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6:15 PM ET, August 12, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Nick Eaton / The Microsoft Blog:
Judge: Microsoft can't sell Word anymore  —  A Texas judge ruled Tuesday that Microsoft cannot sell one of its flagship products, Word, in the United States because of patent infringement.  —  You read that right: Microsoft cannot sell Word, the judge ruled.
RELATED:
Ina Fried / CNET News:
I4i says not out to destroy Microsoft Word  —  The chairman of the company that has won a landmark injunction against Microsoft says his goal is not to see Microsoft Word pulled from store shelves.  —  In fact, I4i Chairman Loudon Owen said he is one of the hundreds of millions of people …
Discussion: Computerworld and Engadget, Thanks:mrinaldesai
The Official Google Blog:
I scream, you scream, we all scream for iGoogle social!  —  We launched iGoogle in 2005 as a way for people to quickly and easily personalize their Google experience with all the information on the web that was most useful to them.  Now tens of millions of people choose to use their iGoogle homepage …
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
iGoogle Releases Social Gadgets  —  iGoogle, a personalized homepage that competes with My Yahoo, My MSN, My AOL, Netvibes and others, will release 19 new in-house and third party iGoogle widgets today that add new social and sharing features to users of the service.
Microsoft:
Microsoft and Nokia Form Global Alliance to Design, Develop and Market Mobile Productivity Solutions  —  Companies will collaborate to bring Microsoft Office Mobile and related communications and collaboration software and services to Nokia smartphones.  —  The worldwide leader in software …
RELATED:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Facebook Begins Testing Facebook Lite, A Faster Simpler Version Of The Service  —  It looks like Facebook has tonight turned on a feature called “Facebook Lite” for some users to test out.  We're getting bombarded by tips about it, and some of us are seeing it as well.
RELATED:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
What Facebook Lite Actually Is.  Hint: It's Not Twitter Or FriendFeed.  —  So, the web pretty much exploded tonight over the appearance of something called “Facebook Lite,” a new service that's apparently being beta tested by Facebook.  But users who received the message that they were invited …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Dvorak Raises Doubts About U.S. CIO Kundra.  White House Calls the Report “Highly Inaccurate” & “a Lie.”  Kundra Speaks up  —  Updated: Earlier this morning, veteran technology journalist John Dvorak posted an article on his blog with the headline: Is U.S. Chief Information Officer (CIO) Vivek Kundra a Phony?
RELATED:
John C Dvorak / Dvorak Uncensored:
Special Report: Is US Chief Information Officer (CIO) Vivek Kundra a Phony?
Dieter Bohn / PreCentral.net:
FYI: The Pre Reports Your Location to Palm  —  Joey Hess has taken a closer look at the code inside webOS that reports information back to Palm and found some details on what the Pre is sending back to headquarters.  Specifically, it appears that the Pre uploads (at least) the following information to Palm on a daily basis:
Jonny Evans / 9 to 5 Mac:
Unreleased Apple product sighted in California - no images (yet)  —  There's definitely an unreleased Apple product looming - and while that bald statement is pretty much an eternal truism, product marketing plans for this one are advanced, a report this morning explains.
Discussion: BusinessWeek and I4U News
RELATED:
Avner Ronen / boxee blog:
Boxee gets a $6M catalyst  —  We are happy to announce that Boxee closed a $6M round of financing led by Boston-based General Catalyst with participation by prior investors Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures.  Neil Sequeira from General Catalyst will join our board.
RELATED:
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Web Video Darling Boxee Gets Another $6 Million: Are Zero Revenue …
Discussion: Dealscape and paidContent
Gartner:
Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Declined 6 Per Cent and Smartphones Grew 27 Per Cent in Second Quarter of 2009  —  Inventory Destocking Continues with 13.9 Million Units Shed by the Channel  —  Worldwide mobile phone sales totalled 286.1 million units in the second quarter of 2009 …
Zachary M. Seward / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Why The Associated Press plans to hold some web content off the wire  —  In a break with tradition, The Associated Press plans to prevent members and customers from publishing some AP content on their websites.  Instead, those news organizations would link to the content on a central AP website …
Discussion: Beyond Search and Common Sense Journalism, Thanks:atul
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Personal Finance Startup Mint Raises $14 Million  —  Mint.com has raised $14 million in financing, according to a SEC filing.  We've asked the company for more information and will update when we hear back.  —  Mint bundles your bank accounts and brokerage accounts into a free …
Discussion: TechCrunch
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Apple To Offer $899 Tablet With OLED Screen?  —  The rumors of the much-anticipated, yet-to-be-confirmed Apple (AAPL) tablet continued to pile up.  —  The latest version comes from that old rumormonger, Trip Chowdhry, proprietor of the boutique research firm Global Equities Research.
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Facebook Grew Twice As Fast As Twitter In July  —  If it wasn't bad enough that Facebook bought FriendFeed on Monday and turned on real-time search to better compete against Twitter in the Stream Wars, and is playing around with a lite version that resembles Twitter even more, now Twitter really has something to worry about.
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google Helped Twitter Deal With Attacks  —  Google and Twitter might be cozier than we thought.  —  With Facebook and FriendFeed getting together, people are starting to wonder if Twitter will need a sugar-daddy with deep pockets to thrive.  We've nominated Google and suggested it spend $1 billion to do the job.
Discussion: Mashable!
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
T-Mobile HTC Touch Pro2 Review: Wait, How Much?  —  T-Mobile's take on the HTC Touch Pro2, a 3.6-inch-screened, slide-out-QWERTYed refresh to the company's flagship Windows Mobile phone.  —  The price: $349 with a 2-year contract, after instant rebate, making it T-Mobile's most expensive phone
Josh Lowensohn / CNET News:
Docstoc opens up a shop for publishers  —  Online document host Docstoc on Wednesday is opening up an online store for publishers to sell their wares.  The company is acting both as the host and the payment platform, along with the viewing technology for the documents.
Discussion: Mashable!, VentureBeat and PR Newswire
Efficient Frontier Insights:
Is Bing on a Roll?  —  As the industry comes together this week at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, we thought it was appropriate to take another look at Bing trends to see if they were holding, folding or on the uptick.  —  We last reported a 13% increase in paid click share for Microsoft.
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Sources detail changes to Snow Leopard installation process  —  People familiar with Apple's upcoming Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system are corroborating reports this week that the software has achieved Golden Master status, adding some additional insight on various enhancements …
Discussion: MacRumors
Luke Plunkett / Kotaku:
Elite 360 Dropping In Price, RIP Pro Model  —  Looks like we have an execution date for the Xbox 360 Pro model, with this shot from a Meijer catalogue due on August 30 indicating the 360 Elite is in line for a Pro-sized price cut.  —  You'll remember, of course, that the origins of this rumour …
Jeff Atwood / Coding Horror:
Are You a Digital Sharecropper?  —  Will Work for Praise: The Web's Free-Labor Economy describes how many of today's websites are built by the users themselves: … This raises some disturbing parallels.  Are users being turned into digital sharecroppers?
Peter Burrows / Business Week:
Why Apple Is More Valuable Than Google  —  A look at what's behind the Mac and iPhone maker's now firm market-cap edge on the Web-search leader, and how it could one day challenge Microsoft  —  Now that Apple (AAPL) has once again passed Google (GOOG) in market value, can the consumer-electronics maker maintain its lead?
Discussion: Brainstorm Tech
Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge:
A Data Center Shortage for Silicon Valley?  —  If Silicon Valley winds up with a shortage of wholesale data center space, it can blame Washington.  Data center projects planned for Santa Clara, Calif. are now taking a back seat to the red-hot northern Virginia market, where the Obama …
Thanks:atul
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
How Do iPhone Users Find New Apps?  —  AdMob just released some data about how iPhone users discover new apps in the App Store and how they use them once they have downloaded them.  According to AdMob, most users download apps from the App Store directly from their phones.  Only 7% go through iTunes to download apps.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider and mocoNews, Thanks:mrinaldesai
 
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 More Items: 
Agence France Presse:
French teenager hurt by shattering iPhone
Discussion: The Register and CrunchGear
Kim Zetter / Threat Level:
Diebold Quietly Patches Security Flaw in Vote Counting Software
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Kaleidescape loses, DVD copying falls again
Discussion: PC Magazine, Bits and Download Squad
Andrew Allemann / Domain Name Wire:
ICANN: Domain Tasting Down 99.7%
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
8GB iPhone 3GS Rumor Refuses to Die (Because It Might Actually Be True)
Discussion: MacRumors
Sumner Lemon / Computerworld:
Asian undersea cable disruption slows Internet access
Discussion: CNET News and TECH.BLORGE.com
Dan Moren / Macworld:
AirPort Client Update improves MacBook wireless performance
Discussion: Ars Technica and eWeek
 Earlier Items: 
Lee Mathews / Download Squad:
Google Chrome to reach v4 before Firefox? Work begins on Chromium 4.0
Discussion: TechCrunch
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Mass Firings At AOL Next Week?
Discussion: Tech Trader Daily
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Poor Google Knol Has Gone From A Wikipedia Killer To A Craigslist Wannabe
Discussion: Beyond Search, Thanks:sizzler_chetan
Bobbie Johnson / Guardian:
Wikipedia approaches its limits
Discussion: TeleRead