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7:00 AM ET, August 14, 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 …
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: OSNews, Web Browsers and 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?
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! and digg.com, Thanks:sizzler_chetan
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.
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:
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.
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!
Nate Lanxon / CNET News:
Google Chrome 4.0: Fastest OS X browser by 34 per cent  —  Safari, eat Google's dust — its Chrome Web browser — under its developmental title Chromium — has hit version 4.0 on the Mac, and our tests confirm it's the fastest browser in the world on both PC and now on Mac OS X.
Discussion: Gizmodo
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Zune Apps  —  In my brief comments yesterday on the new touchscreen Zune HD that is set to debut September 15, I noted: … I mean, why not?  The software platform has quickly become a major driving force behind the sales growth of the iPhone and iPod Touch.  Microsoft is a software platform company.
Discussion: Pocket-lint.com, Gizmodo and Engadget, Thanks:atul
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.
Dan Goodin / The Register:
Bug exposes eight years of Linux kernel  —  Passes it's-not-crying-wolf test  —  Free whitepaper - Avoiding 7 common mistakes of IT security compliance  —  Linux developers have issued a critical update for the open-source OS after researchers uncovered a vulnerability in its kernel …
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: Techdirt, Mashable!, Mediaite and Gawker
RELATED:
Felix Salmon:
The problem with the AP's plan to goose its Googlejuice
Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab
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.
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: Softpedia News and The Noisy Channel, Thanks:geekychic
Michael Horowitz / Computerworld:
Consumer Reports at it again  —  Back in May, I criticized a review Consumer Reports magazine did of netbook computers (What Consumer Reports didn't tell you about netbooks).  It was a fairly long critique.  —  Many computer articles in the magazine strike me as amateurish.
Larry Magid / CNET News:
Social-networking ban for sex offenders: Bad call?  —  The just-signed Illinois law banning sex offenders from social-networking sites might seem like a good idea to protect children, but it will have virtually no impact on their safety and could wind up making things worse.
Discussion: The Register, geeksugar and Mashable!, Thanks:sizzler_chetan
Paul Sweeting / GigaOM:
With Sony's ePub Move, Adobe Wins  —  Sony's announcement today that it's throwing open the doors of its e-book store and reading devices to the ePub standard is certainly good news for consumers. ePub — and open standard developed by the International Digital Publishing Form …
Discussion: the Econsultancy blog and TeleRead
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: Softpedia News
Harlan Yu / Freedom to Tinker:
Introducing RECAP: Turning PACER Around  —  With today's technologies, government transparency means much more than the chance to read one document at a time.  Citizens today expect to be able to download comprehensive government datasets that are machine-processable, open and free.
Discussion: TechCrunch and recapthelaw.org
David Sarno / Los Angeles Times:
YouTube to show Sony's “Ghostbusters” this week for film's 25th anniversary  —  YouTube and Sony are crossing the streams.  —  Starting tonight at 9 p.m. PDT, YouTube will host a weeklong showing of Sony's comedy classic “Ghostbusters” in honor of the film's 25th anniversary.
Discussion: MediaMemo
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
YC-Funded GraffitiGeo: Foursquare Meets Yelp, With A Dash Of Augmented Reality  —  One of the big problems with starting a new service that relies on user submitted data is getting people to actually use it — nobody is going to routinely boot up your app if they don't have an incentive to do so.
Google Book Search Blog:
Bringing the power of Creative Commons to Google Books  —  Posted by Xian Ke, Associate Product Manager, Google Books  —  Today, we're launching an initiative to help authors and publishers discover new audiences for books they've made available for free under Creative Commons (CC) licenses.
 
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 More Items: 
Stanton Sloane / Business Week:
The U.S. Needs a Cybersecurity Czar Now
Corynne / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Snatching Rights On the Playa
Discussion: MediaPost, Techdirt and Boing Boing
MacGregor Campbell / New Scientist:
Pay-per-email plan to beat spam and help charity
Discussion: Epicenter and Slashdot
Phil Sim / Squash:
Disney pops BubbleShare
Discussion: TechCrunch, Thanks:philipsim
Kim-Mai Cutler / VentureBeat:
Benchmark took “almost all equity” with FriendFeed sale to Facebook
Discussion: Pulse2
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Startup Joyent Sells BingoDisk and Strongspace
Discussion: Blog Joyent and TechCrunchIT
MediaShift:
Using the ‘Steal-O-Meter’ to Gauge if Stories Steal or Promote
Discussion: contentious.com
Andrew LaVallee / Digits:
LOLcats Go Off-Broadway
 Earlier Items: 
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
5 Signs Our Broadband Plan May Already Be In Trouble …
Wendy Davis / MediaPost:
Social Network Site Accused Of ‘Harvesting’ Email Addresses
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Barclays talks to Apple execs, raises target to $208
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac
Emily Yoffe / Slate:
How the brain hard-wires us to love Google, Twitter, and texting.
Discussion: Inc.com
Jason Snell / Macworld:
Microsoft: Next Mac Office due late 2010 with Outlook