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4:25 PM ET, August 15, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Larry Page / The Official Google Blog:
Supercharging Android: Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility  —  Since its launch in November 2007, Android has not only dramatically increased consumer choice but also improved the entire mobile experience for users.  Today, more than 150 million Android devices have been activated worldwide …
RELATED:
Henry Blodget / The Business Insider:
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GOOGLE-MOTOROLA DEAL: It Could End Up Being A Disaster  —  A very interesting move by Google this morning, buying handset hardware maker Motorola for $12.5 billion.  —  Google deserves credit for a big, bold move.  —  But let's be real: This deal could end up being a disaster.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Exclusive: Guess who else wanted to buy Motorola?  —  Google may not have had much of a choice when it came to buying Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion.  If it didn't, someone else would have and that would have put the company in an even bigger patent hole.
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Google's $12.5 billion Motorola Mobility bet: 6 reasons why it makes sense  —  Summary: Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility solves the search giant's patent problems, gives it a bigger say in hardware integration and fixes a few other issues.  Here's a look at the moving parts.
Chris Ziegler / This is my next:
Google buying Motorola: Nokia, Samsung, and other industry players react  —  Google said this morning that it dropped its “top five” Android partners a line yesterday to let them know that this Motorola acquisition was taking place — so naturally, many of them had prepared statements ready to go.
Dan Lyons / Real Dan Lyons Web Site:
Suck on it, AppleSoft — Google pulls a rope-a-dope  —  Everyone was baffled when Google made those crazy bids for the Nortel patents last month.  Remember?  They bid things like the distance from the earth to the sun, the number pi, and some other wacky numbers from mathematics.
Discussion: GigaOM and The Business Insider
Bloomberg:
Google Deal Said to Have $2.5 Billion Reverse Breakup Fee
Discussion: FOSS Patents and Gizmodo
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Google's Motorola acquisition: Microsoft patent case takes a new turn
Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:
Exclusive: 4G LTE iPhone currently in carrier testing  —  Apple's iPhone 5 is set to be unveiled in the next month or so, though no one quite knows what the device will feature thanks to the ongoing flood of rumors.  Sure, we have a pretty good idea of what it will look like …
Brian Heater / Engadget:
TabCo reveals itself as Fusion Garage, unveils Grid 10 tablet and Grid 4 smartphone  —  After months of teasing, TabCo finally revealed itself to the world — as suspected, the brand is, in fact a reboot of Fusion Garage, the company that gave the world the much maligned JooJoo tablet.
RELATED:
Todd Haselton / BGR:   Fusion Garage unveils $499 Grid 10 tablet, $399 Grid 4 smartphone
Andreas Udo de Haes / Computerworld:
Apple's evidence may be flawed in European Samsung case  —  Pictures of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 submitted into evidence look more like the iPad than the actual Samsung device does  —  (COMPUTERWORLD NETHERLANDS) — Apple and its lawyers have, perhaps inadvertently, misled the judge …
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Most Android vendors lost their Linux distribution rights, could face shakedown or shutdown  —  Last week I read about an Android licensing issue that I wasn't previously aware of.  It's a pretty serious one, and it's not that hard to understand.  The short version is that
Discussion: Roughly Drafted
Lee Mathews / ExtremeTech:
Mozilla takes Firefox version numbers to the next level... by removing them  —  A great collective gasp issued from tuned-in Firefox fans when Mozilla announced that it was switching to a Chrome-like release schedule for its browser.  The goal was to make Firefox more adaptable and to keep pace …
Discussion: Techie Buzz
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Official Steve Jobs biography set for November 21 release, based on forty interviews  —  According to Barnes and Noble's website, the official Steve Jobs biography - titled Steve Jobs: A Biography - is becoming available on November 21, 2011.  This is a big leap from the previously announced March 6 …
Ed Bott / The Ed Bott Report Blog:
Microsoft declares victory over Linux, names Apple and Google main rivals  —  Summary: Normally, reading a company's annual report is better than Ambien for lulling oneself to sleep.  But this year Microsoft's lawyers allowed some actual competitive insight to sneak into the normally dull 10-K reports …
Laura Hazard Owen / mocoNews:
New Amazon Student App Also Offers 6 Free Months Of Amazon Prime  —  It's not as good a deal as Amazon's offer last year that gave anyone with a .edu e-mail address a free year of Amazon Prime, but the new Amazon Student iOS app does come with six months of free two-day shipping.
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
iOS 5 Assistant based on Siri technology, may tap into contacts, calendars, e-mail  —  Siri's iPhone app promotional video: how iOS Assistant will likely function  —  While we were able to exclusively report on substantial evidence that Apple is planning a system-wide voice navigation system called …
Discussion: iPhone and iDownloadBlog.com
Neal Gabler / New York Times:
The Elusive Big Idea  —  Neal Gabler is a senior fellow at the Annenberg Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California and the author of “Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination.”  —  THE July/August issue of The Atlantic trumpets the “14 Biggest Ideas of the Year.”
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Facebook Pal Buddy Media Raises $54 Million  —  Facebook is worth anywhere from $50 billion to $100 billion.  Now Buddy Media, which helps advertisers manage their presence on the social network, is worth $500 million.  —  That's the valuation sources say the company earned in its most recent $54 million financing round.
Josh Lowensohn / CNET News:
Adobe debuts Muse, a no-code-required site builder  —  Adobe's targeting graphic designers with a new product codenamed Muse that aims to help them build working Web sites just like they'd design a prototype in one of the company's other design apps.  —  VIDEO  —  Your e-mail's been hacked: Now what?
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Pew Survey: Half Of U.S. Mobile Consumers Use Cell Phones For Realtime Info Retrieval  —  Mobile computing is more realtime than desktop computing.  That's just obvious.  Typically when you are on the go, you want to know what is going on right now around you.
Michael Kan / PC World:
Nokia to Bring Windows Phone 7 Devices to China Mobile  —  Nokia plans on launching Windows Phone 7 handsets through China's largest mobile phone carrier as the handset maker tries to fend off competition from Android devices and Apple's iPhone.  —  The smartphones would operate …
Discussion: IntoMobile, Electronista and PhoneArena
 
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 More Items: 
Eric Schmidt / Detroit Free Press:
Guest commentary: Detroit can win by using genius of the Internet
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Google Is Now The Proud Owner Of Android.me
Discussion: 9to5Google
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
RIM Hopes Small Businesses Can Help With Cloudy Future
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Time Warner Cable Buys Cable Company Insight Communications For $3 Billion
Discussion: Business Wire, VatorNews and GigaOM
Matthew Lasar / Ars Technica:
Feature: Mad about metered billing? They were in 1886, too
 Earlier Items: 
Claire Cain Miller / New York Times:
Flash-Sale Site Turns to More Traditional Retail Models
Ross Rubin / Engadget:
Switched On: TabCo's tease
Chris Yeh / Adventures in Capitalism:
The Lesson of Dropbox: Usage = Value
Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:
Gunning for the Copyright Reformers
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Facebook Bans Netlog For Violating Its Policies
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
OS X Lion $69 USB stick enters Apple's inventory system, release is imminent
David Murphy / PC Magazine:
Firefox 6 ‘Released’ Two Days Early
Discussion: InfoWorld, BetaNews and The Register
 

 
From Mediagazer:

CNBC:
Comcast confirms plans to spin off its NBCUniversal cable TV networks, including MSNBC and CNBC, with Mark Lazarus as CEO; the separation may take about a year

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
James Harding says the Tortoise-Observer deal could create a profitable media group and there isn't a guaranteed future for the Observer with the Guardian

Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Tubi launches Scenes, a mobile feature that lets viewers watch 60-to-90-second trailer-style clips from its library to help with content discovery
 
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