that you might not expect: the United States Air Force.  Take a look at the Air Force Blog Assessment chart, reproduced below:
Discussion: Web Strategy
9 to 5 Mac:
Macworld 2009 Announcemnt: iWork '09 goes Cloud  —  We just got a truckload of Macworld information dumped on us from our best source.  As we piece it together we'll trickle it out.  The first big piece of information is that iWork is going into the Cloud.  Not just storage, either.
Discussion: MacRumors
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Hulu: Turns Out We Didn't Miss Sarah Palin So Much, After All  —  File under “interesting and a bit surprising”: Earlier this month I cited comScore data that showed that traffic to red-hot Hulu had fallen off from October to November.  That made sense, because the site had shown a huge spike due …
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Guardian:
Private firm may track all email and calls  —  The private sector will be asked to manage and run a communications database that will keep track of everyone's calls, emails, texts and internet use under a key option contained in a consultation paper to be published next month by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary.
Discussion: TechCrunch UK, The Register and open
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Turns Out You Can't Sue SexSearch.com If The Girl You Met Via It Is Underage  —  Another day, another case where someone tried to blame a website for the actions of its users.  In this case, a guy used the website SexSearch (seriously) to find someone to have sex with (ah, the internet...).
David Cancel:
Announcing Ghostery  —  Ghostery is a FireFox Add-on that analyzes the page you're on and shows you if it contains any web bugs.  —  Ghostery originally started out as GreaseMonkey script I created last year called Invisible Web.  Turning it into a Firefox extension made it a bit …
Ylan Q. Mui / Washington Post:
A Few Popular Presents Rise Above Recession  —  The presents have been unwrapped, the tree taken down.  And Santa still hasn't brought you that Wii.  —  Don't worry.  You are not alone.  —  Despite the economic gloom and doom that saddled this Christmas shopping season …
Discussion: /Message
Damian Koh / CNET News:
The Storm is a Netbook, says RIM's founder  —  WATERLOO, Canada—Even as the weather drop to sub-zero temperatures and snow powders Research In Motion's campus in Waterloo, Mike Lazaridis certainly didn't feel it.  The company's founder and co-CEO carries into a meeting room a little black box …
Alan Abbey / E-Media Tidbits:
Gaza Battles on Twitter, Blogs  —  I wish I could say that Twitter is providing useful, on-the-ground, independent reports of the Israeli military action in Gaza and the Hamas bombing of southern Israel.  But all I have found there so far — in English, from individual tweeters …
Rob Bushway / GottaBeMobile.com:
OQO To Debut Model 2+ With 1.86 Intel Atom, Touch At CES, Digital Experience  —  As an attendee of Digital Experience, I just got a list of vendors planning to present at Digital Experience emailed to me; and, what do I find but this little nugget of info listing OQO as a presenter …
Ben Robinson / IntoMobile:
Spatial View Introduces New Wazabee 3DeeShell for Vivid Stereoscopic 3D Graphics on the iPhone  —  Spatial View, a leader in manufacturing products for creating 3D effects, introduces its latest product, Wazabee 3DeeShell, a special protective skin with an integrated removable lens …
Discussion: iPhone Buzz
 
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 More Items: 
Antone Gonsalves / InformationWeek:
SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Prepped For Storage
James Falconer / IntoMobile:
‘Curse of Silence’ Bug Does Nasty Things to Nokia S60 Devices
Discussion: Computerworld and mobilesyrup.com
Avram Piltch / LAPTOP Mag:
Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds
Discussion: SlashGear and Engadget
Alana Semuels / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Texting while driving: everything you need to know about the new law
Discussion: TechFlash, AppScout and All Points Blog
David Barboza / New York Times:
Chinese Court Jails 11 in Microsoft Piracy Ring
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
 Earlier Items: 
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Apple's first D.C. store facing repeated opposition
Discussion: CrunchGear and Oatmeal Stout
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
Why Facebook Opted for Platform Growth Over Platform Monetization in 2008
Discussion: Technosailor.com
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Wikipedia's new plea for donations stirs skepticism
Discussion: digg.com
Om Malik / GigaOM:
The Sequoia Layoff Scorecard
Discussion: HipMojo.com
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
DirecTV terminates its Dish acquisition after a group of Dish creditors rejected a modified bond exchange offer

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

Gene Maddaus / Variety:
WGA East members working for PBS member stations reach a deal, averting a strike; the union says the deal expands protections to animation writers

 
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