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3:00 PM ET, May 18, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Olga Kharif / Business Week:
Cheaper iPhone Plans from AT&T?  —  AT&T may offer lower-cost data plans for iPhones, which would attract new subscribers and force smartphone rivals to cut prices, too  —  Victor Lin wants an iPhone, but he's put off by the price.  The smartphone costs at least $199 up front …
RELATED:
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Repeat: AT&T may introduce $20 limited iPhone data plan  —  With next-generation iPhone hardware and software around the corner, a new report is adding to claims that AT&T is mulling changes to its iPhone monthly service and data plans that could reduce the cost of owning an iPhone and help Apple grow its share of the smartphone market.
Jim / craigslist blog:
An Apology Is In Order  —  Dear South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster,  —  Two days ago you accused craigslist, and me personally, of engaging in criminal acts, reiterating your previous threat to file unwarranted and unconstitutional charges against us that are clearly barred by federal law.
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Stand Firm Craig (and Jim)  —  South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster is giving even the normally sleazy Attorney General title a bad name.  This is an office that has little to do with protecting the public and everything to do with making high profile attacks on targets that will generate a lot of positive press.
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Craigslist CEO wants apology from South Carolina AG
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Search Engine Wolfram Alpha Launches With Big Dreams And No Chance  —  Another next-generation search engine launches.  It looks more differentiated than the much-ado-about-nothing known as Cuil, but that's not saying much.  —  Our prediction: Wolfram Alpha (terrible name) …
RELATED:
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Napster relaunching, again: $5 per month streaming plus five free downloads  —  Like subscription music services?  You know, like Microsoft's Zune Pass where you pay $14.99 monthly and keep up to 10 tracks each month forever.  Sure, renting music at $180 per year can be a drag for those stuck …
Amazon Web Services Blog:
New Features for Amazon EC2: Elastic Load Balancing, Auto Scaling, and Amazon CloudWatch  —  We are working to make it even easier for you to build sophisticated, scalable, and robust web applications using AWS.  As soon as you launch some EC2 instances, you want visibility into resource utilization and overall performance.
RELATED:
Jeffrey Burt / eWeek:
Amazon Enhances Cloud Scalability, Management of EC2
Discussion: TechFlash
Mark Guim / The Nokia Blog:
Nokia N97 For North America Arriving June 2nd  —  I told you a couple days ago the Nokia N97 NAM was coming soon, but I wasn't sure of the exact date.  Well, Nokia just notified one of their major North American distributors of the estimated shipping date: June 2nd, 2009!  How accurate are we?
Eric Lai / Computerworld:
Buy an app via Windows Marketplace, share with four friends or family members  —  Microsoft readies challenge to rivals in mobile apps market  —  Computerworld - In a potentially market-changing move, Microsoft Corp. plans to let customers of its upcoming Windows Marketplace …
Abbey Klaassen / AdAge:
Twitter Proves Its Worth as a Killer App for Local Businesses  —  New Orleans Pizza Joint, Chicago Yogurt Chain See Results From Promos on Microblogging Service  —  NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — All those brands trying to figure the ROI of Twitter?  They might do well to follow the lead of the local pizza joint.
Phil Goldstein / FierceWireless:
Report: Palm Pre launching first week of June  —  Sprint Nextel will launch the Palm Pre in the first week of June, according to a report in the New York Times.  —  The report, citing unnamed people briefed on the matter, indicated that a battle between top smartphones …
RELATED:
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Eric Schmidt's Commencement Address At Carnegie Mellon (Video)  —  Here's Google CEO Eric Schmidt's commencement address at Carnegie Mellon's 112th commencement ceremony, held yesterday.  (Via @CarnegieMellon)  —  Schmidt's talk to the audience, which he refers to as the ‘Facebook and Google generation’ …
Reuters:
McAfee, Symantec eye iPhone products  —  BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - McAfee Inc said its business improved in May from April and, like larger rival Symantec Corp, the security software maker is developing products for Apple Inc's popular iPhone.  —  McAfee Chief Executive Dave DeWalt …
Dan Ackerman / Crave: The gadget blog:
Acer's next-gen Aspire One Netbooks available now  —  We've already seen them previewed with the rest of Acer's upcoming lineup back in April, but the official release of the next generation of Aspire One Netbooks is finally here.  Most notable is the inclusion of a new, bigger 11.6-inch model …
CNET News:
HTC Magic vs. Samsung I7500  —  Here're the HTC Magic (left) and the Samsung I7500 (right) side by side.  The I7500 looks slightly larger than the Magic, but that's because my hand was slightly closer to the camera.  Also, the screen on the I7500 appears dimmer due to an early firmware issue …
Discussion: Android Phone Fans and SlashGear
Teddy Wayne / New York Times:
Social Networks Eclipse E-Mail  —  Alongside the explosive growth of online video over the last six years, time spent on social networks surpassed that for e-mail for the first time in February, signaling a paradigm shift in consumer engagement with the Internet.
Discussion: Internet Evolution
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Apple's Mac Decline Could Be Worse This Quarter  —  Updated with NPD Group estimates for Apple's April Mac shipments.  —  Apple (AAPL) could face its second straight quarter of year-over-year declines in its Mac business.  (And only its second negative quarter since 2003.)
Discussion: Apple 2.0
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Will OpenTable Be Just What Silicon Valley Ordered This Week?  —  One of the first Silicon Valley start-ups to go public in a long while-OpenTable-is expected to come to market this week, with venture firms hoping it will prove a tasty treat for Wall Street.
Matt Holliday / Inside Facebook:
Newsweek Interviewing Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner Live on Facebook Today  —  Newsweek will host a live Q&A with Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner on Facebook this afternoon.  Jon Meacham will be conducting the interview from the National Press Club in Washington …
Priya Ganapati / Gadget Lab:
Why E-Books Look So Ugly  —  As books make the leap from cellulose and ink to electronic pages, some editors worry that too much is being lost in translation.  Typography, layout, illustrations and carefully thought-out covers are all being reduced to a uniform, black-on-gray template …
Discussion: TeleRead and digg.com
Nokia:
Nokia maintains its leadership in bringing the Internet to emerging markets  —  Espoo, Finland - Nokia brings the Internet in emerging markets closer to reality with the announcement of three new mobile phones that open the door to information, entertainment, family and friends.
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
UserVoice Raises Funding, White-Labels User Feedback Facilitator  —  Santa Cruz, CA-based UserVoice is taking a couple of steps to break its product free from the in-crowd of early adopters that have increasingly turned to using its service for streamlining internal and customer feedback aggregation.
 
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 More Items: 
Monica Hesse / Washington Post:
Web Series Are Coming Into A Prime Time of Their Own
Discussion: The Progress & …
Joseph Galante / Bloomberg:
Mint.com May Begin Selling Access to Anonymous Consumer Data
Ben Kuchera / Ars Technica:
Sims 3 leaked to torrent sites weeks before retail release
Stephanie Clifford / New York Times:
For Wired, a Revival Lacks Ads
Discussion: Gawker, Thanks:atul
 Earlier Items: 
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
The coming wireline business implosion (and how you'll wind up paying for it)
Robert Lemos / Technology Review:
Are Your “Secret Questions” Too Easily Answered?
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A New York judge finds Sirius XM liable for a difficult subscription cancellation process; Sirius says it will appeal but abide by a new “click-to-cancel” rule

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
A growing number of podcasters, including Tim Ferriss, are moving away from interviews to monologues or co-hosts, as some well-known guests can be overexposed

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
DirecTV terminates its Dish acquisition after a group of Dish creditors rejected a modified bond exchange offer

 
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