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8:20 AM ET, March 31, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
The Official Google Blog:
Google's newest venture  —  Today we're excited to announce Google Ventures, Google's new venture capital fund.  This is Google's effort to take advantage of our resources to support innovation and encourage promising new technology companies.  By borrowing the best practices of top-tier …
RELATED:
Miguel Helft / New York Times:
Google to Announce Venture Fund  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Google, which has invested in many startups over the years, will announce on Tuesday that it is creating a venture capital arm whose main objective will be to turn a profit.  —  The group, called Google Ventures, is expected to invest up to $100 million over the next 12 months.
Discussion: TECH.BLORGE.com and CNET News
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:
Skype works on AT&T's 3G on iPhone 3.0  —  We just found something very interesting.  When you install Skype on a 3.0 iPhone, you can use AT&T's connection to make and receive calls.  Skype treats the 3G line like any other internet connection.  The video is uploading now to youtube and will be posted as soon as it is there.
RELATED:
Arn / MacRumors:
Official Skype App is Now Available in the App Store  —  Skype, Inc. has just released their official Skype application for the iPhone and iPod touch.  —  Skype is a very popular voice-over-IP (VOIP) and instant messaging application that allows you to make phone calls over the internet.
Kontra / counternotions:
What will the next iPhone be called?
Discussion: ParisLemon, Thanks:atul
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Review: Skype for iPhone. Verdict: Awesome.
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
Microsoft announces Windows Marketplace partners, tweaked policies, designer WinMo 6.5 themes  —  Details are starting to come into focus on some of the finer points of Windows Mobile 6.5's launch later this year after February's announcement at MWC, and if you had to boil the news down to just two words …
RELATED:
Biz / Twitter Blog:
Replies Are Now Mentions  —  We're updating the Replies feature and referring to it instead as Mentions.  In your Twitter sidebar you'll now see your own @username tab.  When you click that tab, you'll see a list of all tweets referencing your account with the @username convention anywhere in the tweet …
RELATED:
Steve Gillmor / TechCrunchIT:   The Twitting Point  —  Bill O'Reilly has the last word on Twitter for today.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:   Tinker Gives Twitter Its Long Awaited Events Firehose
Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:
Pirates Board Apple's iPhone App Store  —  The iPhone's App Store is becoming an increasingly juicy target for pirates, who have illegally cracked 20 percent of paid applications for free distribution.  —  Apple's App Store offers about 25,000 paid apps, and iPhone analytics company Medialets estimates …
Thanks:atul
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Next up for Microsoft's ‘real life’ Windows star: 7-Eleven ads  —  After setting the tech world abuzz with her criticism of Apple's Mac prices, the star of Microsoft's latest Windows ad will be featured next in promotional videos for 7-Eleven, according to a public Web site where she chronicles her burgeoning acting career.
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Status.net Could Point to the Future of Business Intelligence  —  Few companies have captured the world's attention online in recent years as much as Twitter has.  Rapid, structured, public communication between groups of people is not only a personal paradigm changer for many who have seriously explored …
RELATED:
Mark Bockenstedt / Microblink:
Status.net: Hosted Laconica Installations
Discussion: Control Yourself
Saul Hansell / Bits:
What's the Password?  Only Your iPhone Knows  —  A few weeks ago, I wondered if people would start to use their cellphones to verify their identities when logging on to Internet sites.  I imagined a phone application similar to RSA's SecurID, the small gizmo many corporations issue to employees …
Discussion: textually.org
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
Banner Exchanges Come to the iPhone: AdMob Launches Download Exchange  —  AdMob, one of the world's largest mobile advertising networks, released its Download Exchange today.  In return for running ads for other apps, developers can now promote their own apps across AdMob's network of over 1,000 applications.
Discussion: VentureBeat and Mashable!
David Chartier / Ars Technica:
Interview: Gmail's product manager on Labs, beta, the future  —  Gmail is turning five soon, and it was given an experimental feature playground called Gmail Labs nearly a year ago.  For the anniversary, Ars Technica spoke with Gmail Product Manager Todd Jackson about the evolution of communication …
Discussion: Download Squad, Gmail Blog and CNET News, Thanks:atul
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
If bit.ly Is Worth $8 Million, TinyURL Is Worth At Least $46 Million  —  In a world where everything is being jammed into 140 characters or less, shorter is better.  That goes double (or is it half?) for lengthy URLs.  So-called URL shortening services are increasingly becoming indispensable to anyone who uses Twitter.
RELATED:
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Is a Shorter Web Address Worth Big Money? bit.ly Raises $2 Million
Spencer Ante / Creative Capital:
It's Official: Twitter Hires Ex-Google Designer Douglas Bowman  —  Turns out the Web rumors were true for once.  In a meeting last Friday afternoon in Twitter's San Francisco office, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone told me that the company had hired ex-Google Visual Design Lead Douglas Bowman to be the company's new creative director.
John Koller / PlayStation.Blog:
PlayStation 2 Will Be Available for Under $100  —  Hi everyone, the last time you heard from me, I talked about the huge milestone that PlayStation 2 achieved - reaching 50 million units sold in North America.  Today I'm excited to talk about another milestone in PlayStation 2's lifespan.
Discussion: Electronic Pulp, VG247, Joystiq and Kotaku
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Palm chases biggest mouth (Howard Stern) for Pre word of mouth marketing  —  Palm's Pre is a make or break device and the company is working the word of mouth marketing hard.  And if you're going to get some word of mouth marketing it helps to recruit one of the biggest mouths out there: Howard Stern.
Discussion: PalmAddicts and The Toybox
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Time Inc. and Getty Images Go Back to the Future With Life.com  —  Here's refreshingly retro take for a Web site launching in 2009: One that only features photos.  Lots and lots of really interesting photos.  —  Meet the new Life.com, a joint venture between Time Warner's Time Inc (TWX) and Getty Images that launches today.
Discussion: paidContent.org
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
Facebook, Adobe Partner to Create Facebook Platform Libraries in Flash  —  Since the Facebook Platform launched, many top Facebook app and game developers have built their products in Flash.  A few innovative Facebook Connect implementations have been built in Flash too.
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
Microsoft to kill Encarta later this year  —  Microsoft has announced that it is discontinuing its Encarta line of products.  The software products will be gone by June 2009 and the website will go down October 31, 2009.  —  When I first saw this, I had to do a double take.
Alana Semuels / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
In-flight wireless Internet to expand to hundreds of American Airlines planes  —  The future of air travel?  Credit: Bekathwia via Flickr.  —  Flights are getting canceled and you have to pay to check a bag.  But, hey, at least you can now obsessively check your Gmail on more planes than ever.
Discussion: Wi-Fi Networking News
Phone Arena:
Verizon's MiFi 2200 is your own personal Hotspot  —  We've received information that Verizon is preparing to launch a device known as the MiFi 2200.  Based on the info and pictures, it appears that the device is a personal Hotspot with built-in rechargeable battery.
Ben Parr / Mashable!:
MySpace and Microsoft Team Up: What Does it Mean for Facebook and Google?  —  The world's second largest social network, MySpace, has found a new partner that may make the relationship between MySpace and Google a little more rocky: Microsoft.  —  Specifically, MySpace and Microsoft announced today …
 
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 More Items: 
Robin Harding / Financial Times:
Toshiba to buy Panasonic stake in LCD maker
Discussion: Electronista
Patrik / F-Secure Antivirus Research Weblog:
Conficker Hype Used by Rogue Gangs
Discussion: The Register
Chandramouli Mahadevan / The Official Google Blog:
Email in Indian languages
Discussion: MediaNama, Thanks:atul
Wikileaks:
Western internet censorship: The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning?
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Couple sues Acer over sluggish Vista performance
Discussion: TG Daily and Pulse2
Elizabeth Holmes / Digits:
EHarmony's Same-Sex Dating Site Launches
Thanks:atul
Yinka Adegoke / Reuters:
Cable operators, networks brace for an online world
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Trolling for Patents to Fight Patent Trolls
Discussion: ZDNet Government, Thanks:atul
 Earlier Items: 
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:
Disney, YouTube Announce Clips Deal For ESPN, Disney/ABC
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Sun Sacks 1,500 … Looks like Sun is “aligning its business …
Discussion: PC World
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Internal memo: Hearst Magazines president announces layoffs as part of a decision to “reallocate resources” to “continue our focus on digital innovation”

Mark Sweney / The Guardian:
National World, one of the UK's biggest newspaper groups, gets a £56.2M buyout offer from shareholder Media Concierge, a 40% premium to its Nov. 21 stock price

Lachlan Cartwright / The Ankler:
Sources: MSNBC renewed Rachel Maddow's contract early this fall, but with a pay cut; MSNBC bosses' plan to shake up daytime and weekend programming

 
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