Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
6:40 PM ET, December 6, 2010

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Andy Rubin / The Official Google Blog:
Introducing Nexus S with Gingerbread  —  The very first Android phone hit the market in November 2008.  Just over two years later, Android's vision of openness has spurred the development of more than 100 different Android devices.  Today, more than 200,000 Android devices are activated daily worldwide.
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
TechCrunch Review: Google Nexus S  —  For the last few days we've been using the Google Nexus S, manufactured by Samsung, with the new Android 2.3 “Gingerbread” operating system.  This is a phone that was designed with direct input from the Google Android team.
Android Developers Blog:
Android 2.3 Platform and Updated SDK Tools  —  Today we're announcing a new version of the Android platform — Android 2.3 (Gingerbread).  It includes many new platform technologies and APIs to help developers create great apps.  Some of the highlights include:
Devindra Hardawar / VentureBeat:
Google finally spills the beans on Nexus S, coming Dec. 16 on T-Mobile
Discussion: Bits, Computerworld and Daring Fireball
Abraham Murray / The Official Google Blog:
Discover more than 3 million Google eBooks from your choice of booksellers and devices  —  Today is the first page in a new chapter of our mission to improve access to the cultural and educational treasures we know as books.  Google eBooks will be available in the U.S. from a new Google eBookstore.
RELATED:
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Google's New Bookstore Cracks Open the E-book Market  —  Google today launched its long-awaited electronic book store, called simply Google eBooks, with more than 3 million titles and 4,000 publishers participating as partners, including most of the major industry names.
James McQuivey / paidContent:
The Ultimate Effect Of Google E-Books: A New Ad-Supported Model For Books
Discussion: Bloomberg
Dwight Silverman / Houston Chronicle:
Consumer Reports: AT&T is the worst carrier  —  Consumer Reports is out with its latest survey of cell phone service by its members, and AT&T is now ranked as the worst in the country, as well as the worst in Houston.  —  In the 2009 survey, AT&T was at the bottom of the list locally, but came in next-to-last nationally.
Kirk Hiner / Appletell:
Appletell exclusive: Mac App Store to open December 13th?  —  An inside source has just told us that Apple is targeting a Monday, December 13th launch of the Mac App Store.  The company apparently told developers to have their software prepared for a launch as early as Monday the 6th of this month …
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Verizon may pay Apple to keep iPhone away from T-Mobile, Sprint  —  With the launch of the Verizon iPhone widely expected in early 2011, the wireless carrier may pay Apple to keep its smartphone off of rival networks Sprint and T-Mobile.  —  Analyst Shaw Wu with Kaufman Bros. said in a note …
Paul Graham:
Founder Control  —  Someone we funded is talking to VCs now, and asked me how common it was for a startup's founders to retain control of the board after a series A round.  He said VCs told him this almost never happened.  Ten years ago that was true.  In the past, founders rarely kept control …
Discussion: SiliconANGLE
Dan Frommer / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
TUMBLR IS BACK!  —  Tumblr is on its way back up after an extended outage that started yesterday.  —  While the outage was certainly a bad and stressful thing for the company, it shouldn't cost it too many users, provided it doesn't become a habit.  (And provided there wasn't a massive data loss.)
Discussion: Mashable! and Techie Buzz, Thanks:boodycw
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Russia's DST Out of Twitter Funding Race, As Kleiner Poised to Take the Deal  —  According to sources close to the situation, the aggressive Russian investment outfit DST Global is out of the running to fund Twitter.  —  Instead, the prize is almost certainly going to Kleiner Perkins …
Discussion: SAI
Kathy Kristof / CBS Money Watch:
Online Retailer Charged with Fraud, Threats  —  DecorMyEyes founder Vitaly Borker — also known as Tony Russo and Stanley Bolds — was arrested Monday and charged with defrauding customers of his online eye wear company and making repeated and violent threats to customers who attempted to return defective goods.
Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:
Cord Cutting Could Get Costly for ESPN  —  ESPN released new data Monday calling into question the number of people that have canceled their cable bills.  But while ESPN seeks to downplay the effect that cord cutters have, it may already feeling the hurt from the drop in pay TV subscribers — to the tune of $1.3 million per month.
Nadia Damouni / Reuters:
AOL plots breakup, then merger with Yahoo: sources  —  (Reuters) - AOL Inc, undergoing a radical transformation into the king of content on the Internet, is actively exploring a breakup of the company involving a complicated series of transactions that may lead to a merger with Yahoo Inc, sources close to the plans said.
Milo Yiannopoulos / Telegraph:
Dark forces gunning for Google  —  Microsoft has been funding an organisation seemingly set up to make trouble for the search giant.  —  Last week's announcement that Google is to be investigated by the EU for allegedly giving preference to its own services and advertisers in search rankings …
Discussion: SAI and Techie Buzz
Ryan Kim / GigaOM:
Sprint's Future: No iDEN, LTE (Maybe)  —  Sprint is rolling out a $4-5 billion plan to modernize and converge its network in a wide-ranging effort that will mean the end of its iDEN network and a possible embrace of LTE down the road.  The Sprint Network Vision blueprint will involve replacing …
Tony Romm / The Politico:
White House to continue copyright crackdown  —  The Obama administration is just getting started in its mission to shut down rogue websites that illegally share copyrighted content such as movies and music.  —  The White House's intellectual property czar, Victoria Espinel …
Discussion: Techdirt and ReadWriteWeb
Zach Epstein / BGR:
Pandora has a change of heart; no Windows Phone 7 app planned [Updated]  —  Back in March of this year, Microsoft proudly announced that Pandora would be one of its big-name Windows Phone 7 launch partners.  In an interesting turn of events last week, however, the popular Internet radio provider …
Discussion: pocketnow.com, SAI and WMPoweruser.com
Associated Press:
Swiss cut off bank account for WikiLeaks' Assange  —  GENEVA (AP) — The Swiss postal system stripped WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of a key fundraising tool Monday, accusing him of lying and immediately shutting down one of his bank accounts.  —  The swift action by Postfinance …
Ari Levy / Bloomberg:
Groupon Aims to Emulate Facebook, Not Yahoo, After Walking Away From Deal  —  Groupon Inc., which rejected a Google Inc. takeover last week, is betting it can keep increasing its valuation after walking away from a deep-pocketed suitor, something Facebook Inc. pulled off and Yahoo! Inc. failed to do.
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft seeks to lure Salesforce users with new promotion  —  On the opening day of Salesforce.com's Dreamforce user conference, Microsoft is going on the offensive by launching a new promotion aimed at getting users to switch to its Dynamics CRM Online offering.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Loopt 4.0: Redesigned, Facebook-Heavy, And Location-Based Texting  —  Much has already been written about how Loopt was perhaps a bit too early to the location game for their own good.  But that doesn't mean they're not out there still trying new things to keep their over 4 million users and entice new ones to join.
Discussion: Macworld, TUAW and GigaOM
Josh Constine / Inside Facebook:
Facebook Profile Redesign Will Coax More Data From Users: An In-Depth Review  —  Facebook has released a major redesign of the user profile which makes more profile info, photos, and friends immediately visible.  A single panel navigation system, image-accompanied Likes, Friendship Page previews …
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Google's New Social Sitelinks  —  Google is now showing social search related results in the Sitelinks section of the search results.  The social sitelink includes your friend's name, profile photo, and it links to your friend's content on a particular website.
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 6:40 PM ET, December 6, 2010.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Techmeme Sponsor Posts: 
Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
CIO challenge 5: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs?  —  Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series!  After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Sponsor Techmeme
 
 See Also: 
Techmeme: site main
Techmeme River: reverse chronological Techmeme
Techmeme Mobile: for phones
Techmeme Leaderboard: Techmeme's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
Techmeme RSS feed
Techmeme on X
Techmeme on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Zynga's CityVille Springs To A Metropolis Overnight (Surprised?)
Evan Blass / Pocket Now:
First Look at Windows Phone 7 Copy/Paste Update (Video)
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Can you defame someone with a hyperlink?
Ina Fried / All Things Digital:
Ex-AdMob crew lands cash to start rival
Discussion: VentureBeat and TechCrunch
Jay Yarow / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Sorry, But This “Tech Bubble 2.0” Talk Is Ridiculous
Discussion: Under the Radar, TechCrunch and Adotas, Thanks:mradamtaylor
 Earlier Items: 
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
VentureDeal Report: 343 Internet, Software Companies Raised $1.8 Billion In Q3
Tom Warren / WinRumors:
Leaked U.S. embassy cables suggest China uses access to Microsoft …
Thanks:tomwarren
John Ribeiro / Computerworld:
RIM to give Indian government access to BlackBerry Messenger
Discussion: Fast Company and CNET News
David Sarno / Los Angeles Times:
BlackBerry vs. iPhone: What's in your pocket?
Discussion: PhoneArena
Jack Loftus / Gizmodo:
Rare Transparent Mac SE Can't Sell for $25,000
Werner Vogels / All Things Distributed:
Expanding the Cloud with DNS - Introducing Amazon Route 53
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:
Norman Foster to design Apple's new campus called ‘Apple City’
Fred / A VC:
Where Should Mobile Developers Focus?
Discussion: The Bivings Report
 

 
From Mediagazer:

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

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
 
Sister Sites:

Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
memeorandum
 What US political commentators are discussing online right now
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page