Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
4:30 PM ET, February 10, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Zusha Elinson / LAW.com:
Quinn Spills Value of Facebook Deal  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook paid the founders of ConnectU $65 million to settle lawsuits accusing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg of stealing the idea for the wildly successful social-networking Web site, according to a law firm's marketing brochure.
RELATED:
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Winklevoss twins made $65 million on Facebook “copycat” settlement  —  Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss may have had some serious evidence showing that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg stole ideas like “profile pages” back when he worked at their social-networking startup, ConnectU.
Discussion: Digital Daily
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
$99 iPhone Coming This Summer: RBC (AAPL)  —  Apple will start selling a cheaper, ‘entry-level’ iPhone sometime this summer, for around $99 after subsidy, according to “checks,” RBC analyst Mark Abramsky said in a note this morning.  — The main cost reductions would come from fewer features …
Discussion: Macsimum News and GPS Obsessed
RELATED:
Cleve Nettles / 9 to 5 Mac:
$99 iPhone rears its ugly, nonsensical head again
Discussion: MacBlogz
Fiona Ramsay / Marketing magazine:
Twitter to begin charging brands for commercial use  —  LONDON - Twitter is planning to charge brands for using the micro-blogging website.  —  Twitter  —  Co-founder Biz Stone told Marketing: 'We are noticing more companies using Twitter and individuals following them.
RELATED:
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Twitter To Start Charging Companies For Having An Account?  —  Companies using Twitter for commercial purposes may soon start getting charged for that activity, according to an interview British trade magazine Marketing (part of BrandRepublic) held with co-founder Biz Stone.  —  This is what Stone reportedly said:
Michael Kinsley / New York Times:
You Can't Sell News by the Slice  —  SOMEWHERE at Microsoft, there is a closet packed with leftover Slate umbrellas — a monument to the folly of asking people to pay for what they read on the Internet.  These umbrellas — a $20 value! — were the premium we offered to people who would pay $19 …
RELATED:
Nick / Rough Type:
The writing is on the paywall
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Google wants to tap into your electric meter; Enters smart grid fray  —  Google is developing home electricity dashboards for the future smart grid.  —  The effort, which dubbed the Google PowerMeter, is being tested by Google employees.  Google is just the latest player interested in part of the smart grid pie.
RELATED:
Ed Lu / The Official Google Blog:
Power to the people  —  Imagine how hard it would be to stick …
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Source: Apple asked Google not to use multi-touch in Android, and Google complied  —  One of the bigger complaints about T-Mobile's G1, the first phone based on Google's Android platform, is that its touch screen doesn't use multi-touch, the technology which allows for a screen to accept multiple points of contact as simultaneous input.
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Mozilla call for EU intervention in browser war is troubling  —  Mozilla has voiced support for Opera's effort to convince the European Commission to impose sanctions on Microsoft for bundling Internet Explorer in Windows.  But is this a necessary or even a wise move for the open source developer?
Keith Stuart / Guardian:
How to become an iPhonedeveloper in eight easy steps  —  You've probably heard all about iShoot.  Written by a programmer at Sun Microsystems in his spare time, this Worms-style artillery shooter blasted to the top of the App Store charts earlier this year and stayed there for weeks earning …
Discussion: MacRumors iPhone Blog
Michael Calore / Epicenter:
Twitter Fast Growing Beyond Its Messaging Roots  —  Thanks to its open-ended design and a thriving user community, Twitter is fast outgrowing its roots as a simple, easy-to-use messaging service.  Enterprising hackers are creating apps for sharing music and videos, to help you quit smoking and lose weight …
Discussion: Open Gardens and Lost Remote
Brad Linder / Download Squad:
Open source video player, aggregator Miro goes 2.0  —  The team behind open source internet video player Miro have pushed out version 2.0.  The new player features a new interface, improved speed and performance, and the ability for users to add links to online streaming video portals like Hulu and CBS.com to the sidebar.
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch and Mashable!
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
How Microsoft is trying to make its $1.3b Fast Search deal work  —  Microsoft today will unveil plans to start incorporating Fast Search's technology into its products, rolling out a blueprint for capitalizing on one of the largest acquisitions in its history.  —  It still remains to be seen if the $1.3 billion deal will pay off.
Ashlee Vance / Bits:
Cisco's Cash Hoard Swells Along With Acquisition Rumors  —  With $30 billion, Cisco Systems likes to point out it has more cash on hand than any other technology company.  So why did it just sell $4 billion worth of debt on Monday?  —  Cisco has been rather upfront about plans to make acquisitions.
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
This Valentine's Day, live-stream your love with Qik and Boingo  —  Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but on Valentine's Day, it can just suck.  Luckily, these days we have technology to help bridge those distances.  Of the technologies that help, live streaming video may be the best …
Discussion: TechCrunch
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Reminder: General Availability for Windows 7 Beta Ending This Week  —  I wanted to quickly remind everyone that this week general availability for the Windows 7 Beta will be ending:  —  February 10th: Starting at 12am Pacific Time, no new downloads will be available.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Dell's uses Zink Imaging to create an ink-free mobile printer  —  Zink Imaging is steadily expanding its reach for a new inkless printing technology as it announces Dell will launch an ink-free mobile printer.  —  Bedford, Mass-based Zink Imaging figured out how to print without inkjet cartridges by embedding dried ink in paper.
Discussion: Crave, SlashGear, Engadget and Direct2Dell
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Apple's “sticky” iPhone  —  When Barclays' Ben Reitzes refers to the “stickiness” of Apple's iPhone, he's not talking about adhesives on the product's surface.  (Indeed, the iPhone seems to us as slippery as ever, which may be why there's such a lively market in protective cases.)
John C. Dvorak / PC Magazine:
SEO Fiascoes: The Trouble with Search Engine Optimization  —  Long URLs are bogus!  Tags like “nude” and “naked” are counterfeits!  SEO is a big business, and from what I can tell its proponents are modern snake-oil salesmen.  —  Search engine optimization (SEO) has turned into a big business …
Lidija Davis / ReadWriteWeb:
Craig Newmark's Keynote Unlocks the Secrets to Building a Community  —  In an era where user generated content is changing our entire culture, rare is the company that can successfully harness the collective creativeness of its community, cultivate loyalty, make money consistently, and continue to flourish.
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
Verizon Can't Use Number Ports To Win Back Landline Customers - Telco fails appeal effort of last year's FCC ruling...  Last year, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Brighthouse accused Verizon of sleazy tactics in the war over voice customers.  According to the cable companies …
Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report:
More Sprint details: New Treo Pro target launch, Rumor 2, Instinct Mini, HTC Cedar and more  —  Ok Sprint people, you had some bad news yesterday as we learned the Treo Pro will not be launching on time this coming Sunday.  It's time to regroup and calm down because you know we wouldn't just hit and run with bad news.
Robin Goad / Hitwise Intelligence:
Twitter enters top 100 sites; UK traffic has trebled already in 2009  —  Last week (w/e 07/02/09) Twitter became one of the 100 most visited websites in the UK for the first time.  It ranked 91st within All Categories, placing above online heavyweights such as Expedia UK (96), Gumtree (100) …
Discussion: TechCrunch UK, WebProNews and Guardian
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Dell Latitude XT2 multi-touch tablet with 11-hour battery now official (starts at $2,399)  —  The machine translation is pretty weak, but Dell's 12.1-inch (1,280 x 800 pixel) Latitude XT2 looks to have just made its first tentative steps in a global launch.  The video posted after the break …
PC Pro:
Mozilla reveals plans for Firefox 3.2  —  Mozilla is planning to include simple-text commands and desktop web apps in the next version of Firefox.  —  Firefox 3.2 will see the company build the Mozilla Labs project, Ubiquity, into the browser.  Ubiquity allows users to type natural language phrases …
Discussion: OStatic blogs
Matt Hamblen / Computerworld:
Shhh: Whispersync could be the real news out of Kindle 2  —  Syncing of e-book readers with other mobile handsets may be on the way  —  Computerworld) The introduction of “Whispersync” technology may well be the bigger technology news from Amazon.com Inc., which announced its Kindle 2 e-reader today in New York.
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
IBM Scorns Cisco and Gets Serious About Clouds  —  IBM yesterday trumpeted its cloud computing strategy with a demonstration at its Silicon Valley campus and a press release touting new customers, products and other tidbits we are going to ignore (you can read the release here).
Matt Shobe / FeedBurner Status:
Feed serving and FeedBurner application outage  —  Issue: FeedBurner stopped stopped serving feeds for about 45 minutes today, starting at approximately 9:15am PST.  Most feeds are being served again properly, but we are still working to restore full service. feedburner.google.com …
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 4:30 PM ET, February 10, 2009.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Techmeme Sponsor Posts: 
Tribe AI:
Build AI that works  —  Tribe builds tech for top AI companies.  Get in touch to learn how our bench of 500+ engineers and researchers can accelerate your roadmap.
Kulkan Security:
Hire Kulkan as your penetration testing partner  —  Kulkan prioritizes deep-dive manual security reviews, dissecting your software and infrastructure to find issues that once remediated can truly reduce security risk.
Zoho:
Environmental impact of remote support: Reducing carbon footprints in IT  —  Information technology is essential for powering core business processes and facilitating communication.
Mastodon:
Donate to Mastodon  —  Mastodon gGmbH, the non-profit behind the open-source software powering the social web, relies entirely on support from users like you.  Donate directly with a credit card or through Patreon.
Sponsor Techmeme
 
 See Also: 
Techmeme: site main
Techmeme River: reverse chronological Techmeme
Techmeme Mobile: for phones
Techmeme Leaderboard: Techmeme's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
Techmeme RSS feed
Techmeme on X
Techmeme on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Fast Company:
Forget Kindle 2: Fujitsu's E-Reader Screen is Bigger, and It's in Color
Discussion: SlashGear, Thanks:noahr
Wendy Davis / MediaPost:
Judge: Companies Must Contract For ‘Unique’ Visitors
Microsoft:
10,000 “Eureka Moments,” and Counting
Roger Yu / USA Today:
Southwest to begin testing in-flight Wi-Fi
Discussion: CrunchGear
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Open letter to Obama: Uncle Sam should go open source
David Chartier / Ars Technica:
CNN P2P video streaming tech raises questions
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Cablevision to Investors: Sorry We Bought That (Really Expensive) …
Discussion: paidContent.org
Rands In Repose:
A Twitter Decision  —  In starting a significant project …
Discussion: TheNextWeb.com
 Earlier Items: 
Andrew Nusca / Between the Lines:
Interview: Wired's Chris Anderson on the ‘free’ business model
Discussion: Irregular Enterprise
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
A Consumer's Guide to Apple Rumors
Discussion: CrunchGear
Markcuban / blog maverick:
The Mark Cuban Stimulus Plan - Open Source Funding
Thanks:anandiyer
Peter Burrows / Business Week:
Can Microsoft Catch Up in Mobile?
Discussion: NEWSFACTOR and InfoWorld