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11:35 PM ET, February 23, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:
Motorola's Xoom Starts Tablet Wars With iPad  —  After months of speculation, the tablet wars begin in earnest this week.  Motorola is releasing its Xoom tablet on Feb. 24, and I consider it the first truly comparable competitor to Apple's hit iPad.  That is partly because it is the first iPad challenger …
RELATED:
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
An iPad lovers review of Motorola Xoom  —  You know I'm an iPad freak.  I was first in line to buy one and I've used it so much my screen is cracked.  —  It is the device that's changed my life more than any other in the past year, which, in a year that Microsoft Kinect shipped, is totally impressive.
Thanks:ipadupdates
Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:
Motorola Xoom With Honeycomb: A First Look Video  —  The Motorola Xoom arrives in Verizon stores tomorrow, marking the first time a Google Honeycomb tablet will be available to customers.  Some may grumble about the $799 price — or $599 with a 2-year contract — but the bigger question is: What do you get for your money?
Bloomberg:
Apple Investors Pass Measure for Bigger Say in Board Vote  —  Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. investors, gathered today at an annual meeting, passed a measure that gives them more say over which directors get elected, while rejecting another that would force management to disclose executive succession plans.
Michael Stroh / The Windows Blog:
More answers about our first software update  —  It's been roughly 48 hours since we hit the send button on our first Windows Phone software update.  The rooms around me are buzzing with folks monitoring the rollout, sifting carefully through incoming phone health data (from customers who provide it) …
RELATED:
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft's Windows Phone 7: When bad things happen to good phones
Andy Baio / Waxy.org:
How I Indexed The Daily  —  For the last three weeks, I've indexed The Daily.  Now that my free trial's up, I've had an intimate look at what they have to offer and, sad to say, I don't plan on subscribing.  As a result, I'm ending The Daily: Indexed, my unofficial table of contents for every article they published publicly.
RELATED:
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Apple announces iPad 2 event for March 2  —  Apple on Wednesday sent an invitation to media inviting them to a special event on March 2 in San Francisco, Calif.  —  According to the invitation received by The Loop, the event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts at 10:00 am.
RELATED:
Zach Epstein / BGR:
iPad 2 could be in short supply at launch
Arn / MacRumors:
13-Inch MacBook Pro Specs, Photos, Light Peak Known As Thunderbolt?  [Confirmed]  —  Fscklog posts a photo of what is believed to be from the box of the new 13" MacBook Pro that Apple is planning to release on Thursday.  Amongst the features, the name of Apple's Light Peak implementation: Thunderbolt.
RELATED:
Jeremy Horwitz / iLounge:
Apple's Macs Bid iSight Goodbye, Welcome FaceTime HD (And Low-Def FaceTime)
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Crush-Stalking App Breakup Notifier Amasses Over 3.6M Users, Is Shut Down By Facebook  —  Just Monday we were writing about Breakup Notifier, a Facebook app that raked in more than 100,000 users in less than 24 hours and as of 5 hours ago had a more than modest 3,673,484 users in its database ... And then poof!
Daniel Bailey / ConceivablyTech:
Chrome OS To Get HW Acceleration, Mac/Linux/ Windows Support  —  Google's Chrome OS team is rethinking the Chrome OS windowing approach and is developing a multi-window interface for Chrome OS as well as hardware acceleration to support new visual effects and pixel shaders.
Discussion: Telegraph
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google Details Chrome's Background Feature: Run Web Apps Without Seeing Them  —  Google has been on a mission lately to outline some of the cooler, newer features coming to Chrome on their Chromium Blog.  Today brings one of the biggest yet: Background Apps.
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and Chromium Blog
David Heinemeier Hansson / Signal vs. Noise:
The end of the IT department  —  When people talk about their IT departments, they always talk about the things they're not allowed to do, the applications they can't run, and the long time it takes to get anything done.  Rigid and inflexible policies that fill the air with animosity.
New York Magazine:
SEC Decides It Might Be a Good Idea to Investigate How Facebook and Twitter Are Trading Shares  —  We're not sure what exactly prompted the SEC toward investigating secondary markets, which allow private companies like Facebook and Twitter to buy and sell shares without revealing any significant financial information.
SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
CHART OF THE DAY: The Utter Collapse Of MySpace  —  We knew MySpace was dying, but we didn't know it was this bad.  MySpace had 45 million unique visitors in January, down from from 70 million the year prior, according to comScore data.  —  This is why MySpace is up for sale.
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
An Apple Patent Gives us a Peek at Photo Booth for iOS Devices +  —  On January 12, 2011, BGR reported that a source had revealed to them that Apple's Photo Booth was coming to the iPad.  The very next day 9 to 5 Mac added to this news by stating that they had discovered two new iOS 4.3 frameworks …
Marc Graser / Variety:
Southwest Airlines partners with Apple's iTunes  —  Southwest Airlines partners with Apple's iTunes  —  Southwest Airlines may not have video screens built into the backs of its airplane seats, but that doesn't mean the carrier can't offer its passengers inflight entertainment — and turn it into a new revenue stream.
Chuck Toporek / @chuckdude:
Why Amazon Isn't Worried About Apple's In-App Purchasing Rules  —  With Apple's recent changes to the rules for In-App Purchasing, a lot of people have been wondering how this might affect the Kindle app for iOS.  If you're currently using the Kindle app on the iPhone or iPad …
Discussion: Fortune, TUAW and MacStories
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
MP3.com founder launches DAR.fm, a DVR for the radio  —  Michael Robertson, who already participated in one reinvention of the music business by founding MP3.com, is launching a new way to listen to talk radio and music.  —  His startup is called DAR.fm (DAR stands for “digital audio recorder” …
Matthew Lynley / VentureBeat:
Gamification company GreenGoose raises $100k on stage at Launch Conference  —  GreenGoose, which slaps accelerometers on everything to turn everyday activities into a game, impressed so many people at the Launch Conference in San Francisco today that it managed to raise $100,000 on stage …
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Engadget and CNET News
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Foursquare's SXSW Plan: “NEW APP + NEW BADGES + PARTIES + CONCERT + MOAR”  —  We're now just over two weeks away from this year's SXSW event in Austin, Texas.  And just as is the case every year, there will be several startups jockeying to be the one that is the breakout hit.
Discussion: The Huffington Post
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Judge: Ex-Microsoft GM can't work in his new Salesforce job  —  A former Microsoft general manager's new job as a senior vice president at Salesforce.com “appears to be a direct violation of his non-compete agreement” with the Redmond company, a King County Superior Court judge said from the bench …
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Apple's N.C. Data Center Intended for iTunes, MobileMe  —  Apple's finally getting ready to light up its North Carolina data center.  Asked about the facility during the company's shareholder meeting today, COO Tim Cook said it's on track to open this spring, according to reports.
Sebastian Anthony / Download Squad:
WordPress 3.1 released, features massive writing workflow and admin overhauls  —  With over 2,000 code commits and 820 bug and feature fixes, WordPress 3.1 has been released.  You can download the new version in its entirety, or simply log into your WordPress.org installation and update via the Dashboard.
 
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 More Items: 
Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:
The Files Will Get Out: A Lesson From WikiLeaks, Gawker, the RIAA, and Libya
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
BTDigg, The First ‘Trackerless’ Torrent Search Engine
Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:
Google Penalizes Overstock for Search Tactics
Discussion: SAI
E.A. Vander Veer / O'Reilly Radar:
5 assumptions about social search
Cody Barbierri / VentureBeat:
Scvngr finds 1 million users willing to complete location challenges
Discussion: Mobile Entertainment
 Earlier Items: 
Yinka Adegoke / Reuters:
Spotify close to Universal deal, may launch without Warner
Discussion: Electronista
George Monbiot / Guardian:
The need to protect the internet from ‘astroturfing’ grows ever more urgent
Discussion: TechEye
SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Is Zynga The Most Profitable Company Ever?
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Like Windows Phone 7, Bing Gets “Live Tiles” Too
Vlad Savov / Engadget:
Sprint renames the HTC 7 Pro the Arrive, launching it tomorrow
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Internal memo: Hearst Magazines president announces layoffs as part of a decision to “reallocate resources” to “continue our focus on digital innovation”

Lachlan Cartwright / The Ankler:
Sources: MSNBC renewed Rachel Maddow's contract early this fall, but with a pay cut; MSNBC bosses' plan to shake up daytime and weekend programming

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced she will leave the agency on January 20; she was the first woman to be confirmed to lead the agency
 
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