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3:25 PM ET, January 15, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:
Steve Jobs Probably Won't Come Back to Apple  —  Steve Jobs' medical leave from Apple is likely to be permanent, analysts say.  —  In a letter to Apple staff on Wednesday, Jobs said he was taking a five-month medical leave because his health issues are “more complex than I originally thought.”
RELATED:
Saul Hansell / Bits:
What If Steve Jobs Doesn't Come Back to Work?  —  We don't know what's wrong with Steven P. Jobs, Apple's chief executive.  But it's got to be serious.  You don't take a six-month leave of absence, as he is, just because you've got a stomachache.  —  So that raises the question …
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google Ends Google Video Uploads, Shutters Notebook, Catalog Search, Dodgeball & Jaiku  —  Google's announced they're closing or ceasing development of a variety of products as part of an already continuing move to keep efforts focused on other products with greater usage.
RELATED:
Vic Gundotra / Google Code Blog:
Changes for Jaiku and Farewell to Dodgeball and Mashup Editor
Bloomberg:
Apple's Cook Pushes Staff in Lieu of Jobs's Magic  —  A A A  —  Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. founder and Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs is prone to fits of passion, table pounding and screaming.  —  Tim Cook, who will oversee the company while Jobs takes medical leave, never raises his voice.
RELATED:
Nick Wingfield / Digits:
When Steve Jobs Met Tim Cook  —  For the next six months , Steve Jobs has asked Tim Cook run Apple while Jobs convalesces.  For Cook, that must feel a little like getting the keys to dad's Porsche.  For Jobs, it suggests he's confident Cook won't drive the company into a ditch.
Priya Ganapati / Gadget Lab:
Meet Tim Cook: The Man in Charge of Apple
Discussion: Between the Lines and Apple 2.0
Joe Nocera / Executive Suite:
It's Time for Apple to Come Clean  —  Last week, when Steve Jobs announced that his recent weight loss was due to “a hormone imbalance,” I got calls from reporters and others (which, I must admit, I ducked) asking me if that was the medical problem he had confessed to when he and I had had …
RELATED:
Brian Caulfield / Forbes:
Lawsuits Could Fly Over Jobs' Exit
Discussion: Gawker and The Mac Observer
Zach Spear / AppleInsider:
Lawsuits against Apple likely in light of Jobs' latest disclosure
Rebecca Buckman / Forbes:
The Exacting Standards Of Carol Bartz  —  The turnaround at automated design software firm Autodesk gives hints of how Bartz will manage Yahoo!  —  When Carol Bartz swept into the chief executive's suite at tech firm Autodesk in 1992, she took over a classic, chaotic engineers' paradise.
Discussion: Computerworld Blogs
RELATED:
John C Abell / Epicenter:
Bartz Says ‘Gut’ Against Microsoft Search Deal.  Nicely Played ...  It could be that freshly-minted Yahoo CEO Bartz still hasn't drunk the Kool Aid when she says things like she's in no hurry to sell the company's search business to Microsoft — and that her “gut” tells her it isn't a good idea anyway.
Wall Street Journal:
Departing Yahoo President Has History of Missteps  —  On Monday night, outgoing Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Jerry Yang delivered some tough news to Yahoo President Susan Decker: The Yahoo board had picked someone else as its new CEO.  On Tuesday, Ms. Decker announced her plans to resign …
WebOS Arena:
Best Buy to be Palm Pre's exclusive retailer  —  We received news from a credible source that BestBuy Mobile will be getting an exclusive deal with Sprint for the Palm Pre release.  For 60 days the number one consumer electronics retailer will be the only place where you can get your hands on the Palm Pre, besides Sprint of course.
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Fake Steve Jobs Banned From CNBC*  —  Newsweek's Dan Lyons — “Fake Steve Jobs” — is banned from CNBC because of his appearance on the cable network earlier this evening, a source close to the situation tells us.  —  Update: CNBC denies banning Dan, defends Jim Goldman.
RELATED:
Aidan Malley / AppleInsider:
Apple seeks trademark on “OS X” without the “Mac”  —  Seemingly cementing a move first hinted at during the World Wide Developers Conference, Apple has filed for a trademark for its OS X operating system but without the “Mac” prefix that has accompanied the name since its inception.
Emil Protalinski / One Microsoft Way:
Leaked: First Office 14 screenshots  —  It didn't take long this time, either.  Earlier this week, testers received alpha builds of Office 14, the codename for the successor to Office 2007.  One tester from Russian site wzor.net has now leaked the screenshots of the applications included in the productivity suite.
Kelly Fiveash / The Register:
Mozilla delays third Firefox 3.1 beta  —  Pesky bugs stall progress  —  Mozilla Corporation has pushed back the release of the third, and possibly final, beta for Firefox 3.1 by a week to allow the firm to fix some bugs in the upcoming version of its open source browser.
Discussion: Open Source
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Judge calls RIAA objections “specious,” will stream hearing  —  A federal judge has agreed to a novel request: streaming parts of an upcoming file-sharing trial over the Internet.  Judge Nancy Gertner has granted the request of Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson and students to put the gavel …
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Wikipedia Celebrates 8th Birthday With New Tech for the Future  —  Few websites have made a bigger impact on the world than Wikipedia has and today the organization is celebrating its 8th birthday.  Not content to rest on its laurels, Wikipedia is gearing up for the future …
YouTube Blog:
Coming Up Next... YouTube on Your TV  —  Have you ever wanted to just sit on your couch and watch YouTube on your TV?  Well, now that's possible via YouTube for Television, initially available through the Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii game consoles at www.youtube.com/tv.
Discussion: TechCrunch, WebProNews and Mashable!
AndroidGuys:
Dream G2 Shows “Android” with Graffiti Text, Stylus Support (VIDEO)  —  We happened across a video this evening which shows the Dream G2 phone.  You know, the one coming from China... The one that looks like it would end up more fantasy or nightmare.  Well it looks like it's a little more tangible than we expected.
Dusan Belic / IntoMobile:
PerfectStorm theme makes your iPhone look like the BlackBerry Storm  —  Here's a cool theme for BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM)-to-iPhone switchers.  The so called PerfectStorm brings the BlackBerry Storm look and feel to the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone.  And while I don't personally like Storm's icons …
Discussion: BerryReview.com
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
How Warner Music Killed Facebook Music  —  Facebook's ongoing effort to launch a free streaming music service is stalled, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.  The company was close to a deal that would bring free streaming music from three of the four big labels …
 
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 More Items: 
Matt Jones / Dopplr Blog:
Dopplr presents the Personal Annual Report 2008: freshly generated …
Discussion: Thomas Crampton
TheGuru / Symbian-Guru.com:
HOT: AT&T E71x To Have S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2
Discussion: Unwired View and Boy Genius Report
Tameka Kee / paidContent.org:
SB Nation Got $5 Million In Funding For Sports Blogs
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Sharpcast Raises $10 Million In Down Round For File Syncing
Discussion: VentureBeat
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Autodesk Issues FY Q4 Warning; Cutting 750 Jobs
Discussion: CNET News
Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:
Yahoo Shows Wikipedia Some SearchMonkey Love
PewResearch.org:
Social Networks Grow: Friending Mom and Dad
Discussion: PC World
 Earlier Items: 
Andy Greenberg / Forbes:
The Deal That Could Have Saved Nortel
Roger Cheng / Wall Street Journal:
Sprint's Boost to Offer $50 Flat-Rate Plan
Cat Keynes / The Register:
China's three-horse mobile bet: Repeating America's mistakes
Craig Simms / CNET News:
Dell 2209WA  —  Design and features  —  Dell's 2209WA is a screen …
Discussion: DisplayBlog and Engadget
Alistair Croll / GigaOM:
Identi.ca Gets Funding to Make Open-source Twitter Variant
 

 
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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