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12:00 PM ET, May 15, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
Exclusive: First Look at the BlackBerry Storm 2!!  —  * Update: MORE PHOTOS ADDED!  Sooo much Storm 2 goodness it's ridiculous.  BOOM.  Here it is CrackBerry Nation, your FIRST look at the BlackBerry Storm TWO.  I'm not even sure what to say here... other than a super trusty source sent us …
RELATED:
Jacob Schulman / Engadget Mobile:
Exclusive BlackBerry Storm 2 shots!  —  What's this we have here?  A trusted source just hit us with a slew of beauty shots of the Storm 2 that leaked a little bit ago.  Not much else to say at this point until we can get one in our hands — the photos really speak for themselves.
The Official Google Blog:
This is your pilot speaking.  Now, about that holding pattern...  Imagine if you were trying to fly from New York to San Francisco, but your plane was routed through an airport in Asia.  And a bunch of other planes were sent that way too, so your flight was backed up and your journey took much longer than expected.
RELATED:
Miguel Helft / New York Times:
Companies Object to Google Policy on Trademarks  —  SAN FRANCISCO — When Audrey Spangenberg idly typed “FirePond,” the name of her small software company, into Google this year, she was not happy with what she saw.  —  Her company's site came up as the top search listing.
RELATED:
Dan Friedman / Inside AdWords:
Update to U.S. ad text trademark policy  —  Imagine opening your Sunday paper and seeing ads from a large supermarket chain that didn't list actual products for sale; instead, they simply listed the categories of products available - offers like “Buy discount cola” and “Snacks on sale.”
Steven Musil / CNET News:   Google revises AdWords trademark policy
AdAge:
Google Lifts Ban on Trademark Terms for Search Ads
Discussion: eWeek
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Hulu Questions Count of Its Audience  —  Does Hulu, the Web's most popular place for TV viewing, reach nine million people a month or 42 million?  —  Millions of dollars in advertising revenue may hinge on the answer.  But no one seems to know for sure how big the site's audience is.
Royal Pingdom:
Congratulations, Google staff: $210k in profit per head in 2008  —  Google had $209,624 in profit per employee in 2008, which beats all the other large tech companies we looked at, including big hitters like Microsoft, Apple, Intel and IBM.  —  (As you may know, we have been taking a closer look …
Biz / Twitter Blog:
The Replies Kerfuffle  —  Twitter evolves and thrives on how folks use it.  Some of our best features are invented by users, so listening is extremely valuable.  Replies and conversations are awesome and we fully intend to support and encourage their growth.
news.teamxbox.com:
Microsoft Working on Digital Entertainment Handheld  —  When I got the first piece of information regarding a Microsoft digital entertainment handheld last year, I wanted to be sure it wasn't just a wild gossip.  In a time when people is afraid of losing their jobs because of the global recession …
John Koblin / New York Observer:
New York Times Considers Two Plans to Charge for Content on the Web  —  By the end of June, The New York Times will come to a decision on how to charge for some of its content on the Web, The Observer has learned.  —  Executive editor Bill Keller said at a meeting with staff on Wednesday …
RELATED:
Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:
Quietly, Google Updates Its Blog Search Algorithm  —  There's no official announcement (yet), but Google tells Search Engine Land that it's made several improvements under the hood of Google Blog Search.  —  In an email conversation, Google's Jeremy Hylton — head of the search quality group …
Discussion: Mashable! and broadstuff, Thanks:mattmcgee
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Palm Pre pics released into the wild by Sprint freedom fighter  —  You know, if you're going to post pics of yourself onto the Internet goofing around with the Palm Pre in a Sprint back-office, Engadget's going to be there to post them.  However, if you're dumb enough not to block out your face …
Paul Miller / Engadget:
Tony Hawk's new ‘Ride’ game includes motion-sensing skateboard controller for shredding your mom's new carpet  —  We'd heard rumblings that Tony Hawk was working on something with motion controls — which seems only natural after EA's Skate hit the scene with its intuitive Flickit control scheme …
Adam C. Engst / TidBITS:
GPS Accuracy Could Start Dropping in 2010  —  We've all become accustomed to using the Global Positioning System, or GPS, whether via our iPhones, car navigation devices, handheld GPS units, or even watch-based devices like the Garmin Forerunner series.  The GPS system went into full operation …
Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
Do Web Entrepreneurs Still Need Venture Capitalists?  —  Is venture capital becoming obsolete for Web start-ups?  —  Yes, according to Robert Hendershott, a professor of private equity and entrepreneurship at the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University.
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
CHART OF THE DAY: YouPorn Still On Top Of Competition  —  A year ago, YouPorn had taken off as the top user-uploaded adult video site, attracting 3 million U.S. unique visitors in April '08, up 1300% year-over-year, according to Compete.  A year later, YouPorn is still the king of kinky.
Laura June / Engadget:
Random House now disabling text-to-speech function of Kindle e-books  —  The much-touted and extremely controversial story of the text-to-speech function of Amazon's Kindle 2 could fill a very large e-book.  The tale continues to get longer still, as at least one major publisher …
BBC:
EU proposal could ‘stifle’ games  —  The future of games development has been called into question after the EU Commission suggested developers provide a two year guarantee.  —  Commissioners Viviane Reding and Meglena Kuneva want to expand the EU Sales and Guarantees Directive.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
About Those iPhone App Store Revenue Numbers  —  I don't think it's a stretch to say that Apple's App Store has been more successful than even Apple ever imagined.  It entered a market that had been completely controlled by carriers and handed the keys over to third-party developers to make their own apps.
Michael McWhertor / Kotaku:
Take-Two Sues Duke Nukem Forever Devs Over Failure To Deliver  —  The 12-year-long development soap opera that was Duke Nukem Forever ended on a disappointing note.  More disappointing for publisher Take-Two Interactive, which invested over $12 million in the game.  Understandably, Take-Two is suing 3D Realms.
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Wait... Wouldn't Micropayments Be Bad For Journalism?  —  It's been funny watching newspaper execs and journalists go on and on and on about how important it is to “save journalism” and then come up with plans that will likely hasten the demise of newspapers — such as micropayments.
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
DSi, PS2, Xbox 360 and other notes from April game data  —  Nintendo's DSi, the new version of the dual-screen gaming device, made its presence known in the U.S. video-game market in April, according to numbers from the NPD market-research firm.  Unit sales of the overall DS platform exceeded 1 million …
Graham Cluley / Graham Cluley's blog:
Malicious JSRedir-R script found to be biggest malware threat on the web  —  Research done by experts in SophosLabs has revealed that a new web-based threat has blown all previous web-based malware out of the water, being found six times more often than its nearest rival.
Discussion: The Register and Softpedia News
Sylvie Barak / Inquirer:
Fujitsu unveils world's fastest CPU  —  Take that, Intel!  —  WHEN IT RAINS, it pours for Intel, it seems, with Chipzilla receiving bad news not only on the legal front but also on the tech front as well this week, as Fujitsu has just unveiled a new CPU thought to be the world's fastest yet.
 
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 More Items: 
Chris Williams / The Register:
Beeb tech boss seeks to expand TV licence online
Discussion: Electricpig.co.uk
Louis Gray:
Don't Tempt the Online Mob. They Come Bearing Pitchforks.
Thanks:atul
Matthew Lasar / Ars Technica:
Did the FCC cook the books on broadband over power lines?
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Nokia launching ‘high-end handset’ with capacitive touchscreen in Q3?
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Trouble Ahead For Blip.fm?
Discussion: Download Squad and Blip.fm Blog
Gavin Clarke / The Register:
MySQL daddy seeks post-Sun Oracle independence
Discussion: Computerworld UK and Ars Technica
Kristen Nicole / All Facebook:
Face.com Scans 13 Million Facebook Photos Every Day
Discussion: TechCrunch and Mashable!
The Official Google Blog:
Behind the scenes of the Search Options panel
Discussion: Mashable! and blogs.ft.com
 Earlier Items: 
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
YouTube sails out of safe harbor to reinstate marriage video
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
More Tim Armstrong Fallout: Departures at Google, AOL
Discussion: paidContent.org and Silicon Alley Insider, Thanks:atul