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11:55 AM ET, August 20, 2010

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Wall Street Journal:
LG Readies Tablet, Optimus Smartphones  —  SEOUL—LG Electronics Inc., which was late to the smartphone game, said it plans to launch 10 more smartphones and sell five million devices by the end of the year in a scramble to compete with rivals.  —  The South Korean company also plans to launch …
RELATED:
Matt Burns / CrunchGear:   LG To The WSJ, “Our tablet will be better than the iPad.”
Sean Hollister / Engadget:
Exclusive: Dell Thunder prototype preview (video)  —  Christmas came early at Engadget HQ this year, as evidenced by the picture above — you're looking at two Dell Thunder prototype smartphones, each with some surprising quirks, and hints that they might include global HSPA, AWS for T-Mobile, and maybe even a dash of CDMA support.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
The Confusing Stages Of Opting Into Facebook Places  —  Earlier today we had a bit of a fire-drill at TechCrunch Headquarters.  As I checked into TCHQ on Facebook Places, I also tagged a few of my coworkers, fully expecting their checkins to be delayed until they actually opted into the feature …
RELATED:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
The Facebook Effect: Foursquare Had Its Most Signups Ever Today  —  Leading up to Facebook's location announcement, there were two schools of thought.  Either you thought Facebook Places was going to destroy Foursquare.  Or you thought that this new service would help the startup by bringing more awareness to the location field.
Stephen Shankland / Crave:
Google Runs out of Nexus Ones for developers  —  Google scrapped its plan to sell the Nexus One through its own store in July, six months after trying to rewrite the phone market's rules.  With Android developers, though, to whom Google still sells the phone, it's become a bit too desirable at least measured by Google's inventory.
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Hey Verizon, Whoever Made This Is Going To Hell  —  Verizon, Verizon, Verizon ... So this is what you're doing instead of going after the iPhone?  You guys must think we're so stupid.  —  You've based your latest mcgarrybowen-produced “Rule The Air! campaign around the concept of your product being gender …
Discussion: adweek.blogs.com and eWeek
Mike Fleming / Deadline.com:
Google Founders Sergey Brin And Larry Page Get Feature Film Treatment  —  EXCLUSIVE: The founders of Facebook aren't the only game-changing geeks poised to have their story told on a movie screen.  Michael London's Groundswell Productions has teamed with producer John Morris to acquire movie rights …
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Intel exec Renee James discusses goals for McAfee (Q&A)  —  Renee J. James, senior vice president and general manager of the Software and Services Group at Intel, discussed Intel plans to buy security company McAfee for $7.68 billion in an interview with CNET on Thursday.
RELATED:
Andrew Jaquith / Forrester Blogs:
Intel-McAfee: Horseless Carriage Vendor Buys Buggy-Whips
Susie Pan / DigiTimes:
Qualcomm to invest US$2 billion to set up Mirasol display plant in Taiwan, say sources  —  Qualcomm MEMS Technologies plans to invest a total of US$2 billion to set up a 4.5G production plant for Mirasol displays at the Longtan site of Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP), according to market sources.
Michael Yang / iSuppli:
Will $1 Per Gigabyte NAND Resuscitate Solid State Drives?  —  After two years of inflated prices, NAND flash memory at the end of 2010 is set to return to the key $1 per gigabyte level considered a key threshold to drive adoption of Solid State Drives (SSD), but the cost reduction may come …
Marco Arment / Marco.org:
A smartphone retrospective  —  This is what high-end smartphones looked like in 2007:  —  Smartphones were an established consumer-electronics market with devices that people thought were pretty cool, but often frustrating and with serious shortcomings and design flaws.  —  Then this happened:
Discussion: Scripting News
Liz Shannon Miller / NewTeeVee:
Auto-Tune the News Hits the Billboard Top 100  —  Online video stars The Gregory Brothers continue making strides towards world domination.  Their latest hit Auto-Tune the News single, Bed Intruder, debuted at number 89 on the Billboard Hot 100 today.  —  Billboard uses a number …
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Travel Rewards Program Topguest Integrates with Facebook Places  —  Topguest, the check-in program for frequent travelers, is now integrated with Facebook Places, making it the fourth company to do so, after Yelp, Booyah and Gowalla.  This service, which offers program loyalty points …
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:
Time Inc. breaks the iPad logjam  —  This week's People app is free to subscribers.  Time, SI and Fortune are expected to follow  —  Image: Time Inc.  —  There's more to the iPad issue of People that appeared on the Apple (AAPL) App Store this morning than Sandra Bullock's new joy.
RELATED:
Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
People Magazine Subscribers to Receive Free Access on iPads
Discussion: SiliconANGLE and Gizmodo
Vic Gundotra / Google Mobile Blog:
To 100 million and beyond with Google Maps for mobile  —  Almost five years ago, we launched Google Maps for mobile to help you get where you needed to go from your phone instead of a paper map.  Today, more than 100 million people a month are now using Google Maps for mobile to get from point A to point B …
RELATED:
Sid Yadav / VentureBeat:
Google's social czar picks a location fight with Facebook
Discussion: CNET News
Stefan Constantinescu / IntoMobile:
Nokia just bought mobile analytics firm Motally  —  Nokia has just announced that they've acquired mobile analytics firm Motally, which currently has only 8 employees.  Financial details have not been disclosed, and I doubt you're going to hear about them anyway, but the deal is set to become official towards the end of this quarter.
Adam Frucci / Gizmodo:
Here's a Much More Realistic Facetime iPhone 4 Commercial  —  Those Facetime-based iPhone 4 ads sure are shmaltzy!  This one is a little closer to what people are actually experiencing with the service.  And yes, that's an older iPhone.  Try to look past it.  [Funny or Die]
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Smartphone App Market Reached More Than $2.2 Billion In The First Half Of 2010  —  Research2guidance, a Berlin-based research organization specialized in all things mobile, recently forecasted the worldwide smartphone application market to reach $15 billion by 2013.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Jobs: Software Update to Address iOS 4 Performance Issues on iPhone 3G ‘Coming Soon’  —  A new email from Apple CEO Steve Jobs appears to confirm that the company will soon be issuing a software update to address issues with the iPhone 3G's performance under iOS 4.
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac
Quentyn Kennemer / Android Phone Fans:
TweetDeck Beta For Android More Popular Than iPad, New Version Brings More Features  —  TweetDeck for Android was released as a public beta last week and has already surpassed the amount of traffic than they've seen on the iPad since the three months it's been out, according to them …
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Apple adds “Compare Macs” option to Apple Store  —  Apple on Thursday added a new option to its online Apple Store called “Compare Macs.”  —  The new option allows customers to quickly bring up specs on the hardware, included software and technical specifications for each system.
David Pogue / New York Times:
State of the Art: OpenDNS Simplifies Life for Web Users  —  I'm about to make your life better.  No need to thank me.  —  But first, a warning: On the way to understanding how your life will get better, you'll have to read about some technical, fairly arcane topics.  Trust me: It'll be worth it.
 
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 More Items: 
Sangwon Yoon / Associated Press:
North Korea reportedly joins Facebook
Discussion: Computerworld and Mobilized
Reyhan Harmanci / New York Times:
For Digital Artists, Apps Provide New Palette
Chris Matyszczyk / CNET News:
How to get stars to follow you on Twitter
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Teevox Turns Your iPhone Into A Computer TV Remote Control
Chris Tolles / TechCrunch:
When Attorneys General Attack
 Earlier Items: 
James Niccolai / Computerworld:
HP: WebOS tablet coming early next year
Mark Milian / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
What's that phone number? Google disables area code look-up tool
Eliot Van Buskirk / Epicenter:
Why Are There So Many Porn Ads on Britney Spears' Facebook Page?
Discussion: the Econsultancy blog
Jay Yarow / Silicon Alley Insider:
Groupon Having A $4 Million Day Thanks To The Gap
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Apple testing iOS 4.1 alongside next-gen iPod touch, iPad and ‘unknown’ product