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7:55 PM ET, April 14, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
eBay Inc.:
eBay Inc. Announces Plan for 2010 Initial Public Offering of Skype  —  eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) today announced that it plans to separate Skype from the company, beginning with an initial public offering that is intended to be completed in the first half of 2010.  Specific timing of the IPO will be based on market conditions.
RELATED:
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
SKYPE IPO!  —  eBay is finally dumping Skype... on the public market!  Specifically, it's planning to spin the company out in an IPO next year.  —  (In the meantime, by announcing the deal now, it can get investors excited about the separation and try to goad potential acquirers into ponying …
Discussion: Reuters, Guardian, BetaNews and TechVi
Mattz / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Boston College Campus Police: “Using Prompt Commands” May Be a Sign of Criminal Activity  —  On Friday, EFF and the law firm of Fish and Richardson filed an emergency motion to quash [pdf] and for the return of seized property on behalf of a Boston College computer science student whose computers …
RELATED:
Rebecca / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Computer Science Student Targeted for Criminal Investigation …
Discussion: p2pnet
Matt Rosoff / Crave: The gadget blog:
Zune phone ad campaign coming?  —  I was vacationing last week, so I missed my chance to comment on the Zune HD rumors.  Microsoft had already told me that it is planning one more iteration of the Zune hardware, and given the iPhone's success, it wouldn't surprise me if it has a touch screen …
Discussion: Engadget, PMP Today and Electronista
RELATED:
Noreen O'Leary / Adweek:
Microsoft Plays the Agency Field
Discussion: LiveSide and Gizmodo
SmoothSpan Blog:
AmazonFail Shows Data Matters Too  —  No software company in their right mind would change code and move it to production without extensive testing to make sure the new code wasn't broken.  It's a tried and true business process supported by tools like automated build (gather up all the files …
Discussion: Digits and deal architect
RELATED:
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:
Brill, Crovitz, Hindery Launch E-Commerce Venture For News Business  —  The news business has problems and entrepreneur Steve Brill, former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz (photograph, right) and cable guy-turned-investor Leo Hindery, Jr. think they have the answers.
RELATED:
Darren Waters / BBC:
EC starts legal action over Phorm  —  The European Commission has started legal action against Britain over the online advertising technology Phorm.  —  It follows complaints to the EC over how the behavioural advertising service was tested on BT's broadband network without the consent of users.
Jeremy Toeman / LIVEdigitally:
It's Official, Twitter is a Cult  —  I've been “tweeting” for about a year now.  As many of my friends know, I joined fairly reluctantly, but felt it was one of those things I just “had” to do professionally.  Over time my use of the service varied, but I tried to stick to using …
Discussion: TechCrunch
RELATED:
Tameka Kee / paidContent.org:
Dominos Pranksters Done In By Crowdsourcing  —  Teens have long used YouTube to post videos of themselves doing gags, but in the case of some Dominos employees from North Carolina, uploading clips cost them their jobs in less than a day thanks to the viral power of social media.
Amol Sharma / Wall Street Journal:
AT&T Chief Pushes to Keep iPhone  —  When Randall Stephenson became AT&T Inc.'s chief executive, the company had just started offering the iPhone.  The blockbuster device has since reeled in millions of new customers and helped revitalize the telecom giant's brand.
Discussion: Digits and Silicon Alley Insider
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Man Builds Chair That Tweets His Farts, Single-Handedly Justifies Twitter's Existence  —  You know those guys (and gals?) who are just, like, super proud of their farts?  Thanks to this cool guy and Twitter, these a**holes can indulge their disgusting habit without wrecking our noses.
Eric Lai / Computerworld:
Researchers: Databases still beat Google's MapReduce  —  Speed, efficiency of parallel SQL databases superior, paper shows  —  Computerworld) A team of researchers will release on Tuesday a paper showing that parallel SQL databases perform up to 6.5 times faster than Google Inc.'s MapReduce data-crunching technology.
Discussion: GigaOM
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
Confirmed: Office 2010 will come in 32-bit, 64-bit flavors (Updated)  —  Microsoft has confirmed that Office 2010 will indeed be shipping in 32-bit and 64-bit versions.  —  Last month, a very believable rumor started flying around in regard to Office 2010 shipping in 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
Steven Grady / SlashGear:
First non-Apple monitors to feature Mini Display Port announced  —  Want to play with Apple's new video connection standard, but don't want to shell out $800?  Collins America has announced the first new line of LCD monitors to utilize Apple's new Mini Display Port standard.
Andrew Sinkov / Evernote Blog:
Evernote + Twitter = Instant Memories  —  Now you can send your tweets directly into Evernote.  Why is this cool?  Because Twitter is chock-full of great stuff.  Your ideas, thoughts, and experiences mixed together with all of the content from the people you follow: journalism, storytelling …
Jacqueline Emigh / BetaNews:
EMC launches cloud storage for VMware first, Microsoft's Hyper-V later  —  Built on an entirely new architecture known as the Symmetrix Virtual Matrix Architecture, EMC's new VMax departs from more customary data center storage arrays such as its own DMX-4 through its unprecedented scalability …
Discussion: eWeek and iTnews Australia
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Yahoo Could Save $1+ Billion Per Year Outsourcing Search To Microsoft  —  Jefferies analyst Youssef Squali runs the numbers on Yahoo's (YHOO) potential search/display ad deal with Microsoft (MSFT) in a report today.  His notes:  — Outsourcing search infrastructure to Microsoft could save Yahoo $1 billion to $1.3 billion per year.
Discussion: tinyComb, Traffick and Pulse2, Thanks:bobcaswell
David Saleh Rauf / MySanAntonio.com:
Time Warner delays meter program  —  READ  —  Time Warner Cable Inc. Internet users won't have to worry about shelling out extra cash for downloads anytime soon.  —  Officials with the cable company said Monday they are postponing implementation of a new billing format for San Antonio …
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Fully functional Office 2008 for Mac trial is now available  —  Those who want to try out Office 2008 for Mac but don't want to fork over hundreds of dollars just yet can now use a 30-day trial of the software.  Microsoft's Mac BU made the fully-functional trial available on its website today …
Discussion: Mac Mojo, AppleInsider and MacRumors
Matt Asay / CNET News:
Should Sun buy Novell?  —  Sun Microsystems has adopted an ambitious business model that depends upon commodity open-source downloads serving as loss leaders and gateways for hardware and services revenue.  According to a report in The Register, however, profits have been hard to come by for Sun …
Discussion: The Register and rand($thoughts);
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Late to the iPhone, Trip Hawkins' Digital Chocolate falls in love with it  —  We've written about how new developers are enamored with the iPhone.  But Trip Hawkins (founder of Electronic Arts) admits that his mobile game company, Digital Chocolate, was late to the iPhone.
Discussion: mocoNews
Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch:
How to take screenshots on the Palm Pre  —  Sure, none of us have the Palm Pre yet - but once you get it, won't you want to take a ton of screenshots to show off to your friends document the experience?  —  On the iPhone, taking a screenshot requires no wonky software or hackery - just hold two buttons.
Discussion: PreCentral.net
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Coming Soon, Yet Another Re-Org at Yahoo  —  Given the number of re-orgs that have taken place at the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet company Yahoo in recent months, one could be forgiven for dubbing it “Re-org Nation.”  But while many of these shakeups — all part of a larger game of musical chairs …
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Helen Walters / Business Week:
Can Widgets Save the Television Industry?  —  With Internet Connected television, Yahoo and Samsung try to take a leaf out of Apple's design playbook  —  Convergence has been the buzzword of the media world for years now.  But while mobile might have won many of the recent headlines …
Bloomberg:
Bono Plays Matchmaker as YouTube, Universal Squeeze Cash From Music Videos  —  Since MTV started in 1981 with “Video Killed the Radio Star,” record labels have treated videos as a marketing expense.  Now, with album sales plummeting, music companies aim to make them a source of profit.
Discussion: Gizmodo and MediaPost
GSMArena.com:
Samsung S8000 leaked again - this time it speakes Androidish  —  The yet unannounced Samsung S8000 specs seem quite the thing, especially having in mind the handset is rumored as the first Android phone by Samsung.  As you may guess, it features a high-res display, full suite connectivity and sports Samsung's new 3D interface.
 
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 More Items: 
Marguerite Reardon / Crave:
Android set-top box in the works
John Cook / TechFlash:
Alaska offers details on in-flight Wi-Fi, but pricing still up in the air
Discussion: eWeek and Wi-Fi Networking News
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
Industry Moves: News Corp. Forms Global Editorial Hub; Fox News' Moody To Lead It
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Stephen J. Dubner / Freakonomics:
Is It Time to Rename “Digital Piracy”?
Discussion: Techdirt
Christopher Boyd / SpywareGuide Greynets Blog:
Instant Messaging Password Stealer Available From Major Download Sites
Espen Antonsen / CloudAve:
The Problem with URL Shorteners: ow.ly Server Errors
 Earlier Items: 
Scott Moritz / TheStreet.com:
Tech Rumor of the Day: Cisco Layoffs
John Timmer / Ars Technica:
E-book reader market gets crowded as Amazon eyes big screen
Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog and TeleRead
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Simple backup service Backblaze now available to all Mac users
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
StumbleUpon, A Case Study In The Efficient Allocation Of Resources
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Twitter Co-Founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone Speak!