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7:50 PM ET, March 11, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Christine Monaghan / Apple:
Apple Announces Incredible New iPod shuffle  —  World's Smallest Music Player Now Talks to You  —  Apple® today introduced the all-new iPod® shuffle, the world's smallest music player at nearly half of the size of the previous model, and the first music player that talks to you.
RELATED:
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Apple's redesigned iPod shuffle hits 4GB, talks to you (updated with video!)  —  Bam, another Apple rumor vindicated.  Apple just doubled the capacity of its iPod shuffle to 4GB while ditching the control wheel entirely.  The new design keeps the clip and adds VoiceOver …
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Is Apple About To Shuffle The Headphone Industry Again?  —  Is Apple (AAPL) in the process of reinventing the way mainstream headphones are designed for the second time this decade?  —  Ten years ago, I was the only guy on the train wearing earbuds.  Thanks to Apple's iPod, now everyone is.
Chris Dannen / Fast Company:
The Gross Inconvenience of the New iPod Shuffle  —  If you're an iPhone user, you just looked at Apple's [AAPL] new 4GB iPod Shuffle and groaned.  —  Announced this morning, the little stainless steel slab is beautifully minimalist, and about the size of a piece of Trident.
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
New iPod shuffle requires extra adapter for third-party headphones  —  We were wondering why the new voice-enabled iPod shuffle even has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack since it's controlled by proprietary headphones, and we just got the answer: non-Apple headphones will require a special dongle …
Peter X. Deng / Facebook Blog:
Welcome to Your New Home Page  —  Last week, we shared our philosophy behind the new updates and changes on Facebook to give you a better understanding of why we make certain product decisions.  We explained how we've been mapping out the Social Graph, or the network of connections that exist in the world …
Discussion: CNET News and Inside Facebook
RELATED:
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Facebook's Real-Time Homepage Goes Live Today  —  Today Facebook is rolling out the update to user homepages that brings a new look, enhanced filter system, and most importantly, realtime updating.  Real-time updates are Facebook's response to Twitter, which has been able to thrive …
Susan Wojcicki / The Official Google Blog:
Making ads more interesting  —  At Google, we believe that ads are a valuable source of information — one that can connect people to the advertisers offering products, services and ideas that interest them.  By making ads more relevant, and improving the connection between advertisers and our users …
RELATED:
Microsoft:
Microsoft Unveils Its Developer Strategy for the Next Generation of Windows® Phones  —  Familiar tools, large worldwide customer base and transparent policies allow mobile developers to innovate and generate new revenue opportunities with Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows Marketplace for Mobile.
RELATED:
John Timmer / Ars Technica:
Lithium breakthrough could charge batteries in 10 seconds  —  A new version of lithium battery technology can either provide a higher storage density than current batteries, or can charge and discharge as fast as a supercapacitor, emptying its entire charge in under 10 seconds.
Associated Press:
EBay's PayPal envisions doubling in size by 2011  —  SAN JOSE, Calif. - EBay Inc.'s name may conjure images of online auctions, but the company is hoping to turn attention to its second-largest business — PayPal — which it expects to blossom significantly in the next few years.
RELATED:
Brad Stone / Bits:
Chief Promises a ‘New EBay’ and Talks Up PayPal
Discussion: Tech Beat
Slash Lane / AppleInsider:
Faster iTunes 8.1 with new import and Genius features due soon  —  Apple sometime later today or this week will make available for download a speedier version of its iTunes media software that will extend the company's Genius feature to more media types and support direct CD imports to iTunes Plus format.
Discussion: VentureBeat
RELATED:
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
iTunes 8.1 “Coming Soon”: Speed Boosts, TV/Movie Genius Feature and More
Anita Barci / Checkout:
Google Checkout fees in 2009  —  When we launched Google Checkout in 2006, we set out to create a fast, secure online shopping experience for our users.  Now in our third year of helping merchants increase sales and attract user interest, we're announcing the decision to move …
Chris Williams / The Register:
Phorm CEO clashes with Berners-Lee at Parliament  —  Ertugrul demands privacy panel opt-in  —  Free whitepaper - Making large UPS systems more efficient  —  An exasperated Kent Ertugrul took on Sir Tim Berners-Lee in a tense encounter at a discussion on internet privacy at the Houses of Parliament today.
Discussion: paidContent and TECH.BLORGE.com
RELATED:
Alan Travis / Guardian:
Web inventor warns against third-party internet snooping
Discussion: Between the Lines
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Valley Exec Twitters Through Home Break-In  —  A strange man broke into Revision3 COO David Prager's home last night.  —  Did David call the police?  No, he updated Twitter and turned on a live video stream at Ustream.  —  This is someone who needs to get out of Silicon Valley.
Jenna Bilotta / Google Reader:
Google Reader is your new watercooler  —  One of the things that we love best about Reader is the ability to easily share interesting items with your friends.  In fact, we like it so much that we've been adding bunches of new sharing features over the last year including choosing friends to share with …
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
Worlds.com CEO: We're ‘Absolutely’ Going To Sue Second Life And World Of Warcraft  —  Worlds.com CEO Thom Kidrin is putting the entire virtual worlds industry on notice: His company claims the idea of a scalable virtual world with thousands of users is its patented intellectual property …
Discussion: Joystiq, WoW Insider and VG247
Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint.com:
G1 “cupcake” update coming April … T-Mobile has confirmed that it will be bringing the “cupcake” software update to the G1 mobile phone in April.  —  The news will mean users of the Android handset will get an onscreen keyboard as well as a host of other features to improve the performance of the handset launched last November.
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
Comcast Now Third Largest Phone Company - Passes Qwest with explosive digital voice growth...  Sure, we've given Comcast some grief over the years, but one thing that can't be denied is the speed at which the company absolutely dominated of the VoIP (sorry, Digital Voice) market.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Apple's Snow Leopard may be delayed - analyst  —  Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, the update of Apple's (AAPL) current Macintosh operating system that Steve Jobs said would ship in “about a year” when he introduced it last June, may not arrive until later this summer or fall.
Discussion: AppleInsider and Macsimum News
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Lenovo's VAIO P Reserve Edition?  —  What you're looking at is a genuine Lenovo device taken by a trusted source from inside of a showroom within [IBM's Beijing headquarters] Lenovo's Beijing office.  The details sent to Engadget Chinese are brief so we can't tell you if it's a working model or not.
Jim Dwyer / New York Times:
The Officer Who Posted Too Much on MySpace  —  In pictures, Vaughan Ettienne is a champion bodybuilder of surreal musculature.  In conversation, he is polite and thoughtful.  —  And in the looking glass of his computer screen, he becomes a man of fierce, profane views on how to keep law and order.
Discussion: Glass House
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Apple orders 10-inch touchscreens for mystery product  —  Adding fuel to rumors of a so-called “netbook” under development inside Apple, Reuters is now citing its own sources in saying the touchscreens ordered by the company measure 10 inches diagonally.  —  In a report published early Wednesday morning …
Ryan Kairer / PalmInfocenter:
Movistar Picks up the Palm Pre in Spain and Latin America  —  Numerous Spanish media outlets are reporting today that Telefónica's Movistar will exclusively offer the Palm Pre in Spain, UK and Latin America.  The Spanish newspaper Expansion reports (Translated) that Telefónica will offer the Pre in Spain “before summer.”
Liz Gannes / NewTeeVee:
ffwd Hops on Twitter Bandwagon with Twitmatic  —  Video discovery service ffwd has created a new project called Twitmatic, which surfaces videos being shared by Twitter users.  Like the OneRiot “real-time” video search engine that we covered yesterday, Twitmatic tries to extract timely …
Discussion: CNET News
Ed Hardy / brighthand.com:
T-Mobile G1 Now Available for Under $100  —  Amazon.com is now offering the T-Mobile G1 at a special price — just over half what this Android-based smartphone normally sells for.  —  The regular price for the G1 is $180 when purchased with a two-year contract, but this online retailer is selling it now for $98.
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Zuckerberg gets poked off Forbes billionaire list  —  A while back we predicted that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was in danger of losing his title as the world's youngest billionaire due to the maddening ascent of teen diva Miley Cyrus.  But, Forbes magazine says, Mark Zuckerberg …
Discussion: Digital Download and Forbes, Thanks:sampad
 
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 More Items: 
Daniel Tenner:
Starting up with a friend  —  It seems like a fool-proof plan …
Private Equity Beat:
Buyout Beats Venture, In A Bad Way
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
New Apple tablet rumors point to Kindle clones?
Discussion: TechFlash, Digital Daily and CrunchGear
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
AMD: MacBook issues giving graphics bad rap
Discussion: Electronista
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Is Apple laying off or staffing up?
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Nintendo crosses 100 million DS game handhelds sold
Discussion: MobileDevicesToday, Gearlog and Pulse2
 Earlier Items: 
DealBook:
Google Reprices 7.6 Million Employee Stock Options
Google LatLong:
The maps you made just got directions
Rik Myslewski / The Register:
Apple ogles location-based iPhone ads
Discussion: GPS Obsessed
Charles Cooper / Coop's Corner:
Q&A: California lawmaker wants to blur Google Earth
Discussion: CNET News
Heather Dougherty / Hitwise Intelligence:
Visits to Gmail surpass YouTube
Thanks:atul
 

 
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

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

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

 
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