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10:40 AM ET, January 21, 2010

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Brad Stone / Bits:
Amazon Cracks Open the Kindle  —  As Motoko Rich and I report in Wednesday's Times, Amazon.com is finally opening up the Kindle to developers.  This has the potential to turn a popular single-purpose device into a more interesting and versatile gadget, limited only by the imagination …
RELATED:
Amazon.com:
Amazon Announces Kindle Development Kit—Software Developers Can Now Build Active Content for Kindle  —  Travel books that suggest activities based on real-time weather and current events, cookbooks that recommend menus based on size of party and allergies, and word games and puzzles …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
With New Ovi Maps, Nokia Seeks Location Heaven  —  In an attempt to ward of competition from the likes of Google, Nokia, the largest maker of mobile phones has released the latest version of its Ovi Maps software and making the app available for free.  Nokia, despite an early start …
RELATED:
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple sees tablet as one device shared by the whole family - WSJ  —  The Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell of tablet and Apple-related information Wednesday evening.  Among the new details: Apple sees its tablet as a device that will be shared by multiple family members — and it might even recognize their faces.
RELATED:
Mia / YouTube Blog:
Introducing YouTube HTML5 Supported Videos  —  A while ago, YouTube launched a simple demo of an HTML5-based video player.  Recently, we published a blog post on our pre-spring cleaning effort and your number one request was that YouTube do more with HTML5.
BBC:
Tim Berners-Lee unveils government data project  —  Web founder Tim Berners-Lee has unveiled his latest venture for the UK government, which offers the public better access to official data.  —  A new website, data.gov.uk, will offer reams of public sector data, ranging from traffic statistics …
Discussion: Pocket-lint
RELATED:
Michael Mace / Mobile Opportunity:
Google shoots itself in the foot in mobile  —  I wish I knew the inside story on Google's recent confrontation with the Chinese government.  At first Google's announcement looked like a principled, well thought-out stand in a long behind-the-scenes dispute (link).
Discussion: thebigmoney.com
RELATED:
Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:
Man Buried in Haiti Rubble Uses iPhone to Treat Wounds, Survive  —  U.S. filmmaker Dan Woolley was shooting a documentary about the impact of poverty in Haiti when the earthquake struck.  He could have died, but he ultimately survived with the help of an iPhone first-aid app that taught him to treat his wounds.
Peppi Kiviniemi / Wall Street Journal:
EU Clears Oracle to Buy Sun Microsystems  —  BRUSSELS — After a drawn out investigation, the European Commission on Thursday unconditionally cleared U.S. software giant Oracle Corp. to take over smaller rival Sun Microsystems Inc. in a $7.4 billion deal.  —  “I am now satisfied that competition …
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Amazon Promotion Tempts Book Lovers With Free Kindles  —  Hesitant about ordering an Amazon Kindle?  The online retailer is apparently making a very tempting proposition to some of its customers: go ahead and order a Kindle, and if you don't like it, you'll get your money back — and get to keep the device.
Discussion: jkOnTheRun and mocoNews
Nick Bilton / Bits:
The War Between Apple and Google Has Just Begun  —  Friends or ‘frenemies’?  Apple C.E.O. Steve Jobs, left, and Google C.E.O. Eric Schmidt, right, at Macworld in 2007.  —  Consumers are witnessing the beginning of a new war between computer companies.  Instead of the Apple-Microsoft conflict …
RELATED:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Seesmic Look Is A Tablet-Friendly Twitter Client For The Oprah Crowd  —  A couple days ago we caught wind of a new Seesmic product called Seesmic Look.  Today it is launching and we finally get a look at it.  As suspected, it is a streamlined Twitter client aimed at the Oprah crowd.
Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Digital Music Sales Are Booming, But Industry Still Cites Piracy Woes  —  Global digital music revenue has grown 20,900 percent since the music business started keeping count in 2003 - but it still needs government protection to grow further, says the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry …
Discussion: Guardian and p2pnet
RELATED:
Emma Barnett / Telegraph:
Spotify now makes record labels money
Discussion: The Next Web
Ashlee Vance / New York Times:
If Your Password Is 123456, Just Make It HackMe  —  Back at the dawn of the Web, the most popular account password was “12345.”  —  Today, it's one digit longer but hardly safer: “123456.”  —  Despite all the reports of Internet security breaches over the years, including the recent attacks …
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Palm Pre Plus (and Pixi Plus) review  —  It's been about a year since Palm pulled itself back from the brink of imminent destruction with the announcement of webOS and the Palm Pre, and even less time since the products announced actually hit the market.  In that time span …
Gmail Blog:
Serving better ads in Gmail  —  Ever since we launched Gmail, we've tried to show relevant and unobtrusive ads.  We're always trying to improve our algorithms to show better, more useful ads.  —  When you open a message in Gmail, you often see ads related to that email.
RELATED:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:   Google Not Reading Your Personal Email Cause It's Boring; Hard To Advertise Against
Los Angeles Times:
At Hulu, ‘free’ may soon turn into ‘fee’  —  The video website, launched by studios to distribute TV shows over the Internet without charge, now is considering ways to draw revenue, including charging for some episodes of popular shows.  —  Hulu soared to popularity by offering free online viewing of popular TV shows.
Boy Genius Report:
AT&T prepping network to handle “unannounced” devices?  —  We've been told by one of our connects that AT&T has apparently been meeting individually with regional executives to inform them of some changes to the AT&T network.  What have we heard?  Well, for starters, they seem to be focused …
Gus Sentementes / BaltTech:
Apple working on parking app for mobile devices  —  One of the Apple patent applications made public today details the company's efforts to create a useful parking application that mashes up a user's geo-location data with information about parking garages and parking regulations.
Josh Silverman / GigaOM:
How Video Changes Everything  —  Whether it's a clip of “Tajik Jimmy” putting Bollywood soundtracks to shame, catching a friend's wedding eight time zones away or working “side by side” with coworkers in another country, it's all video.  And it's changing the way we communicate with one another.
Discussion: FierceVoIP and broadstuff
Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge:
Facebook to Build Its Own Data Centers  —  A look at the fully-packed racks inside a Facebook data center facility.  —  Facebook has decided to begin building its own data centers, and may announce its first facility as soon as tomorrow.  The fast-growing social network has previously leased server space …
Discussion: All Facebook, Computerworld and Bend Bulletin, Thanks:atul
Alex Williams / ReadWriteWeb:
Box.net: New Features and a New Phrase for the Cloud  —  Box.net acquired a young company last October called Increo Solutions.  The features that this young company provided allow for viewing content of most any file and the ability to share and embed files across the Web.
Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:
Digital File Cabinet You Can Bring With You Anywhere  —  What if you could collect, in one well-organized, searchable, private digital repository, all the notes you create, clips from Web pages and emails you want to recall, dictated audio memos, photos, key documents, and more?
 
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 More Items: 
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Netflix Just Gave iTunes A Big Fat Kiss
Thanks:atul
Brad Stone / New York Times:
Aid Urged for Groups Fighting Internet Censors
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Apple again delays 27-inch iMac shipment by 3 weeks
Discussion: SlashGear and Gizmodo
Christian / OkTrends:
The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures
Kim-Mai Cutler / VentureBeat:
MIT project lets you author code with screenshots, pictures
Reuters:
France joins race to digitize world's books
Camille Ricketts / VentureBeat:
AdMob: Apple may break its tie with Nokia for world domination
Discussion: Brainstorm Tech and mocoNews
 Earlier Items: 
Jennifer Valentino / Digits:
New Software Aims to Keep Facebook Safer
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
YouTube Goes Disco With Experimental Music Discovery Project
Discussion: bub.blicio.us and VentureBeat
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Pirate Bay's Ipredator VPN Opens To The Public
Discussion: Softpedia News and Pocket-lint
Ross Miller / Engadget:
Microsoft's Twitter chatter suggests Danger is up to something — Pink drawing near?
Discussion: LiveSide.net
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Why the Next BlackBerry Browser Won't Be So Terrible
Bloomberg:
Microsoft May Lose More of Facebook's Advertising Business
Discussion: Search Engine Land, paidContent and All Facebook, Thanks:atul