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2:20 PM ET, April 28, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Microsoft Vine To Connect Family, Friends When Crisis Hits  —  Microsoft is launching a new product into private beta on Tuesday morning with the aim of keeping friends and family in touch during emergencies.  The idea for product, called Microsoft Vine, came to Microsoft GM Public Safety …
RELATED:
Brier Dudley / Seattle Times:
Microsoft debuts Vine in Seattle: Twitter+Facebook on steroids  —  It's been awhile since Microsoft introduced a game-changing social Web application, but Vine — a service that's debuting today with a beta test in Seattle — could be a contender.  —  Vine is a hyperlocal, personalized message and alert system.
Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:   Microsoft Goes Social (& Local) With Vine
Jenna Wortham / Bits:
Apple iPhone Owners Favor Personal Uses, Not Business  —  Do you treat your iPhone as a guilty pleasure?  You're not alone.  —  A new report from Compete surveying the behavior of 600 smartphone users found that 73 percent of iPhone owners used their mobile devices primarily for personal reasons, such as entertainment.
RELATED:
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
iPhone Owners Don't Use Their Devices For Work?  Yeah, Right.  —  We haven't actually seen the details of it since a first look was given exclusively to the New York Times, but there's a new Compete report coming out supposedly later today that claims only 27% of iPhone owners use …
Business Week:
New Gear from Apple and Verizon Wireless?  —  The companies are in talks to develop two iPhone-like handhelds that could be unveiled as soon as this year  —  Verizon Wireless is warming to the idea of an Apple (AAPL) partnership.  Verizon Wireless is in talks with Apple to distribute …
RELATED:
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Why We Don't Believe Rumors of an Apple/Verizon Love Child  —  Can he hear Verizon now?  —  Apple and Verizon are in talks for the carrier to distribute an “iPhone-lite” device and a “media pad,” with one of the devices to be launched sometime this summer, BusinessWeek is reporting.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft, Verizon in Talks to Launch iPhone Rival  —  Microsoft Corp. is in discussions with Verizon Wireless to launch a touch-screen multimedia cellphone on the carrier's network early next year, in a bid to compete with Apple Inc.'s iPhone, people familiar with the matter say.
Erica Ogg / Crave: The gadget blog:
Adieu to the old-fashioned desktop computer?  —  Some giants of the PC industry are just beginning to sell tiny and cheap Netbooks and all-in-one desktops, which have the monitor and processor in the same box.  —  Tae-Hyun “Tiger” Cho  —  (Credit: Averatec)
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Mint Turns Personal Finance Into A Game.  It's Not As Bad As It Sounds  —  Mint, the popular personal finance site that won 2007's TechCrunch40, is launching a new feature called “Financial Fitness” which, strange as it may sound, adds an element of gaming to the service.
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
Dell Studio 19 Multitouch All-in-One Arrives in US of A for $699, No Signs of Swine Flu  —  Six weeks after Dell's multitouch Studio 19 all-in-one hit Japan, it's finally coming to the US.  Despite my penchant for mocking Dell's designers, if you're looking for a non-iMac all-in-one, it's worth a shot.
RELATED:
Dell-Tara G / Direct2Dell:   Studio One 19 Available in the US and Europe Today
Darren Waters / BBC:
Home Office ‘colluded with Phorm’  —  The Home Office has been accused of colluding with online ad firm Phorm on “informal guidance” to the public on whether the company's service is legal.  —  E-mails between the ministry and Phorm show the department asking if the firm would be “comforted” by its position.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Facebook, Firefox, Twitter Lead App, Web Usage  —  Facebook and Mozilla Firefox are the applications used most across different platforms, according to data collected by Wakoopa, a software-oriented social network.  The Amsterdam-based startup offers a small download client that's installed on the desktops of its 75,000 users.
Camille Ricketts / VentureBeat:
Coming soon: A new, smarter Google News?  —  Google may be working on a new, intelligent news distribution system, according to Sharon Waxman, a reporter for Hollywood newsblog TheWrap.  She approached chief executive Eric Schmidt at a soiree thrown by Arianna Huffington last week …
Microsoft:
Office Service Pack 2 A Significant Stability, Performance and Interoperability Upgrade  —  Q&A: Group Program Manager Jane Liles talks about the enhancements now available through Service Pack 2 for the 2007 Microsoft Office system.  —  As part of its efforts to continually improve …
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Quub: A Micromessaging Service That Asks “What Are You Doing?”  And Means It  —  At its core, Twitter is supposed to be a micro-presence service that invites users to answer the question, “What are you doing?”.  That's all well and good, but most people tend to ignore this question entirely …
Randall C. Kennedy / Randall C. Kennedy's blog:
Windows 7's ‘XP mode’: Right idea, wrong technology  —  Why Microsoft's decision to implement a VM-based legacy compatibility solution is a dumb move  —  Well, it finally happened.  After years of patching and tweaking the Windows runtime to preserve backward compatibility …
Discussion: Hardware 2.0
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Zoho preps mobile suite  —  Zoho on Tuesday rolled out a unified mobile front for its suite of Web applications.  —  Zoho had offered some basic iPhone and Windows Mobile support previously, but now is unifying applications like Mail, Calendar, Writer, Sheet, Show & Creator into one interface.
Liz Gannes / NewTeeVee:
As Hulu Gets More Mainstream, Long Viewing Sessions Wane  —  Hulu continues to claw its way up the U.S. video charts, and in March surpassed Yahoo to claim the No. 3 spot by number of video streams (Yahoo still claims No. 3 by number of visitors).  Hulu had 380 million streams …
Discussion: Contentinople
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
With no $10 laptop in sight, India buys 250,000 OLPCs  —  India has purchased 250,000 XO laptops.  This move will boost the One Laptop Per Child project and could help the deflating effort get back on its feet.  —  The government of India has signed an agreement with the One Laptop Per Child …
Emel Mutlu / Inside AdWords:
New “Google for Advertisers” site has launched  —  We're excited to announce the launch of Google for Advertisers.  Google for Advertisers is a place where we've brought together information about the broad range of our marketing solutions — and where you can explore and discover the combination …
Discussion: Search Engine Watch and WebProNews
New York Times:
U.S. Steps Up Effort on Digital Defenses  —  When American forces in Iraq wanted to lure members of Al Qaeda into a trap, they hacked into one of the group's computers and altered information that drove them into American gun sights.  —  When President George W. Bush ordered new ways …
Damaster / LiveSide:
Windows Live Profile (April) update is here!  —  As announced one week ago, the newly updated Windows Live Profile has been rolled out to all users now!  A summary of all the changes that were part of this update include:  — 20 new Web Activities, including Facebook, Digg, Last.fm …
Live Search:
Live Search Is Only a Phone Call Away  —  We launched Live Search 411 (1-800-CALL-411 or 1-800-225-5411) in October 2007, and since then have been rolling out new features that have helped our users in all kinds of ways.  There's Business Search to find that restaurant where your friends are waiting for you.
David Lenoe / PSIRT:
Potential Adobe Reader Issue  —  Adobe is aware of reports of a potential vulnerability in Adobe Reader 9.1 and 8.1.4, as described in SecurityFocus BID 34736.  We are currently investigating, and will have an update once we get more information.
Emily Chung / CBC News:
Who will cash in on Canada's love for online video?  —  Canadian TV networks still testing online waters as Hulu looks north  —  Many TV shows and movies available online in the U.S. are blocked to users in Canada, but Canadians are still among the most voracious consumers of online video in the world.
Discussion: HipMojo.com
Electronista:
Nokia to shrink online services, cut 450 jobs  —  Nokia this morning took extra steps to improve its finances and said it would scale back the development of its online services.  Calling it a new “focus,” the Finland-based company plans to draw more heavily on third parties for its image …
Discussion: BetaNews
Sarah Rabil / Bloomberg:
Time Warner May Say It's Nearing AOL Resolution, Unwinding Failed Merger  —  Time Warner Inc. may tell investors tomorrow it is close to a resolution on AOL that would unwind the failed 2001 merger and enable the company to focus on films and cable-television assets.
John Leyden / The Register:
Loudmouth workers leaking data through social networking sites  —  Twitter ye not  —  Free whitepaper - WS_FTP Server product demonstration  —  Almost two-thirds (63 per cent) of sys administrators fear that workers share too much personal information through social networking websites …
Discussion: Donna's SecurityFlash
 
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 More Items: 
Jenn K. Lee / Pocketables:
Unboxing the UMID mbook M1
Discussion: jkOnTheRun, Engadget and PMP Today
David Barboza / New York Times:
In China, Knockoff Cellphones Are a Hit
Discussion: Gizmodo and TG Daily
Mark Prigg / This Is London:
Hello Wembley, I'm on my iPhone
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
RapidShare hands over user info in Germany, users panic
Discussion: p2pnet and Pulse2
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Socialthing Starts Spreading Across 75 AOL Sites
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Mashable! and GigaOM
 Earlier Items: 
Forbes:
Virtually Flu-Free Meetings
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Keep It Simple, Stupid
Emma Hall / AdAge:
Online Ad Effectiveness Depends on Time of Day
Bruce Schneier / Wall Street Journal:
Do You Know Where Your Data Is?  —  Do you know what your data did last night?
Laurie Sullivan / MediaPost:
Ad Retargeting Can Outperform Paid Search
Jason Scott / ASCII:
Geocities: Lessons So Far
Discussion: hughstimson.org
 

 
From Mediagazer:

The New York Times Company:
The New York Times names Dick Stevenson as Washington bureau chief; Stevenson has been at the paper for nearly 40 years and Washington editor since 2021

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”

Ayodeji Rotinwa / Columbia Journalism Review:
A look at the Agora Center for Research, a Ugandan newsroom sitting between activism and investigative reporting, posting its work on various social media sites

 
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