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1:35 AM ET, February 18, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
Android G2 Hands On: Close to Perfection  —  HTC and Google are getting closer to perfection with the new Android G2, the HTC Magic.  Nice finish, great form factor.  Check out our video, including the obligatory comparison with Apple's iPhone, and hands-on impressions:
Kevin Poulsen / Threat Level:
Anonymous Caller?  New Service Says, Not Any More  —  A new service set for launch Tuesday allows cellphone users to unmask the Caller ID on blocked incoming calls, obtaining the phone number, and in some cases the name and address, of the no-longer-anonymous caller.
PC World:
Facebook Privacy Change Sparks Federal Complaint  —  JR Raphael, PC World  —  facebook faces privacy backlash over change in terms of use of network  —  The backlash against Facebook's updated privacy policies is about to expand.  The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) …
RELATED:
Jessi Hempel / Fortune:
How Facebook is taking over our lives  —  President Obama used it to get elected.  Dell will recruit new hires with it.  Microsoft's new operating system borrows from it.  No question, Facebook has friends in high places.  Can CEO Mark Zuckerberg make those connections pay off?
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Battery, RAM, and HD access on new 17-inch Macbook Pro  —  Apple's new unibody 17-inch MacBook Pro began shipping earlier this week and a new tear-down of the high-end notebook reveals the steps needed to access the system's internal memory, hard drive, and battery components.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
With a King's Ransom in Cash, Why Is There Still No Buying Spree in the Tech Space Yet?  —  Even in the midst of the economic meltdown, consider these mega-billion-dollar cash hordes of big tech companies:  —  Microsoft (MSFT): $20.7 billion  —  Cisco (CSCO): $29.5 billion  —  Apple (AAPL): $25.6 billion
Aaron Wall / Learn. Rank. Dominate.:
Mahalo Caught Spamming Google With PageRank Funneling Link Scheme  —  Jason “SEO is dead” Calacanas, founder of Mahalo, used “SEO is dead” as a publicity stunt to help launch his made for AdSense scraper website.  In the past we have noted how he was caught ranking pages without any original content …
Thanks:atul
Aidan Malley / AppleInsider:
Apple execs rethinking iPhone pricing strategy for 2009  —  While the likelihood of Apple releasing new iPhones this year is all but certain, a discussion between analysts and Apple's top brass has also dropped clues that the iPhone's pricing may not be static this year.
Discussion: Macsimum News
Hiptop3.com:
The Sidekick 2009 in the wild  —  We knew it was coming.  We knew they were visiting and they answered the call.  Ladies and gentlemen, it's the photo we've all been waiting for.  May we present to you, the Sidekick 2009 aka the Sidekick Blade.
Jessica Vascellaro / Digits:
Startup Sues Google Using Microsoft's (Outside) Lawyers  —  By Jessica E. Vascellaro  —  TradeComet.com LLC, which operates a small search engine for industrial products, has sued Google, alleging that the search giant tried to put it out of business by increasing its advertising prices.
Discussion: Coop's Corner, Tech Beat and Pulse2, Thanks:atul
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Confusion reigns on Time's best blogs list  —  I'm a huge list nerd, so I had check out Time Magazine's list of the best and most overrated blogs of 2009.  I was desperately hoping Time could clue me in to the State of the Blogosphere, and boy, did it ever.
Discussion: Daggle, Time and Mashable!, Thanks:robinwauters
Ubergizmo:
Samsung SWD-M100 MID Hands-On (WiMax)  —  Now, there's a MID (mobile internet device) that we could use to blog on the go.  The Samsung SWD-M100D is a WiMax + WiFi device that has both a touch display and a sliding QWERTY keyboard.  The most important feature (for live blogging) …
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
SynthaSite Gets A $20 Million Boost For Simple Website Creation Software  —  There have been simple, browser-based website creation tools available on the market ever since the WWW turned mainstream, but there's clearly still a significant demand for this type of services, especially with the way the web is evolving.
InfoWorld:
Spammers break Live Hotmail's CAPTCHA yet again  —  The battle by Microsoft to secure its Live Hotmail system from spammers appears to have failed yet again with the news that the latest version of its CAPTCHA authentication system has been broken.  —  According to a detailed analysis …
Discussion: Ars Technica and Between the Lines
Xeni Jardin / Boing Boing Gadgets:
South Park iPhone App a No-Show in Apps Store; Cartman Blames Kyle's Mom.  —  Remember back in October when I blogged about a new iPhone app from the South Park guys?  Not sure what the whole story is on this one, but our friends at South Park tell us the app has long been completed — so, well, where is it?
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
WeddingBook Marries Search Aggregation With Wedding Vendor Listings  —  With upwards of 200,000 wedding vendors in the U.S. alone, the wedding industry can be both fiercely competitive and highly profitable for businesses.  A new website, WeddingBook, is attempting to become …
Discussion: Local Onliner
Latest Adrian's Rojak Pot Updates:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 RTM Details  —  Although Microsoft has consistently asserted in public that Windows 7 will probably only be launched in 2010, the truth is they are rushing for a December 2009 release.  How close are they?  Well, one of Windows 7's key components, Internet Explorer 8 is almost ready for launch!
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
For all the “open” talk, Android Market sure has a lot of rules  —  Paid applications in the Android Market, the app store for Google's mobile platform, are now live.  This should boost development for the platform and in turn create new, interesting applications for consumers.
Discussion: Gizmodo and Google Android Blog
Sam Diaz / Between the Lines:
Analyst: Declines in Mac, iPod sales isn't so bad  —  When is negative growth a positive thing?  In this economy, any growth that stays in-line with Wall Street expectations can be viewed as a good thing - though it's still too early to call.  And that's how one analyst is looking at Apple's current quarter.
Mike Hendrickson / O'Reilly Radar:
State of the Computer Book Market 2008, Part 1: The Market  —  As described in Computer Book Sales as a Technology Trend Indicator, and our other posts on the State of the Computer Book Market we have an updated series of posts that show the whole market's final 2008 numbers.
Thanks:atul
Mike Snider / USA Today:
eGuiders cuts through clutter of a gazillion videos online  —  In the golden age of television, TV Guide arrived on newsstands to let viewers know what was being broadcast and when.  —  Whether this is the golden age of Web videos is debatable.  But a new Hollywood-based site, eGuiders.com …
Discussion: NewTeeVee
Nina Kang / Google LatLong:
1000 is the new 10  —  Ever wish you could see more than just ten local search results at once?  Us too.  —  So we've added a search layer for local search results that activates when there are more relevant results than we can show on one page.  Instead of just plotting the first page …
Thanks:atul
Yahoo!:
Introducing Yahoo!(R) Mobile - Your Starting Point to the Internet  —  Improving Consumers' Ability to Use Their Phones to Discover, Stay Connected and Stay Informed  —  Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) today announced the upcoming launch of its new Yahoo! Mobile service - a highly-personalized mobile starting point to the Internet.
LG:
LG Brings Its Stylish New 3G LG-X120 Netbook to Barcelona  —  Barcelona, Spain, February, 16, 2009 - LG Electronics, a worldwide technology and design leader in mobile communications, today announced the launch of its smart and stylish new netbook, the LG-X120.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
MySpace's Google Gravy Train Set to Stop Next Year  —  Midway through next year, Google's $900 million, 3.5-year search advertising deal with News Corp. and MySpace expires.  What are the odds that Rupert Murdoch's social network gets anything close to that with a new contract?  —  Very, very low.
Discussion: Local Mobile Search
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
Anonybloggers, Be Gone!  Tumblr Boots Griefers  —  Last September, we noted the unfortunate reality that every social network has its troublemakers, and Tumblr — which was plagued by so-called “anonybloggers” —  is no exception.  —  No more.  In a post today on the official Tumblr blog …
Discussion: Gawker and Tumblr Staff
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Did Hulu Just Pull The Plug On Its Deal With TV.com?  —  Something is up at TV.com, the CBS-owned site that recently relaunched as a competitor to Hulu.  Since last summer, when TV.com was owned by CNET and was still primarily a community hub, the site has featured content from NBC and News Corp through a partnership with Hulu.
Discussion: MediaPost, Thanks:kevendones
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Tech Layoffs Surge to 300,000  —  Layoffs in the tech sector are accelerating.  It took exactly three weeks for tech layoffs to surge to 300,000, according to our Layoff Tracker.  Since late January, when the tracker hit 200,000 layoffs, another 100,000 job eliminations have been announced or completed.
Discussion: TechFlash and Cheezhead Recruiting, Thanks:blogfisher
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Google: The Case Against A Second Half Recovery  —  Time to take profits in Google (GOOG), advises ThinkEquity analyst William Morrison.  —  Morrison this morning cut his rating on the stock to “Source of Funds,” from Accumulate, and reduced his price target to $300 from $350.
Discussion: WebProNews and Network World
comScore:
India's Social Networking Market Sees Global Brands Gain Prominence in 2008  —  Orkut Ranks as the Most Visited Social Networking Site in India, Followed by Facebook  —  comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a report on the top social networking sites …
Discussion: Thomas Crampton and WebProNews
LAW.com:
Yahoo Fights In-House Bias Claim  —  A discrimination complaint threw a harsh light on Yahoo's legal department, and two years later, the case remains one of the Internet giant's ongoing struggles.  —  One of its own lawyers — a black woman named Eulonda Skyles — claims her bosses discriminated …
Discussion: Gawker
 
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 More Items: 
Radhika Lakshmanan / Docs Blog:
Data Validation gives you more control over your spreadsheets
Discussion: Webware.com
Glassdoor.com:
Mobile Company Employees Report What It's Like on the Inside
Discussion: GigaOM
Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
Still No Royalty Deal for Streaming Music Sites
Discussion: tinyComb and Ars Technica
Monica Hesse / Washington Post:
A Virtual Unknown  —  So, the Internet walks into a bar.
Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab
Thord Daniel Hedengren / The Blog Herald:
The New b5media Revealed
Thanks:tdhse
Brian Caulfield / Forbes:
How HP Mastered The Pain Game
 Earlier Items: 
internetnews.com:
What Caused the Tech Sales Crash?
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Get Satisfaction gets new CEO and funding, amid growth
Discussion: Demand Satisfaction!
Jon Swartz / USA Today:
New tech start-ups can rise from the economy's ashes
Discussion: Mercury News
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: Paramount Global's board is preparing to fire CEO Bob Bakish as soon as Monday, after he lost the trust of controlling shareholder Shari Redstone

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:
The New York Times is broken, shown by its entitled, petulant reaction to Politico's report on its tense relationship with Biden

Associated Press:
Large protests outside the annual WHCD event condemned both the Western news' media coverage of the war in Gaza and President Biden's handling of the conflict

 
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