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2:00 PM ET, January 29, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Ben Fenton / Financial Times:
U2 manager urges ISPs to help fight web piracy  —  The music industry should shift the focus of its battle with internet piracy towards the technological industries which have “built multibillion dollar industries on the back of our content without paying for it”, according to Paul McGuinness, manager of rock group U2.
RELATED:
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
U2 Manager Says Google And Its Hippie Friends Should Pay The Recording Industry  —  from the still-haven't-found-what-i'm-looking- for... dept  —  While the IFPI and the RIAA have been actively pushing for ISP liability for file sharing, it appears some in the industry are taking it even further.
Guardian:
Silicon Valley's hippy values ‘killing music industry’  —  Owen Gibson in Cannes  —  U2's manager yesterday called on artists to join him in forcing the “hippy” technology and internet executives he blames for the collapse of the music industry to help save it.
Discussion: Mashable!
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
U2 manager calls Safe Harbor a “Thieves' Charter”  —  Paul McGuinness, U2 manager, took the stage at the Midem music industry conference in Cannes yesterday to back the IFPI party line: it's time to take the fight over file-swapping to the ISPs.  McGuinness railed against those companies that have …
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google's Newspaper Ads: Big Hopes For Small Barcodes (GOOG)  —  Google's efforts to get into the newspaper ad business have yet to yield much.  One tool it hopes will eventually change that: Small, square barcodes, like the one at the right, at the bottom of print ads.
Bobbie Johnson / Guardian:
O2 improves package for iPhone users  —  Mobile network O2 has overhauled the cost of using Apple's iPhone handset just two months after it went on sale in the UK.  —  The mobile network today announced that iPhone owners who are currently paying its lower-rate tariffs of £35 …
RELATED:
John Oates / The Register:   O2 sweetens its iPhone deals
Ed Bott / Ed Bott's Microsoft Report:
Windows 7 = Vista Release 2  —  All the kerfuffle over Windows 7 - leaked memos, shaky handheld video clips of leaked builds, equally shaky tentative release schedules - is amusing.  I don't have any inside information to offer, only a perspective drawn from 17 years of watching the Windows development process in action.
Discussion: Christopher Null and Inquirer
RELATED:
Randall Kennedy / InfoWorld:
Windows 7: Will They or Won't They?
Discussion: Hardware 2.0 and WinBeta
Aude Lagorce / MarketWatch:
Motorola may exit its handset business: analyst  —  LONDON (MarketWatch) — There is a possibility that Motorola, Inc. (MOT:, , ) may exit the handset business and concentrate on becoming an enterprise and government company, Richard Windsor, an analyst with Nomura International, told clients a in note published on Tuesday.
RELATED:
Electronista:
Motorola pondering exiting the cell business?
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
John Graham-Cumming:
How many users does Digg have?  —  According to my calculations: around 2.7m registered users.  —  I obtained this number by finding random Digg users and extracting their user id.  The user id is in a hidden HTML form input field on each Digg user's page.  The Digg user page also gives their date of registration.
Discussion: The Next Web
RELATED:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Digg Nearly Triples Registered Users In a Year, Says Sleuth Programmer
Discussion: PDA
Matt Cutts / Gadgets, Google, and SEO:
11 Power Tips for Gmail  —  Wow, I can't believe how many people commented on my late-Friday night post about desired features for Gmail.  If you want to suggest something for Gmail, that thread is the better place to do it.  But looking through the comments, I saw a few requests that can already be done today.
Juan Carlos Perez / IDG News Service:
EBay Plans Lower Fees, Tighter Seller Standards  —  EBay changes are designed to boost sales by making the shopping experience easier and safer.  —  Recommend this story?  —  EBay is expected to unveil changes to its online marketplace Tuesday that the company characterizes as sweeping …
Discussion: CNET News.com and WebProNews
RELATED:
Associated Press:
EBay cutting listing fees, boosting commissions
Discussion: DailyTech
Sam / a gthing science project:
The True Cost of SMS Messages  —  I just found out that AT&T (A-fee&fee?) is raising their text message pricing.  When I first signed up for AT&T 6 or so years ago it cost 10 cents to send an SMS message, and it was free to receive them.  —  When AT&T switched to Cingular the price of sending …
Daniel Shen / DigiTimes:
HTC share of Windows Mobile smartphone segment declining  —  High Tech Computer (HTC) has lost the title as the global top ranking vendor of Windows Mobile-based smartphones (excluding touch-screen models), with its share of the segment falling to below 30% currently, trailing behind Motorola …
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
Rapidshare To Be Forced to Shut Down Following Court Defeat?  —  Last week we reported on rumors that Rapidshare had, or was about to be, shut down, rumors that now look likely to resurface.  The company, one of the world's largest ‘one-click’ file hosting services, has lost a copyright infringement case …
Brent Csutoras / Search Engine Land:
How To Create Compelling Social Media Profiles  —  Social media is not really new anymore, but many people still struggle with the subtle things that might help or hurt success within the top social communities.  Recently Muhammad Saleem published a great article on the various tips …
 
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 More Items: 
Dean Takahashi / Tech Talk with Dean Takahashi:
DEMO: Leapfrog Enterprises creates Tag for early readers
Discussion: Techlog
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
DEMO 2008 LIVEBLOG: TUESDAY MORNING
Discussion: VC Ratings, Mark Evans and TechWeb
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
VMware Down 30% As Growth Disappoints; Now What?
Discussion: DealBook and PR Newswire
Steve Williams / Digg the Blog:
Digg Joins the DataPortability Project
Discussion: Mashable! and Voidstar: blog
Vinnee Tong / Associated Press:
Liberty Media Moves to Oust Diller
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Firefox share up over 20% in Europe, mostly at expense of IE
Discussion: TechSpot News
BBC:
Quarter of US iPhones ‘unlocked’
Lance Ulanoff / AppScout:
DEMO 08: Lance Handicaps the Products
 Earlier Items: 
Nikon Press Center:
THE NEW NIKON COOLPIX L18 IS AS SIMPLE AS POINT AND SHOOT
Nancy Gohring / InfoWorld:
Earthlink founder steps down as Helio CEO
Discussion: E-Commerce Times
Louise Story / New York Times:
Can a Sandwich Be Slandered?
IDG News Service:
Apple Readies MacBook Air Add-Ons
Discussion: MacRumors
Brian Prince / eWeek:
More Database Vendors Enter the Cloud
Discussion: CNET News.com and GigaOM
BBC:
Monitored net  —  Internet law professor Michael Geist examines …
Discussion: Rough Type
John Tierney / New York Times:
Hitting It Off, Thanks to Algorithms of Love
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
The FTC bans noncompete clauses that restrict job switching, potentially complicating hiring in Hollywood as firms try to protect trade secrets and other info

Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:
An interview with NPR CEO Katherine Maher, who defends NPR and accuses critics of “bad faith distortion” of her past comments about the First Amendment

Tom Jones / Poynter:
How the Columbia Daily Spectator, the independent student newspaper of Columbia University, is covering the tense protests over the Israel-Hamas war

 
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