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12:20 PM ET, December 21, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Tom Simonite / Technology Review:
Intel Shows Off Its Smart Phone and Tablet for 2012  —  Prototype devices show Intel chips running devices that could challenge the iPhone and iPad early next year.  —  The era of the personal computer dawned thanks in no small part to the chip maker Intel.
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 …
Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:
TripAdvisor Dips Lower on First Day of Trading  —  TripAdvisor, which has collected more than 50 million reviews from travelers around the world, is facing a critique of its own on its first day trading on the Nasdaq.  —  The company, which was officially spun out of Expedia yesterday …
Discussion: TechCrunch and GeekWire
Amar Toor / Engadget:
PSA: Verizon users reporting data outages across the US (update: back up)  —  If you're having trouble getting a data connection on your Verizon-branded handset this morning, you're not alone.  We've been receiving a bevy of tips from disgruntled Verizon customers, due to an apparently …
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 …
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 …
Eric Eldon / TechCrunch:
Sharing Scheduler App Buffer Raises $400,000, Gets Kicked Out Of US  —  First, the bad news for Buffer.  The startup of European expats in San Francisco is being kicked out of the country due to our stupid, self-destructive immigration laws.  They're temporarily relocating to Hong Kong while they try to figure things out.
Discussion: Buffer and GigaOM
Fergal Glynn / threatpost:
Quality Coding Takes A Break For The Holidays.  But Why?  —  I recently read a blog post by CloudFlare and Shawn Graham that asked a fantastic (and timely) question: “Do Hackers Take The Holidays Off?”  CloudFlare sees traffic for hundreds of thousands of websites and was able to answer the question.
Discussion: TechEye
Clare Jim / Reuters:
HTC testing new models after patent case; shares jump  —  (Reuters) - HTC Corp has begun testing new phone models that work around technology cited in a patent lawsuit won by arch-rival Apple Inc, and HTC's chief executive voiced optimism over the company's ability to meet challenging market conditions.
The Mozilla Blog:
New Firefox for Android Experience Optimized for Tablets  —  Firefox for Android introduces a completely redesigned experience that is optimized for tablets and makes mobile browsing more intuitive.  New tools in Firefox enable developers to create interactive mobile Web experiences.
DAVID ASCHER:
You knew the old Mozilla, meet the new Mozilla  —  One of the notable things about working at Mozilla over the last few years right now is that our aims have gotten much more ambitious, but perception moves slower than reality, even among people who spend every working hour working on the project.
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.
Discussion: GeekWire and Business Insider
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.
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.
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.
Nancy Messieh / The Next Web:
On Twitter, people want to follow personal versus official accounts of journalists  —  The International Journal of Communication has released a report, looking back on how Twitter was used this year to disseminate information during the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
Discussion: Global Voices
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 …
Matt Brian / The Next Web:
Google Voice for iPhone updated; adds multi-recipient texting, Sprint support and more  —  Google has pushed live a new update for its Google Voice iPhone application, bringing iPhone users up to speed with features that have been present in its Android equivalent.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
SMS and social media banned in Congo, deaf residents lose critical means of contact  —  The latest country to prohibit social media and the use of SMS messaging within its borders is the Democratic Republic of Congo.  The ban affects a population of nearly 72 million citizens and comes …
Discussion: Forbes, Engadget and Geekosystem
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Startups Return To Reality TV: Producer Of Bloomberg's TechStars Readies New Show  —  Startup founders are the new reality TV stars.  No, really!  Today, the producer of the TechStars TV show on Bloomberg TV, Cameron Casey, is announcing his plans to film a second startup-focused reality show.
Discussion: Business Insider and socalTECH.com
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Nielsen And comScore Put An End To Their Patent War, Enter Cross-Licensing Agreement  —  Online audience measurement and Web analytics companies Nielsen and comScore have settled their patent disputes, according to a joint statement released this morning.  —  Nielsen filed suit against its rival …
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.
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb
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
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Dear Congress: It's Not OK Not To Know How Search Engines Work, Either  —  Did watching elected representatives debate SOPA last week without understanding some fundamentals of the internet rattle your nerves?  Welcome to my world of watching the same thing happen about Google and search.
Fox News:
Chinese Computer Hackers Hit U.S. Chamber of Commerce  —  WASHINGTON - A group of hackers in China breached the computer defenses of America's top business-lobbying group and gained access to everything stored on its systems, including information about its three million members, according to several people familiar with the matter.
 
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 More Items: 
Vlad Savov / The Verge:
Nokia Belle update kills Symbian name, coming in February 2012
Melanie Lee / Reuters:
U.S. removes Baidu from “notorious markets” list
Discussion: Bloomberg
Seth Rosenblatt / CNET Download.com:
New RockMelt socializes Chrome's Omnibox, new tabs
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
LightSquared Asks FCC to Declare GPS Interference Not Its Fault
Discussion: DSLreports and Engadget
 Earlier Items: 
Charles Arthur / Guardian:
Nokia and Microsoft fingered over comments on adverse Lumia review
Discussion: Computerworld and CNET News
Thomas Ricker / The Verge:
Kickstarted: How one company is revolutionizing product development
The Mozilla Blog:
Mozilla and Google Sign New Agreement for Default Search in Firefox
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Matthew Keys / The Desk:
DirecTV terminates its Dish acquisition after a group of Dish creditors rejected a modified bond exchange offer

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
A growing number of podcasters, including Tim Ferriss, are moving away from interviews to monologues or co-hosts, as some well-known guests can be overexposed

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A New York judge finds Sirius XM liable for a difficult subscription cancellation process; Sirius says it will appeal but abide by a new “click-to-cancel” rule
 
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