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4:40 PM ET, January 21, 2010

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Sources detail physical design of Apple's upcoming tablet device  —  When Apple finally takes the wraps off its long-anticipated tablet next Wednesday, the device will strike a familiar chord with owners of the original iPhone, with similarities in industrial design trickling …
RELATED:
Retrevo blogs:
A Blank Check for a Blank Slate?  —  Retrevo Pulse Report on the Apple Tablet  —  There is pretty strong consensus that we'll soon see an Apple media device with a 10-inch touchscreen that runs iPhone apps or Mac OS apps.  The big questions are, will anyone actually want one of these devices …
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple sees tablet as one device shared by the whole family - WSJ
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Survey: 18% likely to buy Apple's tablet
Discussion: iLounge and changewaveresearch.com
BBC:
US calls for China Google probe  —  The US has called on Beijing to investigate the recent cyber attacks on Google, which have prompted the search giant to threaten to leave China.  —  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that companies such as Google should refuse to support “politically-motivated censorship”.
RELATED:
New York Times:
China Paints Google Issue as Not Political  —  BEIJING — The Chinese government is taking a cautious approach to the dispute with Google, treating the conflict as a business dispute that requires commercial negotiations and not a political matter that could affect relations with the United States.
Discussion: BBC
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 …
Melissa Shapiro / The Mozilla Blog:
Mozilla Delivers Firefox 3.6 to Millions of Users  —  Mozilla, a public-benefit organization dedicated to promoting choice and innovation on the Web, today released Firefox® 3.6, an update to its popular, free and open source Web browser.  The latest version of Firefox introduces cutting-edge features …
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Meet The New YouTube: Less Clutter, Easier Search, And No More Stars  —  YouTube is on a roll.  Last night, the world's largest video site rolled out HTML5 support, its first video rentals, and even a nifty music feature called Disco.  Today, it's making an even bigger change …
Jonathan Heiliger / Facebook Blog:
Breaking Ground on Our First Custom Data Center  —  We have come a long way from our roots in a Harvard dorm room, when Facebook was only available at some colleges and run on a single server.  Now with more than 350 million people worldwide and our service and business continuing to grow …
Emma Barnett / Telegraph:
Spotify now makes record labels money  —  Spotify now offers the music industry a sustainable revenue model according to a UK record label executive.  —  Revealing for the first time today how the commercial relationship works between the streaming service and the record labels, Rob Wells …
Discussion: Softpedia News and The Next Web
RELATED:
Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Digital Music Sales Are Booming, But Industry Still Cites Piracy Woes
Discussion: Slyck, Guardian and Electronista
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Apple again delays 27-inch iMac shipment by 3 weeks  —  Just when it looked like Apple was putting its 27-inch iMac troubles behind it with a balance in supply and demand, the company has abruptly pushed new direct orders of its big screen desktop machines out by three weeks.
Discussion: Macworld, DailyTech, SlashGear and TUAW
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 …
RELATED:
Kelly Hodgkins / Boy Genius Report:
Verizon Wireless confirms Palm pricing; Wi-Fi Hotspot to cost $40 monthly
Discussion: Verizon and WMPoweruser.com
Om Malik / GigaOM:
With New Ovi Maps, Nokia Seeks Location Heaven  —  In an attempt to ward off competition from the likes of Google, Nokia, the largest maker of mobile phones, has released the latest version of its Ovi Maps software and made the app available for free.  Nokia, despite an early start …
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 …
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.
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.
RELATED:
Ryan Lawler / NewTeeVee:
Don't Expect HTML5 to Overtake Flash Anytime Soon
Discussion: Macworld
Google Investor Relations:
GOOGLE ANNOUNCES FOURTH QUARTER AND FISCAL YEAR 2009 RESULTS  —  Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced financial results for the quarter and the fiscal year ended December 31, 2009.  —  “Google had a strong fourth quarter, with 17% year over year revenue growth,” said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google.
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.
Discussion: Newlaunches.com
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).
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Netflix Just Gave iTunes A Big Fat Kiss  —  A new movie came out on DVD this week called The Invention Of Lying.  It's co-written, co-directed, and co-starring Golden Globe host Ricky Gervais and looks mildly entertaining enough that I want to rent it.  So I load up Netflix to add it to my queue …
Discussion: SiliconBeat, Thanks:atul
Bing / Search Blog:
Cooking up a storm with Bing Recipes  —  After watching Julie and Julia I think everyone might have a little bit of Julia Child inside of them somewhere (even Stefan...who would've thought he had an apron with his name on it).  So when you find yourself looking for that new recipe to whip …
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 …
Vivek Kundra / White House.gov Blog Feed:
They Gave Us The Beatles, We Gave Them Data.gov  —  Taking a page from our efforts here in the Obama Administration, the United Kingdom today launched data.gov.uk - a site to aggregate datasets from the UK government.  It is exciting to see the seeds of openness, accountability, and transparency taking root around the world.
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and ResourceShelf
 
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 More Items: 
Farhad Manjoomon / Fast Company:
Why App Stores Are Not the Business Model for the 21st Century
Discussion: Enterprise Web 2.0, Thanks:atul
Dean Hachamovitch / MSDN Blogs:
IE Cumulative Security Update Now Available
Justin / Berry Reporter:
Foursquare Releases Beta BlackBerry App
Discussion: TechCrunch, The Toybox and IntoMobile
Star-Ledger Guest / New Jersey Online:
Finding the keys to free old files
John Temple / TEMPLE TALK:
I'm moving to Honolulu to become the first editor of Peer News
Discussion: paidContent, TechCrunch and Peer News
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
The Nerve! ImageShack Tries To Trademark Twitpic
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Facebook Post Insights Go Live
Discussion: Mashable!
 Earlier Items: 
Carolyn Duffy Marsan / Network World:
80% of government Web sites miss DNS security deadline
Computerworld:
Microsoft confirms 17-year-old Windows bug
Discussion: Hardware 2.0, Zero Day and CNET News
Christian / OkTrends:
The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures
Jennifer Valentino / Digits:
New Software Aims to Keep Facebook Safer
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Pirate Bay's Ipredator VPN Opens To The Public
 

 
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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