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5:55 AM ET, December 18, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Twitter Hacked, Defaced By “Iranian Cyber Army”  —  We've received multiple tips right around 10 pm that Twitter was hacked and defaced with the message below.  The site is currently offline.  We're looking into this and waiting on a response from Twitter.  —  The message reads:  —  Iranian Cyber Army
RELATED:
Biz / Twitter Blog:
DNS Disruption  —  As we tweeted a bit ago, Twitter's DNS records were temporarily compromised tonight but have now been fixed.  As some noticed, Twitter.com was redirected for a while but API and platform applications were working.  We will update with more information and details once we've investigated more fully.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Google In Discussions To Acquire Yelp For A Half Billion Dollars Or More  —  Google and Yelp are in advanced acquisition negotiations, we've confirmed from multiple sources.  And while the deal isn't done, we've heard that it's very likely to close.  The price is supposedly at least $500 million.
John Letzing / MarketWatch:
Privacy groups file FTC complaint against Facebook  —  SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Ten privacy and consumer groups announced Thursday they've filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission alleging that Facebook Inc.'s privacy-policy changes violate federal law.
RELATED:
Dieter Bohn / PreCentral.net:
Palm Confirms 1.3.5: Speed, Battery, App Limit all to be improved, Plus Investor Call Notes  — Allowing for installation of more apps  — Increased speed and responsiveness on the Palm Pixi  —  We're still listening in and hearing good things about what's coming.
RELATED:
Palm, Inc.:
Palm Reports Q2 FY 2010 Results  —  Print page E-mail page Download PDF  —  Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) today reported that total revenues in the second quarter of fiscal year 2010, ended Nov. 27, 2009, were $78.1 million.  Gross profit was $5.5 million, and gross margin was 7.0 percent.
Barry Collins / PC Pro:
Mozilla: Firefox Mobile will kill off app stores  —  Mozilla claims that its new Firefox Mobile browser could be the beginning of the end for the hugely popular app stores created by Apple and its ilk.  —  Mozilla is releasing the first version of Firefox Mobile (codenamed Fennec) …
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
JooJoo/CrunchPad Company Responds To Mike Arrington's Lawsuit  —  Fusion Garage, the Singapore-based company behind the JooJoo tablet — formerly known as the CrunchPad — has responded to the lawsuit that TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington filed earlier this month.
Aaron / The EtherPad Blog:
EtherPad Open Source Release  —  As promised, we hereby release all the source code to EtherPad.  —  http://code.google.com/p/etherpad/  —  Our goal with this release is to let the world run their own etherpad servers so that the functionality can live on even after we shut down etherpad.com.
Discussion: Google Blogoscoped, Thanks:atul
The Official Google Blog:
Go thataway: Google Maps India learns to navigate like a local  —  Have you ever been lost?  Perhaps you missed a turn because a street sign was poorly labeled, hard to see in the dark, or just not where it should have been?  These are problems we've all faced, but they're especially complicated in India …
Ryan Singel / Threat Level:
Netflix Spilled Your Brokeback Mountain Secret, Lawsuit Claims  —  An in-the-closet lesbian mother is suing Netflix for privacy invasion, alleging the movie rental company made it possible for her to be outed when it disclosed insufficiently anonymous information about nearly half-a-million customers …
Ilinca Nita / Unwired View:
Lots of Samsung bada OS screenshots leaked  —  For one reason or another, Samsung's been a bit reluctant in showing screenshots of its newly-announced bada smartphone OS.  —  Well, in case you want to know what the new mobile platform looks like (and you probably do want), there are many leaked screenshots available.
E.B. Boyd / BayNewser:
Personal Appeal from Jimmy Wales Nets Wikipedia $430K in 24 Hours  —  Wikipedia's parent organization—the Wikimedia Foundation—is in the middle of its sixth annual fundraising drive—think NPR pledge drive without the annoying interruptions.  The goal: $7.5 million.
Kelsey Volkmann / bizjournals:
Bing!  Information Design sues Microsoft  —  Bing!  Information Design in St. Louis has sued Microsoft Corp. for alleged trademark infringement and unfair competition over Microsoft's new Bing search engine.  —  The suit, filed this week in St. Louis City Circuit Court …
Rene Ritchie / The iPhone Blog:
WordPress and Tumblr show iPhone Tweetie and Twitterrific Not Just for Twitter Anymore  —  Tweetie 2 and Twitterrific 2 aren't just two of the best Twitter clients for the iPhone, they're two of the best mobile micro-blogging interfaces on the planet and now both WordPress and Tumblr …
Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
Rdio makes its debut... as an iPhone app  —  Rdio is set to be one of the more intriguing music startups of 2010 - it's a streaming subscription service set up by Skype/Kazaa founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom.  It's still in stealth mode, but has today launched an iPhone app …
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Ad.ly Launches Analytics For Sponsored Tweets  —  There's been a bit of controversy around Ad.ly, which aims to link up high-profile advertisers with celebrities on Twitter and then distribute links to marketing campaigns through the user's tweet stream with full disclosure.
Discussion: Mashable!, lalawag and Ad.ly Blog
Ben Fritz / Company Town:
Carl Icahn's new target: Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive  —  Take-Two Interactive Chairman Strauss Zelnick may have a new best friend.  Activist investor Carl Icahn has been gobbling up shares in the video game publisher best known for the wildly popular Grand Theft Auto series.
Marc Flores / Boy Genius Report:
T-Mobile offering BOGO on all smartphones until December 20  —  T-Mobile definitely has some tricks up its sleeve this holiday season as we just received word that retail stores are offering a buy-one-get-one free special for any smartphone.  You heard us correctly: any smartphone.
BBC:
YouTube post leads to movie deal  —  A producer from Uruguay who uploaded a short film to YouTube in November 2009 has been offered a $30m (£18.6m) contract to make a Hollywood film.  —  The movie will be sponsored by director Sam Raimi, whose credits include the Spiderman and Evil Dead films.
Associated Press:
Hackers Steal SKorean-US Military Secrets  —  text sizeAAA  —  South Korea's military said Friday it was investigating a hacking attack that netted secret defense plans with the United States and may have been carried out by North Korea.  —  The suspected hacking occurred late last month …
Discussion: Agence France Presse
Joel Johnson / Gizmodo:
AT&T Has Spent Less on Network Construction Every Quarter Since the iPhone's Launch  —  If you like your links hyper, here is that AP story, AT&T's financial sheet [PDF], and the post in which Fake Steve Jobs originally pointed out this disparity.  Namaste.  —  Send an email to Joel Johnson, the author of this post, at .
Damian Roskill / Compete Blog:
Start-up Watch: Typepad vs. Tumblr  —  Back in November, Typepad announced that they would be launching their own microblogging service called Typepad Micro.  What is microblogging?  The term generally refers to lightweight blogging platforms such as Micro and Tumblr as well as services such as Twitter.
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
Google Guru?  —  Chris writes in to say he's spotted a new service on his Google account services page: “Google Guru”, which points towards guru.google.com/guru/ ... which is non-existent at the moment.  The account page reads, “Guru ... Ask questions and get answers from online users”.
Discussion: Search Engine Watch, Thanks:atul
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Loopt Ventures Into Yelp's Territory With New Local Reviews Site  —  Before there was Gowalla or Foursquare, there was location-based social network Loopt.  Launched in 2006, Loopt was one of the pioneers of the location-based mobile social network.  And Loopt has gained a huge number …
Discussion: By the Waze and AndroidGuys
Michael Cheng / The Official Google Blog:
Translate Google Sites with one click  —  Google brought translation features to many of our products in 2009, including Google Docs and Gmail and we're happy to add one more before the New Year.  To make it easier for people around the globe to read the site you created with Google Sites …
Discussion: Widgets Lab and Mashable!
Raphaël Moll / Android Developers Blog:
Knowing is half the battle  —  As a developer, I often wonder which Android platforms my applications should support,especially as the number of Android-powered devices grows.  Should my application only focus on the latest version of the platform or should it support older ones as well?
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Intel: New graphics, ‘Core’ chips coming  —  Intel on Thursday previewed new Core processors and graphics technology that will become the pillar of its mainstream chip offerings.  —  As reported previously, Intel said it will roll out new Intel Core i processors on January 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
comScore, Inc.:
Android: Crashing the Smartphone Party  —  comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the release of its latest report on the mobile market, Android: Crashing the Smartphone Party.  The report provides an overview of the current U.S. mobile environment …
 
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 More Items: 
Gabriel Kahn / Wall Street Journal:
Sony, RealD in 3-D Equipment Partnership
Discussion: Sony Insider
Reuters:
Heartland to pay AmEx $3.6 mln over '08 cyber intrusion
Discussion: PC World
Nat Ives / AdAge:
Kindle Rivals Cozying Up to Magazine, Newspaper Publishers
Discussion: Bits and paidContent
Kevinthau / Twitter Blog:
What do Indonesia and Ireland have in common?
Nick Eaton / The Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft to pay $4.4M in Arizona settlement
Brent / Cogblog:
Challenges for Start-ups: Is USV Early Stage or Is Early Stage Changing?
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Microsoft updating Zune HD Twitter to stop censoring tweets
 Earlier Items: 
Royal Pingdom:
Thank you Google for the SLOOOW Internet
Discussion: These are the Droids
Nick Bilton / Bits:
A Day in the Life of NYTimes.com
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Lachlan Cartwright / The Ankler:
Sources: MSNBC renewed Rachel Maddow's contract early this fall, but with a pay cut; MSNBC bosses' plan to shake up daytime and weekend programming

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Internal memo: Hearst Magazines president announces layoffs as part of a decision to “reallocate resources” to “continue our focus on digital innovation”

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced she will leave the agency on January 20; she was the first woman to be confirmed to lead the agency

 
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