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11:35 PM ET, December 16, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Michael Arrington / Uncrunched:
Why Heather Matters  —  TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde announced her departure today.  —  I'm so angry.  —  Drift back to the end of 2006.  TechCrunch was a year and a half old.  My hobby had turned into a business.  Federated Media was selling our standard ads and sent a small check every month.
RELATED:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Goodbye, Heather  —  Heather Harde, the business brains behind TechCrunch, will be stepping down at the end of the year as general manager of AOL's technology properties (including TechCrunch, Engadget, Joystiq, and TUAW).  AOL GM Jay Kirsch, who oversees Autos, Finance, and Industry on the business side …
David Kravets / Threat Level:
Stop Online Piracy Act Vote Delayed  —  The House Judiciary Committee is considering whether to send the Stop Online Piracy Act to the House floor abruptly adjourned Friday with no new vote date set — a surprise given that the bill looked certain to pass out of committee today.
RELATED:
Joshua Kopstein / MOTHERBOARD:
Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works  —  I remember fondly the days when we were all tickled pink by our elected officials' struggle to understand how the internet works.  Whether it was George W. Bush referring to “the internets” or Senator Ted Stevens describing …
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Android 4.0.3 announced, bringing ‘variety of optimizations and bug fixes’ to phones and tablets  —  Merely a day after Verizon's version of the Galaxy Nexus was gifted with v4.0.2, Google itself is announcing Android 4.0.3, a so-called “ incremental release of the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) platform.”
RELATED:
JR Raphael / Computerworld:
Android Ice Cream Sandwich now rolling out to Nexus S (GSM versions)
Jamie Lendino / PC Magazine:
Google's Android Update Alliance Is Already Dead  —  At the Google I/O conference in May, many Android phone vendors and U.S. wireless carriers made a long-awaited promise: From then on, any new Android phone would receive timely OS updates for at least 18 months following launch …
Discussion: Business Insider and parislemon
Alexei Oreskovic / Reuters:
Exclusive: Google CEO's inner circle: Meet the L Team  —  (Reuters) - The most powerful group at Google Inc used to be known simply as “The OC,” short for operating committee.  Now, it goes by a more telling name: “L Team,” short for Larry's Team.  —  The change is more than a mere rebranding …
Discussion: Business Insider and @karaswisher
Dan Seifert / MobileBurn.com:
Sprint: Carrier IQ has been disabled on our devices  —  A recent rumor has hit the internet stating that Sprint has asked its manufacturer partners to remove Carrier IQ's software from all of the devices that it carries.  We reached out to Sprint for a comment on the matter …
RELATED:
Steven Sinofsky / MSDN Blogs:
Signing in with a picture password … The experience of signing in to your PC with touch has traditionally been a cumbersome one.  In a world with increasingly strict password requirements—with numbers, symbols, and capitalization—it can take upwards of 30 seconds to enter a long, complex password on a touch keyboard.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
An Explanation For Why UMG May Be Right That It Can Pull Down MegaUpload's Video [Updated]  —  The legal fight between Megaupload and Universal Music Group keeps getting more and more... odd.  After the court gave UMG basically a day to respond, the company filed its response …
RELATED:
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
UMG claims “right to block or remove” YouTube videos it doesn't own
Laura Bly / USA Today:
In-flight dating?  Using social media to find a seatmate  —  In what could be fodder for a flight from hell - or potential membership in the Mile High Club - KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is launching a “meet and seat” service early next year that will let passengers tap their social media accounts …
Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:
Amazon Paid You $5 to Leave a Store; Now eBay Is Giving You $10 to Return  —  EBay is partnering with three major retailers to get online shoppers to also buy at brick-and-mortar stores.  —  The partnership is an obvious comeback to last weekend's promotion by Amazon, which motivated consumers …
Discussion: VentureBeat and The PayPal Blog
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
iPhone 4S Debuts in Over 20 New Countries, Pricing Starts as High as $1400  —  In line with our report from earlier this month, Apple has launched the iPhone 4S in a number of new countries today.  Based on an examination of Apple's site and those of its carrier partners …
Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:
Bing, Yahoo Now Neck & Neck In US Search Market Share  —  Bing's slow growth in US search market share continues, and Microsoft's two-and-a-half-year-old search engine is now practically neck-and-neck with Yahoo.  Both, however, remain far behind Google.  —  The latest comScore numbers …
Adrianne Jeffries / Betabeat:
Stanford Pulls Bid for New York Tech Campus  —  Stanford was the frontrunner in the application for an applied sciences sciences and engineering campus on Roosevelt Island.  But according to a press release from the Stanford news service, that's no longer the case.
Discussion: NYConvergence.com and Digits
Rip Empson / TechCrunch:
The Echo Nest To Power New Spotify Radio (Which Begins Rolling Out Today)  —  For a long time now, Spotify has had its own Radio experience, but, to be honest, it hasn't been very good.  Then, last week, the Swedish-turned-America music service announced that it was redesigning its radio experience …
Discussion: The Echo Nest Blog and VentureBeat
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Samsung hits Apple with four new patents in Germany but backtracks on the iPhone 4S  —  Today the Mannheim Regional Court held two hearings involving Apple and Samsung.  In the first one, Apple was the defendant; in the second one, Samsung faced a lawsuit from Apple over a rather famous (slide-to-unlock) patent.
T.C. Sottek / The Verge:
Video: Microsoft's Steve Kaneko on design unification and the challenges of moving to Metro  —  While Windows 8's Metro overhaul goes a long way towards completely reinventing the OS, in some ways it hasn't gone far enough — there are still places where the classic Windows interface resurfaces.
Discussion: Neowin.net, WinBeta and WMPoweruser
Arron / RazorianFly:
Siri Can Now Help You Shop At Best Buy  —  As Apple's intelligent voice assistant grows in popularity amongst existing (and future potential) iOS users, business owners around the world are looking to grab a piece of the action.  One particular retailer which has managed to do that this week is Best Buy …
Lee Chyen Yee / Reuters:
Analysis: Apple struggles to take bigger bite out of China  —  (Reuters) - Apple Inc's share of China's booming smartphone market has risen sharply in the past two years, but for now the company that sells the iconic iPhone is being outpaced by nimble rivals.
Discussion: DailyTech and TechEye
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Adobe Pays $400 Million for Efficient Frontier  —  Last month Adobe said it was buying search marketing firm Efficient Frontier, but didn't disclose a purchase price.  Yesterday it came clean: The deal will end up costing around $400 million.  —  That brings the price tag for Adobe's …
Discussion: WebProNews
 
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 More Items: 
Federal Trade Commission:
FTC Warns That Rapid Expansion of Internet Domain Name System Could Leave Consumers More Vulnerable to Online Fraud
Discussion: Epicenter
Zack Whittaker / Between the Lines Blog:
Zynga shares slump 10 percent below IPO in first day
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Foxconn, Nvidia to set up joint venture R&D center in China
Discussion: Electronista and Softpedia News
Tim Bray / Android Developers Blog:
Introducing Android Training
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
How SOPA 2.0 Sneaks In A Really Dangerous Private Ability To Kill Any Website
Discussion: Geekosystem
Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:
This Is The First Pitch Deck Foursquare Ever Showed Investors
Discussion: New York Times
 Earlier Items: 
Julie Bort / Business Insider:
This Is Like The Third Reorg Since Cisco Hit The Panic Button Last Year
Discussion: Network World
Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:
Yelp, YouTube and 23andMe Co-Founders All Working on New Start-Ups
Max Wang / DigiTimes:
Apple to launch 7.85-inch iPad in 2012, say sources
Hunter Walk / Elapsed Time:
“I'd love if tech writing as a whole held itself to a higher standard:” …
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb
Ben Elowitz / AllThingsD:
With Siri TV, Apple Will Dismantle the TV Networks
Poornima Gupta / Reuters:
Exclusive: Made in Texas: Apple's A5 iPhone chip
 

 
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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