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1:10 PM ET, March 18, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Robert Valpuesta / Bloomberg:
IBM Is in Negotiations to Buy Sun Microsystems for $6.5 Billion, WSJ Says  —  International Business Machines Corp. is in talks to buy Sun Microsystems Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.  —  IBM may pay at least $6.5 billion …
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
IBM's potential purchase of Sun: Here's why it makes 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.
Ben Worthen / Digits:
IBM's Flirtation with Sun: The Next Volley in the Data-Center War  —  IBM is in talks to buy Sun Microsystems, marking the beginning of what is likely to be a new wave of acquisitions in the tech industry over the next 18 months.  —  Getty Images  —  IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano
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 …
Robert Valpuesta / Bloomberg:
Sun Microsystems Rises in Germany on WSJ Report IBM Is Discussing Purchase
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: ITworld.com
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
MIX09: Silverlight 3 beta bits start to arrive early (Updated)  —  Three Silverlight 3 downloads have hit the Microsoft Download Center early, though there is definitely more to come.  —  The Scott Guthrie and Bill Buxton keynote at MIX09 in Las Vegas is less than four hours away.
Discussion: Beyond Binary
RELATED:
Kit Eaton / Fast Company:
Palm Pre vs iPhone 3.0: A Feature-by-Feature Comparison  —  The Palm Pre is going to be a hot item when it launches this summer—possibly hot enough to tackle the iPhone.  One reason it's gaining so much traction is that the Pre's features weren't designed to compete against the current iPhone, but the next generation.
RELATED:
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Apple's iPhone 3.0 expands the ‘yawning’ competitive gap
Discussion: I4U News
Scott M. Fulton, III / BetaNews:
Mozilla's mobile browser experiment finally enters beta  —  It's looking more and more like Mozilla is ready to really do this: Late last night, the organization posted the first public beta of the browser that could end up being “Firefox Mobile.”  It still goes by the code name Fennec …
RELATED:
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 …
Hutch Carpenter / I'm Not Actually a Geek:
How to Tweet Your Way Out of a Job  —  I saw this exchange on Twitter, which is a painful lesson in how NOT to use Twitter in this tough economy.  —  A lucky job applicant tweeted the following: … This tweet caught the attention of Tim Levad, a channel partner advocate for Cisco.
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.
Discussion: Datamation and Softpedia News
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
NBC CEO Jeff Zucker: Jon Stewart Was “Incredibly Unfair” to CNBC  —  Hard to imagine that NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker spends a lot of time thinking about “The Daily Show” critique of CNBC.  But when he sat down for a Q&A this morning with BusinessWeek's Ellen Pollock, that was topic A.
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
iPhone OS 3.0 first impressions and photos [Updated]  —  Developers late Tuesday evening are downloading a widely distributed beta of Apple's new iPhone 3.0 software, installing it on their handsets, and weighing in with some first impressions and screen shots, all of which follow.  [Updated with video.]
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 …
Soshable:
46% of the Digg Front Page is Controlled by 50 Websites  —  Recent changes and restrictions made by Digg.com to encourage diversity in the range of users whose submissions reach the front page have had 2 profound results.  Newer and less active users have seen their stories reach the front page …
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
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 …
Rik Myslewski / The Register:
iPhone chip designer trumpets multi-core GPUs  —  Use your Imagination  —  Multicore Expo Immersive gaming, photo-realistic graphics, and HD video will soon take a giant step off your desktop and into the palm of your hand with the arrival of a new line of multi-core GPUs aimed squarely at the mobile, handheld, and automotive markets.
Timothy Lee / Techdirt:
TomTom Caught Between Microsoft Rock And GPL Hard Place  —  Last month we covered Microsoft's patent infringement lawsuit against GPS device maker TomTom.  As Mike noted, this is a pretty clear example of abusive patent litigation.  The patents in question are so broad that it's virtually impossible …
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Mark Goldstein / Photography Blog:
Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR Review  —  The Fujifilm Finepix F200EXR is potentially one of the most revolutionary cameras of 2009.  It features Fujifilm's innocuous sounding EXR technology, which rather cleverly turns the Fuji F200 into three cameras in one.  The first EXR mode shoots …
Sarah Rodman / Boston Globe:
Digital retailers cut prices to lure CD buyers  —  Online MP3 outlets try big bargains to hook new customers  —  As the music industry watches in horror while physical CD sales tumble and digital sales fail to bridge the gap, online MP3 retailers are trying to stem the bleeding with an age-old technique: slashing prices.
Discussion: AppScout
 
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 More Items: 
Robert McMillan / PC World:
Consumer Groups Launch Badware-busting Community
Discussion: Gadgetell
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Google Sells Advertising to Advertisers
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Nintendo: Game Over? Time To Sell, Deutsche Bank Says
Mark Hachman / PC Magazine:
Panda Updates Panda MOP with Management
Mike Musgrove / Washington Post:
Case, Leonsis Make AOL Appearance
David Jolly / New York Times:
Wall Street Opens Lower, Awaiting Fed Move
Discussion: insideHPC and Slashdot
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Downturn or Not, Mobile Broadband Is Growing Fast
Discussion: MarketingVOX, Thanks:atul
 Earlier Items: 
PR Newswire:
Aircell Expands Pricing Options for Gogo Inflight Internet Service
Discussion: DSLreports and MobileCrunch
Maria Russo / The Wrap:
AOL Leaps Into Original News Content With PoliticsDaily.com
Discussion: HipMojo.com and AppScout, Thanks:atul
Daisuke Wakabayashi / Wall Street Journal:
Toshiba Names New President
Discussion: Gearlog
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Major Book Publishers Start Turning To Scribd
Discussion: Epicenter, Thanks:omfut
Jared M. Spool / UIE:
The Magic Behind Amazon's 2.7 Billion Dollar Question
Thanks:atul
 

 
From Mediagazer:

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

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

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Substack, very deliberately, tries to have it both ways by saying publications on their platform are independent while presenting them all as parts of Substack

 
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