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4:55 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:
Brad Linder / Download Squad:
Microsoft releases Windows XP SP3 RC2
Discussion: WinBeta
Brandon Hill / DailyTech:
Microsoft Makes Windows XP SP3 RC2 Publicly Available
Discussion: Engadget
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Microsoft posts new Windows XP SP3 build for public download
Discussion: Gizmodo, TechSpot News and Digg
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 to Try Out a Massage Recliner  —  When I was a kid and would get dragged to the mall by my parents, I would always gravitate to stores like Sharper Image.  These gadget-stuffed stores probably never actually got a sale out of me …
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.
RELATED:
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Gates On Yahoo Acquisition: It's The Engineers We Want
Discussion: CNET News.com
Robert X. Cringely / InfoWorld:
Look before you leak  —  I bet you thought people banked in the Cayman Islands because they serve fruity cocktails with tiny parasols in them while you're waiting for your checks to clear.  Well, you're only partly right.  The other reason people keep accounts in the Caymans is to avoid paying taxes …
RELATED:
David F. Gallagher / Bits:
Wikileaks Site Has a Friend in Sweden
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.
Discussion: jkOnTheRun, Engadget 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:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
GenieTown Launches To Tackle Local Services  —  Palo Alto-based Genie Town 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.
Ryan Block / Engadget:
Microsoft announces games for Zune via XNA Studio  —  Looks like games are coming for the Zune after all!  Microsoft just announed XNA Studio developers will be able to use the Zune as a multiplayer wireless mobile gaming platform.  Details are sparse at this point, but it looks like it's …
Discussion: Paul Colligan's …
Ashkan Karbasfrooshan / HipMojo.com:
Why Most VC-Backed, Ad-Supported Companies Are Doomed to Fail  —  Most of the web projects out there are ad-supported, or intend to be ad-supported.  —  While a lot of companies are bootstrapped, most are financed by angel investors or venture capitalists.
Discussion: VC Ratings
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 …
Frank Caron / Ars Technica:
XNA games coming to the Zune, Xbox Live Arcade  —  This morning at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Microsoft announced the next step in its Xbox Live and XNA initiative: the Zune will be entering the fray as new third pillar of XNA software support, with over 1,000 games for the device by year end.
Discussion: BBC NEWS and Silicon Alley Insider
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
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
EU Invests $22 Million in Next-Generation BitTorrent Client  —  A few weeks ago we reported that the EU Greens launched a pro-filesharing campaign named “I Wouldn't Steal”.  In a continued effort to support the development of P2P technology, the European Union has now invested $22 million …
 
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 More Items: 
Scott Ferguson / eWeek:
Hurd: HP Consolidation Project Moving Along
N'Gai Croal / Level Up:
Exclusive: Nintendo Announces Plan to Launch Its WiiWare Download …
Ecamm Network:
MegaPhone v1.5 Released
Chris Williams / The Register:
Shamed ‘alternative medicine’ quack silences web critic
Discussion: Techdirt
Mike Magee / Inquirer:
Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Sun sued
Discussion: Engadget
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Google & Its 99 Broadband Balloons
Discussion: DSLreports and MobHappy
Shel / Global Neighbourhoods:
Forrester's New Online Communities Report
Jonathan Richards / Times of London:
Hacker breaks link between iTunes and the iPod
 Earlier Items: 
Joshua Karp / The Boy Genius Report:
Blackberry email goes down...again
Mercury News:
From Mercury News staff and wire services
Doug Aamoth / CrunchGear:
Wired tells us how to convert HD DVD to Blu-ray
Matt Martin / GamesIndustry.biz:
GDC: Molyneux despairs at “tragic” state of PCgaming
Anne Broache / CNET News.com:
Lessig: I'm considering a run for Congress
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
That Didn't Take Long At All: $89 Million Australian Internet …
Luke Plunkett / Kotaku:
Wii Fit To Launch In US On May 19
Dan Fost / New York Times:
They're Working on Their Own, Just Side by Side