Techmeme: The Pandora-Elevation Deal that Never Closed and a Mid-2011 IPO? (Sarah Lacy/TechCrunch)

12:45 AM ET, December 22, 2010

Top Items:

Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:

Why everyone hates new net neutrality rules—even NN supporters — It's no surprise that those who have always opposed net neutrality weren't pleased with today's FCC order instituting it—one expects no less—but the sheer vehemence of the objections was still surprising.

Nilay Patel / Engadget:

FCC: We didn't impose stricter net neutrality regulations on wireless because Android is open — Rest assured that we're working on a full analysis of the FCC's major net neutrality decision today, but the Commission hasn't actually released the full text of the order yet …

Discussion: AppleInsider, TechCrunch, TECH cocktail, Electronista and Android Phone Fans

The Politico:

FCC approves net neutrality rules — The Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules that will govern how Internet providers treat Web traffic and services, a move that sets the stage for a heated political battle on Capitol Hill come January. — Led by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski …

Robert Quigley / Geekosystem:
FCC Chair Julius Genachowski's Statement on the New Net Neutrality Rules

Discussion: Switched and Federal Communications …, more at Mediagazer »

Clayton Morris / Fox News:

EXCLUSIVE: iPad Competitor Coming Soon From Palm — FoxNews has obtained exclusive images of Palm's forthcoming competitor to the iPad, called the PalmPad, which will debut at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show. — The Apple iPad has a solid lead in the tablet space.

Erica Ogg / Crave: The gadget blog:
Is the PalmPad a recycled HP Slate?

Discussion: Engadget and PR Newswire

Paul Buchheit:

Four reasons Google is still Awesome — My recent predictions about which Google products will succeed (and which won't) are causing people to think that I'm anti-Google, which makes me sad since Google is probably still the best company of its size, and I really enjoyed my time there.

Discussion: Gawker and SAI

Bloomberg:

Amazon Is Said to Exceed Kindle Sales Estimates by 60 Percent — Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) — Amazon.com Inc. is likely to sell more than 8 million Kindle electronic-book readers this year, at least 60 percent more than analysts have predicted, according to two people who are aware of the company's sales projections.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Tech Trader Daily, SlashGear, Between the Lines Blog, Electronista and SAI

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Amazon's Secret Kindle Sales: Eight Million in 2010?

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, Computerworld, Crave, msnbc.com, Kindle Review and Gizmodo

Carolyn Penner / Twitter Blog:

Fluther Flocks to Twitter — There are now three times as many people on the Twitter team as there were at this time last year. More than half of our employees work in engineering and operations, and those teams continue to grow as we attract more and more talented people interested …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Fluther Blog, VatorNews, SiliconANGLE, GigaOM, TechCrunch, WebProNews, Pulse2, NetworkEffect, CNET News, The Next Web, The Blog Herald, Download Squad, paidContent, MediaPost Raw and silicontap.com

Owen Thomas / VentureBeat: How Twitter acquires people

Bloomberg:

Microsoft Is Said to Announce Version of Windows for ARM Chips — Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, will announce a version of its Windows operating system that runs on ARM Holdings Plc technology for the first time, said two people familiar with Microsoft's plans.

Discussion: Mobilized, Wall Street Journal, Daring Fireball, CNET News, TG Daily, All about Microsoft Blog, SAI, VentureBeat, Erictric, 9 to 5 Mac, GottaBeMobile, Electronista, SlashGear, Gizmodo, Neowin.net and parislemon

Spencer E. Ante / Wall Street Journal:

Verizon Will Offer Motorola Phone for 4G Network — Verizon Wireless will distribute a smartphone made by Motorola Inc. to run on its speedy new 4G network next year, the carrier's chief operating officer, John Stratton, said in an interview Tuesday. — The comments mark the first time the carrier …

Discussion: SlashGear, IntoMobile, Engadget, Android Community, Electronista, MobileCrunch, Droid Life, Android and Me and Android Phone Fans

Matt Richtel / Bits:

E-Mail's Big Demographic Split — In an article in Tuesday's Times, I wrote about the changing status of e-mail. Once it was cool to merely have an e-mail account (or several), but many young people now think of it as old school, and much prefer the zip of texting, instant messaging and social networks.

Discussion: New York Times

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

Jon Gotow on Apple's Replacing the Mac OS X Software Directory With the Mac App Store — You know Apple's Mac OS X Software directory: it's where you go when you choose “Mac OS X Software...” from the Apple menu in Mac OS X. It's a huge driver of traffic for indie Mac developers …

Discussion: St. Clair Software Blog, Macworld and TUAW

Jeff Cormier / The Next Web:

Hidden Safari Mobile feature reveals augmented reality capability — Occipital, the company behind the grand app recently profiled by TNW, 360 Panorama, has discovered something new and exciting contained within the Safari Mobile Browser. — To use what Occipital's discovered note …

Discussion: Occipital, BGR, Gizmodo and Download Squad, Thanks:c4universe

Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint:

EXCLUSIVE: PlayStation phone to hit shops in April — Sources confirm to Pocket-lint launch date and release — The Sony Ericsson PlayStation phone will hit shops in April, after a February Mobile World Congress launch, sources close to the matter have confirmed to Pocket-lint.

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Facebook Launches Instant Personalization On TripAdvisor — Hot on the heels of bringing Instant Personalization to Clicker last week, today Facebook is announcing the latest addition to the program: TripAdvisor. The popular travel site, which includes user reviews of hotels, restaurants …

Discussion: MediaPost Raw and Tnooz

Tiffany Chang Black / Facebook Blog:
Plan the Perfect Trip with Help from Friends

Discussion: All Facebook, Tnooz, PR Newswire, Pulse2, Inside Facebook, The Next Web, Softpedia News, ReadWriteWeb and WebProNews

Ingrid Lunden / mocoNews:

Windows Phone 7: 1.5 Million Devices Sold, But Not To Consumers — In the last six weeks, there has been a lot of speculation over just how many Windows Phone 7 handsets have been sold since the devices hit the market. Now we have a number, sort of: 1.5 million, revealed by Microsoft's …

Discussion: eWeek, The Next Web, Network World, IntoMobile, Techie Buzz, Engadget, internetnews.com, Techi.com, Pulse2, SlashGear, Pocket-lint, Microsoft and Phones Review

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Salesforce Buys Email Contact Manager Etacts — We heard earlier today that Y Combinator-funded Etacts shut down its CRM-like email contact manager after less than a year in service. We subsequently learned that Salesforce has bought Etacts, and have confirmed the acquisition with Salesforce.

Discussion: alarm:clock, ReadWriteWeb, NetworkEffect, GigaOM and VentureBeat, Thanks:bpedro

Josh Constine / Inside Facebook:

Facebook Rolling Out More Prominent Design of News Feed Filters — Facebook is rolling out a new way to filter the news feed. Users with access to the redesigned feature see a drop-down arrow beside their Most Recent news feed tab on the home page, revealing filters for status updates, Photos, Links, Pages, Games and friend lists.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and The Next Web

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

The Men and No Women of Web 2.0 Boards (BoomTown's Talking to You: Twitter, Facebook, Zynga, Groupon and Foursquare) — In one memorable episode of the famous old short films “The Little Rascals,” after not getting invited to a party, the Our Gang little dudes decided to form their own group …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Cory Doctorow / Guardian:

Email secrecy won't save you from spam — The spam wars aren't going away soon but treating public email addresses as secret is of no benefit — Last week, I needed to get in touch with a colleague, an academic who'd recently changed universities; I didn't have his current email address …

Discussion: Lifehacker

Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:

The Pandora-Elevation Deal that Never Closed and a Mid-2011 IPO? — Back in August we reported that Elevation Partners had signed a letter of intent to buy secondary shares in Pandora, the long-suffering, now-hot online radio station. I wondered what ever happened to that deal, so I started digging.

Miguel Helft / Bits:

Why Apple Removed a WikiLeaks App From Its Store — Apple on Tuesday confirmed that it had removed from its online store an iPhone and iPad app that let users view the content on the WikiLeaks site and follow the WikiLeaks Twitter account. — Trudy Muller, an Apple spokeswoman …

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