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11:25 AM ET, November 14, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
John Markoff / New York Times:
Google Is Taking Questions (Spoken, via iPhone)  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Pushing ahead in the decades-long effort to get computers to understand human speech, Google researchers have added sophisticated voice recognition technology to the company's search software for the Apple iPhone.
Business Wire:
Sun Microsystems Aligns Business with Global Economic Climate and Amplifies Growth Opportunities Across Open Source Platforms  —  SANTA CLARA, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA - News) today announced a series of changes designed to align its cost model …
RELATED:
Margaret Kane / CNET News:
Sun restructures, lays off up to 6,000  —  Sun Microsystems has announced a restructuring that will involve layoffs of 15 percent to 18 percent of its global workforce.  —  The company also announced a reorganization of its software operations and the departure of Rich Green, executive vice president of software.
Ashlee Vance / New York Times:
Sun Restructures and Plans at Least 5,000 Layoffs  —  Reeling from a significant decline in sales and a plummeting share price, Sun Microsystems, one of the larger sellers of server computers, said Friday that it planned to layoff 5,000 to 6,000 workers or 15 percent t0 18 percent of its work force …
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Trevin Chow:
Introducing the Microsoft Store US  —  We previously launched Microso ft Store internationally in the UK, Germany and Korea.  I'm now happy to announce that we have officially launched Microsoft Store for the U.S!  —  With this launch, our customers in the U.S. are able to buy …
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Microsoft launches online store: Is there deeper meaning here?  —  Microsoft has launched something long overdue: An online store.  Yes Virginia, you can download Windows.  —  The launch is a bit quiet.  Trevin Chow, a senior program manager at Microsoft, announced the “first-party” store on his blog.
Discussion: Engadget
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Introducing the Microsoft Store
BBC:
$100 laptop to be sold in Europe  —  Europeans will soon be able to buy their own XO laptop.  —  The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organisation is planning to sell the devices via online store Amazon's European outlets from 17 November.  —  The machines will be sold under the Give One …
Discussion: TeleRead, Liliputing and Engadget
RELATED:
Jack Schofield / Guardian:
$100 OLPC to reach Europe, at £268
Discussion: TheNextWeb.com and p2pnet
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
GirlInYourShirt: $75 Buys Your Startup Marketing For A Day  —  I imagine more than a few startups will take Jenaé up on her offer to wear your startup shirt and talk about your company for a day.  It's $75, and she posts videos on her site, YouTube, Seesmic and Viddler, posts pictures on Flickr and tweets about it all as well.
Discussion: AppScout and The Drama 2.0 Show
Royal Pingdom:
The world's most super-designed data center - fit for a James Bond villain  —  This underground data center has greenhouses, waterfalls, German submarine engines, simulated daylight and can withstand a hit from a hydrogen bomb.  It looks like the secret HQ of a James Bond villain.  —  And it is real.
Discussion: Gizmodo
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google Finally Starts Firing Slackers?  —  “It used to be nearly impossible to get fired for general underperformance” at Google, a reader tells us.  But times have changed.  Read >  —  What The Heck Happened To The Site?  —  Henry Blodget |  Nov. 13, 5:16 PM |  12
Discussion: Beyond Search
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Businesses warming up to the iPhone  —  Businesses are gradually getting used to the idea of using iPhones in the enterprise, but Apple has a long way to go.  —  (Credit: Apple)  — Home - News - Apple  —  Apple  —  November 14, 2008 4:00 AM PST  —  Businesses warming up to the iPhone
Discussion: wmpoweruser.com
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Entrepreneurs Ask VCs for Cash Back  —  This week's $250 million funding for vacation home rental listing company HomeAway Inc. was the largest web-related venture capital investment since the bubble days at the turn of the millennium.  But it also contained a provision that signals how the lack …
Kate Greene / Technology Review:
The Coming Wireless Revolution  —  Gadgets that operate over television frequencies promise to transform the wireless landscape.  —  If you believe some radio researchers and engineers, within the next couple of years, high-bandwidth, far-reaching wireless Internet signals will soon blanket the nation.
Discussion: The Pondering Primate
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
The Very Curious Microsoft-Facebook User Data Relationship  —  Facebook's ties to Microsoft go back to 2006 when they first signed an advertising deal.  A year later they took a $240 million investment, and the advertising relationship was extended this year.
Vivek Wadhwa / Business Week:
Engineering: Suddenly Sexy for College Grads  —  As the financial crisis deepens, science and math grads who once flocked to investment banking are now considering jobs in engineering  —  Early in his college career, Tyler Bosmeny assumed that after graduating, he would do what hundreds …
Kim Dixon / Reuters:
Lawmaker Plans Bill on Web Neutrality  —  A renewed battle over network neutrality could be on the horizon, as a senior U.S. lawmaker plans to introduce a bill in January that would bar Internet providers from blocking Web content.  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior U.S. lawmaker plans …
Discussion: Search Engine Watch and Inquirer
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Universal Music Group: We're Still Selling Tunes, Amazingly  —  Universal Music Group, the world's biggest music company, insists the music business isn't dying.  Yesterday, it released numbers to help bolster its case.  —  UMG saw sales drop 6.2 percent in the last quarter, parent company Vivendi disclosed yesterday.
Discussion: paidContent.org and MacDailyNews
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Is the VC Model Broken?  Far From it  —  Update: Adeo Ressi, the serial entrepreneur behind the venture-capital rating site TheFunded, has been getting a lot of attention for a presentation he gave at Harvard Business School in which he argued that the VC industry is “broken.”
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
Invest Like It's 1998: Microsoft Stock Hits 10-Year Low, Down 30 Percent From First Yahoo Offer  —  Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) stock hit its lowest point in 10 years on Thursday— $18.74—when the tech sector took hits from Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) and Intel (NSDQ: INTC), before coming back to close at $21.25.
Discussion: Associated Press
Tech-On! : tech news:
Non-contact Charging System Simultaneously Charges Multiple Mobile Devices  —  Mojo Mobility Inc, a Silicon Valley-based venture firm, developed a technology to simultaneously charge multiple mobile devices using a piece of sheet and started seeking collaboration with device manufacturers.
Discussion: Unwired View, Gearlog and Engadget
Reuters:
Nokia sees cellphone market falling in 2009, shares drop  —  HELSINKI (Reuters) - Top cellphone maker Nokia Oyj said the world's mobile phone market would be weaker than it expected in the fourth quarter due to the economic slowdown and was set to fall further in 2009.
Paul Boutin / Valleywag:
What just happened at Valleywag?  The FAQ  —  I love Owen, but he has trouble writing in English during a crisis.  So here's the basics on what's happening at Valleywag:  — Some guy named Denton can't figure out how to sell ads on Valleywag.  — So he's going to sneak Valleywag …
RELATED:
Marguerite Reardon / CNET News:
Smartphones drive demand for Web browsing  —  Mobile Web usage is on the rise as more fully featured browsers come to market on smartphones.  —  Smartphones, which are designed to handle more sophisticated applications, are growing in popularity.  In fact, Apple's iPhone was named …
Discussion: TechSpot
Josh Lowensohn / Webware.com:
A scientific formula for popularity on Digg, YouTube  —  Bernardo Huberman, Hewlett-Packard's director of the HP Social Computing lab, and fellow researcher Gabor Szabo have published a highly detailed report (PDF) on “predicting the popularity of online content.”
Discussion: Digital Inspiration
 
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 More Items: 
Alex Castle / Maximum PC all:
Why is Google Running Ads for Known Malware Sites?
Discussion: DailyTech and Slashdot
Joel Hruska / Ars Technica:
AMD Fusion now pushed back to 2011
Discussion: Hardware 2.0
Electronista:
Alienware intros $1K Area-51 750i
Discussion: SlashGear and Gizmodo
Eric Engleman / TechFlash:
Q&A: Ian Freed of Amazon Kindle on ebooks, blogs, and Jeff Bezos
Discussion: TeleRead
Paul Boutin / Valleywag:
Federated Media slashes rates to $5 CPM
Discussion: The Blog Herald
Joey Sanders / BlackBerryNews.com:
BlackBerry Curve 8900 Simulator Available For Download
 Earlier Items: 
Miguel Helft / Bits:
Is There a Privacy Risk in Google Flu Trends?
Discussion: PolicyBeta
Iljitsch van Beijnum / Ars Technica:
Google: more Macs mean higher IPv6 usage in US
Discussion: CircleID
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Cell phone boarding passes coming to an airline near you
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Ofcom rules that five GB News programs presented by Conservative politicians have broken its due impartiality rules and puts the channel “on notice”

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Authentic Brands licenses Sports Illustrated's publishing rights to The Players' Tribune owner Minute Media for 10 years, with plans to keep the print edition

Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTuber MrBeast announces a deal with Prime Video for Beast Games, a reality-competition show with 1,000 contestants, promising the winner a $5M cash prize

 
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