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9:20 AM ET, August 5, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Donald Bell / Crave: The gadget blog:
Zune HD hands-on, impressions, tears of joy  —  Do you believe in miracles?  —  (Credit: Donald Bell/CNET Networks)  —  I'll admit right off the bat that I've been a pretty big fan of the Zune ever since I bought my first one back in 2007.  I've also had some disappointments …
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.
The Official Google Blog:
Innovation in video on the web  —  Today, video is an important part of many people's everyday activities on the Internet and a big part of many Google products.  —  Because we spend a lot of time working to make the overall web experience better for users, we think that video compression technology …
RELATED:
Google:
Google to Acquire On2 Technologies  —  CLIFTON PARK, NY and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (August 5, 2009) - On2 Technologies, Inc. (NYSE Amex: ONT) and Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) jointly announced today that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Google will acquire On2, a leading developer of video compression technology.
Discussion: Between the Lines, GigaOM and Neowin.net, Thanks:shankargan
Nick Lee / Google LatLong:
I didn't know that was there!  —  Here at Google Maps we're always looking for new ways to allow people to easily explore the world's information.  Well, what could be easier than putting things right on the map?  We've now added icons and labels of prominent businesses and places of interest directly on the map itself.
Discussion: Search Engine Land and TechCrunch
RELATED:
Gmail Blog:
New in Labs: Hide labels, see subject lines on netbooks  —  Some time ago I bought a netbook.  It's perfect in terms of portability, weight and space usage, but the natural drawback is the size of the screen.  It's so small that sometimes I find it hard to read the subjects of emails in my inbox.
RELATED:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:   In The Pre-Chrome OS World, Google Optimizes Gmail For Netbooks
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:
Tam Huynh / Ovi blog:
I love my Mac.  And so does Ovi Files.  —  Like many of us at Nokia, I lead a double life.  I'm a Thinkpad guy by day and a MacBook guy by night.  —  So you ask, how do you, Mister Ovi Files product manager, update that Word document you were working on until 2 am?  You know, the one you forgot to copy to your USB stick?
The Big Lead:
ESPN's Memo on Social Networking: Smells Like They're Cooking Up Some Changes  —  The kind folks at ESPN PR just passed along - without us even asking!  - ESPN's ‘additional guidelines for social networking.’ The rules are printed after the jump.  Guess our homework tonight is to find out why this initiative was kick-started now?
RELATED:
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Goodbye iPod, hello iPhone  —  Apple passed an important milestone last quarter that nobody on Wall Street seems to have noticed: the iPod, once Apple's (AAPL) No. 1 source of revenue, fell into third place after the Mac (No. 1) and the iPhone (No. 2).  —  Think of Apple's business model …
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac
Rafe Needleman / Crave: The gadget blog:
Why consumers won't buy tablets  —  Rumors have it Apple is a month away from announcing a tablet computer.  Another tablet, the Crunchpad, is also due for imminent release.  These and other fine keyboardless computers get great play on gadget blogs (including our own Crave), but in the real world …
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Ninjawords: iPhone Dictionary, Censored by Apple  —  Two years ago I linked to a web site called Ninjawords — a fast, simple online dictionary backed by a good data source (Wiktionary).  —  The developers behind Ninjawords, Matchstick Software, have released an iPhone version, currently available from the App Store for just $2.
internetnews.com:
Cluster Resources Rebrands, Expands Beyond HPC  —  The company behind supercomputing automation software is moving into datacenter management.  —  Cluster Resources has spent the better part of the decade working on high performance computing (HPC) automation.
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.
Darren Murph / Engadget:
T-Mobile myTouch 3G storming retail stores today for $199.99 on contract  —  You knew good and well this day was coming, but if you're sick and tired of lusting after your proactive neighbor's myTouch 3G, today's your lucky day.  The highly customizable HTC handset will be widely available starting …
Rafat Ali / paidContent:
WSJ's New Policy: Won't Take Herd Embargoes  —  The Wall Street Journal has a new policy for its editorial staff, we have learned: it will not accept embargoes for stories, but will take exclusives if handed to them.  We have confirmed the policy from various sources, although a WSJ spokesman told us …
Discussion: LEWIS 360°, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Patricia Cohen / New York Times:
Hot Story to Has-Been: Tracking News via Cyberspace  —  Like a lot of new ideas, Media Cloud started with a long-running argument among friends.  Ethan Zuckerman and a handful of his colleagues at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School found themselves in endless disputes …
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
iPhone Claims 32 Percent of Handset Industry Operating Profits  —  With the iPhone, Apple is doing to the handset industry what it has done to the PC industry with the Mac: Claiming an inordinate share of profits relative to revenue.  —  Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimates that Apple …
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
Randall C. Kennedy / Computerworld:
The best free open source software for Windows  —  InfoWorld - To many, free open source software and Microsoft Windows seem to be mutually exclusive.  After all, the open source development model is most closely associated with the Linux OS and, to a lesser degree, various Unix derivatives.
Discussion: Open Source and Linux.com
Chris Ahearn / MediaFile:
Why I believe in the link economy  —  The following is a guest column by Chris Ahearn, President, Media at Thomson Reuters.  —  “Do unto others”  —  It's a simple standard my mom taught me when I was a kid - yours probably taught it too.  It isn't always easy, but in business it's …
Discussion: NewsCred Blog, Thanks:atul
Jessica Dolcourt / The Download Blog:
Handmark beats Microsoft to mobile app store  —  The countdown is well under way for Microsoft's Windows Mobile app store, called Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which is slated to arrive in early fall alongside the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system.  Yet on Tuesday, mobile media company …
EUnews:
Europe well-placed to profit from digital economy: study  —  (BRUSSELS) - The growth of the Internet and the emergence of a new computer-savvy generation leaves Europe well-placed to capitalise on the digital economy, the European Commission said Tuesday.  —  In its Digital Competitiveness report …
Ryan Tate / Gawker:
Flickr Loses a Few Thousand More Pictures, with No Recourse  —  A Flickr user is complaining loudly that the photo service allowed 3,000+ of his photos to be deleted by a hacker with no warning.  Now they're supposedly gone, forever.  When will Flickr start making backups?
Elizabeth Montalbano / PC World:
Microsoft Acknowledges Linux Threat to Windows Client  —  Microsoft for the first time has named Linux distributors Red Hat and Canonical as competitors to its Windows client business in its annual filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  —  The move is an acknowledgement …
Discussion: The Register
The Mozilla Blog:
Mozilla Store Vendor Security Breach  —  Today, Mozilla discovered that GatewayCDI, the third party vendor entrusted to run the backend of the Mozilla Store, suffered a security breach.  Once notified, we took the immediate preventative step of shutting down the Mozilla Store to ensure that no additional users could be compromised.
Discussion: LinuxWorld.com and Softpedia News
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Famed Choreographer Dies... Intellectual Property Lawyers Take Over?  —  A few years back, we wrote about the guy who claimed to have invented The Electric Slide sending DMCA takedown notices to people who put up videos of people (at weddings, for example) dancing the dance.
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 …
 
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 More Items: 
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Other Companies Should Have To Read This Internal Netflix Presentation
Discussion: Hacking NetFlix
Patricia Zengerle / Reuters:
White House still seeking cybersecurity czar
Ty McMahan / Venture Capital Dispatch:
Venture Capital Firms Climbing Aboard Travel Start-Ups
Robert Andrews / paidContent:
What Does Spotify's Funding Say About Freemium Music Fortunes?
Dan Primack / PE Hub Blog:
The Ancestry of Ancestry.com: It's Not a VC-Backed IPO
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Mobile Internet Hot Spots: Hot or Not?
Discussion: VoIP Watch
 Earlier Items: 
Jim Giles / New Scientist:
After the boom, is Wikipedia heading for bust?
Discussion: Fast Company and Gizmodo, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Ian Shapira / Washington Post:
Outlook: How Gawker Ripped Off My Story and Why It's Destroying Journalism
Discussion: Rebooting The News
Priya Ganapati / Gadget Lab:
Personal Supercomputers Promise Teraflops on Your Desk
Thanks:atul
David Kravets / Threat Level:
Student Arrested for Jailbreaking Game Consoles — Update
Discussion: Techdirt and TechVi
 

 
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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