Techmeme: Facebook Wins Relatively Few Friends in Japan (Hiroko Tabuchi/New York Times)

12:15 PM ET, January 10, 2011

Top Items:

AT&T Already Attacking Verizon iPhone: “Not Sure iPhone Users Are Ready For Life In The Slow Lane” — AT&T is already attacking Verizon over the iPhone. — After we wrote about Verizon's plan to offer unlimited data plans, AT&T PR boss Larry Solomon reached out with a statement …

Discussion: PC World, VentureBeat, Mobilized, Ars Technica, InformationWeek, App Advice, Electronista, Evolver.fm, TiPb, everythingiCafe, TUAW, Geekosystem, The Huffington Post, BetaNews, PhoneArena, MacStories, Computerworld, GottaBeMobile, IntoMobile, Examiner and Digits

Wall Street Journal:

Verizon Wireless Confident It's Got Muscle for iPhone — Verizon Wireless has been beefing up its network and believes it will have no problem handling iPhone-type loads, a claim that could be put to the test this year if the carrier signs up millions of subscribers using the Apple Inc. device.

Daniel Eran Dilger / AppleInsider:
Verizon iPhone to offer unlimited data in contrast to AT&T

Discussion: SlashGear, Newlaunches.com, The Apple Core Blog, ThinkMobile, MacRumors, TechCrunch, TUAW, TodaysiPhone.com and Geek.com

Hiroko Tabuchi / New York Times:

Facebook Wins Relatively Few Friends in Japan — TOKYO — Mark Zuckerberg. Who? — Mr. Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old Facebook chief executive and co-founder, may be the man of the moment in the United States and much of the rest of the online world. But here in Japan …

Discussion: The Bivings Report, Asiajin, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, SAI and Tech Report

Liz Gannes / NetworkEffect:

Myspace Plans to Lay Off 550 to 600 Employees Tomorrow — Myspace, which has been struggling to revitalize itself, is expected to lay off 550 to 600 of its staff of just over 1,000 tomorrow, according to several sources. — NetworkEffect first reported news of the large-scale cuts at the end of December.

Discussion: ZDNet, The Next Web, Electronista, Tech Report, SlashGear, paidContent, Softpedia News, SAI and Geek.com

Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:

Exclusive interview: Google's Matias Duarte talks Honeycomb, tablets, and the future of Android — We're not going to lie — we're pretty excited to bring this to you guys. Here at CES 2011 we had a chance to sit down with Matias Duarte, the man behind webOS (as well as the Sidekick and Helio UIs) …

Discussion: Google Watch, AndroidGuys, FarukAt.e and pocketnow.com

Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Android Addresses UI Shortcomings

Discussion: PalmAddicts

Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:

No more restocking fees at Apple Stores starting January 11 — Typically, when you return an opened product to an Apple Store you will be charged a 10% restocking fee. Well, come Tuesday, this will all be in the past as Apple is cutting restocking fees from their retail chain.

Discussion: CNET News, Examiner, The Toybox Blog, Computerworld, PC World, TiPb, iPhone Buzz, Engadget, Erictric, TUAW, BGR, SlashGear, PhoneArena, Electronista, MacNN, MacRumors, RazorianFly, HotTips!, App Advice, iClarified and everythingiCafe, Thanks:steveinminn

Alexandra Topping / Guardian:

Twitter endorsements face OFT clampdown — Watchdog says online companies who did not disclose paid-for promotions by celebrities and bloggers were deceptive — How does a celebrity declare their affiliations to certain brands in fewer than 140 characters?

Discussion: BBC, GigaOM, Fast Company, Pocket-lint, THINQ.co.uk and The Atlantic Online, more at Mediagazer »

Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:

Apple follows AT&T, drops official US iPhone 3GS price to $49 — Apple has quietly dropped the price of its entry-level 8GB iPhone 3GS to $49 with a new two-year contract with AT&T, matching the new low price that last week was offered exclusively by the carrier.

Discussion: CNET News, Macworld, App Advice, Macgasm, O'Grady's PowerPage, everythingiCafe, TUAW and SAI

Thomas Ricker / Engadget:

Apple AirPlay devices set to explode in 2011 — Although DLNA may have had a significant head start, the streaming media standard available on more than 9,000 devices is about to be challenged in a very big way by Apple's upstart AirPlay technology. At least it will be if Jordan Watters …

Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac, Lucas Gonze's blog and MacStories

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Jam-packed CES draws more than 140,000 visitors to Vegas — The 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show, known as CES, was a blow-out success with more than 140,000 attendees, according to preliminary figures released tonight. — The 140,000-figure is 10 percent above the 126,000 attendees for the January 2010 show.

Discussion: Venture Capital Dispatch, Computerworld, Softpedia News, Dow Jones Newswires, Digits, Gearlog, THINQ.co.uk, VG247, FT tech hub, Intuitive.com, TechCrunch, New Media Age and The Next Web

New York Times:

1986 Privacy Law Is Outrun by the Web — SAN FRANCISCO — Concerned by the wave of requests for customer data from law enforcement agencies, Google last year set up an online tool showing the frequency of these requests in various countries. In the first half of 2010, it counted more than 4,200 in the United States.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Klout Lands $8.5 Million From Kleiner Perkins And Greycroft To Measure Social Influence — Klout, a startup that measures influence on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, has raised $8.5 million in new funding led by the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byer recently launched sFund with participation from Greycroft Partners.

Discussion: VatorNews, Mashable!, GigaOM, BoomTown, paidContent and The Official Klout Blog

Joanna Stern / Engadget:

Tablets at CES 2011: Honeycomb, Windows 7, and all the rest — It's been raining tablets here at CES 2011. No seriously, it as if the sky has opened up in Vegas and dropped touchscreen slabs with Android and Windows 7 operating systems on our heads. It's been nearly impossible to keep track …

Discussion: mocoNews

Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:

Apple launching personal setup for Macs at Apple Stores — Apple has had a personal setup service for iPhone purchases made at Apple retail stores for some time now. Since Thanksgiving, Apple has offered the same personal setup service for iPad and iPod touch purchases.

Discussion: Consumer Reports …, Softpedia News, TUAW, MacStories and iClarified

DigiTimes:

Motorola expected to ship 700,000-800,000 Xoom tablet PCs in 1Q11 — Motorola, with assistance from Google, has showcased its new Android 3.0-based Xoom tablet PC and has placed orders for about 700,000-800,000 units with four color options for the first quarter of 2011, according to sources from upstream component makers.

Discussion: Computerworld, eWeek, VentureBeat, Inquirer, Gearlog, Droid Life, Softpedia News, Forbes, Android Community, The Next Web, SlashGear, Electronista, Erictric and Engadget

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