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12:50 PM ET, January 13, 2011

Techmeme

 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 …
RELATED:
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Can the New iOS 4.3 Switching Gestures Obviate the Home Button?  —  A bunch of DF readers on Twitter are wondering whether the new four-finger gestures in today's iOS 4.3 developer beta suggest that Apple might remove the Home button from future iOS hardware.  I think not.
Arn / MacRumors:
New iOS Feature Coming: ‘Find My Friends’  —  Some further digging into the newly released iOS 4.3 developer build has revealed settings for a new feature called “Find My Friends”.  The strings are associated with the Settings app and is related to “MobileMe”.
RELATED:
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry / SAI:
Is Apple Building A Mobile Social Network?
Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:
Exclusive: BlackBerry Dakota gets pictured; the touch and type BlackBerry you've been waiting for  —  We just got our hands on the first ever photo of the BlackBerry Dakota — you know, the device that's going to sit right at the head of the BlackBerry family dinner table.
Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:
iPad 2 will take pics, shoot flicks  —  We found four interesting files in the latest SDK and they all amount to the next-generation iPad having a camera.  You will notice the same shutter screen as found on the iPhone and iPod touch in addition to camera roll icons for videos and pictures.
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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”.
RELATED:
Peter Yared / VentureBeat:
Google already knows its search sucks (and is working to fix it)  —  It's a popular notion these days Google has lost its “mojo” due to failed products like Google Wave, Google Buzz, and Google TV.  But Google's core business — Web search — has come under fire recently for being the ultimate in failed tech products.
James Kanter / New York Times:
Europe Inquiry Focuses on Google Business Practice
Discussion: Fair Search
Allen Kiehl / AndroidSPIN:
Breaking: T-Mobile internals confirm Samsung is holding the Android world Hostage  —  We recently received a tip from someone we feel is a reliable source.  The information in the tip has just confirmed everything we have ever thought about Samsung, OTA's and new devices.
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Millennial: For The First Time, Android Surpasses iOS Mobile Ad Impression Share  —  This has been a significant few weeks for Millennial Media.  The ad network just closed a $27.5 million investment round, announced that the company had tripled its revenue in 2010, and today, is releasing one of its more noteworthy monthly reports.
Ingrid Lunden / mocoNews:
Mobile VC Investment Was A Massive $6.1B In 2010.  Google, Intel Led The Way  —  Boutique investment house Rutberg & Company have released their numbers on VC and M&A activity in the mobile sector, and the figures confirm that 2010 was a doozy.  —  Mobile now represents 34 percent …
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Awaneesh Verma / The Official Google Blog:
A new look for Google Translate for Android  —  When we launched the first version of Google Translate for Android in January 2010, we were excited about the year ahead.  For the first time, we were bringing the capabilities supported on Google Translate—like machine translation …
Jay Yarow / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
AOL'S NEW PROBLEM: Mike Arrington  —  When AOL bought TechCrunch last September, the first question on everyone's lips was, “How long could Mike Arrington possibly last as an AOL employee?”  —  Yesterday, four months after the deal, we may have begun to learn the answer to that question.
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Real Blogs Don't Buy Ads On Google
Discussion: SAI and Darren Herman
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
TripIt Bags An ExIt - Acquired By Concur For Up To $120 Million  —  Concur, a publicly-listed provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions, this morning announced it has agreed to acquire TripIt, which helps travelers easily organize and share travel plans.
Peter Bright / Ars Technica:
Feature: Google's dropping H.264 from Chrome a step backward for openness  —  The promise of HTML5's <video> tag was a simple one: to allow web pages to contain embedded video without the need for plugins.  With the decision to remove support for the widespread H.264 codec from future versions of Chrome …
RELATED:
Jason Perlow / Tech Broiler Blog:
Google's H.264 decision: It's all about YouTube costs
Read It Later Blog:
Is Mobile Affecting When We Read?  —  Printed media used to allow us to read in the places we found most comfortable.  When you imagine yourself reading the newspaper it's probably in your favorite chair, at the breakfast table, or at the cafe with an orange mocha frappuccino in your hand.
Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:
Exclusive: Next-generation BlackBerry Curve appears, brings specs with it  —  That BlackBerry 8520 feeling a bit outdated?  Well, we might have just what you've been waiting for — the next generation BlackBerry Curve.  Codenamed “Apollo,” the new BlackBerry Curve finally brings …
Chris / cdixon.org:
Predicting the future of the Internet is easy: anything it hasn't yet dramatically transformed, it will.  —  People love to focus on horse races: NYC vs Silcon Valley, Facebook vs Twitter, IPO markets vs private exchanges, the valuation of some startup vs some other startup.
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Shazam and Spotify team up on iOS and Android apps  —  In yet another sign that Spotify has gone mainstream the company has just announced a partership with Shazam — the ubiquitous mobile music identification service.  Under the deal, Shazamers will now be greeted with a “Play in Spotify” feature for all music discovered.
Manton Reece / Manton.org:
App Store 30% cut  —  The Mac App Store launched!  Like many developers I spent the day taking it out for a spin, thinking about whether this changes everything, and trying to ignore the fact that my app Clipstart isn't in the store on day 1 even though I submitted to Apple 7 weeks ago.
Wall Street Journal:
RIM Gives India Access to Messenger Services  —  MUMBAI — Canada's Research In Motion Ltd. Thursday said it has provided solutions that will let India's security agencies access the smartphone maker's popular messenger and public email services, but not the corporate email services.
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.
 
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 More Items: 
Emma Barnett / Telegraph:
Runet: Why the Russian internet doesn't need the West
Thanks:amzin
Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:
Exclusive: Google, Weinstein Co. Strike Film Deal
Ben Parr / Mashable!:
RockYou Moves Further into Social Gaming With Acquisition of Playdemic
Discussion: VentureBeat, eMoney and TechCrunch
Jon Swartz / USA Today:
Facebook changes its lobbying status in Washington
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
LivingSocial Buys Majority Stake In Let's Bonus, Expands Internationally
Liz Gannes / NetworkEffect:
Longtime Facebook Biz Dev Leader Ali Rosenthal to Depart
Walter S. Mossberg / All Things Digital:
Skype Does Better With Group Calls Than Mobile
Discussion: dailywireless.org
 Earlier Items: 
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
OnSwipe Raises, Like, A Million Dollars
Pete Warden / ReadWriteWeb:
Secrets of BackType's Data Engineers
Discussion: Beyond Search
Katherine Noyes / PC World:
Mozilla Exec: Firefox 4 Will Arrive in February
Tom Connor / Ars Technica:
Peep show: inside the world of unsecured IP security cameras
Discussion: Forbes