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8:45 PM ET, August 4, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Jeff Smykil / Ars Technica:
Updated plist suggests new Apple device “iProd” coming soon  —  An updated USBConfiguration.plist in the most recent version of iPhone OS 3.1 beta offers compelling evidence that Apple has continued development on an unknown device, referred to as “iProd,” that was first discovered in March.
Vik Singh / delicious blog:
Delicious Homepage Gets “Fresh”  —  Way back in January I released a simple application called TweetNews, which essentially ranks the latest Yahoo! News articles by their number of related Twitter messages to determine relevance for really fresh content.  Remarkably, the community responded to it …
RELATED:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Delicious Freshens Up With Twitter, Which Its Founder Hates  —  Delicious was once one of the hottest social sites on the Internet.  That's why Yahoo bought it in 2005.  But it's weird now to even think about it as a social site, I get more of the utilitarian vibe from it these days.
Discussion: Download Squad, eWeek and BetaNews
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Sony launches two new readers including a pocket-sized $199 device  —  Sony on Wednesday will unveil two new e-book devices, a pocket edition with a 5-inch screen for $199 and a touch-screen version starting at $299.  The devices will be available at the end of August.
RELATED:
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Apple Wants To Build A PayPal Killer, Say Wall Street Gossips  —  Wall Street gossips tell us that Apple (AAPL) executives have dropped hints suggesting the company is considering creating a service that would allow iTunes Store account holders to use those accounts to make purchases …
Shanan Delp / Flickr Blog:
New Flickr Search  —  Today we're pleased to announce a redesign of our search results page.  The changes we've introduced make it easier to browse through the billions of photos and videos on Flickr, and to connect to the communities that help make sense of all those photos.
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple evaluated 4- to 12-inch tablet screens - report  —  Apple has reportedly purchased a number of screens — ranging from 4 inches to 12 inches in size — over the last few years, as it explores its possible entry into the tablet and sub-notebook market, according to a financial analyst.
Josh / Cruleword's Lifestream:
New Zune HD Pictures Surface (Now With 20+ Images)  —  Later Today I am expexting an official announcement.  But more pictures of the Zune HD are coming out via a Zune MVP on twitter.  The pictures were removed in fear of them still being under NDA, but I was able to grab a few of them before they were deleted.
Noah Shachtman / Danger Room:
Marines Ban Twitter, MySpace, Facebook  —  The U.S. Marine Corps has banned Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social media sites from its networks, effective immediately.  —  “These internet sites in general are a proven haven for malicious actors and content and are particularly high risk due …
RELATED:
Julian E. Barnes / Los Angeles Times:
Can the military coexist with social networking sites?
The Official Google Blog:
Audio care packages for service members with Google Voice  —  (From time to time we invite guests to blog about initiatives of interest and are pleased to have Sergeant Dale Sweetnam join us here.  SGT Sweetnam is working with Google's communications team this year through the U.S. Army's “Training with Industry” Program.
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Windows XP Mode RC Now Available  —  Back in April, we introduced the Windows XP Mode beta and after a few months of incorporating your enthusiastic feedback, today we are announcing the availability of the Windows XP Mode Release Candidate.  —  Download: Windows XP Mode Release Candidate
Emily Steel / Dow Jones Newswires:
Internet start-ups diversify their business models  —  Widget makers diversify by selling virtual goods to consumers, branded entertainment ads to marketers.  —  If at first you don't succeed, try again — and if you are an Internet company, do it quickly.  —  Slide Inc. is learning this lesson well.
Discussion: paidContent and Inc.com
RELATED:
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Slide And RockYou Reboot: They're “Distributed Media Companies” Now
Discussion: the Econsultancy blog
Rafat Ali / paidContent:
Yahoo-MSFT Deal: Details From SEC Filing: Calibrated Against Google's Search Revenues & Marketshare  —  Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) just filed with SEC with some more details of its search deal with Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT).  Some standouts:  —The deal details have to be hashed out by by October 27, 2009
Jennifer Martinez / GigaOM:
Despite iPhone's Success, BlackBerry Curve Was on Top in Q2  —  In the battle of the smartphones, RIM's Blackberry Curve edged out the competition to take the top spot as the best-selling smartphone model in the U.S. in the second quarter of this year, according to inaugural smartphone market share data from research firm IDC.
Jennifer Van Grove / Mashable!:
Sponsored Tweets Launches: The End of Twitter As We Know It?  —  We heard rumblings that IZEA's Sponsored Tweets was about to debut back in June.  Today, IZEA's platform launched, and it is what we all expected: a pay per tweet service.  —  Sponsored Tweets, now live …
Julie Zhou / Google LatLong:
Take a peek at our new Street View site  —  Since our launch of Street View in May 2007, it has consistently been one of Google Maps' most popular features.  We've also found that it has been one of the features that folks are most curious about, so we have given our Street View overview site …
Marguerite Reardon / CNET News:
Verizon readies Fios TV app store  —  Verizon Communications is about to open up its new Widget Bazaar to third-party developers to create an “app store” for its Fios TV service in a move that could forever change how people watch TV.  —  Verizon first announced the Widget Bazaar just a couple of weeks ago.
Dieter Bohn / PreCentral.net:
Palm Hires New SVP of Brand Design  —  There's a new member of Palm's management team, Jeff Zwerner.  He's listed as the Senior Vice President, Brand Design for the company.  Exectrax, a site that monitors such pages, notes that he popped up on the page about a week ago.
Jack Kim / Reuters:
North Korea frees two U.S. journalists after Clinton visit  —  SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea on Tuesday released two jailed American journalists after a visit from former U.S. President Bill Clinton in the highest-level U.S. contact with North Korea since Clinton was president nearly a decade ago.
Discussion: NewTeeVee and TechCrunch
Ian Shapira / Washington Post:
Outlook: How Gawker Ripped Off My Story and Why It's Destroying Journalism  —  Washington Post staff writer Ian Shapira was online Tuesday, Aug. 4, at 11 a.m. ET to discuss his Outlook article titled “How Gawker Ripped Off My Story and Why It's Destroying Journalism.”
Discussion: Rebooting The News
Peter Burrows / Business Week:
Apple vs. Google: Tech's Newest Rivalry?  —  The Valley giants both want to determine how users access the mobile Web.  Eric Schmidt's exit from Apple's board may be the shot that starts the race in earnest  —  Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt  —  Over the past three decades …
David Kravets / Threat Level:
Student Arrested for Jailbreaking Game Consoles — Update  —  A Southern California man was taken into custody Monday on accusations of running a home business of jailbreaking videogame consoles so they can run pirated games.  —  Homeland Security authorities arrested Matthew Crippen, 27 …
Discussion: Techdirt
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
TweetBlocker: Easily Delete Spammers From Your Twitter Stream  —  It's no secret that Twitter has become a preferred playground for spammers.  Hashrocket's TweetBlocker sets out to change this by giving users a simple tool to easily identify spammers in the group of users they are following.
Discussion: Search Engine Watch and Mashable!
Paul Boutin / VentureBeat:
Browser makers announce support for built-in 3D graphics  —  At today's sessions of the SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference in New Orleans, a group of hardware and software makers that includes browser makers Mozilla, Opera and Google announced their plans to deliver built-in 3D graphics …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Yahoo Shuts Bix Down.  Did Anyone Notice?  —  It must be disconcerting to a big Internet company to shut down a whole website and nobody even notices.  Not even a short note on Twitter from a concerned user until now.  But that's what apparently happened.
Discussion: Techgeist, Thanks:2yadav
Jenna Wortham / New York Times:
Rivalry Between Apple and Palm Intensifies  —  The Palm Pre has a large touch screen, slide-out keyboard and fast Web browsing.  Palm also likes to point out that another selling point is the smartphone's ability to link to iTunes, Apple's popular software for managing music and other media on a computer.
Jason Roth / Apple:
Apple Launches iTunes Store in Mexico  —  World's Most Popular Online Music Store Kicks off with All Major Labels & Hundreds of Indies  —  Apple® today announced the launch of the iTunes® Store in Mexico (www.itunes.com/mexico) with an incredible selection of Mexican and international music …
Andrew Garcia / eWeek:
Apple's Rejection of Google Voice Points to Just One Thing  —  Why would Apple deny customers the Google Voice functionality and risk the ire of the FCC? eWEEK Labs' Andrew Garcia suspects it's because Apple is building a similar service for MobileMe.  —  The flap between Google and Apple …
Kit Eaton / Fast Company:
The Best (and Worst) Hacks of Defcon Computer Security Conference 2009  —  Computer security is a famously murky world that tends to generate alarmist headlines—like the ones about Apple's vulnerabilities from last week.  Defcon 2009 has just finished, and lived up to this reputation in many, surprising, ways.
Discussion: threatpost
Jim Giles / New Scientist:
After the boom, is Wikipedia heading for bust?  —  Wikipedia has rapidly become one of the most used reference sources in the world, but a new study shows that the website's explosive growth is tailing off and also suggests the community-created encyclopaedia has become less welcoming to new contributors.
Discussion: Fast Company, Thanks:mrinaldesai
GSMArena.com:
Altek T8680 mobile phone doubles as a 12MP camera with 3x zoom  —  Thanks to a tipster, we just got a glimpse of the future of cameraphones.  Putting Taiwanese R&D into practice, Altek have recently announced their 12 megapixel digital camera with GSM phone function.
 
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 More Items: 
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
WeFi's Directory Nearly 30 Million WiFi Hotspots Strong, Raises More Funding
Discussion: mocoNews and alarm:clock, Thanks:2yadav
Jaikumar Vijayan / Computerworld:
SEC takes steps to ban ‘flash’ trading
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Who will replace Eric Schmidt on Apple's board?
Discussion: Edible Apple
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Mobile Internet Hot Spots: Hot or Not?
Andrew Silverman / The Official Google Blog:
Leave the math to us: Advertisers increase their profits using Conversion Optimizer
Priya Ganapati / Gadget Lab:
Personal Supercomputers Promise Teraflops on Your Desk
Thanks:atul
Roy Greenslade / Guardian:
Financial Times chief on why his multi-platform paper is in the pink of health
Discussion: paidContent
 Earlier Items: 
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Intuit's GoPayment credit card app comes to the iPhone
Discussion: PC World and TechCrunchIT
Staska / Unwired View:
Nokia N97 Mini. It's real and we've got some details
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Amazon App for Android released
Discussion: Big in Japan and Fast Company
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Analyzing Comcast's spinoff of cable networks, purposefully structured with low debt: the move might be a signal to the industry that it's time to consolidate

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
James Harding says the Tortoise-Observer deal could create a profitable media group and there isn't a guaranteed future for the Observer with the Guardian

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Substack, very deliberately, tries to have it both ways by saying publications on their platform are independent while presenting them all as parts of Substack

 
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