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9:25 PM ET, January 22, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Steve Ballmer's Entire Memo to the Microsoft Troops About Layoffs and Weak Results  —  Here is the full memo to employees from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (pictured here) about the 5,000 layoffs and other cost cuts just announced, due to economic slowdown, which also resulted in weak financial results for the second quarter.
RELATED:
Microsoft:
Microsoft Reports Second-Quarter Results  —  Modest revenue growth despite difficult economy; announces cost management initiatives.  —  Microsoft Corp. today announced revenue of $16.63 billion for the second quarter ended Dec. 31, 2008, a 2% increase over the same period of the prior year.
InfoWorld:
Vista main culprit in Microsoft layoffs  —  Windows Vista has been trouble for Microsoft perhaps since the operating system's beginning.  And this last quarter was certainly no exception.  Despite a dip in client software revenue, however, one analyst says the workforce reduction Microsoft detailed …
Discussion: The Digital Home and Gizmodo
Google Investor Relations:
Google Announces Fourth Quarter And Fiscal Year 2008 Results  —  Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced financial results for the quarter and for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008.  —  “Google performed well in the fourth quarter, despite an increasingly difficult economic environment.
RELATED:
Joe Weisenthal / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google Q4 Beats The Street
Kenneth Musante / CNNMoney.com:   Google sales jump 18%
Miguel Helft / New York Times:
Google Income Drops 68% on One-Time Charges
Discussion: TechCrunch
Jay Adelson / Digg the Blog:
Brief update on Digg  —  Wanted to reach out to folks with an update on Digg and our priorities for 2009 as well as address some of the recent speculation about our business.  —  As we've often stated over the past couple of months, given the current economic climate, we've made the decision …
RELATED:
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
Digg to cut workforce 10%, hire new sales team  —  Digg CEO Jay Adelson on Thursday morning is announcing that the social media site is laying off a “very small” portion of its workforce, but will also be hiring a new direct sales force and head of sales to drive the company to profitability this year.
Discussion: VentureBeat
Intego:
Mac Trojan Horse OSX.Trojan.iServices.A Found in Pirated Apple iWork 09  —  Exploit: OSX.Trojan.iServices.A Trojan Horse  —  Description: Intego has discovered a new Trojan horse, OSX.Trojan.iServices.A, which is currently circulating in copies of Apple's iWork 09 found on BitTorrent trackers …
Laszlo Bock / The Official Google Blog:
Announcing Google's Employee Option Exchange Program  —  Today we announced our plans to do something more for the people who are responsible for Google's success — our employees.  Recognizing that about 85% of our employees have at least some stock options that are underwater (i.e. …
PC Pro:
Q&A: Microsoft defends return to DRM  —  Microsoft yesterday unveiled its MSN Mobile Music service - and a surprise return to digital rights management (DRM).  —  While companies such as Apple and Amazon have finally moved to music download services free of copy protection …
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Advanced Micro Devices Q4 Even Worse Than Expected  —  Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) this afternoon posted even worse fourth quarter results that the Street had expected.  —  For the quarter, the company posted revenue of $1.162 billion, below the Street consensus of $1.23 billion, down 35% sequentially and off 33% from a year earlier.
Discussion: Business Wire
RELATED:
Android Tapp:
Android Cupcake Update: The Official Word  —  According to an announcement by T-Mobile's Product Development and Public Relations departments, a message approved by Google sent via email to Will (T-Mobile Forums Administrator), the Cupcake update will not be released to the general public …
Discussion: VentureBeat, Live Crunch and BetaNews
RELATED:
Simon Sage / IntoMobile:
Screenshots of Android's Cupcake Update in Action, Still Not Ready for Public
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Stanford Students Release A Cool Batch Of iPhone Apps  —  Students from Stanford's Fall 1008 iPhone class CS193P created a nice crop of apps that are now available or will be soon for the iPhone (see our Stanford Facebook apps posts here and here).  —  A list of them is here, and some of them I'm going to keep on my phone.
Discussion: Infinite Loop
Stephen Hutcheon / Sydney Morning Herald:
Watch out Wikipedia, here comes Britannica 2.0  —  Encyclopedia Britannica president Jorge Cauz.  Inset: Wikipedia's cofounder Jimmy Wales.  —  In a move to take on Wikipedia, the Encyclopedia Britannica is inviting the hoi polloi to edit, enhance and contribute to its online version.
RELATED:
Nick / Rough Type:
All hail the information triumvirate!
Discussion: The Register
Globe and Mail:
Securities watchdog pursues record fine for RIM execs  —  Regulator seeks up to $100-million in stock option controversy  —  The Ontario Securities Commission is seeking a record penalty — one that could be as high as $100-million — from the top two executives of Research In Motion Ltd …
Peter Ha / CrunchGear:
Fact: There is no HP Mini 1100 series  —  I've been exchanging e-mails with HP for the better part of the day and we have the final word on the supposed Mini 1100 series with an ExpressCard slot.  It doesn't exist and it was mistake made by the Web team.  This is straight from horse's mouth, people.
Jim Goldman / Tech Check with Jim Goldman:
Bartz Gets Millions; Yahoo Bails on Pay Increases for Rank and File  —  For the first time in its history, Yahoo [YHOO Loading...  () ] has suspended scheduled pay increases for the company's rank and file, even as it signs up new CEO Carol Bartz with a pay package that some say could be worth …
John C Abell / Epicenter:
Wired.com Image Viewer Hacked to Create Phony Steve Jobs Health Story  —  A widely-circulated URL which points to an image that purports to be a Wired.com story about Steve Jobs' health is a hack job.  We won't provide the URL here, but the Twitterverse quickly surmised that the item was not correct.
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Republicans, wireless companies object to broadband package  —  Republican leaders in the House aren't thrilled with the $6 billion broadband stimulus package currently being debated.  Joe Barton (R-TX) is the ranking member on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and he set the tone …
Discussion: Computerworld and eWeek
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft seeking Win 7 testers for netbooks?  —  Microsoft has put out feelers among the beta-testing community for individuals in a number of countries outside the U.S. who'd be interested in trying Windows 7 on lower-power PCs.  —  It's not clear whether Microsoft's Windows team is interested …
Steve O'Hear / last100:
What if Apple sued Palm, would Microsoft come to the rescue?  —  When the iPhone first launched at Macworld in 2007, I distinctly remember Apple CEO Steve Jobs boasting that the company had over 200 patents on this thing.  At the time, that boast stuck out like a sore thumb …
Ben Lisbakken / Google Code Blog:
Playing around with Google's AJAX APIs  —  For me, documentation isn't always enough to learn about APIs; I need examples that I can play with.  That's why I started a fun project recently—a tool for teaching developers how to use Google's JavaScript APIs: the AJAX API Playground.
Andrew Sinkov / Evernote Blog:
Welcome You Fine Google Notebook Users  —  Recently, Google announced that they were stopping development on Google Notebook.  We're big fans of Google Notebook, in fact many of used it before Evernote came along.  When we heard the news, we immediately began work on a Google Notebook import tool.
Discussion: Webware.com and Mashable!
Chris Soghoian / CNET News:
White House exempts YouTube from privacy rules  —  The new Web site for Obama's White House is already drawing attention from privacy activists and tech bloggers.  While the initial focus has been on the site's policies relating to search engine robots, a far more interesting tidbit …
Paul Buchheit:
Communicating with code  —  Some people can sell their ideas with a brilliant speech or a slick powerpoint presentation.  —  I can't.  —  Maybe that's why I'm skeptical of ideas that are sold via brilliant speeches and slick powerpoints.  Or maybe it's because it's too easy to overlook the messy details …
Discussion: techno.blog and Furrier.org
Jansen Ng / DailyTech:
Majority of Windows 7 Installations Will Be 64-bit  —  Microsoft Says Tipping Point Already Reached  —  According to a source inside Microsoft, over 25 percent of Vista installations in the US at the end of last year were 64-bit.  There were several major drivers for the switch to 64-bit, most related to cheap DDR2 DRAM.
Discussion: Download Squad and TechSpot
 
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 More Items: 
The Technium:
Better Than Owning  —  Ownership is not as important as it once was.
Dan Primack / PE Hub Blog:
Brad Garlinghouse's Next Act
Don Reisinger / Webware.com:
What would it take to beat Google?  —  The search engine space …
Richard Waters / Financial Times:
Sony has lost what made it special
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Plinky launches microblogging community site to help you create content
Discussion: Webware.com and louisgray.com
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Boxee now lets you get “Lost” in ABC content
Call me Jeffrey:
7 sins of success  —  This week, our company's entire management …
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Sun Microsystems begins laying off 6,000 today [confirmed]
 Earlier Items: 
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
An odd choice to help government with open source strategy
Discussion: Jason Brooks and CloudAve
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
Comcast To Launch Online Backup Service …
Discussion: GigaOM
Sarah Lacy:
Google Dethroned?  —  by sarah lacy.  —  There's a truism …
Discussion: broadstuff
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Apple proposes audio sensor to auto-adjust iPhone ringtones
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Ruth La Ferla / New York Times:
Graydon Carter opens a physical store called Air Mail Newsstand in NYC, as an extension of his digital newsletter Air Mail, selling books, magazines, and more

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Filing: Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav's 2023 compensation package was worth $49.7M, up 26.5% from the year prior, with $23.1M in stock awards

Andrew Beaujon / Washingtonian:
Interviews with over a dozen current and former WAMU staffers and contractors show management's contradictory, unclear messaging about its closure of DCist

 
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