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8:45 PM ET, June 29, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Justin Scheck / Wall Street Journal:
Dell Developing Pocket-Sized Device  —  Engineers at Dell Inc. have been developing a pocket-sized device for tapping into the Internet, people familiar with the company's plans said.  —  The gadget uses Google Inc.'s Android software, these people said.  Two people who said they saw early …
RELATED:
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:   Dell Developing MID (Mobile Internet Disaster)
Connie Guglielmo / Bloomberg:
Steve Jobs Returns to Work as Apple CEO After Medical Leave  —  Steve Jobs is back at work at Apple Inc., returning to his job as chief executive officer as planned after taking medical leave in January.  —  “Steve is back to work,” Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman, said today.
Thomas Claburn / InformationWeek:
China Bans Gold Farming  —  Trading virtual goods for real money has been banned in China, putting hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity at risk.  —  In addition to its ongoing crackdown on Internet porn, the Chinese government has declared that virtual currency cannot be traded for real goods or services.
Discussion: WoW.com, Kotaku and VG247
RELATED:
english.mofcom.gov.cn:
China bars use of virtual money for trading in real goods
Discussion: The Register, CNET News and paidContent
Mark John / Reuters:
Telecom firms back standard phone charger in Europe  —  Top mobile telephone suppliers have agreed to back an EU-wide harmonization of phone chargers, the European Commission said on Monday, hailing the pact as good news for consumers and the environment.  —  The agreement by Nokia …
Paul Miller / Engadget:
Comcast launches High-Speed 2go WiMax service tomorrow in Portland, other cities to follow by end of year  —  Put down that bowl of homemade granola and take heed, citizens of Portland: you're about to get a first crack at Comcast's High-Speed 2go service, and we don't want any of your excuses about …
RELATED:
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Comcast Starts Selling Wireless Broadband Service
Malcolm Gladwell / New Yorker:
PRICED TO SELL  —  Is free the future?  —  At a hearing on Capitol Hill in May, James Moroney, the publisher of the Dallas Morning News, told Congress about negotiations he'd just had with the online retailer Amazon.  The idea was to license his newspaper's content to the Kindle, Amazon's new electronic reader.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Facebook Selects New CFO: Former Genentech Exec Ebersman  —  Facebook picked a new CFO quietly, after its cloddish public parting with longtime top financial exec Gideon Yu earlier this year.  —  Facebook said in late March it was looking for a CFO with “public company experience,” …
The Official Google Blog:
Extending Google services in Africa  —  At Google we seek to serve a broad base of people — not only those who can afford to access the Internet from the convenience of their workplace or with a computer at home.  It's important to reach users wherever they are, with the information they need …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Bit.ly's Grand Plans, And Their Inevitable Clash With Digg: Bitly Now  —  URL shortener and analytics service Bit.ly has been working on a new set of products, being referred to as “Bit.ly Now” internally, which will define the next stage of the company's growth.  The company confirmed these plans to us today.
Discussion: VentureBeat, Thanks:atul
Charles Arthur / Guardian:
Average Twitter user has 126 followers, and only 20% of users go via website  —  Got 127 followers on Twitter?  Congratulations - you're above average!  And do you want to guess when its busiest time was?  (Hint: not the Iran election...)  —  Here are some did-you-knows to drop about Twitter:
Olivia Ma / Google News Blog:
A Call to News Publishers: How to Share Your Video  —  We're always looking for ways to enhance the way people consume the news, and we have some improvements planned over the next few months.  To get things started, Google News and YouTube are teaming up to help news publishers build a bigger audience for their video content.
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Yahoo Kills Maven: From Acquisition To Deadpool In 17 Months  —  At the beginning of last year, Yahoo made a fairly large acquisition with the purchase of online video distribution and advertising platform provider Maven Networks.  Under the terms of the agreement, which we reported as a rumor …
Discussion: Xconomy
Connie Schultz / Plain Dealer:
Tighter copyright law could save newspapers: Connie Schultz  —  A recent series of investigative stories in our newspaper illustrated the best that journalism has to offer, which is why so many in our industry responded with mixed emotions.  —  My colleague Mark Puente unearthed a festering scandal …
Nielsen Wire:
Apple Tops List of Hardware Sites, Rings Up Buzz in June  —  Anticipatory buzz around the release of the latest model of the iPhone most likely helped Apple secure the top traffic spot among hardware manufacturers in May 2009.  The site drew 55.7 million unique viewers …
Discussion: Gearlog and The Microsoft Blog
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Google: We're Not Really That Big But If We Are, We Aren't Bad  —  The NY Times offers a broad article about Google's efforts to define, explain and clarify its place in the market in the face of increasing anti-trust scrutiny (Google Makes a Case That It Isn't So Big).
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Google move paves way for Firefox on Android  —  Google's move to let software run natively on Android devices opens the door for a version of Firefox that can run on the operating system.  —  At present, Android applications are written in Java and run on Google's Dalvik Java virtual machine.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Here's How iPhone App Store Ratings Work.  Hint: They Don't.  —  We've been a bit baffled by the system Apple has in place when it comes to ratings for applications in the App Store.  Is it allowing apps with nudity?  Not allowing them?  Allowing them with a 17+ rating?
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
MacBook back on top at Amazon  —  In a sign that should bode well for Apple's (AAPL) earnings in its third fiscal quarter — which ended Saturday — the MacBook has clawed its way back to the top of Amazon's (AMZN) bestseller lists.  —  The Mac, which once led the pack in the online retailer's …
Discussion: CrunchGear
Scott M. Fulton, III / BetaNews:
Cable DVRs are legal: Supreme Court denies appeal of Cablevision decision  —  The last possible effort by movie studios such as 20th Century Fox and cable television producers, including CNN and Cartoon Network, to forestall cable service providers such as Cablevision from providing their customers …
Scott Moritz / TheStreet.com:
Tech Rumor of the Day: Nvidia  —  Nvidia (NVDA Quote) is once again on the verge of cracking a mobile device market: smartphones.  —  Mike Rayfield, the general manager of Nvidia's mobile unit says he expects the company's Tegra chip to debut in a phone from one of the top five cell-phone makers …
Richard Pérez-Peña / New York Times:
Keeping News of Kidnapping Off Wikipedia  —  For seven months, The New York Times managed to keep out of the news the fact that one of its reporters, David Rohde, had been kidnapped by the Taliban.  —  But that was pretty straightforward compared with keeping it off Wikipedia.
Ted Nesi / Providence Business News:
Amazon.com cuts R.I. partners over tax  —  Net retailer says state cannot force it to collect sales tax  —  PROVIDENCE - Amazon.com Inc. cut ties today with its business affiliates in Rhode Island to protest a provision in the draft state budget that would force the company to collect sales tax, Providence Business News has confirmed.
Kevin C. Tofel / jkOnTheRun:
Palm Pre Build Quality Issues Continue to Slide Out  —  So how's the build quality on your Palm Pre?  My particular unit is solid, but I'm reading more and more accounts of people complaining about their Pre handsets.  Some folks have experienced cracked screens.  Others see issues with the sliding hinge mechanism.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
 
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 More Items: 
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
How the Mafia conquered social networks
John Cook / TechFlash:
VCs say industry is ‘broken’
Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:
Battery Issues Likely Cause of iPhone 3GS Overheating
Discussion: PC World and DailyTech
Devra J. First / Boston Globe:
‘Tweets’ on the menu are a sweet deal
Discussion: Twitter Blog
AdAge:
Why the New York Times Co. Will Be in Business Until at Least 2012
Discussion: DailyFinance
Cecilia Kang / Post I.T.:
Genachowski Begins at FCC; Announces Senior Staff
Mike Sachoff / WebProNews:
Online TV Brings In Ad Revenue
Discussion: paidContent
 Earlier Items: 
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
Facebook Nabs New Payments Director from Google
Discussion: paidContent and VentureBeat, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
One year after Bill Gates' ‘retirement’: What's different?
Joe Mandese / MediaPost:
Microsoft Sale Of Razorfish Will Alter Digital Bragging Rights On Madison Avenue
Discussion: Search Engine Watch and eWeek
Telegraph:
Thieves ‘using Google Earth to steal koi carp’
 

 
From Mediagazer:

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

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

 
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