Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
4:30 PM ET, March 18, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
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.
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 …
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
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:
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 …
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 …
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.
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:
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:
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.
RELATED:
Long Zheng / istartedsomething:
Expression Web SuperPreview makes cross-browser testing like moist delicious cake
Discussion: SitePoint
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
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
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:
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 <a href="">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: Switched and Engadget
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Google Sells Advertising to Advertisers  —  Google is the most successful advertising company in history.  So why is it spending money trying to convince advertisers to spend even more money online?  —  Google (GOOG), in conjunction with ad agency heavyweight WPP, is plowing $4.6 million …
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.
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 4:30 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.
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.
Zoho:
CIO challenge 5: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs?  —  Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series!  After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
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: 
Dan Nystedt / Network World:
Acer smartphones to hit markets soon
Associated Press:
Skiles to Villanueva: No halftime tweets
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
Paul Miller / Engadget:
SmartQ 5 MID scores itself Ubuntu, a ridiculously low price tag
 Earlier Items: 
Christoph Niemann / Abstract City:
My Life With Cables
Discussion: Wi-Fi Networking News and Switched
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
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Nintendo: Game Over? Time To Sell, Deutsche Bank Says
Discussion: GamesIndustry.biz and Joystiq
Soshable:
46% of the Digg Front Page is Controlled by 50 Websites
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
David de Kloet / Gmail Blog:
A small (but helpful) change to ‘mark as unread’
Discussion: InformationWeek, Thanks:sinkercat
Hutch Carpenter / I'm Not Actually a Geek:
How to Tweet Your Way Out of a Job