Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
8:40 PM ET, August 12, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
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.
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
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:
Joe Wilcox / BetaNews:
Microsoft and Nokia do the right thing for the wrong reasons
Discussion: The Microsoft Blog
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:
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:
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 …
Mary Kathleen Flynn / Dealscape:
Twitter's Stone: ‘Millions of zombie computers’  —  The denial-of-service attacks that resulted in outages of Twitter Inc.'s microblogging service last week and again briefly on Tuesday are “not going away any time soon,” says Twitter co-founder Biz Stone to TV talk show host Tavis Smiley.
Discussion: BoomTown and Epicenter
RELATED:
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:   Google Helped Twitter Deal With Attacks
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:
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Personal Finance Startup Mint Raises $14 Million  —  Update: Mint.com has raised $14 million in financing, according to a SEC filing.  —  DAG Ventures led the round; Founder's Fund and existing investors Benchmark Capital, Shasta Ventures, First Round Capital, and Sherpalo also participated.
Discussion: VentureBeat, TechCrunch 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 …
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
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 and EverythingiCafe
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 and Beyond Search, Thanks:atul
David Kravets / Threat Level:
Another Court Deals Major Blow to DVD Copying  —  A California appeals court on Wednesday overturned a lower court ruling that had paved the way for a $10,000 DVD copying system called Kaleidescape and other products from the company with the same name.  —  The 6th District Court of Appeal in San Jose …
RELATED:
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Kaleidescape loses; DVD copying falls again
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.
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.
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.
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 …
Andrew LaVallee / Digits:
Marketers Are Never Gonna Dance Again, Thanks to Google  —  and Jessica E. Vascellaro  —  Some people go to conferences for the networking, others go for the keynote session and still others, apparently, go for the dancing.  Not this year.  —  Larry Chiang
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
Palm lays the smack down on Pre theme for Android  —  Android's supposed to be all about peace, love, and openness, but that apparently doesn't exempt it from copyright law and trigger-happy general counsels (who knew?).  In a move that should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone …
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
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
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 8:40 PM ET, August 12, 2009.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Techmeme Sponsor Posts: 
Tribe AI:
Build AI that works  —  Tribe builds tech for top AI companies.  Get in touch to learn how our bench of 500+ engineers and researchers can accelerate your roadmap.
Kulkan Security:
Hire Kulkan as your penetration testing partner  —  Kulkan prioritizes deep-dive manual security reviews, dissecting your software and infrastructure to find issues that once remediated can truly reduce security risk.
Zoho:
Cultivating creativity and innovation in the modern workspace  —  In the realm of modern business, success depends on more than just delivering products or services—it requires an environment where creativity thrives and new ideas are welcomed.
Mastodon:
Donate to Mastodon  —  Mastodon gGmbH, the non-profit behind the open-source software powering the social web, relies entirely on support from users like you.  Donate directly with a credit card or through Patreon.
Sponsor Techmeme
 
 See Also: 
Techmeme: site main
Techmeme River: reverse chronological Techmeme
Techmeme Mobile: for phones
Techmeme Leaderboard: Techmeme's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
Techmeme RSS feed
Techmeme on X
Techmeme on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Rafat Ali / paidContent:
Portfolio.com Returns; All ACBJ And Conde Nast Biz Content
Discussion: Portfolio
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
Redbox Adds Fox To Legal Targets
eMarketer:
The Online Video Advertising Picture Clears Up
Discussion: NewTeeVee
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Sources detail changes to Snow Leopard installation process
Agence France Presse:
French teenager hurt by shattering iPhone
Discussion: The Register and CrunchGear
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
 Earlier Items: 
Emma Barnett / Telegraph:
Adverts fail to engage majority of social networkers
Discussion: broadstuff
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?
Peter Burrows / Business Week:
Why Apple Is More Valuable Than Google
Discussion: Brainstorm Tech
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
Jeff Atwood / Coding Horror:
Are You a Digital Sharecropper?
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
How Do iPhone Users Find New Apps?
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider and mocoNews, Thanks:mrinaldesai
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
The FTC bans noncompete clauses that restrict job switching, potentially complicating hiring in Hollywood as firms try to protect trade secrets and other info

Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:
An interview with NPR CEO Katherine Maher, who defends NPR and accuses critics of “bad faith distortion” of her past comments about the First Amendment

Tom Jones / Poynter:
How the Columbia Daily Spectator, the independent student newspaper of Columbia University, is covering the tense protests over the Israel-Hamas war

 
Sister Sites:

Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
memeorandum
 What US political commentators are discussing online right now
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page