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12:30 AM ET, August 6, 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:
Dan Rayburn / The Business Of Online Video:
Debunking Some Myths Of The Google/On2 Deal, Questioning VP8's Quality
Discussion: VentureBeat
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Google Acquires Video Compression Technology Company On2 For $106 Million
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:
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 …
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.
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:
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.
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.
Paul Carr:
An open letter to Sam Sethi, on the occasion of him completely losing his mind  —  For the past few weeks, you have been embroiled in a one-sided libel suit against Michael Arrington, the Silicon Valley-based editor of TechCrunch - a publication for which, in the interests of disclosure, I recently began writing a weekly column.
Discussion: Robin Wauters
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
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, blogs.ft.com, CNET News and Bits
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.
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
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
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.
Ryan Tate / Gawker:
It's Time for Current TV to Talk About What Happened to Their Captured Reporters  —  It's truly heartening to see Laura Ling and Euna Lee back safely on American soil.  But the questions about the Current TV journalists will soon turn beyond the sentimental now that they're out of harm's way.
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: Ars Technica and eWeek
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
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
iPhone triggers boom in flash memory  —  Thanks in large part to Apple's (AAPL) iPhone and the growing ranks of iPhone imitators, worldwide sales of NAND-type flash memory are expected to rise nearly six-fold from 2008 to 2013, according to a report by iSuppli Corp. issued Wednesday.
Discussion: Electronista
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 …
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.
Rosa Golijan / Lifehacker:
Massacre Gmail Ads with These Two Sentences (and Some Tragic Words)  —  Those “Sponsored Ads” in e-mails are an annoyance to both sender and recipient and they seem to escape blocking.  Until now.  These two (so far) fail-proof sentences at the end of an email will let you enjoy e-mailed rants, ad-free.
Discussion: Download Squad and Gizmodo
 
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 More Items: 
Mark Walsh / MediaPost:
Top Execs Exit Tremor Media
Discussion: Contentinople and NewTeeVee
Andrew Allemann / Domain Name Wire:
Domain Name Companies Spend $2M Lobbying Washington
Brooke Crothers / Bits:
Google's Android Jumps to the Living Room
 Earlier Items: 
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?
Rich Jaroslovsky / Bloomberg:
Yang Is Gorilla in Room on Yahoo-Microsoft: Rich Jaroslovsky
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Goodbye iPod, hello iPhone
 

 
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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