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6:50 PM ET, January 4, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Reuters:
Goldman's “friends” get week to mull Facebook bet  —  (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs is not giving its multimillionaire clients a lot of time or information to think about investing in a $1.5 billion Facebook private offering.  —  According to a customer who received a letter from Goldman …
Discussion: SAI
RELATED:
Duff McDonald / Fortune:
Five reasons why I'm not buying Facebook  —  Before you start scrambling to get a piece of the Facebook pie, it's worth looking at a few glaring risk factors.  —  Would you give this guy $2 million?  —  Excuse me for raining on the Facebook parade, but yesterday's news about the $450 million investment …
Felix Salmon:
Why Facebook won't go public  —  Miguel Helft explains …
Discussion: TechCrunch, DealBook and PC World
Bloomberg:
Facebook Backer Helps Lure Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley to Silicon Valley
Discussion: SAI
Olga Kharif / Business Week:
In the Works: A Google Mobile Payment Service?  —  “You'll be able to walk in a store and do commerce,” says Google's Eric Schmidt.  “You'd bump for everything and eventually replace credit cards”  —  Google (GOOG) is considering building a payment and advertising service that would let users buy milk …
Andrew Mason / The Daily Groupon:
Why Groupon Isn't in Australia  —  Since Groupon started in 2008, we've grown from one to thirty-seven countries.  Australia, however, remains conspicuously absent from our lineup.  Australian customers and press have been asking why we still haven't formally launched …
Discussion: eMoney, metarand and Pulse2
RELATED:
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:   Groupon Files Lawsuit Against Australian Clone “Scoopon”
Sarah Rotman Epps / Forrester Blogs:
US Tablet Sales Will More Than Double This Year  —  Today Forrester published its revised US consumer tablet forecast, updating its previous forecast from June 2010.  When Apple's iPad first debuted, we saw the device as a game-changer but were too conservative with our forecast.
Douglas Soltys / Inside BlackBerry:
BlackBerry PlayBook Web Fidelity Video (Multimedia, Games and Social Networking)  —  Check out our latest BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet video, just in time for CES 2011!  When we posted the BlackBerry PlayBook vs. iPad comparison video, many Inside BlackBerry readers posted comments suggesting …
Kevin Marks / Epeus' epigone:
Two faces of Android  —  The most remarkable thing about Android is that it is the first widely adopted Open Source client operating system.  It's long been clear that Open Source is the best way to preserve infrastructural code from the vicissitudes of corporate and governmental volatility …
Discussion: TechCrunch, Thanks:kevinmarks
Deirdre Walsh / CNN:
Boehner to livestream opening day of new Congress on Facebook  —  Washington (CNN) - Incoming House Speaker John Boehner wants all his friends to see him get sworn in on Wednesday - Facebook friends that is.  —  For the first time ever, Congress will be broadcast live on Facebook.
Ed Bott / Ed Bott's Microsoft Report Blog:
Who owns your digital downloads?  (Hint: it's not you)  —  Steve Jobs once said, “People want to own their music.”  —  Someone better tell the folks who run the iTunes Store and its competitors.  If you buy a digital music track or album from the iTunes store or one of its competitors, you don't own it.
Discussion: Pulse2, Thanks:paulfallon
StatCounter Global Stats:
Firefox overtakes Internet Explorer in Europe in browser wars  — Internet Explorer loses crown in major market for first time  —  Boston, USA and Dublin, Ireland; Tuesday 4th January, 2011: Firefox overtook Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) to become the number one browser in Europe …
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
Sony's PlayStation Phone finally gets Xperia, PlayStation logos  —  We've heard of the mysterious, still-totally-unofficial PlayStation Phone running Android 2.2 in the past, but we'd also heard it could run 3.0 — thing is, that was back before we knew Gingerbread would be 2.3 …
DealBook:
Qualcomm Is Said to Be Near $3.5 Billion Deal for Atheros  —  Qualcomm is near a deal to buy Atheros Communications, a semiconductor manufacturing company, for about $45 per share, or $3.5 billion, according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks.  —  A deal could be announced …
Brier Dudley / Seattle Times:
Consumer Electronics Show comes to Las Vegas this week  —  At CES, more than 2,500 companies are presenting new electronics and tech products.  At least 120,000 attendees from 130 countries are expected to peruse the show floor.  —  You'd think people would have enough gadgets …
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Microsoft Warns of Image Problem  —  Microsoft today warned Windows users about a previously unknown security vulnerability that could allow attackers to install malicious software simply by getting users to view a malicious image in a Web browser or document.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
SCVNGR Raises $15 Million At $100MM Valuation  —  Location based game SCVNGR has raised another $15 million in a funding round led by European VC firm Balderton Capital, with participation from previous investors Google Ventures and Highland Capital Partners.
Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:
HP holding webOS event February 9th; PalmPad line may be revealed  —  Uh oh, it's definitely going down — in addition to the flood of tablet devices headed to CES and Apple's rumored next event detailing the new iPad around February, HP just sent out invites to a webOS event of its own happening on February 9th.
Avner Ronen / Boxee Blog:
Boxee partners with Iomega, NAS device running Boxee is coming  —  We are happy to announce that Iomega will be bringing out a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device running the Boxee software.  —  Boxee is a software company (even though some people mistake us for a set-top box maker) …
David Kaplan / paidContent:
USA Today Buys Tech Products Site Network Reviewed.com  —  Gannett (NYSE: GCI) USA Today has acquired Reviewed.com, a group of 12 product-review websites.  The site provides in-depth, long takes on digital cameras, camcorders and high def televisions.  Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
So You Just Bought Sex.com For $13 Million - Now What?  —  Sex.com.  It's a domain name with quite a history - heck, it was rocky enough for a book to be written solely about it.  I'll spare you that story and let you discover it on your own, though.  —  TechCrunch had an exclusive interview …
Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Thanks:robinwauters
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Lenovo LePad tablet and IdeaPad U1 Hybrid return with Android 2.2 in tow  —  Remember last year at CES 2010 when Lenovo made a huge scene with the tablet / netbook U1 Hybrid, which ran Windows when docked and Lenovo's Skylight Linux in tablet mode?  And then Lenovo killed Skylight in favor of Android and put everything on hold?
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Facebook Users Uploaded A Record 750 Million Photos Over New Year's  —  It doesn't come as a huge surprise, but it's still staggering to think about: over the New Year's weekend, Facebook saw 750 million photo uploads from its users.  That's a lot of celebrating, and it sets a new Facebook record.
Discussion: PE Hub Blog and Softpedia News
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Netflix' Next Destination: On Your Remote Control  —  Brilliant idea: Netflix and a number of consumer electronics companies have joined in a development effort to put Netflix-branded one-click buttons on remote controls that operate Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray disc players and other devices.
Andrew Munchbach / BGR:
Garmin announces nüvi 2400 series GPS units, StreetPilot iPhone app  —  Today, via a barrage of press releases, navigation company Garmin announced its nüvi 2400 series of personal GPS devices and its first iPhone navigation application, StreetPilot.
Dan Frommer / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Microsoft Supposedly Showing Off Its Answer To Apple TV And Google TV At CES  —  Microsoft's Xbox 360 has been a big hit for entertainment and online video, and we've heard that Microsoft is trying to court more media companies to the Xbox.  —  But it looks like the company is also going to unveil …
Sascha Segan / PC Magazine:
Honeycomb to Require Powerful Processor, Screen: OEM  —  Google's new Android Honeycomb tablet OS will require a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor to run properly, said Bobby Cha, managing director of Korean consumer electronics firm Enspert.  —  That means that many existing Android tablets …
 
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 More Items: 
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
TV Content Check-In App Miso Lands $1.5M From Google Ventures And Hearst
Markus Nigrin / The Pocket Cyclone:
Mac App Store - Sneak Peak
Discussion: MacRumors
Jennifer Valentino-DeVries / Digits:
AT&T Service for Your Pill Bottle
Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog
Diane Bartz / Reuters:
Court backs Uniloc in patent fight with Microsoft
Jonny Evans / 9 to 5 Mac:
Saudi Arabia blocks MobileMe?
 Earlier Items: 
Rachael King / Business Week:
Ditch Your Wallet and Pay by Phone
Kat Hannaford / Gizmodo:
Sprint's HTC EVO Shift 4G On Sale January 9th
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
With Fusion, AMD plans to stop being the underdog in chips
Larry Hardesty / MIT News Office:
The surprising usefulness of sloppy arithmetic
 

 
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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