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12:00 PM ET, August 21, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft Enlists Jerry Seinfeld In Its Ad Battle Against Apple  —  Microsoft Corp., weary of being cast as a stodgy oldster by Apple Inc.'s advertising, is turning for help to Jerry Seinfeld.  —  The software giant's new $300 million advertising campaign, devised by a newly hired ad agency, has been closely guarded.
RELATED:
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Microsoft enlists Seinfeld, Gates to battle “Get a Mac” ads  —  Those Apple “Get a Mac” ads have long been an annoyance to Microsoft and to Bill Gates in particular.  No surprise as Apple, emboldened by rising market share, continues to ratchet up the venom with quips like …
Margaret Kane / CNET News.com:
Microsoft taps Seinfeld for ad campaign
Discussion: AppleInsider
Ina Fried / CNET News.com:
Photosynthing the nation's capital  —  WASHINGTON, D.C.—On Monday, I got a demo of how Microsoft was opening up Photosynth to consumers.  On Wednesday, I put it to the test.  —  With my Canon Digital Rebel XT in tow, I headed to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to try it out.
Discussion: Imaging Insider and WinBeta
RELATED:
Josh Lowensohn / Webware.com:
Microsoft launches 3D wonder Photosynth for consumers  —  On Wednesday night, Photosynth, a technology demo from Microsoft Live Labs, is graduating from its “ooh, that's pretty” status to being a viable Web service for consumers.  —  The technology, which takes a grouping of photographs …
Brady Forrest / O'Reilly Radar:
Photosynth is Released and Moves to Virtual Earth
RELATED:
Thorsten / RightScale Blog:
Why Amazon's Elastic Block Store Matters
Discussion: InfoWorld
Stephanie Condon / CNET News.com:
Judge: Copyright owners must consider ‘fair use’  —  A federal judge on Wednesday gave more weight to the concept of “fair use” when he threw a lifeline to a Pennsylvania mother's lawsuit against Universal Music.  —  The judge refused to dismiss Stephanie Lenz's suit claiming that Universal abused …
RELATED:
David Chartier / Infinite Loop:
Microsoft demands Xbox LIVE iPhone app to be set free  —  People seem to really like this App Store thing we keep hearing about, and apps are selling for the iPhone and iPod touch like hot cakes.  One too-descriptively-named app, 1337pwn XBOX Live Friends Application (iTunes link) …
Discussion: Geek Gestalt and WebProNews
David Havlek / Seeking Alpha:
Salesforce.com F2Q09 (Qtr End 7/31/08) Earnings Call Transcript  —  Executives  —  Marc Benioff - Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer  —  Graham V. Smith - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President  —  Analysts  —  Steven Koenig - Keybanc Capital Markets  —  Presentation
Discussion: InfoWorld and Between the Lines
RELATED:
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Apple hit with class-action lawsuit over iPhone 3G flakiness  —  We all knew it was coming, it was just a matter of time.  A lawsuit has been filed against Apple over what the plaintiff is referring to as the “Defective iPhone 3G,” which she hopes will become a class-action complaint.
RELATED:
Bill Ray / The Register:
Apple faces lawsuit over wobbly 3G claims
Discussion: InformationWeek
Fred / A VC:
Ten Things I Want On My Mobile Phone  —  1) Shazam for places - I blogged about this when I was in Scotland earlier this month.  I met a company at TechStars yesterday that might be able to build it.  I hope they do.  —  2) Shazam for people - same idea. even more possibilities for this one.
Discussion: Mobile Industry News
Jonathan D. Glater / New York Times:
Welcome, Freshmen.  Have an iPod.  —  Taking a step that professors may view as a bit counterproductive, some universities are doling out Apple iPhones and Internet-capable iPods to students.  —  The always-on Internet devices raise some novel possibilities, like tracking where students congregate.
Discussion: TeleRead and GottaBeMobile
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Yahoo-Intel TV Widgets Sound Neat, But Leave Us Wanting More  —  It's a safe bet that watching TV is eventually going to feel more like using the Web — at least for those who want it to.  But once people go through the hassle of hooking up their TVs to the Internet, will they settle for small …
RELATED:
Maggie Shiels / BBC:
Intel unites the internet with TV
Discussion: Webware.com and dailywireless.org
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
12seconds extends its 15 minutes of fame with an API  —  12seconds has a goal: It wants to be the go-to platform for video status updates.  In order to make a good platform, you need a good application programming interface (API).  Today, 12seconds is launching that API and announcing its first three partners.
BBC:
Web browser to get ‘privacy mode’  —  Microsoft is planning a “privacy mode” for the next release of its Internet Explorer (IE) web browser.  —  By clicking a button, users of IE8 will be able to limit how much information is recorded about where they go online and what they do.
Discussion: Technology Live and Slashdot
BBC:
New PlayStation and PSP unveiled  —  Sony has announced details of its latest PlayStation 3 gaming console and handheld PlayStation Portable.  —  A 160 GB PS3 was unveiled at the Leipzig games conference that will go on sale on 31 October in Europe and November in the US.
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
LinkedIn launches an iPhone app, it's simple but it means business  —  If the iPhone wants to be taken serious as a business device it's going to have to have applications other than More Cowbell (the app that lets you simulate playing a cowbell).  A definite must-have for business users is LinkedIn, the professional online network.
Ryan Grove / wonko.com:
Yahoo! Search brings Search Assist, SearchMonkey, and more to the iPhone  —  In June, my boss came to me with a challenge: bring the full Yahoo! Search experience—including SearchMonkey, Search Assist, shortcuts, and other awesome Yahoo! Search features—to the iPhone with as few compromises as possible.
Eileen Sullivan / Associated Press:
FEMA phones hacked; calls made to Mideast, Asia  —  Featured Topics: - John McCain - Barack Obama  —  WASHINGTON - A hacker broke into a Homeland Security Department telephone system over the weekend and racked up about $12,000 in calls to the Middle East and Asia.
Discussion: Zero Day, Gearlog and Slashdot
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
Zoho launches document sharing service  —  Today's addition to the rapidly-expanding suite of Zoho's productivity apps is Zoho Share, a straightforward utility for sharing word processing documents, spreadsheets, PDF files, and slide shows.  The online app reads in several popular document formats …
Discussion: TechCrunch and Mashable!
 
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 More Items: 
Jeremiah Owyang / Web Strategy:
What Facebook's New ‘Engagement Advertising’ Means to Brands
Discussion: The Social
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Photobucket, Scrapblog form crafty partnership
Discussion: Mashable!
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
Video: BlackBerry Bold vs. iPhone Web Browser Showdown (It Gets Ugly)
Chrisbrogan Com / chrisbrogan.com:
Social Media Events Are Fragmenting
Priya Ganapati / Gadget Lab:
iPhone of Home Phones Coming Next Year
Discussion: OhGizmo!, SlashGear and Engadget
Stefanie Olsen / CNET News.com:
Widget makers get a makeover
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Facebook developers to factor in age, location
Dana Blankenhorn / Open Source:
The new Intel gets open source mojo with SpikeSource
Discussion: Business Wire and TechCrunchIT
 Earlier Items: 
Abbey Klaassen / AdAge:
Quantcast Nabs Yahoo Exec for Its Chief Revenue Officer
Discussion: paidContent.org and Valleywag
Robert Andrews / paidContent.org:
Microsoft Rejigs For Commercial Search, Multimap Leads The Way
Discussion: Search Engine Land
Dave Rubert / NaviGadget:
tomtom PRO 4000 and 8000  —  TomTom just introduced what they call …
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Spotted: FriendFeed Beta — coming soon
Discussion: WinExtra and The Blog Herald
Richard MacManus / ReadWriteWeb:
10 Promising Web Platforms
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
If You're Looking To Learn Basic Economics, Here's A Free Textbook
Discussion: The Equity Kicker
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Verisign's Personal Identity Portal Is Half Way To Password Bliss
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Facebook's forthcoming iPhone app to be more like its web site …
 

 
From Mediagazer:

New York Times:
Sources detail NPR's struggles with declining audiences, falling sponsorship revenue, internal conflicts over turning things around, and a diversity push

Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
Warner Music Group sells Uproxx, HipHopDX, and other assets to a new company, Uproxx Studios, formed by Jarret Myer, Rich Antoniello, and will.i.am

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

 
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