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2:50 PM ET, December 21, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars  —  Jeremy Stoppleman, the CEO of Yelp, has walked away from an all-but-signed deal to be acquired by Google for more than half a billion dollars.  —  The deal was, as we wrote late last week, in the later stages of negotiation.
Jon Stokes / Ars Technica:
Intel reveals next-generation Atom details  —  SAN FRANCISCO — This past Thursday, Intel briefed journalists on its forthcoming Atom version, codenamed Pine Trail, and on its plans to launch a slew of new processors at CES.  Apart from the launch details, the company's general message …
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Will Intel's Atom overhaul fuel another netbook boom?  —  Intel is revamping its Atom processor platform in a move that will yield more powerful netbooks, better efficiency and smaller designs.  Will Intel set off another netbook boom?  —  On Monday, Intel made its overhaul of its Atom platform official (statement, Techmeme).
Spencer E. Ante / Business Week:
Content-Search Deals Make Twitter Profitable  —  Data-mining deals signed in October will bring in $25 million in exchange for rendering Twitter's tweets searchable on Google and Microsoft Bing  —  Twitter is ending 2009 on a high note.  The microblogging site has reached profitability …
Jolie O'Dell / ReadWriteWeb:
Ford's Wired Fleet: WiFi Hotspots on Four Wheels  —  Ford is making a serious bid for geeks' business.  Scott Monty, the auto company's Internet-famous social media head, wrote to us tonight with some of the most exciting car-related news an Internet-dependent nerd could wish for.
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
World Map Of Social Networks Shows Rise Of Facebook  —  (click through for larger version, interactive widget below)  —  Italian writer, blogger and photographer Vincenzo Cosenza has for the second time put together a visualization that shows the most popular social networks around the world on a map …
Gabriel Madway / Reuters:
Small iPhone developer Tapulous sees big success  —  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - IPhone app developer Tapulous says its sales have approached $1 million a month, providing fresh evidence of the growing success of start-ups designing programs for Apple Inc's mobile device.
Boy Genius Report:
Motorola Opus One specifications  —  When we say we have specifications, boy, do we mean it.  One of our connects has sent us the full rundown on Motorla's Opus One (their first iDEN Android handset) that we revealed a little while back.  The features on the device are actually pretty reasonable …
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Location-Based Ads Come to Augmented Reality in the US  —  Location-based social network Brightkite announced this morning that it has added what it calls the first mobile Augmented Reality advertising for US markets to its AR layer in the Layar augmented reality browser.
Discussion: Mashable!
RELATED:
Softpedia News:   Brightkite Brings Augmented Reality Advertising Solution to US
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
The Start Project Launches To Create, Incubate Startups  —  A group of entrepreneurs and investors have partnered to create a new Silicon Valley based business incubator called The Start Project.  —  Behind the new company are Polaris Venture Partners, the founders of 83 Degrees (Webshots …
Discussion: GigaOM and Bits
Stephen E. Arnold / Beyond Search:
Chief Economist of Google Invents a Search Tool for Advertising  —  Most companies don't have a chief economist.  Google has a chief economist.  The economist is Hal R. Varian.  —  Dr. Varian has good paper.  —  Dr. Varian worked on a Google team which includes other Google wizards.
Eugene Wei / Hulu Blog:
Search Captions on Hulu  —  Today we've added a new beta feature to the site in Hulu Labs: Captions Search.  You can now search the captions for thousands of videos across hundreds of shows.  —  You can initiate a captions search from the Hulu Labs page for the feature …
Bryant Urstadt / Technology Review:
Trading Shares in Milliseconds  —  Today's stock market has become a world of automated transactions executed at lightning speed.  This high-frequency trading could make the financial system more efficient, but it could also turn small mistakes into catastrophes.
Discussion: Darren Herman
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
ICD Ultra Android tablet hands-on  —  As you may have noticed, we had a chance to get our hands on a fairly interesting little tablet made by ICD dubbed the Ultra.  The 7-inch, touchscreen tablet (resistive in the version we saw, but with capacitive versions to come) sports quite an impressive set of specs …
Katie Hafner / New York Times:
To Deal With Obsession, Some Defriend Facebook  —  Facebook, the popular networking site, has 350 million members worldwide who, collectively, spend 10 billion minutes there every day, checking in with friends, writing on people's electronic walls, clicking through photos and generally keeping pace with the drift of their social world.
Discussion: Global by Design and /Message
Jolie O'Dell / ReadWriteWeb:
Google Taps StackOverflow as Official Android Dev Support for Noobs, Q&A  —  Just over a year ago, we were excited to report on a new website for programmers.  StackOverflow was the brainchild of coders/rockstars Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood, and it was a social Q&A channel that promised …
Urmee Khan / Telegraph:
BBC to allow internet through TV  —  The BBC will be bringing internet services to the television set, it has been disclosed.  —  Plans to allow the BBC to use the new technology, which will enable viewers to watch shows from a variety of programme-makers and channels through …
Richard Wray / Guardian:
Google readies launch of iPhone rival  —  Search engine company tests mobile operators' reaction to its Nexus One handset  —  Google has approached several mobile phone operators in the UK, including T-Mobile and Vodafone, to gauge their interest in supporting its rival to the iPhone ahead of its launch in Britain next year.
Laura June / Engadget:
Nook 1.1 update hitting now  —  Right on schedule, the Barnes and Noble Nook is kicking out a software update (we rebooted to get the download to start).  We've heard this will fix some of the issues we had with the unit in our review — but we'll update you once we've had a little time to play around with it.
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
New Programs Aim to Lure Young Into Digital Jobs  —  Growing up in the '70s, John Halamka was a bookish child with a penchant for science and electronics.  He wore black horn-rimmed glasses and buttoned his shirts up to the collar.  —  “I was constantly being called a geek or a nerd,” he recalled, chuckling.
Discussion: A VC, Bits and Forever Geek
Brad Stone / New York Times:
As Phones Do More, They Become Targets of Hacking  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Mobile phones are becoming ever more like personal computers.  That means they are also becoming more vulnerable to traditional computer menaces like hackers and viruses.  —  This year, the Russian antivirus company …
Robert N. Charette / IEEE Spectrum:
Automated to Death  —  As software pilots more of our vehicles, humans can pay the ultimate price.  Robert N. Charette investigates the causes and consequences of the automation paradox  —  The passengers and crew of Malaysia Airlines Flight 124 were just settling into their five-hour flight …
Thanks:atul
Glenn Adams / Associated Press:
Maine to consider cell phone cancer warning  —  A Maine legislator wants to make the state the first to require cell phones to carry warnings that they can cause brain cancer, although there is no consensus among scientists that they do and industry leaders dispute the claim.
David Kaplan / paidContent:
Limelight Networks Acquires EyeWonder For $110 Million  —  Content management company Limelight Networks has bought interactive ad shop EyeWonder for $110 million.  About $62 million of that will be in cash, though that amount could be adjusted, depending on EyeWonder's financial condition at the time of the deal's closing.
 
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 More Items: 
Joe Wilcox / BetaNews:
10 Things Microsoft did right in 2009
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Case Study: How Google Hosts & Funds A Copyright-Infringing Web Site
Noam Cohen / New York Times:
Link by Link: The Trouble With Tailoring a Web Search
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Magazines Launch iPhone App Editions, But They're Not Big Sellers (AAPL)
Discussion: Computerworld
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Microsoft's Departing CFO Joins GM As CFO And Vice-Chair (GM, MSFT)
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:
Economist eyes social network cash boost
Discussion: NevilleHobson.com, Thanks:tim
Greg Sterling / Screenwerk:
Citysearch Launches on Android
Discussion: PR Newswire
 Earlier Items: 
MIT:
Putting the squeeze on data
Harry Wallop / Telegraph:
O2 network crashes for iPhone users
Alexander Vaughn / App Advice:
Dailymotion Hits The App Store
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and VatorNews
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Brief: Palm launches new Web-based mobile development tool
Discussion: AppScout
Claudine Beaumont / Telegraph:
Apple iPhone coming to Vodafone on Jan 14
Discussion: BBC, Macsimum News, 9 to 5 Mac, Erictric and TUAW
 

 
From Mediagazer:

The New York Times Company:
The New York Times names Dick Stevenson as Washington bureau chief; Stevenson has been at the paper for nearly 40 years and Washington editor since 2021

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”

Ayodeji Rotinwa / Columbia Journalism Review:
A look at the Agora Center for Research, a Ugandan newsroom sitting between activism and investigative reporting, posting its work on various social media sites

 
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