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11:45 PM ET, August 13, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Here It Comes.  But What Is It, Exactly?  Apple Plans Keynote Event for September.  —  Time to get the rumor mill kicked into high gear: Multiple music industry sources say Apple executives have told them the company is planning one of its famed keynote events for the week of Sept. 7.
RELATED:
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Sources confirm no Apple tablet at Sept. event, coming in 2010  —  Speculation of an Apple event in September broke earlier today, but The Loop has learned the event will not include the introduction of the rumored Apple tablet.  —  Very reliable sources familiar with the product …
Brian Lam / Gizmodo:
An Insider On the Apple Tablet  —  I never fully believed the Apple tablet was real beyond dreams, until I heard these words over my phone: “Hey, it's [redacted].  I may or may not have sat in some Apple meetings for the tablet.”  —  I was driving, and swerved a little bit, even though both hands were on the wheel.
RELATED:
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
‘Insider’, Eh?  —  Brian Lam has a much-linked-to piece on Gizmodo today titled “An Insider on the Apple Tablet”: … I'm almost certain there's no tablet coming this year.  It's a 2010 thing.  (Update: Jim Dalrymple is hearing 2010, too.)  —  So Lam's source is an “insider” …
Biz / Twitter Blog:
Project Retweet: Phase One  —  Some of Twitter's best features are emergent—people inventing simple but creative ways to share, discover, and communicate.  One such convention is retweeting.  When you want to call more attention to a particular tweet, you copy/paste it as your own …
RELATED:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Twitter Is Revamping Retweets, Launches A Retweet API  —  In its developer Google Group, Twitter has just made the announcement that it is releasing an early preview of a brand new API: The retweeting API.  And that's not all, Twitter is in the process of completely revamping its retweet functionality.
Discussion: Mashable!, Thanks:sizzler_chetan
Miguel Helft / New York Times:
Netscape Founder Backs New Browser  —  SAN FRANCISCO — It has been 15 years since Marc Andreessen developed the Netscape Internet browser that introduced millions of people to the Internet.  —  After its early success, Netscape was roundly defeated by Microsoft in the so-called browser wars …
Discussion: WinBeta
RELATED:
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
RockMelt: Netscape's Andreessen Backing Stealth Facebook Browser  —  Netscape founder Marc Andreessen is backing a new browser dedicated to browsing Facebook, called RockMelt, according to rumors we've heard from reputable sources.  A semi-independent desktop client for Facebook?
Jose Nazario / Arbor Networks Security:
Twitter-based Botnet Command Channel  —  While digging around I found a botnet that uses Twitter as its command and control structure.  Basically what it does is use the status messages to send out new links to contact, then these contain new commands or executables to download and run.
Wall Street Journal:
Apple's Board to Meet to Discuss Replacements for Google's Schmidt  —  Apple Inc.'s directors are planning to meet next Tuesday and plan to discuss possible replacements to the board seat recently vacated by Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, said a person familiar with the matter.
Jason Snell / Macworld:
Microsoft: Next Mac Office due late 2010 with Outlook  —  Microsoft announced Thursday that the next edition of Microsoft Office for Mac will be released in late 2010.  The new edition of the venerable office suite will include Outlook for Mac, a new application that will replace the Entourage.
RELATED:
Jackie / Qik:
Qik for iPhone 3GS - now live and free from the App Store!  —  You've been asking for it, and now it's here: Qik for the iPhone 3GS can now be downloaded - for free! - directly from the App Store.  —  If you already have Qik on your iPhone, you should know that this version is a little different.
Zachary M. Seward / Nieman Journalism Lab:
How The Associated Press will try to rival Wikipedia in search results  —  Yesterday we revealed plans by The Associated Press to hold back some content from member websites.  (Great discussion going on there, by the way.)  The primary motivation of that initiative is search …
Discussion: Mashable!, Techdirt and Gawker
RELATED:
Felix Salmon:
The problem with the AP's plan to goose its Googlejuice
Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab
Boy Genius Report:
Dell's smartphone pictured again, spec'd, other Android details  —  One of our trusty ninjas just blessed us with the following information: first up, real pictures of Dell's Chinese market smartphone code-named Benzine.  Just as TechCrunch reported, we've been told the handset is “launch ready.”
Bobbie Johnson / Guardian:
Microsoft: Firefox's billion claim is ‘interesting math’  —  Internet Explorer chief ‘encourages people to be somewhat sceptical’ of claims by competitor  —  A senior Microsoft executive has called into question the claim by rival web browser Firefox that it has been downloaded a billion times.
Discussion: Mashable!
Mike Magee / TG Daily:
Apple, AT&T sued for lack of MMS capability  —  A class action started in a Louisana district court alleging that Apple and AT&T touted the iPhone as supporting MMS (multimedia messaging service) but have not as yet provided the service.  —  The plaintiffs allege that Apple …
Kim-Mai Cutler / VentureBeat:
Benchmark took “almost all equity” with FriendFeed sale to Facebook  —  Benchmark Capital, FriendFeed's sole venture capital backer, took “almost all equity” in proceeds from the startup's sale to Facebook on Monday, according to the firm's lead partner on the deal.
Discussion: Pulse2 and The Open Road
Farhad Manjoo / Slate:
Microblogging has become too important for one company to rule the field.  —  Twitter went down last week, and the world got very quiet.  People didn't know what do with themselves; they wanted to tweet the news that Twitter was down, but that was out of the question.
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Palm Reportedly Cuts Pre Production Plans  —  The best days for the Palm (PALM) Pre may already have past.  That was the implication of the Sell call on the stock this morning from Morgan Joseph - and the same theme can be found in a similarly bearish note this morning from Collins Stewart analyst Ashok Kumar.
MediaShift:
Using the ‘Steal-O-Meter’ to Gauge if Stories Steal or Promote  —  In the recent dust-up between the Washington Post and Gawker, Post reporter Ira Shapira was upset when his story was excerpted on the media gossip blog Gawker.  While blogs and even mainstream news articles have been quoting …
Emily Yoffe / Slate:
How the brain hard-wires us to love Google, Twitter, and texting.  And why that's dangerous.  —  Seeking.  You can't stop doing it.  Sometimes it feels as if the basic drives for food, sex, and sleep have been overridden by a new need for endless nuggets of electronic information.
Discussion: Inc.com
International Business Times:
China Unicom buys 5 million iPhones from Apple, ready for sale in September  —  Beijing - China Unicom, the potential exclusive distributor of iPhones in China, has poured 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) to buy 5 million units from Apple, ready to sell the first batch in September, local media reported on Wednesday.
Andrew LaVallee / Digits:
LOLcats Go Off-Broadway  —  I Can Has Cheezburger, the Web site that popularized the “art” of matching cat photos to misspelled captions, is the inspiration for a new independent musical that debuts Friday.  —  Wajmah Yaqubi  —  Kristyn Pomranz, left, and Katherine Steinberg, the creators of “I Can Has Cheezburger: The MusicLOL”
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
5 Signs Our Broadband Plan May Already Be In Trouble - Meet the new heavily-lobbied boss.  Same as the old heavily-lobbied boss?  —  As the government continues to work on crafting our first national broadband plan, there's been a lot of talk about how that process is consumer-centric, transparent, and data-driven.
Phil Sim / Squash:
Disney pops BubbleShare  —  One of the vagaries of cloud computing is that when you choose to host your pictures, files, and so forth with an organisaton you never know where that company is going to end up in the future, and subsequently what the future holds for your files.
Thanks:philipsim
The How-To Geek / Lifehacker:
Digsby Joins the Dark Side, Uses Your PC to Make Money  —  The popular Digsby instant messenger client not only bundles half a dozen “optional” crapware applications, it's also using your computer to crawl the web, do stock market research, and more.  It's time to uninstall.
Discussion: The Download Blog and Maximum PC all, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:
Twitter's New Director Of Search Hails From Yahoo, Inktomi (Via A Wine Search Engine)  —  Twitter's search engine is arguably its most important asset, and the microblogging site has quietly brought in a Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and Inktomi veteran to run it.  Twitter hasn't formally announced the news …
Discussion: The Noisy Channel, Thanks:geekychic
Abbey Klaassen / AdAge:
Facebook's Click-Through Rates Flourish ... for Wall Posts  —  Estimates From Social-Media Firm Vitrue as High as 6.49%  —  Who says click-through rates on Facebook suck?  —  Sure, click-through rates for general display ads on Facebook have been criticized for being rather unimpressive …
Discussion: WebNewser
 
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 More Items: 
MacGregor Campbell / New Scientist:
Pay-per-email plan to beat spam and help charity
Discussion: Epicenter and Slashdot
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Startup Joyent Sells BingoDisk and Strongspace
Discussion: TechCrunchIT and Blog Joyent
Wendy Davis / MediaPost:
Social Network Site Accused Of ‘Harvesting’ Email Addresses
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Barclay's talks to Apple execs, raises target to $208
Zachary M. Seward / Nieman Journalism Lab:
What The Associated Press' tracking beacon is — and what it isn't
Discussion: Mediaite
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
P2P Not to Blame for Content Industry Failures Says EU
Discussion: Techdirt and European Commission
 Earlier Items: 
Chris Albrecht / NewTeeVee:
Discovery Goes OnDemand Online With Comcast
Discussion: MediaMemo and Contentinople
Patrick Phillips / I Want Media:
Internet Publishers, Bloggers Say No to New Fees
Discussion: the Econsultancy blog
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Zune HD packs a big processing punch