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4:10 PM ET, May 12, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Dan Lyons / The Daily Beast:
Facebook Busted in Clumsy Smear on Google  —  THE DAILY BEAST ON:  —  The social network secretly hired a PR firm to plant negative stories about the search giant, The Daily Beast's Dan Lyons reveals—a caper that is blowing up in their face, and escalating their war.
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Facebook Loses Much Face In Secret Smear On Google  —  Facebook secretly hired a PR firm to plant negative stories about Google, says Dan Lyons in a jaw dropping story at the Daily Beast.  —  For the past few days, a mystery has been unfolding in Silicon Valley.
Ben Popper / Betabeat:
Smear Story Source Speaks: Facebook Wanted to Stab Google in the Back  —  Privacy advocate Christopher Soghoian broke open the story of how Facebook tried to use global PR giant Burson-Marsteller to smear Google in the press.  He was pitched to ghost-write the op-ed, but posted the email exchange online instead.
Tonya Garcia / PRNewser:
B-M Says Facebook Assignment “Should Have Been Declined”  —  News broke last night on The Daily Beast that the client behind Burson-Marsteller's bungled Google “whisper campaign” was Facebook.  A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the social network hired B-M; The Daily Beast writer Dan Lyons writes …
Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:
Is Google's Chromebook The Death Knell For Antivirus?  —  Updated and corrected below.  —  The antivirus industry likely let out a collective groan when Google first made a familiar-sounding boast Wednesday: that the just-launched laptops it's calling Chromebooks have “security built …
Discussion: PC World, eWeek and TomsTechBlog.com, Thanks:forbestech
RELATED:
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Google clarifies Chromebook subscriptions, might have just changed the industry  —  Following Google's second I/O keynote, we were ushered into a room where a number of the company's executives were on hand to field questions from the press.  Or in other terms, dodge bullets and tell us what we're probably not looking to hear.
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Samsung Series 5 Chrome OS laptop hands-on at Google I/O (update: video!)
Brad Stone / Business Week:
Why Facebook Needs Sheryl Sandberg  —  Mark Zuckerberg's No. 2 provides “adult supervision” at the company, trying to keep growth at an optimum level  —  On a Tuesday afternoon in late April, 30 managers of Facebook's various business units come together to discuss a matter that preoccupies …
Discussion: SAI, Pulse2, NetworkEffect and broadstuff
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Twitter Updates Mac Client With Multiple Timelines, Cleaner Design, Auto-Complete And More  —  Twitter for Mac, which launched earlier this year with the rollout of Apple's Mac App Store, is getting its first major update today.  —  Besides a design update, you can now see multiple timelines …
Tim Stevens / Engadget:
Is Comcast blocking the Pirate Bay? (updated: it isn't just Comcast)  —  We've received numerous reports this morning from users indicating that good 'ol Comcast is at it again.  Word on the web is that Comcast ISP subscribers are unable to access torrent site the Pirate Bay, a situation that we've been able to confirm internally.
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Remember that iPad Wi-Fi Bug?  It's Back...And Affecting iPhones, Too  —  A little over a year ago, some new iPad owners found they were having issues with the device's Wi-Fi connection.  Signals were weak, or worse, dropped altogether.  The only solution at the time, before Apple released a fix …
Peter Delevett / Mercury News:
Cloud computing pioneer Martin Odersky takes wraps off his new company Typesafe  —  Eight years ago, German programmer Martin Odersky developed a new computer language he hoped would be an alternative to the venerable Java — one that would let applications scale easily to handle huge workloads.
Discussion: typesafe's blog
RELATED:
Reuters:
AT&T, T-Mobile USA break-up is $6 billion: sources  —  (Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N) has promised to give Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) $6 billion in assets, services and cash as a break-up fee if U.S. regulators reject its proposed $39 billion purchase of the German company's T-Mobile USA, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Discussion: Electronista and SAI
DigiTimes:
Supply chain may not be able to satisfy demand from Apple  —  Taiwan-based electronics manufacturing service (EMS) provider Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) is reportedly facing a shortage of both labor and materials at its plants in Chengdu, China, which is likely to affect shipments …
Jay Yarow / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
RON CONWAY: The Scariest Man In Silicon Valley  —  Legendary Silicon Valley angel investor Ron Conway is raising a new fund for his investment firm SV Angel, according to an SEC filing.  —  So far, he's raised $12 million out of $40 million planned.  He should have no problem raising the remaining $28 million.
Nielsen Wire:
Cue the Music: Driven by Digital, Music Sales up in 2011  —  Music sales in the U.S. are up 1.6 percent in 2011, according to The Nielsen Company, as digital album and track sales saw dramatic growth through May 8.  While physical albums saw a decline in year-over-year sales from the same period in 2010 …
Nilay Patel / This is my next:
How Google controls Android: digging deep into the Skyhook filings  —  You might remember that a company called Skyhook Wireless sued Google back in September for business interference and patent infringement — the Skyhook XPS WiFi and cell tower positioning system was all set to ship …
Discussion: Gizmodo, SAI, TiPb and Electronista
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Intel working on new Atom chip architecture  —  Intel is working on a new Atom chip architecture that goes beyond the 3D transistors announced last week as the chip giant accelerates development of its most power-efficient chip design.  —  The new Atom-based “micro-architecture,” codenamed …
Elinor Mills / CNET News:
Facebook adds new user security features  —  Facebook is launching several new security features today designed to protect users from malware and from getting their accounts hijacked.  —  First, the site will display warnings when users are about to be duped by clickjacking …
Kashmir Hill / The Not-So Private Parts:
The White House Offers Up A National Data Breach Law  —  Earlier this week, I asked, “how do we deal with data breaches?”  The White House has a response: legislation.  It's taken note of the rash of data breaches of late (Perhaps President Obama owns a Sony Playstation?) …
Nat Ives / AdAge:
New York Times' Share of Newspaper Sites' Traffic Hits 12-Month Low  —  April Was a Quieter Month for News Than March, but Other Newspaper Sites Maintained Traffic Better  —  The paywall introduced by The New York Times at the end of March is hurting traffic to its website, as expected, but perhaps within acceptable levels.
Discussion: NYConvergence.com and MarketingVOX
Sharon Pian Chan / Seattle Times:
Long antitrust saga ends for Microsoft  —  Microsoft has spent 21 years — more than half its lifetime — fighting antitrust battles with the U.S. government.  Both sides will finally be at peace Thursday, when an antitrust consent decree expires.  —  Microsoft has spent 21 years …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
How Amazon Controls Ecommerce (Slides)  —  When you think about ecommerce, you think about Amazon.  But how did a company that started with online books come to dominate an estimated one third of ecommerce in the U.S.?  In the 72 slides above, global consulting boutique faberNovel breaks down Amazon's business and strategy.
Diane Bartz / Reuters:
U.S. sues to stop VeriFone buy of Hypercom  —  (Reuters) - The Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Thursday to block credit card swipe machine maker VeriFone Systems Inc's proposed buy of smaller rival Hypercom Corp.  —  The department said the deal would reduce competition in the sale …
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Microsoft security report shows abrupt decline in spam  —  Microsoft image showing a decline in spam in the second half of 2010  —  Microsoft this morning released its latest Security Intelligence Report, summarizing the data gleaned by the company about online attacks …
Peter Delevett / Mercury News:
Wiretap: Google's Eric Schmidt chooses Palo Alto penthouse for his venture capital operation  —  Tomorrow Ventures, the personal VC shop of Google (GOOG) Chairman Eric Schmidt, is planting a bigger flag in downtown Palo Alto.  —  I was recently meeting with a CEO in the same High Street building …
Aniket Basu / Reuters:
NTT DoCoMo, Twitter to develop location-based alert  —  (Reuters) - Japanese telecom company NTT DoCoMo Inc and U.S. social networking service provider Twitter Inc will jointly develop a location-based alerting service for smartphone users based on tweets, the Nikkei business daily said.
 
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 More Items: 
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Could BitTorrent Be The Distributed Social Network People Have Been Clamoring For?
Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog and GigaOM, Thanks:alliewag
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
RIAA, Lime Wire close to settling copyright suit
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Social media ad network Technorati names a new CEO
Discussion: paidContent
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple Explores Keyboards using an Advanced Air Feedback System
Tricia Duryee / eMoney:
Group Commerce Raises More Funding to Ramp Up Daily Deals Platform for Publishers
Discussion: SAI and Xconomy
 Earlier Items: 
Richard Lai / Engadget:
Lenovo's LePad going global with IdeaPad Tablet K1 moniker?
Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:
CBSNews.com to debut social show 'What's Trending'
Colin Gibbs / GigaOM:
ESPN Balks at Sprint's New Text Fee
Discussion: DSLreports
Phil Muncaster / V3.co.uk:
Apple's 64GB 3G iPad 2 continues to dominate tablet sales
Discussion: iPad News Hub
Patrick Thibodeau / Computerworld:
Open source foiled Microsoft antitrust case
Discussion: TechEye
 

 
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”

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

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
 
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