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8:55 AM ET, February 17, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
50% of Charges Against Pirate Bay Dropped  —  What has been shown in court today is that the prosecutor cannot prove that the .torrent files he is using as evidence actually used The Pirate Bay's tracker.  Many of the screenshots being used clearly state there is no connection to the tracker.
RELATED:
Kelly Fiveash / The Register:
Pirate Bay prosecutor tosses infringement charges overboard  —  Watered down to ‘assisting making available’  —  Free whitepaper - The Register Guide: Taking stock of the IT environment  —  Half of the charges made against the four men behind the notorious file-sharing website The Pirate Bay …
Discussion: The Local
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Labels want $13 million from Pirate Bay as trial starts
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Court Tweets, Pirate Flags and Free Candy
Discussion: Digits and digg.com
Vodafone:
Vodafone and HTC unveil Android-powered HTC Magic  — Vodafone extends world-class range of Internet phones with latest Android™-powered smartphone from HTC  — HTC Magic smartphone exclusive to Vodafone customers initially in UK, Spain, Germany and France (SFR) and non-exclusively in Italy.
RELATED:
Jason Palmer / BBC:
Second ‘Google phone’ is unveiled  —  Science and technology reporter, BBC News, Barcelona  —  A second phone based on Google's operating system Android has been unveiled by Vodafone at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.  —  The touchscreen HTC Magic will feature a 3.2 Megapixel camera …
Sascha Segan / Gearlog:
Vodafone Announces HTC Magic Android Phone
Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook Blog:
On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information  —  A couple of weeks ago, we updated our terms of use to clarify a few points for our users.  A number of people have raised questions about our changes, so I'd like to address those here.  I'll also take the opportunity to explain how we think about people's information.
RELATED:
Sam Diaz / Between the Lines:
Facebook's TOS debacle: Be upset for a better reason  —  There was some Facebook backlash over the long U.S. weekend that has prompted some calls for boycotts over two sentences that were taken out of the company's Terms of Services agreement earlier this month.
Discussion: BoomTown and Neowin.net
Richard Wray / Guardian:
At last ... a charger for all mobile phones  —  The mobile phone industry plans to introduce a universal charger as part of a drive to improve its previously patchy environmental record.  —  The plan from industry body the GSM Association (GSMA) is just one of a raft of “green” announcements at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
RELATED:
Agence France Presse:
Mobile phone makers agree to create standard charger
Discussion: Gizmodo
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0:
Worst.  Windows 7.  Piece.  EVER!  —  Over on Slashdot is perhaps the worst piece on Windows 7 that I've see so far (I find it hard to believe that this one will be beaten anytime soon ...). … OK, just a few points worth making:  — Someone messes about with Photoshop in order to crack it …
RELATED:
Kdawson / Slashdot:
Draconian DRM Revealed In Windows 7
Discussion: TechnoLlama and Boing Boing
Marguerite Reardon / Webware.com:
Skype strikes deal with Nokia  —  BARCELONA—Skype is racking up deals with mobile handset makers here at GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009.  —  On Tuesday, the company, which is owned by eBay, announced a partnership with Nokia, the largest cell phone maker in the world, to put the Skype Internet calling software onto its phones.
Michael V. Copeland / Fortune:
Technology's bargain bin  —  A lot of tech stocks have taken a beating in this difficult market.  Here are three that will bounce back when the economy recovers.  —  (Fortune Magazine) — If you thought Nortel looked cheap in mid-December at 27 cents a share, you were right.
Discussion: All About Nortel
Jenna Wortham / Bits:
Offerpal Media Raises $15 Million to Peddle In-Game Ads  —  For most casual gamers on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, tricking out their avatars is almost more fun than playing the game.  —  One way to build an impressive inventory of virtual goods is by earning them through hours of game play.
Discussion: VentureBeat, GigaOM and Inside Facebook
John Markoff / New York Times:
The Cellphone, Navigating Our Lives  —  The cellphone is the world's most ubiquitous computer.  The four billion cellphones in use around the globe carry personal information, provide access to the Web and are being used more and more to navigate the real world.
Pui-Wing Tam / Wall Street Journal:
Employment Falls in Silicon Valley  —  Silicon Valley posted a drop in employment and recorded a decline in per capita income in 2008 for the first time in several years, as the recession caught up with the technology-heavy region.  —  The findings come in a closely watched annual report …
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, Thanks:atul
Sascha Segan / Gearlog:
AT&T CEO: Dell Will Build a Smartphone  —  At a panel at Mobile World Congress today, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph De La Vega just said, “Dell announced they're entering the smart phone market.”  That's a quote.  —  This confirms many rumors that have been floating around …
Alertbox:
Mobile Web 2009 = Desktop Web 1998 … I recently sat through many sessions in which usability test participants attempted to use websites on their mobile phones.  What a cringeworthy experience — for both users and researchers.  In terms of the user experience quality we observed …
Discussion: the Econsultancy blog
Dan Goodin / The Register:
Satellite-hacking boffin sees the unseeable  —  Lady Di gossip plucked from sky  —  White-hat hacker Adam Laurie knows better than to think email, video-on-demand, and other content from Sky Broadcasting and other satellite TV providers is a private matter between him and the company.
Agence France Presse:
Bill Gates grant to extend mobile banking to poor  —  BARCELONA, Spain (AFP) — Microsoft founder Bill Gates has agreed to help fund a massive rollout of projects enabling poor mobile phone users to transfer money using their handsets, an industry body announced Tuesday.
Discussion: PR Newswire
 
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 More Items: 
Sarah Lacy / Business Week:
Local Advertising Isn't Jumping Online
Discussion: Search Engine Land, Thanks:sadkids
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Filtrbox Raises $1.4 Million, Launches Revamped Market Intelligence Tool
Discussion: paidContent.org
Pavel Alpeyev / Bloomberg:
Toshiba Agrees to Buy Fujitsu's Hard-Disk Drive Unit to Boost Market Share
Discussion: Computerworld
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
Mobile World Congress: One Day, Sixteen New Phones
Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:
TechStars Fills Void Left By Y Combinator With New Incubator In Boston
Discussion: Innovation Economy, Thanks:dreamsketcher
 Earlier Items: 
Ben Worthen / Wall Street Journal:
Oracle Goes on a Recession Buying Spree
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Justin.tv Is Redirecting Porn Queries Into Cash
Discussion: the Econsultancy blog
Charles Hudson / Charles Hudson's Weblog:
THE DATABASE OF INTENTIONS IS MORE VALUABLE THAN THE DATABASE …
Thanks:atul
Cade Metz / The Register:
Apple's Mac OS X update breaks Perl
Discussion: perl.org lists
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Social Atoms and the Twitter Ecosystem
Paul Carr:
Can you guess what my column's going to be about this week?
Discussion: The Register
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
Windows Mobile 6.5 Hands On: The New Interface Rocks