Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
8:40 PM ET, April 4, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Kent Walker / The Official Google Blog:
Patents and innovation  —  The tech world has recently seen an explosion in patent litigation, often involving low-quality software patents, which threatens to stifle innovation.  Some of these lawsuits have been filed by people or companies that have never actually created anything …
RELATED:
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Google bids $900M for Nortel patents, but Microsoft already has them in the bag  —  [Post updated at 1:45 p.m. with clarification of Microsoft's rights to these patents under a previous licensing deal with Nortel.]  —  An executive with bankrupt Nortel Networks calls its intellectual property holdings …
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Google bids $900 million for 6,000 Nortel telecom patents
Mike Swift / Mercury News:
Google: Product chief, Silicon Valley veteran Jonathan Rosenberg to step down  —  Larry Page's retaking the reins as Google's (GOOG) CEO Monday came with the most significant change in years in the makeup of the company's tight-knit senior management core: Jonathan Rosenberg …
Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:
Milk: Kevin Rose's New Company Aims to Solve Big Problems on the Mobile Web  —  Well by Silicon Valley standards, that certainly wasn't a long “stealth” period.  Just weeks after he quit Digg, Kevin Rose is announcing details of his new startup.  Knowing Rose, I can tell why he's so excited to get started.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:
Android is a mess, say developers  —  A new survey analyzes the pros and cons of writing for various mobile platforms  —  On the heels of the debate played out over the weekend between Union Square Ventures' Fred Wilson and Instapaper's Marco Arment about whether it's wiser to be writing apps for Apple's …
Carolyn Penner / Twitter Blog:
Discover new accounts and search like a pro  —  We've made it easier to find and follow Twitter accounts based on your interests.  When you search for a topic, you can now discover accounts that are relevant to that particular subject.  (Previously, you would have seen accounts that have the specific term in their name or username. )
SuperSite for Windows:
Windows 8 Secrets: Modern Reader  —  Part four in a series of co-posts by Windows 8 Secrets co-authors Rafael Rivera and Paul Thurrott.  —  There are two big pieces of news in today's revelation.  First, Microsoft will apparently be including its own PDF reader in Windows 8.
RELATED:
Alex Wilhelm / The Next Web:   Windows 8 to include new AppX PDF reader
Wall Street Journal:
Grand Jury Investigates Apps  —  Online music service Pandora Media Inc. said it had received a subpoena related to a federal grand-jury investigation of information-sharing practices by smartphone applications.  —  In a Securities and Exchange Commission related to its planned initial public offering …
RELATED:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Facebook For iPhone Gets Event Check-Ins, Maps, And Unfriending  —  A couple weeks ago, after All Facebook spotted the ability to check-in to Facebook events, the social network confirmed to us that the feature would be launching shortly on the iPhone and their mobile-based touch site.  Today, here it is.
Georgina Prodhan / Reuters:
FT won't give up subscriber relationship to Apple  —  (Reuters) - The Financial Times wants to keep selling subscriptions for its digital news directly to readers rather than surrender control of new customers who sign up via Apple's iPad, the managing director of FT.com said.
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
The MacBook Air: A $2.2 Billion-a-Year “Quasi-Tablet”  —  With all the chatter over the iPad 2, the iPhone 4 and its successor, it's easy to forget that Apple has another ultra-portable device that's doing quite well at market: the MacBook Air.  —  Nearly six months after it launched …
Jott Blog:
Jott service ending on May 3rd, 2011  —  By now you probably know that we will no longer be offering the Jott service.  We have included below the text of an email we sent to our active customers today.  —  We founded Jott in April of 2006.  In the five years that have followed …
Discussion: Mobilized and GeekWire
Christian Zibreg / 9 to 5 Mac:
After 201 days in review, Apple greenlights iPhone app that unmasks blocked calls (updated with video)  —  Apple's review process has gone a long way since the early days when every day would bring a new story about a controversial rejection.  It's rare nowadays that an app would take longer …
Zach Epstein / BGR:
AT&T confirms early upgrade price changes for iPhone 4, other smartphones  —  AT&T has confirmed to BGR that it has made changes to early upgrade pricing for its smartphones.  The changes impact customers who wish to upgrade to a new smartphone but are not yet eligible for an upgrade at fully discounted two-year contract prices.
Arik Hesseldahl / NewEnterprise:
Texas Instruments to Acquire National Semiconductor for $6.5 Billion  —  Two of the oldest names in the chip business are about to combine.  About as long as I've known about electronics, I've known of the names Texas Instruments and National Semiconductor.
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
LivingSocial Files To Authorize Up To $565M In Series E Funding  —  Reports of daily deals site LivingSocial being in talks to raise around $500 million in Series E are now backed up by LivingSocial's amended and restated Certificate of Incorporation filed on March 31st and unearthed today by the VCExperts blog.
Discussion: VentureBeat and VC Experts
Tom Warren / WinRumors:
Microsoft may announce Silverlight for Xbox next week … Microsoft may be preparing to announce plans to introduce Silverlight for the Xbox 360, WinRumors has learned.  —  The software giant looks set to detail its plans at the MIX11 conference next week in Las Vegas.
Discussion: The Next Web and Electronista, Thanks:tomwarren
Greg Bensinger / Bloomberg:
Sprint Plans Tap-and-Go Payment Service This Year to Get a Jump on Rivals  —  Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) plans to start a service this year that will allow customers to make purchases with their mobile phones, ahead of a similar initiative from rivals Verizon Wireless, AT&T Inc. (T) and T-Mobile USA.
Matthew Lasar / Ars Technica:
It could be worse: data caps around the world  —  Here at Ars we spend a lot of time writing about data caps—those ceilings on how much broadband data you can use before your ISP taps you on the shoulder and tells you it's time to pay more.  Depending on where you live, these can range from “inconvenient” to “ruinous.”
Discussion: PC World, TechCrunch and msnbc.com
Greg Sandoval / Media Maverick:
MPAA files copyright suit against Zediva  —  The trade group representing the six major Hollywood film studios filed a copyright suit in federal court against online video distributor Zediva today.  —  The suit has started the process that almost certainly will end with Zediva's demise.
Discussion: GigaOM, SFGate and Engadget
Evelyn M. Rusli / DealBook:
Insight Venture Partners Raises $2 Billion  —  Venture capital firm Insight Venture Partners announced on Monday the close of two new funds, which together represent $2 billion in new commitments.  —  The Manhattan-based firm, which is an investor in Twitter, said the bulk of the new capital …
Derrick Harris / GigaOM:
VMware Takes Over EMC's Mozy Cloud Storage Service  —  VMware is officially entering the service provider market by taking over the operations of the Mozy cloud-based storage service from parent company EMC.  VMware CTO Steven Herrod announced the news on his blog today, writing that …
Discussion: eWeek and VMware Blogs
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:
AOL's Going(.com) Going Gone!  —  AOL's Going.com has announced it will be closing on May 1, 2011.  Below is the email that AOL (NYSE:AOL) sent to Going.com community members earlier today.  Kara Swisher reported on AOL's acquisition of Going back in 2009 at a value of $10 million.
Discussion: TechCrunch
Henry Blodget / The Wire:
IT'S OFFICIAL: AOL Fires Freelancers*  —  A couple of weeks ago, AOL threw its freelance journalists into purgatory:  —  They were supposed to sit tight and wait to hear from their editors on their roles in the post-merger Huffington Post Media Group.  —  The freelancers, naturally …
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 8:40 PM ET, April 4, 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.
Zoho:
The crossroads of AI and SaaS  —  Enabling businesses of all sizes to build products in-house and disqualifying SaaS tools that are not AI-powered.  In a span of just two years, AI has made a name for itself as the key driver for innovation.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
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.
Sponsor Techmeme
 
 See Also: 
Techmeme: site main
Techmeme River: reverse chronological Techmeme
Techmeme Mobile: for phones
Techmeme Leaderboard: Techmeme's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
Techmeme RSS feed
Techmeme on X
Techmeme on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Gerry Shih / The Bay Citizen:
Chronicle to Charge for Online Content
Wall Street Journal:
Making Facebook Ads More Buyer-Friendly
more at Mediagazer »
Grant Gross / PC World:
California Lawmaker Touts Do-not-track Bill
Discussion: SFGate
Tricia Duryee / eMoney:
Overstock Ends Affiliate Marketing in Four States to Avoid Sales Tax
Discussion: techrockies.com
Nathan Olivarez-Giles / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Google Street View must obscure faces and license plates in Switzerland, court says [Updated]
Digital Chosunilbo:
N.Korean Delegation Inspect Google Headquarters
Discussion: PC Magazine and SAI
 Earlier Items: 
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Myspace Bake-Off Starts Wednesday and-Despite Reports-No Bidder in Lead (and No Zynga Interest Either)
Discussion: PC Magazine and MediaPost
Christian Zibreg / 9 to 5 Mac:
iAd rival: Unofficial app store Cydia lands advertising deal with Toyota
Discussion: TUAW, GigaOM and MarketingVOX
Christian Zibreg / 9 to 5 Mac:
Untethered iOS 4.3.1 jailbreak is out, supports all devices except iPad 2 and Verizon iPhone
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Sony's Howard Stringer confirms Honeycomb tablet in US by summer
Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch:
10 Things That Simply Need To Be In iOS 5
 

 
From Mediagazer:

New York Times:
Court docs detail a smear campaign against actor Blake Lively via media articles and social media posts after she accused director Justin Baldoni of misconduct

Max Tani / @maxwelltani:
Memo: WaPo's Matt Murray lays out plans for WP Ventures, the “third newsroom”; Krissah Thompson will be editor and Samantha Henig will be general manager

Jack Dunn / Variety:
Trump appoints Mark Burnett, the British TV executive who created and produced the reality show The Apprentice, as a special envoy to the UK
 
Sister Sites:

Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
memeorandum
 What US political commentators are discussing online right now
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page