Techmeme: iTunes has paid over $2 billion to app developers and $12 billion to record labels (Horace Dediu/asymco)

11:30 AM ET, January 17, 2011

Top Items:

Apple Media Advisory — Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple employees: — Team, — At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.

SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

STEVE JOBS GOES ON MEDICAL LEAVE OF ABSENCE — Apple CEO Steve Jobs is going on a medical leave, the company announced. — “At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health,” Jobs said in an email to Apple employees.

Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Apple's Jobs takes medical leave, remains CEO; Succession planning in focus

Discussion: GigaOM and paidContent

Daniel Eran Dilger / AppleInsider:

Apple expected to pack ultrafast, dual core SGX543 graphics into iPad 2, iPhone 5 — Apple's next generation iPad and iPhone, both due the first half of this year, will pack a new version of the company's custom A4 chip, with dual, faster graphics cores capable of supporting a Retina Display iPad …

Arn / MacRumors:

iPad 2 LCD for Sale Already? iPad 2 to Include Vibrating Motor? — iPhone and iPad parts vendors have been a big source of leaks for Apple's upcoming devices. MacRumors reader @Frafoso has found a couple of very interesting parts on the website of GlobalDirectParts.

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Blog Fight Rules Of Engagement — Blog fights happen. Sometimes for attention, but most of the time because someone is really pissed off about something. And don't count out big media, they jump right in too when they feel it. — No one's ever written down any rules for blog fights that I know of.

Discussion: New York Times, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check and Stowe Boyd

Joshua Topolsky:

Dear Michael Arrington — Dear Michael Arrington, despite the fact that your latest post on TechCrunch is simply the work of a comment troll in blog form, I will respond to your unsubstantiated, inaccurate allegations because I feel they do harm to Engadget's brand and my name.

Discussion: SAI, Thanks:keithdsouza

Jay Yarow / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
AOL'S CIVIL WAR CONTINUES: Mike Arrington Tears Into Engadget Again

Discussion: Pluggd.in

Horace Dediu / asymco:

More than 60 apps have been downloaded for every iOS device sold — The iTunes App Store is about to reach 10 billion downloads. That makes this a good time to revisit app growth metrics and compare them with the other digital media store that we have data for: the iTunes Music Store.

Horace Dediu / asymco:
iTunes has paid over $2 billion to app developers and $12 billion to record labels

Discussion: Fortune

Tarmo Virki / Reuters:

Nokia pulls plug on free music in most markets — (Reuters) - The world's top cellphone maker, Nokia, is ending its bundling of free music downloads with cellphones in 27 countries, where it has gained little traction since its 2008 launch. — Nokia will continue to sell phones …

Discussion: Ars Technica, Guardian, PC World, BGR, The Toybox Blog, Engadget, Music Ally, mocoNews, Inquirer, The Register, The Next Web, PhoneArena, Electricpig.co.uk, ITProPortal, Pocket-lint, MediaNama, e's PhoneBlog, Softpedia News, Electronista and The Nokia Blog

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Awards In Hand, The Social Network Filmmakers Heap Praise On Zuckerberg — One of the standout scenes at in The Social Network happens in the first five minutes of the movie. Erica Albright (Rooney Mara) is sitting in a bar with boyfriend Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) when she says the following to him:

Discussion: GigaOM, NBC Los Angeles, TechEye, Computerworld and Show Me The Money, more at Mediagazer »

Gregg Kilday / Hollywood Reporter:
‘Social Network’ Wins Best Picture, Three Other Golden Globes

Discussion: New York Times, Mashable, TechCrunch, MTV Newsroom, SAI and Asiajin

Ryan Radia / Ars Technica:

Why you should always encrypt your smartphone — Last week, California's Supreme Court reached a controversial 5-2 decision in People v. Diaz (PDF), holding that police officers may lawfully search mobile phones found on arrested individuals' persons without first obtaining a search warrant.

Discussion: Technology Liberation Front and textually.org

Dave McClure / 500 Startups:

Top 10 Tech Investing Trends For 2011 — I bring you the top 10 tech trends for 2011: 1. (Way too many) Groupons, social games and photo-sharing apps Unimaginative VCs — which is to say, all of us — tend to start the new year off throwing good money after bad on last year's tired and expired ideas.

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

For Magazines, a Bitter Pill in iPad — The frustration that the country's magazine and newspaper publishers feel toward Apple can sound a lot like a variation on the old relationship gripe, “can't live with 'em, may get left behind without 'em.” — Since Apple introduced the iPad last year …

Discussion: 606 Tech Forums and Beet.TV, more at Mediagazer »

Dan Frommer / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

Whoa, AMAZON Will Set The Prices For Paid Apps In Its Android App Store — Here's something big we missed earlier this month when Amazon was talking about the App Store it's building for Google Android — and we're not sure it got the attention it deserves.

Discussion: Android News, Rumours …, Android Phone Fans, Android Community, ITProPortal, Rev2.org and NBC Bay Area

Ed Oswald / Technologizer:
Amazon's Raw Deal for Android Developers

Discussion: the Econsultancy blog

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