Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
5:15 PM ET, March 18, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Larry Dignan / CNET News:
Why an IBM purchase of Sun would make sense  —  IBM is reportedly in talks to buy Sun Microsystems for $6.5 billion and the deal is long overdue.  The companies mesh on the open-source software front, Sun is struggling, and IBM can consolidate some server market share.  —  First, the headlines.
RELATED:
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
I.B.M. Said to Be in Talks to Buy Sun for $7 Billion  —  I.B.M. is in talks to buy Sun Microsystems in a proposed deal valued at nearly $7 billion, a person with knowledge of the negotiations said on Wednesday.  —  The merger, if completed, would mark a big consolidation step in the market …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Why Cisco, Not IBM, Should Buy Sun  —  With IBM rumored to have made a $6.5 billion buyout offer for Sun Microsystems, it appears the company that coined the phrase “The Network is the Computer” is in play.  But no one should allow IBM to walk away with Sun — which is still rich with talent …
Tiernan Ray / Tech Trader Daily:   UBS Skeptical on IBM/Sun Deal; Could Price Go to $11?
Ben Worthen / Digits:
IBM's Flirtation with Sun: The Next Volley in the Data-Center War
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
AT&T bringin' sexy back, offering iPhone 3G at no-commitment price, no activation  —  Time to clear out some inventory, boys!  AT&T, starting March 26th, is going to start offering the 8GB and 16GB iPhone 3Gs at a no-commitment price.  These prices are $599 and $699 respectively.
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
FACEBOOK COULD KILL GOOGLE — Analyst  —  Ross Sandler of RBC has done what every good analyst should do, which is say something interesting.  What Ross has said is that, at its current growth rate, Facebook will surpass Google in size by 2011-2012.  —  (We expect Facebook's growth will slow …
Gavin Clarke / The Register:
Microsoft throws Silverlight 3 beta at Adobe  —  Plugs gaps, and then some  —  Mix 09 Microsoft's opened a new front in its battle with Adobe Systems, releasing beta code for Silverlight 3 that plugs fundamental gaps in its media player and attempts to out flank Flash.
RELATED:
frontech.fujitsu.com:
Fujitsu Begins On-Line Consumer Sales of World's First Color E-Paper Mobile Terminal FLEPia  — Displays up to 260,000 colors; features Bluetooth and high-speed wireless LAN; thin and lightweight -  —  Fujitsu Frontech Limited and Fujitsu Laboratories Limited today announced the start …
RELATED:
Paul Miller / Engadget:
Fujitsu melts faces and wallets with FLEPia, the first color e-book …
Discussion: DisplayBlog, DailyTech and ITworld.com
DealBook:
All That Twitters May Not Be Gold, Analysts Say  —  Twitter seems to have gone from obscure to mainstream in about the same time it takes to send a “tweet” over the network.  —  Despite the fact that the three-year-old microblogging service doesn't generate revenue — nevermind profits …
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Apple's iPhone 3.0 expands the ‘yawning’ competitive gap  —  While the vast majority of smartphone makers are betting that beefed-up handset hardware alone will attract new feature phone users, Apple demonstrated Tuesday that software stands to be the biggest differentiating factor as the market matures …
RELATED:
Prince McLean / AppleInsider:
iPhone 3.0 to offer MobileMe users “Find My iPhone” feature
Discussion: IntoMobile and MobileCrunch
Edm / Expression Web team blog:
MICROSOFT EXPRESSION WEB SUPERPREVIEW  —  How many times have you had to debug your web pages on virtual or multiple machines running different versions of Internet Explorer?  Or had to wait for a slow web service to return renderings of your pages?  —  You don't have to do that anymore.
Discussion: All about Microsoft and MIX Online
RELATED:
Long Zheng / istartedsomething:
Expression Web SuperPreview makes cross-browser testing like moist delicious cake
Discussion: SitePoint
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
NBC Boss Explains Why Boxee Users Can't Have Hulu  —  Why does the TV industry need to keep Web video off your big-screen TV?  Not because it hates technology.  But because it hasn't figured out how to make money off Web video yet — and needs you to keep watching TV on your TV.
Discussion: The Social, Thanks:atul
RELATED:
pavlov.net:
Fennec 1.0 Beta 1  —  I'm super happy to announce the first beta release of Fennec for the Maemo platform.  —  Fennec 1.0 Beta 1 includes lots of great improvements, especially around performance.  Starting with this beta, I'm able to use Fennec as the primary browser on my N810.
RELATED:
Scott M. Fulton, III / BetaNews:   Mozilla's mobile browser experiment finally enters beta
Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint.com:
Psystar launches new Mac clone PC … Psystar might be in a heated court battle with Apple over the use of the Apple Mac OS X operating system, but that hasn't stopped the Mac clone company releasing a new Open Computer model on Tuesday.  —  According to the company the new model, the Open …
Matt Cutts / Gadgets, Google, and SEO:
How to Write a Chrome Extension in Three Easy Steps  —  I just installed a “hello world” Chrome extension from this Chrome Extension HOWTO page.  When you surf to www.google.com, the Google logo is replaced with a Lolcat:  —  Here's how to write your own Google Chrome extension in three steps:
Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report:
Pandora for BlackBerry finally launches  —  BlackBerry users rejoice, Pandora has finally released v1 of it's custom internet radio streaming application this morning and long story short, it's everything we've been waiting for.  It's... About... Time!  We tested the app out on a Bold via …
Tarmo Virki / Reuters:
Nokia to shutter its “Mosh” success story  —  HELSINKI (Reuters) - To spearhead its push into Internet services, Nokia put users in charge when it opened in 2007 the networking site Mosh, which lets people post anything they want.  —  Less than two years later the world's top cellphone maker …
Discussion: All About Symbian
Arn / MacRumors:
USB Tethering Seems to be Working in iPhone 3.0  —  One developer was “hacking around” with some carrier bundle files and iPhone 3.0 and somehow managed to activate the tethering preferences.  Not only that, he was also able to actually tether his iPhone 3G to his laptop over USB.
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac
Matt Asay / The Open Road:
Linux a recession winner, IDC finds  —  Linux long ago became the “furniture” of open source: essential infrastructure to most of the Fortune 500 and somewhat mundane in its predictable, ever-increasing adoption.  —  Despite its impressive rise, however, Linux still has a long, long way to go.
Richard Koman / ZDNet Government:
EPIC claim on Google Docs rings hollow  —  In the aftermath of a security boo-boo, in which a “a very small percentage” of Google Docs users had their documents exposed to the world, the Electronic Privacy Information Center has officially asked the Federal Trade Commission …
Avram Piltch / LAPTOP Mag:
More Office Depot Employees Report Lying to Customers, Changing Price Tags  —  Since we published our article about Office Depot associates lying to customers last week, the company has issued an internal memo “reminding” employees not to lie to customers about notebook stock.
Discussion: Engadget and Switched
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 5:15 PM ET, March 18, 2009.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Techmeme Sponsor Posts: 
Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Zoho:
Zoho Assist 2024: A quick recap  —  2024 was a year of new features and transformative enhancements aimed at making remote support more effective for technicians, ensuring a seamless user experience, and enabling efficient remote support sessions.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Sponsor Techmeme
 
 See Also: 
Techmeme: site main
Techmeme River: reverse chronological Techmeme
Techmeme Mobile: for phones
Techmeme Leaderboard: Techmeme's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
Techmeme RSS feed
Techmeme on X
Techmeme on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Brier Dudley / Brier Dudley's blog:
Cray's new bargain supercomputer, the Xbox circa 2020?
Discussion: TechFlash
Dan Nystedt / Network World:
Acer smartphones to hit markets soon
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Microsoft releases Web translating widget
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Google Provides Numbers On Just How Often DMCA Takedown Process Is Abused
Imran Hussain / ithinkdifferrent:
Microsoft Web Platform Installer makes life simple. Download now!
Discussion: Channel 10 and Port 25, Thanks:imhassan
 Earlier Items: 
Todd Spangler / Multichannel News:
Comcast Exec: Internet TV Plans Preserve Cable Model
Discussion: NewTeeVee and Telecompetitor
Keir Clarke / Google Maps Mania:
New Way to Monetise Google Maps
James Fudge / Crispy Gamer:
Big Huge Games For Sale
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Google Sells Advertising to Advertisers
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Nintendo: Game Over? Time To Sell, Deutsche Bank Says
Discussion: GamesIndustry.biz
Soshable:
46% of the Digg Front Page is Controlled by 50 Websites
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Hutch Carpenter / I'm Not Actually a Geek:
How to Tweet Your Way Out of a Job
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Max Tani / Semafor:
News media personalities including Andrew Ross Sorkin, David Remnick, Rachel Maddow, Mehdi Hasan, and Bari Weiss reflect on the things they got wrong in 2024

William Christou / The Guardian:
A look at Syria's state news agency Sana, which had led the Assad regime's propaganda effort for the past 13 years, with its journalists unable to report freely

Lillian Rizzo / CNBC:
Industry executives say media companies expect ad spending to stabilize in 2025 and even grow for platforms with sports and live events

 
Sister Sites:

Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
memeorandum
 What US political commentators are discussing online right now
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page