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12:40 PM ET, December 19, 2006

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Opera:
The Opera browser for Wii launches just in time for the holidays  —  Opera Software today announces that a trial version of its Web browser for Nintendo's new game console, Wii, will be available on December 22, 2006.  The trial version of the Opera browser for Wii is available for download …
RELATED:
Opera:
Opera Introduces Fraud Protection, Powered by GeoTrust and PhishTank: New release expands Opera's commitment to secure browsing  —  Opera Software today introduced real-time Fraud Protection in its award-winning Web browser.  Fraud Protection includes technology from GeoTrust …
Discussion: digg
Susan Stellin / New York Times:
Offline Involuntarily  —  Five years ago, the main challenge for data-hungry business travelers was finding a hotel that offered high-speed Internet access.  Then came a shift to wireless and even free connections.  —  But these days, the top priority for many is simply getting consistent …
Time:
5 Things That Went From Buzz to Bust  —  The message of this page is, Beware all hype.  Here are five phenomena that captivated the media for a spell, then turned out to be less than huge.  Our bad  —  SNAKES ON A PLANE, AUDIENCE DISEMBARKS  —  When the words Snakes on a Plane hit the Internet …
Discussion: Joystiq and Kotaku
RELATED:
Blake Snow / Joystiq:
TIME magazine deems PS3 a bust
Discussion: CrunchGear, Go Nintendo and digg
Richard Siklos / New York Times:
AOL Chief Has a View, a Long One  —  If AOL were being dressed up for a sale, as has been rumored on and off for several years, Randy Falco is an odd choice to be the new chief executive.  —  As Mr. Falco notes, he is hardly a short-term guy.  Before starting at Time Warner's AOL unit this month …
Discussion: PaidContent
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Polar Rose: Europe's Entrant Into Facial Recognition  —  Malmö, Sweden based Polar Rose is having its coming out party today and pre-announcing a product release slated for early next year.  CEO Nikolaj Nyholm gave me demo of what's coming last weekend.
Greg Sandoval / CNET News.com:
Digg continues to battle phony stories  —  Digg continues to crack down on users who plant phony stories on behalf of marketers, recently deleting a user who posted a story about a company that offered to compensate him.  —  The news aggregate site, which allows users to play editor and decide …
Brady Forrest / O'Reilly Radar:
Google Deprecates Their SOAP Search API  —  In an odd move Google has quietly deprecated their Search SOAP API, will no longer be issuing keys, and have removed the SDK from their site.  They did not even issue a blog post about it.  They will continue (for how long?) to support existing users, but will not do any bug fixes.
RELATED:
Nelson's Weblog:
Goodbye, Google SOAP search API
Discussion: Google Blogoscoped
Jason McMaster / GigaGamez:
Double Fusion Receives New Round of Venture Capital  —  Breaking News  —  Double Fusion, an in-game advertising company, has received an infusion of 26 million dollars from a group of venture capitalists, including Norwest Venture Partners, Time Warner, Hearst Corporation and others.
Discussion: alarm:clock and PaidContent
Carlo / Techdirt:
FCC Chairman Only Able To Help Telcos Halfway This Week  —  from the and-the-ps3-was-sold-out-too dept  —  It looks like Kevin Martin won't be able to play Santa Claus for AT&T and BellSouth and deliver the companies approval for their merger before the end of the year.
Anne Broache / CNET News.com:
Australian court rules against MP3 link site  —  update Linking to copyright music posted elsewhere online without permission can be illegal, an Australian appeals court ruled Monday.  —  The issue before a three-judge panel at the Federal Court of Australia was whether Stephen Cooper …
RELATED:
Mike / Techdirt:
Allowing Linking To MP3s Still Illegal In Australia; Ruling …
Discussion: Weatherall's Law
EE Times:
Verizon joins Asian consortium to build $500-million U.S.-China network  —  Verizon Business said Monday that it has signed an agreement with a group of Asian telecommunications firms to build an advanced undersea optical cable system linking China with the U.S. mainland.
Discussion: GigaOM and dailywireless.org
Rcade / Workbench:
My Battle with MGM Over Wargames.Com  —  For the past three months I've been privately engaged in a time-consuming dispute with Nathan J. Hole, a lawyer representing MGM Studios who claims that Wargames.Com, a domain that I've owned since April 16, 1998, is the rightful property of the film company …
Discussion: Digital Life
Nick / Rough Type:
Sharecropping the long tail  —  A while back I wrote that Web 2., by putting the means of production into the hands of the masses but withholding from those same masses any ownership over the product of their work, provides an incredibly efficient mechanism to harvest the economic value …
Ben Charny / MarketWatch:
Google's radio ad tests hit snag — analyst  —  SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Google Inc.'s nascent radio advertisement business, known as Google Audio, has run into an unexpected snag: it seems Google doesn't have access to enough radio airtime for would-be advertisers to thoroughly test out the initiative, an analyst said Monday.
Samsung:
SAMSUNG Launches the World's First 'Optical Joystick' Phone  —  Samsung's SCH-V960 features optical sensor button for user convenience  —  Samsung Electronics , a leading provider and innovator of mobile phones, launches the world's first mobile phone featuring a n optical joystick for a whole new mobile experience.
Discussion: Engadget and CrunchGear
Google Blogoscoped:
Google Maps With Multiple Destinations  —  Google added a feature that lets you add multiple destinations to your driving directions.  For example, I'm searching Google Maps for [from stuttgart, germany, to cologne, germany].  Then there's a link titled "Add destination..." …
Discussion: Zoli's Blog and Search Engine Land
Associated Press:
Matsushita to offer new lithium battery  —  TOKYO - Japanese electronics maker Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Monday it will begin mass production of a new lithium-ion battery that is safe from the overheating problems that prompted a massive recall of Sony Corp. batteries this year.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Peerflix Swaps One Problem For Another  —  After a year long beta period and another year of operation, Peerflix is ditching its barter model of swapping DVDs.  Until today, users swapped DVDs in the Peerflix marketplace, and the company took a $.99 transaction fee for the exchange.
Discussion: eHomeUpgrade and Hacking NetFlix
 
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 More Items: 
Darren Murph / Engadget:
JoyTech announces Wii PowerStation to keep your Wiimotes juiced
Discussion: I4U News
Davis / Davis Freeberg's Digital Connection:
TiVo Quietly Settles Gift Certificate Class Action
Discussion: PVR Wire
Riva Richmond / Wall Street Journal:
Software to Spot 'Phishers' Irks Small Concerns
Discussion: Kevin Maney
Alice Z. Cuneo / AdAge:
Ford Denies Connection to Web-Concert Porno Promo
Discussion: PaidContent and AdJab
Erick Schonfeld / The Next Net:
Second Life Adds Its Second Millionth Resident
Samuel Cohen / The Apple Blog:
Top 10 Apps for Laptop-Toting Mac Users
Martyn Williams / InfoWorld:
YouTube ready to talk copyright with Japanese group
Bruce Houghton / hypebot:
Amazon To Enter Crowded Download Market With MP3 Only Store
 Earlier Items: 
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
First Big Partner for Zudeo: BBC
Discussion: Torrentfreak and Profy.Com
Timboy:
Leaving Yahoo!
Anick Jesdanun / Associated Press:
Imbalance in Net speeds impedes sharing
Gizmodo:
Exploding PowerBook Surprisingly Not Sony's Fault
Discussion: digg
John Dempsey / Variety:
Comcast, Endemol pair in video search
Discussion: Mashable! and PaidContent
New York Times:
EBay Is Expected to Close Its Auction Site in China
Discussion: PaidContent and VentureBeat
Nancy Gohring / Macworld:
The iPhone is launched ... by Linksys, not Apple
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Authentic Brands licenses Sports Illustrated's publishing rights to The Players' Tribune owner Minute Media for 10 years, with plans to keep the print edition

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Ofcom rules that five GB News programs presented by Conservative politicians have broken its due impartiality rules and puts the channel “on notice”

Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTuber MrBeast announces a deal with Prime Video for Beast Games, a reality-competition show with 1,000 contestants, promising the winner a $5M cash prize

 
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