Techmeme: Adknowledge Raises $200 Million In Debt, Equity Financing (David Kaplan/paidContent)

11:05 PM ET, January 12, 2011

Top Items:

Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:

Exclusive: Apple will remove home button on next iPad and iPhone; Photo Booth and iLife coming? — We just got some pretty wild information from one of our Apple sources and while it's hard to believe at first, it does make sense. We have exclusively been told that the reason Apple …

Discussion: SAI and Apple Headlines

Federico Viticci / MacStories:

Apple Releases iOS 4.3 Beta — A few minutes ago Apple releases iOS 4.3 beta to developers. It's available now in the iOS Dev Center. The beta is available for iOS devices and the second generation Apple TV. Supported iOS mobile devices are iPad, iPhone 4 and 3GS, iPod touch 2nd, 3rd and 4th gen. Build number is 8F5148b.

Discussion: MacRumors, Engadget, BGR, 9 to 5 Mac, SlashGear, TechCrunch, LAPTOP Magazine, App Advice, AppleInsider, The Next Web, Edible Apple, Download Squad, RazorianFly, PhoneArena, everythingiCafe and Gizmodo, Thanks:i6laswegian

AppleInsider:

Apple issues iOS 4.3 beta with Personal Hotspot, new multitouch gestures [u] — Apple on Wednesday released the first beta of iOS 4.3 for the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, bringing support for Personal Hotspot, new multi-touch gestures, the ability for third-party applications to use AirPlay …

Discussion: MacRumors, Daring Fireball, Redmond Pie, MacStories, GottaBeMobile, Neowin.net, iLounge, Geek.com, BGR and SAI

Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:

iOS Wifi Hotspot? It's in the Next Version, If Your Carrier Turns it On — The iOS version 4.3 will not include a wifi hotspot feature by default, contrary to hopes and reports this morning, but the feature can be turned on if carriers choose. The Verizon iPhone announcement …

Discussion: Internet Evolution

Federico Viticci / MacStories:
Apple Brings Hardware Rotation Lock Back in iOS 4.3 for iPad

Discussion: Gizmodo, Crave, PC World, Redmond Pie, RazorianFly and Gadget Lab

Federico Viticci / MacStories:
With iOS 4.3, Apple Drops iPhone 3G Support (and iPod Touch 2nd gen)

Discussion: RazorianFly and everythingiCafe, Thanks:ljamesmcdonald

Jason Perlow / Tech Broiler Blog:

Google's H.264 decision: It's all about YouTube costs — Everyone wants to boil down Google's decision to remove H.264 support from Chrome to be a religious one. To me, it's obviously infrastructure-related. — Ah, the smell of religious fervor in the morning. Do you smell it? That flame-war smell.

Discussion: Adaptive Path, Ed Bott's Microsoft …, parislemon, VideoJS, OStatic blogs and Faster Forward

Tim Sneath / MSDN Blogs:

An Open Letter from the President of the United States of Google — The world's ability to communicate with one another is a key factor in its rapid evolution and economic growth. The Esperanto language was invented last century as a politically neutral language that would foster peace and international understanding.

Bloomberg:

Apple, Verizon Took Years to Clear IPhone Differences — Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) — Verizon Communications Inc. President Lowell McAdam works a few miles from the New York auditorium where he announced yesterday's deal to offer Apple Inc.'s iPhone. It took him four years to get there.

Discussion: AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, Macworld, L.A. Times Tech Blog, MacStories, AppleInsider, Electronista, Engadget, Edible Apple, MacNN, TUAW, MacRumors, RazorianFly, SAI, Inquirer, Startup Meme, Post Tech, Mashable! and Bloomberg

Steve Kovach / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

Verizon Ending Upgrade Discount Program Before iPhone Release — Verizon is ending its “New Every Two” discount program on January 16th, just three weeks before it releases the iPhone on its network, Smart Money reports. — The program gave subscribers up to $100 every two years towards a new phone upgrade.

Discussion: AppleInsider, SmartMoney.com, Examiner, SlashGear, FierceWireless, Thoughts from the Sidelines, Android Phone Fans, Techland, Gizmodo and IntoMobile

Royal Pingdom:

Internet 2010 in numbers — What happened with the Internet in 2010? — How many websites were added? How many emails were sent? How many Internet users were there? This post will answer all of those questions and many, many more. If it's stats you want, you've come to the right place.

Discussion: All Facebook and Soshable

Greg Blevins / Google Mobile Blog:

Now available: Google Places with Hotpot for iPhone — We recently released Google Places with Hotpot in Google Maps for Android, and starting now, you can have that same great experience as an iPhone app. We realize the importance of finding places you'll love while you're out and about, no matter what mobile device you use.

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Google Acquires eBook Technologies — Google has just acquired eBook Technologies, according to a notice that is currently appearing on the company's homepage. Google confirmed the acquisition, with a spokesperson giving us this statement: “We are happy to welcome eBook Technologies' team to Google.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and SlashGear

Conrad Saam / Search Engine Land:

Google vs. Bing: The Fallacy Of The Superior Search Engine — I can still remember when my when I first switched over to Google on the recommendation of my brother's girlfriend. She's literally a rocket scientist and carries a lot of intellectual weight with me; her endorsement was fairly simple - “it returns great results”.

Discussion: SAI

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

OnSwipe Raises, Like, A Million Dollars — PadPressed, the WordPress plugin that makes your blog look like a native app is branching out, with a new one million seed round of funding, a new name (OnSwipe) and homebase (New York). The round, which was completed in a marathon 30 days …

Katherine Noyes / PC World:

Mozilla Exec: Firefox 4 Will Arrive in February — Firefox 4 is nearly ready for release, a recent post on Mozilla's developer mailing list suggests. — “Team, we've worked tremendously hard on Firefox 4, and it's time to ship it,” wrote Damon Sicore, Mozilla's senior director of platform engineering, on Tuesday.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, The Next Web, Download Squad and WebProNews

Tom Connor / Ars Technica:

Peep show: inside the world of unsecured IP security cameras — If you're in public, you're on camera. If you walk into a coffee shop, the owner gets you at the register. Visit a larger store, and chances are they have your face as soon as you cross the threshold.

Discussion: MOTHERBOARD

Patrick Garratt / VG247:

Source - Sony to announce PSP2 in Tokyo on January 27 — VG247 has learnt that Sony it to hold a “business overview and strategy meeting” in Tokyo on January 27, and has been told that Sony will use the event as a reveal platform for PSP2. — Nothing is known of the meeting's content …

Discussion: SlashGear, mcvuk.com, Digital Trends, T3.com News, GameLife, Newlaunches.com, CrunchGear, Geek.com, Pocket-lint, TechEye, Electricpig.co.uk, Joystiq, Electronista, Crave and ITProPortal

Nicholas Carlson / SAI:

$50 Billion? Hah! Insiders Say Facebook's Goal Is To Be The First TRILLION Dollar Company — Goldman Sach clients are buying $1.5 billion worth of Facebook stock at a $50 billion valuation. — Yesterday, Wedbush analyst Lou Kerner said that if Facebook were a public company, it would be valued closer to $100 billion right now.

Discussion: Sramana Mitra and Gawker

Pete Warden / ReadWriteWeb:

Secrets of BackType's Data Engineers — How do three guys with only seed funding process a hundred million messages a day? I sat down with the BackType team to discover how they built a service relied upon by companies like bit.ly, Hunch and The New York Times.

Discussion: O'Reilly Radar

Tiernan Ray / Tech Trader Daily:

Q4 PC Sales Miss Gartner Est.; Apple Up 24% In U.S. — Global personal computer shipments in Q4 rose 3.1%, year over year, in unit terms, to 93.5 million PCs, Gartner reported this afternoon. That was below the 4.8% growth the firm had projected for Q4. — Holiday PC sales were weak, said analyst Mikako Kitagawa.

Discussion: The Seattle Times and Electronista

Matt Asay / The Register:

HTML5: An antidote for Apple App Store-itis — Imitation not the sincerest form of flattery — Open...and Shut To the man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Or in the case of our idea-starved tech industry, an app store. — The tech world is increasingly awash in app stores.

Discussion: FierceMobileContent and ZDNet

Corky / Cork'd Content:

Cork'd: The Final Tasting Note — Today marks a bittersweet day for Cork'd as we announce it will wind down operations. After 1.5 years, CEO, Lindsay Ronga will move on to other opportunities. “Working with Gary and Jon marked a milestone in my career and I am so thankful for the opportunity.

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Adknowledge Raises $200 Million In Debt, Equity Financing — Ad network Adknowledge has raised a huge $200 million in a combination of debt and equity financing with a particular goal in mind: buying more companies as it seeks to build up its ability to tap into inventory across mobile, video, content sites, and display.

Discussion: Market Wire, TechCrunch, EngageDigital and VentureBeat

John C Abell / Epicenter:

YouTube Unleashes Vevo Music Vids on Mobile* (*Android Only) — Vevo's collection of music videos has finally come to YouTube mobile — but only on Android phones. — The initiative, which is live now, means 10s of thousands of Vevo music videos Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Universal …

Discussion: TechCrunch

Vinicius Vacanti / Yipit Blog:

Travelzoo's Groupon Competitor Already Valued at $400 Million — Five months ago, Travelzoo, an old internet 1.0 company, decided to expand their business by launching a Groupon competitor. — In September, Travelzoo Launched a Groupon Competitor — They have always been known for sending …

Thanks:vacanti

Ina Fried / Mobilized:

Google Translate Adds Conversation Mode for Real-time Audio Translation — Google has implemented an early version of a feature for its translation app that does on the fly audio translation from one language to another. — The feature, known as Conversation Mode, is being added to Google Translate for Android.

Discussion: IntoMobile, Google Translate Blog, TechCrunch, Engadget, ReadWriteWeb, Geek.com, Lifehacker, Examiner, internetnews.com and GigaOM

The Local:

Google Analytics targeted by data protection officials — German web companies could face hefty fines for using Google's online metrics service after data protection officials broke off talks with the US internet giant this week and threatened to pursue a precedent-setting court case.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Search Engine Land, Inquirer, Search Engine Journal and TechEye

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