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1:20 PM ET, May 12, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Did Microsoft Just Announce a Zune Phone on Twitter?  —  The blogs are buzzing over some tweets from a Twitter account run by the Office 2010 team, noting what looks like the outright announcement of a Zune phone.  Something doesn't feel right.  —  First, the tweets:
RELATED:
Tom Warren / Neowin.net:
Microsoft hints at June for new Zune  —  Microsoft is heating up the Zune advertising and is hinting at June for a “new product launch”.  —  We've had the hints that a new Zune, namely the Zune HD, could be surfacing this year but an interesting twitter update from the Microsoft Office 2010 …
Motoko Rich / New York Times:
Print Books Are Target of Pirates on the Web  —  Ursula K. Le Guin, the science fiction writer, was perusing the Web site Scribd last month when she came across digital copies of some books that seemed quite familiar to her.  No wonder.  She wrote them, including a free-for-the-taking copy …
Aidan Malley / AppleInsider:
Chinese rumor claims 2009 iPhone will be modest upgrade  —  A forum thread on a Chinese Apple fan site is generating some interest by AppleInsider readers because one commenter claims to have used prototypes of Apple's next-gen iPhone because he purportedly has a friend working at the company's manufacturing partner Foxconn.
RELATED:
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Intel outlines notebook plans for 2H09  —  Intel recently outlined its plans for traditional notebook, CULV-based ultra-thin notebook and netbook product lines for its partners, according to sources at notebook makers.  —  Intel's next-generation Calpella notebook platform will launch …
Aurora Dizon / PC World:
Security Alert: Twitter Porn Names Scam  —  Popular social networking site Twitter's current top trending topic, or things that are twittered the most in a period of time has a security hole.  What larger hole to patch then that of human error itself.  The “twitter porn names” …
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
Microsoft's next Apple price attack: Zune Pass vs iTunes  —  Microsoft's Laptop Hunter ads (one, two, three, and four) must be doing quite well, because what Microsoft started off as a price attack on Macs seems to have transcended over to the online music store business.
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
Palm and Sprint announcing Pre availability May 19th in the WSJ?  —  We just got a tip from a very proven tipster who informed us that Palm and Sprint were set to make a big announcement in the Wall Street Journal on May 19th.  They said that there's a very good chance of Palm and Sprint announcing the Pre release date then.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google News Gets An Update.  Still Sucks.  —  I'm sorry, but for as good as Google is at organizing the world's data, Google News absolutely sucks.  Now, to be fair, I'm going to focus on Google News from a tech news perspective, because that's what I follow.  Maybe it's better in other areas, but I doubt it's much better.
Discussion: Google News Blog
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Madison Avenue and the App Store  —  There are two new reports this week about how to use Apple's (AAPL) App Store as a marketing medium.  —  The first, in today's Wall Street Journal, cites several success stories, including Zippo's virtual lighter and Lions Gate's (LGF) Stun-O-Matic.
RELATED:
Yukari Iwatani Kane / Wall Street Journal:
IPhone Gets Bigger as Ad Medium
Vodafone:
Vodafone to Redefine the Mobile Internet Experience  —  Initiative will enable content partners and developers to create a range of attractive mobile internet services that can be rolled out to all Vodafone customers  —  Vodafone is to stimulate a new generation of mobile internet applications …
RELATED:
Dianne See Morrison / paidContent:
Vodafone Unveils New App Store; Will Share Location-Based Data
Discussion: paidContent.org and mocoNews
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Another Ad Network?  Yes, and This One's for iPhone Apps: Medialets Raises $4 Million.  —  Apple iPhone and iPod Touch users have downloaded one billion apps for their devices in nine months.  Someone other than Steve Jobs and co. ought to be able to make money from that, right?
Discussion: Techgeist
RELATED:
Jeff Longo / MacRumors:
SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone Release Imminent?  Wi-Fi only?  —  MacRumors has heard that Sling Media's long awaited SlingPlayer Mobile may finally appear on the App Store tonight.  —  In addition to full support of current Slingboxes (PRO-HD and SOLO), legacy Slingboxes, which include the Classic …
Wladimir Palant / Adblock Plus and (a little) more:
An approach to fair ad blocking  —  Update: Sorry but I won't answer most comments individually any more - they are just reiterating points that have been mentioned already.  I am going to summarize the feedback in a new blog post soon.  —  As I stated many times before …
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:
Adobe beams up new Strobe video framework  —  As part of the Streaming Media East conference in New York, Adobe has unveiled “Strobe,” the “open framework” for its Flash video player that the company first announced last month.  It's expected to be available in the third quarter of this year.
Discussion: Pulse2 and Beet.TV
John Markoff / New York Times:
Tracking Cyberspies Through the Web Wilderness  —  For old-fashioned detectives, the problem was always acquiring information.  For the cybersleuth, hunting evidence in the data tangle of the Internet, the problem is different.  —  “The holy grail is how can you distinguish between information …
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Apple, Dell, HP laptop owners sue Nvidia over faulty graphics  —  Five plaintiffs join forces to demand class-action lawsuit  —  Computerworld) Owners of Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard laptops have combined their lawsuits against Nvidia in an attempt to force the graphics chip maker …
Discussion: AppleInsider and Macsimum News
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Facebook to test payments system with developers “in a few weeks”  —  Developers may be making tens of millions of dollars through games and virtual goods on Facebook's platform, but the social network itself hasn't had a way to get a share of that money.  This may be about to change …
Discussion: All Facebook, GigaOM and TechCrunch
ABCNEWS:
Nightline Teams Up With Twitter for New Web Show  —  Join the Conversation With Nightline Wednesdays at 12:30 p.m. ET  —  “Nightline” is expanding its ongoing relationship with Twitter to develop “NightTline,” a new half-hour digital program hosted by the show's anchors and correspondents …
Discussion: NewTeeVee and Mashable!
Darren Waters / BBC:
Call to ‘disconnect file-sharers’  —  Persistent illegal file-sharers should be cut off from the net, an alliance of UK creative industries will tell the government on Tuesday.  —  The alliance wants the government to force internet service providers (ISPs) to disconnect users …
Matt Asay / CNET News:
Up to 24 percent of software purchases now open source  —  Open source has become big business, suggests an article in the Investors Business Daily, but it has done so by becoming more like the proprietary-software world it purports to leave behind.  —  The article cites recent research …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Facebook Remains Stubbornly Proud Of Position On Holocaust Denial  —  Facebook is apparently done talking about Holocaust denial for now.  A couple of groups that got more out of hand than the rest were taken down, but the company's policy of permitting the groups on the site remains.
Thomas Mennecke / Slyck:
BSA Finds that Software Piracy Continues to Climb  —  The BSA's 2008 Piracy Study starts off optimistically, but immediately grounds itself in reality by admitting some bad news.  In short, the BSA's new study finds that piracy rates have either stabilized or declined in some geographical regions …
Discussion: Download Squad
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Make Room for the Wide Load Ads  —  When the going gets tough, the ads get bigger.  —  Amid all the hand-wringing about the decline of the news business and the need for subscription revenue, big publishers are doing something concrete: They are trying to sell more ads for more money.
Eliot Van Buskirk / Epicenter:
SeeqPod Seeks New Life at Microsoft  —  Seeqpod CEO Kasian Franks confirmed to wired.com Monday that the embattled music search engine was talking to Microsoft about a sale of part of the company, and said other parts of its search engine, which corrals MP3s from around the web …
Discussion: AppScout
Eric / Technology & Marketing Law Blog:
Google Hit With Major Class Action Trademark Lawsuit Over Trademarked Keyword Ad Sales—FPX v. Google  —  FPX, LLC v. Google, Inc., 2:2009cv00142 (E.D. Tex. complaint filed May 11, 2009)  —  In retrospect, it seems so obvious.  Why were the lawyers for these chickenscratch plaintiffs (Rescuecom?
Discussion: Search Engine Land
Arjun Banker / Facebook Blog:
Be the First to Know with Immediate Notifications  —  Notifications let you know when people take actions on Facebook related to you, so you can quickly check out a photo you've been tagged in or read a new posting on your Wall.  They already are available from your home page …
Discussion: Mashable!, Thanks:atul
internetnews.com:
Android, Palm Pre a New Headache for IT?  —  First it was the iPhone, now a wave of new devices will challenge IT departments used to dealing with RIM BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.  —  Even in a down economy, a raft of new mobile devices is tempting consumers and inevitably, the corporate workforce.
Pui-Wing Tam / Wall Street Journal:
At Start-Ups, Boards Spar Over Cash Plans  —  Managers Face Dilemma Over Whether to Save or Spend Amid Recession, Slump in Financing  —  SAN FRANCISCO — At a recent board meeting, Jaspersoft Corp. Chief Executive Brian Gentile found himself stuck between two camps: the savers and the spenders.
Discussion: Venture Capital Dispatch, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Andrew Baron:
Magma!  —  Today we let the cat out of the bag on Magma.  Here is a quick rundown of what the site is!  —  Magma is an entry point for online video.  When you first land on the page you are presented with two sections.  The top section shows you the most definitive view to date of the most popular videos on the internet.
 
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 More Items: 
Jon Fortt / Fortune:
IBM-SAP combo not in the cards
Discussion: Reuters and The Register
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
RealNetworks continues to develop DVD-copying device
Discussion: p2pnet and fiercecio.comwatch
PC World:
AMD Gains Processor Market Share on Intel
Discussion: TechSpot, DailyTech and Gizmodo
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
CBS Digital Boss Quincy Smith Plans His Next Deal: His Own M&A Shop
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
David Sarno / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
‘Anonymous’ hacker pleads guilty to 2008 attack on Scientology sites
Nancy Gohring / Macworld:
Notes push e-mail coming to iPhone
Discussion: The iPhone Blog
 Earlier Items: 
Joe Sharkey / New York Times:
A Meeting in New York? Can't We Videoconference?
Discussion: Beet.TV
Robert L. Mitchell / Computerworld:
What Google knows about you  —  Google may know more about you than your mother does.
Thanks:loic
Ryan Singel / Epicenter:
Flickr Creates New License for White House Photos