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10:30 PM ET, August 8, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Charlie Kindel / cek.log:
After 21 Years: Goodbye Microsoft  —  Today I announced that after 21 years I am leaving Microsoft to build a new company.  —  I'm not yet ready to disclose details about the new venture but I can say I will be staying in the Seattle area to build it.  It has to do with sports, advertising …
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Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Windows Phone GM leaving Microsoft, with a rallying cry  —  Microsoft veteran Charlie Kindel, who led the effort to get independent app developers on board with Windows Phone, is leaving the company after 21 years to launch a startup — but he says he still believes strongly …
Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:
RIM's first QNX phone revealed: BlackBerry Colt to launch in Q1 2012  —  While Research In Motion just recently announced its new BlackBerry 7 device lineup — including the fantastic BlackBerry Bold 9900 — we all know that the real-deal smartphones are still in the oven.
RELATED:
Simon Sage / IntoMobile:
First QNX BlackBerry currently runs a single core processor, no BES support?
Discussion: Pulse2 and PhoneDog.com
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Spotify's U.S. Score So Far: 1.4 Million Users, 175,000 Paying Customers  —  That Spotify invitation you scored may be a little less rare than you thought.  The streaming music service has already signed up 1.4 million U.S. users for its free trial, according to a source familiar with the company's operations.
Krishna Panicker / The Big Blog:
Lion Support & HD Video Calls with Skype 5.3 for Mac OS X  —  On the heels of our recent update to Skype 5.2 for Mac OS X, we are pleased to announce that we are making even more improvements to our Mac client with the release of Skype 5.3 for Mac OS X. Along with a number of fixes and improvements …
Matthew Lynley / VentureBeat:
Updated: Fresh IPOs stumble amid market tantrum.  Is the IPO window closed?  —  It's day two of complete market mayhem.  Has the chaos closed the window for companies looking to file for an initial public offering?  —  As of market close, the NASDAQ composite index was down nearly 7 percent for the day.
RELATED:
Jolie O'Dell / VentureBeat:   Silicon Valley VC Tim Draper: “U.S. just dropped a notch”
Luke Wroblewski / LukeW:
On Twitter Acquiring Bagcheck...  Very proud to let you all know that Twitter has acquired Bagcheck.  As co-founder & CPO, I wanted to offer my personal thanks to everyone that was part of our journey, and share some of the technology and design lessons we learned over the past year in the hopes …
RELATED:
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Twitter Acquires List Sharing And Discovery Platform Bagcheck, Sam Pullara Joins Engineering Team
RELATED:
Regina Sinsky / VentureBeat:
Dropbox funding: Are founders personally cashing in on $300M round?  —  [Update: We've just head from a close source close to the investor syndicate on the pending round, and he said it's not true the founders are getting a majority of the round.  He would not specify details.]
Discussion: GigaOM
Josh Constine / Inside Facebook:
Facebook's News Feed Links Status Updates to Pages Even If Users Don't  —  Facebook is now showing a special type of news feed story that links to a Page when multiple friends post updates that mention the Page's name, even if they don't explicitly tag it.  The story reads “[Friend's name] …
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
200,000 BitTorrent Users Sued In The United States  —  Mass file-sharing lawsuits have been filed all across the United States in recent months, almost exclusively targeting BitTorrent users.  Copyright holders have embraced this new revenue stream by the dozen and new lawsuits are being filed every week.
Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:
Apple fires back at Lodsys, insists on intervening on behalf of developers  —  Apple insists it will intervene on behalf of developers being sued by patent troll Lodsys, reports Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents.  This insistence on behalf of Apple shows that the company is serious about stepping …
Discussion: AppleInsider, TUAW and FOSS Patents
Arnold Kim / MacRumors:
Apple Launches $999 iMac for Educational Institutions  —  Apple has quietly launched a lower cost $999 iMac for educational institutions this morning.  The new low-end model is labeled “Education only” and is not available for individuals.  The new iMac appeared on Apple's Higher Educational online store early this morning.
Tim Carmody / Epicenter:
Amazon's New(ish) Social Network — Now Lifting Even More Info From Facebook, Twitter  —  Screenshot of my Public Notes profile at kindle.amazon.com  —  Amazon's “Public Notes” feature for Kindle has been available for months.  So why did my following and follower counts rocket up overnight to five times what they had been?
Discussion: @dannysullivan
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
A New Kind of Marketing Company From Former Apple Exec Forming With Backing of Twitter's Dorsey  —  Allison Johnson, who had been a top marketing exec for Apple, is finally close to launching on a new kind of marketing firm, sources said, with backing from Twitter Co-founder Jack Dorsey and Malaria No More Co-founder Ray Chambers.
Discussion: The Next Web
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple releases tool to create an OS X Lion recovery/installation external drive  —  For those who are unable to use the web-based recovery tool for OS X Lion, Apple has released a new Mac application that allows users to create their own OS X Lion recovery/installation external drives.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
What's the Fastest Web Browser in the “Real World?”  Chrome.  —  Compuware's benchmarks division, Gomez, has just released new data from a website measurement project whose goal was to determine what the fastest web browser is in the “real world” of desktop users.
Discussion: 9to5Google
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
MobileMe users who migrate to iCloud get 25GB of storage in transition  —  Since opening the tool for developers to migrate from MobileMe to iCloud, Apple has revealed to MobileMe users that they will retain their MobileMe storage when their account becomes an iCloud account.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
How Your Social Data Will Power Walmart's E-Commerce Revolution  —  Walmart is planning to launch several new projects this holiday season based on the technology it acquired from the social media startup Kosmix back in April.  Kosmix's platform previously powered several services …
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Syrian hackers retaliate, deface Anonymous' social network  —  Counters Anonymous' earlier sabotage of nation's Ministry of Defense site  —  Computerworld - After the hacking gang Anonymous took credit for defacing Syria's Ministry of Defense website, a Syrian group today retaliated …
Dan Rowinski / ReadWriteWeb:
Facebook Adds Two New Security Features to Its Mobile Platform  —  Facebook announced two new safety features for its mobile platforms today intended to make interacting with the platform easier and more secure.  Facebook is bringing its “social reporting” feature to mobile browsers as well as mobile password reset.
John Biggs / TechCrunch:
I Am Jonathan's Starbucks Card: A Social Payment Experiment (With Free Coffee)  —  Jonathan's Starbucks card lives in Jonathan Stark's wallet.  You can download a copy of the card (shown here) and, when there is money on it, scan it at any Starbucks to buy coffee and, as far as anyone can tell, Jonathan doesn't care.
Greg Sandoval / Media Maverick:
Apple's rumored ‘Replay’ service a ways off  —  Warner Bros.' is one of at least four top film studios that Apple has yet to obtain streaming-movie licenses from, sources say.  —  The rumors from last week about Apple being “on the edge” of launching a cloud-movie service that would enable iTunes users …
 
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 More Items: 
Amruta Sabnis / Reuters:
Trade agency to eye Apple complaint against HTC
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Digg's New Newswire is a Radical Experiment in Social News
Discussion: Digg Blog, Walyou and BlueGlass
Brendan Sasso / The Hill:
Study: Facebook use correlates with narcissism in teens
E.B. Boyd / Fast Company:
Meet Google's Voice Hunter On A Quest For 300 Languages
Brian Chesky / The Airbnb Blog:
Creating Meaningful Connections
Discussion: TechCrunch
Christopher Soghoian / slight paranoia:
Warrantless “emergency” surveillance of Internet communications by DOJ up 400%
Discussion: Techdirt
 Earlier Items: 
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Judge does not allow Google to outmaneuver Oracle with untimely invalidity contentions
Xu Wei / CHINAdaily:
Unauthorized Apple retailers face logo ban
 

 
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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