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5:50 AM ET, December 21, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Nadia Damouni / Reuters:
Exclusive: Amazon weighed buying RIM but interest cooled  —  (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd has turned down takeover overtures from Amazon.com Inc and other potential buyers because the BlackBerry maker prefers to fix its problems on its own, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft, Nokia Flirted With RIM  —  Microsoft Corp. and Nokia Corp. in recent months flirted with the idea of making a joint bid for Research In Motion Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter.  —  The status of the talks remains unclear.  But the fact that the discussions took place …
The Mozilla Blog:
Mozilla and Google Sign New Agreement for Default Search in Firefox  —  We're pleased to announce that we have negotiated a significant and mutually beneficial revenue agreement with Google.  This new agreement extends our long term search relationship with Google for at least three additional years.
RELATED:
Christian Zibreg / 9to5Google:
It's official: Google remains default search engine in Firefox for 3 more years  —  Mozilla, the open source organization behind the Firefox browser that is receiving a beating from Google's Chrome, announced in a blog post today that it has signed a new search agreement with Google.
Chris Foresman / Ars Technica:
Half a billion dollars: why Apple's acquisition of Anobit matters  —  Apple reportedly acquired the Israeli flash memory design firm Anobit in a deal that cost the company $500 million dollars.  Anobit management told its staff of the acquisition this week, according to Israeli newspaper Calcalist …
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
ITC Initial Ruling: Motorola Infringes Single Microsoft Patent, but Not Six Others  —  Microsoft won a partial victory in its patent dispute with Motorola, as the International Trade Commission issued an initial ruling that certain Motorola products infringe on one of the software maker's patents.
Seth Weintraub / 9to5Google:
Andy Rubin announces: 700,000 Android devices activated every day  —  He made the announcement via Google Plus and notes: ...and for those wondering, we count each device only once (ie, we don't count re-sold devices), and “activations” means you go into a store, buy a device, put it on the network by subscribing to a wireless service.
Matt Burns / TechCrunch:
Amazon Finally Releases OTA Kindle Fire Update To Address Performance And Touchscreen Issues  —  Great news, Kindle Fire owners.  Amazon just announced the long overdue Kindle Fire update that's said to resolve many of the issues with the budget tablet.  Most of the common complaints are addressed …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook Sponsored Story Ads To Appear In The Web News Feed In 2012  —  Starting in January 2012, Facebook will gradually begin showing Sponsored Stories social ads in the main news feed of the web version of the site, a representative of the company tells us.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Distimo's Year-End Report Shows Why Developers Love iOS: iPhone 4x Android Revenue, iPad 2x  —  There are now over a million mobile applications available across the top seven major app stores, according to mobile analytics firm Distimo in its year-end report for 2011.
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Vevo by the numbers: 3.7B views, $100M royalties  —  Vevo clocked 3.6 billion video views globally in October and is expected to have reached 3.7 billion views worldwide in November, the major label-owned music video platform announced today.  In December 2009, that number was at 341 million views.
Discussion: Pop & Hiss
RELATED:
Ben Sisario / Media Decoder:
Vevo, a Music Video Web Site, Wants to Get Into Television
more at Mediagazer »
Charles Arthur / Guardian:
Nokia and Microsoft fingered over comments on adverse Lumia review  —  An Indian site's ‘reviewing’ of the Nokia Lumia 800 phone purely on its specifications was a strange thing to do - but anonymous commenting apparently from Nokia and Microsoft staff didn't help matters
Electronista:
Google halts Nexus S Android 4.0 updates, Galaxy Nexus hit  —  Google Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus hit by battery bug  —  Google's Android 4.0 update for the Nexus S stalled out Tuesday.  The company posted on its forums that it was holding the update to “monitor feedback” after users reported unusually high battery drain.
Tim Culpan / Bloomberg:
HTC Completed Workaround to Skirt a U.S. Apple Patent Ruling  —  HTC Corp. (2498) has already completed a technical workaround to skirt a U.S. agency ruling that found a user interface in some handsets infringed an Apple Inc. (AAPL) patent.  —  “It's actually quite rarely used,” …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
1 Million Articles Auto-Shared Daily, So Yahoo! Expands Facebook Integration To 26 More Sites  —  Facebook's Frictionless Sharing integration has been a huge win for Yahoo! News US.  After just 2 months, 1 million articles are being shared to Facebook daily leading to 500,000 daily referrals.
Thomas Ricker / The Verge:
Kickstarted: How one company is revolutionizing product development  —  Kickstarter is funding an era of product development uncompromised by focus groups and committees  —  The million dollar idea.  We've all had it at one time or another, with very few luxuries to show for our sudden fits of brilliance.
Discussion: Gizmodo
Seth Rosenblatt / CNET Download.com:
New RockMelt socializes Chrome's Omnibox, new tabs  —  The Omnibox has been beefed up in RockMelt beta 5 with deep hooks directly into Facebook.  —  While the big browser conflagration between Chrome and, oh, just about everybody else tends to suck the oxygen from a room …
Discussion: Xconomy
Donald Melanson / Engadget:
Apple fixes App Store bug on iOS 3.1.3 devices, you can hold off on that upgrade  —  Well, it looks like Apple hasn't completely left behind older iPhones and iPod touches stuck on iOS 3.1.3 just yet.  After a few days of not being able to download or buy apps directly on the device due …
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Yahoo Intensifies Search for CEO (With Hulu's Kilar as One Dream Unicorn Candidate)  —  Whatever you want to call him or her — a silver bullet, the cure or, as I like to say, the last unicorn — Yahoo's ever-seeking and never-deciding board has now renewed its focus on finding a new CEO.
Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
Oracle Falls Short on Weak Software Sales  —  Software giant Oracle reported quarterly results that fell short of the expectations of analysts, as licenses for new software rose only slightly and sales were $430 million below what analysts had forecast.  Hardware sales were down by 14 percent year on year.
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Rolls Out ‘Complete My Season Pass’ for TV Shows  —  While Apple has long offered a “Complete My Album” feature in the iTunes Store to allow users who have previously purchased individual tracks to upgrade to the full album at a discounted price reflecting their single-track purchases …
Sara Forden / Bloomberg:
Verizon Wireless Probed Over Cable Deals  —  Verizon Wireless's deals for spectrum with cable companies are under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for their potential to hurt competition in the wireless and cable industries.  —  Gina Talamona, a Justice Department spokeswoman …
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Intuit GoPayment Now Allows Merchants To Receive Money On A Prepaid Visa Card  —  Intuit has made an interesting move today with its mobile credit card reader GoPayment reader.  Intuit is allowing merchants to keep and receive funds on a prepaid credit card as opposed to depositing the amount in a bank account.
Brandon Griggs / CNN:
Social networking booming in Egypt, Russia, survey finds  —  (CNN) — People in poorer countries send text messages more often than those in wealthier countries.  Men in Spain and Germany access the Internet on their phones twice as much as women do.  —  And use of online social networks …
Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:
Archos fights Kindle Fire with $199 Honeycomb tablet  —  Archos, one of the earliest media tablet makers, continues to mature its product lineup.  The company announced on Tuesday an updated 7-inch slate, called the Archos 70b (PDF); a Google Android Honeycomb tablet with a suggested price of $199.
Melanie Lee / Reuters:
U.S. removes Baidu from “notorious markets” list  —  (Reuters) - The United States has removed Baidu Inc, China's largest search engine, from its list of notorious markets for piracy in a nod to the firm's efforts to clean up its music offerings.  —  Baidu, which has been on the notorious markets list …
 
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 More Items: 
Daniel Terdiman / CES 2012:
CES setting up its own startup alley
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
LightSquared Asks FCC to Declare GPS Interference Not Its Fault
Jennifer Allen / Computerworld:
Sony PlayStation Vita Launches With Technical Problems
Discussion: X-bit labs, BBC and CNET News
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
PayPal Tests In-Store NFC Payments App With Swedish Retailers, Similar Mobile ‘Experiments’ To Roll Out Soon
Discussion: waroncash
Jeff Roberts / paidContent:
Publishing Insider Tipped Law Firms About E-Book Price Fixing Conspiracy
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Lamar Smith Says ‘Just Joking...’ About Tomorrow; SOPA Markup Postponed
 Earlier Items: 
Joel Housman:
This Week In Douchebaggery: AllThis
Discussion: VentureBeat and @eldon, Thanks:joelhousman
Joe Schneider / Bloomberg:
Apple Claims Samsung Tablet, Phone Cases Infringe Patents
 

 
From Mediagazer:

New York Times:
Court docs detail a smear campaign against actor Blake Lively via media articles and social media posts after she accused director Justin Baldoni of misconduct

Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
A deep dive into Paramount's sale to Skydance; sources: Skydance may integrate Pluto into Paramount+, and CBS head George Cheeks is expected to be head of TV

Ankush Khardori / Politico:
Trump may erode press protections but the ABC case is not evidence of that as the decision to settle appears reasonable given Stephanopoulos' imprecise remarks
 
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