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9:30 PM ET, December 18, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Ashlee Vance / Bits:
Dell's Mystery ‘Adamo’ Could Be Thinner Than Air  —  When Apple released the MacBook Air, someone viewed the sleek notebook as an opportunity to make fun of clunky, old Dell on YouTube with a parody ad.  But what if Dell is about to have the last laugh in the ultra-light laptop race?
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
Facebook Now Growing by Over 600,000 Users a Day - And New Engagement Stats  —  It was just at the beginning of December when Facebook crossed the 130 million monthly active user mark.  Today, that number is up to 140 million.  —  While Facebook has been growing at around 300,000 …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
TechCrunch's Yertle the Turtle Tantrum Over News Embargoes  —  Yesterday, the one-man-band of a tech blogger, Michael Arrington, let loose with yet another outrageously indignant diatribe-this time that he and his TechCrunch site would forthwith break all news embargoes.
RELATED:
Rob Beschizza / Boing Boing Gadgets:
Techcrunch: start breaking embargoes already!  —  Mike Arrington wrote a pleasingly forceful denunciation of embargoes yesterday.  Embargoes are agreements between PR people and reporters to hold publication until a certain time, but they always get broken and generally have become useless and counterproductive.
Discussion: Blogspotting and Gearlog
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
BlackBerry Storm Selling Well, As Expected (RIMM)  —  We got some validation this afternoon for our Nov. 20 BlackBerry Storm review thesis, which was “RIM's BlackBerry Storm is no iPhone, but should sell well.”  —  Indeed, RIM's (RIMM) new Storm is no iPhone — a recent RBC/ChangeWave survey suggests …
Discussion: Engadget
RELATED:
Jesse Johnson / The Bivings Report:
The Use of the Internet by America's Largest Newspapers (2008 Edition)  —  Every year, The Bivings Group conducts a study of the web features of America's largest newspapers as a way to gauge how papers are dealing with the threat and opportunity presented by the rise of the Internet as a news source.
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Apple buys stake in mobile graphics chip designer  —  Future versions of Imagination Technologies' graphics cores could mean iPhone games far more sophisticated than ‘Super Monkey Ball.’  —  Apple has taken a small stake in a British chip designer, revealing how the company plans to power …
RELATED:
BBC:
BBC iPlayer now available on Mac  —  The BBC has created a version of the iPlayer that works with both Mac and Linux computers.  —  The two systems, which have been able to stream BBC programmes via the iPlayer for a year, will now be able to handle downloads.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:
Pilot Grant Program To Improve Internet Connections in Public Libraries  —  Foundation awards $6.9 million in grants to Connected Nation and the American Library Association to help launch pilot broadband initiative in seven states  —  SEATTLE — A pilot initiative announced today …
RELATED:
Suzanne Herel / The Technology Chronicles:
Public libraries to get better broadband
Discussion: PC World
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Universal Music seeing ‘tens of millions’ from YouTube  —  YouTube's traffic machine may finally be turning into a cash machine.  —  For the first time, there are signs that YouTube is driving significant revenue for itself and some of the video site's partners.
Google Earth Blog:
New York City in Photo-Realistic 3D Now in Google Earth  —  Google has updated the 3D buildings in Google Earth for New York City!  This is a HUGE update with at least hundreds (if not thousands) of new 3D buildings with photo textures applied.  Basically, Google has completed nearly every building …
RELATED:
Mark Wilson / Gizmodo:
New York City Is Breathtaking Following Google Earth Update
Discussion: DVICE, techeblog.com and digg.com
Brett Terpstra / TUAW:
iPhone thief thwarted by MobileMe sync  —  To say that MobileMe hasn't made everyone happy may be a bit of an understatement.  We don't generally hear from the satisfied customers, but we have received a fair amount of email from dissatisfied users of Apple's “cloud computing” solution.
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Microsoft job listings reveal Zune expansion plan, and Musiwave's role  —  At this point, it's clear that Microsoft plans to expand its Zune initiative beyond the current music device, software and service.  The question is how.  With the Zune Phone rumors fading into the background …
Discussion: Digital Noise and wmpoweruser.com
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Ad network Glam sees record 4th quarter, puts entire workforce on “variable” pay  —  Glam Media, one of the newfangled content and advertising networks assumed by many industry observers to be vulnerable to financial meltdown, says it still hasn't seen any marked decline in online display advertising.
Discussion: TechCrunch
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Twitpay brings micropayments to Twitter  —  The New York Times has a nice little writeup about Twitpay, an experimental new app that lets you send payments using Twitter.  —  Here's the premise: Sign up, put some cash in your Twitpay account through another payment service like PayPal …
Discussion: Bits and broadstuff
Stephen DiMarco / Compete Blog:
Amazon.com is Fueling a Strong December for Online Retailers  —  Whether you're an analyst, economist or a just a red-blooded American consumer, your eyes are probably fixed right now on the retail industry.  We're all looking for a glimmer of hope that consumer spending during the holidays …
Discussion: TechFlash, ReadWriteWeb and WebProNews
Kevin C. Tofel / jkOnTheRun:
Toshiba Offers “Industry's First” 512GB SSD Flash Drive  —  Each year I that attend CES, I can't help but swing by the huge HDTVs and see the new “world's biggest” set.  It's a status symbol of course, but this year might be the first time I focus more on the “world's biggest” Solid State Disk capacity.
Sony Electronics Blog:
The March is on to CES  —  Every year at this time, the swirl of the Holiday season - which in my case includes both the business and the family — is compounded by annual preparations here at Sony Electronics for the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Jan. 8-11, 2009.
Discussion: Gizmodo, Sony Insider and techeblog.com
Google Mobile Blog:
Optimized search results pages for Android and iPhone  —  Whether you're using Google search through the search widget on the Android home screen, the built-in search box of the iPhone's Safari browser, or google.com on either device, you'll now end up with search results optimized for your phone.
Ashlee Vance / Bits:
Can a Deflated Adobe Remain Independent?  —  Shares of Adobe performed so well over the past ten years that the company's value soared to the point of putting off many potential suitors.  But a recession, troubled financial markets and slowing economic growth have helped erase more than half …
Matt Hickey / CNET News:
How do you like them Apple-branded apples?  —  (Credit: Blog!  Nobon)  —  Some of you may have heard of a thing called the Apple iPod.  Today, an apple farmer out of Japan brings you the iPod Apple.  By placing hand-cut stickers of the Apple logo or a silhouette of an iPod on the fruit …
Discussion: PC World and Crave
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Loopt Snags AT&T, Now Available On Every U.S. Carrier  —  Mobile social network Loopt goes live on three AT&T phones today, which was the last major carrier holdout.  Loopt is now available in the U.S. on Sprint, Verizon, Metro PCS, T-Mobile and Boost.  The service is free for a year and then a $4/month fee kicks in.
Discussion: VentureBeat
Mark Milian / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Where To iPhone app sells for $70,000  —  A couple of months ago, when iPhone application developer Tap Tap Tap announced that it was shopping around its flagship Where To software, we wondered how much an iPhone app, albeit a successful one, might be worth.  —  Now we know.
Discussion: VentureBeat and The FutureBlog
Paul Buchheit / FriendFeed Blog:
Simple Update Protocol: Update  —  Several months back, we announced SUP (Simple Update Protocol), a proposal for making RSS and Atom feed updates faster and more efficient.  Since then, a number of services have added SUP support, we've SUP-enabled our feed fetcher, and there are now thousands …
Discussion: CostPerNews and VentureBeat
Apple:
Mac OS X 10.5: Software Update stops responding during “Configuring installation”  —  Symptoms  —  When attempting to update software using Software Update in Mac OS X 10.5, the update process may stop responding while “Configuring installation” is visible in the update window.
Discussion: CNET News, TUAW and TidBITS
YouTube Blog:
Hi-Definition Rollout and New Landing Pages on YouTube  —  We have two developments that we would like to share with you: the expansion of our HD player and a test of three new landing pages designed to help you find the news, music and movies on YouTube that matter most to you.  —  HD on YouTube
Discussion: VentureBeat, NewTeeVee and TechCrunch
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Even Silicon Valley Isn't Shopping  —  For many Web 2.0 start-ups, build-it-to-flip-it has been a mantra of sorts, with most hoping to get big payouts when Google, Yahoo or AOL cuts them a big check.  Unfortunately, the credit crisis has turned those dreams into layaway plans.
Discussion: VentureBeat
 
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 More Items: 
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Real-Life “Grand Theft”: Inside Traders Made $250,000 Off …
Discussion: Kotaku, DealBook and The Big Picture
Chris Snyder / Epicenter:
Ustream: There Is Life After Puppy Cam
Kenneth Li / Financial Times:
Palm reports $506.2m in losses
Windows Live team blog:
Hotmail: Classic scrolling is back, and more updates
Discussion: One Microsoft Way and LiveSide
Lee Gomes / Forbes:
Bad Vudu  —  Vudu's service is fun—but the company needs …
Discussion: eHomeUpgrade
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
A different Windows, Mac debate: Which has the stronger community?
Discussion: The Open Road
 Earlier Items: 
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Google Exec Brian O'Shaughnessy Leaves To Run Skype PR
Cyrus Mistry / Google Enterprise Blog:
Cross-Language Enterprise Search launches on Google Enterprise Labs
Discussion: WebProNews, CNET News and VentureBeat
Freddie Laker / AdAge:
Eek! How to React When You've Been Slammed on Twitter
Eliot Van Buskirk / Epicenter:
TV Studio in a Box Enables Long-Tail Television
James Lewin / Podcasting News:
Free iPhone Audio Recorder
Discussion: Mashable! and FaceReviews