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3:00 PM ET, May 15, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
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.
RELATED:
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
Exclusive: First Look at the BlackBerry Storm 2!!
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.
RELATED:
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
Online Stats: Hulu Says Nielsen's Numbers are Wrong
Discussion: TECH.BLORGE.com
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.”
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.
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.
RELATED:
Rory Maher / paidContent.org:
Think Entrepreneurs Don't Need VCs? Think Again
Discussion: mocoNews and paidContent
Phone Arena:
Project Charlie - three secret AT&T devices bound for Best Buy  —  Published on: Today by PhoneArena Team  —  Keep in mind that the information in this article is not official.  —  We've received some news from a Best Buy insider about some new phones that may be on the horizon for the electronics retailer.
RELATED:
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 …
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
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.
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.
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 …
Edible Apple:
Rumor: Next iPod refresh scheduled for September, iPod Touch AND Nano to get camera  —  The next iPod refresh is set for September and will see the addition of a camera to the iPod Touch, according to a recent report from Hardmac.  Recent reports suggest that the next iPhone will sport …
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 …
macles*:
Acer Aspire One 571  —  Another Aspire One, but this one is quite a bit different.  —  Not so much on the outside, as the chassis is apparently based on the D150 or D250.  It also shares the same internal specifications, but has some additional components.
Discussion: Electronista, I4U News and Liliputing
Daniel Emery / BBC:
Hackers ‘destroy’ flight sim site  —  Flight simulator site Avsim has been “destroyed” by malicious hackers.  —  The site, which launched in 1996, covered all aspects of flight simulation, although its main focus was on Microsoft's Flight Simulator.  —  The attack took down the site's …
Dan Goodin / The Register:
Unsafe at any speed: Memcpy() banished in Redmond  —  Larry?  Steve?  Linus?  —  Memcpy() and brethren, your days are numbered.  At least in development shops that aspire to secure coding.  —  Microsoft plans to formally banish the popular programming function that's been responsible …
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 …
DealBook:
V.C.'s Ignore Business Plans, Study Finds  —  Go ahead and write that 50-page business plan about your fledgling venture if it helps you to focus.  Just do not bother showing it to venture capitalists, because it will do nothing to improve your chances of getting financing.
Thanks:atul
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.
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: Softpedia News and The Register
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.
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 …
Marisa Taylor / Digits:
The Real-Time Local News  —  Impending hurricanes and missing children make the local news, but what about smaller incidents — like senior citizens who wander from their care facility or nearby traffic accidents — that residents still want to know about?  —  AFP/Getty Images
 
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 More Items: 
John Cook / TechFlash:
1000 Markets is an Etsy rival with backing from PayPal founders
Thanks:toddbishop
Priya Ganapati / Gadget Lab:
Hands On: New Cool-er E-Book Reader Turns Up the Heat
Discussion: T3.com News, open and TeleRead
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
McAfee To Acquire Solidcore Systems For Up To $47 Mln
Discussion: CNET News and Business Wire
Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:
The New York Times Finds Print-Like Engagement with New “Reader”
Ashlee Vance / Bits:
Once a Chip Curmudgeon, Dell Gives Via a Spin
Discussion: GigaOM
New York Post:
AT FORBES MEDIA, THE KNIVES ARE COMING
 Earlier Items: 
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
DSi, PS2, Xbox 360 and other notes from April game data
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Wait... Wouldn't Micropayments Be Bad For Journalism?
Louis Gray:
Don't Tempt the Online Mob. They Come Bearing Pitchforks.
Thanks:atul
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Trouble Ahead For Blip.fm?
Discussion: Download Squad and Blip.fm Blog
Kristen Nicole / All Facebook:
Face.com Scans 13 Million Facebook Photos Every Day
Discussion: TechCrunch and Mashable!
Laura June / Engadget:
Random House now disabling text-to-speech function of Kindle e-books