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2:15 PM ET, October 24, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Gmail Blog:
A picture is worth a thousand words  —  Here on the Gmail team, we're always thinking of ways to help you communicate.  Back in the day, we put chat right inside Gmail.  Then along came group chat and more emoticons.  And when we realized that late night communication had its downsides …
RELATED:
Miguel Helft / Bits:
A New (Fighter) Jet for Google's Founders?  —  A company controlled by Google's top executives, including billionaire founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, appears to have added a new plane to its well-equipped fleet: a fighter jet, or more precisely a Dornier Alpha Jet.
RELATED:
Daniel DeBolt / mv-voice.com:
Google execs' new toy: a fighter jet?
Discussion: Valleywag and Slashdot
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Will the Kindle Get an Oprah Bump?  —  Oprah Winfrey doesn't really strike me as a gadget girl.  Of course, I've never even watched her show, so maybe she is.  One way or another, when I saw the Financial Times reporting that the cultural icon looked ready to endorse the Amazon Kindle today, I made a point of setting my DVR.
RELATED:
Chris Nuttall / blogs.ft.com:
Oprah likely to kindle big interest in digital books  —  Kindle sales appear likely to get a significant boost on Friday, with talk-show megastar Oprah Winfrey apparently about to endorse Amazon's digital book reader.  —  Amazon is featuring a trailer of her Friday show on its site …
Michael Learmonth / AdAge:
Sarah Palin ‘SNL’ Online Clips Soon to Eclipse TV  —  Among the Top ‘Most Popular’ Shorts on Hulu.com  —  NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's appearance was very good for “Saturday Night Live,” bringing the show its best ratings in 14 years.
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Study: Sequoia e-voting machines disturbingly easy to hack  —  The Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy has published a report disclosing security vulnerabilities that researchers have detected in Sequoia's AVC Advantage voting machine.
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Russia Realizes That Free Software Beats Sending Principals To Siberia For Piracy  —  You may recall the story last year of a Russian school principal who was arrested for buying computers for his school that had counterfeit versions of Windows.  Even though he had no idea that the software …
Discussion: Slashdot
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Informed players say Apple's Mac mini still kickin'  —  First on AI: With Apple's recent ‘State of the Mac’ omitting any mention of the Mac mini and reports surfacing over the current line's discontinuation, there's been some speculation that the diminutive desktop's days may (again) be numbered.
Associated Press:
Source: Yahoo to announce plans for Neb. facility  —  LA VISTA, Neb. - Yahoo Inc. is expected to unveil plans to build a new facility in Nebraska on Friday, just days after the California-based Internet company announced it will cut at least 1,500 workers as it deals with the economic downturn.
Ben Fritz / Variety:
Legendary to acquire Epic Games  —  Talks underway for ‘Gears of War’ developer  —  Legendary Pictures is in talks to acquire Epic Games, developer of vidgames including ‘Gears of War.’  —  Legendary may be getting Epic.  —  Private equity-backed film financier Legendary Pictures …
Tony Smith / The Register:
Dell readies small, cheap computer for small biz  —  Dell is preparing an all-black version of its Inspiron Mini 9 netbook, this one aimed at small businesses and set to ship as the Vostro A90.  —  Dell's Vostro A90: rebranded Inspiron Mini 9  —  The PC giant launched the machine in Japan today …
Electronista:
Hop-on readying Android phone  —  Small-scale phone maker Hop-on on Friday said it would develop a phone based on Google's Android platform.  The open-source mobile operating system is pitched as giving the company a boost in competing in the high-end phone business, where it has little presence …
Discussion: Gizmodo and Crave
Noah Shachtman / Danger Room:
Spy Fears: Twitter Terrorists, Cell Phone Jihadists  —  Could Twitter become terrorists' newest killer app?  A draft Army intelligence report, making its way through spy circles, thinks the miniature messaging software could be used as an effective tool for coordinating militant attacks.
Discussion: Valleywag and Gizmodo
Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:
Voodoo newspaper economics  —  The formidable problems of the newspaper industry won't get solved if industry leaders substitute voodoo economics for rational discourse.  So, let's dispense with some of the bad juju we have heard in the last couple of days.  —  Voodoo Economics 101
Brad Linder / Download Squad:
ACCESS Linux Platform 3.0 released: Yes it's another mobile phone OS  —  You know how Palm hasn't released an updated version of PalmOS in a while?  Yeah, they still haven't.  But ACCESS, the company that used to be known as PalmSource yesterday announced that ACCESS Linux Platform 3.0 is ready to go.
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
The XO laptop gets a Windows makeover  —  On the outside, the Windows version of the XO laptop looks just like the Linux model.  But simply booting up the device shows that the Windows version bears little resemblance to the original One Laptop Per Child device.
Discussion: PC World and Engadget
Stacey Higginbotham / Business Week:
Facing Downturn, Venture Capital Prunes Prospects  —  With lean times ahead, venture capital firms are turning to triage—supporting promising companies while shooting dead the weak  —  The credit crunch has scared America straight for at least a few quarters.
Antone Gonsalves / InformationWeek:
HDTV Shipments Surpass Standard TVs  —  Significant price reductions and the increasing availability of content over multiple distribution channels are driving sales, according to market researchers.  —  Shipments of high-definition televisions this year surpassed that of standard TVs, a market researcher said Tuesday.
Discussion: iSuppli, Engadget HD and Gizmodo
Harris Lin / DigiTimes:
Skype sees WiMAX as business opportunity, says COO  —  During his visit to Taiwan, Skype COO Scott Durchslag noted that Skype is looking to extend its business operations from PCs to mobile communication devices, with WiMAX being one technology that afford the company potential business opportunities for Skype VoIP services.
Discussion: The Blog known … and VoIP Watch
David Scheer / Bloomberg:
Jobs Said to Be Targeted by Teen in Heart-Attack Tale  —  Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) — A fake Internet report that Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs had suffered a heart attack was posted by a teenager, and investigators haven't found evidence he tried to profit from driving down the stock …
Electronista:
HTC Touch Pro for Sprint gets launch info  —  Wireless provider Sprint on Friday announced it will soon offer the HTC Touch Pro for sale and use on its network, bringing with it HTC's TouchFLO 3D interface on its 2.8-inch screen along with a five-row QWERTY keyboard and Windows Mobile 6.1.
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Intel ‘corrects’ executives who slammed iPhone  —  Updated 4:30pm with additional background on the ongoing saga of Apple and Intel.  —  Intel issued a “correction” Thursday regarding comments one of its executives made earlier this week slamming the iPhone as incapable of working correctly with the Internet.
 
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 More Items: 
Erica Ogg / CNET News:
Xerox to cut 3,000 jobs
Mike Shields / Mediaweek:
Google, MediaVest Tap Biometrics for InVideo Ads Play
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Search Engine Cache Isn't Copyright Infringement
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
White space battle gets dirty as the mud flies
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Microsoft's Profit Rises, but Outlook Is Cautious
 Earlier Items: 
Nelson Ireson / MotorAuthority:
BMW seeking partners for open-source car software platform
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Nintendo Kills Wii Homebrew With Update, Again, Again, Again
Discussion: Boy Genius Report, Engadget and WiiBrew
Markcuban / blog maverick:
The Cure To Our Economic Problems
Discussion: Tech Sanity Check
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Apple could buy Dell with cash
Discussion: Cult of Mac and The Apple Core
Tom Sullivan / InfoWorld:
Looking for job security? Try Cobol
Discussion: CloudAve, Inquirer and Slashdot
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
Video: Side by Side - BlackBerry Storm, Bold & iPhone 3G!
Discussion: The iPhone Blog and Engadget
 

 
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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