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1:05 PM ET, March 27, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Prince McLean / AppleInsider:
Apple stores now selling iPhone 3G without a contract  —  Apple retail stores as of Thursday are selling unrestricted quantities of the iPhone 3G at the full, non-subsidized price of $599 for the 8GB version and $699 for the 16GB models.  —  The move follows AT&T's plans to sell …
RELATED:
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Has Apple begun clearing iPhone 3G inventory?  —  Staffers at Apple's (AAPL) flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York City confirm that as of Thursday at 8 a.m., customers are now permitted to buy unlimited quantities of iPhones without an AT&T contract — the very thing the company was working …
Discussion: AppleInsider and MacNN
Noam Cohen / New York Times:
When Stars Twitter, a Ghost May Be Lurking  —  The rapper 50 Cent is among the legion of stars who have recently embraced Twitter to reach fans who crave near-continuous access to their lives and thoughts.  On March 1, he shared this insight with the more than 200,000 people who follow him …
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Asustek to launch new Eee PC with built-in ODD in mid-April  —  Asustek Computer is scheduled to launch its new Eee PC, the E1004DN, which will be the first Eee PC to have an optical disc drive (ODD), in mid-April, and will follow with the 1008HA in May, according to sources at retail channels.
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Jeff Bezos Works In Kentucky Distribution Center For A Week  —  Jeff Bezos is spending this week working in an Amazon distribution center in Lexington, Kentucky (AMZN).  He apparently wants to see what it's like to be a rank-and-file Amazon employee.  More CEOs should try that once in a while.
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:
Could Disney Join Hulu?  Sources Say Talks Are Serious  —  Updated:The Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) Company could wind up with an equity stake in Hulu in exchange for adding ABC programming to the NBC Universal-News Corp (NYSE: NWS) joint venture, a source familiar with the situation tells paidContent.
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
EU Rejects ‘3 Strikes’ for File-Sharers  —  For the third time in a year the European Parliament has spoken out against tougher anti-piracy legislation that would allow alleged file-sharers to be disconnected from the Internet based on evidence from anti-piracy lobby groups.
RELATED:
European Parliament:   Security and fundamental freedoms on the Internet
Aidan Malley / AppleInsider:
Apple developing ‘stealth’ biometric security for iPhone  —  Apple has developed a new technique that would hide a biometric reader inside an iPhone or a Mac and let owners lock down their systems with fingerprints or even facial recognition — all without ever having to break from their usual routine.
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
8 Hours a Day Spent on Screens, Study Finds  —  IN a world with grocery store television screens, digitally delivered movie libraries and cellphone video clips, the average American is exposed to 61 minutes of TV ads and promotions a day.  —  Some people may think that amount seems excessive.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
The $70 Million Obopay Deal Is More About The UnBanked Than The Banked  —  When news came out earlier this week that mobile payments company Obopay raised another $70 million, effectively doubling its total funding raised to date, some observers were surprised at the sheer size of the round.
Discussion: MediaNama, Thanks:mrinaldesai
NVIDIA Press Room:
NVIDIA Files Countersuit Against Intel  —  Seeks Termination of Intel's License to NVIDIA Technology  —  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  —  SANTA CLARA, CA.  — MARCH 26, 2009 — NVIDIA Corporation today announced that it has filed a countersuit in the Court of Chancery in the State of Delaware …
RELATED:
Alexei Oreskovic / Reuters:
Nvidia countersues Intel in licensing battle
Discussion: Softpedia News and Slashdot
Nick Wingfield / WSJ.com:
PC to Mac: I'm Cheaper  —  For months, Microsoft has jabbed at Apple with an, at times, baffling advertising campaign for Windows PCs.  Now Microsoft may finally land a solid blow against its rival.  —  Video: Laptop Hunters $1000 - Lauren Gets an HP Pavilion
Eric Lai / Computerworld:
Dreaming of a PC with 192GB of RAM?  Dell makes it reality  —  The catch: Despite a depressed memory market, it's going to cost you  —  Computerworld) Dell Inc. announced on Tuesday a new PC that, among its other impressive specs, can be upgraded to sport as much as 192GB of ultrafast DDR3 RAM.
Discussion: The Toybox and CrunchGear
Rafe Needleman / CNET News:
Twitter still has no business model, and that's OK  —  Don't let the attention-grabbing headlines elsewhere fool you.  Twitter still has not announced a business model.  There are no Pro Twitter accounts.  There is no TwitterWords advertising program.  You still can't buy plush toy Fail Whales from Twitter.
Discussion: VentureBeat and Bits
Todd / The Official Netflix Blog:
Netflix Launches New Personalization Features  —  Hi, this is Todd Yellin, Director of Product Management at Netflix.  We are rolling out several features to delight our members with a more personalized website that puts an emphasis on movie discovery.  Some of you have already enjoyed …
Discussion: AppScout
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Reddit's Ad Experiment Is Good News for Condé Nast.  Maybe for Digg, Too.  —  How do you sell ads on a user-generated content site frequented by people who love technology and hate ads?  —  Sell ads that look exactly like the content itself.  —  That's the strategy that Condé Nast …
Shawn / Cell Phone Signal:
HTC Magic Passes FCC with T-Mobile USA Branding  —  Well well well, what do we have here?  Today the HTC Magic, showing some sexy pink and gray T-Mobile USA branding and sporting T-Mobile USA 3G bands, passed through the beloved FCC filters.  The HTC Magic, codenamed “Saphire,” …
Thomson IR:
Charter Communications Commences Previously Announced Pre-Arranged Financial Restructuring  —  Company's debt expected to be reduced by approximately $8 billion; includes $3 billion refinancing and new equity capital  —  Operations to continue as usual under Pre-Arranged Plan Trade creditors to be paid in full under Pre-Arranged Plan
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Youth Bloggers Network Acquired By Teens In Tech  —  Teens In Tech, a blogging network founded by 16 year old Daniel Brusilovsky, has acquired the Youth Bloggers Network (YBN).  YBN consists of a network of over 100 young bloggers, and was founded by Patrick DeVivo, who is also a young entrepreneur.
Discussion: CNET News
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
MyID.is Now In Public Beta, Aims To Become The Digital Certification Standard  —  Digital certification platform MyID.is is taking a crack at offering a way for people to claim their real identity online, in order to be able to prevent ID theft and to verify content they publish on their blogs …
Discussion: MyID.is a Digital …
Wendy Davis / MediaPost:
Amazon Sued For Search Ads  —  A company that sells instructional videos and CD-ROMs has sued e-commerce giant Amazon for trademark infringement stemming from ads on Google.  The complaint, filed this week by Lakewood, Colo.-based Video Professor, alleges that Amazon uses the phrase …
Discussion: MarketingVOX
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable:
Google Releases Major Blog Search Blogroll Algorithm Update  —  The much awaited update to the Google Blog Search blogroll detector algorithm has finally been pushed through.  —  An updated Google Groups thread has Googler, Jeremy Hylton saying: … We did expect to see an update …
Thanks:atul
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Music startup imeem making money, not dying unless the labels kill it  —  Sure, the music industry — including music startups — are having trouble coming up with significant online music business models, but recent rumors circulating about imeem's money problems appear to be exaggerated.
Discussion: TechCrunch, MediaMemo and Music Ally
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Google searches for holy grail of Python performance  —  Google's Python engineers have launched a new project called Unladen Swallow that seeks to improve the performance of the Python programming language.  One of the project's goals is to replace the Python virtual machine with an LLVM-based JIT.
Discussion: jessenoller.com and eWeek, Thanks:atul
Guardian:
Behind the music: Chris Anderson's ‘freeconomics’ don't add up  —  Chris Anderson's ‘freeconomics’ theory that pirating creates celebrity, which creates cash is fine for recording artists - but what about songwriters?  —  Of the many professed experts who claim to have found the solution …
Discussion: MediaPost, hypebot and Slashdot, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Amy / Slash7 with Amy Hoy:
Google is Evil, Worse than PayPal: Don't use Google Checkout for your business  —  Wanting to offer an alternative to PayPal, we set up a Google Checkout account for people to buy our ebook.  —  The last email we received about our Google Checkout account was “Helpful tips regarding your first Google Checkout orders” on February 9th.
Discussion: Beyond Search
 
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 More Items: 
Daniel Terdiman / CNET News:
Lessons to glean from social gaming
Joe Leahy / Financial Times:
India's outsourcers fight to block trade barriers
Neil McAllister / Fatal Exception:
IBM: The new development powerhouse?
Discussion: Slashdot
Blake Reid / Freedom to Tinker:
DRM is Dead / Long Live DRM: A Call for Transparency in the Emerald City
Robert McMillan / ITworld.com:
Researchers can ID anonymous Twitterers
Discussion: BBC, fiercecio.comwatch and Slashdot
 Earlier Items: 
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Young people who embrace mobile tech can feel overconnected
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
What Could Go Wrong With Google: The Slideshow
adafruit industries blog:
Tweet-a-Watt kits now available...
Discussion: Scobleizer, CNET News and MAKE Magazine
Dan Goodin / The Register:
Webmail bug puts 40m accounts in jeopardy
Enomaly / ElasticVapor:
Introducing the Open Cloud Manifesto