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4:45 PM ET, March 13, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Engineering Windows 7:
A few more changes from Beta to RC...  Hey folks, just wanted to provide another update (building on the recent post on some changes since Beta) on some of the changes you will see in the Release Candidate.  Again, there are many and this is not an exhaustive list.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Stewart slams Cramer with Apple video  —  The highlight of Thursday night's appearance of CNBC's Mad Money host Jim Cramer on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart — which both NBC and Comedy Central had done their best to promote as the grudge match of the century — turned out to be a two-year …
Discussion: AppleInsider, TUAW, Macworld and Gizmodo
David Wood / Symbian Foundation Blog:
Introducing the Release Plan  —  There's a lot of activity underway, throughout the software development teams for all the different packages that make up the Symbian Platform.  —  These packages are finding their way into platform releases.  The plan is that there will be two platform releases each year.
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
iPod touch—not lies—sets kid's pants on fire; parents sue  —  “Liar liar, pants on fire!”  One kid from Cincinnati won't be able to listen to that one again after allegedly having an iPod touch actually set his pants on fire, resulting in melted underwear and second degree burns on his leg.
Charles Cooper / Coop's Corner:
It was 20 years ago today: The Web  —  History in the making: Berners-Lee's original schematic for a client/server model for a distributed hypertext system.  —  Is it already 20 years since Tim Berners-Lee authored “Information Management: A proposal” and set the technology world on fire?
RELATED:
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Mike Abramsky and the Holy Pre  —  Palm hasn't yet set its price or launch date, but it already has a winner on its hands in the Pre.  That's the word from RBC Capital analyst Mike Abramsky, who gave the device one hell of a write-up this morning.  Seems Abramsky, who had previously been neutral on Palm …
Discussion: PreCentral.net
RELATED:
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Palm: RBC Turns Bullish; Betting On The Web OS
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Facebook's New Public Profiles: Good for Businesses, Bad for People  —  Over the past couple of days, Facebook has been rolling out a revamped home page to all its users which delivers several major changes including real-time updates, new filtering controls, a new share box (called …
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Over 80 bug fixes due in Mac OS X 10.5.7 “Juno”  —  Apple on Thursday evening made available to its developer community yet another pre-release of Mac OS X 10.5.7, which stands to be the seventh maintenance and security update to the company's Leopard operating system in less than 18 months.
Discussion: Neowin.net
RELATED:
Michael Weiss-Malik / Google LatLong:
Live from Mars!  —  Just last month, we released Mars in Google Earth 5.0 and finally satisfied the long-standing demands of our Martian userbase.  However, much to our delight, Mars has also proven popular among Earthlings, so today we're pleased to announce several new features for Mars …
Discussion: CNET News and VentureBeat, Thanks:atul
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Google exec: ‘Twitter-like service’ more interesting with more data  —  The essence of Google's product strategy is to “follow the data,” said the company's Seattle site director, Brian Bershad, during a presentation about the future of search at a Technology Alliance event this morning.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Facebook Getting Serious About Vanity URLs  —  Facebook is getting wise to something MySpace has known from the start - users love vanity URLs.  When you tell someone your MySpace page, you just say myspace.com/[user/brand/band/ etc.]  (I'm myspace.com/mikearrington).  On Facebook it has always been more difficult.
Kip Kniskern / LiveSide:
Kumo home page  —  We've seen a number of screen shots of Kumo.com, but this is the first one we've seen of the home page:  —  Note the pager at the bottom right.  —  We like this idea of deploying Kumo internally, so that MS employees who apparently don't read LiveSide, and “didn't get the memo” …
Mobile Today:
O2 drops price on 3G iPhone ahead of new Apple device this summer  —  Stocks cleared as new Apple iPhone set for July release  —  O2 is poised to tweak prices on the 3G iPhone in May, ahead of what is believed to be a new Apple mobile phone in June or, most likely, July, Mobile can exclusively reveal.
InfoWorld:
Amazon, Microsoft improve their cloud computing game  —  Amazon has introduced EC2 Reserved Instances, which allow you to obtain a reduced hourly fee for an upfront payment that varies according to which level of EC2 server you use.  So, for example, with an upfront payment of $325 …
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Your mom is leaving MySpace for Facebook (but you aren't)  —  MySpace has been maligned for what appears to be stagnant if not declining traffic in its core U.S. userbase.  But the story is more nuanced, and not so dire.  Sure, MySpace's overall traffic has taken a big hit over the last year …
Discussion: Inside Facebook
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Googlers Shocked By Armstrong Defection  —  We've been calling and emailing our sources at Google, AOL, and the ad agencies to gauge the industry's reaction to news that Google US sales boss Tim Armstrong would replace Randy Falco as AOL CEO.  —  Most of our sources asked to remain anonymous …
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
FanSnap Is The New Kayak For Event Ticket Searches  —  Event tickets are a big business and startup FanSnap is entering the game with a compelling ticket search engine.  FanSnap is launching the public beta of its nifty Kayak-like live ticket search engine for sports, concerts, and theater events.
Discussion: AltSearchEngines and Scobleizer
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Amazon Uses DMCA To Try To Block Other Ebooks From Getting On Your Kindle  —  Slashdot points us to the rather unfortunate news that Amazon has sent a DMCA takedown notice to MobileRead, concerning a link that site had to a small piece of software that would allow ebooks purchased elsewhere (other than Amazon) to work on the Kindle.
Discussion: The Register and Slashdot
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Fire Eagle perches on Facebook  —  Despite the hype they get, location-based services have yet to catch on in the mainstream.  The problem so far is that most of the social networks that use location are relatively small — at least, compared to something like Facebook, which is nearing 200 million users.
Larry Dignan / CNET News:
Cisco's expected server splash raises data center ruckus  —  Cisco Systems on Monday is widely expected to launch network servers in a move that will put it in the virtualization business and potentially at odds with players like Hewlett-Packard and IBM.  —  How widely expected is this Cisco data center announcement Monday?
Discussion: TheStreet.com
Jyri Engestrom / Jaikido Blog:
Jaiku is becoming JaikuEngine  —  Today is a special day: Jaiku is now being served from Google App Engine.  That's the first step in Google making Jaiku freely available as a federated, open source microblogging platform.  Although Google will no longer actively develop the Jaiku codebase …
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
How We Search With The Twitter “Help Engine”  —  Is Twitter a search engine or not?  There's been plenty of discussion and debate about this recently.  I'd say yes, in a way.  It's clear to anyone who watches a twitterstream that people put out questions to Twitter similar to how they use search engines.
Elizabeth Montalbano / Computerworld:
Report: Microsoft U.S. search share hits 12-month low  —  Google continues to dominate as Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL lag far behind  —  IDG News Service) Microsofts Corp.'s share of Internet searches in the U.S. fell to a 12-month low according to a ComScore Inc. report on Internet search queries for February.
Discussion: Digital Daily
Jason Fitzpatrick / Lifehacker:
JPEGSnoop Sniffs Out Signs of Editing  —  Windows only: JPEGSnoop is a small and portable application that sleuths through images determine if the image has been altered or edited.  —  JPEGSnoop starts by reading a JPEG/JPG file's EXIF data to give you a wealth of information about the photo …
Ryan Kim / San Francisco Chronicle:
S.F. startup Aardvark personalizes searching  —  (03-12) 19:24 PDT — Some searches, say for a good Valentine's Day gift or a movie recommendation, are best handled with a human touch.  —  That's the thinking of San Francisco startup Aardvark, which is taking the wraps off a new search service …
Discussion: CNET News and TechCrunch
Chris Ziegler / Engadget Mobile:
Nokia “Piranha” touch smartphone, others coming to AT&T?  (Updated: probably just the E71x)  —  We've just been graced with a new trunkload of tentative — very tentative — release dates on AT&T, and while most of the devices were already rumored for launch, one is definitely sticking out here: the Nokia Piranha.
Discussion: pocketnow.com
 
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 More Items: 
Russ Garrett:
Datacenter Security: A Cautionary Tale
Discussion: The Register
Patrick Thibodeau / Computerworld:
Kundra takes leave of absence from federal CIO post
Discussion: MSNBC and Slashdot, Thanks:marissac
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Adium to Integrate Twitter by IM
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
RIMM: ThinkEquity Says Sell; Sees Price War Ahead
Discussion: Electronista
 Earlier Items: 
Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Why YouTube's PRS Spat Is Just One Battle In The Coming Online Music War
Discussion: Music Ally
Jenna Wortham / Bits:
Foursquare Seeks to Turn Nightlife Into a Game
Hiawatha Bray / Boston Globe:
MagicJack far from enchanting
Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab
Economist:
An idea whose time has come
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
How Not To ‘Save’ The Music Industry: Ask The Folks Who Benefited …
Discussion: Ars Technica
Keith Sevcik / CNET News:
Why Google Maps blurring would set us back
Discussion: Techdirt and AppScout
Nicholas Carlson / The Biz:
The Arrogance Of Newspapers Is Astonishing