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7:20 PM ET, December 19, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Wall Street Journal:
Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits  —  After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy.  —  The decision represents …
RELATED:
Times Online / Tech Central:
Is the internet going down?  Undersea sub-cables have just broken...  Breaking news: something's happening to the internet, right now.  We're just not quite sure what.  —  Interoute, the internet networks company, reports that three of the four internet sub-cables that run from Asia to North America have been damaged.
Discussion: The Toybox, Neowin.net and Engadget
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Severed Cables in Mediterranean Disrupt Communication  —  A A A  —  Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) — Internet and telephone communications between the Middle East and Europe were disrupted after three submarine cables between Italy and Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea were damaged.
fibresystems.org:
3 cables cut this morning (Sea Me We3 partly + Sea Me We4 + FLAG)France Telecom Marine cable ship about to depart  —  PARIS — France Telecom observed today that 3 major underwater cables were cut: “Sea Me We 4” at 7:28am, “Sea Me We3” at 7:33am and FLAG at 8:06am.
Discussion: Threat Level and timesofmalta.com
comScore:
comScore Releases November 2008 U.S. Search Engine Rankings  —  comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace.  In November 2008, Americans conducted 12.3 billion core searches …
RELATED:
Spencer E. Ante / Business Week:
A Wrench in Silicon Valley's Wealth Machine  —  A year ago, cash rained on tech startups like Digg.  Now their valuations are slipping, and venture capital is drying up  —  A year ago there were reports that Digg had hired investment bank Allen & Co. to put the popular news aggregation Web site …
RELATED:
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Report: Digg still mining for profits
Discussion: Lonely CEO Media
Dave / MacBlogz:
One More Thing: Apple's New Multi-touch Mighty Mouse  —  Let's face it, the Mighty Mouse is flawed.  Luckily, Apple has filed for numerous patents directly hinting at a multi-touch Mighty Mouse, which could prove to bring us an unexpected treat sometime in the near future.
T-Marco / Cell Phone Signal:
T-Mobile G2 coming on January 26th '09  —  Yesterday we told you about the new update coming to T-Mobile G1.  This update will include new features like mms, and video capable.  Unfortunately, some features will not be including for the G1.  Instead, they will be include in feature Android devices..oops.. That's right!
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Meebo Passes IMs Between MySpace And Facebook  —  MySpace and Facebook may be frenemies forever, but now they have a new mutual friend that will pass notes between them.  Meebo, the Web-based IM service, now supports IM accounts from both social networks.  That means you can enter your Facebook …
RELATED:
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:   AOL using AIM chat to boost Bebo, challenge Meebo
english.etnews.co.kr:
Samsung Electronics will launch Google Phone in Q2  —  Samsung Electronics will release its first Google phone in the second quarter of the next year in North America.  —  The launch of Google phone by Samsung is regarded as a signal of its plan for increasing the shares in the smart phone market …
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
UPDATED: Palm doesn't confirm Nova launch at CES, but they may as well have  —  Use a Palm phone?  Like the idea of Nova?  We hope so, because the company revealed in its earnings call yesterday that it'd be transitioning its entire lineup over to the new, homegrown platform …
Discussion: Business Wire and Phone Scoop
RELATED:
Sascha Segan / PC Magazine:
Palm CEO Confirms ‘Nova’ OS Is in the Wild
Discussion: Industry Standard
Steve Poland:
Evan - Twitter needs a better policy on Usernames  —  I have a bunch of Twitter usernames — I gobbled them up in March 2007.  I'd consider them some of the “quality” ones.  Almost like the domain game of 1995, I grabbed some of the best Twitter usernames, because I could see value in their use in the future.
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google's Secret Revenue Weapon Revealed (GOOG)  —  All quarter long, Wall Street has been trying to figure out why Google has introduced a slew of new revenue-generating products and suddenly developed new religion with regard to costs.  The obvious answer is that Google is light on revenue and desperately trying to make the quarter.
Discussion: HipMojo.com
Arn / MacRumors:
Evidence that Next iMacs and Mac Minis to use NVIDIA Chipsets  —  Configuration files buried within some versions of Mac OS X show evidence that the next iMac and Mac Mini will indeed be based on the NVIDIA MCP79 chipset.  Apple recently switched their MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models to the NVIDIA chipsets in October.
Alexis Madrigal / Wired Science:
Google Shutters Its Science Data Service  —  Google will shutter its highly-anticipated scientific data service in January without even officially launching the product, the company said in an e-mail to its beta testers.  —  Once nicknamed Palimpsests, but more recently going by the staid name …
Discussion: Google Watch
Alan Stafford / PC World:
New eBook Reader Undercuts Kindle, Sony Reader Prices  —  Amazon's Kindle electronic book reader costs $359—but you can't get one until at least February.  Sony's PRS-700BC costs $399—also pretty darn costly.  But Foxit Software will soon begin shipping an eBook reader that costs only slightly more than half what Sony's reader does.
RELATED:
James Kendrick / jkOnTheRun:
Foxit eSlick- cheaper ebook reader alternative
Sean O'Malley / The Official Google Blog:
New search-by-style options for Google Image Search  —  Many of us use Google Image Search to find imagery of people, clip art for presentations, diagrams for reports, and of course symbols and patterns for artistic inspiration.  Unfortunately, searching for the perfect image can be challenging …
Agence France Presse:
Japanese seek to scrap Google's Street View  —  TOKYO (AFP) - A group of Japanese journalists, professors and lawyers demanded Friday that the US Internet search giant Google scrap its “Street View” service in Japan, saying it violates people's privacy.  —  Google launched Street View …
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Google: Is The Search Ad Business In Trouble?  —  It has been the conventional wisdom in the online advertising sector that while the display ad business was headed for rough time as the economy eroded, search-based ads would hold up better.  The theory is that display ads, paid for on a CPM …
Discussion: Clickety Clack
David Meyer / CNET News:
Google reveals upcoming Android features  —  Imminent enhancements to Google's Android mobile platform have been revealed this week, in the form of a development effort called “Cupcake.”  —  Android is in the process of being turned by Google from its own development project into open source.
Discussion: TECH.BLORGE.com and Obsessable
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Lloyd Braun's Not Going to Take It Anymore: “I Am Not an Umbrella Thief” (and He's Not, Actually)  —  There it was again-like the gnarly ghost of Christmas past-in the Los Angeles Times this week.  But this time Lloyd Braun wasn't going to take it anymore.  —  The object of his ire …
Discussion: Valleywag
 
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 More Items: 
Rory Cellan-Jones / dot.life blog:
Five grand for Sock And Awe
Eric Lai / Computerworld:
Lenovo to release ThinkPad laptop with 2 LCD screens
Discussion: eWeek, Obsessable and Engadget
Abbey Klaassen / AdAge:
Google Leads in Ad-Serving Share
Discussion: Microsoft Pri0
Allie Winter / RCR Wireless News:
Ahead of LTE, AT&T tests 7.2 Mbps speeds in Chicago
Discussion: Phone Arena, jkOnTheRun and Obsessable
Colin Barras / New Scientist:
Fat fingers no problem with ‘see-through’ touchscreen
Discussion: Engadget
Richard Siklos / Fortune:
For media, the year that wasn't
Andy Greenberg / Forbes:
Seeking Obama's Cyber Czar
 Earlier Items: 
Michelle Maltais / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
New question for iPod: Am iDrunk?
Financial Times:
Lenovo would be wise to try for ‘third time lucky’
Stephen Shankland / Webware.com:
Search results show Delicious remains a tech niche
Discussion: delicious blog
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Chilling Effects: Another Mixtape Provider Shut Down
Discussion: Epicenter
Ian Ransom / Reuters:
Man wins case vs “human flesh search engine”
Discussion: Neowin.net
 

 
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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