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2:50 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:
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 …
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 …
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
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, Apple 2.0 and Digits
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:
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:
PewResearch.org:
Social Networks Grow: Friending Mom and Dad  —  The share of adult internet users who have a profile on a social networking site has more than quadrupled in the past four years — from 8% in 2005 to 35% now,1 according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project's December 2008 tracking survey.
Discussion: PC World
RELATED:
Amanda Lenhart / Pew Internet:
Adults and Social Network Websites
Discussion: RotorBlog.com and Ars Technica
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.
Discussion: MacRumors and Infinite Loop
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 …
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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
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.
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.
 
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 More Items: 
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
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Future Intel Atom chip is a yawner—by design
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Autodesk Issues FY Q4 Warning; Cutting 750 Jobs
Discussion: CNET News
Andy Greenberg / Forbes:
The Deal That Could Have Saved Nortel
 Earlier Items: 
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
Discussion: VentureBeat, StartupNorth and /Message
Mark Milian / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Rose to co-host live Web game show at Sundance
Discussion: NewTeeVee and The Social
 

 
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”

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

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

 
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