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5:45 PM ET, August 25, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Apple to retain, redesign plastic MacBook family  —  Once rumored for extinction, Apple's entry-level polycarbonate MacBooks are on the verge of a refresh that will solidify them at the base of the Mac maker's notebook offerings for the foreseeable future, AppleInsider has learned.
Jordan Weitz / Google LatLong:
Arterial traffic available on Google Maps  —  Commuters have long relied on traffic sites to help them determine their last-minute path around poor traffic on the highway.  But if the traffic looks bad on the highways, you'll probably want to know how it looks on the alternate routes through arterials.
Yukari Iwatani Kane / Wall Street Journal:
Jobs, Back at Apple, Focuses on New Tablet  —  Just a few months after Steve Jobs had a liver transplant, the Apple Inc. chief executive is once again managing even the smallest details of his company's products, this time focused on a new tablet device.  —  Since his return in late June …
Andrew Nusca / Between the Lines:
Liveblog: Sony announces $399 7" Wi-Fi 3G e-book Reader; will it kill the Kindle?  —  Get BTL via:  —  We're here live in New York for Sony's Reader press event. … 10:46 AM: That's all, folks!  —  10:45 AM: Haber announces “Reader Daily Edition, our first 3G wireless reader with 7-inch display.”
RELATED:
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
The Pirate Bay Returns With Guns Blazing  —  When The Pirate Bay was shut down yesterday many believed that this was the end for the Internet's largest BitTorrent tracker.  —  However, despite the fact that the site is set to be sold later this week, the Pirate Bay team worked around the clock …
Discussion: freakbits.com and p2pnet
RELATED:
Gary Wolf / Wired News:
Why Craigslist Is Such a Mess  —  The Internet's great promise is to make the world's information universally accessible and useful.  So how come when you arrive at the most popular dating site in the US you find a stream of anonymous come-ons intermixed with insults, ads for prostitutes, naked pictures, and obvious scams?
RELATED:
Fred / A VC:
What We Can Learn From Mess  —  Gary Wolf wrote a Wired cover story about craigslist called “Why Craigslist Is Such A Mess”.  It's a somewhat strange article because it is highly critical of craigslist's design, management, and lack of innovation.  But you cannot read that article …
Aaron / YouTube Biz Blog:
In the future, everyone will monetize their 15 minutes  —  We first launched the YouTube Partnership Program (YPP) to help some of our more popular users make money from their videos on YouTube.  While we've focused on accepting prolific users who regularly produce videos that reach a wide audience …
RELATED:
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
YouTube Extends Revenue Sharing Program To Anyone With A Viral Video
Discussion: Bloomberg, NewTeeVee, Tech Beat and Bits
Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
A Teenager's Dream: An iPhone App for Free Texting  —  A recently released app that offers free text messages on the iPhone is welcome news to parents of teenagers upset over the cellphone bills of their hypertexting children.  But can it be a sustainable business?
Discussion: VentureBeat and Phone Arena
Stan Schroeder / Mashable!:
Whatever You Do, Please, PLEASE Don't Search for Jessica Biel  —  You think you know danger?  You don't know danger.  The internet's biggest perils are hidden beneath a pretty face; a simple Google search for Jessica Biel might result in a site filled with viruses, trojans, and spyware.
Discussion: Download Squad, Reuters and CNN
RELATED:
Joe Hewitt:
Innocent Until Proven Guilty  —  I'd like to add my voice to the stream of complaints about the iPhone App Store, but before I say anything critical, I have to promise one thing.  No matter how annoyed I get, I will not stop developing for Apple's platforms or using Apple's products as long …
Rafat Ali / paidContent:
Yahoo Acquiring Arab Portal Maktoob After All; Around $75M-$80M  —  Last month we got a tip that Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) was in final stages of buying onlien of the largest Arab online portals Maktoob, for about $75 million.  This was right when the MSFT-Yahoo deal was announced …
RELATED:
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Xbox 360 Pro and Elite price cuts confirmed in Target ad for next week  —  We just received a pair of pics from “next week's” Target Ad.  As has been heavily rumored, the Xbox 360 60GB Pro system will be cut to $250 while the 120GB Elite will drop to $300.  Knowing that Target's weekly ads run …
David Sarno / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
15 U.S. states with the fastest broadband Internet speeds  —  Data courtesy the CWA.  —  When it comes to Internet speed, the U.S. is still far down the ladder of industrialized nations, ranking 28th behind leaders South Korea, Japan, Sweden and Holland, according to a study by a labor union for telecommunications workers.
Discussion: GigaOM, eWeek and DSLreports
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Apple taps ‘Puddy’ to attack Windows 7  —  After a hiatus of three and a half months without a new TV ad, Apple (AAPL) broke out a pair of fresh “Get a Mac” spots Monday night to soften the ground for the next operating system war with Microsoft (MSFT).  —  Earlier that day …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Mark Zuckerberg: “Spotify Is So Good”  —  The ink isn't even dry on the MySpace/iLike acquisition, and already Facebook has a new crush on a different music service, Spotify.  —  We've heard that Facebook has been talking with the European startup about a partnership for well over a year …
Charles Bremner / Times Online:
Another French iPhone goes pop  —  What is it about the south of France that makes iPhones self-destruct ?  For the second time in a month, a resident of the French Mediterranean region is claiming that an Apple phone blew up in his hands.  —  The other day, Romain Kolega …
Discussion: Agence France Presse
Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report:
Motorola holding Android event on September 10th  —  Hello, Android.  Are you ready for the moment you've been waiting for, Moto fans?  It looks like Motorola is finally getting ready to dish at least some preliminary info with regards to its Android efforts.
Ryan Naraine / Zero Day:
Apple adds malware blocker in Snow Leopard  —  Apple's commercials may give the impression that Macs are virus-free (.mov) but the company isn't taking any chances with the newest Mac OS X refresh.  —  Apple has quietly added a new Snow Leopard feature to scan software downloads for malware …
Dan Nystedt / PC World:
Asustek's Android Eee PC Remains in Deep Freeze  —  The CEO of netbook pioneer Asustek Computer said Tuesday that he still sees no clear market for mini-laptops known as smartbooks, the reason the company isn't moving forward in that product segment.  —  The company raised hopes …
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:
There goes the neighborhood?  Ashton Kutcher's on Foursquare  —  Everybody panic!  —  Seemingly unable to let any hot social media start-up escape his hunky clutches, it appears that actor and prolific Twitter oversharer Ashton Kutcher is now using where-you-at, ping-your-friends city guide app Foursquare.
Discussion: mr. matt spangler
Fortune:
How LinkedIn's founder got started  —  Reid Hoffman talks about his path from academia to social media.  —  (Fortune Magazine) — My dad wouldn't let me have a computer because he didn't think it was relevant.  I was in college before I actually got one.  I think if he knew then what he knows now, I would have had one much earlier.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Disqus Forks Into Two Products, Launches Revamped Real-Time Comment System  —  Only a month after rival comment system JS-Kit launched Echo, a real-time comment system, Disqus is striking back with its biggest upgrade since the service launched.  Along with a revamped comment system …
Stephen L Rose / The Windows Blog:
Windows 7 Language Packs Available  —  As of this morning, August 25th, the following language packs are available for download from Windows Update.  Please note Traditional Chinese -Taiwan will be released at a later date.  —  These language packs are available to our enterprise customers …
Discussion: Softpedia News, Bink.nu and AppScout
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Rackspace launches cloud app partner portal  —  Rackspace on Tuesday rolled out Cloud Tools, a repository of partner tools, applications and services for cloud computing.  —  The marketplace puts apps and tools into four buckets:  — Monitoring and reporting;  — Development tools;
NY Daily News:
Apple to open shop on upper West Side  —  Despite a sour economy and a strong retail presence already in New York, Apple is preparing to make its mark in another city neighborhood: the upper West Side.  —  Speculation has abounded for a few years that Apple was looking at sites, but yesterday …
Discussion: AppleInsider
Josh Bernoff / Groundswell:
Social technology growth marches on in 2009, led by social network sites  —  We just published our third annual Social Technographics Profile in a document called “The Broad Reach of Social Technologies” .  The author is Sean Corcoran, with help from out data expert Cynthia Pflaum.
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Wikipedia gets $2M from Omidyar Network  —  Philanthropic investment firm Omidyar Network just announced that it's making a $2 million grant to the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit group that runs online encyclopedia Wikipedia.  —  The investment firm was started by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar …
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and silicontap.com
 
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 More Items: 
Lucas Mearian / Computerworld:
Blu-ray tanks in PCs
Bgurley / abovethecrowd.com:
What Is Really Happening To The Venture Capital Industry?
Zach Yeskel / Official Google Reader Blog:
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Zachary M. Seward / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Newspapers find a new way to monetize their journalists
Abbey Klaassen / AdAge:
Why Once-Dispensable Access Biz Is Central to AOL's Strategy
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Sony Launches Words Move Me, A Literary Twitter Clone
Discussion: Fast Company and Computerworld
Elinor Mills / CNET News:
Cracking GSM phone crypto via distributed computing
 Earlier Items: 
John Cook / TechFlash:
Paul Allen, DCM and others invest $29M in Smith & Tinker
Discussion: VentureBeat and alarm:clock
BBC:
Loophole over DVD age rating law
Discussion: GamesIndustry.biz
InfoWorld:
The no-junk business iPhone apps finder
Discussion: AppScout and ITworld.com
Dancho Danchev / Zero Day:
Research: 80% of Web users running unpatched versions of Flash/Acrobat
Kevin Ohannessian / Fast Company:
Felicia Day and The Guild's Path to Level 80 Digital Success
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Authentic Brands licenses Sports Illustrated's publishing rights to The Players' Tribune owner Minute Media for 10 years, with plans to keep the print edition

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Ofcom rules that five GB News programs presented by Conservative politicians have broken its due impartiality rules and puts the channel “on notice”

Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTuber MrBeast announces a deal with Prime Video for Beast Games, a reality-competition show with 1,000 contestants, promising the winner a $5M cash prize

 
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