Techmeme: Motorola's big split takes place tomorrow (Tim Conneally/BetaNews)

5:35 PM ET, January 3, 2011

Top Items:

Goldman Offering Clients a Chance to Invest in Facebook — Updated — Goldman Sachs has reached out to its wealthy private clients, offering them a chance to invest in Facebook, the hot social networking giant that is considering a possible public offering in 2012, according to people familiar with the matter.

John Cassidy / Rational Irrationality:

Facebook-Goldman: Where Is the S.E.C.? — Happy New Year everybody. I'm working on a post about the economic prospects for 2011, but, first-up, a quick memo to Mary Schapiro, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission: Mary, once again the boys and girls at Goldman Sachs appear …

Discussion: SAI, DealBook, The Huffington Post, VatorNews and zero hedge

Henry Blodget / SAI:

Goldman Sachs Clients Can Invest In Facebook's IPO — But You Can't — Aren't you glad the government fixed the IPO market? — In the old days (the 1990s), small companies could sell their stock in the public markets at reasonable cost, just like big companies.

Discussion: Kevin Burton's NEW FeedBlog and Adotas

Peter Lattman / DealBook:
Why Facebook Is Such a Crucial Friend for Goldman

Discussion: Mediaite and Inside Facebook

Jennifer Valentino-DeVries / Digits:
Facebook's Valuation: By the Numbers

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and SAI

Felix Salmon / Reuters:
Goldman's Facebook coup

Discussion: SAI, Epicenter, NBC Bay Area, DealBook and TechCrunch

Nielsen Wire:

Apple Leads Smartphone Race, while Android Attracts Most Recent Customers — The race for the lead in U.S. smartphone operating system (OS) consumer market share is tighter than it has ever been. According to November data from The Nielsen Company, the popularity of the Android OS among …

Ingrid Lunden / mocoNews:
Android's Gaining Fast, So What Can Apple And RIM Do To Compete?

Discussion: Search Engine Land, GigaOM, Computerworld, CIOInsight, MacDailyNews, Electronista, iLounge and BGR

Nick Farrell / Inquirer:

Intel's Sandy Bridge sucks up to Hollywood with DRM — CHIPMAKER Intel has cut a deal with Hollywood in its Sandy Bridge chips to put digital restrictions management (DRM) in them. — Intel's sellout to the big media companies makes it ‘safer’ for Hollywood studios to offer premium movies …

Discussion: GigaOM, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, FierceIPTV and TG Daily, more at Mediagazer »

Joanna Stern / Engadget:
Intel's 2nd Generation Core processor family announced, includes 29 …

Discussion: The Register, BetaNews, HotHardware.com News, AnandTech, Electronista, ZDNet, TechEye, The Tech Report, dailywireless.org and Inquirer

Joanna Stern / Engadget:
Intel to launch Insider movie service with 1080p content …

Discussion: Pulse2

Jeff Atwood / Coding Horror:

Trouble In the House of Google — Let's look at where stackoverflow.com traffic came from for the year of 2010. — When 88.2% of all traffic for your website comes from a single source, criticizing that single source feels ... risky. And perhaps a bit churlish, like looking a gift horse in the mouth …

Discussion: Anil Dash

Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:

Apple's market cap tops $300 billion — Giving ExxonMobil a run for its money in the race to be the world's most valuable company — In a broad 2011 rally that pushed the Dow up nearly a point in mid-morning trading Monday, Apple (AAPL) popped more than $7 (2.25%) to hit new record intraday highs …

Discussion: Tech Check, BGR, TUAW, The Huffington Post, Mashable! and 9 to 5 Mac

Dave Winer / Scripting News:

What will become of Twitter? — The current crop of tech writers in Silicon Valley are making the mistake tech writers always make. They don't understand how the industry loops, so they misread the signs. It's happening as they try to understand the connection between RSS and Twitter.

more at Mediagazer »

Roger Cheng / Wall Street Journal:

Verizon Wireless to Showcase Google-Powered 4G Phones — Verizon Wireless is expected this week to show off several devices powered by Google Inc. software for its new 4G network, underscoring the importance of the two companies' relationship even as speculation mounts that Verizon will get to offer the iPhone this year.

Discussion: eWeek, SAI, ReadWriteWeb, CNET News, Android Phone Fans, Droid Life, FierceWireless, Android News, Rumours … and Erictric

Wall Street Journal:

Google Digital Newsstand Aims to Muscle In on Apple — Google Inc. and Apple Inc. have stepped up their battle to win over publishers, as the two companies vie to become the dominant distributor of newspapers and magazines for tablet computers and other mobile devices.

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Digg Founder Kevin Rose Launches Private Newsletter Called Foundation — I bet you didn't know that Twitter was almost named Jittter or Twitch. Well, now you will. — Last year Digg founder Kevin Rose was mulling over a new video show called fforward. Fforward never launched, but the idea did change into something else.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Kevin Rose, Pulse2 and SAI

Reuters:

Apple iPhone alarm woes continue across the globe — (Reuters) - Some iPhone users across the globe complained of malfunctioning alarms on the first working day of 2011, even after Apple reassured users that its phones' built-in clocks will work from Monday.

Jay Yarow / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

Apple Is Due For A (Relatively) Boring 2011 — Top Apple analyst Gene Munster just released his roadmap for Apple in 2011, and we have to say it looks relatively snoozy. — Compared to last year when Apple had an amazing year with the iPad, iPhone 4, Apple TV, and redesigned MacBook Air …

Discussion: Mobilized, AppleInsider, Fortune, Between the Lines Blog, Tech Trader Daily, BGR, Know Your Cell, TG Daily, 9 to 5 Mac and Mobile Marketing Watch

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Time For Google To Leave Italy? Italy Announces That YouTube Responsible For All Content — Not this again. The Italian government has long had trouble comprehending how YouTube is simply a platform for users. Of course, some might say this is willful ignorance.

Discussion: Search Engine Land

Joanna Stern / Engadget:

Toshiba announces unnamed Tegra 2-powered Android tablet, waits only for Honeycomb — Let the Tegra 2-powered, Android Honeycomb tablet announcements begin! Apparently (and understandably) staying away from a Folio 2 moniker, Toshiba is kicking off CES with its new unnamed 10.1-inch Android tablet …

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Exclusive: News Corp. Online Gaming Head Sean Ryan to Head Facebook's Social Gaming Partnerships — Sean Ryan (pictured here), who arrived at News Corp. mid-year to set up a new online gaming unit, is moving to Facebook to head partnerships at its key gaming platform, according to sources.

Discussion: VentureBeat and ReadWriteWeb

Richard Lawler / Engadget:

Vizio details specs on VIA Tablet and VIA Phone, reveals VIA Plus is Google TV — Vizio has unveiled more about its plans for the new year which seem to consist largely of a huge push on Android, from the 4-inch phone and 8-inch tablet running a (still unspecified) flavor on their 1 GHz processors …

Discussion: Beet.TV, PR Newswire, GigaOM, VentureBeat, LAPTOP Magazine, Softpedia News, msnbc.com, ITworld.com, Liliputing, paidContent, Yahoo! News, Switched and IntoMobile

Matt Brian / The Next Web:

Samsung Galaxy S hits target, surpasses 10 million units sold — Samsung has officially confirmed that its Galaxy S smartphone range has eclipsed 10 million units sold, hitting the company's target just 7 months after the device launched. — We previously reported that the handset …

Discussion: Engadget, Examiner, IntoMobile, Samsung Hub, Bloomberg, Mashable!, Macworld, eWeek, TechSpot, Pulse2, VentureBeat, BGR, blogs.chron.com, SlashGear, BlogsDNA, Smartphones …, Digital Trends and OLED TV Display Lighting …

Chris Matyszczyk / CNET News:

Apple support company sues customer for complaining — Returning to my inbox after the New Year's break, I found it full of Greeks bearing rifts. — The national press, the tech blogosphere, even normal, ordinary human beings on Twitter are railing against Systemgraph …

Discussion: TUAW and MacNN

New York Times:

Outlawed, Cellphones Are Thriving in Prisons — ATLANTA — A counterfeiter at a Georgia state prison ticks off the remaining days of his three-year sentence on his Facebook page. He has 91 digital “friends.” Like many of his fellow inmates, he plays the online games FarmVille and Street Wars.

Discussion: All Facebook and Gawker

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:

Microsoft: Missing Hotmail e-mails are back — Over the past weekend, a number of Hotmail users reported that their Hotmail messages in various folders were gone. (And were, unsurprisingly, none too happy about it.) — Microsoft officials said on January 3 that the company had identified the cause of the problem and fixed it.

Discussion: Computerworld, Associated Press, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Ars Technica, TechFlash, eWeek, CNET News, The Next Web, TG Daily and Download Squad

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