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9:50 AM ET, April 21, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Matt Mullenweg:
Sun, Oracle, WordPress, and MySQL  —  It's magically beautiful outside in San Francisco today, but instead everyone is talking about the $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle.  (More on Techmeme.)  A number of people have contacted me with questions to the effect of …
RELATED:
Reuters:   Investor plays matchmaker in Sun sale to Oracle
Sunshine / LiveSide:
Web IM In Hotmail  —  Web IM is coming to Hotmail.  It became available to users in France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and the UK last month and starting today it will roll out to Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and the USA.  If your country is not in this list yet, don't fret!
RELATED:
Windows Live team blog:
Web IM in Hotmail!
Discussion: iGeneration
Chris Foresman / Ars Technica:
iPhone OS 3.0 to feature voice control and feedback  —  Various voice-related features, under the codename “Jibbler,” have been discovered in the version of SpringBoard set to ship with the next update to Apple's mobile operating system.  —  Sources speaking to Ars have discovered evidence …
Business Wire:
The New York Times Company Reports 2009 First-Quarter Results  —  NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—The New York Times Company announced today a first-quarter 2009 operating loss of $61.6 million compared with operating profit of $6.2 million in the first quarter of 2008.
RELATED:
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
New York Times Ad Sales Plummet 28.4%  —  The New York Times Company (NYT) today announced a first-quarter 2009 operating loss of $61.6 million as total ad sales dropped 28,4%.  —  Internet ad sales slipped 6.1% to $67.6 million from $72 million.  —  The Times's About.com group fared the best; it's ad sales only shrinking 4.7%.
Discussion: paidContent.org and MediaMemo
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google Similar Images First Look  —  A new 20% time Google project has just launched called Google Similar Images.  It's pretty self-explanatory — when you search for an image and find one close to what you're looking for, Google can now find ones that it believes to be the same, or similar.
RELATED:
Andy Hertzfeld / Google News Blog:
Introducing Google News Timeline
The Official Google Blog:
Hard at play in Google Labs with Similar Images and Google News Timeline
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Interview With Digg's Kevin Rose: The State of The Union  —  Last week I sat down with Digg founder Kevin Rose to get the Digg “State of the Union.”  The company, now more than four years old, has continued to grow incredibly since launching in late 2004 and regularly innovates with new products.
Wall Street Journal:
Computer Spies Breach Fighter-Jet Project  —  WASHINGTON — Computer spies have broken into the Pentagon's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project — the Defense Department's costliest weapons program ever — according to current and former government officials familiar with the attacks.
Discussion: PC World, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Wall Street Journal:
America's Newest Profession: Bloggers for Hire  —  In America today, there are almost as many people making their living as bloggers as there are lawyers.  Already more Americans are making their primary income from posting their opinions than Americans working as computer programmers, firefighters or even bartenders.
Brian Womack / Bloomberg:
Yahoo's Bartz Picks Balogh to Tear Down ‘Wall of Shame’ of Failed Products  —  Yahoo! Inc. Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz said last month that she created a “wall of shame” for products she isn't happy with.  She's counting on her top technology executive to fix them.
Paul Meller / Computerworld:
Microsoft gains familiar ally in IE antitrust battle in Europe  —  ACT trade group joins case as third party, says there is ‘something surreal’ about EC's charges  —  IDG News Service) Microsoft Corp. gained a familiar ally in its latest antitrust battle with the European Commission today …
Discussion: The Register
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Facebook Considers Building An Ad Network  —  As its been speculated, but never confirmed, Facebook is considering building an ad network on the back of Facebook Connect — but not for at least another six months, an advertising industry source who's discussed the issue with Facebook tells us.
Discussion: HipMojo.com
RELATED:
Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch:
Qik Launches Facebook Connect Support
eMarketer:
Brand Mentions Preferred over Ads  —  Young people especially receptive.  —  Want to get Internet users to visit your Website or follow your brand?  —  The best way to accomplish those tasks, according to ARAnet, based on polling by Opinion Research Corporation, may not be advertising.
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Omniture adds viral video analytics, targets startup rivals  —  Web analytics heavyweight Omniture is taking on a few video analytics startups today, by introducing a new service for tracking data about online videos across the web.  The public company already offers a variety of software tools …
Andrew Nusca / Between the Lines:
Broadcom makes $764 million bid for Emulex  —  After an earlier snub, Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) today made an unsolicited offer to buy Emulex Corp. (ELX) for $764 million, or $9.25 a share, in a bid that represents a 40 percent premium over Emulex's closing price of $6.61 yesterday.
Saul Hansell / Bits:
The Cost of Downloading All Those Videos  —  In an article in today's New York Times, I wrote about the controversy over the now-abandoned plan by Time Warner Cable to impose additional fees on customers who upload and download more than a set quota.  —  AT&T continues to test a similar plan …
Kristen Nicole / All Facebook:
LOLapps Emerges from Stealth Mode to Take Over Facebook Apps  —  LOLapps is officially launching today, after having been in stealth mode for well over six months now.  The company is actually a developer firm that's behind many apps you're probably familiar with, including Quiz Creator and Gift Creator.
Discussion: Inside Facebook
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
More Interesting Northern European Analyses Of The Music Industry  —  I'm not entirely sure why, but it appears that a bunch of folks in the northern parts of Europe are doing some rather interesting analyses of the recording industry in that region.  Perhaps it's the fact that so much attention …
Discussion: Gizmodo
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Sharp's Mebius PC-NJ70A packs LCD trackpad for the whiz-bang crowd  —  And you thought Apple's button-less “glass trackpad” was hot stuff.  Sharp has just let loose details on its thoroughly Japanese Mebius PC-NJ70A, which sadly packs an exceptionally boring list of internal components …
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Amazon Wants To Bully Amazee Into Changing Its Name  —  Online retail juggernaut Amazon isn't too pleased with the name Swiss startup Amazee picked for its social collaboration service, and is now trying to persuade the young company to change it to something else.
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Study: pirates biggest music buyers.  Labels: yeah, right  —  Those who download illegal copies of music over P2P networks are the biggest consumers of legal music options, according to a new study by the BI Norwegian School of Management.  Researchers examined the music downloading habits …
Discussion: Music Ally, Boing Boing and paidContent
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Acer, Asustek, MSI see 1Q09 netbook sales fall short of expectations  —  Taiwan-based netbook vendors saw shipment volumes fall short of their respective goals in the first quarter, according to sources at channel vendors.  —  Although Acer is estimated to have shipped two million Aspire …
Discussion: SlashGear and GottaBeMobile.com
 
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 More Items: 
Kevin Cho / Bloomberg:
LG Electronics Operating Profit Beats Estimates; Higher Revenue Predicted
Scott Rosenberg / Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard:
Should Google pay a tax to media corporations?
Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent.org:
Korean Officials Angered By Google's Decision To Bypass Law
Discussion: NewTeeVee
Chen May Yee / Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Mayo opens private medical-data website
Discussion: PR Newswire and Associated Press
Dave Itzkoff / New York Times:
A Magazine With a Puzzle Buried Inside
 Earlier Items: 
Matt Mullenweg:
Blo.gs Lives On  —  Do you guys remember Blo.gs?
Discussion: toni.org, Thanks:socialcoop
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Healthline's semantic search engine adds treatment and doctor search
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
6 Weeks After Redesign, A Look at the Top 10 App Developers on Facebook by Reach
Discussion: RyanSpoon.com
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Yet Another Journalism Professor Gets Nearly Every Fact Wrong …
Thanks:atul
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Scientists Break Brain/Twitter Barrier
Discussion: Softpedia News
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Apple's Mac Business To Shrink For First Time Since 2003
 

 
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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