Techmeme: Crazy Rumor: Google Is Working On A 7-Inch Tablet Priced To Beat The Kindle Fire (Steve Kovach/Business Insider)

10:25 AM ET, January 5, 2012

Top Items:

Barnes & Noble eyes Nook spin-off amid sales shortfall — Summary: Barnes & Noble may have no choice but to spin off its Nook unit amid a sales miss. — Barnes & Noble said it is exploring a spin-off of its Nook e-reader unit so it can continue to scale the business.

Discussion: Barnes & Noble, Inc., AllThingsD, paidContent, GigaOM, The Verge, Business Insider, Reuters, SlashGear, Electronista and The Next Web, more at Mediagazer »

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:
Barnes & Noble Aims to Sell Publishing Unit

Discussion: TechCrunch, The Digital Reader, Gizmodo, paidContent, GeekWire, Engadget and Electronista, more at Mediagazer »

Steve Kovach / Business Insider:

Crazy Rumor: Google Is Working On A 7-Inch Tablet Priced To Beat The Kindle Fire — A few weeks ago, Google chairman Eric Schmidt let it slip that the company had plans to market “a tablet of the highest quality” within the next six months. — That led to a lot of speculation, but Google refused to clarify Schmidt's statements.

MG Siegler / parislemon: The “Highest Quality” Google Tablet

Vinton G. Cerf / New York Times:

Internet Access Is Not a Human Right — FROM the streets of Tunis to Tahrir Square and beyond, protests around the world last year were built on the Internet and the many devices that interact with it. Though the demonstrations thrived because thousands of people turned out to participate …

Discussion: Business Insider, Technology Liberation Front, Gizmodo and Techi.com

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

Facebook Says Most Photos Flagged by Users Aren't Actually Offensive — Just Unattractive — Last year Facebook determined that the majority of photos its users reported as offensive were not actually offensive. Much of the time, they were just unflattering angles or situations.

Discussion: Betabeat, The Next Web, SlashGear and NPR

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Google Ventures, Mark Cuban And Others Invest $1M In Social CRM Startup Nimble — Customer relationship management startup Nimble has raised $1 million in funding from notable investors Mark Cuban, Jason Calacanis, Don Dodge, Dharmesh Shah and more! — Nimble CEO Jon Ferrara views Nimble …

Discussion: SocialTimes.com and socalTECH.com

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: Business Insider, Betabeat and metarand

Om Malik / GigaOM:
You are what you curate: Why Pinterest is hawt

Discussion: @manan

Enigmax / TorrentFreak:

US Threatened To Blacklist Spain For Not Implementing Site Blocking Law — United States government interference in Spain's intellectual property laws had long been suspected, but it was revelations from Wikileaks that finally confirmed the depth of its involvement.

Discussion: London Calling Blog, The Next Web and Techdirt

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:

Deloitte: 9% have cut cable, another 11% are considering it — Deloitte just released its sixth annual State of the Media Democracy survey, which (among other things) asks U.S. respondents how they get access to their content in a world full of new and exciting devices.

Discussion: VatorNews, AllThingsD and blog.chron.com

Roy Bahat / Also:

Could coding be the next mass profession? — Like farming was in the 17th century, factory work during the industrial revolution, construction during the Great Depression, and manufacturing after World War II. Better, because writing code is a creative act which can be done with or without a traditional …

Discussion: Slate, Business Insider, PSFK, Smarterware and TechPinions

Scott Kirsner / Boston Globe:

Former Lotus and Microsoft exec Ray Ozzie hiring for new start-up, Cocomo — Ray Ozzie e-mailed earlier today to let me know that he has a post-Microsoft start-up, and he's hiring. But aside from mentioning that the company is called Cocomo and doesn't yet have an office of its own, he didn't want to divulge much more.

Discussion: jobs.37signals.com, CNET, Real Dan Lyons Web Site, All about Microsoft Blog, GeekWire, Business Insider and GigaOM

Josh Lowensohn / CNET:

The 50-inch Apple TV set rumor re-emerges — Apple's got a 50-inch TV set in its labs, a new report says. — Apple's much-expected TV set effort could truly be a big-screen affair, with a new report pegging the company gunning for a set beyond 40-inches in size.

Owen Gibson / Guardian:

Apple unlikely to enter auction for Premier League TV rights — • BSkyB and ESPN will be back in the bidding — • Google and al-Jazeera may also enter market — The Premier League is preparing to go to market with its lucrative television contract in the second quarter of this year …

Discussion: MacRumors, Business Insider and 9to5Mac

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: DSLreports, Technologizer, Inquirer, Techland, Fudzilla, Computerworld, Wired.co.uk, Digital Trends, Examiner, Tech Europe, msnbc.com, Business Insider, SlashGear, Techdirt, The Digital Reader, Gizmodo and Slashdot

Clare Jim / Reuters:

Taiwan's Elan says Apple to pay $5 million in patent settlement — (Reuters) - Elan Microelectronics Corp, a Taiwanese touch design company, said on Thursday that Apple Inc will pay $5 million as part of a settlement in a patent infringement case. — The statement said the two companies …

Discussion: CNET, GigaOM, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, Between the Lines Blog, taiwannews.com.tw, The Next Web, TechCrunch, Electronista, @fosspatents and PhoneArena

Tarmo Virki / Reuters:

Nokia prospects brighten as chairman search narrows — (Reuters) - Struggling phone maker Nokia Oyj basked in brightening prospects for its much-hyped Windows phone on Thursday as it prepared to strengthen the hand of new boss Stephen Elop by replacing its old-guard chairman.

Discussion: Inquirer, ArcticStartup Posts, mocoNews, GigaOM, PhoneArena, The Nokia Blog and Bloomberg

Alex Heath / Cult of Mac:

Apple Now Taking Legal Action Against App Store Piracy — Apple has begun an attack on App Store piracy. The popular resource for cracked iOS apps known as Apptrackr recently said that Apple has begun sending large amounts of takedown notices, thereby forcing Apptrackr to relocate …

Discussion: Computerworld, Business Insider, Mobile Marketing Watch, TUAW, GamePolitics blogs, everythingiCafe, Ars Technica, Macgasm and AppleInsider

Diane Bartz / Reuters:

ICANN to expand top level domains despite critics — (Reuters) - ICANN, an independent body responsible for organizing the Internet, plans to press ahead with plans to expand the number of possible website addresses despite criticism from industry and concerns from some law enforcement groups.

Steven Bertoni / Forbes:

Spotify's Daniel Ek: The Most Important Man In Music — Spotify's Daniel Ek created a free, Facebook-enabled platform that could save the recording industry from piracy-and iTunes. — It's a typically damp, dark November afternoon in Stockholm, and Daniel Ek is ill. Over the past month …

Discussion: Tech Europe, ITProPortal, Engadget, Macgasm, iClarified, iDownloadBlog.com, GottaBeMobile, T3 News, The Next Web and Evolver.fm

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Are You The World's Best Programmer? Compete In Facebook's 2012 Hacker Cup — Facebook has announced its 2012 Hacker Cup, a global computer programming competition. The event will serve as an important recruiting tool to attract great coders to the company, which is constantly battling …

Discussion: PC Magazine, Inquirer, Facebook, Softpedia News, Friending Facebook Blog, ITworld.com, CNNMoney.com and ReadWriteWeb

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 …

Evan Narcisse / Kotaku:

Patents Show that the Next Xbox Might Be a DVR, Too — Xbox 3, Xbox 720, NextBox... whatever you call it, lots of rumors are being floated about Microsoft's next home console. Some say it'll output Avatar-level visuals while others say it'll lean heavily on cloud architecture.

Discussion: ITworld.com, Business Insider, SlashGear, Destructoid, Softpedia News, VG247, ITProPortal and Digital Spy

Sean Hollister / The Verge:

Logitech Cube is a tiny touch-sensitive presentation mouse, available in January for $69.99 — Have you ever thought your portable mouse was a little too large, or perhaps shaped a little too much like the inside of your hand? We can't say we have, but Logitech's got a new peripheral …

Discussion: The Toybox Blog, VentureBeat, Engadget and TechCrunch

Jennifer Van Grove / VentureBeat:

Do-it-yourself legal site Rocket Lawyer raises $10.8M — Just five months after raising $18.5 million, online legal services provider Rocket Lawyer has added $10.8 million in funding to its bank account, according to an SEC filing VentureBeat uncovered today.

Thanks:jbruin

Frederic Lardinois / SiliconFilter:

Google Translate for Android Gets Handwriting Recognition — Here is a small but nifty update for Google Translate for Android: the app now features experimental handwriting recognition for Chinese and Japanese characters. You can also enable this feature for English, French, Italian …

Discussion: Google Translate Blog, PhoneArena and MacStories

Wayne Rash / eWeek:

LightSquared GPS Interference Issue Faces Congressional Oversight — Table of Contents: — NEWS ANALYSIS: A U.S. defense spending bill signed by President Barack Obama includes provisions that require LightSquared wireless LTE network to meet Congressional guidelines aimed …

Discussion: All Points Blog, FierceBroadbandWireless and dailywireless.org

Aoife White / Bloomberg:

Google Complaint Decision Hasn't Been Reached by EU's Antitrust Regulator — European Union regulators haven't decided whether they should file a formal complaint against Google Inc. (GOOG) over possible discrimination against rivals in search results, the EU's antitrust chief said.

Discussion: London Calling Blog and WebProNews

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Google Ventures And Foundry Group Put $9M In Crowdsourced Search Advertising Marketplace Trada — Crowdsourced SEM management startup Trada has raised $9 million in Series D financing from existing investors Foundry Group and Google Ventures. This brings Trada's total funding to $17 million.

Discussion: Search Engine Land, VatorNews, MediaPost and Adweek

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