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12:50 PM ET, March 5, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
Exclusive: First Real Photos of the BlackBerry 9630!  —  FINALLY!!!!!  What you're looking at above are the first real photos of the BlackBerry “Niagara” 9630.  As you can see, this CDMA full-QWERTY BlackBerry is looking sweet and very much has the appearance of the BlackBerry Curve 8900 and BlackBerry Bold morphed into one.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
It's Time To Start Thinking Of Twitter As A Search Engine  —  At a dinner tonight with a friend the conversation turned to Twitter.  He just didn't get it, and he's certainly not the first person to tell me that.  Specifically, my friend didn't understand the massive valuation …
Rick Aristotle Munarriz / Motley Fool:
Game Over for GameStop?  —  GameStop (NYSE: GME) probably doesn't see Toys “R” Us as much of a competitor in video game retailing, but that is about to change.  —  Toys “R” Us is starting to buy and resell used games in a few test stores, according to Forbes.
RELATED:
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
Amazon Gets Into Used Videogames Biz, Paints Bulls-Eye On Gamestop
Discussion: Between the Lines and Blue's News
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Perhaps If They Think of Their Win Mobile Devices as a Broken iPhones ...  What an uncomfortable moment for Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the CIO Summit Wednesday.  Fielding questions at Microsoft's (MSFT) annual event for government and education sector IT workers, Ballmer was asked how best …
RELATED:
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Ballmer: Microsoft needs to make faster Windows Mobile advances
Discussion: The Register, Neowin.net and ParisLemon
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
When Will Facebook Open Up the Public Timeline?  —  Facebook announced yesterday that it is merging user profiles and fan profiles starting now and allowing users to make their updates public if they so choose at some point in the (presumably not too distant) future.  —  One major possible result of these changes?
Discussion: Digital Daily, AppScout and GigaOM
RELATED:
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Juicing the BlackBerry: RIM wants back-end money from new apps  —  Research In Motion (RIM) is set to launch its application store for the BlackBerry, now dubbed “App World,” at the end of this month.  For third-party developers on the outside, it may sounds like a very enticing proposition …
RELATED:
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
$2.99 Minimum Paid App Price at BlackBerry App World!
Douglas MacMillan / Business Week:
Amazon's Apple Deal: Kindle Cannibal?  —  Customers may have less incentive to buy a Kindle, now that they can download e-books onto the iPhones and iPods they already own  —  A new tool that lets consumers download digital books onto Apple devices could spur demand for some of the 240,000 …
RELATED:
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Apple developers mark a year of iPhone apps
Discussion: I4U News
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Samsung's Nano-powered Q1EX UMPC loses its QWERTY, gains 4.5-hour battery at the FCC  —  Meet the latest iteration of the Samsung Q1 handheld: the NP-Q1EX.  First spotted at CES in January, Sammy's going back to its UMPC roots by ditching the split QWERTY in favor of a clean …
RELATED:
Dave Rubert / NaviGadget:
Samsung NP-Q1EX  —  Samsung is getting ready to release an UMPC …
Discussion: UMPCPortal
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch UK & Europe:
Sky News realises news breaks first on Twitter, not TV - Creates a Twitter Correspondent  —  TechCrunch has been saying for a long time - at least since November last year - that Twitter is an emerging source of news.  Recent tragic events have only served to emphasise this.
Stephanie Condon / CNET News:
Obama names D.C. official as federal CIO  —  Updated 5:52 a.m. with details from the official announcement.  —  President Obama on Thursday named Vivek Kundra, Washington, D.C.'s chief technology officer, to the position of federal chief information officer.
David Pogue / New York Times:
It Rings, It Shoots, It Stumbles  —  I'll never forget the time I visited a Riverwalk restaurant in San Antonio and ordered risotto: rice that's been stirred in broth until it's rich, creamy and perfect.  —  But what the waiter brought to the table wasn't risotto.  It was just rice.
Discussion: Electronic Pulp
Reuters:
Google letting cash “pile up”: CEO  —  SANTA BARBARA, California (Reuters) - Google Inc plans to let its cash “pile up” as it weathers an economic recession but doesn't expect to see a fall in revenue, the Web search leader's Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said on Wednesday.
RELATED:
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google's Schmidt: I Didn't Diss Twitter
Discussion: Beyond Search, Thanks:atul
Business Week:
Twitter Has Potential Buyers Atwitter  —  As the microblogging service explodes in popularity, the suitors are lining up.  Facebook has already made a play—others will likely follow  —  The microblogging service Twitter has caught on with everyone from celeb Ashton Kutcher to CEOs.
Monica Hesse / Washington Post:
Offbeat Name?  Then Facebook's No Friend  —  What Caitlin wanted did not seem that hard.  She had signed up for Facebook after she married, as Caitlin Shaw.  Now, to make it easier for old friends to find her, she wanted to add her maiden name.  Her maiden name is Batman.
John Battelle / John Battelle's Searchblog:
Seen In the Wild  —  I was reading a piece on Venturebeat, on Kutano.  And this ad was at the bottom.  —  This is an ad?  —  Yep.  Innaresting.  Four years ago (God, yes, I've been writing for more than that, er, ummm....22 years, in fact...) anyway, I wrote this about Google and the need to market its products:
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Colby Ranger / The Official Google Blog:
Tipping points  —  Ideas are everywhere, but how do we know which ones actually work?  At Google, we put a lot of stock in both the wisdom of crowds — the idea that lots of people responding to a given question can collectively find the best answer — and the value of community.
Michelle Maisto / eWeek:
AMD, Intel and Nvidia Shifting Away from Integrated Graphics  —  AMD, Nvidia and Intel are expected to move away from integrated graphics processors in favor of new development, according to a new research report.  If this trend holds, AMD, Nvidia and Intel could move totally away …
Discussion: Bits
Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
The Beatles: Rock Band confirmed for 09/09/09 release date  —  Harmonix has confirmed that its Beatles-themed music game will be released on 9 September this year, and will be called The Beatles: Rock Band.  An official site has gone live today inviting gamers to sign up for alerts when pre-ordering begins.
Sara Silver / Wall Street Journal:
Motorola, Ex-CFO At Odds on His Exit  —  The circumstances behind the sudden departure of Motorola Inc.'s chief financial officer became unclear after a regulatory filing from the company provided an explanation that differed from Motorola's original account of the dismissal.
QuadsZilla / SEO BlackHat:
Twitter - The New Parasite Host on the Block  —  I hate twitter.  But as long as twitter pages continue to rank in Google for everything under the sun, you're a fool if you're not using twitter accounts for parasite hosting.  —  For you new kids, parasite hosting is where you leverage …
Connie Loizos / PE Hub Blog:
Lamond Not Telling Whole Story, Say Sources  —  Pierre Lamond, the legendarily successful Sequoia Capital partner, caused tongues to wag earlier this week when he abruptly announced that he was leaving the firm to join Khosla Ventures, just down the street on Sand Hill Road.
 
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 More Items: 
Paul Biba / TeleRead:
Fictionwise acquired by Barnes & Noble for $15.7 million in cash
Discussion: Reuters, Thanks:davidrothman
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Chrome, Bundled with RealPlayer
Discussion: CNET News
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Enthusiasts keep pushing Smule's Ocarina iPhone app to higher numbers
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Joost Continues Fight For Relevancy, Teams Up With Social Network Netlog
Alana Semuels / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Shazam looks for ways to get more people to share music
Discussion: Obsessable
Mitchell Oke / Gear Diary:
Windows 7 on the HTC Shift
Discussion: GottaBeMobile.com
BBC:
User info stolen from music site
 Earlier Items: 
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Zoho Writer Gets A Makeover And Some New Features
Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:
The Video Revolution Happenend by “Accident,” …
John Fontana / Network World:
Microsoft Windows on a mainframe?
Discussion: Tech Broiler
Matthew Gertner / Just Browsing:
The Browser Platform Wars
Courtney Chin / Inside AdSense:
Introducing expandable ads on AdSense sites