Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
6:55 PM ET, September 16, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
The Official Google Blog:
Teaching computers to read: Google acquires reCAPTCHA  —  The image above is a CAPTCHA — you can read it, but computers have a harder time interpreting the letters.  We tried to make it hard for computers to recognize because we wanted to give humans the scoop first, but we're happy to announce …
RELATED:
Tom Krazit / CNET News:   Google acquires ReCaptcha as book-scanning aid
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Twitter Closing New Venture Round At $1 Billion Valuation  —  Fast growing startup Twitter will soon be joining a select group of startups with private venture round valuations of $1 billion, we've heard from multiple sources.  CEO Evan Williams disclosed the round to employees at a recent all hands meeting.
The Business Of Online Video:
Confirmed: Google Rumor False, Not Acquiring Brightcove  —  I received a call from one of the parties involved in the Google/Brightcove rumor who would not talk on record but confirmed with me that the rumor that Google is buying Brightcove is in fact false.
RELATED:
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google To Buy Brightcove For $500-$700 Million: Report*  —  Update: The “rumor that Google is buying Brightcove is in fact false,” claims Web video analyst Dan Rayburn.  He cites an employee “I trust” at one of the companies, who would not talk on the record.
Brad Stone / New York Times:
Skype Founders File Copyright Suit Against eBay  —  SAN FRANCISCO — The founders of Skype are escalating their legal battle with eBay.  —  Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who became billionaires after selling Skype to eBay in 2005, have filed a copyright lawsuit against Skype in United States district court in Northern California.
Discussion: Mashable!
RELATED:
Times of London:
Skype founders go to court to seek damages  —  The original founders of Skype initiated a legal action tonight, demanding billions of dollars in damages against the investment group that has just agreed to buy the internet telephony company from eBay for $1.9 billion (£1.2 billion).
Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Thanks:mikeharvey
Paul Boutin / VentureBeat:
TC50: TechCrunch50 founders' feud: “It's over” for the startup conference  —  “I can tell you that this is the last TechCrunch50,” event co-founder Jason Calacanis told humorist Loren Feldman last night in a video interview after the close of the third annual TechCrunch50 conference in San Francisco.
Discussion: NBC Bay Area, Gawker and TechCrunch
RELATED:
Loren Feldman / 1938 Media:   Techcrunch 50 Will Never Be Held Again
Steve / Kindle Nation Daily:
Kindle edition of The Lost Symbol outselling Amazon hardcovers!  —  Get ready for what could become the biggest story of 2009 in the book trades.  —  Yesterday I went out on a limb and predicted that “Amazon will sell more Kindle editions than hardcover editions of The Lost Symbol during …
RELATED:
Chip Chick:
iTwinge is the World's First iPhone Keyboard  —  We may have just come across something that may convert dedicated BlackBerry users to finally using the iPhone.The iPhone is getting a KEYBOARD called iTwinge, a real feel and tactile keyboard for those who thought their big thumbs would never allow them to use the touchscreen version.
Lance Whitney / CNET News:
Bing grabs 10 percent of search market  —  Microsoft's new Bing search service is the fastest-growing U.S. search engine among the top 10, according to a Nielsen report released Monday.  —  The total amount of searches on Bing rang in at 1.1 billion for the month of August …
Yinka Adegoke / Reuters:
Comcast plans to bring TV shows to your phone  —  Leading U.S. cable operator Comcast Corp said on Wednesday it plans to offer subscribers the option to watch their favorite TV shows on mobile devices through its new wireless Internet service.  —  The company is also exploring adding …
Electronista:
BlackBerry Tour facing 50% return rate?  —  The BlackBerry Tour is suffering from a widespread defect that could seriously impact Research in Motion's bottom line, an analyst cautioned on Wednesday.  The trackball on the smartphone is reported as clogging so quickly that it requires users …
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
The Adobe-Omniture deal: Does it make sense?  —  Adobe made a big splash with its $1.8 billion acquisition of Web analytics company Omniture.  However, the logic behind the deal isn't exactly obvious.  —  On Adobe's fiscal third quarter conference call, analysts were pressing Adobe on its rationale for buying Omniture (Techmeme).
Bobbie Johnson / Guardian:
How exactly is Facebook making money?  —  Facebook proudly says it's bringing in enough cash to cover most of its day to day business costs.  But how?  The answer lies in self-serve advertising and virtual goods  —  The news that Facebook has tripled in size in the past year has grabbed headlines …
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
EU in informal talks on Microsoft, Yahoo deal-source  —  * U.S. regulators deepened review last week  —  * Microsoft, Commission not available for comment  —  EU antitrust regulators are in touch with Microsoft and Yahoo about their search engine deal, a source familiar with the situation said …
Seth H. Weintraub's blog:
Android-powered Archos tablet out-specs Zune, iPod Touch  —  Say what you will about the Android OS being behind Apple's OSX touch OS, there are some things you can measure definitively and those are hardware specs.  —  Archos released its new Android-based mini-tablet information today and wow is it impressive.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
News Aggregator Daylife Ties Up With Getty: $4 Million Investment  —  Daylife, a news aggregator that launched a few years ago with a good deal of hype but has since retreated to the back pages, has landed another investor: Getty Images has bet $4 million on the company, which has raised some $12 million to date.
Hiawatha Bray / Boston Globe:
Westwood-based video game maker named in patent infringement suit  —  (Rose Lincoln for The Boston Globe/ File 2008)  —  Turbine Inc. of Westwood, a leading maker of Internet-based, multiplayer video games, has been named in a patent infringement lawsuit that targets several of the world's largest online gaming firms.
Jonny / Distorted-Loop.com:
U2 shun Apple iPhone in BlackBerry music App release  —  Recall back in the day when U2 and Apple were bosom-buddies?  Well, in the world of corporate sponsorship, everything is change, and Bono's band today introduced their own take on the iTunes LP with the release of a new U2 Mobile App, not for iPhone, but for BlackBerry.
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac and MacDailyNews
Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge:
All Quiet at Google's Oklahoma Data Center  —  Part of the equipment yard for the Google data center under construction in Pryor, Oklahoma.  —  Amazon isn't the only cloud builder that has idled a data center project, as the recession has led Google to scale back its capital investments in data center infrastructure.
John Cook / TechFlash:
Washington at top of the pack in new venture capital study  —  What impact has venture capital had on the U.S. economy?  That's the question that a new report from the industry's chief lobbying group, the National Venture Capital Association, tries to answer.
Discussion: Computerworld
Avner Ronen / boxee blog:
Zach Klein joins Boxee  —  We are happy to announce that Zach Klein has joined Boxee.  Zach was part of the founding team that built College Humor, Busted Tees and Vimeo (at Connected Ventures/IAC).  Building a great product is one of those things that combines art, science and instinct.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider and Pulse2
Jay Yarow / Silicon Alley Insider:
Barry Diller: Of Course People Are Going To Pay For Content On The Web  —  At Goldman's Communacopia conference, another high profile CEO is telling the world the free-for-all days of the Internet won't last forever.  Yesterday it was Rupert Murdoch, today it's Barry Diller.
Discussion: Digits
Loretta Chao / Wall Street Journal:
Chinese Schools Remove Web Filter  —  BEIJING — Some Chinese schools are removing the Web-filtering software that Chinese authorities ordered installed on all computers this summer, further weakening the influence of a controversial censorship measure that was intended for PC users throughout China.
Discussion: VentureBeat
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Seagate launches a network drive that you can use to get your data, anytime, anywhere  —  Seagate is launching a novel portable backup device that will let you access your photos, videos, and other data from afar.  —  The product fits in with the consumer mantra of the digital age: access your data, anytime, anywhere.
Spencer E. Ante / Business Week:
Mint.com: Nurtured by Super-Angel VCs  —  Intuit is acquiring a startup conceived by a “25-year-old kid” and funded by First Round Capital, a new breed of high-risk, early-stage venture capitalist  —  Intuit's purchase of Mint.com was a big win for Mint CEO Aaron Patzer and the rest …
Discussion: Tech Beat and Creative Capital, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
RedBeacon Wins The Top Prize At TechCrunch50 2009  —  The 50 startup presentations are over, the judges votes are in, Michael and Jason chewed over the top contenders, and the winner of this year's TechCrunch50 is RedBeacon.  The startup aims to help consumers find local service providers such as plumbers, bakers, and contractors.
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 6:55 PM ET, September 16, 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:
Authy killed their desktop apps.  Time to switch to a reliable authenticator.  Time to switch to Zoho OneAuth.  —  Twilio's Authy recently announced end of life (EOL) for their desktop apps on March 19, 2024—five months ahead of schedule.
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: 
Prince McLean / AppleInsider:
Microsoft sells restrictive new WiMo Marketplace via iPhone ads
Discussion: Fast Company
John Brownlee / Geek.com:
US Government advises technology executives to trash mobile phones …
Discussion: crn.com.au
Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:
Google Says It Wants To Hire Yahoo Talent
Discussion: VentureBeat, WebProNews and Matt Cutts
 Earlier Items: 
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Former Yahoo and AOL Ad Exec Coleman Poised to Join the Huffington Post as President
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, paidContent and Gawker, Thanks:atul
Jim Dalrymple / CNET News:
Apple explains iPhone OS 3.1 Exchange changes
Discussion: TomsTechBlog.com
Dieter Bohn / PreCentral.net:
Palm Pre App Sales Slated for September 24th, 1.2 Next week
Discussion: Palm WebOS and WebOS Arena
ARM:
ARM Announces 2GHz Capable Cortex-A9 Dual Core Processor Implementation
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
TC50: Find The Perfect Scene, Every Time. …
 

 
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”

Sam Wolfson / The Guardian:
A look at the rise of celebrity-hosted interview podcasts, whose long running times mean guests delve into deep and personal topics, resembling therapy sessions

 
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