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9:00 PM ET, February 25, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Microsoft sues TomTom over Linux and other patent claims  —  Microsoft filed suit against TomTom today, alleging that the in-car navigation company's devices violate eight of its patents — including three that relate to TomTom's implementation of the Linux kernel.
RELATED:
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
Microsoft Sues Linux For Patent Infringement  —  Microsoft (MSFT) has gone and done it, they've filed suit in U.S. District Court claiming Linux violates their patents.  —  The case centers on portable GPS device maker Tomtom, which uses Linux in its device.
Discussion: Engadget
Microsoft:
Microsoft v. TomTom: Patent Infringement Action  —  Microsoft has filed an action today after attempting for more than a year to engage in licensing discussions with TomTom.  —  REDMOND, Wash. — February 25, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today filed a patent infringement action against TomTom NV and Tom Tom …
Discussion: Microsoft Pri0 and The Register
Chris O'Brien / Mercury News:
How Twitter could be a threat to Google  —  Google's search engine is so dominant that it's hard to imagine how anyone could knock the Mountain View company from its pedestal.  And yet if history is any guide, such reigns never last.  IBM gave way to Microsoft, which now has been usurped by Google.
RELATED:
John Battelle / John Battelle's Searchblog:
Twitter = YouTube.  —  What?  Is Battelle crazy?  Hear me out.  Think back when YouTube was growing like a weed, and Google snapped it up.  Most folks (including me) saw this as Google “getting into the video business,” and sure, that in fact was one part of the equation.
Discussion: SiliconAngle, Thanks:atul
Roy Blount Jr / New York Times:
The Kindle Swindle?  —  BEING president of too many well-meaning organizations put my father into an early grave.  The lesson in this was not lost on me.  But now I am president of the Authors Guild, whose mission is to sustain book-writing as a viable occupation.
RELATED:
Frank Shaw / Glass House:   Case Study: What A Bad Op-Ed Looks Like
Juan Carlos Perez / Network World:
IDC forecasts first U.S. ad spending contraction since 2001  —  More bad news for advertising-supported Internet and media companies like Google, Yahoo, Facebook and MySpace: IDC is predicting that online ad spending in the U.S. will shrink year-on-year in the first quarter for the first time since the dot-com bubble burst in 2001.
Discussion: HipMojo.com
RELATED:
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Online Ads Could Fall 5% This Quarter, Says IDC
Discussion: Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch
Bloomberg:
Apple CEO Steve Jobs Remains Deeply Involved at the Company, Director Says  —  Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs remains deeply involved in strategic decisions and the company will disclose more information about his health if warranted, a director said.
RELATED:
Apple:
MobileMe: Service updates as of February 25, 2009  —  The MobileMe service has recently been updated with improvements as described below.  —  Products Affected  —  MobileMe  —  Mail  — Compose window address selector shows all email addresses for contacts, not just home and work addresses.
Discussion: TUAW
RELATED:
Apple MobileMe News:
Recent MobileMe Service Improvements
GamesIndustry.biz:
PS3 price cut announcement “in the next couple of days” - Janco  —  The PlayStation 3 could be about to receive a price cut, with Sony due to make an announcement imminently.  —  That's according to Janco Partners' Mike Hickey, who has said in his latest note to investors that Sony needs …
Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch:
Nokia thinking about dabbling in the laptop biz  —  Earlier this morning on Finland's YLE (think BBC, but Finnish), Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo was asked if the company had plans to expand into the laptop market.  Sure enough, his response: … Yeah.  Weird, right?  Nokia, making laptops?
RELATED:
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Nokia Reportedly Considers Making Laptops
Discussion: Electronic Pulp and Engadget
John Biggs / CrunchGear:
Kindle 2 going international  —  If this job posting by lab126.com, Amazon's secret hardware skunkworks, is any indication there will be an International version of the Kindle sooner than later. … Note that this doesn't specifically mention overseas implementation but it does describe Wi-Fi and 3G …
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider and Engadget
RELATED:
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Shared Stuff to Be Discontinued  —  Google Shared Stuff, the social bookmarking service that has never been officially launched, will no longer be available after the end of March.  —  Google Shared Stuff was only used to share videos at Google Video and Knol articles, but it was buggy and underdeveloped.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Biden Forgets Recovery.gov's “Website Number”  —  This morning Vice President Biden went on the CBS early show to promote Recovery.gov, the website that will detail where all of the money in The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be going.  Unfortunately, he forgot the actual address …
Discussion: Switched, Indecision and SiliconAngle
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Announcing the Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 RC  —  This week we are announcing that Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 has hit an important milestone in development: Release Candidate (RC).  —  Starting today, the RC of SP2 for Windows Vista …
David Chartier / Ars Technica:
AIM for iPhone gets paid version, SMS alerts, location awareness  —  AIM for iPhone and iPod touch has split into free (ad-supported) and paid versions, though both feature the same enhancements for this 2.0 upgrade.  New in AIM for iPhone 2.0 are SMS notifications, location-aware services, multiple accounts, and more.
Johnny Minkley / GamesIndustry.biz:
EA: We've learned our lesson on release dates  —  Electronic Arts has admitted it got it wrong with the releases of some of its biggest games of 2008, and insists the industry must now rethink its entire approach to putting products into the market.  —  Glen Schofield, general manager …
Discussion: Ars Technica, Kotaku, VG247 and Joystiq
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Apple updates Apple TV software to version 2.3.1 [Ux2]  —  Apple overnight released a minor software update for owners of its Apple TV set-top media box that has thus far been revealed to include a new Network Test function and improvements when using Apple Remote for iPhone.
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
IE8 compatibility and reliability update for Windows 7 beta  —  Microsoft has released an update for Internext Explorer build 8.0.7000.0, fixing many bugs that were fixed with the release of IE8 RC1 for Vista and XP.  —  Microsoft has released a patch via Windows Update for Internet Explorer 8 …
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Google unveils App Status Dashboard to confirm when your anger is justified  —  When Gmail had a massive worldwide failure a couple days ago, a lot of users were angry.  And rightfully so, even though it was only for a few hours, some people are paying Google to use Gmail for their work.
Sue Zeidler / Reuters:
Netflix to offer “streaming only” plans in future  —  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Netflix Inc Chief Financial Officer Barry McCarthy said on Wednesday it plans to offer its online streaming service on a stand-alone basis.  —  “We're likely to do that in the foreseeable future,” …
Zach Spear / AppleInsider:
SoftBank now giving away iPhones in Japan  —  In a bid to possibly clear inventory, combat slumping sales, or both, SoftBank Mobile's new “iPhone for Everybody Campaign” is offering customers in Japan a free iPhone 3G with a two-year contract through May.  —  Announced on the Japanese carrier's website …
Jon Fortt / Fortune:
What Margaret Mead could teach techs  —  Big tech firms are hiring social scientists to help them figure out the changing landscape.  —  (Fortune) — While traveling in China, Genevieve Bell figured she'd have no trouble getting a cell phone.  With cash, a passport and official documents from her employer …
Ryan Spoon:
Perez Hilton Hits 14,000,000 Pageviews Yesterday.  Wow.  —  You might not be interested in celebrity news and gossip...  You might not consider it important or meaningful...  But to the web, it is significant and marks a major move in the Digital Media space.
Discussion: Pulse2, Thanks:berecruited
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Connected Life Head Marco Boerries to Leave Yahoo  —  Yahoo's top mobile exec, Marco Boerries, is departing Yahoo, according to an internal email obtained by BoomTown that he sent to some staffers on Sunday.  —  I have also confirmed Boerries's departure with company insiders familiar with the situation.
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Penn State Study: Search Ad Click Through Rate  —  Penn State's Jim Jansen announced a recent study they just finished that looked at the click through rate of search ads.  They studied hundreds of thousands of users, as they interacted with DogPile, the popular meta search engine.
Fëdor Karpelevitch / Gmail Blog:
New in Labs: Browser title bar tweaks  —  I'm often doing something on my computer and want to know if I have new mail without having to keep my Gmail window open.  But if you keep Gmail minimized or in an inactive tab sometimes all you see in the browser title bar is something like “Gmail - Inbo...”
Camille Ricketts / VentureBeat:
More record companies take aim at music search engine SeeqPod  —  EMI and Capitol Records have jumped on the bandwagon, filing suit against music search engine SeeqPod for copyright infringement in New York.  They're following in the footsteps of Warner Music Group, which took action against the site in California in January 2008.
 
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 More Items: 
Josh Cohen / Google News Blog:
Ads in Google News search results
Discussion: Micro Persuasion, Thanks:atul
William M. Bulkeley / Wall Street Journal:
Camera Sales Slump 12%
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Yahoo CFO Gives Mixed Signals On Possible Search Deal
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider and Pulse2
Martin Langeveld / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Hearst, MediaNews: You can invent the future in San Francisco
Discussion: SiliconBeat
Mark Walsh / MediaPost:
Local Mobile Search To Reach $1.3 Billion By 2013
Mike Miliard / thephoenix.com:
In your Facebook  —  Facebook is already giving away personal information.
 Earlier Items: 
Andrew Nusca / Between the Lines:
U.S. Supreme Court rules for AT&T in antitrust suit
Discussion: CNET News and DSLreports
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Y Combinator Startup Fliggo Lets You Build Your Own YouTube
Discussion: NewTeeVee
Dana Milbank / Washington Post:
A Tale of 140 Characters, Plus the Ones in Congress
Discussion: PE Hub Blog
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Amazon Exposes 1 Terabyte of Public Data to Developers
Kelly Fiveash / The Register:
Google blames Gmail outage on data centre collapse
 

 
From Mediagazer:

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”

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

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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