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4:00 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
Nancy Gohring / Computerworld:
Injunction on Microsoft Word unlikely to halt sales
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 …
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:
Steve Lohr / Bits:
Microsoft-Nokia Alliance: An Assault on the BlackBerry  —  Top executives from Microsoft and Nokia elaborated on their new alliance in a conference call this morning.  —  The takeaway?  First, the partnership is aimed initially at Research in Motion and loosening the hold …
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.
RELATED:
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 …
Discussion: CNET News
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.
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: paidContent and Dealscape
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?
Discussion: Tech Insider, Thanks:mgcreed
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 …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Schiller Reaches Out Again To Acknowledge App Store Problems  —  A few weeks ago, we wrote about Steven Frank, a well-known Mac developer who was giving up his iPhone over his disgust with the ways Apple is managing the App Store.  (This was right before Mike also gave up his iPhone).
RELATED:
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: Common Sense Journalism, Thanks:atul
Dan Nosowitz / Gizmodo:
Zune HD Release Date and Packaging Leaked, Will Hit Stores September 15th  —  Some loyal Giz readers and Best Buy employees sent us a couple shots of the much-anticipated Zune HD's packaging, and they clearly state that the gorgeous PMP will be available on September 15th.  Break out the wallets, people.
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
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
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: /Message
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?
PC Magazine:
Hands On with the Zune HD, Plus Video  —  Earlier today, José Piñero, Zune's new senior director of marketing, swung by the PCMag.com Labs to preview the brand-new Zune HD for us.  —  While there are still lots of unanswered questions (Piñero wouldn't confirm pricing or capacities …
Discussion: Engadget, SlashGear and WMPoweruser.com
Bobbie Johnson / Guardian:
Wikipedia approaches its limits  —  The online encyclopedia is about to hit 3m articles in English - but growth is stalling as ‘inclusionists’ and ‘deletionists’ fight for control  —  Yet again, Wikipedia is about to break new ground.  The website that has become one of the biggest open repositories …
Discussion: TeleRead
Daniel Shen / DigiTimes:
HTC to focus on development of mid-range smartphones  —  Shipments of mid-range smartphones will account for 50-60% of HTC's (High Tech Computer) total handset shipments in the second half of 2009, according to CEO Peter Chou.  —  Chou made the remarks as HTC and Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) …
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
Holly Sanders Ware / New York Post:
REWIND ON2 SALE DEAL  —  SHAREHOLDER SUITS AIM TO BLOCK $106.5M PACT  —  Shareholders of On2 Technologies, the video-software maker that Google agreed to buy for $106.5 million in stock, are blasting the deal, saying the sale process was rigged to favor the search giant.
Discussion: Tech Trader Daily
Dave Ohara / Green Data Center Blog:
Apple Recruits eBay Data Center Executive Olivier Sanche, Can Apple Change Data Centers the way they changed cell phone and media players?  —  I have been lucky to meet eBay's Sr. Director, Data Center Services & Strategy, Olivier Sanche at a variety of data center events and discuss many different green data center ideas.
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.
 
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 More Items: 
Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge:
A Data Center Shortage for Silicon Valley?
Thanks:atul
Emma Barnett / Telegraph:
Adverts fail to engage majority of social networkers
Sumner Lemon / Computerworld:
Asian undersea cable disruption slows Internet access
Discussion: CNET News
Dan Moren / Macworld:
AirPort Client Update improves MacBook wireless performance
Discussion: Ars Technica and eWeek
Lee Mathews / Download Squad:
Google Chrome to reach v4 before Firefox? Work begins on Chromium 4.0
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Mass Firings At AOL Next Week?
Discussion: Tech Trader Daily
Andrew Keen / blogs.telegraph.co.uk:
In defence of Apple
John Koblin / New York Observer:
The Gilded Age of Condé Nast Is Over
 Earlier Items: 
Chris Williams / The Register:
Two convicted for refusal to decrypt data
Discussion: Slashdot
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Poor Google Knol Has Gone From A Wikipedia Killer To A Craigslist Wannabe
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
After Ten Years In Business, MyWebGrocer Raises $13 Million In Series A
Discussion: alarm:clock and Softpedia News
Lars Bastholm / Business Week:
The Content Crisis  —  As media ads dry up, phone outfits …
Discussion: Patricia Handschiegel, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Cade Metz / The Register:
Google File System II: Dawn of the Multiplying Master Nodes
Discussion: Search Engine Land
Brad Stone / Bits:
RealNetworks Barred From Selling DVD Copy Maker