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5:15 PM ET, January 4, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:
Apple 17-inch MacBook Pro to go Unibody, sans removable battery (Silver-Zinc replacement?)  —  Our folks in Asia are at it again with some pretty startling news.  The 17-inch MacBook Pro is going Unibody, like the 13-inch and 15-inch models.  That, in itself isn't really that big of a deal; it was widely expected.
RELATED:
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Sources: 17-inch MacBook Pro, NVIDIA Mac mini due shortly  —  Apple as early as Tuesday will introduce a 17-inch MacBook Pro with a fixed internal battery and a new version of the Mac mini, both of which will feature chipsets from NVIDIA, AppleInsider has been able to independently confirm.
Discussion: MacRumors and MacBlogz
BIZ / Twitter Blog:
Gone Phishing  —  Wikipedia defines phishing as “the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.”  Tonight, we identified …
RELATED:
David Leppard / Times of London:
Police set to step up hacking of home PCs  —  THE Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people's personal computers without a warrant.  —  The move, which follows a decision by the European Union's council of ministers in Brussels …
TechRadar.com:
Marissa Mayer on the future of Google  —  Interview: “It's really important to move beyond just keywords”  —  Pretty much every product that Google works on has to go through gatekeeper Marissa Mayer, who decides whether it's ready to be released or needs more work.
Discussion: Beyond Search
John Battelle / John Battelle's Searchblog:
Predictions 2009  —  In each of the past five years I've written a predictions post - usually at year's end or by the first of January.  This one is late, and I'll admit it's because I found it hard to write.  The world is showing itself to be predictable in only one way: bad news begets bad news.
Joseph Tartakoff / The Microsoft Blog:
Claim: Microsoft earned $1.5B from “Vista Capable” PCs  —  An expert estimates Microsoft earned more than $1.5 billion through the sale of PCs labeled as “Vista Capable,” according to a court document.  —  Microsoft allowed PC makers to label some XP-running PCs as “Vista Capable” …
Eric Benderoff / Chicago Tribune:
WiMax edges closer to city  —  Network to deliver fast, wireless Internet may arrive later in year  —  The future of the Internet was supposed to arrive in Chicago by the end of 2008.  Instead, WiMax landed in Baltimore and is heading to Portland.  —  So when will the powerful, high-speed wireless network arrive here?
Sarah McBride / Wall Street Journal:
RIAA Drops MediaSentry  —  In another sign of the music industry's recently announced retreat from a five-year-old antipiracy strategy, the Recording Industry Association of America has dumped the company it used to help it gather evidence for mass lawsuits it filed against people it claimed were illegally uploading copyrighted music.
Alexa Davis / ABCNEWS:
Friended by Mom and Dad on Facebook  —  Students Worry About Parental Snooping, Devise Ways to Protect Privacy  —  The Facebook group entitled “For the love of god — don't let parents join Facebook” has 5,819 high school and college-aged members who want to stop the growing number of parents …
Discussion: Profy, Jezebel, TechSpot and digg.com
PC World:
Samsung to Unveil 7mm Thick TV at CES (PC World)  — Samsung Electronics plans to unveil a flat-panel TV that's as thin as just 6.5-millimeters at this week's International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it said Sunday.  —  The TV set, few details of which were immediately available …
Discussion: Gizmodo and Boy Genius Report
Patrick Smith / paidContent:
Online Or Bust: Why 2009 May Be The Nail In Newspapers' Coffins  —  Optimistic newspaper proprietors like Sly Bailey and Tim Bowdler blame the business' current malaise (we've covered over 1,000 newspaper job losses since October alone) on an advertising downturn that's merely “cyclical”.
 
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 More Items: 
Anne Eisenberg / New York Times:
Bright New Phone Displays That Don't Guzzle Power
Discussion: TECH.BLORGE.com
David Smith / Guardian:
Mobiles give Africa's farmers the chance to set out their stall
Michael Alison Chandler / Washington Post:
More and More, Schools Got Game
Antone Gonsalves / InformationWeek:
Verbatim Unveils Quad-Interface Desktop Hard Drives
Discussion: Engadget and Hardware 2.0
Cara Buckley / New York Times:
Web Site Points the Way to Where Drinks Are on the House
Wolfgang Gruener / TG Daily:
14% of SSL certificates on the Internet potentially unsafe
Discussion: Neowin.net and digg.com
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
Hustler Hires Media Protector to Chase Online Porn Pirates
Discussion: XBIZ, Neowin.net and digg.com
 Earlier Items: 
Jose Fermoso / Gadget Lab:
Our 12 (Or So) Favorite Techy Cartoons of 2008
Discussion: CrunchGear and digg.com
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Power Twitter: Inline Media, Integrated Search And A Lot More
Discussion: /Message
Markus / The Paradigm Shift:
Its official Match.com Abandons Paid Dating...
David Murphy / PC World:
The iPhone 3G Unlock Chart: Will Your Carrier Work?
Discussion: PalmAddicts
Jim Goldman / MSNBC:
Microsoft Readies Cost-Cuts; Though Massive Layoff Unlikely
Discussion: The Microsoft Blog
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Internal memo: Hearst Magazines president announces layoffs as part of a decision to “reallocate resources” to “continue our focus on digital innovation”

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced she will leave the agency on January 20; she was the first woman to be confirmed to lead the agency

Lachlan Cartwright / The Ankler:
Sources: MSNBC renewed Rachel Maddow's contract early this fall, but with a pay cut; MSNBC bosses' plan to shake up daytime and weekend programming

 
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