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5:50 PM ET, April 29, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Mike Musgrove / Washington Post:
Time Warner to Spin Off AOL Division  —  Time Warner Inc. announced this morning in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it intends to spin off its ailing AOL division.  —  “Although the Company's Board of Directors has not made any decision,” the company wrote …
RELATED:
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:
10-Q Watch: Time Warner Tells Google Will Buy Back Its 5 Percent AOL Stake
Discussion: WebProNews and MediaMemo
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Phishing Attack Underway At Facebook.  Don't Sign In To Fbaction.net  —  We've received multiple tips of a new phishing attack that has broken out on Facebook.  If you get an email message that looks to be from Facebook with the subject, “Hello,” and featuring the text below, don't bother clicking on the link included.
Adam Smith / Google Public Policy Blog:
Google Book Search settlement will expand access  —  Over the last few weeks we've heard a number of questions about the Google Book Search settlement and what it means for readers.  Over the coming days, we'll attempt to answer some of those questions on this blog, but first …
RELATED:
Spencer Ante / Creative Capital:
Letter: Read the Terms of the Google Book Settlement Agreement
Hugo Miller / Bloomberg:
Palm May Cap Pre Stockpile to Boost Cachet With Brand-Conscious Consumers  —  Palm Inc. may stockpile fewer than 400,000 Pre models when the touch-screen device goes on sale this year, making the phone scarce to enhance its allure to consumers, analysts said.
RELATED:
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Palm Pre on June 7? No Way.
Discussion: Tech Trader Daily
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Why Obama's Flickr Photos Aren't in the Public Domain  —  The White House is making unprecedented use of consumer web technologies but those technologies aren't always well suited to fit the government's needs.  They aren't always well suited to fit anyone's needs - but maybe if Obama leans on them a little bit things will change.
Arik Hesseldahl / Business Week:
An Early Peek Under The Palm Pre's Hood  —  Preliminary analysis by iSuppli suggests Palm will spend about $138 to build the new smartphone, almost half what it's expected to charge Sprint  —  To say Palm has a lot riding on the Pre smartphone is an understatement.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
IAC Buys UrbanSpoon Based On Good Recommendations  —  UrbanSpoon, a restaurant recommendation service, started out with a simple plan.  It was three former Jobster employees, Ethan Lowry, Adam Doppelt and Patrick O'Donnell who set out to see if they could build a company in today's world without needing …
The Official Google Blog:
Experimental Flu Trends for Mexico  —  In November 2008, we launched Google Flu Trends after finding a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms.  Google Flu Trends may be able to detect influenza outbreaks earlier …
RELATED:
Miguel Helft / Bits:
Former DoubleClick Chief to Leave Google  —  David Rosenblatt, Google's president of global display advertising, will leave the company on May 15, the latest in a string of top sales execs who have left Google or moved on to new roles in recent weeks.  —  Analysts said that the departure …
Fred / A VC:
The Venture Capital Math Problem  —  Yesterday Albert and I visited one of the investors in our fund.  The good news is they are happy with the job we are doing.  The bad news is they are frustrated with the venture capital asset class.  —  We got to talking about the venture capital asset class …
Discussion: GigaOM, Thanks:atul
Sean Percival / lalawag:
Yahoo! Layoffs Begin  —  Our sources reveal that the anticipated 700 layoffs have already started at Yahoo.  After posting falling results for Q1 a week ago, shiny new CEO Carol Bartz indicated this round of layoffs was on the way.  Expected to be around 700 employees, we are told the actual number is around 600.
Daulerio / Deadspin:
ESPN.com's Lead Tech Guru Explains How They Were Attacked By Dancing Unicorns And Glittery Ponies  —  Keith Lam is the programming guy for ESPN.com and spent most of his final hour yesterday fighting off unicorns from ESPN.com's site.  How did this awesomeness happen?  He explains.  Kind of.
Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report:
Calgary to be Motorola's first Android phone, more news on Moto  —  It looks like our ninja took it personally yesterday when we mentioned how eager we were for more info on Motorola's Verizon-bound handsets.  That said, consider us shut up.  He swooped in with a few big updates …
Connie Loizos / PE Hub Blog:
Workday Raises $75 Million Round Led by NEA: Total Funding Now Exceeds Whopping $150 Million  —  Last summer, legendary entrepreneur Dave Duffield predicted that his newest startup, Workday, could become the second coming of PeopleSoft — a company Duffield founded and grudgingly sold to Oracle in January 2005 for $10.3 billion.
Bret Taylor / FriendFeed Blog:
A whole new FriendFeed  —  You might have noticed that FriendFeed looks pretty different today.  We've just launched a whole new design, and a host of features and improvements that comes along with it.  —  We unveiled this look three weeks ago in beta and have been busy gathering feedback and making improvements.
Discussion: TechCrunch, VentureBeat and TheNextWeb.com, Thanks:atul
Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:
Reinventing the Book in the Age of the Web  —  There's a lot of excitement about ebooks these days, and rightly so.  While Amazon doesn't release sales figures for the Kindle, there's no question that it represents a turning point in the public perception of ebook devices.
Discussion: Rough Type
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly Announces Exploratory Committee for California Attorney General Run  —  Facebook's Chris Kelly, who has been at the forefront of Facebook's online privacy issues during his tenure as Chief Privacy Officer, has just announced that he is forming …
Maggie Shiels / BBC:
US cyber-security ‘embarrassing’  —  America's cyber-security has been described as “broken” by one industry expert and as “childlike” by another.  —  The criticism comes as President Obama prepares to release the results of a review he had ordered.  —  Tim Mather, chief strategist …
Arlene Lee / Inside AdSense:
Analytics integration for all  —  Over the past few months, we've been gradually inviting publishers to integrate their AdSense accounts with Google Analytics, and today we're happy to announce that this feature is now available to all publishers.  Integrating your account with Analytics …
Yahoo! Developer Network Blog:
With YQL Execute, the Internet becomes your database  —  The Yahoo! Query Language lets you query, filter, and join data across any web data source or service on the web.  Using our YQL web service, apps run faster with fewer lines of code and a smaller network footprint.
Discussion: eWeek, Thanks:atul
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
Motorola's “IRONMAN” Android handset says hello  —  Wait, what?  Motorola possibly doing a cross-marketing campaign with a blockbuster movie?  We kid, we kid, but hey, we wouldn't put it past them... We just got hit with some really interesting information — it's about this Motorola smartphone either called or code-named “IRONMAN”.
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
High Payouts From Microsoft PubCenter May Be Too Good To Be True  —  Last week, Microsoft officially opened up PubCenter to the masses, allowing anyone to sign up for the ad program.  We've written about how Microsoft's PubCenter, a self-serve third-party ad publishers platform through AdCenter …
Tony Peric / prethinking.com:
Palm Pre Early SDK: New WebOS Screenshots  —  Click on it for the whole Gallery!  —  This just in from an anonymous source: Several beautiful shots showing Palm's WebOS in action.  In one shot, you can see the following items under Preferences>software: Bluetooth, calculator, calendar …
Dan Moren / Macworld:
Simplify Music 2.0 for iPhone adds search  —  We were fans of the first version of Simplify Media's iPhone client, which allows you to stream music from your computers or those of your friends to your iPhone or iPod touch, so we welcome with open arms (and ears) the news that Simplify Media …
Seth Rosenblatt / The Download Blog:
Panda introduces cloud-based free antivirus  —  With threats like Conficker fresh in the public's mind, security remains a top concern for Windows users.  Panda Security, publishers of Panda Internet Security and Panda Antivirus, is set to take antivirus where it hasn't been yet: into the clouds.
Gareth Beavis / TechRadar.com:
Vodafone: Android could appear without Google  —  Plus more Android handsets from Voda in the future  —  Vodafone has confirmed that it has been looking at other Android phones in order to complement the new HTC Magic, which will be launching in stores from 1 May, and also hinted that Android might appear without Google in the future.
Eliot Van Buskirk / Epicenter:
Your Facebook Profile Makes Marketers' Dreams Come True  —  Social networking feels free, but we pay for it in ways that may not be readily apparent.  —  The rich personal data many of us enter into these networks is a treasure trove for marketers whose job it is to target us with ever-increasing precision.
 
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 More Items: 
Chris Nuttall / blogs.ft.com:
Sony's Free Realms takes on Runescape
Discussion: AppScout
Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Kindle users skew older; does that impact news biz's revenue hopes?
Thanks:atul
Claudine Beaumont / Telegraph:
Nokia's Comes with Music comes with fighting talk
Discussion: CNET News, last100 and Electronista
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
MSN Picks WetPaint To Add A Fresh Coat To Its Entertainment Pages
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
AOL Homepage Looks Different, Real Different.  The “A” Is For Agnostic.
Geoffrey A. Fowler / Digits:
Free Rides for Students on Amazon's Cloud
 Earlier Items: 
Jolie O'Dell / ReadWriteWeb:
Miro Wins “Most Adorable Funding Model” With Adopt-a-Line-of-Code Program
Discussion: OStatic blogs
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0:
$99 - The new “high end” for GPUs
Tim Stevens / Engadget:
Windows 7's virtual XP has intangible system requirements
Discussion: Hardware 2.0 and GottaBeMobile.com
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Microsoft's silence on Windows release date reflects new era
Discussion: eWeek and Electronista
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft finishes Vista SP2
Discussion: ITworld.com, DailyTech and BetaNews
David Ellis / 1UP.com:
New PSP Named And Coming This Fall
 

 
From Mediagazer:

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

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”

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced she will leave the agency on January 20; she was the first woman to be confirmed to lead the agency

 
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