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12:40 PM ET, October 25, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Alex Payne / Twitter Technology Blog:
We Got Data  —  There are lots of ways to get data into and out of Twitter.  So many, in fact, that it's become a bit confusing as to what a developer's options are.  We'd like to clear that up.  —  REST API  —  If you want to interact with Twitter on behalf of an individual user …
RELATED:
Steve Gillmor / TechCrunchIT:
Realtime wars pick up speed  —  Thursday night Twitter engineer Alex Payne finally acknowledged the obvious regarding the firehose - the full stream of data sought after by third-party developers to add back the long-withheld Track service.  Twitter executives have been all over the map on this …
Discussion: FriendFeed Blog
Steve Lohr / Bits:
Microsoft's Vista Problem, by the Numbers  —  Microsoft reported a reassuringly solid quarter in tough times on Thursday, but its Windows business looked weak.  —  The big Windows unit reported a 2 percent rise in revenue and 4 percent decline in operating income.
Discussion: Gizmodo
John Markoff / New York Times:
Security Flaw Is Revealed in T-Mobile's Google Phone  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Just days after the T-Mobile G1 smartphone went on the market, a group of security researchers have found what they call a serious flaw in the Android software from Google that runs it.
Dan Farber / Outside the Lines:
Amazon's Kindle obsession: Bury the printed book  —  Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos loves to talk about the Kindle e-book reader.  He's even got media mogul Oprah Winfrey pitching the device: “I'm telling you, it is absolutely my new favorite thing in the world,” she recently said.
RELATED:
Eric Engleman / TechFlash:
Video: Amazon's Bezos on Oprah
Discussion: Andrea on Amazon …
Andrew Moseman / Popular Mechanics:
Scientists Fixing Hubble Contend With Antiquated Computers  —  NASA scientists trying to find out what went wrong during last week's repair of the Hubble Space Telescope find themselves dealing with 486 processors and other outdated computer technology.  But sometimes, mission managers say …
Discussion: Slashdot and digg.com
Adam Lashinsky / Fortune:
Five reasons to buy Yahoo stock  —  The struggling Internet company may look like a basket case but now's the time to jump in.  —  SAN FRANCISCO (Fortune) — Here's why you should buy, not bail, on Yahoo.  —  1. Eventually, management will get tossed.  —  Starting with the least scientific …
Nick Bryant / BBC:
Australia trials national net filters  —  Is the Rudd government about to erect a Great Firewall of Australia - introducing a form of internet censorship that will infringe upon the freedom of computer users to browse the worldwide web?  —  That is the concern of online civil liberties groups …
The Technium:
Evidence of a Global SuperOrganism  —  I am not the first, nor the only one, to believe a superorganism is emerging from the cloak of wires, radio waves, and electronic nodes wrapping the surface of our planet.  No one can dispute the scale or reality of this vast connectivity.  What's uncertain is, what is it?
Discussion: MAKE Magazine
Phone Arena:
Hot new phones coming to Verizon next month!  —  Verizon “Big Red” Wireless wants to be better than Santa and prepares a bunch of hot new phones for the Holidays, an internal document tells us.  We've heard about them in earlier rumors, but here is the real deal:
Discussion: Unwired View, SlashPhone and Gizmodo
Mike Elgan / Computerworld:
In search of the smart phone laptop  —  Palm tried it with Foleo and failed; will Apple do better?  —  Computerworld) In the past two years, cell phone and laptop companies have unveiled breathtaking innovations — from 24-hour battery laptops to dual-screen laptops to “augmented reality” cell phone applications.
Discussion: The Raw Feed
Eric Lai / PC World:
In Satellite Photo Resolution Race, Who's Winning?  —  There are many ways to judge an online map — the panoramic sweep of its street views, how accurately it gives directions, the number of restaurant reviews it has.  —  But an increasingly popular way is by studying the fine-grained detail of its birds-eye photographs.
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
New Facebook Design: Running the Numbers on Applications  —  Over the past few weeks there has been some debate going on about the overall impact of the new Facebook design.  Scott Rafer declared the Facebook platform dead earlier this week.  I had previously posted numbers suggesting …
Arn / MacRumors:
New MacBook Pro Does Not Support 8GB RAM (for now)  —  Luke from iFixit.com was kind enough to test out a new NVIDIA-based MacBook Pro with 8GB of RAM (two 4GB chips) to see if the earlier reports were true.  NVIDIA representatives had stated that the new chipsets used in the MacBook and MacBook Pro could support up to 8GB of RAM.
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
Twitter bug reveals private messages  —  Be careful what you Twitter — especially if you think the website will keep it secret for you.  In 1999, Scott McNealy, then Sun's CEO, said, “You have zero privacy anyway.  Get over it.”  Webheads have been diligently trying to prove him wrong since …
Discussion: Startup Meme
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Surprise, Surprise: E-Voting Glitches Found In Early Voting  —  from the this-is-a-surprise?  dept  —  The GAO had warned that there would be some pretty massive e-voting problems this year, as election officials were not properly trained on the already problematic machines …
Discussion: CNN, Slashdot and Daily Kos
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
19,683 Tech Layoffs And Counting  —  This has been a brutal month or so for tech layoffs.  According to our Layoff Tracker, there have been 19,683 job eliminations at tech companies announced since mid-September, and we're not even counting the 24,600 people at Hewlett-Packard who are being eliminated …
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Don't Be Evil?  Google Uses Shady Ad Tactics To Edge Out Competitor  —  Two weeks ago we wrote about Yamli, a powerful transliteration engine that allows users to use their Latin keyboards to type in Arabic text.  The service has gotten rave reviews (see the comments), and serves a very large audience that has largely been neglected.
Discussion: StartUpArabia and Startup Meme
Robert Johnson / Facebook Blog:
Scribe Makes Its Open Source Debut  —  At Facebook, we're constantly trying to make the world more open and connected.  We don't just do this with the products we build, we also do it with the way we build products.  Our site is built almost entirely with open source software …
Discussion: Mashable!
 
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 More Items: 
BBC:
iTunes glitch censors song titles
Discussion: ringtonia.com and MacNN
Marguerite Reardon / CNET News:
Debate to delay ‘white space’ vote heats up
Will Park / IntoMobile:
Sony Ericsson: UIQ is dead
Discussion: Crave
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Checking In On Facebook Connect: Where Are All The Partners?
Discussion: Lookery Blog and PE Hub Blog
Richard Lloyd Parry / Times of London:
North Korea clamps down on mobile phones to stop news of food crisis
 Earlier Items: 
Om Malik / GigaOM:
BroadSoft Cuts Jobs As Sales Slow
Discussion: F**kedStartups and VoIP Watch
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
AOL Begins Shutdown Of AOL Pictures, BlueString And Xdrive
Discussion: Webware.com and F**kedStartups
Alex Patriquin / Compete Blog:
The Undiscovered Best: How Yahoo! Actually Leads Paid Search
Discussion: SitePoint Blogs
Will Park / IntoMobile:
Box.net iPhone application for FREE on AppStore
Discussion: Startup Meme and Mashable!
Jim Goldman / Tech Check with Jim Goldman:
What's Apple Really Worth?
Discussion: The Mac Observer
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Paramount Global's board is considering replacing CEO Bob Bakish with an “Office of the CEO” made up of division heads on an interim basis

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:
The New York Times is broken, shown by its entitled, petulant reaction to Politico's report on its tense relationship with Biden

Andrew Marchand / The Athletic:
Sources: Amazon Prime Video has a framework deal for NBA broadcast rights for at least a decade, starting in 2025-26; ESPN/ABC is expected to keep the finals

 
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