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2:30 PM ET, December 9, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Open Handset Alliance:
Open Handset Alliance announces 14 new members  —  The Open Handset Alliance, a group of technology and mobile players, is pleased to announce the membership of 14 additional companies.  By joining the founding members of the Open Handset Alliance, the following companies demonstrate …
RELATED:
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Sprint Getting Closer to Android Phone?  —  Updated: Today Sprint offered the lineup for its upcoming mobile developer's conference on Dec. 10-12, which will include a keynote by Rich Miner, Google's vice president of mobile technology.  While we've known that Sprint was considering Android …
Lena Lee / Bloomberg:
Sony Will Cut 16,000 Jobs as Recession Curbs Demand  —  A A A  —  Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) — Sony Corp., the world's second-biggest consumer-electronics maker, plans to eliminate 16,000 jobs in the largest reduction announced by a Japanese company since the credit crunch drove the world into recession.
RELATED:
Stuart Elliott / New York Times:
Next Year Is Looking Even Worse  —  The bankruptcy filing on Monday by the Tribune Company underscored that the brunt of the injuries being suffered by the media during the recession are in local markets — especially newspapers.  —  Already, advertising is bracing for the possibility …
Discussion: Screenwerk
PC World:
Microsoft Releases Open-source Content Management App  — Microsoft has released an early version of an open-source content management platform that developers can use to build sophisticated blogs or large Web sites.  —  Called Oxite, its creators describe it as a standards-compliant …
RELATED:
Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
A Web Start-Up Counting on Ad Sales?  Good Luck  —  During the dot-com bust, as the online advertising market dried up and the Web companies that had been buying most of the ad space went bankrupt, the people who start and fund companies in Silicon Valley began questioning whether Web sites could survive on advertising alone.
Discussion: The Noisy Channel
Jeremy Kahn / New York Times:
Mumbai Terrorists Relied on New Technology for Attacks  —  MUMBAI, India — The terrorists who struck this city last month stunned authorities not only with their use of sophisticated weaponry but also with their comfort with modern technology.  —  The terrorists navigated across the Arabian Sea …
Charlie Demerjian / Inquirer:
INQUIRER confirms Apple Macbook Pros have Nvidia bad bump material  —  Bumpgate We break out the electron microscope  —  WHEN THE NEW Macbooks came out a few weeks ago, Nvidia stated that the chips they provided to Apple did not contain the proverbial ‘bad bumps’.
Discussion: MacBlogz and Electronista
Amanda Kelly / Inside AdWords:
An update to the AdWords alcohol policy  —  As many of you know, we're constantly evaluating our AdWords program policies to keep them current and effective.  This means making changes from time to time by either adding new policies, such as the endangered species policy, or updating existing policies, such as the Display URL policy.
Rory Cellan-Jones / dot.life blog:
Kosmix - searching for optimism  —  What's the definition of optimism in these troubled times for the hi-tech economy?  How about starting a business which plans to take on Google from a base in Mountain View, the search giant's home town?  Or maybe ploughing $20m into that business …
Discussion: Webware.com
RELATED:
Gmail Blog:
New in Labs: Tasks  —  Posted by Jonathan Terleski, Michael Lancaster, and Brett Lider, Tasks team  —  People use Gmail to get stuff done, so we've added a lightweight way to keep track of what you need to do, right from within Gmail.  —  Take entering a new task: just click in an empty part of your list and start typing.
Connie Loizos / PE Hub Blog:
Ex-VC Joins Google's M&A Department  —  Back in 2006, a number of ex-Googlers became full-time investors, including angels Aydin Senkut, Georges Harik and Paul Buchheit (founder of FriendFeed).  —  It would be overstating things to say that the tide has now turned, but at least one former VC …
Discussion: paidContent.org
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Friendster nabs fourth social-networking patent, dozen more pending  —  Friendster was the first modern social network to really gain traction on the web.  But it has lost ground to rivals like MySpace and Facebook over the last five years or so due to a number of missteps.
Discussion: The Social
Bob Walsh / Webware.com:
Appcelerator Titanium puts more Web apps on your desktop  —  The line between Web and desktop apps is getting fuzzier Tuesday, with the preview release of Appcelerator Titanium, platform designed to turn Web app developers into desktop and mobile phone developers.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
CBS Interactive Exec Patrick Keane Out, Replaced by CNET Counterpart  —  We haven't heard of much bloodletting since CBS (CBS) bought CNET for $1.8 billion this summer.  But obviously there have to be some cuts as the companies continue to merge the network's CBS Interactive unit with the Web publisher.
Wall Street Journal:
Yahoo Closer to Naming CEO  —  Yahoo Inc. directors steering the search for a new chief executive are moving closer to a recommendation and have authorized checking references on a few key candidates, say people familiar with the matter, although a decision is likely to be weeks away at the earliest.
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Dealing Virtual Drugs On The iPhone Seems Unlikely To Get People To Do Real Drugs  —  For many, many, many years there has been a very popular application called Dope Wars.  I used to have a copy of it on my Palm Pilot a decade ago, and it was a fantastic way to kill time (that and Rally 1000 were great time wasters).
Discussion: GamePolitics News
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
New MacBooks Are Cranky: They Have Insomnia and Hate Third-Party RAM  —  The standard “journalism” rule is that three is trend.  So here's one with the new MacBooks: They've got problems!  Screwy video cards, insomniatic, power-sucking sleep and not playing well with other RAM.
Stan Schroeder / Mashable!:
TVLoop.com - Where TV Meets Social Networking  —  If you're an avid Facebook user and TV aficionado, you've probably heard of Watercooler's TVLoop.  It's a Facebook application that brings full TV episodes of many popular shows directly to your Facebook profile; recently …
Discussion: VentureBeat
Aidan Malley / AppleInsider:
Rumor: Apple's iTunes going DRM-free starting Tuesday [u]  —  Apple is believed to be on the verge of an end-of-year push that would start by finally offering unprotected iTunes Store music from all major labels and would switch a special post-holiday campaign giving away music and videos to Europeans.
Erica Naone / Technology Review:
The Social Life of Routers  —  How a 1960s sociology experiment could hold the key to better Internet routing.  —  Just like an old-fashioned piece of mail, data traveling over the Internet normally follows a predictable path.  As the Internet continues to grow, however …
Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
Bringing That Quirky Video Store Clerk to the Web  —  Next time you're home on a Friday night, searching for a movie to watch, Stuart Skorman wants you to visit Clerk Dogs, his new movie recommendation Web site.  —  The site, officially unveiled Tuesday, uses a novel approach in Silicon Valley …
DisplaySearch:
Strong Mini-Note (Netbook) Shipments Buoy Notebook PC Market in Q3'08; Tier One Product Launches Propel Growth  —  Despite what is looking to be a rather dismal fourth quarter for the PC industry as a whole, one very bright spot has emerged.  The mini-note PC, also called netbook …
Business Technology:
Tech Spending to Grow 1.6% in 2009  —  Technology spending will grow at its lowest rate in six years in 2009, a research firm said, as businesses shift their buying habits in response to the economic downturn.  —  Businesses and other organizations in the U.S. will spend $573 billion on computer software …
 
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 More Items: 
Brian Prince / eWeek:
McAfee: Obama Should Focus on International Cooperation to Fight Cyber-crime
Discussion: Computerworld
Robert McMillan / PC World:
New Web Attack Exploits Unpatched IE Flaw
Discussion: Zero Day
TheGuru / Symbian-Guru.com:
Nokia N85 NAM Now Shipping
Philip Blenkinsop / Reuters:
Mobile phone chip to counter radiation unveiled
Discussion: Phone Scoop
BBC:
The mouse hits 40-year milestone
PC World:
Novatel Wireless MiFi Puts a Hotspot In Your Pocket
Discussion: FierceWireless
BBC:
Microsoft Office to debut online
 Earlier Items: 
Associated Press:
LG develops handset chip for fast downloads
Discussion: InformationWeek
Adam Frucci / Gizmodo:
FYI: Blending a Charged iPhone Causes Explosions
GamesIndustry.biz:
Atari acquires Cryptic Studios
Discussion: Kotaku and Joystiq
Associated Press:
2 book publishers announce mobile phone plans
Discussion: The Apple Core
Scott M. Fulton, III / BetaNews:
Leaks indicate Microsoft is un-rethinking the Win7 taskbar
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Blackbird Is A Custom Browser For African Americans Built On Top Of Mozilla
Discussion: Portfolio and GreasyGuide.com
 

 
From Mediagazer:

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

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”

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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