Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
4:50 PM ET, August 21, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Stephen Wolfram / Wolfram:
What We've Been Doing This Summer  —  So what's been happening with Wolfram|Alpha this summer?  A lot!  —  At a first glance, the website looks pretty much as it did when it first launched—with the straightforward input field.  But inside that simple exterior an incredible amount has happened.
RELATED:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
What Wolfram Alpha Really Did This Summer: Struck A Deal With Bing.  —  Computer scientist Stephen Wolfram gave a report today listing what the team at Wolfram Alpha, his new search engine, did this summer.  They added new knowledge domains and over 2 million lines of code …
Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report:
AT&T to require smartphone data plans starting September 6th  —  AT&T subscribers, we have good news and bad news.  The bad news is that as of September 6th, AT&T will begin requiring that all smartphones sign up for a smartphone data plan.  The good news is that customers …
RELATED:
Andy Rubin / Google Public Policy Blog:
Android and VoIP applications  —  I wanted to briefly set the record straight about an inaccurate claim in Friday's USA Today.  The article stated:  —  “Consumers who use Android, the Google-developed operating system for wireless devices, can't use Skype, a leading Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service.
Discussion: VentureBeat and 9 to 5 Mac
Todd Shields / Bloomberg:
FCC's Genachowski Examining AT&T, Verizon Over Wireless Pricing, Policies
Microsoft JobsBlog:
Microsoft Retail Stores: We're hiring!  —  You may have heard about our plans to open Microsoft retail stores in cities around the world.  Well, I know a lot of you have heard because the JobsBloggers have been getting peppered with questions. :)  —  We've recently announced our first two stores …
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Asustek to launch Ion-based nettop in September and Eee Keyboard in October  —  Asustek Computer will launch Nvidia Ion-based Eee Box and Eee Top all-in-one PC, as well as two ultra-thin notebooks under its U/UX series line in September.  The company will also launch its Eee Keyboard …
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Trading halted in stock of Pirate Bay bidder  —  The authorities that govern that Sweden"s stock markets have halted trading in Global Gaming Factory X, the software company that is due in less than a week to complete an acquisition of The Pirate Bay.  —  According to Swedish paper SvD …
RELATED:
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Pirate Bay's Supposed Buyer Says Everything's Awesome. …
VentureBeat:
Twitter to roll out commercial accounts this year  —  Yes, Twitter will start earning some income this year.  —  Co-founder Biz Stone said the company is in the first phase of rolling out commercial accounts that will entice business users to pay for premium services like detailed analytics.
Eric Engleman / TechFlash:
Amazon tries to lock in long-term cloud customers with price cuts  —  Amazon.com is slashing the price of one of its core cloud-computing services to try to lock in more long-term users.  The online retail giant is lowering the fee for “reserved instances” of its EC2 service by 30 percent.
Discussion: TechCrunchIT
RELATED:
AWS Evangelist / Amazon Web Services Blog:
Lower Pricing for Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances
Discussion: Between the Lines
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple's UK Online Store Lists August 28th Ship Date for Snow Leopard Up-to-Date Program [Updated]  —  Apple's UK online store is now listing a shipping date for the OS X Snow Leopard “Up-to-Date” program of “by August 28th”.  The listing comes on the heels of reports from several sources …
Michael Gummelt / Facebook Blog:
Publishing to Twitter from Facebook Pages  —  Many people have asked us to make Facebook and Twitter work better together for those times when they want to share their content as widely as possible.  We agree.  Over the next few days, we will be releasing a feature that allows administrators …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
What Exactly Do 1.6 Billion Retweet Buttons Get You?  About 6 Million Actual Retweets.  —  If you look at the top right hand corner of any blog post on TechCrunch, you will see both the number of comments on it and the number of times it's been retweeted (linked to and passed around on Twitter).
RELATED:
Nick Halstead / TweetMeme Blog:
TweetMeme Retweet Button Growth
Discussion: WebProNews
Maggie Shiels / BBC:
Tech giants unite against Google  —  Three technology heavyweights are joining a coalition to fight Google's attempt to create what could be the world's largest virtual library.  —  Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo will sign up to the Open Book Alliance being spearheaded by the Internet Archive.
Zachary M. Seward / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Why did Newser's traffic fall off a cliff?  —  Michael Wolff, whose two-year-old site, Newser, is frequently cited as a model for the future of journalism, titled a typically provocative blog post yesterday, “I'm Proud to Kill the News.”  He made the usual case that news aggregators understand the web better than newspaper websites.
Discussion: Beet.TV
Wall Street Journal:
Restless Workers in Silicon Valley Seek Ways to Cash In Early  —  As Silicon Valley's stock-driven wealth machine sputters in the recession, technology start-ups are exploring new ways for employees to tap their holdings.  —  Many of the moves have been triggered by Facebook Inc. …
Discussion: GigaOM, GMSV and the Econsultancy blog
Alex Salkever / DailyFinance:
Facebook says no IPO in 2009  —  A piece I wrote on what a recently oversubscribed buyback means for Facebook's IPO got an animated response from Facebook spokesperson Larry Yu.  The most important takeway for me was that Facebook will not have an IPO in 2009 and isn't even close to doing so.
Farhad Manjoo / Time:
The Search For a Rival  —  Every year, the market-research firm Millward Brown conducts a survey to determine the economic worth of the world's brands — in other words, to put a dollar value on the many corporate logos that dominate our lives.  Lately the firm's results have been stuck on repeat …
Discussion: The Microsoft Blog
Economist:
Snap it, click it, use it  —  A new way to deliver information to mobile phones is spreading around the world  —  NEGOTIATING his way across a crowded concourse at a busy railway station, a traveller removes his phone from his pocket and, using its camera, photographs a bar code printed on a poster.
Discussion: Internet Evolution
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Flickr v. Free Speech.  Where Is Their Courage?  —  One thing I've learned over the years is this - screwing over your users while yelling “the lawyers made me do it!” rarely ends well.  Particularly when the lawyers are just being lazy, and free speech rights are at stake.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Apple Continues To Right App Store Wrongs.  Obama “Hope” App Is Go.  —  Last month, we wrote about an iPhone app getting rejected because it featured artwork of President Obama.  Specifically, it was Shepard Fairey's famous “HOPE” image of Obama that Apple found inappropriate stating that it “ridicules public figures”.
Stephen Shankland / The Download Blog:
Google's 64-bit Chrome starts emerging—on Linux  —  Google has begun work on a 64-bit version of Chrome for Linux, a move likely to whip Linux loyalists into a lather of excitement.  —  “The V8 team did some amazing work this quarter building a working 64-bit port.
Brad Stone / Bits:
Craigslist Expands Coverage of Cities by 25 Percent  —  Craigslist, the simple, disruptive and occasionally controversial classified advertising site, is expanding.  —  On Thursday, the San Francisco company quietly added new sites for 140 cities, a 25 percent increase, bringing its global directory to 690 cities over all.
Sascha Segan / PC Magazine:
AT&T Completes NYC 3G Coverage Upgrade  —  AT&T has upgraded its 3G network in New York City to use its large swathe of older 850-MHz spectrum, company spokesman Mark Siegel said today.  A similar upgrade for San Francisco is currently in progress, he added.
Elizabeth Woyke / Forbes:
Powering Up Your Smart Phone  —  Phone-accessory makers are finding success with unusual chargers and battery-life boosters.  —  When it comes to cellphone cases, Case-Mate is a master.  The Georgia-based manufacturer has been cranking out covers for iPods and phones in leather, polycarbonate …
Eliot Van Buskirk / Epicenter:
You Tube Search-and-Delete Code Makes Money for Rights-Holders  —  Here, YouTube's Content ID system matches the original video (on the left) with a user-uploaded video (on the right), even though they're encoded differently.  —  You know how digital music works: People get sued, content gets deleted, start-ups go bankrupt.
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 4:50 PM ET, August 21, 2009.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Techmeme Sponsor Posts: 
Tribe AI:
Is AI just hype?  —  Find out how top enterprises use Tribe to get real business results.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Zoho:
All new Zoho Workerly 2024  —  Staffing businesses around the world face a unique set of challenges when it comes to managing their temporary workforce.  With a constantly shifting job market and changing staffing needs …
Comprehensive.io:
Browse salary data from 3,000 startups for free  —  Click for FREE, immediate access to real-time compensation benchmarking data.  Paid version helps HR automate comp reviews and communicate total compensation to employees.
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: 
Peter Cohen / Macworld:
Survey: Apple's lack of netbook hurts it with students
Discussion: eWeek and PC World
Gmail Blog:
Email a task list
Discussion: WebProNews, TechCrunch and Lifehacker
Jordan Golson / GigaOM:
Southwest to Roll Out Wi-Fi Fleetwide in Q1 2010
Daniel Emery / BBC:
Iran tries to crack games market
 Earlier Items: 
Timothy Prickett Morgan / The Register:
Hewlett Foundation ponies up cash for Wikipedia
Discussion: Wikimedia Foundation
Maha Atal / Brainstorm Tech:
You've got blogs: ex-AOLers build sites for writers, documentarians
Analysys Mason:
As Clearwire investors write off billions of dollars, what is the future for WiMAX?
Charles Starrett / iLounge:
iPhone 3GS capable of 720p, 1080p hi-def playback?
Dana Oshiro / ReadWriteWeb:
Google Labs Launches Listen Podcast App