Techmeme: Formspring Closes $11.5 Million Round, Launches ‘Respond’ Button (Jason Kincaid/TechCrunch)

1:15 AM ET, January 12, 2011

Top Items:

Verizon Wireless & Apple Team Up to Deliver iPhone 4 on Verizon — BASKING RIDGE, New Jersey and CUPERTINO, California—January 11, 2011—Verizon Wireless and Apple® today announced that the iPhone® 4 will be available on the Verizon Wireless network beginning on Thursday, February 10.

Kit Eaton / Fast Company:

Verizon Gets the iPhone, Arriving February 10th From $199 — It's Verizon's big day: The day it reveals its own version of Apple's game-changing iPhone, ready to steal millions of unsatisfied customers from AT&T and launch Apple's share price into the stratosphere.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, BGR, The Atlantic Online, Ars Technica, Engadget, Examiner and SAI

Chris Ziegler / Engadget:

AT&T iPhone 4 vs. Verizon iPhone 4: what's changed? — Is an iPhone 4, an iPhone 4? Not quite, now that Verizon has launched a CDMA version of the device — in fact, there are a number of notable differences that you're going to want to consider before buying either model (or making the jump from AT&T to Big Red).

Discussion: Lifehacker, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, SlashGear, VentureBeat, BGR, PC Magazine, Macworld, GottaBeMobile, iThinkDifferent, Hillicon Valley, Poynter, MacHackPC, Geekosystem, Redmond Pie, The Iphone Spot, AOL News, GigaOM, New York Times, eWeek, IntoMobile, Wi-Fi Networking News, Digits and Mobilized

John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
AT&T: Verizon iPhone? Whatever.

Discussion: PC World, BGR, Tech Trader Daily, Post Tech, GigaOM, AppleInsider, MediaMemo, Mobilized, everythingiCafe and Between the Lines Blog

Vlad Savov / Engadget:
Verizon's iPhone 4 has a CDMA-specific antenna, no other changes made

Discussion: AppleInsider, iPhone, BGR, TUAW, LAPTOP Magazine, Fortune, NewsGrange, O'Grady's PowerPage, MacStories, DisplayBlog, GeekSmack, TodaysiPhone.com, IndustryGamers, SAI, The Iphone Spot, App Advice, 9 to 5 Mac, Softpedia News, GigaOM, Scripting News and The Next Web

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
How Personal Hotspot Works On The Verizon iPhone (Pictures)

Discussion: Mobilized, Geek.com, Computerworld, TUAW, App Advice, UberMobile Blog, MacStories, Coyote Tracks, Joystiq, RazorianFly, Local Media Watch and ThinkMobile

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Why No LTE iPhone For Now? “Design Compromises” Apple Would Not Make.

Discussion: The Apple Core Blog, Mercury News, GigaOM, GMSV, The Huffington Post, Gearlog, Socialnomics and Internet Evolution

Mike Jazayeri / Chromium Blog:

HTML Video Codec Support in Chrome — The web's open and community-driven development model is a key factor in its rapid evolution and ubiquitous adoption. The WebM Project was launched last year to bring an open, world-class video codec to the web. Since the launch, we've seen first-hand the benefits of an open development model:

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

Google Dropping Support for H.264 in Chrome — Mike Jazayeri, Chrome product manager: … A bold move, to be sure. H.264 is widely used. WebM and Theora aren't. Perhaps this move will push more publishers toward serving video encoded with WebM. The big problem WebM has versus H.264 …

Discussion: CNET News, IntoMobile, SAI and iClarified

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

So Google, You'll Be Dropping Support For Flash Next, Right? — Do you smell that? Just wait a second. You will. … The bolding is mine, but that's Google's actual statement as to why they're dropping support for the H.264 video codec from the Chromium open source browser (from which Chrome is built).

Discussion: The WebM Open Media … and Download Squad

Ed Bott / Ed Bott's Microsoft Report Blog: Google Chrome to drop H.264 support; roadblock to HTML5?

Greg Bensinger / Bloomberg:

Verizon to Sell Apple IPad That Connects Directly to Its Network — Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) — Verizon Wireless will sell a version of Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet computer that can connect directly to its network, posing another challenge to AT&T Inc. as the carrier's exclusive hold on the iPhone draws to a close.

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Formspring Closes $11.5 Million Round, Launches ‘Respond’ Button — One of the biggest phenomena of last year was Formspring, a social site that lets you invite your friends to “Ask you anything”. The site launched in November 2009 and rose from obscurity to some 40 million monthly uniques at its peak …

Discussion: NetworkEffect, The Social, Bits and Mashable!

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:UK:

MySpace Cuts 47 Percent Of Its Workforce — As has been rumored for weeks, MySpace (NSDQ: NWS) is laying off nearly 500 employees, or nearly half of its workforce. MySpace says it's making the cuts “to provide the company with a clear path for sustained growth and profitability” …

Discussion: Reuters, Company Town, TechCrunch, BBC, VatorNews, MediaPost, Mixed Media, TechSpot, Mashable!, EngageDigital, BetaNews, GigaOM, CNET News, Guardian, Hollywood Reporter and hypebot

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Bitterness, Anger And Betrayal At MySpace

Discussion: All Facebook and iMediaPress

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

The Future Version Of Android Isn't Called Ice Cream. It's Ice Cream SANDWICH. — It's tough being a tech journalist. Countless phone calls, mountains of email, endless warring with legions of trolls. Really, you've got to be pretty hardcore to do this job. It's a wonder we ever get any posts up.

Discussion: Gizmodo, IntoMobile, Android Phone Fans, Erictric and pocketnow.com

Billy Gallagher / Stanford Daily:

The Forgotten Social Network — Zack Hoberg/The Stanford Daily — The idea that governs Facebook was created, then shut down, at Stanford years before Mark Zuckerberg appeared — Silicon Valley's Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, Yahoo, Google and Facebook are some of the largest technology companies in the world.

Discussion: Venture Capital Dispatch

Evan Blass / PocketNow:

First ‘Facebook Phone’ Outed: INQ Cloud Touch With Android? — A handset known as the INQ Cloud Torch has just received Bluetooth certification, and based on the design description, we believe that it is the first of two “Facebook” phones rumored to be in development by both TechCrunch and Bloomberg.

Discussion: Unwired View, BGR, Droid Life and IntoMobile, Thanks:evan_pn

Horace Dediu / asymco:

For every AT&T Android user there are 15 iPhone users: What will be the ratio at Verizon? — The following chart uses comScore data to show the relative consumption of Android vs. iOS by the subscribers of the four major US operators. I modified an original chart published by Silicon Alley Insider.

Discussion: SAI, GigaOM, BetaNews and SlashGear

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

Jack Dorsey On Charlie Rose: “It's Really Complex To Make Something Simple.” — Twitter Chairman and Square founder Jack Dorsey sat down with Charlie Rose last night to talk about Dorsey's unique position of being responsible for two technology startups based on the idea of simplicity: Twitter and Square.

Discussion: Charlie Rose

Engadget:

Best of CES 2011 — Maybe, just maybe, you've noticed that Engadget relocated this past week to the City of Sin for CES 2011. Oh yes, we set up camp in a double-wide trailer, liveblogged our hearts out, combed the show floor, and worked our rear ends off to bring you more gadget news than you ever thought possible.

Paul Kedrosky / Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed:

Curation is the New Search is the New Curation — In the beginning there was curation, and it was good. People found interesting things, created directories of those things, and then you found what you were looking for inside those curated lists. That was the origins of the original lists and directories, from Yahoo on outward.

Thanks:richdemuro

Tim Culpan / Bloomberg:

Google Android More Vulnerable Than IPhone, Antivirus Maker Says — Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc.'s Android operating system for mobile devices is more vulnerable to hackers and viruses than Apple Inc.'s iPhone platform, according to security-software maker Trend Micro Inc.

Discussion: Apple Headlines, FairerPlatform and MacNN

Slash Lane / AppleInsider:

Apple to add Wi-Fi hotspot to GSM iPhone with iOS 4.3 - rumor — The new Personal Hotspot feature on iOS 4.2.5 will not remain exclusive to the CDMA variant of the iPhone 4, and will arrive with the release of iOS 4.3 for existing GSM-based handsets, according to a new rumor.

Discussion: Ars Technica, MacRumors and Engadget

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