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8:15 PM ET, May 20, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Herman Lai / M.I.C. Gadget:
Breaking: Foxconn Chengdu Manufacture Plant Explosion (Videos)!  —  At around 19:00 in China, Foxconn Chengdu manufacture plant got an explosion, we are not sure actually what cause the explosion and how many casualties had resulted.  At the scene, there are currently more than 10 fire engines …
RELATED:
James T. Areddy / Wall Street Journal:
Explosion Kills 2 at Foxconn Plant  —  SHANGHAI—A large explosion ripped through a Foxconn high-tech plant in southwestern China Friday night, killing at least two people, a government official said.  —  The facility, near Chengdu, has in the past been identified in media as a manufacturing location …
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:
What the Foxconn explosion means for Apple  —  An analyst sketches out the economic implications in two scenarios: One serious, one less so  —  Workers fleeing the fire in Chengdu.  Source: micgadget.com  —  RBC capital's Mike Abramsky was the first analyst out of the gate Friday with a note …
Discussion: PC World
Ina Fried / Mobilized:
Apple Says Working With Foxconn To Explore Cause of China Explosion
Alireza Ali / Google Mobile Blog:
Google Maps on your mobile browser  —  With 40% of Google Maps usage on mobile devices, we want you to have a consistent Google Maps experience wherever you use it.  So, today we're announcing our updated Google Maps experience for mobile browsers on Android and iOS.
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Congress probes FCC Commissioner's departure to Comcast  —  Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, a key investigative body of Congress.  This afternoon, Issa finally decided that the committee would probe FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker's move …
RELATED:
Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:
BlackBerry PlayBook sales miss targets by over 90% at major retailer, ‘much higher’ return rate than XOOM  —  According to a trusted source from a major big box retailer, sales of RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook have fallen far short of expectations.  In addition, we're told that the PlayBook …
John Hudson / The Atlantic Wire:
Sony Hit with Two New Cyber Attacks  —  Sony was hit with two new cyber attacks Friday as it continued to recover from the devastating security breach it endured earlier this month.  The first attack was rather minor and involved a breach in the web server that hosts Sony's Thai site.
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Apple Is Said to Secure Music Accords With Labels for ITunes Cloud Service
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:
Screenshots of Apple's impressive new Daily Download iPad app, more Apple Store 2.0 news  —  Apple's lawyers called and told us to take down the screenshots.  —  We've gotten our hands on the internal Apple RetailMe iPads and have been rifling through the interesting new features that debuted for Retail employees on Monday.
Michal Lev-Ram / Fortune:
Zuckerberg: Kids under 13 should be allowed on Facebook  —  Facebook's founder sees the social networking site as a tool with educational potential.  That of course means getting kids Facebooking at an early age.  —  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg  —  FORTUNE — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg …
Elizabeth Woyke / Mobilized:
Nokia To Use ST-Ericsson Chips For Windows Phone 8 Handsets  —  When Nokia releases its hotly-anticipated smartphones based on Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system, at least some of the devices will be powered by silicon from ST-Ericsson, said Carlo Bozotti, the Chief Executive of European semiconductor maker STMicroelectronics.
RELATED:
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Scrollability, New iOS Physics Project from Facebook for iPhone Creator, Joe Hewitt  —  Joe Hewitt, the creator of the Facebook iPhone app, Firebug, and former contributor to Mozilla's Firefox, announced earlier this month that he was leaving Facebook to go build “tools.”  What sorts of tools?
Discussion: MacStories and MacNN
Henry Blodget / SAI:
LINKEDIN: The Truth About What It's Worth  —  LinkedIn's blockbuster IPO has triggered a predictable reaction: Howls of outrage that the valuation is obviously “insane” and that we're right back in a tech bubble again.  —  Leaving aside the broader bubble question (which I've addressed here), is the former assertion right?
RELATED:
Gary Rivlin / The Daily Beast:   The Media's Crazy LinkedIn Comparisons
Matt Rosoff / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
BOOM: IBM Is Now Worth More Than Microsoft  —  We noted it was about to happen a few days ago, and now it has.  —  As of 1:11 PM ET, IBM is worth more than Microsoft:  —  That's a stunner for anybody who remembers the tech landscape in the early 1990s, when Microsoft's embrace of the PC revolution sent IBM into a tailspin.
Derek Kessler / PreCentral.net:
Wal-Mart to carry TouchPad, 32GB set at $599 [exclusive]  —  HP's distribution advantage over some other tablet manufacturers is hard to deny.  They have massive inroads with traditional electronics retailers like Best Buy and Amazon, their own online store, and a good relationship …
Ian Fette / Chromium Blog:
WebP in Chrome, Picasa, Gmail With a Slew of New Features and Improvements  —  Since we announced WebP, a new image format based on WebM technology and the VP8 codec, we've been working hard with the open web community to improve and enhance it.  Today we are happy to share news about a few new features and expanded support for WebP.
Discussion: TechCrunch
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch Europe:
Twitter sued for ‘breaking’ UK super injunction.  Oh yes.  —  We've been watching the British legal system turn itself into knots for the last couple of weeks, largely due to the ability of Twitter users to break just about any legal ‘super injunction’ a ‘celebrity’ (usually footballers) …
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Feature: Hands-on: grooving on the go with impressive Google Music Beta  —  Google unveiled its new cloud-based music streaming service during a keynote presentation at the Google I/O conference earlier this month.  The service allows users to upload their song library to Google's storage servers …
Wall Street Journal:
Google Was Warned on Rogue Drug Ads  —  WASHINGTON—Google Inc. was warned repeatedly by a group of state regulators and industry watchdogs that many of the online drugstores advertising on its network were violating U.S. laws, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Discussion: CNET News and Daring Fireball
Loopt Blog:
Groupon Now!  Comes to Loopt  —  Groupon lovers in Chicago (so, um, everyone in Chicago): listen up.  Today, Loopt teamed up with Groupon to pull its real-time offers, Groupon Now!  ™, into Loopt.  Loopt users can now receive alerts when there's a live deal nearby (lunchtime?  Ding!
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Twitter's First CTO Greg Pass Steps Down  —  We're hearing rumors that Twitter CTO Greg Pass has as of today left his post at Twitter, according to a source familiar with the company.  —  Prior to becoming CTO, Pass held the VP of Engineering position at Twitter, after being CTO and co-founder at Summize …
Discussion: SAI
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple Working on Privacy Mode Viewing Options for Future Displays  —  The US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application of Apple's yesterday that revealed one of the next chapters for Apple's top line displays.  The patent describes a method of allowing a user to steer display light beams …
 
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 More Items: 
James Kendrick / ZDNet:
Some Sprint customers seeing overage charges due to Google Voice integration
Thanks:arkanciscan
Ryan Kim / GigaOM:
IBM Ups Big Data Bet with New Software, $100 Million in Research
Mozilla Blog:
New Firefox Beta for Android - First Mobile Web Browser to Support Do Not Track Privacy Feature
Discussion: TechCrunch
Jim Puzzanghera / Los Angeles Times:
Facebook executive takes heat in hearing on privacy
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Judge has “serious questions” about Righthaven, halts all Colorado cases
 Earlier Items: 
Evelyn M. Rusli / DealBook:
Peter Thiel Shuns Hot Idea for Bigger Picture
Discussion: SAI
Business Week:
Apple Alumni Don't Fall Far from the Tree
 

 
From Mediagazer:

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

Leo Schwartz / Fortune:
Sources: CoinDesk owner Bullish fired three editors, including EIC Kevin Reynold, amid controversy over forcing editors to take down an article on Justin Sun

Wall Street Journal:
Sources detail creative differences between the Broccoli family, which has creative control over the James Bond franchise, and Amazon, which owns the franchise
 
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