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12:10 PM ET, August 25, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Yukari Iwatani Kane / Wall Street Journal:
Jobs, Back at Apple, Focuses on New Tablet  —  Just a few months after Steve Jobs had a liver transplant, the Apple Inc. chief executive is once again managing even the smallest details of his company's products, this time focused on a new tablet device.  —  Since his return in late June …
RELATED:
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Steve Jobs Almost Entirely Focused on Tablet Project?
Discussion: I4U News and Gizmodo
Rafat Ali / paidContent:
Yahoo Acquiring Arab Portal Maktoob After All; Around $75M-$80M  —  Last month we got a tip that Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) was in final stages of buying onlien of the largest Arab online portals Maktoob, for about $75 million.  This was right when the MSFT-Yahoo deal was announced …
RELATED:
Dylan Bowman / Maktoob Business:
Yahoo! to acquire Maktoob.com  —  Yahoo! has agreed to acquire Maktoob.com, the Arab world's largest online community, marking the first major investment by a U.S. technology company in a region where internet penetration is still in its infancy.  The global internet giant said on Tuesday …
Keith Nilsson / Yodel Anecdotal:
Yahoo! will soon speak Arabic  —  This morning in Dubai, Yahoo! begins learning a new language - Arabic.  We've just announced our intent to acquire Maktoob.com, the leading online community in the Arab world.  To put this in perspective, Maktoob reaches one in every three people online throughout the region — or 16.5 million people.
Gary Wolf / Wired News:
Why Craigslist Is Such a Mess  —  The Internet's great promise is to make the world's information universally accessible and useful.  So how come when you arrive at the most popular dating site in the US you find a stream of anonymous come-ons intermixed with insults, ads for prostitutes, naked pictures, and obvious scams?
Discussion: Epicenter
RELATED:
Fred / A VC:
What We Can Learn From Mess  —  Gary Wolf wrote a Wired cover story about craigslist called “Why Craigslist Is Such A Mess”.  It's a somewhat strange article because it is highly critical of craigslist's design, management, and lack of innovation.  But you cannot read that article …
Discussion: HighContrast
Joe Hewitt:
Innocent Until Proven Guilty  —  I'd like to add my voice to the stream of complaints about the iPhone App Store, but before I say anything critical, I have to promise one thing.  No matter how annoyed I get, I will not stop developing for Apple's platforms or using Apple's products as long …
Andrew Nusca / Between the Lines:
Liveblog: Sony announces $399 7" Wi-Fi 3G e-book Reader; will it kill the Kindle?  —  Get BTL via:  —  We're here live in New York for Sony's Reader press event. … 10:46 AM: That's all, folks!  —  10:45 AM: Haber announces “Reader Daily Edition, our first 3G wireless reader with 7-inch display.”
Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
A Teenager's Dream: An iPhone App for Free Texting  —  A recently released app that offers free text messages on the iPhone is welcome news to parents of teenagers upset over the cellphone bills of their hypertexting children.  But can it be a sustainable business?
Discussion: Phone Arena
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Apple taps ‘Puddy’ to attack Windows 7  —  After a hiatus of three and a half months without a new TV ad, Apple (AAPL) broke out a pair of fresh “Get a Mac” spots Monday night to soften the ground for the next operating system war with Microsoft (MSFT).  —  Earlier that day …
Dan Nystedt / PC World:
Asustek's Android Eee PC Remains in Deep Freeze  —  The CEO of netbook pioneer Asustek Computer said Tuesday that he still sees no clear market for mini-laptops known as smartbooks, the reason the company isn't moving forward in that product segment.  —  The company raised hopes …
BBC:
Anger at UK file-sharing policy  —  Internet service providers (ISPs) have reacted with anger to new proposals on how to tackle internet piracy.  —  The government is proposing a tougher stance which would include cutting off repeat offenders from the net.
RELATED:
Richard Wray / Guardian:
Internet cut-off threat for illegal downloaders
Noam Cohen / New York Times:
Wikipedia to Limit Changes to Articles on People  —  Wikipedia, one of the 10 most popular sites on the Web, was founded about eight years ago as a long-shot experiment to create a free encyclopedia from the contributions of volunteers, all with the power to edit, and presumably improve, the content.
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Xbox 360 Pro and Elite price cuts confirmed in Target ad for next week  —  We just received a pair of pics from “next week's” Target Ad.  As has been heavily rumored, the Xbox 360 60GB Pro system will be cut to $250 while the 120GB Elite will drop to $300.  Knowing that Target's weekly ads run …
Nigel Kendall / Times of London:
Sony boss reveals plans for PlayStation  —  The Times was the only UK publication at Gamescom in Cologne last week to speak with Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kazuo “Kaz” Hirai.  We met up with him the morning after he had taken the stage to announce the new PlayStation 3 Slim …
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Opera 10 Slated For September 1 Launch.  Will Anyone Take Notice?  —  That other browser maker, Opera Software, has just released Opera 10 RC1 to the masses and has announced it will be debuting the final version of its upgraded desktop browser next week on September 1.
Discussion: Softpedia News
RELATED:
Opera Press Room:
Opera 10 sprints toward the finish line with new release candidate
Discussion: CNET News and Mashable!
Stan Schroeder / Mashable!:
Whatever You Do, Please, PLEASE Don't Search for Jessica Biel  —  You think you know danger?  You don't know danger.  The internet's biggest perils are hidden beneath a pretty face; a simple Google search for Jessica Biel might result in a site filled with viruses, trojans, and spyware.
Discussion: Reuters, Pocket-lint.com and Switched
Kevin Ohannessian / Fast Company:
Felicia Day and The Guild's Path to Level 80 Digital Success  —  The Guild may not be on network television, but with millions of downloads and a third season starting, Felicia Day is proving that a geek community is better than broadcast.  —  If you don't think a massively multiplayer …
Mobile-review.com:
First look at Nokia N97 Mini  —  Imagine there's no Nokia N900 and its brand-new OS, what would Nokia have left on their hands?  The right answer is S60, that will be utilized in a plethora of new devices, as the number of smartphones in the company's portfolio will increase dramatically.
BBC:
Loophole over DVD age rating law  —  Retailers who sell violent video games and 18-rated DVDs to children cannot be prosecuted because of a legal blunder 25 years ago.  —  Dozens of prosecutions under a 1984 Act have been dropped because the government of the day failed to notify the European Commission about the law.
Discussion: SlashGear
Jason Snell / Macworld:
Parallels releases Switch to Mac bundle  —  Striving to provide an all-in-one-retail-box solution to Windows users who want to switch to the Mac, Parallels announced Tuesday that it's releasing a new version of its Parallels Desktop software that comes with a USB transfer cable …
Dancho Danchev / Zero Day:
Research: 80% of Web users running unpatched versions of Flash/Acrobat  —  According to a research published by Trusteer earlier this month, 79.5% of the 2.5 million users of their Rapport security service run a vulnerable version of Adobe Flash, with 83.5% also running a vulnerable version of Acrobat.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Mark Zuckerberg: “Spotify Is So Good”  —  The ink isn't even dry on the MySpace/iLike acquisition, and already Facebook has a new crush on a different music service, Spotify.  —  We've heard that Facebook has been talking with the European startup about a partnership for well over a year …
Discussion: AndroidGuys
Jim Spanfeller / paidContent:
Publishers Are Killing Web Advertising's Potential With Misguided Pricing  —  Jim Spanfeller is the outgoing president and CEO of Forbes.com.  He is also treasurer of the Online Publishers Association and chairman emeritus of the Interactive Advertising Bureau.  —  How is ad pricing different online and offline?
LG:
LG ARENA Wows the Mobile World by Hitting One Million Sales  —  Seoul, Korea / August 25, 2009 - LG Electronics (LG), a global leader and technology innovator in mobile communications, announced today that the LG ARENA (LG-KM900) multimedia phone has exceeded one million sales worldwide.
Discussion: Mobile Roar and Pocket-lint.com
Doug Aamoth / CrunchGear:
Acer Veriton Z280G all-in-one business nettop announced  —  Acer's birthed a $499 all-in-one nettop aimed at cubicle dwellers featuring an 18.5-inch screen and an Intel Atom CPU.  The Veriton Z280G is, according to Acer, “perfect for reception areas, hotel lobbies, executive suites …
Discussion: Softpedia News, Electronista and TechVi
Computerworld:
Pirate Bay ISP victim of sabotage after shutdown  —  IDG News Service - Black Internet, the ISP that on Monday turned off the access to file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, says it has become the victim of sabotage.  The damage is substantial, according to CEO Victor Möller.
Spencer E. Ante / Business Week:
Facebook Reaps Recruits at High Levels  —  Boosting hiring amid a job slump, Facebook snares Yahoo!'s security chief, an open-source guru from Six Apart, and talent from Genentech and Google  —  So much for cutting back during the downturn.  —  As Facebook ramps up hiring …
John Cook / TechFlash:
Paul Allen, DCM and others invest $29M in Smith & Tinker  —  It's no secret that Smith & Tinker — an innovative new gaming company that last month introduced Nanovor — has some heavy duty financial support behind it.  —  We've reported on the company's backing from Paul Allen's Vulcan Ventures …
Elinor Mills / CNET News:
Cracking GSM phone crypto via distributed computing  —  If you are using a GSM phone (AT&T or T-Mobile in the U.S.), you likely have a few more months before it will be easy for practically anyone to spy on your communications.  —  Security researcher Karsten Nohl is launching an open-source …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Apigee's Ambition Is To Be The Google Analytics For APIs  —  The Web has come a long way from a collection of Web pages to repositories of programmable data freely flowing from one site to another through APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).  But it is difficult to keep track of all of the thousands of APIs out there.
Discussion: GigaOM and Sonoa News & Events
 
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 More Items: 
Rafat Ali / mocoNews:
Verisign Finally Finds Buyer For Mobile Messaging Biz: Syniverse, For $175 Million
Dana Oshiro / ReadWriteWeb:
Opera Mini Is Most Downloaded Mobile App
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Rackspace launches cloud app partner portal
Discussion: Data Center Knowledge
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
With backlog cleared, Yahoo can get back on track
Electronista:
Nokia's 5230 to fend off cheaper iPhone
 Earlier Items: 
Laurie Sullivan / MediaPost:
Yahoo Digs Heels Into Search, Unveils Changes For Mail, Messenger, Mobile
Discussion: MarketingVOX
Clint Boulton / eWeek:
JaJah Jump-starts Enterprise Voice with Microsoft
Discussion: Bink.nu
Dylan Stableford / The Wrap:
HuffPo Readies Sports, Tech, Books Verticals
Adam Gorlick / Stanford News:
Media multitaskers pay mental price, Stanford study shows
Discussion: BBC, Wired Science, broadstuff and GMSV, Thanks:ianhsu
Prince McLean / AppleInsider:
Apple drops Palm OS HotSync conduit from Snow Leopard
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A New York judge finds Sirius XM liable for a difficult subscription cancellation process; Sirius says it will appeal but abide by a new “click-to-cancel” rule

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
A growing number of podcasters, including Tim Ferriss, are moving away from interviews to monologues or co-hosts, as some well-known guests can be overexposed

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
DirecTV terminates its Dish acquisition after a group of Dish creditors rejected a modified bond exchange offer

 
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