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7:00 PM ET, April 28, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Ola Rosling / The Official Google Blog:
Adding search power to public data  —  Earthquakes are not the only thing that can shake Silicon Valley.  After the dot-com bubble burst back in 2000 the unemployment rate of Santa Clara county went up to 9.1%.  During the last couple of months, it has gone up again:
RELATED:
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Google Launches Public Data Search & Charts During Wolfram Alpha Demo  —  During the Wolfram Alpha demonstration today, the Google Blog announced the launch of their own structured data search feature that allows you to find and compare public data.  —  Searches such as [unemployment rate new york] …
Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report:
Microsoft and Verizon reportedly cooking up an iPhone competitor  —  Just what the world needs... Another iPhone killer.  If the Wall Street Journal's report is to be believed, it looks like that USA Today story may have omitted a relatively important detail regarding Verizon's “iPhone” offering — it might not be an iPhone at all.
RELATED:
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Microsoft Planning iPhone Rival  —  Microsoft (MSFT) can finally stop denying its plans to get into the cellphone business.  The company is working with Verizon Wireless to launch an iPhone rival early next year, the WSJ reports.  —  There's a good chance this will flop …
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.
RELATED:
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Microsoft Vine: The Zune of Social Networks
RELATED:
Lee Mathews / Download Squad:
Office 2007 SP2 ships, adds Open Document and PDF support
VentureBeat:
Verizon flirts with Apple, but Android is already girlfriend material  —  There's been lots of speculation that Verizon, the largest U.S. phone network, is flirting with Apple, with the idea of introducing an iPhone on Verizon's network next year.  —  Verizon is building out a new fourth …
RELATED:
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Why We Don't Believe Rumors of an Apple/Verizon Love Child
Rajen Sheth / Google Enterprise Blog:
What we talk about when we talk about cloud computing  —  Recently, McKinsey & Company published a study on cloud computing as part of a symposium for The Uptime Institute, an organization dedicated to supporting the enterprise data center industry.  We share McKinsey's interest in helping …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
After Being Upstaged By Google, Wolfram Alpha Fires Back With A Leaked Screenshot  —  Today was supposed to be a big coming out party for stealthy search engine Wolfram Alpha.  Computer scientist Stephen Wolfram gave the first public demonstration of his knowledge mining search engine at Harvard.
Discussion: Wolfram and Joho the Blog
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Wolfram/Alpha's demo: Search results meet analytics
Discussion: Bits and Guardian
Security Research & Defense:
AutoRun changes in Windows 7  —  As some of our readers are well aware, Conficker and other malware is taking advantage of the AutoRun functionality as a spreading mechanism.  Furthermore, over the last couple of months, there has been a significant increase of this threat, as more malware is abusing this functionality.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Android Backward Compatibility Talk Begins.  This Is Starting To Sound Complicated.  —  Love the iPhone or hate the iPhone, at least you know what you're getting out of the box is a device that will work with all the apps in the App Store.  That's been the case so far with Google's Android platform …
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
BlackBerry Tour hitting Verizon Wireless in July?  —  BlackBerry Tour?  Oh yeah.  Now that that's been confirmed, we're on to bigger and better things — release dates!  The latest information we've heard is that the BlackBerry Tour is shaping up to be released on Verizon in the month of July.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Mint Turns Personal Finance Into A Game.  It's Better Than 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.
comScore:
Hulu Continues Ascent in U.S. Online Video Market, Breaking Into Top 3 Properties by Videos Viewed for First Time in March  —  Average U.S. Viewer Watched 5.5 Hours of Online Video During the Month,  —  According to comScore Video Metrix  —  comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring …
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.
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
The Pirate Bay verdict goes English, and we dish the dirt  —  The Pirate Bay ruling has been translated into English, and it's full of little surprises.  Ars dives in to answer the big questions: who possessed those Klomifen tablets, how much did the state pay to defend The Pirate Bay admins …
Jason Chen / Gizmodo:
Palm's Casting a Pre Viral Video Right Now, Hints At Pre Release Date  —  If you're a male in Seattle from the age of 24 to 34, you may have the chance to star in a Palm Pre viral ad.  Update  —  Funny, cool and nerdy.  Is that you?  If so, contact your agent and ask him to get you in.
Discussion: PreCentral.net and Palm WebOS
Robert / Wakoopa blog:
The State of Apps - Q1 2009  —  I'm happy to announce the release of the inaugural edition of our quarterly software trends report, named The State of Apps.  —  Since we started with Wakoopa, we've acquired over 525 million hours of software usage data from 75,000 members.
Discussion: TechCrunch, GigaOM and VentureBeat
Raju Vegesna / Zoho Blogs:
Introducing Zoho Mobile  —  Over the past year or two we have had some initiatives on mobile capabilities for selected Zoho applications.  With Zoho Mobile, we are aggregating all our previous initiatives with consistent user interface and extending it to multiple applications and mobile platforms.
Amol Sharma / Digits:
Report: iPhone Users Spend 9.6 Minutes per App  —  Greystripe, an ad network for mobile applications and games, has a new report showing how consumers are using free iPhone applications.  —  Associated Press  —  A Macworld poster touting iPhone apps  —  Among the interesting findings:
Thanks:atul
Softpedia News:
Windows 7 Pirates Will Be Kept Safe and Cozy by Microsoft  —  Just as pirates of previous Windows releases  —  Pirated copies of Windows 7 will be kept just as safe as non-genuine variants of previous Windows releases, by Microsoft via security updates.  Responding to questions related …
Discussion: The Windows Blog
Mike Musgrove / Washington Post:
Mixx Looks to Go Beyond the News  —  New Service ‘Sifter’ to Pair Companies With Online Users  —  The McLean-based news site Mixx.com is hoping to persuade consumer product developers to draw on the wisdom of the Web as it launches a service today that pairs its online community of news junkies …
Discussion: TechCrunch
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
OnlineBootyCall is great for hooking up, but can it be more?  —  Website OnlineBootycall.com offers no-strings-attached introductions for sexual encounters, tasteless as that might be for some of you.  It's not filled with porn.  It just gets to the point: It asks you to fill out a form …
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Upcoming Averatec 10-inch netbook may use Android  —  Averatec are developing a new netbook that is “a merger of cellphone and PC technology”, prompting speculation that the company will use Android as the budget ultraportable's OS.  Company CEO Tae-Hyun “Tiger” Cho has described the OS as …
Discussion: Crave and Electronista
Symbian Smart Phones World:
Nokia N97 Seriously Dragged Down By Disappointing Hardware Components!  —  OK folks, the dream is over unfortunately, Nokia N97, a phone that is expected to be one of the most desirable devices on the planet this year is seriously dragged down by a disappointing processor and other hardware components for the price!
Discussion: Phone Arena, Nokia S60 and SlashGear
Marion Maneker / The Big Money:
Still Haven't Found What They're Looking For  —  Bono and the unlikeliest private-equity shop ever.  —  The imminent release of the Palm Pre—the most exciting smart phone launch this year—has brought about unexpected hopes for a revival of the nearly left-for-dead smart phone maker.
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
MPAA: RealNetworks could strip DVD copy limits  —  Updated at 12:56 p.m. PDT to clarify MPAA's arguments.  —  The film industry in court Tuesday tried to show a federal judge that the software known as RealDVD entrusts its creator, Real Networks, with the job of protecting digital film copies from piracy.
Discussion: Electronista and NewTeeVee
 
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 More Items: 
Sun Microsystems:
Sun Microsystems Reports Results for the Third Quarter Fiscal 2009
Discussion: Forbes, Between the Lines and Dealscape
Brian Womack / Bloomberg:
Facebook Has Enough Money to Survive Web Advertising Slump, Sandberg Says
Mike Schramm / TUAW:
Dept. of deja vu: MacBookMini found in Adium stats
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac, Ars Technica and Engadget
Sarah Rabil / Bloomberg:
Time Warner May Say It's Nearing AOL Resolution, Unwinding Failed Merger
 Earlier Items: 
New York Times:
U.S. Steps Up Effort on Digital Defenses
Discussion: Danger Room
David Barboza / New York Times:
In China, Knockoff Cellphones Are a Hit
Discussion: PMP Today and Gizmodo
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
RapidShare hands over user info in Germany, users panic
Discussion: p2pnet
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Socialthing Starts Spreading Across 75 AOL Sites
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and Mashable!
Camille Ricketts / VentureBeat:
Coming soon: A new, smarter Google News?
Jason Scott / ASCII:
Geocities: Lessons So Far
Discussion: hughstimson.org
 

 
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

Max Goldbart / Deadline:
The English Premier League ends its content partnership with IMG and plans to bring content production and distribution in-house in 2026

 
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