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7:20 PM ET, November 8, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Amazon.com:
All-New Kindle Family - Kindle, Kindle Touch, Kindle Touch 3G and Kindle Fire - Coming to Over 16,000 Retail Locations Across the U.S.  —  In addition to Amazon.com, customers will be able to find, discover and purchase the $79 Kindle, $99 Kindle Touch, $149 Kindle Touch 3G, and $199 Kindle Fire at Best Buy, Target, Walmart and more
RELATED:
Michael Gorman / Engadget:
Kindle family goes retail, coming to a store near you on November 15th
Discussion: The Verge
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple seeds iOS 5.0.1 early to end users for battery life testing, releases internal memo about battery issue  —  Following the release of iOS 5.0.1 to developers to test the new software against applications in addition to test for battery life and Siri improvements, Apple is now seeding iOS 5.0.1 to certain end users for testing.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Republic Wireless Officially Unveils $19/Month Service: Unlimited Everything, No Contracts  —  Last week we broke the news on a previously-stealthy mobile carrier called Republic Wireless, which I've been tracking closely since.  The story so far: Bandwidth.com, which provides the VoIP backbone …
RELATED:
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
Republic Wireless Delivers $19 Wireless - Driven by Wi-Fi, With a Few Massive Caveats  —  Republic Wireless, a division of Bandwidth.com, has jumped into the wireless game with a new no-contract service they hope turns a few heads.  The company today officially took the wraps off a new $19 a month service …
Joshua Topolsky / The Verge:
HP to hold all-hands meeting tonight, fate of webOS likely to be decided  —  Word has made its made to us through multiple sources that HP plans to hold an all-hands meeting tonight — led by Meg Whitman — on which we'll likely hear what is going to happen with webOS.
Don Reisinger / CNET News:
Google's Schmidt: Android ‘started before the iPhone effort’  —  Steve Jobs wasn't too fond of Android.  —  Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt has taken issue with Steve Jobs' claims that Android copied the iPhone.  —  “Our lawsuit is saying, 'Google you f***ing ripped off the iPhone …
RELATED:
Reuters:
Google chairman says will not favor Motorola
The Mozilla Blog:
Mozilla Firefox Adds Twitter Search and New Features that Make Web Browsing Easier  —  Today, we're releasing an update to Firefox for Windows, Mac, Linux and Firefox for Android.  This update includes new features that make Web browsing easier and give users and developers more control over how they customize their Web experience.
Bloomberg:
Alibaba, Softbank Said to Seek Partners for Yahoo  —  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Softbank Corp. (9984) are talking with private-equity funds about making a bid for all of Yahoo! Inc. without the company's blessing, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Discussion: Forbes and Tech Trader Daily
Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:
Kobo Acquired By Japanese E-Commerce Firm Rakuten For $315 Million  —  E-bookseller and e-reader company Kobo is being acquired by Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten for $315 million.  The company says it will continue to expand in the U.S., while growing its international market share through Rakuten.
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Adobe ‘Restructures,’ Eliminates 750 Jobs In North America And Europe  —  We've been hearing rumors of Adobe layoffs all day, and the company just released a statement announcing that it is ‘restructuring’ its business, which will result in the elimination of 750 jobs in North America and Europe.
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
I wish I had never heard of Google+'s brand pages  —  OK, you all know I'm Google+'s biggest fan, right?  For the past five months I've poured almost all my time into my Google+ account, which has paid off with a fun community and a lot of followers.  —  But yesterday Google+ rolled out brand pages.
RELATED:
Randall Smith / Wall Street Journal:
Yelp Moves Toward IPO, Picks Bankers  —  Yelp Inc., the online review website, has picked Goldman Sachs Group inc. and Citigroup Inc. to lead an initial public offering, according to a person familiar with the IPO plans.  Yelp, based in San Francisco, has been considering an IPO and in July hired …
Discussion: PC Magazine and Business Insider
Dan Primack / Fortune:
Killing the 500-shareholder rule  —  The 500-shareholder rule is heading for the scrapyard.  —  Senators Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) today introduced legislation that would effectively eliminate a rule that many have cited as the reason Facebook may go public next year.
Discussion: Betabeat and Business Insider
Alexia Tsotsis / Techcrunch:
Head Of Communications Sean Garrett Leaves Twitter  —  Twitter Head of Communications Sean Garrett (@SG) has just announced that he's leaving Twitter in a series of tweets.  When asked to confirm his departure, Twitter Communications Representative Carolyn Penner said, “I think his tweets speak for themselves...”
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Twitter Rolling Out Activity Streams That Make The Home Page A Dashboard  —  Twitter has begun the rollout, or at least a significant spot test, of the Activity and @USERNAME streams it announced in mid-August.  The @USERNAME stream replaces the @Mentions and Retweets streams …
Discussion: The Verge and AllTwitter
Rachel King / Between the Lines Blog:
Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL announce display ad deals  —  Summary: Whether or not Yahoo is going to be bought by anyone soon (including Microsoft and AOL, as previously rumored), the three are linked for now by new display advertising deals.  Basically, the agreements between Yahoo …
Casey Maloney Rosales Muller / Facebook Developer Blog:
Early Results: The Open Graph and Music  —  Over the past few years, developers have started to demonstrate that when music is discovered through friends, people listen to more music and a wider variety of artists.  At f8, we introduced an evolution of Facebook Platform and launched …
Asher Moses / Sydney Morning Herald:
Defiant retailer gives Apple the finger  —  An Australian retailer who Apple is threatening to sue for selling the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 despite an injunction is calling Apple's bluff and says it's ready for a “cat and mouse” game.  The retailer, dMavo, is restructuring its business …
Discussion: Electronista and 9to5Google
Susan Decker / Bloomberg:
Barnes & Noble Urges U.S. Regulators to Probe Microsoft on Mobile Patents  —  Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS) asked U.S. regulators to investigate whether Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) seeks to monopolize the mobile-device market by demanding patent royalties on electronics running on Google Inc.'s Android operating system.
Sean Ludwig / VentureBeat:
Salesforce debuts Do.com, a smart social productivity app for small teams  —  Salesforce has revealed a new web-based application called Do.com that combines task management with social features to create a smart way to get things done on your own and in groups.
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Will there be a Silverlight 6 (and does it matter)?  —  Summary: Microsoft is poised to release to manufacturing Silverlight 5.  There's word from some of my contacts that this might be the last major release of Silverlight, but Microsoft isn't confirming or denying.
Discussion: The Next Web
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Saul Hansell Departs AOL to Be EIR at Betaworks  —  Saul Hansell, the prominent former New York Times tech reporter who went to AOL several years ago to head one of its content efforts called Seed, will leave the company to become an entrepreneur-in-residence at Betaworks.
Discussion: Saul Hansell's Blog and Betabeat
Ryan Kim / GigaOM:
AT&T launches VoIP app for international calls  —  AT&T is launching a new mobile app that allows its smartphone customers to make international calls via VoIP.  The new AT&T Call International will allow customers to make calls overseas at cheap rates like 4 cents per minute to China …
John Markoff / New York Times:
Computer Experts Building 1830s Babbage Analytical Engine  —  Researchers in Britain are about to embark on a 10-year, multimillion-dollar project to build a computer — but their goal is neither dazzling analytical power nor lightning speed.  —  Indeed, if they succeed …
Discussion: The Verge and Business Insider
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
‘Apple Store’ App for iOS Updated to Support New Self-Checkout System for Retail Stores  —  In line with our report from the previous weekend, Apple has updated its Apple Store application for iOS [App Store] with new support for self-checkout at the company's retail stores.
Consumer Reports News:
Consumer Reports recommends the iPhone 4S  —  The Apple iPhone 4S is among the recommended models in our newly updated Ratings of smart phones.  Apple's newest smart phone performed very well in our tests, and while it closely resembles the iPhone 4 in appearance, it doesn't suffer …
Wall Street Journal:
Dish in Talks for Internet TV  —  Satellite-TV Provider Also Posts Higher Profit but Subscriber Losses  —  Dish Network Corp. has approached several media companies about the possibility of licensing their TV channels for use on a new pay-TV service to be delivered over the Internet …
Discussion: Electronista
Rocky Agrawal / VentureBeat:
Deal fatigue moves Amazon to unsubscribe users from its daily deals mailer  —  Amazon is automatically unsubscribing some users from its AmazonLocal daily deals mailing list.  Deal fatigue, the idea that consumers are tiring of daily deal emails, has been one of the longstanding concerns with the daily deals space.
Nick Bilton / Bits:
An Infusion of Money for Soundtracking, a Social Music App  —  SoundTracking, a social mobile application that allows people to create “musical postcards” that can then be shared with friends on social sites, announced Tuesday that it has received $4.75 million in financing.
Discussion: TechCrunch, Thanks:lauraglu
 
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 More Items: 
Kin Lane / API Evangelist:
Google Launches Oauth 2.0 Playground
Discussion: Google Code Blog, Thanks:kinlane
Ari Levy / Bloomberg:
Thiel's Founders Fund Is Said to Be Raising Up to $600 Million in Capital
T.C. Sottek / The Verge:
Senate vote on reversal of net neutrality rules scheduled for Thursday, White House promises veto
Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:
Researchers Find Amazon Cloud Servers Teeming With Backdoors And Other People's Data
Kashmir Hill / The Not-So Private Parts:
Supreme Court Justices Concerned About Pervasive, Technology-Enabled Government Surveillance
Paul Massari / Harvard University Gazette:
Zuckerberg ‘friends’ Harvard during visit
Discussion: Reuters and CBS News
 Earlier Items: 
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
SimpleGeo Co-Founder Joe Stump Leaves Post-Urban Airship Acquisition
Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Wired releases images via Creative Commons, but reopens a debate on what “noncommercial” means
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
BankSimple Is Now Just ‘Simple’, And It's Accepting Its First Users
Discussion: Simple, Betabeat and VentureBeat
Chloe Albanesius / PC Magazine:
Zuckerberg: Google, Yahoo, Microsoft Collect Data ‘Behind Your Back’
Discussion: The Next Web
Eric Jackson / Forbes:
The Owner of Yahoo!'s Patents Could Cripple Facebook's IPO Aspirations
Discussion: VentureBeat and GMSV