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4:55 AM ET, August 16, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
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.
RELATED:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
“Defending Android”  —  Bravo Google, well played.  —  There's no denying that Google's maneuver this morning to acquire Motorola for $12.5 billion in cash is remarkable.  Everyone is talking about every possible angle of the deal, as they should.  The summertime is usually the doldrums when it comes to tech news.
Discussion: AllThingsD, BBC and Local Media Watch
Dan Frommer / SplatF:
10 questions about Google's Motorola deal  — Can it actually work?  This is Google's biggest deal ever, by far, and it's adding 19,000 employees to the mix.  Google is expanding way beyond its core business into areas where Larry Page has no experience — and he could be a torturous leader …
Discussion: The Business Insider
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
$2.5 billion Google-Motorola break-up fee reflects sellers' concern and buyer's desperation  —  After a first set of quick thoughts, I want to do a follow-up because shortly after that post I saw a Bloomberg report on the reverse break-up fee Google and Motorola Mobility (MMI) agreed upon …
Andrew Ross Sorkin / DealBook:
Is Google Turning Into a Mobile Phone Company?  No, It Says  —  Back in 2004, Eric E. Schmidt, then Google's chief executive, proclaimed, “We're not going into the phone business, but we're going to make sure Google is on those phones.”  —  Less than a year later, however, Google did the opposite.
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
U.S. Carriers Silent on Motoroogle, but France Telecom Gives It a Thumbs Up
Matt Rosoff / The Business Insider:
Now Is The Perfect Time For HP To Step Up And License WebOS
Discussion: SlashGear
Jeffrey McCracken / Bloomberg:
Google Said to Approach Motorola Before Public Nudge From Icahn
Discussion: Bloomberg
Larry Page / The Official Google Blog:
Supercharging Android: Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility
Dan Frommer / SplatF:
Google-Motorola: Winners and losers
Discussion: Reuters and DailyFinance.com
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Balls  —  I'm fascinated by Dan Lyons's take on Google acquisition of Motorola today, “Suck on It, AppleSoft — Google Pulls a Rope-a-Dope”: … Lyons has always been an ass, but when did he get so bitter?  Siegler is one of the top writers on the Apple beat, period.
RELATED:
MG Siegler / parislemon:
Rope-A-Dope, Indeed  —  Sometimes you want so badly to say “I told you so!” after months of getting kicked in the ass, that you do so without really looking into what you're writing about.  Or even thinking, really.  —  Such is the predicament Dan Lyons finds himself in today.
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
BART Shuts Down Cell Service To Thwart Rumored Protests, Gets Actual Protests (And Has To Close Stations)  —  Since shutting down cell service on Thursday to try to quell rumored protests which never came to fruition, the Bay Area Transit Authority (BART) has had an interesting weekend and Monday.
RELATED:
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 …
RELATED:
Daniel Cooper / Engadget:
Did Apple alter photos of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in its injunction filing?
Discussion: VR-Zone and BGR
Matt Rosoff / The Business Insider:
Microsoft Is FINALLY Ready To Talk About Windows 8  —  Microsoft's Windows chief, Steve Sinofsky, is known for his “cone of silence” around upcoming products — even the Windows team used to have trouble getting information about Office when he led that group.  —  But it looks like he's finally ready to spill on Windows 8.
Taylor Wimberly / Android and Me:
CyanogenMod founder joins Samsung Mobile, plans to make Android more awesome  —  “I'm so tired of waiting for my smartphone to get the latest update of Android.  The CyanogenMod team releases updates days after the source code is available.  Why doesn't [insert handset maker] just hire Cyanogen?”
Electronista:
Microsoft drops Reader after Amazon, Apple take over  —  Microsoft Reader to shutter August 30 2012  —  Microsoft on Monday quietly said it would end its Reader app within a year.  Stores carrying the LIT format will pull the format on November 8 of this year, while the app would no longer …
Discussion: TechCrunch, Crave and ReadWriteWeb
Ben Parr / Mashable!:
President Obama Joins Foursquare  —  Foursquare has just gained its highest-profile user yet: President Barack Obama.  —  “The White House is now on Foursquare, a location-based social networking website, which is the latest way for you to engage with the administration,” The White House said on its blog.
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple releases $69 OS X Lion thumb drive, ships in 1-3 business days  —  As expected, Apple has released OS X Lion on a USB thumb drive via their online store.  The $69 thumb drive ships in 1-3 business days and requires 7GB of available storage space.  One caveat for users that install OS X Lion via …
Discussion: MacRumors and The Next Web, Thanks:markgurman
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
iOS devs pay $50,000 for collecting children's info in apps  —  The parent company of Broken Thumbs Apps—a prominent iOS app maker responsible for games like Zombie Duck Hunt, Truth or Dare, and Emily's Dress Up—has today settled with the Federal Trade Commission over its apparent collection …
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple reportedly kills plans for new iPad this fall due to Retina Display issues  —  Backing up a TiPB report from last week, Digitimes reports that Apple's plans for a Retina Display iPad launch this fall have been terminated; if they even existed in the first place.
 
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 More Items: 
Josh Ong / AppleInsider:
Non-iPad tablet makers expected to slash prices to move inventory overstock
Discussion: DigiTimes, I4U News and The Next Web
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Digital Chocolate Scoops Up Game Publisher Sandlot Games
Discussion: Business Wire and GeekWire
Brad Molen / Engadget:
Motorola Defy+ leaves the gym, coming this fall with slightly more muscle
Discussion: PR Newswire, eWeek, Gizmodo and VentureBeat
Casey Newton / San Francisco Chronicle:
Startup Weebly takes profitable leap forward
Colleen Taylor / GigaOM:
It's official: Facebook is the 21st century Nielsen family
Miles Weiss / Bloomberg:
Thiel's Clarium Hedge Fund Invests in Tech
Discussion: The Business Insider and Betabeat
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Twitter Opens Photo Service To Third-Parties — API Hints At Other Media Down The Line
 Earlier Items: 
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
South Korea's “real names” debacle and the virtues of online anonymity
AppleInsider:
Construction begins at site of Apple's Grand Central Terminal store
Lee Mathews / ExtremeTech:
Mozilla takes Firefox version numbers to the next level... by removing them
Discussion: Softpedia News and SiliconFilter
Ed Bott / The Ed Bott Report Blog:
Microsoft declares victory over Linux, names Apple and Google main rivals
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Official Steve Jobs biography set for November 21 release, based on forty interviews