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12:20 PM ET, August 17, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Breaking: MySpace Close To Acquiring iLike For $20 Million  —  MySpace is close to acquiring popular social music service iLike, we've confirmed with multiple sources.  The deal, which should close this week, will be MySpace's first acquisition since new CEO Owen Van Natta took control of the company in April 2009.
Bryan Appleyard / Times of London:
Steve Jobs: The man who polished Apple  —  Chief executive of Apple Inc and owner of Jackling House changed the world and cheated death.  So why the paranoia?  —  For five years the owner of the Jackling House in Woodside, California, has been trying to knock it down.
RELATED:
Softpedia News:
Apple Tries to Block Newspaper Story on Steve Jobs  —  The life of Steve Jobs, and the life at Apple  —  Apple reportedly tried to block a lengthy, 4,000-word piece in yesterday's Sunday Times newspaper.  In the story (eventually published), Apple and its iconic CEO are described as imperfect entities.
Discussion: Gearlog
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Dell Mini 3i smartphone gets official outing in China  —  At last, the much rumored Dell cellphone has made its first official appearance.  The 3.5-inch 360 x 640 pixel device with capacitive touchscreen was on display in China running the Android-based Open Mobile System (OMS).
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Huffington Post and Facebook Go “Social News,” With Connect on Steroids  —  In an unusually robust collaboration using Facebook Connect, the Huffington Post is launching a feature on Monday called “HuffPost Social News,” which lets readers create a personalized social networking-like news page on the Huffington Post itself.
Mr. Besilly / iPhone Savior:
TomTom iPhone Navigation Makes U.S. App Store Debut for $100  —  TomTom has officially launched their turn-by-turn GPS navigation system for both U.S. and Canada in the App Store for $99.99.  On Sunday, international versions of TomTom's app popped up in the New Zealand App Store via iTunes …
RELATED:
Andrew Lim / Recombu:
TomTom for iPhone 3G and 3GS: Satisfied-nav  —  Do you look at your iPhone so much that you often get lost?  There's an app for that.  Today TomTom released its iPhone 3G and 3GS app that offers sat-nav goodness without the clunky looking sat-nav.  It costs £60, which isn't that expensive …
Elizabeth Judge / Times of London:
Big noises join chorus behind Twitter TweetDeck  —  Two of the biggest names in the British technology sector have thrown their weight behind a start-up operation aimed at providing easier access to Twitter, the social networking and microblogging site.  —  Brent Hoberman, co-founder of Lastminute.com …
msnbc.com:
Msnbc.com acquires local news Web site  —  Chicago-based EveryBlock will continue as independent brand  —  Msnbc.com has acquired EveryBlock, a Chicago-based Web site that offers news and information down to the neighborhood level in 15 cities, the two companies announced Monday.
Discussion: BoomTown, Bits and The EveryBlock Blog
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Download a Copy of The Pirate Bay Before It's Gone  —  In common with music and movies, it's not that hard to copy a website.  It might take some serious server power to serve torrents to millions of people every day, but all the torrent files and site code don't take up that much space.
Kevin Purdy / Lifehacker:
Make Your Own URL Shortening Service  —  URL shortening services are ubiquitous on Twitter and other cramped online spaces.  They won't all last, as tr.im has demonstrated, and their shutdowns could annihilate your linking history.  If you own a domain, though, you can host your own service.
Discussion: Techgeist and AppScout, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Ashlee Vance / Bits:
In the New Data Center, It's Roofs Off and Taxes Down  —  Data centers can be such touchy things.  —  Google and Microsoft continue to spar over both their data center designs and how much information they reveal about the inner workings of their vast computing centers.
Dana Blankenhorn / Open Source:
Mozilla pushes out .Net incompatible Firefox 3.5  —  Firefox users got a surprise when they booted up this morning, a software update box for Firefox 3.5, “the most advanced Firefox yet.”  —  A warning sticker at the bottom of the box notes that it will cause “some of your extensions …
Discussion: Internetnews Blog
Paul Graham / Hacker News:
A New Experiment: The RFS  —  Every funding cycle we try to do something new.  For the upcoming winter 2010 cycle we're introducing the RFS (Request for Startups).  —  There are a lot of startup ideas we've been waiting for people to apply with, sometimes for years.
Discussion: Fast Company
RELATED:
David Carr / New York Times:
AOL Blossoms as Print Retreats  —  The office at Ninth Street and Broadway in Manhattan in the former Wanamaker's department store has all of the trademarks of a well-financed digital start-up.  Young people eat pizza and chat about applications while others are jammed into conference rooms discussing search optimization.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Gmail Nudges Past AOL Email In The U.S. To Take No. 3 Spot.  —  Good thing Gmail is out of beta.  It is now the third largest Web mail service in the U.S. In July, Gmail nudged past AOL Email with 37 million unique visitors compared to 36.4 million for AOL, according to comScore estimates.
Clare Baldwin / Reuters:
IBM uses DNA to make next-gen microchips  —  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp is looking to the building blocks of our bodies — DNA — to be the structure of next-generation microchips.  —  As chipmakers compete to develop ever-smaller chips at cheaper prices, designers are struggling to cut costs.
Discussion: Nature
Samsung Mobile Innovator:
Samsung Mobile Innovator Introduces New Widget Site  —  On August 17th widgets and mobile developers were able for the first time to gain access to the newest Samsung Mobile Innovator (SMI) portal dedicated to TouchWiz widget technology.  —  Rapid development and a consistent experience across …
Yinka Adegoke -Analysis / Reuters:
Is Comcast poised to do another Disney?  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Comcast Corp has been hoarding cash to better manage its balance sheet but investors worry that it could be building a war chest for a splashy acquisition similar to its failed 2004 bid for Walt Disney Co.
Discussion: NewTeeVee, DSLreports, Gizmodo and Slashdot
Patrick Stafford / SmartCompany:
Twitter, Melbourne IT order uSocial to be shut down  —  The chief executive of an Australian company that sells packages of Twitter followers to clients claims the social networking giant has attempted to shut him down.  —  Leon Hill says Twitter has used Melbourne IT …
Andrew Nusca / Between the Lines:
Sony Ericsson taps Nordberg as new CEO; Stringer as board chairman  —  Struggling handset maker Sony Ericsson said on Monday (techmeme) that chief executive Dick Komiyama would retire at the end of the year, naming Ericsson executive Bert Nordberg to take the helm from October 15.
Tameka Kee / paidContent:
myYearbook Turns A Profit By Getting Users To Pay  —  While pure-play media sites try to figure out how to offset ad sales declines by charging readers, it seems that social networks—surprisingly— are making faster progress at getting their users to pay up.
Discussion: MediaPost
 
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 More Items: 
Galen Ward / TechFlash:
New Google is the old Microsoft
Discussion: TechFlash, Thanks:galenward
Eric Pfanner / New York Times:
The Paper That Doesn't Want to Be Free
Jason Hiner / Between the Lines:
Directory: 100 technology experts on Twitter
Discussion: Tech Sanity Check
Softpedia News:
Two Facebook Phishing Attacks in One Day
Josh Lowensohn / CNET News:
Preview of Jolicloud: The social Netbook OS
Tom Watson MP:
Filesharing: Why the government should proceed with caution …
Discussion: blogs.ft.com, Thanks:kevinmarks
canada.com:
Facebook must satisfy Canada's privacy commissioner by Monday
Discussion: Slashdot
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Yahoo Veterans Launch Rocket Fuel, A “Hybrid” Ad Network
 Earlier Items: 
Brooke Crothers / Crave: The gadget blog:
The rise of the $299 Wal-Mart laptop
Discussion: The Toybox and TECH.BLORGE.com
John Burke / Download Squad:
Five apps for the stoner and stoner at heart
Siobhan Gorman / Wall Street Journal:
Hackers Stole IDs for Attacks
Discussion: Net Effect and PC World
Jeff Atwood / Coding Horror:
All Programming is Web Programming  —  Michael Braude decries …
Brad Stone / New York Times:
Sites Ask Users to Spend to Save
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Video: An Apple Store trifecta
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac
internetnews.com:
iPhone 3G Owners Griping About 3.0 Wi-Fi Glitch