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7:30 PM ET, January 4, 2012

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Yahoo! Inc.:
Yahoo! Appoints Scott Thompson Chief Executive Officer  —  SUNNYVALE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)— Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), the premier digital media company, today announced the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer, effective January 9, 2012, at which time Tim Morse will resume his role as Chief Financial Officer.
RELATED:
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Brand new CEO, same old messed up Yahoo  —  Yahoo has finally found a new chief executive to replace Carol Bartz (who left in a huff) and he is Scott Thompson, who till recently was the president of the PayPal division of eBay A surprise candidate, it is not very clear what his strategy …
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Confirmed: Yahoo Names PayPal Head Scott Thompson as New CEO  —  As I reported late last night, Yahoo said it had named PayPal President Scott Thompson as its new CEO.  The exec is currently in charge of the large eBay online payments unit.  —  He'll start next week, but there are staff …
Wall Street Journal:
Kodak Preparing for Chapter 11 Filing  —  Eastman Kodak Co. is preparing for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy-protection filing in the coming weeks should efforts to sell a trove of digital patents fall through, people familiar with the matter said.  —  The struggling photography icon …
Paul Thurrott / WindowsITPro:
Exclusive: Microsoft and Nokia's Plans for Marketing Windows Phone in 2012  —  With predictably parroting that information—I thought it might be worthwhile to set the record straight.  Microsoft and Nokia will not spend “in the neighborhood of $100 million” to market Windows Phone this year.
RELATED:
Tiuri van Agten / Distimo:
Google Android Market Tops 400,000 Applications  —  Google Android Market gave itself a nice new year's present last weekend.  The total number of active applications worldwide in the Android Market reached the 400,000 milestone.  Android Market has topped the 200K and 300K available apps milestones …
Elad Blog:
How Pinterest Will Transform the Web in 2012: Social Content Curation As The Next Big Thing  —  The most interesting wave hitting the social web in 2012 is social curation.  This was kicked off in 2011 as Pinterest's growth was noticed by Silicon Valley and a number of companies quickly followed suit …
Discussion: Betabeat and metarand
Steve Blank:
Why The Movie Industry Can't Innovate and the Result is SOPA  —  This year the movie industry made $30 billion (1/3 in the U.S.) from box-office revenue.  —  But the total movie industry revenue was $87 billion.  Where did the other $57 billion come from?
Kashmir Hill / The Not-So Private Parts:
Rick Santorum's Iowa Performance Helps His ‘Google Problem’  —  Rick Santorum's performance in Iowa is good for his campaign, and for his Google problem.  —  Rick Santorum is the GOP presidential candidate known for his “Google problem.”  A Google search of his name returns scatological results thanks …
Discussion: Pulse2 and Mashable!
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
File-Sharing Recognized as Official Religion in Sweden  —  All around the world file-sharers are being chased by anti-piracy outfits and the authorities, and the situation in Sweden is no different.  While copyright holders are often quick to label file-sharers as pirates …
Discussion: PC World, Techdirt and SlashGear
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
The Case of the Unfortunate Underscore: How Twitter Verified the Fake Wendi Over the Real Wendi  —  I went all Encyclopedia Brown yesterday after I and many others had been led astray by an account — @wendi_deng — that Twitter had verified with its famous blue check mark over the holiday weekend …
Pui-Wing Tam / Wall Street Journal:
Some Venture Funds Hit ‘Pause’ on Big Deals  —  SAN FRANCISCO—Over the past year, Marc Andreessen invested in a series of high-profile Web companies, including Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Groupon Inc. Now the Silicon Valley venture capitalist is hitting the pause button on such big-name deals.
Élyse Betters / 9to5Google:
Android platform distribution statistics updated: .6-percent or around a million devices on ICS  —  The latest Android platform versions distributions chart was announced yesterday after the Android Developers' website collected data for two weeks, and the share results reaped a few surprising figures.
Krystal Peak / VatorNews:
Netflix's 20M members streamed 2B hours in Q4 of 2011  —  Down from 25M+ streaming subscribers, Netflix is poised for growth again in 2012  —  As Netflix continues to wrangle the conversation on its future, the video viewing and rental company announced that more than two billion hours …
Lauren Goode / AllThingsD:
Roku to Launch Cordless Streaming Stick for TVs  —  Roku, maker of competitively priced set-top boxes that stream Web video on TVs, is introducing a new device it thinks will offer a simpler option for Internet connectivity than some “smart” TVs.  —  Today, the company is unveiling plans …
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Verizon iPhone Sales More Than Double to 4.2 Million in Holiday Quarter  —  Verizon Wireless Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo today participated in Citi's Global Entertainment, Media & Communications Conference, and as part of his presentation revealed some iPhone sales numbers for the carrier.
Chetan / Always On Real-Time Access:
2012 Mobile Industry Predictions Survey  —  First things first.  From all of us at Chetan Sharma Consulting, we wish you and yours a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2012.  My thanks to all who participated in our 2012 Mobile Predictions Annual Survey.  It gives our community an insider's view of trends.
Discussion: WebProNews, Internet2Go and AllThingsD, Thanks:chetansharma
Kevin Lincoln / Business Insider:
The Guys Behind The Verge Just Went On Another Huge Talent Raid For A New Gaming Site  —  For the last week, there's been buzz about a new gaming site coming from Vox Media, the parent company of The Verge and SB Nation.  —  We can confirm that Vox is about to launch a big gaming vertical later …
Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:
Barnes & Noble Aims to Sell Publishing Unit  —  Barnes & Noble Inc. has put its Sterling Publishing business up for sale, say people familiar with the situation, signaling a likely end to its decades-long involvement in the publishing of its own books.  —  The book retailer has been in publishing since …
Paul Haven / Associated Press:
Cuba criticizes Twitter for Fidel death rumor … HAVANA (AP) — State media on Wednesday accused the social networking site Twitter of helping spread a rumor that former Cuban leader Fidel Castro had died, and criticized anti-Castro expatriates it dubbed “necrophiliac counterrevolutionaries” for jumping on the story.
Bloomberg:
Quanta Sues AMD Over Allegedly Unsuitable Chips for NEC Notebook Computers  —  Quanta Computer Inc. (2382), the world's largest contract maker of notebook computers, sued Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) for breach of contract, alleging the chipmaker sold defective products.
Julie Bort / Business Insider:
Cisco's Alternative To Skype Has Quietly Been Killed  —  Cisco has quietly pulled the plug on its ill-fated consumer home videoconferencing system, Umi.  This could be the final blow to the company's once-grand consumer plans.  —  Umi was introduced a little over a year ago, in October, 2010.
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Samsung Series 5 Ultra up for pre-order in the US, brings optical media to the ultrabook for $949  —  Koreans won't be the only ones sticking DVDs into exceptionally thin laptops this year: Samsung's Series 5 Ultra laptops are now available for pre-order at J&R. The first time we heard …
Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:
iPad users account for 19% of App Store downloads, snag some 3 billion apps  —  Since the launch of the iPad, its users have downloaded 3 billion apps cumulatively, reports ABI research.  That's 19% of all cumulative downloads from the App Store.  This also means that the iPad has reached …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Disney and Comcast Link Up For Another 10 Years  —  Comcast has re-upped its distribution deal with Disney, which means the country's largest cable company will continue to pipe programming from ABC, ESPN and other channels into its subscribers' homes for another ten years.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
All cellphones in Chile must be sold unlocked from January 2nd  —  The Republic of Chile has announced that all cellphones sold within the country starting last Monday, January 2nd, must be unlocked for use on any carrier.  Chile's telecoms regulator, Subtel, revealed its plans over Twitter on Monday …
Discussion: PhoneArena
 
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 More Items: 
Brittany Darwell / Inside Facebook:
Facebook adds recommendation feature to mobile touch site
Discussion: WebProNews
Austin Carr / Fast Company:
Proust, IAC's Social Network For Sharing Eternal Memories, To Shut Down
Discussion: Business Insider and Betabeat
Stephanie Clifford / New York Times:
Online Sales Buoy U.P.S. And FedEx
 Earlier Items: 
Eric Eldon / TechCrunch:
IFTTT, A Glue Gun For Sticking Together The Web, Raises $1.5M Seed Round From Top Investors
Discussion: AllThingsD
Dennis K. Berman / Wall Street Journal:
So, What's Your Algorithm?  —  We are ruined by our own biases.
Wall Street Journal:
Spam Finds New Target
Discussion: WebProNews
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Codecademy's CodeYear Attracts 100,000 Aspiring Programmers In 48 Hours
Discussion: TechPinions
Michael Arrington / Uncrunched:
Nobody Goes to Facebook Anymore. It's Too Crowded.
Discussion: NBC Bay Area and @loic