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11:55 AM ET, January 13, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Fred / A VC:
This News Made Me Smile A Mile Wide  —  Like I do every morning, I logged into Techmeme to find this news:  —  That's an image, sorry about that, here's the link to the WSJ story, but I wanted you all to see how I heard the news.  —  This is so great on so many levels.  Let's start with the first reason.
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Genachowski Picked to Head FCC  —  WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama intends to nominate his technology adviser Julius Genachowski to head the Federal Communications Commission, a source close to the Obama transition team said.  —  Mr. Genachowksi, 46, is a former Harvard Law School classmate of Mr. Obama.
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
New FCC Chief Julius Genachowski A Google Net Neutrality Shill?  —  Former IAC (IACI) counsel and Obama insider Julius Genachowski will be tapped by Barack Obama to run the FCC.  Not a surprising pick: Julius had been working on Obama's transition team, and was once rumored to be in the running for federal CTO, only to be ruled out.
Discussion: eWeek, Technologizer and DSLreports
Cecilia Kang / Washington Post:
Obama Picks Julius Genachowski to Head FCC
Discussion: Gearlog
Nate Lanxon / CNET News:
iTunes Plus: Everything you need to know  —  Apple's iTunes Store is almost completely DRM-free, and will be entirely DRM-free from spring.  This means files downloaded from iTunes work on heaps of devices that aren't from Apple.  What better way to celebrate the final bullet to the living corpse …
RELATED:
David Rothman / TeleRead:   iTunes already using a form of social DRM
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Social Networking: Will Facebook Overtake MySpace In The U.S. In 2009?  —  Year end Comscore numbers for the U.S. audience are out.  The first thing we checked?  How the major social networks are doing.  —  Facebook, which became the largest worldwide social network in mid 2008 …
RELATED:
Julie Masis / Boston Globe:
Is this lawman your Facebook friend?
Discussion: Industry Standard
Reuters:
Sony may suffer first loss in 14 years  —  Slumping sales, strong yen expected to weigh on electronics giant's annual results.  Stock sinks 9%.  —  TOKYO (Reuters) — Japan's Sony Corp will likely suffer an annual operating loss of about $1.1 billion, its first such loss in 14 years …
DigiTimes:
TSMC and UMC likely to receive orders for iPhone nano, says paper  —  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) will likely land chip orders for Apple's low-cost entry-level iPhone nano, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) reported today.
RELATED:
Electronista:
iPhone nano still enroute, but not for US?
Discussion: AppleInsider and Tech Trader Daily
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Confirmed: Delicious Founder Joshua Schachter Joins Google  —  We've confirmed that Joshua Schachter, the founder of Delicious and a Yahoo exec until June 2008, joins a number of ex-Yahoo'ers at cross-town rival Google.  In a phone call Schachter says he hasn't been assigned to a specific project yet …
Brian Mastenbrook:
Disclosure of information vulnerability in Safari  —  I have discovered that Apple's Safari browser is vulnerable to an attack that allows a malicious web site to read files on a user's hard drive without user intervention.  This can be used to gain access to sensitive information stored …
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
How to Get, Install and Play With Windows 7, Pain Free  —  You've been thinking about installing Windows 7 Beta 1 now that it's totally available to anyone.  Well, here's our complete guide to grabbing, installing and playing with Windows 7—it's (mostly) painless, so no excuses!  —  Are You Ready?
Andy Greenberg / Forbes:
Privacy Groups Target Android, Mobile Marketers  —  In a complaint to federal regulators, activists take on the nascent phone-based ad industry.  —  Amid the buzz surrounding the launch of Google's Android mobile platform last September, the search giant hasn't spelled out just how it will squeeze revenue from its new product.
Discussion: GPS Obsessed and mocoNews.net
John Leyden / The Register:
Virus writer signs off in cordial Trojan message to MS  —  So long, and thanks for all the phish  —  An unidentified Russian virus writer has reached out to Microsoft with a message buried within a recent variant of the Zlob Trojan.  The greeting in the malicious code was friendly and cordial …
Discussion: Computerworld
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Revealed: The Times Made Up That Stuff About Google And The Tea Kettles  —  Yesterday an article in The Times of London set the web abuzz over new findings that every Google search contributed 7 grams of CO2 to the atmosphere - half the amount produced when heating a tea kettle (heaven forbid!).
RELATED:
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Look Out For Weak Apple Guidance, iPhone Sales — Citi (AAPL)  —  Apple (AAPL) reports December quarter earnings next Wednesday, so Wall Street's estimate revisions are rolling in.  We'll update our models this week, but for now, we'll share some of the reports we see.
Discussion: Tech Trader Daily
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Mobile Payments Getting Traction On Social Networks, But Fees Are Sky High  —  Users are increasingly choosing dead simple SMS mobile payments for micro-transactions on social network applications and gaming sites (it fills the void while they wait for more direct options), but super-high transaction fees are limiting growth.
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Why You Have To Jailbreak the iPhone  —  If you own an iPhone and you're fairly technical, then you've no doubt gone through the steps necessary to “jailbreak” your iPhone - the process that opens up the phone to allow for the installation of unapproved third-party applications.
Discussion: TheNextWeb.com and digg.com
Stan Schroeder / Mashable!:
How Would You Like Your Own, Personal iPhone App?  —  From InfoMedia, the makers of iFart (an odd reference point, I know, but they obviously know something about creating a popular iPhone app) comes an interesting concept.  —  CEO of InfoMedia Joel Comm claims that the iPhone applications platform …
Discussion: IntoMobile and Profy
Stephen / Berry Reporter:
BlackBerry Curve 8900 Business Launch  —  We just received word from one of our trusted sources that the new BlackBerry Curve 8900 will launch on T-Mobile to Business Customers only on January 19th.  Earlier this month, we reported on the launch date to be February 11th and that still holds true …
John Leyden / The Register:
AVG snaps up behaviour-based threat detection firm  —  Sana move in uncertain times  —  AVG, the net security firm best known for its free-of-charge anti-virus tool, has bought anti-ID theft software firm Sana Security.  Financial terms of the deal, announced Tuesday, were undisclosed.
Discussion: eWeek
Maggie Shiels / BBC:
Digital rights war looms ahead  —  The future of digital entertainment rights could turn into a battleground for control in the coming months.  —  In one corner is Apple, the largest music retailer in the United States.  —  And in the other is DECE, a US consortium of entertainment …
Dusan Belic / IntoMobile:
HTC Iolite leaks again; This time we have a bigger picture  —  Ladies and gents, we have a better picture of the upcoming HTC Iolite.  As you can see from the image above, the device looks pretty neat with that large touchscreen and only few buttons.  What we don't understand, however, are those two buttons located under the display.
Discussion: Mobility Site
Kevin Poulsen / Threat Level:
Hardware Hacker Charged With Selling Cable Modems That Get Free Broadband — Update  —  In the first case of its kind, a Pennsylvania man faces federal criminal charges for allegedly selling hacked cable modems capable of stealing free, anonymous internet service from broadband providers.
Discussion: DSLreports and digg.com
Lester Haines / The Register:
Danish SWAT team surrounds PlayStation shoot-'em-up  —  Apartment block ‘gunfire’ incident  —  A couple of Danish gamers indulging in some light PlayStation shoot-'em-up action were on Saturday night treated to a visit by uniformed blokes carrying real guns after concerned neighbours called in the cops.
 
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 More Items: 
Matt Peckham / PC World:
Could World of Warcraft be a College Class?
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
The taxman cometh? IRS urged to tax virtual worlds, economies
Declan McCullagh / CNET News:
Obama's new BlackBerry: The NSA's secure PDA?
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
The Case Of The Missing Burrito
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Toshiba shows alternatives to iPhone, Netbook
Discussion: MobileDevicesToday
Cade Metz / The Register:
Sun MySQLers barred from Oz
Discussion: Observations
Skip Stein / Baseline:
A New Role for Old Geeks
 Earlier Items: 
Loïc Le Meur / Loic Le Meur Blog:
Just Buy Your Twitter Followers: Here is How.... Google Adsense
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
The Photo Marketplace That Never Launched: Flickr Stock
Discussion: Guardian and SitePoint
Gerrymoth / nokiAAddict.com:
Nokia E71 firmware updated to v200.21.118
David Goldman / CNNMoney.com:
Obama's big idea: Digital health records
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Tech giants team on education push
Discussion: Microsoft Pri0
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
Newsgator Secures $10 Million Sixth Round Funding