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11:20 PM ET, August 5, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Min Li Chan / Google Chrome Blog:
A New Beta: Why slow down when you can speed up?  —  There's a brand new beta for you to try out today.  As always, we continue to focus on speed, and this beta release shows over 30% improvement on both the V8 and SunSpider benchmarks over our current stable channel release.
RELATED:
Clint Boulton / eWeek:
Google Chrome Gets 30% Speed Bump, HTML5 Functionality
Discussion: AppScout and Electronista
Boy Genius Report:
Apple launching iPhone 3GS 8GB soon?  —  We've had a number of unconfirmed tips over the last few days about this so we figured we'd post it... apparently it seems that Rogers in Canada is in the process of shipping iPhone 3GS 8GB flavor handsets to stores.  Again, unconfirmed, no idea on pricing …
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.
RELATED:
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Google Acquires Video Compression Technology Company On2 For $106 Million
Dan Rayburn / The Business Of Online Video:
Debunking Some Myths Of The Google/On2 Deal, Questioning VP8's Quality
Discussion: VentureBeat
Liz Gannes / NewTeeVee:
Watch Out, Flash; Google Buys On2
Discussion: NBC Bay Area
Apple:
About the Mac OS X v10.5.8 Update  —  The Mac OS X v10.5.8 Update is recommended for Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard users and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac.  For detailed information about the security content of this update, please visit this website.
RELATED:
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Mac OS X 10.5.8 chock full of security, reliability fixes
Discussion: Macworld
Sysomos:
Inside Twitter  —  An In-Depth Look at the 5% of Most Active Users  —  When Sysomos published its initial “Inside Twitter” report last month that looked at the people on Twitter and how it was being used, we discovered that 5% of users accounted for 75% of all activity.
Discussion: WebProNews, Mark Evans, ReadWriteWeb and Twitterrati, Thanks:atul
RELATED:
Randy McIlwain / NBC Bay Area:
HP's Huge Salary Cuts Forcing Out Old EDS Employees  —  When Information Technology came of age, Ross Perot's EDS was among the world leaders.  Ask almost anyone at the Plano based company, they'll tell you there was pride that went with employment there and that hard work was rewarded with good salaries and benefits.
Ed Bott / Ed Bott's Microsoft Report:
A killer Windows 7 bug?  Sorry, no  —  The blogosphere is abuzz over a newly publicized bug in Windows 7.  I read about it yesterday on Chris123NT's blog, where it was described as a “critical bug in Windows 7 RTM.”  The story picked up momentum today when InfoWorld's Randall Kennedy …
Inside Edge:
TomTom iPhone pricing leaked  —  Please support our Hardware and Software advertiser: Programming Forums  —  How much for an iPhone-powered TomTom satnav?  That's the question that has been on the lips of many an iPhone user ever since TomTom announced it was developing a version …
Andrew Clark / Guardian:
Murdoch plans charge for all news websites by next summer  —  Times and Sun readers to pay as loss-making Murdoch declares end to free-for-all  —  The billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch suffered the indignity of seeing his global empire make a huge financial loss yesterday and promptly pledged …
Discussion: paidContent and Mashable!
RELATED:
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Arrington's CrunchPad Will Be ‘A Real Hit’, Says Best Buy Marketing Boss  —  Best Buy (BBY) chief marketing officer Barry Judge just met with the “chief blogger” at TechCrunch.  Presumably, that's Michael Arrington.  —  Judge also took a peek at the CrunchPad, Arrington's Web-only tablet PC project.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Here Come The Twitter Patent Lawsuits.  TechRadium Files The First One.  —  Twitter is being sued again, and this time it isn't some angry baseball manager who doesn't like people impersonating him on the service.  This time it is a little more serious.  Twitter is being sued for patent infringement …
Discussion: VentureBeat and Threat Level
Oliver J. Chiang / Forbes:
The Challenge Of User-Generated Porn  —  YouTube-like pornography sites have YouTube-like profit problems.  —  BURLINGAME, Calif. — You would think that if anyone were making boatloads of money from Internet video, it would be high-traffic porn sites.  You would be wrong.
Alex Pham / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Online ad spending dropped 7% in second quarter, worst not yet over, says IDC  —  Google grew its online ad business, while the rest of the industry faltered.  Credit: David Paul Morris / Getty Images  —  The worst is not yet over.  U.S. spending on online ads, which dropped 7% to $6.2 billion …
Discussion: WebProNews, IDC, CNET News, blogs.ft.com and Bits
Tim Green / mobile-ent.biz:
O2UK iPhone exclusive to end on October 9th  —  Orange and T-Mobile favourites to swoop in and stock Apple device.  —  Although there has been plentiful speculation about O2 losing its iPhone exclusivity over the last few weeks, ME has seen documentation that states it will end officially on October 9th.
TechCrunch:
Eight New Startups Pop Out Of The LaunchBox  —  Washington DC based LaunchBox Digital, an early stage investment firm and incubator founded in 2007 by John McKinley, Sean Green, and Julius Genachowski (now the new head of the FCC and divested from LaunchBox), just wrapped up its second annual 12-week program.
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Facebook Removes Ability To Search Based On Relationship Status  —  Looking for hot singles in your area?  Don't plan on using Facebook's advanced search tool to find them.  Now you're going to have to use the various dating applications on Facebook if you are the type of person who likes …
Discussion: blogs.ft.com and Gawker
Jane Macartney / Times of London:
Chinese teenager beaten to death in internet addiction clinic  —  His parents hoped their teenage son would be home in a month, cured of his addiction to the internet.  They never thought that within 10 hours of taking him to an addiction clinic they would receive a telephone call notifying them that he was dead.
Thanks:mikeharvey
Clint Boulton / eWeek:
Yahoo May Terminate Microsoft Search Ad Deal if Revenue per Search Lags Google  —  Yahoo may quash the Microsoft search ad deal if search engine giant Google's revenue-per-search query rate is higher than both Microsoft's and Yahoo's RPS rates.  Microsoft will also hire 400 Yahoo employees …
Mihai Parparita / Official Google Reader Blog:
PubSubHubbub support for Reader shared items  —  Speed is very important at Google, and the Reader team is no exception.  One way in which we take speed into account is to try to make consumption of feeds be as efficient as possible.  We also want to make it as fast (and as easy) …
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch and Regular Geek, Thanks:atul
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
You are SO unfollowed!  —  Whew, it's been a while since I've done a good old fashioned blog.  I've been busy, though.  Posting tons of videos, both on my personal site on Blip.tv as well as professional videos over on building43.com.  Last night I put up a live video of USA's new CTO speaking to a bunch of Silicon Valley geeks, too.
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 …
Preston Gralla / Computerworld:
Report: Microsoft Bing benefits from illegal pharmaceutical sales  —  Bing has gotten lots of good press recently for its excellent search capabilities and growing market share.  But a new report brings not-very-savory charges against the search site, claiming that 90% of pharmacies …
Discussion: eWeek and Ars Technica
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
Facebook Adds New Way to Share Web Content Without Leaving the Page  —  When Facebook launched the Open Stream API a few months back, it enabled app developers to read and publish to the stream for the first time.  That, in turn, has led to a variety of stream publishing applications.
Electronic Frontier Foundation:
On Locational Privacy, and How to Avoid Losing it Forever  —  Related Issues: Locational Privacy, Privacy  —  Over the next decade, systems which create and store digital records of people's movements through public space will be woven inextricably into the fabric of everyday life.
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Threat Level and p2pnet
Pete Cashmore / Mashable!:
Tumblr Takes Over World: 255,000,000 Pageviews in July  —  Simple blogging site Tumblr will reveal its July stats later today, along with a claim that it is “taking over the world”.  —  The site served 255 million pageviews in July, according to directly measured stats by third party analytics firm Quantcast.
 
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 More Items: 
Paul Carr:
An open letter to Sam Sethi, on the occasion of him completely losing his mind
Discussion: Robin Wauters
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
iPhone triggers boom in flash memory
Discussion: Electronista
Ryan Tate / Gawker:
It's Time for Current TV to Talk About What Happened to Their Captured Reporters
Mark Walsh / MediaPost:
Top Execs Exit Tremor Media
Discussion: Contentinople and NewTeeVee
Andrew Allemann / Domain Name Wire:
Domain Name Companies Spend $2M Lobbying Washington
David Kaplan / paidContent:
Online Ad Buyer MediaMath Raises $12.5 Million Financing
 Earlier Items: 
Brooke Crothers / Bits:
Google's Android Jumps to the Living Room
Olga Kharif / Business Week:
Palm's Pre Is Trying to Live Up to the Hype
Discussion: PreCentral.net
Marianne Schultz / MacRumors iPhone Blog:
Banned App Store Developer Had Been Trying to Auction Off Business
Discussion: Macworld
Wall Street Journal:
What Does KUTGW Mean?
 

 
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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