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4:00 AM ET, December 18, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Death To The Embargo  —  PR firms are out of control.  Today we are taking a radical step towards fighting the chaos.  From this point on we will break every embargo we agree to.  —  Background:  —  Tech companies are desperate for press and hammering their PR firms for coverage on blogs and major media sites.
RELATED:
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Entrepreneurs: We Will Happily Respect Your Embargoes  —  Michael Arrington at TechCrunch said today that his site will no longer respect press embargoes, the informal system where press outfits agree to hold back publishing until an agreed upon time so that multiple sources can cover a story well.
Jessica Guynn / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Major leadership shakeup at LinkedIn: Nye leaves, Hoffman back at the helm  —  After a two-year stint in which he helped propel dramatic growth, LinkedIn Corp. Chief Executive Dan Nye is handing back the reins to company founder Reid Hoffman in a major leadership shakeup at one of Silicon Valley's hottest companies.
RELATED:
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
LinkedIn's Hoffman Takes Back CEO Title, as Nye Departs and Weiner Enters  —  Well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur Reid Hoffman (pictured here) will become CEO of LinkedIn again, taking on the job he had for nearly four years after founding the business networking company in 2003.
Discussion: Valleywag
Brad Stone / Bits:   A Shake-Up at LinkedIn  —  LinkedIn, the business networking site …
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Piper believes leadership shift at Apple is underway  —  Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, one of the most outspoken figures on all things Apple, told clients on Wednesday that Steve Jobs' absence from this year's Macworld Expo signals “the beginning of a shift in leadership roles” at the company.
RELATED:
Jim Dalrymple / Macworld:
Apple Expo Paris cancelled
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Are bloggers & social networks killing the big shows?  —  I've noticed a trend lately (actually I noticed it back when I worked at Microsoft and my bosses kept refusing to buy booths at conferences, saying they didn't return the ROI, but that trend has grown and grown big time).
Discussion: Neowin.net and Know It All
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
SnapTell: One Of The Coolest iPhone Apps Gets Even Better  —  SnapTell, the awesome iPhone app that lets you take a photo of nearly any CD, DVD, book, or video game to get instant product reviews, has just released an upgrade that introduces a number of useful new features.
Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo:
The Definitive Coast-to-Coast 3G Data Test  —  After a grueling eight-city coast-to-coast test of the 3G networks run by AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, we've come up with some clear-cut test results.  Think you know who has the best network?  Think again.  —  The Test  —  3G is more important now than ever before.
Don Reisinger / Webware.com:
What Gmail does better than its competitors  —  As someone who spends an inordinate amount of time wading through e-mails, finding the best e-mail service is paramount in my life.  —  Realizing that, I've done my fair share of shuffling from one e-mail program to the next …
Josh Lowensohn / Webware.com:
Adobe squeezes AIR out of beta for Linux users  —  Adobe Systems on Wednesday is taking the Linux version of its Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) product out of beta, and bringing it up to speed with the versions available for Windows and Mac users.  —  The new version differs from previous beta versions …
Discussion: VentureBeat, eWeek, InfoWorld and AIR
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Facebook's platform: Rebuilding the plane in midflight  —  Facebook's developer platform was a watershed.  It gave outside companies unprecedented access to users of a major social network.  But the platform, launched in May, has come under increasing scrutiny.
Discussion: E-Media Tidbits
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Toshiba to show 512GB solid-state drive at CES  —  Toshiba said Wednesday that it will showcase a 512GB solid-state drive at the Consumer Electronics Show next month and begin shipments in the second quarter of 2009.  —  To date, this would be one of the largest-capacity solid-state drives …
Discussion: Electronista, Gizmodo and Engadget
Microsoft:
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-078 - Critical  —  Security Update for Internet Explorer (960714)  —  Version: 1.0  —  General Information  —  Executive Summary  —  This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability.  The vulnerability could allow remote code execution …
Ben Worthen / Business Technology:
Adobe's Other Battle: The Economy  —  Adobe is battling Microsoft over the future of Internet software.  But its more pressing battle might be against the economy.  —  The San Jose, Calif., software maker on Tuesday reported that the economic downturn has hurt sales of its flagship Creative Suite …
RELATED:
Ben Worthen / Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft Targets Adobe in Web-Design Software
Discussion: jd/adobe and Microsoft Pri0
Chris Nuttall / blogs.ft.com:
GTA maker is hit-and-run victim  —  Video game software sales are up 30 per cent this year in the US, but the rising tide is not floating all boats - most publishers appear to be holed below the waterline.  —  Take-Two, publisher of the Grand Theft Auto series, is the latest harbinger of bad news.
Steve Gillmor / TechCrunchIT:
Why Track will be back - Fred Wilson says so  —  For those of you new to the Web since the end of May, you can be forgiven for having no clue about why Track is the s**t.  Despite months of denial, an open source clone war, a VC-backed API counter offensive, and unknown secret plans …
Chris Foresman / Infinite Loop:
iPhone gaming is maturing as more major games join the fray  —  With Apple pushing iPhone game development, industry veterans quitting their jobs to focus on game programming, and some developers making record profits with their iPhone apps, it's getting harder and harder to argue that the iPhone isn't a good gaming platform.
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
The Difference Between Invention And Innovation In The Netbook Space  —  from the it's-all-about-the-tweaking dept  —  Business Week's Steve Hamm has a short post talking about the “sudden” success of “netbooks,” those mini-laptops that are suddenly selling like crazy.
Discussion: Scripting News
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
The iPhone is Apple's Netbook: Almost Half of All Traffic from WiFi Networks  —  According to the latest report from AdMob, 42% of all requests from iPhones to Admob's partners worldwide are coming in over WiFi instead of through the networks of mobile operators.
Discussion: GigaOM
David Chartier / Ars Technica:
Joost to disable software clients, only notable features  —  It has been a tough year for online video portal Joost, and things aren't likely to improve.  The company launched last year with an innovative software client and built a decent catalog that included mainstream content.
Discussion: TechCrunch and paidContent.org
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Deloitte survey shows we're living in a “media democracy”  —  We're living in a media democracy, where no single form of media dominates the attention of Americans.  It's also an age where everyone contributes to the media, not just traditional media companies.
Discussion: NewTeeVee
Suzanne Tindal / CNET News:
Huawei powers up its Android plans  —  Australian telecommunications companies would be able to start selling Chinese vendor Huawei Technologies' Android-based phones by the third quarter of 2009 if they wanted to, the company said this week.  —  Huawei entered the Android open handset alliance earlier …
Discussion: AndroidGuys and MobileCrunch
Marshall Kirkpatrick / Jobwire:
Dave McClure Joins Founders Fund  —  Startup aficionado Dave McClure has formally joined VC firm the Founders Fund as an angel investor, according to an update he made to his LinkedIn profile this week.  The Founders Fund was created by former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel in 2005 and is described …
Mac OS X Internals:
More User-Space File System Goodies  —  There has been much buzz about new features and functionality in MacFUSE 2.0.  Besides the MacFUSE 2.0 release, there are still more new and interesting things to be discussed in the realm of user-space file systems.  As I described and briefly demonstrated during …
Discussion: Infinite Loop and Slashdot
 
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 More Items: 
Tini Tran / Associated Press:
With Olympics over, China re-blocks some Web sites
Ross Mayfield / Socialtext blog:
Corporate Alumni Network offer for the 2009 Recession
James Flanigan / New York Times:
Software That Opens Worlds to the Disabled
Kathrin Hille / Financial Times:
Beijing widens search engine ads crackdown
Rob Bushway / GottaBeMobile.com:
InPlay Technologies Announces New WriteSense Digital Pen Technology
Discussion: MobileCrunch, Phone Scoop and Engadget
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Another One Bites The Dust: Yahoo Shutters Kickstart
 Earlier Items: 
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Your Privacy Is Protected Only if You Are Really Sick
Discussion: Ars Technica
Jenna Wortham / Bits:
Losing the Paper Trail With Earth Class Mail
Discussion: TechFlash and Jobwire
Douglas MacMillan / Business Week:
The Recession: My Facebook, My Therapist
Discussion: PSFK
 

 
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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