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9:40 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:
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
RIM Left in 'No Man's Land' By Google Deal  —  Research In Motion Ltd. (RIMM), maker of the BlackBerry smartphone and PlayBook tablet computer, may have the most to lose from Google Inc. (GOOG)'s deal to acquire Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc.  —  Google's proposed $12.5 billion acquisition …
Discussion: InfoQ
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.
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.
Dan Frommer / SplatF:
Google-Motorola: Winners and losers  —  Google's move to acquire Motorola for $12.5 billion will shift some of the power and balance in the mobile industry.  Here are some of the initial winners and losers:  —  Winners  — Motorola and Sanjay Jha: Let's be honest — the comeback wasn't going great.
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
U.S. Carriers Silent on Motoroogle, but France Telecom Gives It a Thumbs Up  —  While there is much speculation on the effect that Google's deal to buy Motorola Mobility would have on hardware makers, another interesting question is how it will affect its always delicate relationships with cellular carriers.
Jeffrey McCracken / Bloomberg:   Google Said to Approach Motorola Before Public Nudge From Icahn
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
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 …
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:
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Intel rejects 50% Ultrabook CPU price cut demand from notebook players  —  Intel, facing notebook players' demand of supplying Ultrabook CPUs at a price 50% lower than original to help increase their profitability, rejected the proposal and is only willing to provide 20% discounts …
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?”
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
LinkedIn Redesigns Android, iPhone Apps With Groups And More; Debuts HTML5 Mobile Site  —  LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner explained on the company's first earnings call a few weeks ago that the company is planning to make a big investment in its mobile strategy.  Today, the professional social network …
Guardian:
MI5 joins social messaging trawl for riot organisers  —  Intelligence agency asked to crack encrypted messages - especially on BlackBerry Messenger - to help police  —  The security service MI5 and the electronic interception centre GCHQ have been asked by the government to join the hunt …
Discussion: Newlaunches.com and CNET News
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: IntoMobile, 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.
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.
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.
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 …
Josh Lowensohn / Crave: The gadget blog:
Starbucks serves up free iPhone apps  —  Starbucks is now serving up paid applications for free as part of its “Pick of the Week” program.  —  The next time you go into a Starbucks for a drink or snack, you could end up walking out with a free iPhone app too.
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 …
 
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 More Items: 
Brian Proffitt / ITworld:
Android foes still beating GPL non-compliance drum
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
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
WhaleShark Media Buys UK's Top Coupon Site, VoucherCodes
 Earlier Items: 
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
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
Discussion: AppleInsider and Open Source Blog
 

 
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

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Substack, very deliberately, tries to have it both ways by saying publications on their platform are independent while presenting them all as parts of Substack
 
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