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5:20 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:
Roger Cheng / CNET News:
It's iPad or nothing, survey says  —  The tablet market continues to be summed up like this: the iPad and everything else.  And everything else doesn't amount to much.  —  That's according to a recent survey conducted by Robert W. Baird.  The study found that out of more than 1,100 potential …
Shadi Mahassel / The Big Blog:
Skype WiFi - now available on iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch  —  Skype WiFi (formerly known as Skype Access) is coming to iOS.  We've just launched a new iOS application that's free to download from Apple's App store.  —  With the new Skype WiFi app, you can go online on your iPhone …
RELATED:
Frederic Lardinois / SiliconFilter:
Skype WiFi Comes to iOS: Get Online for $0.06 Per Minute
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 …
Frank X. Shaw / The Official Microsoft Blog:
The Future of the Living Room  —  Summer is a transition time for many people: the break between school years; a vacation before tackling another year of work; and for network television that's been a guest in our living rooms for so long, summer is a time of transition between seasons.
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).
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple's Online Store Gets More Social With Twitter and Facebook Links  —  Following today's mysterious downtime for Apple's online stores, users have been scouring the store pages to look for any changes.  While the store remains largely unchanged with no major new product offerings …
RELATED:
Ellen McGirt / Fast Company:
Chris Hughes's Jumo And GOOD Join Forces
Reuters:
Apple, Qualcomm, others eye InterDigital: sources  —  (Reuters) - Apple Inc, Nokia and Qualcomm Inc are among several technology companies pondering bids for InterDigital Inc, sources familiar with the situation said.  —  The auction of the wireless telecoms specialist …
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.
Caroline Chen / The Snitch:
Anonymous Hacks BART Police Website, Releases Personal Information of 100 Officers  —  Hacker group Anonymous tweeted this morning that they had hacked into the BART Police Officer's Association website, releasing the addresses, email addresses, and passwords of 102 BART police officers.
RELATED:
Scientific American:
How Did BART Kill Cellphone Service?
Discussion: Threat Level
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Judge bounces Google's complaint over Android code viewing  —  ITC rejects Google effort to block expert testimony in Microsoft-Motorola patent battle  —  Computerworld - A U.S. trade judge has rejected Google's move to block the testimony of a Microsoft expert witness in the latter's 10-month dispute …
Richard MacManus / ReadWriteWeb:
Tech Media Obsessed With Deals & Rumors - Bring Back Ideas  —  Big ideas aren't prevalent anymore, posited academic and author Neal Gabler in a New York Times op-ed. “We are living in an increasingly post-idea world,” he wrote, “a world in which big, thought-provoking ideas that can't instantly …
Jeremy Ford / Singularity Hub:
$80 Android Phone Sells Like Hotcakes in Kenya, the World Next?  —  Hwawei's IDEOS smartphone is making waves in Kenya.  Where else will Android phones leave their mark?  —  It seems like just yesterday when only the slickest kid on the block had a smartphone, but now …
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 …
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.
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.
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: DailyTech and PetaPixel
Chris Evans / Screendaily:
Netflix to launch in Spain in January 2012  —  Major film streaming and DVD rental site Netflix will arrive in Spain in January 2012, following its success in the US and Canada, but will face a tough challenge in a country ravaged by piracy.  —  The news of Netflix's imminent arrival in Spain …
Adrian Glick Kudler / Curbed LA:
Someone Wants to Build a Glass-Roofed Apple Store on the Third Street Promenade  —  A tipster points us to this item scheduled for consideration by the Santa Monica Planning Commission tomorrow night—an unnamed retailer wants to tear down the old three story Borders space on the Third Street Promenade …
Faith Merino / VatorNews:
Amazon is retail king, reaching 1 in 5 Web users  —  ComScore releases data that finds Amazon reached 20% of the global Internet population in June  —  I don't know if anyone has noticed, but while Borders is scrambling to shed its dead weight of inventory by September, its clearance prices are still higher than Amazon's.
Zach Epstein / BGR:
Most expensive BlackBerry Bold 9900 yet hits T-Mobile on August 31st for $300  —  T-Mobile subscribers who thought $250 was a tough pill to swallow for the BlackBerry Bold 9900 will be none too happy with this morning's news.  T-Mobile on Wednesday finally announced the imminent launch …
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.
Brad Sams / Neowin.net:
Microsoft Office 365 currently experiencing an outage  —  Microsoft has been heavily promoting its Office 365 online platform.  For the most part, it has been well received by its users.  But, as of today, Microsoft is currently facing its first disruption to the service.
Discussion: ZDNet and The Next Web
Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:
Encoding.com's Vid.ly ready to go pro  —  Cloud-encoding vendor Encoding.com is betting big that its universal URL service Vid.ly isn't just a convenient way for users to share video files across various devices but that it could provide enough value to video publishers that they'd be willing to pay for it.
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb
 
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 More Items: 
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Square Co-Founder And Others Put $17M In Online Merchant Lender Kabbage
Discussion: VatorNews, VentureBeat and AllThingsD
Terry Baynes / Reuters:
AT&T sues customers seeking to block T-Mobile deal
Alan McConnell / Facebook Developers:
Simplifying the Developer App
Discussion: Inside Facebook and All Facebook
Haas School Newsroom:
Twitter's Biz Stone to Serve as Haas Executive Fellow
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
MileWise Launches Search Engine for Frequent Fliers
Discussion: VentureBeat and @mkapor
LAUNCH:
Exclusive: Uber CEO Lays out Road Map—Helicopters, Motorcycles and Food Delivery
Discussion: @jason
 Earlier Items: 
Lee Spears / Bloomberg:
Tudou to Raise $174 Million in U.S. IPO
Ian Austen / DealBook:
BlackBerry Maker RIM Again Subject of Takeover Talk
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Nintendo Wii makeover: Streamlined style but no GameCube support
Tim Stiffler-Dean / PreCentral.net:
SIM-free Pre3 now available via Palm Europe for £299.00 [UPDATE x2: Statement from HP]
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
A Bull Market in Tech Patents
Discussion: TechFlash and Epicenter
Anders Bylund / Ars Technica:
What Google lost—and gained—by not buying Motorola in 2010
Discussion: Tech and China and Slate Magazine
Emil Protalinski / Friending Facebook Blog:
Exclusive: Paul Ceglia says Facebook is doing the forgery
Discussion: Wellsville Daily …
 

 
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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