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8:05 PM ET, August 10, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Bret Taylor / FriendFeed Blog:
FriendFeed accepts Facebook friend request  —  We are happy to announce that Facebook has acquired FriendFeed.  As my mom explained to me, when two companies love each other very much, they form a structured investment vehicle...  The FriendFeed team is extremely excited to become a part of the talented Facebook team.
RELATED:
Facebook:
Facebook Agrees to Acquire Sharing Service FriendFeed  —  Facebook today announced that it has agreed to acquire FriendFeed, the innovative service for sharing online.  As part of the agreement, all FriendFeed employees will join Facebook and FriendFeed's four founders will hold senior roles on Facebook's engineering and product teams.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Facebook Acquires FriendFeed  —  Facebook has acquired FriendFeed, we've learned.  We're gathering details now.  —  At this point details on the acquisition are still very sparse, but it's clearly a good match.  Over the last year or so, Facebook has “borrowed” quite a few of features …
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Oh, FriendFeed is now Facebook's “official” R&D department!  —  When I heard the news I was walking through San Antonio's Hard Rock Cafe looking at Kurt Cobain's high school photograph.  Wow.  FriendFeed was purchased by Facebook.  —  I quickly wrote a DM to Paul Buchheit and Bret Taylor, co-founders and said “call me.”
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:
Facebook buys FriendFeed: Is this a big deal?  —  Surprise!  Facebook has acquired FriendFeed, a Bay Area-based social-network feed aggregation start-up.  —  “Facebook and FriendFeed share a common vision of giving people tools to share and connect with their friends,” FriendFeed co-founder Bret Taylor said in a release.
Loïc Le Meur / Loic Le Meur Blog:
Facebook acquires Friendfeed for $50 million according to the WSJ  —  JESSICA E. VASCELLARO says in the WSJ: … WOW, looks like Jessica was the first to get the actual price.  —  Congratulations to both Friendfeed founders and team and Facebook.  Looking forward to continuing to work with both with Seesmic.
Akhil Wable / Facebook Blog:
Facebook Search Improved for Everyone  —  Last month, we began testing new versions of Search with a small group of people on Facebook.  Based on the success of those tests, we're rolling out a new version of Search to everyone on the site beginning today.  —  You now will be able to search …
RELATED:
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:   Facebook Launches Real-Time Public Timeline Search for Everyone
Ashlee Vance / Bits:
An Elephant Leaves the Room at Yahoo  —  Doug Cutting, one of Yahoo's top search and infrastructure software experts, will leave the company later this month and join the Silicon Valley start-up Cloudera.  —  Mr. Cutting's exit from Yahoo follows on the heels of the company's recent search tie-up with Microsoft.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Tr.im Cuts Off Bit.ly's 301works Idea, Wants to Sell  —  Yesterday, upon hearing that the URL shortening service Tr.im was shutting down, Bit.ly, the largest URL-shortener, stepped in with a proposal.  The offer wasn't to buy the service, but rather to propose that Bit.ly host Tr.im's URL …
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
VMware goes shopping: Buys SpringSource for $420 million; Can it keep the open source mojo?  —  VMware said Monday that it will pay $420 million for privately held SpringSource in a bid to become a bigger player in cloud computing application management and the open source community.
RELATED:
Susan Stellin / New York Times:
Bank Will Allow Customers to Deposit Checks by iPhone  —  The Internet has taken a lot of the paperwork out of banking, but there is no avoiding paper when someone gives you a check.  Now one bank wants to let customers deposit checks immediately — through their phones.
Jim Dalrymple / CNET News:
Apple working on software fix for MacBook Pro hard drives  —  Owners of Apple MacBook Pro notebooks with 7200rpm 500GB hard drives have been complaining for months of clicking sounds followed by temporary stalling.  According to Apple, a fix is in the works.
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
Sixteen Reasons the Windows Vista Era Never Quite Happened  —  In a small way, this is a significant post: It's the first one in which I'm going to refer to Windows Vista in the past tense.  Which might be premature and/or unreasonable-Windows 7 won't reach consumers until October 22nd …
Discussion: CNET News and Softpedia News
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
Don't Pre-Order Windows 7 Now  —  Microsoft's half-price deal for Windows 7 ran out a few weeks ago, bumping prices back to painful levels.  If you're thinking about pre-ordering anyway, wait.  There's a decent chance there'll be some new deals as we get closer to launch.
Discussion: Macworld
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Source: Dell Mobile Phone Launching In China Within Days  —  A source with knowledge of the situation tells us that Dell is launching (or at least announcing) a mobile phone in China in the next day or two.  We are trying to verify the information and gather more details on the hardware and operating system now.
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
King Of The Apple Geeks  —  John Gruber's Daring Fireball is the homepage for Mac nerds.  Even top Apple (AAPL) brass tune in regularly.  And it's a real business, too, now in its fourth year as Gruber's full-time gig.  —  Daring Fireball's influence was in full display last week …
Ross Miller / Engadget:
Zune HD hits FCC in prolific photo shoot, 16GB and 32GB capacities  —  Well, would you look at that.  Microsoft's Zune HD's overexposed — both in quantity of pics and in quality of photography — camera shoot with the FCC has been made public, showing off quite a bit of the device, its internals, and its dock.
Darrell Etherington / TheAppleBlog:
Textbooks Now On iPhone, iPod Touch  —  It appears that rumors of the death of the e-book on the iPhone platform were greatly exaggerated, at least that's what Apple has said in a recent statement.  Backing up Apple's official denial of plans to discontinue that side of app store business …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Bloglines On Life Support.  This Story Needs An Ending  —  If you were a Bloglines user, consider yourself old school.  Most people moved on to Google Reader long ago, and then bailed on RSS entirely for the Real Time Gang (Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, etc.).
Michael Sanserino / Wall Street Journal:
Lawsuits Question After-Hours Demands of Email and Cellphones  —  Two recent lawsuits raise a question that many employees and employers have deliberated: Should hourly workers be paid for time spent responding to work calls or emails while off the clock?  —  The federal suits highlight …
Scott M. Fulton, III / BetaNews:
Breakthrough in Intel/Nvidia licensing standoff for i7, i5 CPUs  —  In a statement this morning that included a blessing from an Intel vice president, GPU maker Nvidia announced it has been licensed by Intel, along with other leading motherboard manufacturers, to produce its GPU-stacking SLI technology …
Brandon Miniman / pocketnow.com:
Windows Mobile 6.5 Build 23022: What is Microsoft Up To?  —  The latest build of Windows Mobile 6.5 from XDA (and by this point, the version we'll see on phones this fall has already been completed) adds several mysterious new features that may imply that an interim build of Windows Mobile …
Daniel Terdiman / CNET News:
Guitar Hero 5 gets ready to rock  —  In the newest version of the Guitar Hero franchise, Guitar Hero 5, as many as four players can all play guitar at the same time, instead of just two.  Further, any combination of instruments is now possible.  —  SAN FRANCISCO—The first couple of weeks …
Discussion: Softpedia News
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Is Apple Really Releasing an 8GB iPhone 3GS?  (Confirmed: No)  —  Would Apple really ship something so regressive and line-mudding as that?  Yes, according to Canadian carrier Rogers' website.  Also, no, according to Canadian carrier Rogers' website, and salespeople.  Let's take a gander at the evidence!
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft delivers test versions of SQL Server 2008 R2  —  The SQL Server team is unleashing the first widespread test builds of the next version of Microsoft's database, a k a SQL Server 2008 R2 (codenamed “Kilimanjaro").  —  Earlier this year, Microsoft officials said to watch …
Discussion: Ars Technica and The Register
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft sheds 2,000-employee ad agency in $530 million deal  —  The rumors of the past few weeks were true: Microsoft has sold Razorfish — the digital ad agency it purchased when it bought its parent company aQuantive in 2007 — to Publicis Groupe for $530 million.
Andrew Allemann / Domain Name Wire:
Yahoo Buys OMG.com Domain Name for $80,000  —  Yahoo buys popular texting term.  —  Yahoo (YHOO) has purchased the domain name OMG.com for $80,000.  —  Domain Name Wire reported the sale last week on its weekly Sedo sales wrap, but we didn't know the buyer at the time.
Discussion: TechCrunch and paidContent
G. Pascal Zachary / Technology Review:
An Operating System for the Cloud  —  Google is developing a new computing platform equal to the Internet era.  Should Microsoft be worried?  —  From early in their company's history, Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, wanted to develop a computer operating system and browser.
Discussion: OSNews
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
New products, possible Verizon deal expected to boost Apple stock  —  MacBook Pro and iPod refreshes, iPhone 3GS expansion, and a possible data-centric Verizon Wireless device are expected to increase Apple's stock in the short-term, according to a new analysis.
Discussion: I4U News
 
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 More Items: 
Timothy Prickett Morgan / The Register:
Sun's Rock is barefoot on Abbey Road
Steve Johnson / Mercury News:
‘Printed chips’ could be boon for consumers
Thanks:ollirums
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
US Government Reviewing OpenID For Login on .Gov Sites
Agence France Presse:
Pirate Bay to challenge Dutch ban
Ilinca Nita / Unwired View:
AT&T's Samsung A797 spotted in the wild
Discussion: Engadget Mobile and MobileCrunch
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Gigabyte T1028X touchscreen netbook quietly debuts
 Earlier Items: 
The Age:
Apple store set to gobble up art deco landmark
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
An Old-Fashioned Web Site
Ashlee Vance / Bits:
Microsoft's SharePoint Thrives in the Recession
Discussion: Global Nerdy and Techgeist, Thanks:mrinaldesai
 

 
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

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Tubi launches Scenes, a mobile feature that lets viewers watch 60-to-90-second trailer-style clips from its library to help with content discovery

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

 
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