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4:40 AM ET, January 28, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Andy Palay / Gmail Blog:
New in Labs: Offline Gmail  —  Web-based email is great because you can check it from any computer, but there's one little catch: it's inherently limited by your internet connection.  From public WiFi to smartphones equipped with 3G, from mobile broadband cards to fledgling in-flight wireless on airplanes …
RELATED:
Stephen Shankland / Webware.com:
Gmail grows up with offline e-mail access  —  Significantly increasing the utility and competitiveness of its Web-based e-mail service, Google is enabling an experimental ability to read, write, and search Gmail messages even while not connected to the network.
Discussion: Bits
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Google (finally) brings Gmail and Calendar offline  —  In a huge move, Google is rolling out offline support for Gmail users, which means you'll finally be able to read and write email even when you're not connected to the web.  —  Jeez, I've been waiting a while for this one.  And so have many others.
Discussion: TechCrunch, Download Squad and AppScout
Steve Dowling / Apple:
Mark Papermaster to Begin at Apple as Senior Vice President of Devices Hardware Engineering on April 24  —  Apple® today announced that Mark Papermaster will be coming to Apple as senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering, reporting to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, on April 24.
RELATED:
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
IBM Discovers Noncompetes Really Are Unenforceable in California [UPDATED]
Discussion: Apple Watch
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
IBM settles; Papermaster to join Apple in April
Discussion: Computerworld
Business Wire:
Yahoo! Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2008 Financial Results  —  SUNNYVALE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - News) today reported results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2008.  —  “Despite the challenging economic environment, Yahoo! …
RELATED:
Jessica Guynn / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Bartz era at Yahoo begins with quarterly loss, revenue decline  —  Yahoo finished 2008 the way it started the year: struggling.  But this time, it sunk even lower by posting its first quarterly loss in nearly seven years.  —  After the market closed, Yahoo said it had lost $303 million, or 22 cents a share, during the fourth quarter.
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Yahoo Q4 Shows Operating Loss; CEO Bartz: 'This Is Not A Company …
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Brad Stone / Bits:
Amazon's Kindle 2 Will Debut Feb. 9  —  UPDATED 3:08 p.m.: Clarified description of Broadsheet technology.  —  Mark your calendars, e-book fans: Amazon.com will introduce the next generation of its popular Kindle reader in New York City on Feb. 9.  —  The company sent out e-mail messages …
RELATED:
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Boobs And Booty Banned From The App Store  —  Breasts and the iPhone have had a tumultuous relationship.  Last month, an application that allowed users to shake a pair (possibly NSFW) of 3D breasts was banned from the App Store for being apparently too risque for its audience.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Some Things Need To Change  —  Yesterday as I was leaving the DLD Conference in Munich, Germany someone walked up to me and quite deliberately spat in my face.  Before I even understood what was happening, they veered off into the crowd, just another dark head in a dark suit.
Nick Summers / Newsweek:
What Would Google Do?  —  According to author Jeff Jarvis, taking a page out of the company's playbook could put the economy back on track. … “Google is an avalanche and it has only just begun to tumble down the mountain,” Jeff Jarvis writes in a new book called “What Would Google Do?” …
Discussion: broadstuff
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Streaming video cannibalizing DVD rentals, says Netflix  —  Netflix says that DVD rentals are down for subscribers who make use of the company's online streaming service.  Though it doesn't hurt Netflix's bottom line, the trend certainly spells bad news for physical media, including Blu-ray.
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:
Updated: A Year Later, AOL Is Contemplating A Bebo Sale  —  I didn't quite believe it when one of my most trusted sources told me that AOL was seriously considering selling Bebo, the social network it acquired for $850 million only a year ago.  But I have now confirmed the rumor with three …
RELATED:
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
AOL might sell Bebo? “Absolutely ridiculous”
Discussion: the Econsultancy blog
Jennifer Van Grove / Mashable!:
Radar on iPhone: Sleek Microblogging for Photos  —  Radar has been serving up real-time mobile photo and videos for some time now, but tonight marks the release of their new iPhone app which brings easy uploading and Radar's fantastic content-centric social features to your phone.
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and VentureBeat
Markcuban / blog maverick:
The Great Internet Video Lie  —  Internet Video.  Its the salvation for content creators everywhere.  Its the end to dependence on the big bad meanies, the cable and satellite companies.  Right ?  Hell no. The concept that “over the top” video creates a valid business alternative …
Discussion: Epeus' epigone
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
New iPhone software improves Safari stability  —  The latest iPhone firmware update should be available Tuesday in iTunes.  —  (Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET News)  —  Apple has released a minor iPhone firmware update that is supposed to help improve the stability of its Safari browser.
Discussion: The Register and TUAW
RELATED:
Peter Galli / Port 25:
Web Sandbox Source Now Available Under Apache License 2.0  —  Microsoft has released more source code under an OSI-approved license: this time it has made the source code for the Web Sandbox runtime available under the Apache 2.0 open source license.  —  The Web Sandbox project explores …
BUG Community:
Quake on the BUG!  —  A pretty significant milestone has passed here at Bug Labs - might we say, the “killer” app has finally arrived.  That's right - Quake has been ported to the BUG!  Using QuakeSDL, BUGcommunity member cmw hacked together a binary which is guaranteed to replace the Bug team's nightly COD2 deathmatches.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Online Health Consolidation Continues: HealthCentral Buys Wellsphere  —  Three months ago Steve Case's Revolution Health sold for $100 million or so to Waterfront Media (after raising $200 million in venture capital).  Consolidation continues today with the HealthCentral acquisition of Wellsphere, which we first covered in early 2007.
Discussion: Pulse2
BBC:
Alarm sounded over wi-fi networks  —  Wireless access points could be used by hi-tech criminals to spread viruses and worms, warn US researchers.  —  Security holes and the popularity of the devices in cities makes them ideal for spreading malware, they found.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
CBS Thinks Now's a Great Time to Launch a Finance Site: Meet Moneywatch.com  —  Many moons ago, CBS owned a piece of a finance Web site.  But in 2004, it sold MarketWatch.com to Dow Jones (the owner of The Wall Street Journal and of this Web site) for some $500 million.
Discussion: paidContent.org
Steven Musil / CNET News:
Movie channel to go live on Web before TV debut  —  A premium movie channel backed by a trio of studios is expected to debut as an on-demand Web site months before its traditional TV launch.  —  The consortium of MGM, Paramount Pictures, and Lions Gate announced Tuesday at the NATPE television conference …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Digg Poaches New Head Of Sales From Yahoo  —  After not being acquired by Google last year and announcing some cutbacks last week, Digg is rolling up its sleeves and getting to work.  The company has hired Tom Shin as its new head of sales from Yahoo, where he was one of the top sales people and head of the Northwest sales region.
Discussion: Jobwire
Jemima Kiss / Guardian:
Film Council launches the UK's ‘Google for film’ search site  —  UK film buffs will be able to access a bespoke online search tool from today that will give cinema and TV listings, DVD, Blu-ray and download options for 34,000 films.  —  The £1m FindAnyFilm project has been developed …
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Amazon: The World's Most Expensive Internet Stock?  —  With Amazon.com (AMZN) due to report Q4 results on Thursday, the Street has begun to take notice of the stock's remarkably high P/E multiple compared with other Internet stocks, other high growth tech stocks, or for that matter, any other stocks.
Discussion: Beyond Search
Sean Captain / Popular Science:
Hands-On with Samsung's Projector-Phone  —  An exclusive look at its two great displays and wealth of widgets  —  0.7 inches thick: the Show still makes room for a 10-lumen DLP projector that displays 480-by-320-pixel video and stills Sean Captain  —  The Samsung W7900, aka the Show, certainly lives up to its name.
 
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 More Items: 
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Facebook begins testing ad-driven polls
Reuters:
Thompson top choice for US commerce sec'y -sources
Discussion: CNET News
Douglas MacMillan / Business Week:
What Works in Online Video Advertising?
Discussion: Podcasting News
Nicholas Kolakowski / eWeek:
Sun Microsystems Wrestles with Restructuring, Economy
Discussion: The Register and Sun Microsystems
Matthew Garrahan / Financial Times:
MySpace on the money in social networking
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Websense Acquires Spam Blocker Defensio
Discussion: StartupNorth, eWeek and Network World
 Earlier Items: 
Adam Hartley / TechRadar.com:
Rumour: Google to buy Skype
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Announcing the AllFacebook Pages Tracker
Discussion: TechCrunch and SOMEWHAT FRANK
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
Oracle's Plan To Beat Salesforce: Give Customers Their Own Server (ORCL, CRM)
Discussion: Oracle and InformationWeek
Fred / A VC:
Twenty-Two Years Of Job Creation Wiped Out In One Day
Discussion: New York Times and broadstuff
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Google promotes Chrome with YouTube ads
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Tubi launches Scenes, a mobile feature that lets viewers watch 60-to-90-second trailer-style clips from its library to help with content discovery

Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Analyzing Comcast's spinoff of cable networks, purposefully structured with low debt: the move might be a signal to the industry that it's time to consolidate

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
James Harding says the Tortoise-Observer deal could create a profitable media group and there isn't a guaranteed future for the Observer with the Guardian

 
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