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5:15 PM ET, July 17, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
David Pogue / Pogue's Posts:
Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others  —  This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers.  These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned.
RELATED:
Mark Frauenfelder / Boing Boing:
Amazon zaps purchased copies of Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindles  —  People who bought Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm for their Kindle were surprised to discover that it had disappeared from their devices overnight.  It turns out the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic version …
Adam Frucci / Gizmodo:
Amazon Remotely Deletes Legitimately Purchased Books From Thousands of Kindles
Discussion: Engadget
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Verizon's Handset Concessions Target AT&T, iPhone  —  Updated: Verizon said today it will offer smaller carriers access to any cell phone model it uses — even those exclusive to Verizon.  Carriers who have fewer than 500,000 subscribers will have access to phones after only six months …
RELATED:
Amy Schatz / Wall Street Journal:
Verizon to Limit Exclusive Handset Deals  —  Verizon Wireless said it will allow small wireless carriers to use the popular cellphone models Verizon offers exclusively more quickly.  —  The wireless phone giant announced the change in a letter to key lawmakers on Capitol Hill who have been pressuring …
Chris Nuttall / blogs.ft.com:
App stores are not the future, says Google  —  Apple customers may have downloaded 1.5bn applications from its AppStore in the past year for their iPhones and iPod touches, but the service does not represent the future for the mobile industry, according to Google.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Yahoo Search Ad Deal With Microsoft “Down to the Short Strokes"-But Caution Also Advised  —  Unless there is some major glitch, there might finally be a search and online advertising deal struck between Yahoo and Microsoft at long last.  —  Top executives at Microsoft-including SVP …
RELATED:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Did Your Mom Tell You Not To Talk To Strangers?  Don't Show Her FlyChat.  —  I sat down thinking I was going to write about how FlyChat, a new iPhone app, is kind of creepy.  Then I realized it's actually a lot like Twitter in some regards.  And that's not to say that Twitter isn't creepy in some ways.
Discussion: IntoMobile and Mashable!
Erica Ogg / CNET News:
Slowing down the Netbook train  —  Cheaper or faster?  —  That's going to be the burning question for computer shoppers perusing the aisles of electronics retail stores this fall.  That's when the new line of notebooks powered by consumer ultra-low voltage (CULV) chips will start appearing in force.
Sleonard / Windows Home Server Team Blog:
Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 BETA - Includes enhancements for Windows 7-based computers  —  We are pleased to announce the Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 Beta which improves the Windows Home Server experience with Windows 7 and Windows Media Center by providing the following new features …
Alex Iskold / ReadWriteWeb:
The Future of Search: Social Relevancy Rank  —  FriendFeed has recently launched a search feature, and so Facebook search must be coming soon.  —  Real-time Web search (of streams of activities) is a hot topic right now.  Everyone, including Google and Microsoft, recognizes the value of using trusted contacts as filters.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
How Google Made Its Q2 Numbers: Squeezing Expenses  —  Google made its earnings numbers yesterday, actually coming in above expectations.  Total revenues were $5.5 billion, 3 percent above the same period last year and flat with the first quarter (when sequential revenues actually declined).
Discussion: Between the Lines and GMSV
Michael Jones / TUAW:
App Store Lessons: No promo codes for apps rated 17+  —  Developers whose apps meet the criteria for a 17+ rating in the App Store are now running into yet another roadblock, but this time it's not about getting their apps approved, it's about distributing them.  Or, more specifically, distributing promo codes for them.
IEBlog:
Changes to IE8's First Run  —  This blog post details a change we're making to IE8's first run experience, previously described in other posts here and here.  The goal of the IE setup experience is to put IE users in control of their settings and respect existing defaults.
Staska / Unwired View:
Google to monetize Voice via ringback advertising auctions?  —  The newly announced Google Voice looks like a great service that should ease your communication problems on multiple devices significantly.  —  And Google is already thinking of the ways of monetizing Voice.  In a way it knows best - through advertising.
Noah Robischon / Fast Company:
What Would a Facebook Collaboration With Apple Look Like?  It Almost Happened...  How would Facebook be different today if its social operating system was built into Apple's OS X?  The two companies spent a lot of time collaborating early on.  But, as Facebook's senior platform manager …
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac
Scott M. Fulton, III / BetaNews:
Is Google optimizing Chrome 3 for Windows XP netbooks?  —  Download Google Chrome 3.0.193.1 for Windows from Fileforum now.  —  Over the last few weeks, Google has been releasing development builds of its Chrome 3 Web browser in a fast and furious pace.  And with each release …
Andrew Schrock / Technology Review:
Data Overload on Dating Sites  —  The information overload caused by too much choice could have lessons for other websites.  —  Consumers can find more of what they want on the Web, but that may not always be such a good thing.  New research about online dating sites shows that users presented …
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Offbeat: Paranoid lawsuit attempts to link Apple to Italian mafia  —  A new lawsuit from a Beverly Hills, Calif., man alleges that Apple conspired with the Italian mafia to secretly track him, transmit threatening messages to his iPod, and insert the word “herpes” into the song “Still Tippin'” by Mike Jones.
David Carr / New York Times:
A Hollywood Blogger Feared by Executives  —  Right now, there's a good chance a Hollywood executive is leaning into a colleague's office and quietly asking, “Did you see what Nikki just wrote?”  —  That would be Nikki Finke, a well-traveled newspaper reporter who has found her moment as a digital-age Walter Winchell.
Discussion: Company Town, The Awl and Gawker
Marco.org:
Serious doubts  —  I've never doubted the viability of running a serious business of writing iPhone apps before.  For the first time, now, I am.  —  App Review is problematic when the delays are longer than a few days.  Since its inception, having submitted applications about 12 times …
Discussion: The iPhone Blog
Tim Mullaney / Bloomberg:
Juniper Backer NEA Makes 26-Fold Return on Data Domain After EMC Purchase  —  New Enterprise Associates, the venture capital firm that backed Juniper Networks Inc., made a 26-fold return on its stake in Data Domain Inc., the biggest payout for a venture firm this year, partner Scott Sandell said.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Mark Cuban Beats the SEC: Judge Tosses Insider-Trading Case  —  A federal judge has dismissed the Securities and Exchange Commission's insider-trading case against Mark Cuban, the AP reports.  Astonishingly, Cuban has yet to say anything about this on his blog or his Twitter account.
Clint Boulton / eWeek:
Don't Tell Eric Schmidt Google Won't Make Money from Chrome OS  —  Google CEO Eric Schmidt doesn't rule out ad-supported and subscription services for applications built on Chrome OS, the search engine giant's forthcoming operating system.  The CEO handled several questions about Chrome OS …
Quentin Hardy / Forbes:
Yahoo!'s Earnings Quagmire  —  The company reports July 21, and results likely won't be good.  —  BURLINGAME, Calif. — Brace yourself for no surprise: When Yahoo! announces second-quarter results July 21, earnings are going to be bad.  With house prices down, travel down and recession-battered consumers …
Discussion: Guardian
Mark Milian / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
As Twitter and Facebook grow, Google Reader copies features, adding clutter  —  Google Reader's increasingly cluttered interface (larger version).  —  Google Reader is one of the best RSS aggregators out there.  But with more blogs and newspapers broadcasting their content on Twitter and Facebook …
Michael V. Copeland / Fortune:
Cisco's upside potential  —  When the economy finally gets back on track, the networking giant will play a key role in some of tech's biggest trends.  —  NEW YORK (Fortune) — There have been a string of tech companies signaling that for their business at least, the worst may be over.
Discussion: CNNMoney.com and Brainstorm Tech
Jake Brill / Facebook Blog:
New Tools to Secure a Compromised Account  —  In our continued battle against cyber criminals, one of the biggest challenges we face is helping people whose accounts have been compromised by spammers understand how it happened and how to fix the problem.  The vast majority of people …
Discussion: Inside Facebook and All Facebook
Richard Clayton / Light Blue Touchpaper:
How much did shutting down McColo help?  —  On 11 November 2008 McColo, a Californian server hosting company, was disconnected from the Internet.  This took the controllers for 6 major botnets offline.  It has been widely reported that email spam volumes were markedly reduced for some time thereafter.
Javier Espinoza / Forbes:
Spotify Looks For A New Tune  —  The London online jukebox is launching in the U.S. later this summer.  —  LONDON — The way Americans listen to music online might be about to change.  Music-streaming Web site Spotify, an online software program that gives Internet users instant and free access …
 
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 More Items: 
Mary Kathleen Flynn / Dealscape:
VCs protest registering with SEC
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Accenture To Buy Symbian Services Unit From Nokia
Jeffrey Burt / eWeek:
HP Scales Storage Offerings with Ibrix Acquisition
Discussion: HP, Between the Lines, CNET News and GigaOM
Erica Ogg / CNET News:
Dell investors question executive compensation
Orlando Sentinel:
Your tweets could earn you money
Discussion: Etan on Tech
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Averatec debuts 22-inch D1005 all-in-one PC for $799
 Earlier Items: 
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Mozilla quashes first critical bug in Firefox 3.5, beats Microsoft to patch punch
Discussion: eWeek
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Opera: Microsoft's ‘minor tweak’ of Windows 7 not enough
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Who Does Twitter Love? Breaking Down The Twitter Suggested Users List
Discussion: Screenwerk
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Mary Kay Sues Yahoo For Inserting Ad Links In Emails
Google Blogoscoped:
The Great Google Doodle Triforce Conspiracy
Discussion: Switched, Thanks:atul
Dan Nosowitz / Gizmodo:
New Xbox Live Update: Full Game Downloads, Expanded Netflix Features and More