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6:55 AM ET, May 16, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Apple Serious About Background App Support For iPhone 3.0  —  Apple (AAPL) is serious about letting more iPhone software — beyond its native apps like phone, iPod, and Mail — run in the background, we've heard from sources in the mobile industry.  This could potentially happen as soon …
RELATED:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Apple Is Indeed Talking About Opening iPhone Background Tasks  —  As great as the iPhone is, it has one glaring weakness: The inability to run third-party applications in the background.  That badly cripples certain types of apps, such as those that do instant messaging, music streaming and location-based services.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Rumors Regarding Background App Support in iPhone 3.0
Discussion: Gizmodo
Wolfram:
Live, from Champaign!  —  Wolfram|Alpha just went live for the very first time, running all clusters.  —  This first run at testing Wolfram|Alpha in the real world is off to an auspicious start, although not surprisingly, we're still working on some kinks, especially around logging.
Discussion: Mashable!, TechCrunch and ReadWriteWeb
RELATED:
Chris Sherman / Search Engine Land:
Wolfram Alpha Live Review: The Un-Google  —  The already much discussed Wolfram Alpha official launch is Monday May 18, though the company has said they plan a “soft launch” starting tonight, with access gradually becoming available to everyone throughout the weekend.
Jolie O'Dell / ReadWriteWeb:
Digg Lead Architect & Socialthing!  Founder Start Mobile Gaming Company  —  Socialthing! founder Matt Galligan and Digg's Lead Arichitect Joe Stump are each leaving their day jobs behind to focus on Crash Corp, an alternate reality mobile gaming venture.  —  The concepts behind alternate reality …
Discussion: Mashable!, Thanks:bobcaswell
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Digg Chief Architect Joe Stump Teams With Social Thing's Matt Galligan To Found Crash Corp.  —  It must be something in the air.  Spring perhaps.  But when high level employees start to leave perfectly good startups before a liquidity event, there's usually something pretty important that they think they need to work on.
Discussion: joestump.net, Thanks:blogfisher
Mark Cuban / blog maverick:
How Twitter and Facebook Now Compete with Google  —  Last year I wrote a blog post entitled “If the news is important it will find me”.  The point was that we all live in so many social networks, that someone will send us an update if something in the world happens that we would be interested in.
Discussion: Techdirt
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Apple execs disclose options for boosting iPhone market share  —  Apple executives said this week they believe the iPhone remains in its infancy and went on to — somewhat uncharacteristically — reveal a series of strategic measures they may employ in the near term to help grow the handset's share of the booming smartphone market.
John Cook / Gawker:
Twitter's Real-Time Uselessness Proven by (Mistaken) Gay Marriage Hysteria  —  Because people are irredeemably stupid and nobody pays attention to anything, thousands of Twitter users rejoiced today at the news that the California Supreme Court just overturned the state's gay marriage ban.  One year ago.
Discussion: Technologizer
RELATED:
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Sorry, Twitter, Prop. 8 has not been overturned
Discussion: Daggle, TechCrunch and L.A. Now
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.
Discussion: WMExperts and The iPhone Blog
RELATED:
Sheamus / Twittercism:
47 People Who Work At Twitter (And What They Do)  —  The shenanigans of the past couple of days on Twitter have provided us with a couple of key pieces of information: one, that Twitter really needs to work on its PR, and two, that the leadership provided by Jack Dorsey (@Jack), Evan Williams …
Tomio Geron / Venture Capital Dispatch:
Backed Into A Corner, Child Star Twitter Speaks!  —  Twitter Inc. broke into the mainstream in 2009 with appearances on everything from the Larry King Show to Oprah — and its usage is exploding.  —  If it were a celebrity, Twitter would be pursued endlessly by the paparazzi and appear …
Joe Wilcox:
Is Twitter @replies Change Ashton Kutcher's Fault?  —  Analysis.  My immediate reaction is “yes,” after reading Dare Obasanjo's post “Why Twitter's Engineers Hate the @replies feature.”  OK, so maybe CNN and Oprah, also members of the “million-followers club,” share the blame.
Discussion: WebProNews and Pulse2
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
Verizon's upcoming BlackBerry releases: Tour, Pearl Flip, Atlas Storm 2 info  —  So check it.  We just got a tip from a new ninja but this information looks really credible so we're running it... Here's the random bits of info we received:  — All Verizon BlackBerry handsets launched after the BlackBerry Tour will have Wi-Fi
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Facebook Prepares To Launch Live Video Chat Product  —  Want to call your Facebook friends via video chat?  Soon enough you'll be able to.  Earlier today one of our readers sent us a link to one of Facebook's cached JavaScript files which reveals a number of clues as to a soon to be released video chat service.
Discussion: Mashable!, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Elizabeth Woyke / Forbes:
Google's Gaffes  —  Two of the Internet giant's open competitions have been mysteriously delayed for months.  —  What's up with all the brainiacs at Google?  —  The Internet giant's services went down Thursday, impacting millions around the globe.  At the same time, two of the company's high-profile competitions are languishing.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Pushing the App Store price envelope  —  For people who had been waiting since January to watch TV on their iPhones, price doesn't seem to have been an object.  —  Within a day of its release Wednesday, SlingPlayer Mobile for the iPhone had shot to the No. 10 spot on Apple's (AAPL) closely watched Top Paid Apps list.
Chris Dannen / Fast Company:
10 Questions About the Facebook Hack Attacks  —  On Thursday night, Facebook was attacked by hackers for the fourth time this month.  Who is behind the attacks isn't known, but the malefactors appear to be using several old tricks—phishing, malware downloads, and other conceits …
Discussion: eWeek and Switched
Mark Milian / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Social Status: The guy who spread Keyboard Cat fever  —  Play him off, Keyboard Cat.  Credit: Brad O'Farrell  —  On its own, the Keyboard Cat video might elicit a smile and a chuckle.  But when the adorable feline pounding its paws on a musical keyboard is preceded by an awkward …
Discussion: Global Nerdy
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google's New Trademark Policies Good For Sales, Bad For Legal  —  Google (GOOG) has made two changes to its policies regarding trademarks.  Combined, they're good for revenue — they'll allow more ads in more places, potentially at higher rates.  But relaxing rules around trademarks could lead …
Discussion: CNET News and paidContent.org
Tom Steinert-Threlkeld / Between the Lines:
Jeff Bezos, meet Tony Hsieh.  Zappos Moving into Electronics.  And More.  —  As I said this morning, you should rule the world!!!  How about starting by giving seminars?  You could start with Wall St., then banks, how about the auto industry, then there's the airlines.
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
crackho.com DNS prank ruffles Sarah Palin's feathers  —  Is it really copyright infringement if all you're doing is redirecting one of your own domains to an official government one?  The Alaska attorney general doesn't seem to understand the complications of DNS, but he does know one thing: Sarah Palin ain't no crack ho.
David Eaves / eaves.ca:
Vancouver enters the age of the open city  —  A few hours ago, Vancouver's city government posted the agenda to a council meeting next week in which this motion will be read: … A number of us having been working hard getting this motion into place.  While several cities, like Portland …
Discussion: The Open Road, open and Open Source
 
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 More Items: 
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Google's Chrome was ‘hackable’ at Pwn2Own contest
Discussion: The Register
Erica Ogg / CNET News:
Sony hires a professional fixer
Discussion: The eBook Test
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Google improves Blog Search, but not by much
Alexander Haislip / PE Hub Blog:
Apple Buying Eye-Tracking Devices
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Even in Mobile Video, the Action Is on the iPhone
BBC:
The hi-tech battle for Africa
Discussion: open and Slashdot
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Federated Media Will Search for New Leader Says Founder and CEO …
 Earlier Items: 
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Facebook Working On Similar Feed Stories Feature
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb
Rory Maher / paidContent.org:
Think Entrepreneurs Don't Need VCs? Think Again
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
A deep dive into Paramount's sale to Skydance; sources: Skydance may integrate Pluto into Paramount+, and CBS head George Cheeks is expected to be head of TV

Brian Stelter / CNN:
In a letter to Bob Iger, incoming FCC chair Brendan Carr raised concerns about ABC's negotiations with its affiliated stations, public trust in media, and more

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix will host NFL Christmas games, including Beyonce's Halftime show, for only three hours after streaming them live; replays will be available on NFL+

 
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