Techmeme: Sony's War on Makers, Hackers, and Innovators (Phillip Torrone/Make)

5:55 PM ET, February 25, 2011

Top Items:

Verizon iPhone 4: Mind the gap, our tests show — The Verizon iPhone 4 has a problem that could cause the phone to drop calls, or be unable to place calls, in weak signal conditions, Consumer Reports engineers have found in lab tests. — The problem is similar to the one we confirmed …

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, BetaNews, The Register, DSLreports, CNN, Digits, CNNMoney.com, ZDNet, Computerworld, AppleInsider, Technologizer, MacRumors, Mobilized, Tech Trader Daily, MediaFile, 9 to 5 Mac, 901am, Techland, MacStories, TUAW, msnbc.com, Electronista, The Loop and ThinkMobile

Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:

Antennagate 2.0? Consumer Reports Won't Recommend Verizon iPhone Either — Oh no, please tell us this isn't the start of another “antennagate,” but it appears that Consumer Reports is again making headlines for throwing the iPhone 4 under the proverbial bus.

Discussion: PC World, SAI, Network World and TechCrunch

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Farmer” Algorithm Update — In January, Google promised that it would take action against content farms that were gaining top listings with “shallow” or “low-quality” content. Now the company is delivering, announcing a change to its ranking algorithm designed take out such material.

Discussion: SlashGear, SEOBook, broadstuff, GigaOM, TechSpot, CNET News, Search Engine Roundtable, @tolles, Digital Trends and @rafat, more at Mediagazer »

Stephen E. Arnold / Beyond Search:

Google and Search Tweaks — Chatter blizzard! There is a flurry of commentary about Google's change to cope with outfits that generate content to attract traffic, get a high Google ranking, and deliver information to users! You can read the Google explanation in “Finding More High-Quality Sites …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, BoomTown, The Social, Boing Boing and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim

Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

Testing Google's New Algorithm: It Really Is Better — When we heard that Google had unleashed a new algorithm in the United States to battle content farms, we were cautiously optimistic. Content farms, which bet they can make more more money on any advertisements than they spend producing …

Larry Fitzgibbon / Demand Media:
A Statement About Search Engine Algorithm Changes

Discussion: Mashable!, MediaMemo, VatorNews, paidContent, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim and Search Engine Land, more at Mediagazer »

The Official Google Blog:
Finding more high-quality sites in search

Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:

Apple Reveals “Places” - A Social Networking Related Trademark — On February 24, 2011, The European Trademarks and Designs Office published Apple's latest trademark application for the word “Places” under application 009760141. Apple has filed their trademark under four distinct International …

Discussion: SAI, TiPb, IntoMobile, mocoNews and Know Your Mobile

Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:

MobileMe is officially online only — Expanding on the report from yesterday, a Genius (who uses Chrome interestingly) sent us this screenshot of the Apple Internal systems which shows that MobileMe is online-only now. — It also appears you can't currently pay for MobileMe online.

Discussion: MacNN, App Advice, The Next Web, SlashGear, MacStories and Black Web 2.0

Shayndi Raice / Wall Street Journal:

Verizon Wireless CEO Says iPhone Sales Strong — Verizon Wireless sold more iPhone 4s during its initial launch than any other product in the carrier's history, said Chief Executive Daniel S. Mead. — Mr. Mead, who made the remarks in an interview, tried to counter reports that sales …

Discussion: MacRumors, TiPb, everythingiCafe, Engadget, MacNN and Phone Scoop

ifixit:

Motorola Xoom Teardown — The Motorola Xoom is the first android tablet powered by Google's newest OS, Android 3.0 “Honeycomb.” Follow along as we peek inside this scrumptious (see what we did there...) device and devour all the delicious bits of information we can gather.

Discussion: Ars Technica, CNET News, Digits, Gadget Lab, Androinica, Droid Life, DisplayBlog, Android Phone Fans, GottaBeMobile, SlashGear, Electronista, Erictric, DailyTech, I4U News, thinq_, Engadget, Android Police and Gearlog

Sean Hollister / Engadget:
Motorola Xoom rooted in two hours flat, sinister transforming exoskeleton jetpack returns in Verizon ad

Discussion: PC World, CrunchGear, My Brain Hurts, Android News, Rumours …, Softpedia News, Droid Life, Computerworld, Liliputing, Techie Buzz, Electricpig.co.uk, SlashGear and BlogsDNA

Michael Hickins / Wall Street Journal:

Groupon Revenue Hit $760 Million Last Year — Daily deals website Groupon Inc. saw its revenue surge to $760 million last year from $33 million the previous year, with more than a third of its 2010 sales coming from outside the U.S., according to an internal memo.

Discussion: Digits, paidContent, SAI and New York Magazine

Facebook Site Governance / Facebook:

A Privacy Policy Re-imagined For Users Like You — At Facebook, we are constantly developing new experiences and features to help you control your information. Some of our recent work includes simplified privacy settings and publisher privacy controls that let you select your audience every time you post something on Facebook.

Discussion: Inside Facebook, All Facebook, msnbc.com, Facebook, Neowin.net and The Huffington Post

Chris Preimesberger / eWeek:

How Apple Dodged a Sun Buyout: Former CEOs McNealy, Zander Tell All — Table of Contents: — At Churchill Club dinner, former Sun CEOs Scott McNealy and Ed Zander discuss why the company didn't buy Apple in 1996, the real beginnings of cloud computing and why Linux should never have come into existence.

Discussion: Digits and ITworld.com

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

The Post-Optical Disc Era Gets Off To A Rocky Start With The OS X Lion Beta — If there was any doubt in peoples' minds that Apple intends to kill off the optical disc, it was put to rest today. This morning's unveiling of the OS X Lion Developer Preview came with the news …

Discussion: AppleInsider, App Advice, MacRumors, PC World, 9 to 5 Mac and Neowin.net

Fred / A VC:

Marketing — You asked for it Arnold and 84 others (so far). So I'm gonna talk about marketing. — I believe that marketing is what you do when your product or service sucks or when you make so much profit on every marginal customer that it would be crazy to not spend a bit …

Discussion: TechCrunch, @loic, Seattle 2.0 and SAI

Jackie Cohen / All Facebook:

REPORT: Facebook Profiles Are Now Part Of 80% Colleges' Admissions Outreach — Recruiters aren't the only ones looking at candidates' Facebook profiles. Four out of every five college admissions offices use the social network to recruit students. — That statistic comes …

Discussion: The Next Web, L.A. Times Tech Blog and msnbc.com

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Twitter's Ad Team Runs Into the Learning Curve, and Promoted Tweets Take a Step Back — Another sign that Twitter's advertising plans are very much a work in progress: The company is playing down Promoted Tweets, the first ad units it introduced last year. — Instead, Dick Costolo's sales force …

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Facebook Nabs Career Recruiting Service Pursuit — It looks like recruiting service Pursuit has been gobbled up by Facebook, the latest in a string of acqui-hires, judging by the brief message on their homepage: … The San Francisco based Pursuit was just three extremely over-educated guys …

Discussion: All Facebook, Between the Lines Blog, Inside Facebook and NetworkEffect

Neil Hunt / The Official Netflix Blog:

30% of Netflix Streaming Content Has Subtitles; 80% By End of 2011 — This is Neil Hunt, Chief Product Officer for Netflix, with an update on subtitles on content available to watch instantly from Netflix. In the US, more than 3,500 TV episodes and movies have subtitles available, representing about 30% of viewing.

Discussion: BetaNews, Fast Company, GigaOM, NewsGrange, TechSpot, Los Angeles Times and fierceonlinevideo.com …

Tom Warren / WinRumors:

Verizon to launch Windows Phone 7 device in late March — Verizon is scheduled to launch its first Windows Phone 7 device in late March WinRumors has learned. — Verizon officials may be planning to announce the device as soon as Monday February 28 according to people familiar with the company's plans.

Discussion: Computerworld, CNET News, The Next Web, Electronista, Engadget, Faster Forward and WMPoweruser.com

Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:

Sources: iPad 2 lands in thinner body with spec bump and cameras, SD slot and higher resolution display are out — The Apple rumors game can be a volatile thing. Just as we'd heard about last minute alterations to the Apple TV before it hit the market, we've gotten word from sources …

Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:

Bank of America trialing Mobile Wallet program, uses NFC-enabled BlackBerry smartphones — According to a BGR source, Bank of America has started inviting select customers to trial its new Mobile Wallet payment service program based on NFC technology. The program only works with BlackBerry smartphones …

Discussion: BlackBerry Cool, SlashGear, CrackBerry.com blogs and PhoneArena

Brad Mauney / The LinkedIn Blog:

Discover the new LinkedIn Company Search — Your professional network isn't just about the people you know, it's also about the companies in your network and how you're connected to them. — Today, we're very pleased to launch a new Company Search on LinkedIn.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb

Financial Times:

Apple, Google and Spotify race to music market — The digital music market is set to be shaken up as soon as this summer as Apple, Google and Spotify race to deliver new services that labels warily hope may reverse a decade of declining revenues. Each of the technology companies is taking …

Discussion: MacRumors, Ars Technica, Apple Bitch, App Advice, 24/7 Wall St., Fast Company and mocoNews

Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:

Apple exploring capacitive touch buttons to control a closed MacBook — Apple could add the ability to control applications like iTunes while a notebook is closed via capacitive touch buttons added to the lid of future MacBooks. — The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this week disclosed …

Discussion: MacNN

Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:

Skype To Go Brings Internet Calling to Landlines — Today Skype is touting the relaunch of its “Skype to Go” service as a new way to make international calls from any phone - even landlines. The service itself has been around for years, but today's launch brings new features, specifically direct dial numbers for your Skype contacts.

Discussion: The Big Blog, Liliputing, NewsGrange, SlashGear, The Next Web and Electronista

Roger Browne / Google Blogoscoped:

Google drops reverse phone number lookup — One of the earliest specialist services provided by Google was reverse phone number lookup. If you used the “phonebook:” or “rphonebook:” operators together with a 10-digit US phone number, Google would show you the owner of that phone number, unless the number was unlisted.

Thanks:steverubel

Archived Page Info:

This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 5:55 PM ET, February 25, 2011.

View the current page or another snapshot:

Techmeme Sponsor Posts:

Meta:

Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few — Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.

Tribe AI:

Build AI products that matter — Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact. We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.

Zoho:

5 common accounting mistakes — This is a guest post by Yaali Bizappln Solutions. A lot of businesses manage their customers and finances on separate platforms. This disconnect often leads to missed invoices …

Hamming: