Techmeme: Amazon to open Android App Store later this year, developer portal launches in beta (Tim Conneally/BetaNews)

1:30 PM ET, January 5, 2011

Top Items:

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Amazon's Disruptive Android App Store Now Open To Developers — Full Details — Fragmentation. Curation. Recommendations. Take your pick: Android is getting all three, compliments of a new Amazon-run application marketplace due to launch later this year.

Tim Conneally / BetaNews:

Amazon to open Android App Store later this year, developer portal launches in beta — Web retailer Amazon.com is launching its own Android app store both for Android devices and for the Web. Wednesday, the company opened the beta of its developer portal, inviting Android appmakers to enroll …

Discussion: TeleRead

Amazon Appstore Developer Blog:
Introducing the Amazon Appstore Developer Portal

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Computerworld and GigaOM

Paul Miller / Engadget:

iPad 2 case shows up at CES, packing a mockup iPad 2 — We've been seeing supposed iPad 2 cases for about a month now, all of them with the same telltale cutouts: a camera hole in the back, a camera hole in the front, and a big ol' speaker hole. Today's find beats them all, however …

Discussion: PC World, SAI, MacRumors, Faster Forward, PadGadget, iThinkDifferent, PhoneDog.com, TUAW, IntoMobile, GottaBeMobile, Techie Buzz, Switched, Geek.com, The Next Web, BGR, VG247, Redmond Pie, Softpedia News, MacHackPC, 9 to 5 Mac, AppleInsider, MacStories, App Advice, everythingiCafe, DeviceMAG, Go Rumors and MacDailyNews

John Battelle / John Battelle's Searchblog:

What Everyone Seems to Miss In Facebook's Private or Public Debate... ...is the core reason it makes sense for Facebook to be public: Accountability to its customers. The rest of this debate is simply financial folks arguing amongst themselves. — Facebook is the greatest repository …

Discussion: MarketWatch, The Business Insider, The Business of Search, Beyond Search and FM Blog

Scott Morrison / Dow Jones Newswires: Facebook seen using new funds for data centres, acquisitions

Christine Harper / Bloomberg:
Goldman's Invest-and-Advise Model Thrives With Facebook Deal

Discussion: Reuters and Bloomberg

Kyle Baxter / TightWind:

Android Isn't About Building a Mobile Platform — Google isn't a web application company—they're an advertising company. That's what they do best, and that's what drives their company. Of Google's $23.6 billion of revenue in 2009, all but $760 million of it was derived from advertising …

Discussion: Daring Fireball and MacDailyNews

Matt Asay / The Register:
Beastly Android will batter Apple's iOS beauty

Discussion: Tech Sanity Check

Allen Kiehl / AndroidSPIN:

Exclusive: Hands on with the HTC Thunderbolt 4G — HTC Thunderbolt Browser, AndroidSPIN.com — We managed to get our hands on one of the new HTC Thunderbolt 4G's today and took a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. As well we also managed to run a Quadrant Benchmark and show the results (which are at the bottom of this post).

Discussion: Erictric, Thoughts from the Sidelines, Android Community, SlashGear, PhoneArena and Engadget

Jerry Hildenbrand / Android Central:
Rolling Stone ad features Thunderbolt, and Inspire 4G headed to AT&T

Matt Rosoff / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

See If You Can Spot The Problem With Microsoft's Tablet Strategy — Earlier today, computer maker Asus kicked off the Consumer Electronics Show a day early by announcing four upcoming tablet computers. Three of them run Google's Android operating system. One runs Windows 7.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Macworld, Softpedia News, Windows 8 News, ThinkMobile, GottaBeMobile, TechFlash and All about Microsoft Blog

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry / SAI:

Gene Munster: Google Has Given Up On Social — Count Piper Jaffray tech analyst Gene Munster among the Facebook bulls. He just gave an interview to Bloomberg TV which must have made any Googlers listening cringe. — Here are the main points, paraphrased: — Google has given up on social.

Discussion: Fortune

Paul Thurrott / Windows Phone Secrets:

What's happening with Windows Phone updates in 2011 — I can finally reveal a number of details about the first Windows Phone 7 update, a future major update, and how Microsoft intends to roll out updates generally. It's not necessarily great news. But here's what's happening.

Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:

Vizio Phone hands-on preview — Along with Vizio's new tablet, we had a chance to look at the HDTV maker's new Android device, unsurprisingly dubbed the Vizio Phone. The phone is still in the early stages (both the hardware and software aren't production ready at all) …

Discussion: Technologizer, pocketnow.com, Android Community, Androinica and Phones Review

Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:

Google Who? LG Launches App Platform for TVs — LAS VEGAS — LG Electronics on Wednesday introduced its new Smart TV platform bringing apps, games and web-streamed movies to its latest televisions. — The platform will enable LG televisions to expand their capabilities …

Discussion: VentureBeat, Gizmodo and Mashable!

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Cable giant Comcast to Offer Live TV Streaming on Tablets — CEO Brian Roberts says the company wants to “reinvent how customers interact with their entertainment on TV, online and on mobile devices.” — NEW YORK - Cable giant Comcast plans to offer in-home streaming of live TV …

Discussion: MediaMemo, SAI, GottaBeMobile and BGR

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Sales Are At A Trickle On Google's Chrome Web Store — In December, after months of anticipation and discussions with third-party developers, Google finally unveiled the Chrome Web Store — an online portal that lets users purchase and ‘install’ web applications like TweetDeck, MOG, and hundreds of others.

Discussion: ITworld.com, Search Engine Journal, Gadgetell, Gizmodo, Softpedia News, Edge Online, TomsTechBlog.com, CenterNetworks and Tech Report

Anil Dash:

If You Didn't Blog It, It Didn't Happen — Clive Thompson's newest Wired piece argues that the flow of short-form messages as we see on Twitter and Facebook is encouraging longer meditations in other media. I've been thinking about this phenomenon for a while in terms of the impact …

Discussion: Stowe Boyd

Kat Hannaford / Gizmodo:

LG Optimus Black: Meet the World's New Slimmest Phone (For Now) — At 9.2mm thick, the Optimus Black from LG is the new world's thinnest phone, and is pretty light too, at 109g. It's also got a 4-inch NOVA screen for viewing in direct sunlight, too, and a 2MP forward-facing camera.

Discussion: VentureBeat, SlashGear, The Toybox Blog, Android Phone Fans, Gearlog, Gadget Lab, PhoneDog.com, PhoneArena, Android Community, IntoMobile, The Next Web, BGR, Engadget and Technabob

Ina Fried / Mobilized:

Microsoft's Move to Put Windows on ARM Chips a Long Time in the Making — When word first broke last month that Microsoft was planning to port Windows over to ARM-based chips, it seemed like it might be just a hasty reaction to the success of the iPad. — However, the move has been in the works …

Winnie Hu / New York Times:

Math That Moves: Schools Embrace the iPad — ROSLYN HEIGHTS, N.Y. — As students returned to class this week, some were carrying brand-new Apple iPads in their backpacks, given not by their parents but by their schools. — A growing number of schools across the nation are embracing the iPad …

Discussion: Computerworld, 9 to 5 Mac, MacNN, p2pnet, Neowin.net, Bits and Shelly Palmer Digital Living

Zach Epstein / BGR:

AT&T details 4G plans; 4G LTE iPhone coming in 2012 — AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega gave a keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Tuesday. The focus was undoubtedly 4G, and he was als0 joined by Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha, HTC CEO Peter Chou and Samsung CEO J. K. Shin.

Discussion: Mobilized, MacRumors, Engadget, PhoneArena, GottaBeMobile and everythingiCafe

Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:

Google Wins One Against Microsoft — Google Inc. has won a key ruling in its lawsuit against the U.S. Interior Department, two months after the Web giant accused the agency of improperly favoring rival Microsoft Corp. in a contract bid to provide a new email system.

Discussion: NewEnterprise and Reuters

Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:

Memo to Twitter: Popularity Is Becoming a Commodity — So there I was flying back to San Francisco after the Holidays, flipping through the United Hemispheres magazine to better understand my awesome Snack Box options, when I was stopped by an animated drawing of Twitter founder Evan Williams …

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Mobile Ad Network Millennial Media Raises $27.5 Million; Tripled Revenue In 2010 — We've learned exclusively that mobile ad network Millennial Media has raised $27.5 million in new funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Columbia Capital, Charles River Ventures, and New Enterprise Associates.

Discussion: eMoney, alarm:clock, Internet2Go, BaltTech, mocoNews, SAI and Millennial Media

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Sure, RSS Is Dead — Just Like the Web Is Dead — A brush fire has been swirling through the blogosphere of late over whether RSS is dead, dying, or possibly severely injured and in need of assistance. It seems to have started with a post from UK-based web designer Kroc Camen that got picked up by Hacker News and re-tweeted a lot.

Discussion: Scripting News, Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com, lalawag, Techie Buzz, The Atlantic Online and TechCrunch, more at Mediagazer »

Greg Sandoval / Media Maverick:

‘Hurt Locker’ lawyers continue antipiracy fight — Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver, the law firm that has filed copyright complaints against thousands of accused illegal file sharers on behalf of independent filmmakers this year, is getting some important help. — DGW, which also operates under …

Discussion: DSLreports and TechEye

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