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4:45 PM ET, December 20, 2010

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
New York Times:
Google TV Faces Delays Amid Poor Reviews  —  Google TV has just enacted its first programming cancellation.  —  The Consumer Electronics Show next month in Las Vegas was meant to be the great coming-out party for Google's new software for televisions, which adds Web video and other computer smarts to TV sets.
RELATED:
Staska / Unwired View:
Holy crap!  Nokia is in talks with Microsoft about Windows Phone devices?!  —  Holy crap!  —  I don't believe I'm writing this, especially after publicly ridiculing even idea of such a thing for a year now.  But given the source of the info...  Here it goes- in his weekly op-ed Mobile …
RELATED:
Ryan Kim / GigaOM:
Nokia and Microsoft Looks Like a Desperate Hook Up  —  Nokia's new leadership under ex-Microsoft executive Stephen Elop has reportedly met with Microsoft to plan a line of Nokia phones that would run the Windows Phone 7 software.  This is according to Russian blogger Eldar Mutarzin, a noted tech writer with connections inside Nokia.
Robin Schriebman / Gmail Blog:
Free calling in Gmail extended through 2011  —  When we launched calling in Gmail back in August, we wanted it to be easy and affordable, so we made calls to the U.S. and Canada free for the rest of 2010.  In the spirit of holiday giving and to help people keep in touch in the new year, we're extending free calling for all of 2011.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
AOL Acquires Personal Profile Startup About.Me  —  Personal profile startup About.me launched publicly, oh, all of four days ago.  And, boom.  Today AOL (our parent company), will announce that they've acquired the company.  It will become part of the consumer applications group, led by AOL exec Brad Garlinghouse.
Discussion: Pulse2
RELATED:
Tony Conrad / Tony Conrad's Photo Blog:
Booyah!  —  Ryan, Tim and I are thrilled to announce …
Discussion: NewEnterprise
Max Read / Gawker:
Mark Zuckerberg's Beijing Adventure  —  Now that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has overthrown the internet and been named Time's “Person of the Year” is there anything left for him to do?  Yes: Conquer China, beginning with this weekend's visit to Beijing.  —  Zuckerberg, who's been learning Mandarin …
RELATED:
Oliver Chiang / SelectStart:   Facebook Should Be In China, Says Baidu
Reed Hastings / Seeking Alpha:
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Responds to Whitney Tilson: Cover Your Short Position.  Now.  —  A great investor and a wonderful human being, Whitney Tilson recently posted an article about why he is short Netflix (NFLX).  Whitney, who is a major co-donor with me to charter public schools like KIPP …
Al Franken / The Huffington Post:
The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time  —  What's Your Reaction: … This Tuesday is an important day in the fight to save the Internet.  —  As a source of innovation, an engine of our economy, and a forum for our political discourse, the Internet can only work if it's a truly level playing field.
RELATED:
Royal Pingdom:
The most reliable (and unreliable) blogging services on the Web  —  Blogging services have been around for a long time, with pioneers like Blogger paving the way for WordPress.com and more recent arrivals like Tumblr and Posterous.  There are millions upon millions of blogs out there, many of them residing on these services.
Joe Maller:
iTunes slowdowns with Google DNS  —  Last night we tried to rent an iTunes movie on our newish Apple TV.  Instead of starting right away, the Apple TV said it would be 2+ hours before we could start watching.  I've got a healthy 15-20Mb/s connection and a clean wire to the Apple TV, so this shouldn't be happening.
Thomas E. Weber / The Daily Beast:
Cracking the New York Times Popularity Code  —  Just how many people does it take to propel a story onto the Times' influential most-emailed list?  And can it be gamed?  Thomas E. Weber finds the answers.  —  The most-emailed articles list on the New York Times website …
Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal:
Targeted TV Ads Set for Takeoff  —  DirecTV to Pioneer Commercials Keyed to Each Household; Concerns About Privacy, Technology Linger  —  After years of promises and false starts, TV commercials targeted at individual homes may finally be ready for prime time.
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry / SAI:
Apple's Cleverest — And Most Annoying — Marketing Gimmick  —  It's universally acknowledged that Apple is one of the best companies in history when it comes to marketing, and that Steve Jobs is a very detail-oriented man.  An example of these two things is a tiny, but great marketing gimmick that Apple uses.
Discussion: Examiner
John Biggs / CrunchGear:
Motorola Teases With The New “Buzz” Tablet  —  CES 2011 is just around the corner and in a rare bit of intelligent marketing Motorola is showing off what appears to be a new tablet, probably called something like “Buzz,” judging by the clever bee flitting around at the end.
Vlad Savov / Engadget:
iPhone 4 hits new low of $147 on contract at Sam's Club this week  —  Radio Shack's $149 price for the 16GB iPhone 4 just got undercut by a whole two bucks.  We've been tipped off to Sam's Club now offering the AT&T-locked device for a $147 fee, subject to the usual two-year agreement.
David Dalka / TechCrunch:
Dear Facebook, Please Return Our Social Networking Space  —  The following is a guest post by David Dalka.  Dalka is a digital business strategist and keynote speaker who was a member of BlackRock (BLK) during its hyper-growth phase of 80 to 800 people.  He is a top ten contributor to CrunchBase …
Thanks:jimhedger
Elizabeth Weingarten / The Atlantic Online:
Forget Journalism School and Enroll in Groupon Academy  —  It's a Friday afternoon and Jane Flotte is getting a little tired of spa treatments.  “Today I've written a lot of salon deals,” the Groupon employee said.  “And I'm getting kind of sick of talking about facials.”
Olga Kharif / Business Week:
Facebook Ramps Up Big E-Commerce Drive  —  The social network is teaming up with startups, vendors, and even giant Internet rivals to turn Facebook pages into online shopping outlets fueled by recommendations from friends who “like” to buy  —  Facebook is ramping up efforts to entice companies …
Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:
Exclusive: Google Poaches Paramount Executive For Content Role  —  Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has turned to Hollywood to fill out its content team, hiring Malik Ducard, who is currently senior vice president of digital distribution at Viacom-owned film studio Paramount, according to sources.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Will the FCC Approve Qualcomm's Spectrum Sale to AT&T?  —  Updated: FLO TV, Qualcomm's mobile video network, is on its way into becoming a footnote in the mobile history.  Today it said it will sell the 700 MHz spectrum used to deliver the service to AT&T, after previously announcing …
RELATED:
Robin Wauters / TechCrunchIT:
Qualcomm To Sell Spectrum Licenses To AT&T For $2B, Kill FLO TV In March 2011
 
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 More Items: 
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Twitter List Service TLists Becomes Sulia, Raises $3.5 Million
Jon C. Ogg / 24/7 Wall St.:
Zipcar Closer to IPO (ZIP)
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Amazon Vet Jason Child Joins Groupon As CFO
Discussion: Business Wire, VatorNews and SAI
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Professional Social Network LinkedIn Takes Groups Public
Discussion: The LinkedIn Blog
Adam Satariano / Bloomberg:
Insider-Trading Suit Shows Piercing of Apple's Veil of Secrecy
Discussion: iPhone in Canada Blog
Courtney Boyd Myers / The Next Web:
Foursquare adds photos and comments to its new iPhone app
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Online ad sales eclipse newspaper advertising in 2010
Gwen / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Not-So-Gentle Persuasion: US Bullies Spain into Proposed Website Blocking Law
Discussion: Music Ally and ZeroPaid.com
 Earlier Items: 
Jon Marcus / Times Higher Education:
Drop out and innovate  —  The man who financed Facebook …
Lukas Zinnagl / TechCrunch Europe:
Breaking: eBay acquires brands4friends private sales site for $200 million
Micah L. Sifry / techPresident:
From Wikileaks to OpenLeaks, Via the Knight News Challenge
Pui-Wing Tam / Wall Street Journal:
Tech Revival Lifts Silicon Valley
The Business Insider:
Buyer Beware: Zynga Blocks SecondMarket From Selling Its Stock!
Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:
Rebooting Web Publishing Design
more at Mediagazer »
Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:
Best Buy bundling free Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T MiFis with iPads, contract required
 

 
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
 
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