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11:50 AM ET, February 18, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook Blog:
Update on Terms  —  A couple of weeks ago, we revised our terms of use hoping to clarify some parts for our users.  Over the past couple of days, we received a lot of questions and comments about the changes and what they mean for people and their information.
RELATED:
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Facebook reverts to old terms of service, working on new version that “everybody can understand”  —  Well, that was pretty fast.  Facebook has reverted to its prior terms of service — due to a backlash from some users, media outlets and privacy groups — while it works out a new version.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
BoomTown Decodes the Zuckerberg Terms of Service My-Bad Memo (Now With 10 Percent More “So Very Sorrys!")  —  Under cover of darkness last night, Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on the social networking site's blog that it would “return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.”
Discussion: HighTouch
CNN:
Facebook backs down, reverses on user information policy
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Verizon Wireless: 4G LTE trials showing 50 to 60 Mbps download rates  —  Verizon Wireless said Wednesday that it is testing 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) service with the aim of launching commercial service in 2010.  Verizon Wireless said the 4G LTE network in field trials has demonstrated download rates …
Discussion: eWeek, Technologizer and Electronista
RELATED:
Verizon:
Verizon Wireless Fosters Global LTE Ecosystem as Verizon CTO Dick Lynch Announces Deployment Plans  —  New LTE Innovation Center Will Foster Wireless Growth  —  BARCELONA, Spain, and BASKING RIDGE, NJ — In a move that will jump-start deployment of 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks globally …
InfoWorld:
Verizon to roll out LTE in two US cities this year
Discussion: GPS Obsessed
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Comcast's Customers Give The Cable Guy the Boot  —  Even in the worst of times, people are supposed to hold their TV close to their hearts: Turn off the heat?  Sure.  But don't you dare take my cable away.  —  So this can't be good: Cable giant Comcast (CMCSA) turned in a fourth quarter report card …
Discussion: GigaOM and DSLreports
RELATED:
Nat Worden / Wall Street Journal:
Write-Down Hurts Comcast
Steven Musil / CNET News:
Google wins Street View privacy suit  —  A couple in Pittsburgh that sued Google claiming that the Street View on Google Maps is a reckless invasion of their privacy has lost their case.  —  Aaron and Christine Boring sued the Internet search giant last April, alleging that Google …
RELATED:
Eric Goldman / Technology & Marketing Law Blog:
Google Street View Case Dismissed—Boring v. Google
Discussion: WebProNews and AppScout
Prince McLean / AppleInsider:
Mozilla, Skype support EFF's case for iPhone jailbreaking  —  In a filling with the US Copyright Office, Mozilla and Skype have added their voices of support to a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act related to iPhone jailbreaking.
RELATED:
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:   Mozilla backs move to decriminalize iPhone jailbreaking
James Rowley / Bloomberg:
Antitrust Pick Varney Saw Google as Next Microsoft  —  Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) — Christine A. Varney, nominated by President Barack Obama to be the U.S.'s next antitrust chief, has described Google Inc. as a monopolist that will dominate online computing services the way Microsoft Corp. ruled software.
Devin Coldewey / CrunchGear:
Canon releases 10 cameras in one night - thanks, Canon  —  Just when I thought it was safe to relax and read a little bit, my inbox lights up with a damn tidal wave of point-and-shoots.  If you're in the market, you'll be doing more in-depth research and of course the outliers of this batch …
RELATED:
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Once Again: Making Search Results Better Isn't An Antitrust Violation  —  And, here we go with more ridiculous antitrust lawsuits — this time against Google.  You may recall last fall, the NY Times ran a silly article focusing on one small company supposedly as evidence of Google's monopoly power.
RELATED:
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
Day 3 - The Pirate Bay's ‘King Kong’ Defense  —  The third day of the trial started with prosecutor Håkan Roswall who presented his updated/amended charges to the Court, taking into consideration the developments of yesterday (50% charges removed).  He characterized these amendments as a “small change”.
Julian Sanchez / Ars Technica:
Stimulus-tracking Recovery.gov site goes live  —  Recovery.gov launches to track stimulus spending—but will it be a triumph of transparency or an exercise in spin?  —  President Obama signed The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 today, and while much of the $789 billion …
Joel Hruska / Ars Technica:
CAPTCHA-crackers breach Windows Live Hotmail yet again  —  Another day, another CAPTCHA crack, and this time it's Microsoft once again scrambling to pull its pants back up.  The company will undoubtedly resecure Windows Live Hotmail, but CAPTCHAs are a technology whose use needs to be reevaluated.
Royal Pingdom:
Social network downtime in 2008  —  Yesterday we released a big, brand new report about social network site uptime in 2008.  —  Included in the report are Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Friendster, LiveJournal, Orkut, Bebo, Hi5, Windows Live Spaces, Last.fm, Classmates.com, Reunion.com, Xanga and Imeem.
Discussion: GigaOM, MediaNama and Quick Online Tips
Greg Linden / Geeking with Greg:
Jeff Dean keynote at WSDM 2009  —  Google Fellow Jeff Dean gave an excellent keynote talk at the recent WSDM 2009 conference that had tidbits on Google I had not heard before.  Particularly impressive is Google's attention to detail on performance and their agility in deployment over the last decade.
Discussion: The Noisy Channel
Nintendo:
NINTENDO DSI LAUNCHES APRIL 5 IN THE UNITED STATES  —  New Portable System Offers Customized Gaming Experiences  —  Nintendo pioneered hand-held entertainment in the '80s and made it fully mobile with the Game Boy™ video game system.  Now, Nintendo is transforming the way people access …
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Nvidia In Dispute With Intel On Chipset Licenses  —  Nvidia (NVDA) this morning said in a statement that it disagrees with a court filing by Intel (INTC) on Monday which asserts that the chipset licensing agreement the companies signed does not include Intel's future generation CPUs …
Discussion: Reuters and PR Newswire
Charles Arthur / Guardian:
Maybe Facebook should just offer a loyalty card instead  —  Facebook has a problem.  Every time it looks as though it's going to wriggle its way to creaming just a bit more money from its millions of users' comings and goings, they spot it - and get vocal enough to force a reverse.
Thom Holwerda / OSNews:
Freescale To Use Android, Aims for Half of Netbook Market  —  Earlier this year, Freescale announced it would enter the netbook market with its own set of chips based on the ARM architecture, claiming they would yield better battery life than the Atom-based netbooks of today.
Discussion: The Toybox, jkOnTheRun and Reuters, Thanks:kevendones
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Traditional Radio Stations Agree To Webcasting Rates; Internet Only Webcasters... Not So Much  —  While the big radio stations, represented by the NAB seem to have worked out a deadline deal on webcasting rates, it appears that internet-only webcasters have had their talks break down.
Discussion: hypebot
 
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 More Items: 
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Yahoo Search Share Rises Again... And Google Falls!
Discussion: WebProNews and Smalltalk Tidbits …, Thanks:atul
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
Pantech's Matrix PRO slides two ways onto AT&T
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
Bluetooth Over Wi-Fi Zoomtastic Speed Shocks Our Pants Off
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
UMID M1 MID hands-on: Video Demo
Discussion: UMPCPortal and GottaBeMobile.com
Cade Metz / The Register:
Intel sees future in Mega Data Center
Cecilia Kang / Post I.T.:
Obama Tech Adviser Says More to Come on Broadband Push
 Earlier Items: 
Paul Miller / Engadget:
NVIDIA's Tegra in the flesh, booting to Android and pumping out 1080p video
Discussion: The Toybox
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Source: NYC to announce start-up workspace partnership
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Did Hulu Just Pull The Plug On Its Deal With TV.com?
Jessi Hempel / Fortune:
How Facebook is taking over our lives
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Indian streaming service JioCinema launches an ad-free subscription plan with the lowest tier costing $0.35/month for a single device, undercutting rivals

Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
Warner Music Group sells Uproxx, HipHopDX, and other assets to a new company, Uproxx Studios, formed by Jarret Myer, Rich Antoniello, and will.i.am

Aidan Ryan / The Boston Globe:
Memo: Boston public radio station WBUR CEO Margaret Low says 31 employees, or ~14% of its staff, are leaving, with 24 of them taking a voluntary buyout

 
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