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8:55 AM ET, February 12, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Michael Liedtke / Associated Press:
Facebook appraisal pegs company's value at $3.7B  —  Facebook Inc. quickly concluded it wasn't worth anywhere near the $15 billion market value implied in a 2007 investment made by Microsoft Corp., according to confidential information obtained Wednesday from court documents.
RELATED:
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
The AP Reveals Details of Facebook/ConnectU Settlement With Greatest Hack Ever  —  This is almost too good to be true.  The Associated Press has uncovered the details of the Facebook/ConnectU settlement using, of all things, copy and paste.  After taking drastic preventative measures to keep …
Gavriella Schuster / The Windows Blog:
Guidance on Windows Deployments for Business Customers  —  Hi, I'm Gavriella; welcome to the new Windows for your Business Blog.  —  Let me introduce myself: I'm a member of the Windows Product Management team and have been at Microsoft for 13 years.  For the last two and a half …
RELATED:
Eric Lai / Computerworld:
Report: Free Windows 7 upgrades to run until January 2010  —  Latest clue that Windows 7 will ship by Christmas, says analyst  —  Computerworld) To encourage consumers to keep buying Windows Vista PCs this year despite Windows 7's looming release, Microsoft Corp. will give away free Windows 7 upgrades …
Discussion: GartenBlog
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Garmin and Asus to show off nuvifones; Will anyone buy them?  —  Garmin and Asus next week will show off two nuvifones, a smartphone with a GPS twist, but the larger question is whether proconsumers will buy it.  —  Garmin-Asus is a co-branded partnership with Garmin and Asus parent ASUSTek Computer.
RELATED:
Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo:
Garmin-Asus Nuvifone M20: A Surprisingly Cute WinMo 6.1 GPS Phone
Discussion: Garmin-Asus, Engadget and SlashPhone
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Acer's DX650 and X960 smartphones leaked: we waited for this?
Richard Wray / Guardian:
Samsung delays launch of Android phone  —  Samsung has delayed the release of its first mobile phone based on Google's Android operating system until the second half of this year.  —  There had been speculation that Samsung, which recently leapfrogged Nokia to become market leader in the UK …
Wall Street Journal:
Facebook, Nokia Discuss Alliance  —  Battle Over Social-Networking Users Extends Into Cellphone Market  —  Facebook Inc. is stepping up its efforts to integrate its social network into an array of mobile phones, including those made by Nokia Corp., the world's largest handset maker.
Nick / Rough Type:
Another little IBM deal  —  On August 12, 1981, 28 long years ago, IBM introduced its personal computer, the IBM PC.  Hidden inside was an operating system called MS-DOS which the computing giant had licensed from a pipsqueak company named Microsoft.  IBM didn't realize it at the time …
RELATED:
Nokia Beta Labs blog:
Contacts on Ovi beta database failed - my deepest and most sincere apologies  —  Written by: Kristian Luoma, Product Manager, Contacts on Ovi.  —  Hey,  —  Something bad happened yesterday.  A cooler broke down in the hosting center that we run the Chat service in.
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
New Tweetdeck Out Tomorrow, Here's What It Will Include  —  We got our hands on the new version of popular Twitter desktop app Tweetdeck that will be delivered to all users tomorrow and we're pretty excited about what's been added.  —  If you've never used Tweetdeck, it's …
Discussion: Pulse2 and louisgray.com
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Diddit launches surprisingly addictive activity guide  —  The development team behind search company Inktomi is launching a new service tonight called Diddit, which functions as both an activity guide and a way to share stories and accomplishments.  —  Diddit is a bit like business-rating services …
Telegraph:
The Royal Website: The Queen's new website SEO review  —  The British Royal Family's new official website is reviewed for Search Engine Optimisation.  —  By Julian Sambles, Head of Audience, Telegraph.co.uk  —  I was honoured to be asked by colleagues to review the British Royal Family's …
Discussion: Guardian
PC World:
Skype Growing by 380,000 Users a Day  —  Ross O. Storey, CIO Asia  —  The number of its users is growing by the population of Singapore (more than four million) every 12 days and nearly a third of its registered subscribers now use it for business purposes.
Discussion: Pulse2
Ed Burnette / Ed Burnette's Dev Connection:
Java gets a mobile makeover with JavaFX Mobile  —  BN] e.g. searchapi.php?brand=TR&mode= document  —  Sun Microsystems announced today the release of the JavaFX Mobile platform.  Built on top of the existing Java ME platform, JavaFX Mobile allows developers to create immersive mobile content …
Discussion: eWeek and InfoWorld
Martin Arnold / Financial Times:
Venture capital groups make lifeline plea  —  Hundreds of promising UK technology companies are expected to fail this year because of a lack of funding, venture capitalists are warning, as they press the government to finance a £1bn ($1.4bn) fund of funds to support the sector.
Discussion: Dealscape
Christopher Wren / Social Web Blog:
A social bar for your site  —  Labels: Google Friend Connect, new features  —  While it's easy to add social features to your site with Google Friend Connect, you may have been wondering where to put all of the great gadgets.  You need your users to sign in, to interact with your site …
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Download and Buy Videos from YouTube  —  YouTube includes a new section for “My Videos”: a list of purchased videos.  A YouTube help page has more details about the new feature: … Videos are available to download in the MP4 format and some of them can be downloaded for free and they're …
Thanks:labnol
Tweet. Meet. Give.:
Tweet.  Meet.  Give.  —  On 12 February 2009 175+ cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals which bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water.  —  Join us by:  — Attending one of the events detailed on the city sites listed on this page.
RELATED:
Jenna Wortham / Bits:   Twitterers Worldwide Gather for Twestival
Esteban Israel / Reuters:
Cuba launches own Linux variant to counter U.S.  —  HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba launched its own variant of the Linux computer operating system this week in the latest front of the communist island's battle against what it views as U.S. hegemony.  —  The Cuban variant, called Nova …
Discussion: DailyTech and OSNews
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
If Newspapers Went Offline For A Week... People Might Realize They're Fine Without Them  —  Honestly, it's getting difficult to keep up with the massive amount of stories every day from old school journalists — often with no business or economics background — either complaining about how things used …
AppleInsider:
Apple prepping iTunes Replay on-demand video service  —  Apple is believed to be wrapping up a new feature in iTunes 8 that will allow users to stream their iTunes video purchases directly from the company's servers for playback anywhere, anytime without eating up local storage.
Hiroshi Suzuki / Bloomberg:
Pioneer, Forecasting a Wider Loss, Will Cut 10,000 Jobs, Quit TV Business  —  Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) — Pioneer Corp. will cut 10,000 jobs and close its television operations as the slump in global electronics sales forced the company to widen its annual loss forecast to a record 130 billion yen ($1.44 billion).
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Texas judge orders site to identify anonymous trolls, flamers  —  The right to flame someone online has typically been protected by the courts, but a Texas judge has decided enough is enough when it comes to 178 anonymous commenters on Topix.com.  The site has less than a month to hand …
Discussion: DailyTech
Duncan Graham-Rowe / Technology Review:
Sniffing Out Illicit BitTorrent Files  —  A new tool promises to detect illegal files without slowing network traffic.  —  A new technique has been developed for detecting and tracking illegal content transferred using the BitTorrent file-trading protocol.
Associated Press:
Free music download service signs last major label  —  LOS ANGELES - Qtrax, an Internet company that promises the first free music download service paid for by advertisements, said Wednesday it had signed up the last of the four major recording companies and plans to relaunch next month.
Discussion: last100
Paul McIntyre / Sydney Morning Herald:
MySpace founder concedes social network defeat  —  THE co-founder of News Corp's MySpace has thrown in the towel in the global battle against Facebook, predicting the social networking site will forever play second fiddle to its younger upstart.  —  Facebook and MySpace between …
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Thanks:joshuamcclure
 
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 More Items: 
Prince McLean / AppleInsider:
iPhone Push Notification Server tied to Snow Leopard Server
Discussion: The iPhone Blog
Tarmo Virki / Reuters:
Google plans data centre at old Finnish paper mill
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
Pirate Bay Trial Audio Will Be Streamed Online
Discussion: p2pnet and Techdirt
BBC:
Queen to launch new-look website
Thanks:atul
The Inudian:
Never Share Your Twitter Password Again
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Pierre Omidyar's New Ginx Looks Like a Dud
Discussion: VentureBeat and TechCrunch
Bill Harwood / CNET News:
U.S. and Russian satellites collide
Discussion: Gizmodo and Engadget
 Earlier Items: 
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Microsoft to Hire Yahoo Vice President Larry Heck to Bolster Search Engine
Discussion: Beyond Binary and Pulse2
Daily Mail:
Faithless on Facebook: One in five under-30s dump partners through …
Discussion: Technically Incorrect
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
Google Penalizing Google  —  It looks like Google penalized one of its own websites.
Discussion: Search Engine Land, Thanks:atul
Daily Yonder:
Broadband Connection Highs and Lows Across Rural America
Discussion: GigaOM and DSLreports
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Google Book Settlement Site Is Up; Paying Authors $60 Per Scanned Book
Discussion: CNET News, Thanks:atul
Dieter Bohn / PreCentral.net:
Palm CEO Ed Colligan Talks Pre with Investors
 

 
From Mediagazer:

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

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Substack, very deliberately, tries to have it both ways by saying publications on their platform are independent while presenting them all as parts of Substack

 
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