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3:10 PM ET, February 20, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Nick White / Windows Vista Team Blog:
Update on Windows Vista SP1 Prerequisite KB937287  —  We've heard a few reports about problems customers may be experiencing as a result of KB937287, the servicing stack update I blogged about last week, and I wanted to provide a quick update for you.  Immediately after receiving reports of this error …
RELATED:
Brandon Hill / DailyTech:
Microsoft Makes Windows XP SP3 RC2 Publicly Available
Discussion: Engadget
Jason Mick / DailyTech:
Vista SP1 Update Process Kills Some PCs, Microsoft Responds
Discussion: Engadget and Microsoft Watch
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
HP's UMPC 2133 to cost $630 when shipping in April?  —  A report by the Commercial Times says that HP will launch its 8.9-inch UMPC in April for “more than” NT$20,000 or about $630 bucks.  Sure sounds like the UMPC 2133 we showed you yesterday, eh?  That's about right when you compare it to the $300, entry-level 7-inch Eee PC.
RELATED:
Chippy / UMPCPortal:
HP UMPC to feature VIA Inside.  Not Intel.  —  The HP UMPC news is everywhere and I think it's obvious from the response that this UMPC represents something special.  The comparisons range from the Eee PC to the Macbook AIR.  Just think about that for a minute.  Is this a single device that could compete in multiple markets?
Discussion: Engadget, jkOnTheRun and GottaBeMobile
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Price War!  Telcos Swoon As Analysts Chop Ests on Verizon, AT&T, Qwest, Sprint; How Low Can Prices Go?  —  Fearing a price war is shaping up in the wireless sector, the Street is dumping telco shares.  —  Credit Suisse telecom analyst Christopher Larsen this morning reduced his rating …
RELATED:
Reuters:
Sharper Image files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Retailer Sharper Image Corp has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing declining sales, three straight years of losses and litigation involving its Ionic Breeze air purifiers.
RELATED:
Adam Frucci / Gizmodo:
Sharper Image Files for Bankruptcy; You'll Need to Go Elsewhere …
Discussion: Electronista
Brandi Stewart / Fortune Small Business:
eBay seller strike starts, listings dip  —  EBay's listings appear to be down 3% since this week's seller strike began, but separating the boycott's effects from standard daily fluctuations is a tricky task.  —  (FORTUNE Small Business) — Monday marked the start of a week-long eBay (EBAY …
Ina Fried / CNET News.com:
Gates on Yahoo: It's the people  —  PALO ALTO, Calif.—Bill Gates is willing to pay a lot for engineering talent.  —  Asked what makes Yahoo worth more than $40 billion, Gates pointed not to the company's products, its huge base of advertisers or its market share, but rather to the company's engineers.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
GenieTown Launches To Tackle Local Services  —  Palo Alto-based GenieTown launches this morning.  They're trying to crack the local services nut - a huge market, but one that a lot of the big guys are eyeing, too.  —  The company says they are addressing the long tail of local services.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Google & Its 99 Broadband Balloons  —  Google, according to The Wall Street Journal is thinking about teaming up with Space Data Corp., a company that sends balloons carrying small (micro) base stations about 20 miles up in the air for providing connectivity to truckers and oil companies.
Discussion: DSLreports
RELATED:
Amol Sharma / Wall Street Journal:
Floating a New Idea For Going Wireless, Parachute Included
Discussion: All News Feeds and textually.org
New York Times:
Microsoft Said to Plan Proxy Fight for Yahoo  —  Microsoft has begun to make preparations to proceed with a proxy fight against Yahoo as it seeks to gain control of the Internet company, people briefed on the matter said on Tuesday.  —  The aggressive tactic is part of the hard-nosed takeover campaign …
RELATED:
Zachery Kouwe / New York Post:   PROXY MOXIE  —  MICROSOFT TO TAKE YAHOO! BATTLE TO SHAREHOLDERS
Brooke Crothers / CNET News.com:
Dell launches Inspiron notebooks with ‘Penryn’ chip  —  As expected, Dell is now offering Inspiron notebook PCs with the Intel Core 2 Duo “Penryn” chip as an optional configuration.  This is the first time that Dell has included the 45-nanometer processor as an option in the consumer-oriented Inspiron line.
Chris Williams / The Register:
BBC mulls dropping Flash as iPlayer meets iPhone  —  iDontbelieveit!  —  The BBC is considering ditching Adobe's Flash system for its iPlayer streams to improve the video quality of the on-demand service, it said on Tuesday.  —  The news came alongside an announcement that iPlayer …
Discussion: Adobe, last100 and All News Feeds
Dan Fost / New York Times:
They're Working on Their Own, Just Side by Side  —  CONTEMPLATING his career path a couple of years ago, a young computer programmer named Brad Neuberg faced a modern predicament.  “It seemed I could either have a job, which would give me structure and community,” he said, “or I could be freelance and have freedom and independence.
Jason / Signal vs. Noise:
The New Backpack's First 24 Hours  —  Yesterday's big Backpack update was a huge success.  It was the best day in Backpack's history — even better than the last big update in July '07 and add anywhere in Oct '07.  —  We usually don't share numbers, but we thought we'd break tradition …
Matt Martin / GamesIndustry.biz:
GDC: Molyneux despairs at “tragic” state of PCgaming  —  Warcraft, The Sims “sucking the air out of PC market,” says Lionhead boss  —  Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux has said that the PC gaming market is in a tragic state, with two blockbusters hogging sales and stagnation in the casual market.
Discussion: Massively, Kotaku and videogaming247
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
That Didn't Take Long At All: $89 Million Australian Internet Filters Called A Failure  —  Last August the Australian Prime Minister announced plans to spend many millions of dollars to offer free internet filters that parents could use to keep their kids from surfing porn.
Discussion: WebProNews, DSLreports and Mashable!
 
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 More Items: 
Ryan Block / Engadget:
Microsoft announces games for Zune via XNA Studio
Shel / Global Neighbourhoods:
Forrester's New Online Communities Report
Ashkan Karbasfrooshan / HipMojo.com:
Why Most VC-Backed, Ad-Supported Companies Are Doomed to Fail
Discussion: VC Ratings
Jaikumar Vijayan / Computerworld:
Privacy, civil rights advocates castigate Wikileaks ruling
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Comcast's Technical Expert: Mary Bono?
Discussion: Mashable! and P2P Blog
Jonathan Richards / Times of London:
Hacker breaks link between iTunes and the iPod
David F. Gallagher / Bits:
Wikileaks Site Has a Friend in Sweden
Joshua Karp / The Boy Genius Report:
Blackberry email goes down...again
 Earlier Items: 
Mercury News:
From Mercury News staff and wire services
Doug Aamoth / CrunchGear:
Wired tells us how to convert HD DVD to Blu-ray
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Reviewing the RIAA's “Reefer Madness” for the digital age
Discussion: Listening Post
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
EU Invests $22 Million in Next-Generation BitTorrent Client
Anne Broache / CNET News.com:
Lessig: I'm considering a run for Congress
Discussion: techPresident and ExtremeTech
Luke Plunkett / Kotaku:
Wii Fit To Launch In US On May 19
BBC:
Warning over techno addicts
Darrren Waters / BBC:
Brain control headset for gamers
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Ruth La Ferla / New York Times:
Graydon Carter opens a physical store called Air Mail Newsstand in NYC, as an extension of his digital newsletter Air Mail, selling books, magazines, and more

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Filing: Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav's 2023 compensation package was worth $49.7M, up 26.5% from the year prior, with $23.1M in stock awards

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:
At a town hall, GB News CEO announced job cuts affecting 40 roles, its first major round of cuts after its 2021 launch; GB News had 295 staffers in May 2023

 
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