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12:50 PM ET, July 28, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Apple Is Growing Rotten To The Core: Official Google Voice App Blocked From App Store  —  Earlier today we learned that Apple had begun to pull all Google Voice-enabled applications from the App Store, citing the fact that they “duplicate features that come with the iPhone”.
RELATED:
Ross Miller / Engadget:
Google Voice iPhone app rejected, current GV apps lose connection with iTunes  —  Perhaps the big G spoke too soon when it said its new Google Voice service was coming to iPhone.  First, GV Mobile developer Sean Kovacs relays a phone call he had with Apple where he was notified of his app …
Discussion: iPhone Buzz, DVICE and Techdirt
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
Apple Rejects Official Google Voice iPhone App
Discussion: DailyTech and T3.com News
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Monster Merger: IBM Buys SPSS For Approx. $1.2 Billion In Cash Deal  —  IBM is buying analytics software and solutions provider SPSS in an all cash transaction at a price of $50/share - a 42 percent premium to Monday's closing price of $35.09 on Nasdaq - resulting in a total cash consideration …
RELATED:
Lance Whitney / CNET News:
IBM buys security provider Ounce Labs
Discussion: eWeek
Prince McLean / AppleInsider:
Report: Hon Hai to build Apple tablets as soon as September  —  A Chinese newspaper has reported that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. will assemble tablet computers for Apple that may appear for sale as early as September.  —  The report, published by the Taipei, Taiwan Apple Daily paper …
RELATED:
Andrew Baron:   The Apple TV  —  There is an interesting story here that almost …
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
The Apple Tablet: Some Possibly Answered Questions
Discussion: O'Reilly News and Geek.com
Lisa Donovan / Chicago Sun Times:
Tweet about apartment mold draws lawsuit  —  It was a not-so-sweet Tweet about a Chicago apartment.  —  So Horizon Group Management LLC filed a libel lawsuit Monday against former tenant Amanda Bonnen, claiming one of her alleged Twitter posts “maliciously and wrongfully” …
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Thanks for giving my pixels back, browser makers  —  I'd personally like to offer browser makers my gratitude for realizing that my screen isn't big enough.  —  I'm one of those people who wants every bit of display real estate I can get.  The more I can see of the document I'm writing …
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Judge rejects fair use defense as Tenenbaum P2P trial begins  —  There will be no fair use defense for Joel Tenenbaum at trial this week.  —  Everything about the Tenenbaum case has been highly unusual, and Judge Nancy Gernter's final pretrial order was no exception.
RELATED:
Peter Cohen / Macworld:
Barnes & Noble makes Wi-Fi free via AT&T  —  Barnes & Noble bookstores nationwide offer Wi-Fi access, and the majority of them are already hotspots through AT&T. Those stores now offer free access via Wi-Fi, with a focus on expanding customer awareness of the Barnes & Noble's burgeoning e-book library.
Will Knight / Technology Review:
Microsoft Game Helps Make Search Better  —  A new game asks users to help refine search results.  —  Researchers at Microsoft's labs in Redmond, WA, have released an online game to help fine-tune search results.  —  Called Page Hunt, the game presents players with web pages and asks …
RELATED:
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Microsoft Hopes To Improve Bing With Page Hunt Game
Discussion: Softpedia News
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
No new netbooks from Asustek, Acer in 2H09; Acer pushes back Android netbook  —  Asustek Computer and Acer will not offer any new netbooks in the second half of 2009, as Intel plans to push the launch of its entry-level products including the Pine Trail-M platform to the first quarter of 2010, according to industry sources.
Matt Richtel / New York Times:
In Study, Texting Lifts Crash Risk by Large Margin  —  The first study of drivers texting inside their vehicles shows that the risk sharply exceeds previous estimates based on laboratory research — and far surpasses the dangers of other driving distractions.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Blip.tv Lands A Big Distribution Deal With YouTube And Others; Redesigns Dashboard  —  Mike Hudack, the founder of Blip.tv, just landed a major set of deals to expand the distribution of his Web video network.  The biggest deal is with YouTube, which for the first time will allow Blip.tv …
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
China's iPhone deal: New details emerge  —  The headlines out of China overnight Tuesday were headsnappers.  —  First Shanghai Security News reported that Apple (AAPL) had reached a three-year deal with China Unicom to market the iPhone in the world's largest cellphone market (600 million-plus subscribers).
RELATED:
Jim Goldman / Tech Check with Jim Goldman:
Is the Economy Really THIS Bad?  —  This was a strange earnings season.  —  But it has been a remarkably strange economy.  —  But when you look at the big names in tech, including Intel, IBM, Apple, Google, Yahoo, eBay, Microsoft, and the big names on Wall Street, there was a bizarre disconnect …
Rafat Ali / paidContent:
The New AOL LLC Details: Search Bidding War By Next Year; $90M In Restructuring Charges  —  Some more details gleaned from AOL (NYSE: TWX) Inc's first new filing with the SEC. We reported on the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Patch transaction earlier today.  —For one, AOL's finally HQed in NYC, as it should have been a long time ago.
Discussion: The Register and Digital Daily
RELATED:
Electronista:
Sprint to buy out Virgin Mobile USA  —  Sprint this morning said it would buy out Virgin Mobile's US division for an equity value of $483 million.  The deal cancels out Virgin's $248 million in outstanding debts and is intended to bolster Sprint's efforts in the arena of prepaid phones.
Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:
What Everyone Made from the Zappos Sale  —  If Zappos was a forced sale, would someone please come force me a raise?  —  Zappos just filed its S4 with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which details the history of the merger talks with Amazon.  There's a lot of boring boilerplate here …
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Design ideas show Firefox 4.0 with a Chrome look  —  Mozilla has released mockups that show how Firefox 4.0 conceivably might look, and two words spring to my mind: Google Chrome.  —  Last week, Mozilla showed some mockups for the nearer-term Firefox 3.7 that eliminated the browser's title bar …
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
US Movie Companies Go After The Pirate Bay - Again  —  Despite losing in court against the music and movie industries, The Pirate Bay continues to operate, a clearly unacceptable situation for the plaintiffs in the case.  The verdict is subject to appeal and that could make the whole thing drag on for years yet.
Discussion: p2pnet
Jamie Lendino / PC Magazine:
SiRF Unveils Next Generation GPS  —  SiRF, the San Jose-based embedded GPS company, has unveiled SiRFstar IV, a vast upgrade to the GPS architecture used in many portable and in-car GPS systems released over the past five years.  —  The new architecture aims to reduce battery drain, and it allows for much smaller receiver components.
 
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 More Items: 
Mark Milian / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
What is Twitter? Most people still don't know, study finds
Jonny / Distorted-Loop.com:
iTunes will sell four billion tracks this year
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac and Macsimum News
Robert L. Mitchell / Computerworld:
Data centers go underground
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Oracle sues Qtrax, claims P2P site owes $1.8 million
Discussion: hypebot
Peter Enav / Associated Press:
Taiwan's Foxconn agrees on suicide compensation
Discussion: eWeek, BBC and NY Daily News
 Earlier Items: 
Charlotte Dunlap / Forbes:
HP Looks For Security Blanket
Digital Engagement:
Template Twitter strategy for Government Departments
Brian Krebs / Washington Post:
‘Smart Grid’ Raises Security Concerns
Nicholas Carlson / The Business Insider:
Google's Marissa Mayer Is On Twitter (GOOG)
Discussion: Gawker
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Learning the Power of Teamwork in a Netflix Race for $1 Million
Todd Brix / The Windows Blog:
The Race to Market  —  Today represents another significant milestone …
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Ben Sherwood and Joanna Coles take minority stakes in The Daily Beast; Sherwood will be CEO and publisher, and Coles will be chief creative and content officer

Laurence Peter / BBC:
Russia's Ministry of Justice labels BBC Russian correspondent Ilya Barabanov and science reporter Asya Kazantseva as “foreign agents”; both now live abroad

Sahil Patel / The Information:
Sources: Disney plans old-style TV channels within Disney+, with a continuous, scheduled stream of shows that are focused on certain genres like Star Wars

 
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