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10:45 PM ET, January 3, 2012

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Why Twitter's “verified account” failure matters  —  The new year brought a treat for those who like to follow aging media moguls, with the launch of official Twitter accounts belonging to both News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch and his wife Wendi Deng, including some awkward banter around …
RELATED:
Guardian:
Wendi Deng Twitter account is a fake  —  If the news that Wendi Deng had joined her husband Rupert Murdoch on Twitter and promptly engaged in flirtatious banter with the likes of Ricky Gervais seemed too good to be true, that's because it was.  Despite an official verified “tick” …
Financial Post:
RIM leaning toward new chairman: sources  —  Under intense pressure from a group of shareholders, Research in Motion Ltd. is preparing to unveil a corporate shakeup at the beleaguered BlackBerry maker that could see co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie relinquish their titles as co-chairmen of the board, according to sources.
RELATED:
Sacha Greif:
How I Designed CodeYear.com in 1 Hour  —  Code Year is a great initiative by the folks behind Codecademy.  The concept is simple: sign up to Code Year, and each week you'll receive a new coding exercise.  By the end of the year, you'll be well on your way to becoming a coder.
Felix Salmon:
Uber and the cognitive zone of discomfort  —  If you spend a fair amount of time among privileged dot-com types, you'll probably be familiar with Uber, a kind of luxury car service for the smartphone era.  The idea is that you pull out your iPhone, punch a couple of buttons …
RELATED:
Matt Lynley / Business Insider:   Uber Is Refunding Some Customers After Charging Them An Arm And A Leg On New Year's Eve
Rocky Agrawal / VentureBeat:   Car service Uber passes economics test, fails marketing
Bill Slawski / SEO by the Sea:
IBM Assigns 217 More Patent Filings to Google including Wireless Phones and Javascript Widgets  —  Looks like Google and IBM are working together again to build up Google's patent portfolio, from an update at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patent assignment database.
Evan Blass / pocketnow.com:
More Nokia Lumia 900 “Ace” Details Revealed  —  We've gotten some more information on the upcoming Nokia Ace for AT&T — whose codename for the device is Eloko — including confirmation that it is indeed the Lumia 900 which will be sold globally as Nokia's flagship Windows Phone.
Adrian Chen / Gawker:
Reddit Has Gone Mad with Power  —  The past few weeks have seen an impressive burst of political activism from nerd hive Reddit.  Now they're talking about “destroying” senators.  Oh jesus, this does not bode well.  —  It started in late December, when the domain registrar company GoDaddy voiced …
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google's Chrome Page No Longer Ranks For “Browser” After Sponsored Post Penalty  —  Searches for “browser” no longer bring up the Google Chrome home page after Google applied a penalty against the page because of Google's own sponsored post campaign.  —  Google said even though it felt there were no …
RELATED:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Google caught up in Chrome sponsored post controversy, blames it on marketing partner Unruly Media (updated)
Reuters:
Verizon CEO cancels CES appearance  —  (Reuters) - The chief executive of Verizon Communications has canceled his appearance in a keynote panel at the 2012 Consumer Electronics show, the telephone company said on Tuesday.  —  The company said that a schedule change is preventing CEO Lowell McAdam …
Discussion: The Verge
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Kindle Fire Nibbles at iPad Holiday Sales  —  Apple may have sold as many as two million fewer iPads than expected this holiday season, and Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablet may be to blame.  —  Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt pruned his forecast for Apple's fiscal first quarter today …
Anil Dash:
Foursquare: Today's best-executing startup  —  About two years ago, Fred Wilson and I were talking about which startups we found interesting and I mentioned offhandedly that Foursquare was far and away the one that I thought had the most potential to be a huge, meaningful business.
Roger Capriotti / The Windows Blog:
The US Says Goodbye to IE6  —  Time to pop open the champagne because, based on the latest data from Net Applications, IE6 usage in the US has now officially dropped below 1%!  —  IE6 has been the punch line of browser jokes for a while, and we've been as eager as anyone to see it go away.
Rajat Agrawal / BGR India:
Spot the difference: Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus Vs Apple iPhone 3G  —  Ever since Samsung announced the Galaxy Ace Plus a few hours ago, I have not been able to help but think how similar it looks to a phone launched in June of 2008.  The iPhone 3G that is.  It has been bugging me so much that I dug …
Discussion: BGR, Thanks:rajatagr
RELATED:
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
New Microsoft patent: Walking directions that avoid crime-ridden neighborhoods  —  Microsoft was issued a patent today on a computer system for “pedestrian route production” — better known as walking directions — that automatically adjusts the route for the unique conditions encountered by a person going from place to place on foot.
Discussion: VentureBeat, Thanks:johnhcook
Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:
Klout Confirms Mega Funding Round  —  Klout confirmed today that it has raised Series C funding — a round that actually closed back in November and had been a bit of an open secret in tech circles for the past couple months.  —  Klout CEO Joe Fernandez said Kleiner Perkins lead the round, with Chi-Hua Chien joining the Klout board.
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
$215MM: TiVo cashes in on AT&T settlement  —  TiVo is going to get $215 million over the next seven years from AT&T thanks to a settlement of the two companies' DVR lawsuit.  TiVo had sued AT&T in 2009, alleging that the phone company's DVR violated some of TiVo's patents.
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
January Apple event to focus on two ‘large projects’ relating to education, iTunes  —  Following multiple reports claiming that Apple is holding an event later this month to discuss new media-related services, Clayton Morris shared some tidbits that he has heard from sources.
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
Some 6.5 Million People Found Angry Birds in Their Stockings  —  Buoyed by a flurry of smartphone activations, Rovio said it saw a record 6.5 million Christmas Day downloads for its Angry Birds franchise of games.  —  That's nearly the number of total smartphone activations estimated to have happened over Christmas.
Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:
The Social Network of Two: Ourspot Gives Relationships a Space for Sharing  —  A new start-up called Ourspot will offer a service for couples and close friends to privately share links, thoughts and other content with each other.  —  The intention is to create a shared online space that also serves as a document of a relationship.
Larry Downes / Forbes:
Why Best Buy is Going out of Business...Gradually  —  Electronics retailer Best Buy is headed for the exits.  I can't say when exactly, but my guess is that it's only a matter of time, maybe a few more years.  —  Consider a few key metrics.  Despite the disappearance of competitors including Circuit City …
 
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 More Items: 
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Amazon's Silk Browser ported from Kindle Fire to other Android devices
Discussion: The Android Soul
Josh Ong / AppleInsider:
Rumor: Apple, Google may bid on English Premier League TV rights
Discussion: MacRumors and Daily Mail
Paul Venezia / InfoWorld:
Mobile app developers to get their own professional organization
Paula Rooney / Open Source Blog:
Mozilla rings in new year with 2.0 license overhaul
Dan Tynan / ITworld:
Privacy been violated? Call the PRC
Discussion: Mercury News
Glyn Moody / Techdirt:
No, Belarus Is Not Cut Off From The Internet, But New Restrictions Are Still Pretty Bad
Discussion: Reporters Without Borders and GMSV
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Eyeing An IPO, Kayak Adds HomeAway Founder And CEO Brian Sharples To Board
Discussion: KAYAK, Social Markets and AllThingsD
Dion Almaer / techno.blog:
The rise and fall of webOS is an epic tale; webOS != Web OS
 Earlier Items: 
Greg Lamm / TechFlash:
Microsoft patent could signal Xbox digital video recorder
Dan Graziano / BGR:
Transformer Prime to get Android 4.0 on January 12, official bootloader unlock tool soon
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
Ziff Davis Acquires IT Networking Site Toolbox.com
Discussion: Business Wire and TechCrunch
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple Wins Patents for 3D Camera Direction in Motion, MagSafe Connectors and Two Industrial Designs
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Ask Ziggy: the Windows Phone 7 counter to Apple's Siri (video)
Electronista:
RIM cuts all PlayBooks to $300, gets ad hoc Android Market