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12:05 PM ET, August 17, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
OuchPad: Best Buy Sitting on a Pile of Unsold HP Tablets  —  There have been plenty of hints that Hewlett-Packard's TouchPad isn't selling well.  First there was a $50 discount.  Then there were spot discounts of $100 at outlets like Costco.  Then the $100 discount became permanent.
RELATED:
JP Mangalindan / Fortune:
Facebook: Google+ has no users  —  Facebook executives have choice words for Google's efforts to bring casual games to its fledgling social network.  —  FORTUNE — A little less than two months after Google launched its fledgling social network, Google+, Silicon Valley's latest rivalry is heating up.
RELATED:
Josh Lowensohn / CNET News:
Google, Facebook spar over Google+ invite issue
Farhad Manjoo / Slate Magazine:
Android Isn't Free  —  How Google's acquisition of Motorola Mobility will make it more like Apple.  —  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has a knack for making completely boneheaded predictions about his competitors' products, so when he took to blasting Google's Android strategy last year, many observers—myself included—dismissed him.
RELATED:
Anders Bylund / Ars Technica:   What Google lost—and gained—by not buying Motorola in 2010
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Photovine Grows Ready For Public Use; Easily Google's Most Ambitious Photo-Sharing App Yet  —  Google's Slide team has been busy.  In the past few months, they've unleashed a range of social apps meant to fulfill different needs.  But the strange thing is that Google hasn't done a thing to promote any of them.
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Exclusive: Apple's Mobile Ad Head Andy Miller Departs for Highland Capital  —  Andy Miller (pictured here), the high-profile VP of mobile advertising at Apple, is planning on leaving the company, according to sources close to the situation.  —  Sources said Miller — who sold Quattro Wireless …
Scientific American:
How Did BART Kill Cellphone Service?  —  The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system initially claimed a phone service shut-down was performed by telecoms, but that's not the latest story  —  The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) shut down subterranean cellular phone service …
Discussion: Hillicon Valley
RELATED:
David Kravets / Threat Level:
San Francisco Subway Spokesman Says Cellphone Shutdown Was His Idea
Discussion: TechCrunch and TechEye
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple currently plans to start pre-orders for next iPhone on Sept. 30, launch Oct. 7  —  We've independently heard that Apple has plans to begin selling the next-generation iPhone on Friday, October 7th; the date first reported by TiPB.  According to our sources, Apple has been weighing between launching …
Miyoung Kim / Reuters:
Samsung's Lee eyes deals to boost software prowess: report  —  (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee has asked the firm's top management to seek measures including acquisitions to enhance its software prowess, local media reports said on Wednesday.
Discussion: Electronista
Colleen Taylor / GigaOM:
StumbleUpon's new Explore Box lets you stumble with purpose  —  Since its inception, StumbleUpon has worked pretty much as the name advertised: It allows you to stumble upon cool things on the web, rather than through explicit web searches.  But a new beta feature is set to expand StumbleUpon's offering …
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
A Bull Market in Tech Patents  —  Google was willing on Monday to pay $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility in no small part because of its stockpile of 17,000 patents.  The patent portfolio, some analysts estimate, could represent more than half of the value of the deal, or more than $400,000 a patent.
New York Post:
City to test parking meters that can be paid by phone  —  Drivers may soon be able to phone the meter instead of feeding it in person.  —  New York City plans to test new “pay by phone” parking meters that warn motorists as the time winds down and invites them to buy extra minutes without returning to their cars.
Ian Austen / DealBook:
BlackBerry Maker RIM Again Subject of Takeover Talk  —  OTTAWA — Ever since the introduction of its first BlackBerry more than a decade ago, Research in Motion has defied expectations that it would be gobbled up by a larger rival and has effectively created the market for smartphones.
Emil Protalinski / Friending Facebook Blog:
Exclusive: Paul Ceglia says Facebook is doing the forgery  —  Summary: Following Facebook's accusations of forgery, courtroom adversary Paul Ceglia fires back as he looks to open source his lawsuit through a wiki.  —  Paul Ceglia, a man in a heated lawsuit with Facebook, wants his side heard.
Bloomberg:
Kodak Worth More in Breakup With $3B Patents  —  Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) may hold patents worth five times more than the business itself, making the 131- year-old camera company a target in the billion-dollar hunt for inventions used in mobile phones.  —  Kodak, which once had a market value …
Discussion: AppleInsider
Michael Stroh / The Windows Blog:
New Xbox LIVE features, games on the way for Windows Phone  —  It's a sweet day for mobile gamers.  Today Microsoft previewed new Xbox LIVE titles and features coming to Windows Phone in the months ahead.  The announcement came at the annual Gamescom conference in Cologne, Germany.
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Nintendo Wii makeover: Streamlined style but no GameCube support  —  Nintendo is readying a new version of the Wii, featuring a streamlined design intended to be placed horizontally rather than vertically, and with a new, lower price.  Confirmed so far for the UK market …
Tim Stiffler-Dean / PreCentral.net:
SIM-free Pre3 now available via Palm Europe for £299.00 [UPDATE x2: Statement from HP]  —  There have been a thousand-and-one rumors and bits of news going around of the HP Pre3 being made available as a SIM-Free device in Europe, but now it's looking to be official.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Jeremy, Call Your Mother — She's Worried Sick  —  When we switched to Facebook comments several months ago, we spun it as a way to combat the trolls.  But you know, there was actually a secret agenda.  We wanted to bring families closer together.  —  And it's with great pleasure that I can now announce that it's working.
Amar Toor / Engadget:
Motorola's new Droid HD makes cameo alongside Droid Bionic  —  We've just received a fascinating set of photos from a sharp-eyed tipster, who sent along images of what appear to be Motorola's Droid Bionic and, most alluringly, that rumored handset known as the Droid HD (pictured above).
Jun Yang / Bloomberg:
Apple Sued by South Korean IPhone Users Over Location Data  —  A group of South Korean users of Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s iPhone sued the company in a local court, claiming it invaded their privacy by allowing the smartphone to collect location data without their consent.
Alyson Shontell / The Business Insider:
Zynga Acquires Mobile Games Studio Astro Ape  —  We received a tip today about some suspicious LinkedIn activity.  —  Employees at NYC mobile games studio, Astro Ape, are changing their places of employment to Zynga on the professional network.  —  Chieh Huang, Astro Ape's CEO, has switched his profile information.
Chris Smith / AppleInsider:
Apple predicted to ‘strike back’ at Google with its own patent purchase  —  Following Google's bid to purchase Motorola Mobility, Apple is predicted strike a deal — perhaps with competitors Nokia or RIM — to consolidate its already significant patent portfolio and better position itself both offensively and defensively.
Discussion: Softpedia News and Guardian
Michael Gorman / Engadget:
Fusion Garage Grid 10 tablet and Grid 4 smartphone hands-on  —  Yesterday we gave you the lowdown on Fusion Garage's second foray into tablet computing, the Grid 10.  While its tablet world topping pixel density, Tegra 2 silicon, and fresh to death OS certainly sound awesome …
Discussion: Web 2.0 Asia Blog and IntoMobile
 
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 More Items: 
Adrian Glick Kudler / Curbed LA:
Someone Wants to Build a Glass-Roofed Apple Store on the Third Street Promenade
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Glam Media Takes On Apple's iAd With New Brand-Focused Mobile Ad Platform
Lee Spears / Bloomberg:
Tudou to Raise $174 Million in U.S. IPO
Soo Ai Peng / Reuters:
China's Baidu may face tougher rules after state media criticism
Discussion: DigiCha and DigiCha
Rip Empson / TechCrunch:
Ooyala Now Powering ESPN's Billion-Plus Video Streams
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple Wins Major Patent for Integrating Cellular Antennas into MacBook and iMac Keyboards
Discussion: AppleInsider and MacRumors
 Earlier Items: 
Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:
Time Warner Cable's future is in broadband, not TV
Edmund Lee / AdAge:
What's the Most Popular Channel on YouTube?
Matthew Lynley / VentureBeat:
Updated: Cloud storage provider Box.net raising $35M at $550M valuation
Discussion: SiliconANGLE and TechCrunch, Thanks:logicalmoron
Christian Torres / Washington Post:
More drug companies close Facebook pages as Walls open
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and Gizmodo
 

 
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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