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8:50 AM ET, January 9, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Palm Pre in-depth impressions, video, and huge hands-on gallery  —  We just sat down with Palm for a more in-depth look at the device, and here are our takeaways.  First off, the software and hardware they're showing right now aren't the final versions.  They're updating and tweaking as we speak …
RELATED:
Matt Richtel / New York Times:
Palm Unveils iPhone Competitor, the Pre  —  LAS VEGAS — Seeking to revive its sharply fallen fortunes and produce a successor to its aging Treo device, Palm on Thursday unveiled a new smartphone, the Pre, and an exclusive partnership with Sprint to distribute it.
Steve O'Hear / last100:
Have we just witnessed the second coming of Palm?  —  Ex-Engadget editor Ryan Block put it best when he said that Palm's much anticipated CES announcement “will either mark the beginning of the company's second coming — or the beginning of the end.”  Thankfully, for those like me who were rooting for Palm …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Can Pre Save Palm From Being Put Out to Pasture?  —  Today, after a nearly year-long delay, Palm announced WebOS, a brand-new web-centric mobile operating system, and the Palm Pre, its first WebOS-powered device.  With this twin release of seemingly cutting edge products, Sunnyvale …
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Chrome 2.0 Pre-Beta  —  Google Chrome's development is high-paced and version numbers are not very significant, but it's weird to see a pre-beta release of Chrome 2.0, four months after Chrome 0.2.  There are many new things in Chrome 2.0:  —  * form autocomplete …
RELATED:
Ian Fette / Chromium Blog:
Google Chrome Release Channels
Discussion: VentureBeat
Wall Street Journal:
Yahoo Nears End of CEO Search  —  Yahoo Inc. is in the final stretch of its search for a chief executive officer, and a decision could come as soon as next week, said people close to the Internet company.  —  Among candidates still under consideration is Carol Bartz, the former chief executive officer …
Datamation:
How China's ‘50 Cent Army’ Could Wreck Web 2.0  —  Two years ago, Chinese President Hu Jintao called on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members to “assert supremacy over online public opinion, raise the level and study the art of online guidance and actively use new technologies to increase the strength of positive propaganda.”
Discussion: Beyond Search
Jason D. O'Grady / The Apple Core:
Four core iPhones and firmware 3.0  —  One of the most interesting rumors I've been tracking here at Macworld Expo in San Francisco surrounds the mysterious four-core iPhone.  While the current iPhone has (roughly) the processing power of the Sony PSP, an upgraded four core iPhone …
Discussion: The iPhone Blog, TG Daily and MacRumors
Stephanie Clifford / New York Times:
For BlackBerry, Obama's Devotion Is Priceless  —  This week, Michael Phelps signed a deal worth more than $1 million to advertise Mazda in China.  Jerry Seinfeld earned a reported $10 million to appear in Microsoft's recent television campaign.  —  But the person who may be the biggest celebrity pitchman …
Joel Hruska / Ars Technica:
AMD's Phenom II could mark company turnaround  —  AMD's 45nm Phenom II (codenamed Deneb) has the dubious honor of being what may be the most immediately anticipated processor, ever.  Even before AMD had finished shoveling its original Phenom out the door, the company was talking up 45nm Shanghai …
Amazon Web Services Blog:
Manage Amazon EC2 With New Web-Based AWS Management Console  —  Today we're announcing the availability of the Web-based AWS Management Console, which in this first release provides management of your Amazon EC2 environment via a point-and-click interface.  A number of management tools already exist …
Discussion: CNET News and CloudAve
Chaim / About Skype:
Skype Launches on Android Platform and more than 100 Java-Enabled Mobile Phones  —  Updated Beta version of Skype offered for millions worldwide to load onto their mobile phones  —  LAS VEGAS (CES BOOTH: HILTON #5121), January 8, 2009 - Skype today announced the release of a lite version of Skype&trade …
Jacob Schulman / Engadget:
Coby's sub-$200 netbooks handled at CES  —  Remember those sub-$100 Coby netbooks that we deemed a hoax?  Well, it looks like they might not be as hoax-y as we originally thought.  Here at CES, Coby has a bunch of base models on the show floor in a myriad of color combos.
Benjamin J. Romano / Microsoft Pri0:
CES: Ford Sync, a Ford feature with lots of local hands involved  —  LAS VEGAS — The Sync in-vehicle information and entertainment is one thing that's gone right for Ford as automakers have struggled mightily with the recession.  The company is rolling out a third generation of Sync …
Discussion: TechFlash
RELATED:
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
CES: Live Blogging Ford CEO Alan Mulally
Discussion: Associated Press, Gearlog and Digits
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Stop chatting!  Facebook shuts up IM integration with Meebo  —  Instant message aggregator Meebo integrated MySpace's and Facebook's chat services last month.  It let Meebo users chat with friends on either site from within Meebo.  Now Facebook is making Meebo turn its connection off …
Lester Haines / The Register:
‘Kidnapped’ child tracked by mobile phone and Street View  —  Cops cuff grandmother following tech dragnet  —  A “kidnapped” nine-year-old Massachusetts girl is safely back at home after a team effort by an enterprising local cop and deputy fire chief which exploited the signal from her mobile phone …
John Timmer / Ars Technica:
Report: Gmail about one-third as expensive as hosted e-mail  —  What does it cost to host an e-mail account?  It seems like a simple question, but a remarkable number of enterprises surveyed by Forrester had no idea of how to answer that question.  A new report by the research company …
Discussion: PC World
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Ballmer: Google, Google, the economy, Google  —  LAS VEGAS—Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer arrived at the Consumer Electronics Show with his usual optimism, but he also brings a clear sense of reality: The tech industry is in for some rough times.  —  “The fact of the matter is, this is not a downturn, this is a bit of a reset.
Discussion: CNET News
Mark Wilson / Gizmodo:
NIMble: $300 Android Desktop Phone Designed by iPhone Engineer  —  We've all heard about the prospects of Android in the mobile-phone market, but the NIMble is an Android phone meant for actual desktops.  —  By Touch Revolution, the NIMble features a 7-inch multitouch screen (800x400) …
Matt Richtel / Bits:
Microsoft: Expect Fewer Phones With Windows  —  Microsoft says it is responding to the fierce competition in the phone market by retooling and beefing up its mobile operating system-and by putting it on fewer devices.  —  Todd Peters, the vice president of marketing for the Windows Mobile division …
Richard Waters / Financial Times:
Microsoft turns up heat on Yahoo  —  Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive officer, has increased the pressure on Yahoo to hand over control of its search business to his software company.  —  Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Ballmer set the stage for a new showdown nearly …
Owen Thomas / Gawker:
Liberal Blogosphere Proves Trivially Easy to Destroy  —  Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one.  After hackers took down SoapBlox, a one-man blog-hosting company which runs local political websites, a silenced liberal commentariat found out how true that was.
Sinead Carew / Reuters:
Touch-screen gadgets alienate blind  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - The craze for touch-screen gadgets, sparked by Apple Inc's popular iPhone, is raising worries that a whole generation of consumer electronics will be out of the reach of the blind.  —  Motown icon Stevie Wonder and other advocates came …
Randy Nelson / Joystiq:
The First Wii: Obama brings video games to the White House  —  When Barack Obama takes office on January 20th, he'll not only be the most powerful man in the world, but also the most powerful gamer.  (Nintendo did give outgoing President Bush a DS and Brain Age some years ago; it's up to you to decide if he ever played it.)
Discussion: Newlaunches.com, Kotaku and Switched
Jon Stokes / Ars Technica:
Palm strikes back with new OS, pré handset at CES  —  At a CES presentation today, Palm announced its next-generation smart phone platform, called webOS.  “It was built with developers in mind,” said Palm CEO Ed Colligan in describing the new platform.
Discussion: Gadget Lab
 
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 More Items: 
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Q&A: Microsoft's Robbie Bach on economy, Zune glitch and iPhone
Cph / Netcraft:
Widespread vulnerabilities found in programs which use OpenSSL
Discussion: Infosecurity.US and SC Magazine US
Chris Mellor / The Register:
SanDisk flashes notebook flash
Discussion: Engadget and eWeek
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
MySpace And Wall Street Journal Partner (?) to Send One MySpacer To Davos
Discussion: VentureBeat, The Social and Digits
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Polaroid PoGo Instant Digital Camera debuts at CES
Discussion: PR Newswire and Gearlog
Nate Elliott / The Forrester Blog …:
The Easiest Way to a First-Page Ranking on Google
Don Reisinger / The Digital Home:
DRM-free iTunes Store to haunt Apple?
Discussion: Edible Apple
David Phillip Oster / Google LatLong:
Flying Through Google Earth at Macworld
 Earlier Items: 
Wendy Davis / MediaPost:
Online Startup Takes On Fox News
Chris Matyszczyk / Technically Incorrect:
What Facebook should have learned from religion
Joanna Glasner / PE Hub Blog:
Startup Valuations Dropped 24% in Q4
Discussion: GPS Obsessed and HipMojo.com
Sam Diaz / Between the Lines:
Reasons to skip Microsoft's Windows 7 Beta download
Discussion: CNN