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11:50 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 …
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:
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.
Discussion: InformationWeek, Valleywag and Gearlog
RELATED:
Rob Beschizza / Boing Boing Gadgets:
Techcrunch: start breaking embargoes already!
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.
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: TechFlash and wmpoweruser.com
RELATED:
Matt Rosoff / Digital Noise:   Job posting reveals Zune-Xbox integration
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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
RELATED:
Jenna Wortham / Bits:   Send Money Through Twitter With Twitpay
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
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.
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.
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
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
NPR Now Lets You Roll Your Own Podcast Feed  —  National Public Radio (NPR) here in the US has some great audio content and the offering got even better today with the release of a new “mix your own” podcast option.  Users enter a list of categories and keywords and the NPR site dynamically generates …
Discussion: Lost Remote
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
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
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
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
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
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
Thomas Claburn / InformationWeek:
Apple Sued Over Apple TV  —  EZ4Media's lawsuit alleges that Apple TV, Airport Express, and Apple Macintosh personal computers infringe four of its patents.  —  Apple TV may still be struggling to find a place in the living room, but it will play an important role in an Illinois courtroom in the months ahead.
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 …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Google Exec Brian O'Shaughnessy Leaves To Run Skype PR  —  This is a loss for Google.  Brian O'Shaughnessy, one of the good guys of PR, is leaving Google to run communications for eBay-owned Skype.  His last day at Google will be this week.  —  O'Shaughnessy oversaw communications …
Apple:
About the Multi-Touch Trackpad Update for Windows XP and Vista 1.0  —  This update improves Multi-Touch trackpad responsiveness and performance when running Windows XP and Vista using Boot Camp on MacBook Air (Late 2008), MacBook (13-inch, Aluminum, Late 2008), and MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2008) computers.
Discussion: Infinite Loop and Gizmodo
 
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 More Items: 
Jordan Robertson / Associated Press:
Personalized spam rising sharply, study finds
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation:
Pilot Grant Program To Improve Internet Connections in Public Libraries
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Real-Life “Grand Theft”: Inside Traders Made $250,000 Off …
Discussion: Kotaku, GoNintendo and DealBook
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
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
Demand For Music Down In Q3; Paid Downloads Grow A Mere 2 Percent
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Even Silicon Valley Isn't Shopping
Discussion: VentureBeat
 Earlier Items: 
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
Symantec's New Mac Security Suite: A Different Side of Norton
Discussion: PC World
Freddie Laker / AdAge:
Eek! How to React When You've Been Slammed on Twitter
David Bunnell / San Francisco Chronicle:
Steve Jobs didn't make the first Macworld, either
Discussion: GigaOM and Macworld
Kevin C. Tofel / jkOnTheRun:
Toshiba Offers “Industry's First” 512GB SSD Flash Drive
Ed Felten / Freedom to Tinker:
Three Flavors of Net Neutrality
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
The FTC bans noncompete clauses that restrict job switching, potentially complicating hiring in Hollywood as firms try to protect trade secrets and other info

Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:
An interview with NPR CEO Katherine Maher, who defends NPR and accuses critics of “bad faith distortion” of her past comments about the First Amendment

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Apollo-backed US investment group Concord increases its bid for Hipgnosis Songs Fund, to $1.5B, just over the last offer from Blackstone

 
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