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12:20 PM ET, December 4, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
Apple to sell a $99 4GB iPhone at Walmart?  —  We just got a tip that in addition to the iPhone 3G actually making its way to Walmart, as we exclusively told you, there will be a 4GB model priced at $99 with a 2-year agreement.  We're not putting our stamp of approval behind this one just yet …
RELATED:
Arn / MacRumors:
Wal-Mart to Sell $99 4GB iPhone?  —  Boy Genius Report first broke the story back in October that Apple would begin selling the iPhone at Wal-Marts.  The actual date of release appears to be December 28th.  Wal-Mart employees are already receiving training on iPhone activation (see photo above).
Discussion: Switched
RELATED:
Reuters:
AT&T to cut 12,000 jobs and slash spending
Discussion: IntoMobile and Engadget Mobile
Associated Press:   AT&T Plans to Cut 12,000 Jobs
Simon Sage / IntoMobile:
World's Second Android Phone Now on Presale … Kogan's Agora and Agora Pro hinted at last month is now ready to roll, costing AU$299 and AU$399, and shipping on January 29th.  The Agora Pro's specs are as follows:  — Operating System: Android™  — Google Mobile Functions …
RELATED:
Rick Turoczy / ReadWriteWeb:
Times Extra: The New York Times Opens Web Front Page to Outside Content  —  New York TimesAt a time when the online world is continually seen as a more trusted source of news, mainstream media outlets find themselves forced into the position of becoming more and more open to keep their readers coming back.
RELATED:
William M. Bulkeley / Wall Street Journal:
IBM Offers ‘Microsoft-Free’ Desktop  —  Applications for Thin Clients Would Operate From Back-Office Server  —  International Business Machines Corp. is hoping to convince corporate customers that they no longer need Microsoft Corp.  —  IBM says it has created a “Microsoft-free” …
RELATED:
Paula Rooney / Open Source:
IBM launches first Linux-OpenOffice desktop with virtualization features
Discussion: The Register
Josh Lowensohn / CNET News:
Boxee finally gets support for Netflix streaming  —  On Thursday Boxee will be releasing a new version of its media center entertainment software that adds support for Netflix Watch Instantly streaming movies.  —  Unlike streaming solutions from Roku and Microsoft's XBOX 360 …
Discussion: Geek.com, VC Cafe and TheAppleBlog
RELATED:
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Boxee adds Netflix support, but not for the Apple TV...yet  —  As set-top boxes that stream content over the internet to your TV become more popular, certain elements are starting to stand out to differentiate the best ones.  Recently, the most popular of these elements is Netflix support.
Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:
The Dreaded Viacom Layoffs: 850 People  —  The long-feared Viacom pre-post holiday layoffs are here, and they're not pretty.  We heard earlier that as many as 300 layoffs might be coming at MTV today, but the total, Viacom-wide numbers are even worse: 850 people are being cut, about 7% of the company's global staff.
RELATED:
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Viacom Lays Off 850, Takes $450 Million Charge
Dawn Kawamoto / CNET News:
AMD issues fourth-quarter warning  —  Advanced Micro Devices warned Thursday its fourth-quarter revenue will come in significantly lower than previously expected, due to weakness across all regions in all its businesses.  —  AMD shares were climbing back up in the morning …
RELATED:
Business Wire:
AMD Updates Fourth Quarter Outlook
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Online auctions remain piracy problem for Microsoft  —  Attention, software buyers: there's no such thing as Microsoft Office “Blue Edition.”  —  That's the latest ruse making the rounds on online auctions.  It feigns to be some sort of technician version of Microsoft's software that happens …
Opera Community:
Peregrine takes flight... Opera 10.0 Alpha 1 is here!  —  It seems like yesterday we released Opera 9.6 and now you can all get your hands on Opera 10.0.  Rather than ramble on, here's a quick list of what's new:  — Presto 2.2 Engine  — Performance boost  — 100/100 and pixel-perfect on the Acid3 test
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Former Yahoo Tech Star Qi Lu Likely to Be Named Microsoft's Digital Head by Next Week  —  Former Yahoo tech star Qi Lu (pictured here) is poised to take on the big job of being Microsoft's top digital executive, according to several sources inside and outside the company.
Discussion: Beyond Binary
Royal Pingdom:
Google Apps SLA loophole allows for major downtime without consequences  —  Gmail could be unavailable for more than 21 hours in a day, and Google could still tell you that according to their SLA, the service has had 100% uptime.  —  It sounds impossible, but it's a direct consequence …
Jeremy Kirk / LinuxWorld.com:
Firefox users targeted by rare piece of malware  —  Researchers at BitDefender have discovered a new type of malicious software that collects passwords for banking sites but targets only Firefox users.  —  The malware, which BitDefender dubbed “Trojan.PWS.ChromeInject.A” sits in Firefox's add-ons folder …
Discussion: BitDefender, Zero Day and Icrontic
Arkansas IMC:
Forget Cyber Monday: COBY Plans “Moore's Law” MIDGET PC for $100 in March  —  Sales of 100 million, worldwide, in five years?  —  Coby Electronics, a leading international manufacturer and distributor of electronics consumer-packaged goods for discount stores, plans to introduce the first under-$100 laptop by March 2009.
Neal Santos / The Clog:
Zunegate  —  OK.  So let's get things straight.  —  I want to correct what I said yesterday about Obama using a Zune.  I claimed that it was his Zune.  I don't know for sure that it was his.  It could belong to one of the many Secret Service dudes that were at the gym, Michelle, or even one of his daughters.
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Google Adds Search Box To YouTube Videos & Adds HD Embed  —  A week ago, YouTube changed the format of their videos to wide screen and HD format.  My main issue back then was that the embed options did not give people a way to embed the wide screen format, easily.  That has changed.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Amazon Launches Public Data Sets To Ease Research  —  Amazon released its previously announced Public Data Sets web service this evening.  The project encourages developers, researchers, universities and businesses to upload large (non-confidential) data sets to Amazon - things like census data …
Discussion: Between the Lines
 
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 More Items: 
CNN:
Gartner: Smartphone Market Grows 11.5% In 3Q08 From 3Q07
Discussion: iLounge, Engadget and Electronista
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Apple: Piper's Munster Cuts Ests, Target On Macro Issues
Discussion: AppleInsider and Edible Apple
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Buy This Recession Winner: Amazon.com (AMZN)
Discussion: Tech Trader Daily
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Secret Builders goes live with educational game world for kids
Discussion: Virtual Worlds News
Ben Lorica / O'Reilly Radar:
Facebook Growth Regions and Gender Split
Discussion: The Open Road and WebProNews
Luke Plunkett / Kotaku:
Grand Theft Auto IV On PC Is A Little Broken
Discussion: TechSpot, Blue's News and bit-tech.net
Robert Andrews / paidContent.org:
Sony, Kindle E-Reader Sales Grow Before Christmas; But Still No ‘iPod Moment’
Discussion: Business Technology, TeleRead and CNN
PC World:
Yahoo Technology Will Offer Abstracts of Search Results (PC World)
Discussion: WebProNews
 Earlier Items: 
Bobbie Johnson / Guardian:
Startups seek more dignified exit than a belly flop into the dead pool
Nick O'Neill / The Social Times:
Google Makes a Hard Push With Friend Connect
Discussion: VentureBeat