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3:05 PM ET, January 14, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Globe and Mail:
Nortel to file for bankruptcy protection  —  Facing $107-million interest on debts, former telecom giant will likely be broken up and sold to foreign rivals  —  Former technology titan Nortel Networks Corp. is expected to file for bankruptcy protection as early as today, sources say …
RELATED:
Nortel:
NORTEL COMMENCES COMPREHENSIVE BUSINESS AND FINANCIAL RESTRUCTURING  —  Company to Utilize CCAA and Chapter 11 Processes  —  Operations Expected to Continue Without Interruption  —  Sufficient Cash on Hand to Fund Ongoing Operations  —  Affiliates in Asia, including LG Nortel …
Arn / MacRumors:
Apple Allows 3rd Party Web Browsers into App Store  —  Over the past 24 hours, Apple has begun to approve 3rd party web browsing applications for the iPhone.  A number of new web browsing apps have suddenly appeared with original submission dates ranging as far back as October.
RELATED:
Stan Schroeder / Mashable!:
YouTube Now Mutes Videos With Unauthorized Copyrighted Music  —  Perhaps this has been going on for a while, but I've never noticed it before.  YouTube users often create an original video using their favorite popular song as the audio.  I'm afraid that they won't be able to do that much longer …
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:   YouTube Full Of Creepy, Soundless Music Videos
Arn / MacRumors:
Snow Leopard to Bring Unifying ‘Marble’ User Interface?  —  Last year, Apple announced that they will be releasing the next major revision of Mac OS X (10.6 Snow Leopard) in 2009.  The focus of Snow Leopard has been on performance and quality of the underlying codebase rather than introducing new end-user features.
Discussion: AppleInsider, 9 to 5 Mac and TUAW
Matt Richtel / New York Times:
A Text Arrives.  Oh, It's Just an ‘Idol’ Ad.  —  Some AT&T Wireless customers have voted an emphatic no on a promotion for “American Idol” that popped up on their phones this week.  —  AT&T, a sponsor of the show, said it sent text messages to a “significant number” of its 75 million customers …
Nick Farrell / Inquirer:
Windows 7 is enough to kill Linux on the desktop  —  First INQpressions Should damage Apple too  —  FOR THE PAST three years I have been a Linux fan-boy using Ubuntu most of the time and Windows XP when I needed to play games or run CS desktop lay out stuff.
Discussion: Open Source
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Ginx: Pierre Omidyar's Stealthy New Social Recommendation Service  —  eBay founder Pierre Omidyar has joined the executive team of a stealthy new startup called Ginx, according to financial filings unearthed by PEHub.  Very little is known about the company but based on passing whispers …
RELATED:
Dan Primack / PE Hub Blog:
Pierre Omidyar's Next Venture?
Discussion: Jobwire and Pulse2
Steven Musil / CNET News:
Blockbuster to offer video downloads  —  In an effort to keep pace with rival Netflix, Blockbuster announced a partnership Wednesday to offer instant access to its video library through various home and portable devices.  —  The movie rental company has partnered with Sonic Solutions to offer …
RELATED:
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Blockbuster claims to open the distribution floodgates …
Google Webmaster Central Blog:
A new Google Sitemap Generator for your website  —  It's been well over three years since we initially announced the Python Sitemap generator in June 2005.  In this time, we've seen lots of people create great third-party Sitemap generators to help webmasters create better Sitemap files.
Priya Ganapati / Gadget Lab:
Dell Plans Its Own Smartphone, Analysts Say  —  The new Palm Pre may be the most-anticipated new phone since the iPhone 3G, but there's yet another new player on the way: PC maker Dell may be readying its own smartphone, to arrive as early as next month.  —  Dell could make an announcement …
Cade Metz / The Register:
Brit porn filter censors 13 years of net history  —  Demon blacklist muzzles Wayback Machine  —  Four weeks after birthing a nationwide Wikipedia edit ban, Britain's child porn blacklist has led at least one ISP to muzzle the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine - an 85-billion-page web history dating back to 1996.
Adam Lashinsky / Go West:
Would Seagate go private again?  —  Just before the new year a Silicon Valley financial type pointed out to me that August Capital, an old-line but quiet venture firm, had invested twice in disc-drive leader Seagate (STX), once as a venture investment and again alongside Silver Lake and TPG in a going-private transaction in 2000.
Discussion: Postcards
RELATED:
Jeffrey M. O'Brien / Fortune:   Ousted Seagate CEO provocative to the end
Matt Casamassina / IGN:
Rumor: DSi U.S. Launch Date, Price Revealed  —  Nintendo's next-generation handheld may be coming to America sooner than you think.  —  Multiple sources close to Nintendo tell IGN that the company is gearing up to debut the anticipated successor to its DS Lite handheld during the first half of this year in America.
Dan Primack / PE Hub Blog:
Kleiner Perkins Re-Raising Multiple Funds  —  Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers is very concerned about the lack of liquidity options for current portfolio companies, and peHUB has learned that it is taking steps to ensure an abundance of dry powder.  —  The landmark VC firm …
Discussion: VentureBeat
Nathan Eddy / eWeek:
United Airlines to Offer In-Flight Wi-Fi  —  Resource Library:  —  United Airlines follows Delta and American Airlines in announcing in-flight Wi-Fi, through AirCell's Gogo Inflight Internet service, on select transcontinental flights.  —  Many small business owners regard flying as lost time …
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
The Netbook Hackintosh Video Apple Is Suing Wired For  —  Gadget Lab writer and Giz friend Brian X. Chen reveals via Twitter that Apple “is suing Wired for my video tutorial on hacking netbooks to run Mac OS X.”  —  Brian actually loaned his personal MSI Wind Hackintosh for the Giz Gallery.
John P. Falcone / Crave: The gadget blog:
Control your TiVo via text message with Kwiry  —  We already knew that text messaging service Kwiry could do some cool tricks via text messaging—things like adding products to your Amazon wish list or adding movies to your Netflix queue.  But now the service is adding rudimentary TiVo control to the list.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Why Do We Still Let Webmail Services Get Away With Deleting Our Data?  —  It's 2009.  Storage is so cheap that Email providers like Yahoo are literally giving you as much space as you want.  Yet we still have to deal with archaic policies that allow these Email providers to delete everything …
Discussion: The Open Road and CenterNetworks
Amanda Kelly / Inside AdWords:
New Features for your Local Business Ads  —  Since 2006, AdWords local business ads have been connecting your business with local customers.  Today, we're excited to announce some upcoming new features for local business ads, making it faster and easier for potential customers to find your business.
Pal Takacsi / Gmail Blog:
New in Labs: Send & Archive  —  In addition to having two cappuccinos, my morning routine includes processing new mail that's arrived in my inbox overnight.  More often than not, as I reply to a message I also want to archive it so I can enjoy the satisfaction of a pristine inbox.
Discussion: VentureBeat and InformationWeek
Don Reisinger / The Digital Home:
Want to eliminate Psystar?  License Mac OS X  —  Psystar, the homegrown computer vendor selling its brand of Open Computers with Mac OS X installed, is back in the news this week, thanks to another court filing claiming it can do whatever it wants, courtesy of the first-sale doctrine.
Discussion: Infinite Loop and MacDailyNews
Flora Graham / BBC:
Gaza crisis spills onto the web  —  A propaganda war between supporters of Israel and Palestine is being waged on the internet.  —  Activists have turned to defacing websites, taking over computers, and shutting down Facebook groups.  —  US Military sites, Nato, and an Israeli Bank have all been targeted in recent days.
Discussion: paidContent
Paul Miller / The Semantic Web:
Thomson Reuters bets on Content remaining King with Calais 4.0  —  Global information behemoth Thomson Reuters today announces the latest version of its Calais web service, delivering on earlier promises with respect to ‘Linked Data’ and firmly staking out the company's intention …
 
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 More Items: 
Reuters:
Toshiba in Talks to Buy Fujitsu's Hard Disk Drive Business
Discussion: Bloomberg
John Resig / jQuery Blog:
JQUERY 1.3 AND THE JQUERY FOUNDATION  —  Happy Birthday to jQuery! …
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and Ajaxian
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Did you correctly predict Hubdub's round of funding?
Discussion: TechCrunch UK, Guardian and paidContent
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Investment firm believes Apple's building 4GB iPhones
Discussion: Electronista and GPS Obsessed
Emil Protalinski / One Microsoft Way:
Testers get more details on Office 14, likely coming in 2010
Discussion: Technologizer and Electronista
Spencer / Siliconera:
Nintendo Developing A Direction Sensing DS Card? (Update)
Discussion: Kotaku, GoNintendo and Gearlog
 Earlier Items: 
Colin Barras / New Scientist:
Why the Mediterranean is the Achilles' heel of the web
John Leyden / The Register:
RIM squashes BlackBerry PDF peril
Discussion: Zero Day
Gillian Reagan / New York Observer:
It's Geek to You, but Not to Them: Meet the Early Adopters
Sandisk:
SANDISK AND LG ELECTRONICS FIRST TO DEMONSTRATE NEXT-GENERATION …
Discussion: IntoMobile and Phone Scoop
Tim Ferguson / ZDNet:
Gartner CIO advice: The good, the bad and the plain odd
Michael McWhertor / Kotaku:
Rumor: EA Shuts Down Pandemic Studios Down Under
Discussion: Joystiq
Rebecca Reisner / Business Week:
Comcast's Twitter Man