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11:05 PM ET, February 14, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Matt Cutts / The Official Google Blog:
New Chrome extension: block sites from Google's web search results  —  We've been exploring different algorithms to detect content farms, which are sites with shallow or low-quality content.  One of the signals we're exploring is explicit feedback from users.
RELATED:
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Google Crowdsources Content Farm Detection With A Chrome Extension
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple rumored to be evaluating 3 new iPhone prototypes, one with slideout keyboard  —  A Taiwanese website that has been the source of numerous Apple hardware leaks now claims that Apple has built three hardware prototypes for its next-generation iPhone, including one model with a slide-out physical keyboard.
Leander Kahney / Cult of Mac:
More Detail On Apple's iPhone Nano [Exclusive]  —  We have more detail on Apple's iPhone nano, which according to Sunday's Wall Street Journal is real and may be headed to market this year.  —  But what we have will blow your mind.  —  This week, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal …
RELATED:
Paul Miller / Engadget:
The iPhone nano to forgo local storage? Common sense says ‘no’
Evan Blass / pocketnow.com:
HTC Facebook Phones: First Press Shots [Update]  —  HTC is indeed preparing a pair of Android handsets with dedicated Facebook buttons, and they are pictured above and below.  While no specs were available, it is clear from the images that one is a QWERTY candybar a la the Motorola Droid Pro …
DigiTimes:
Apple to expand iPhone screen size to 4-inches  —  Apple reportedly will change the screen size of iPhone to 4-inch for its fifth generation iPhone to compete with the Google Android platform in the 4- to 7-inch smartphone market, according to upstream component suppliers.
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Netflix Finally Arrives On the Boxee Box  —  Can you hear that?  That's the sound of relief coming from Boxee's offices in New York, as the startup is finally able to add a Netflix app to its Boxee Box today.  Owners of the device can access the app by manually initiating a firmware update …
Discussion: Gearlog
RELATED:
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Bill Gross' UberMedia Raises $17.5 Million From Accel, Index and Steve Case  —  UberMedia, which just bought TweetDeck for $30 million in equity last week, has raised $17.5 million, in a round led by Accel Partners.  —  The valuation for the Pasadena, Calif. start-up founded …
Discussion: Pulse2, paidContent and @loic
RELATED:
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Is UberMedia On a Collision Course With Twitter?
Discussion: MediaMemo, The Ben Weiss Blog, @cdixon and SAI, Thanks:mathewi
Arik Hesseldahl / NewEnterprise:
IBM Jeopardy Challenge Day One Ends in a Tie  —  Day one of the three-day battle between the human brain and silicon on the game show “Jeopardy” ended in a tie.  —  The IBM supercomputer and human player, Brad Rutter, each had $5,000 on the scoreboard, while Ken Jennings …
Ethan Bauley / Data Central:
HP research shows mainstream media drive Twitter ‘trends’ to a surprising degree  —  Who gets to determine the big topics of conversation on social media?  And how do they do it?  Looking to find out, HP researchers recently examined how popular subjects get to be listed among the top ‘trending’ topics on Twitter.
Aza Raskin / Co.Design:
The Untold Story of How My Dad Helped Invent the First Mac  —  Jef Raskin, my father, (below) helped develop the Macintosh, and I was recently looking at some of his old documents and came across his February 16, 1981 memo detailing the genesis of the Macintosh.
Discussion: MacStories, TUAW and Gizmodo
Jackie Cohen / All Facebook:
First Facebook SIM Card Released  —  Every GSM cell phone will soon have Facebook built right in, as Gemalto has created the first SIM card including functions related to the social network.  —  A spokesperson for the social network confirmed the development in via email:
Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:
Yahoo Opts to Friend Facebook  —  Yahoo Inc. watched as social-networking website Facebook Inc. stole the attention of users and grabbed a major share of the online-advertising market.  —  Now the Internet pioneer is following an old mantra: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Aron Kozak / The Qt Blog:
Update on Qt  —  Judging by the sheer volume of comments on Daniel's post on Saturday you are all feeling like we are.  Not the finest time in the history of Qt for sure, but also not the death of Qt that some of you are predicting either.  —  I was unable to continue to reply to all the comments …
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Apple's 2011 supplier report: child workers, bribes, “involuntary labor”  —  Apple discovered underage workers, “involuntary labor,” worker endangerment, and bribery at some of its supplier facilities over the course of 2010, the company revealed in its 2011 Supplier Responsibility Progress Report.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
3 Months To The First Million Users, Just 6 Weeks To The Second Million For Instagram  —  Back in late December of last year, we noted a huge milestone for photo-sharing app Instagram: a million users.  As we noted at the time, remarkably, it took them only three months to hit the mark.
Ina Fried / Mobilized:
Microsoft to Add Multitasking, Internet Explorer 9 to Windows Phone Later this Year  —  Microsoft announced on Monday plans to fill in some of the key gaps from the initial Windows Phone 7 release with two updates due out this year.  —  The more interesting of the updates is the second one-a major release-due later this year.
Scott Austin / Venture Capital Dispatch:
Kleiner Perkins Invests In Facebook At $52 Billion Valuation  —  Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Facebook are together at last.  —  VentureWire reports today that Kleiner is taking a small stake in Facebook by buying as much as $38 million of stock from other shareholders at a valuation …
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Firefox's Director to Leave the Consumer Tech World  —  Mike Beltzner, the man in charge of the development of open source browser Firefox, announced this morning that he'll be leaving Mozilla once the 4.0 version of the popular browser launches and he's helped transition the team towards developing 5.0 without him.
Ars Technica:
Call it “3G” or “4G,” America's wireless networks are still slow  —  If you've followed broadband discussions in Washington, DC, then you've heard that wireless is the future of communications.  The National Broadband Plan offers wireless as the competitive solution to the broadband duopoly dilemma …
Discussion: PE Hub Blog
Vlad Savov / Engadget:
LG Optimus Pad first hands-on! (video)  —  We've just gotten back from playing around with LG's 8.9-inch, 3D-friendly Optimus Pad (known as the G-Slate in the US).  This Android Honeycomb tablets sports a dual-core CPU inside and a dual-camera array outside, giving you both the optical and processing capabilities to produce 3D video.
Bloomberg:
Zynga Said to Be in Talks to Raise Cash From T. Rowe, Fidelity  —  Zynga Game Network Inc., the biggest maker of games on Facebook, is in talks to raise funding from T. Rowe Price Group Inc. and Fidelity Investments at a valuation of close to $10 billion, two people familiar with the matter said.
Discussion: PC Magazine
Reuters:
Lawsuit accuses Google of stealing trade secrets  —  Technology communications company VoIP Inc sued Google Inc. in New York Supreme Court on Monday, accusing the Internet giant of stealing its trade secrets related to online voice technology.  —  The litigation stems from a September 2005 contract …
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Research In Motion Acquires Professional Contact Manager Gist  —  We heard the rumors that Research In Motion (RIM) was involved in serious talks to buy professional contact manager Gist, and today it's official.  RIM has bought Gist, we've confirmed with the company.  Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Huge Vote Of Confidence: Uber Raises $11 million From Benchmark Capital  —  Uber, a young startup that let's people book a black car service on the fly via their mobile app, has closed an $11 million round valuing the company at $49 million pre-money valuation, $60 million post-money, we've confirmed from sources.
Discussion: Pulse2
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
HTML5 spec set for 2014 completion  —  It's been a work in progress for years, but there are a few more years to go yet before the next version of Hypertext Markup Language is finalized.  —  Specifically, the World Wide Web Consortium's HTML Working Group is set to announce today that it expects …
Elizabeth Woyke / Mobilized:
Asus Tried Windows Phone 7 Two Years Ago, Assessing Whether To Try Again  —  Microsoft has won Nokia's support for its mobile platform but Asus is still weighing whether to release handsets that utilize Windows Phone 7.  —  Asus' hesitance stands out since the Taiwan-based electronics maker signed …
 
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 More Items: 
Dan Frommer / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Can Microsoft And Nokia Make Windows Phone 7 The Most “Operator Friendly” Without Ruining It For Consumers?
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols / Open Source Blog:
The London Stock Exchange moves to Novell Linux
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Record Labels Sue isoHunt for Millions of Dollars
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
AT&T Makes App Creation Easier for Home Appliances, Other Objects
Discussion: ILS Technology
Michael Hickins / Digits:
Google Cloud Boosting YouTube Upload Speeds
Discussion: YouTube Blog
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Judge tosses iPad overheating lawsuit
Kevin Murphy / Domain Incite:
VeriSign scores big win in .com pricing lawsuit
Discussion: Domain Name Wire
 Earlier Items: 
CNN:
U.S. State Department starts Farsi Twitter feed
Discussion: Slate and Hillicon Valley
Alex Wilhelm / The Next Web:
Twitter: $10 billion Google acquisition talks “just a rumor”
David Meyer / ZDNet:
Intel unveils MeeGo tablet interface
Discussion: BlogsDNA
Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:
The Economics of Blogging and The Huffington Post
Loïc Le Meur / Loic Le Meur Blog:
The new nightmare of developers and brands
Thanks:loic
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A New York judge finds Sirius XM liable for a difficult subscription cancellation process; Sirius says it will appeal but abide by a new “click-to-cancel” rule

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Sources: NBCUniversal Vice Chairman Bonnie Hammer plans to leave the company at the end of the year; she has been with the company since 2004

Anja Karadeglija / The Canadian Press:
Meta clashes with Canada's CRTC over the Online News Act by declining to publicly release information about its measures to block news content on its platforms

 
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