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9:35 AM ET, December 1, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Microsoft looking into Windows ‘black screen of death’ problem  —  Microsoft says it's looking into reports that its latest security updates are causing some Windows machines to stop working and display a mostly black screen with no desktop icons, taskbar, sidebar or other elements …
RELATED:
Jeremy Kirk / PC World:
Latest Microsoft Patches Cause Black Screen of Death
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
The End Of The CrunchPad  —  It was so close I could taste it.  Two weeks ago we were ready to publicly launch the CrunchPad.  The device was stable enough for a demo.  It went hours without crashing.  We could even let people play with the device themselves - the user interface …
RELATED:
Brian Caulfield / Forbes:
Why The Crunchpad Didn't Pencil Out  —  Ignore the soap opera.
Discussion: PC World and eSarcasm
Alaska Miller / Silicon Alley Insider:
Check Out Google's Favorite Android Apps  —  Google named the winners today in its second annual mobile apps contest.  —  The top prizes for this year's Android Developer Challenge went to:  — Sweet Dreams, which lets you avoid late-night phone calls and save battery power
Joel Rosenblatt / Bloomberg:
Nokia Sues Samsung, Display Panel Manufacturers Over Price-Fixing Claims  —  Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) — Nokia Oyj, the world's largest maker of mobile phones, sued Samsung Electronics Co., LG Display Co., AU Optronics Corp. and other manufacturers of liquid-crystal displays over claims they colluded to fix prices of panels.
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Fring Brings Free Video Calling To The iPhone, Nokia Smartphones  —  Apple has long been rumored to integrate video conferencing capabilities in the iPhone, and most expected Skype to incorporate such a feature in its free application for iPhone and iPod Touch devices sooner or later, but Israel's fring is first to actually do it.
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Yahoo's 2009 searches topped by Michael Jackson and Twilight, not Twitter  —  Barely more than a few hours after Microsoft revealed the year's top queries on its new search engine Bing, Yahoo followed suit with its own top 10.  Unsurprisingly, Michael Jackson topped both lists …
Wall Street Journal:
The Dark Side of ‘Webtribution’  —  Imagine this scenario: Every person you know—each family member, friend, co-worker and casual acquaintance—receives an anonymous email from a stranger making terrible accusations about you.  —  How would you feel?  —  Renee Holder knows: “Devastated.”
Marissa Mayer / The Official Google Blog:
Zeitgeist 2009: the collective consciousness  —  Curiosity — it's why we search the web.  Whether searching for the latest news, a popular holiday gift, a website you've heard about, the latest singing sensation, or the trailer to a blockbuster film, you come to Google with something on your mind.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Droid Nears Its Million-Device Target  —  Motorola and Verizon's $100 million marketing push seems to be paying off: The much-ballyhooed Droid smartphone made by Motorola and powered by Google's Android 2.0 OS is inching toward its goal of a million devices sold during the fourth quarter of 2009.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
For Nokia's Ovi, the World (Minus the U.S.) Is Enough  —  Tero Ojanperä, Nokia's EVP of Services  —  For nearly two years, I have been critical of Nokia for a diverse set of reasons including its denial of competition from Apple's iPhone, its hardware, and a botched launch of its Ovi app store.
Discussion: Mobile Entertainment
Scott Moritz / TheStreet.com:
Apple iPhone May Go to T-Mobile Next  —  Stock quotes in this article: AAPL , VZ , MOT , T  —  NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Apple's (AAPL Quote) path to U.S. smartphone dominance may take an abrupt detour as the iPhone's next destination may be Deutsche Telekom's (DT Quote) T-Mobile and not Verizon (VZ Quote).
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Plancast Is Foursquare... For The Future  —  If you're going to leave your job at TechCrunch, you better have a good reason.  I think Mark Hendrickson actually may have had one.  —  Hendrickson left TechCrunch in March.  After about two years of writing and doing development for TC, he got the startup itch.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
M.I.T., Google, And Umberto Eco Want To Erect a Realtime Cloud Over The 2012 London Olympics  —  What is it with architects that they feel the need to glom onto the latest buzzwords to justify their projects?  A group from M.I.T.'s Senseable City Lab is looking for funding …
Discussion: Softpedia News and Erictric
Scott M. Fulton, III / BetaNews:
Confirmed: Office 2010 to ship in June  —  After several Web sites today claimed to having seen a possibly inadvertent notice from Microsoft claiming June as the release month for its forthcoming Office 2010 (we looked hard and couldn't find it ourselves), a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed …
BBC:
India blocks millions of mobiles  —  Millions of Indian mobile phones with no valid unique identification code have been blocked for security reasons.  —  The International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number is a 15-digit code which appears on the operator's network whenever a call is made.
Discussion: Fone Arena and Times of India
Sarah McBride / Wall Street Journal:
NCR to Roll Out Blockbuster DVD Kiosks  —  NCR Corp. is expected to announce today it will roll out 200 Blockbuster-branded DVD rental machines in New York City drugstores by year end, a move that will likely accelerate the move to low-price rentals at the expense of more lucrative revenue streams for Hollywood.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
James Temple / San Francisco Chronicle:
Silicon Valley's dim view of Microsoft softens  —  A decade ago, Silicon Valley was toasting the misfortune of Microsoft.  —  “I'm sure there are Champagne corks being popped all over the valley,” Gary Rivlin, author of “The Plot to Get Bill Gates,” told The Chronicle on Nov. 5, 1999.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Is YouTube Ready for Prime Time?  Google Wants to Stream TV, for a Fee  —  YouTube, which is already trying out the movie rental business, wants to get into TV, too.  —  Google's video site has been trying to convince the TV industry to let it stream individual shows for a fee, multiple sources tell me.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Dan Goodin / The Register:
FreeBSD bug gives untrusted root access  —  ‘Unbelievably simple’ exploit  —  A security bug in the latest version of the FreeBSD can be exploited to grant unprivileged users complete control over the operating system, a German researcher said Monday.  —  The flaw is present in FreeBSD 8 …
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Local UK Newspaper Chain Tries A Paywall  —  Slowly, but surely, we're seeing some regional newspapers try out a paywall.  We've already seen Newsday, on Long Island, put up a paywall, but it's more about reducing churn than actually getting people to pay (and early reports are that not many are paying).
Deborah Gage / PE Hub Blog:
SEC Looking At Angel Groups  —  The SEC has “investigated every angel group they know of” out of concern that the groups may be operating as unregistered broker-dealers, according to Steve Murchie, president of the Denver Keiretsu Forum.  —  Murchie's chapter (UPDATE: and the rest of the Keiretsu Forum) …
IBM:
IBM Acquires Guardium  —  Helps Organizations Safeguard Critical Enterprise Data  —  IBM (IBM) today announced it has acquired Guardium, a market leader in real-time enterprise database monitoring and protection.  Guardium's technology helps clients safeguard data, monitor database activity …
Jansen Ng / DailyTech:
Lenovo, HP, Dell Integrating SDXC Readers in New 32nm Intel “Arrandale” Laptops  —  Don't want to be obsolete before launch  —  Most laptops and netbooks today come with a SDHC flash memory card reader.  One of the major benefits of standardization is the ubiquity it allows.
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Apple, Psystar strike deal in copyright case  —  Mac clone maker to pay Apple unspecified damages, but may be able to keep selling systems  —  Computerworld - Apple and Mac clone maker Psystar agreed Monday to settle a 17-month lawsuit that will effectively stop Psystar from preinstalling Apple's Mac OS X …
Roy Mark / eWeek:
FCC Moves Forward on White Spaces  —  The agency begins the process of establishing databases that will tell white space devices where existing television signals exist.  White space devices are expected to deliver broadband services in the interference buffer zones between TV signals.
Discussion: Engadget, Phone Scoop and Gizmodo
Arn / MacRumors:
Apple Takes Control of ‘TabletMac’ Trademark  —  A couple of years ago, a company called Axiotron announced an aftermarket modification for the MacBook that converted the Apple laptop into a tablet.  The modification remains for sale at $699 and takes a stock MacBook, removes the keyboard and screen …
 
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 More Items: 
Mac Slocum / Nieman Journalism Lab:
How a shift in perspective salvaged Boston.com's local search project
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
The Facebook Verified App Saga Ends Tomorrow
BNO News:
BNO News Launches Wire Service; MSNBC.com Takes Over @BreakingNews
Discussion: Guardian, Thanks:atul
AWS Evangelist / Amazon Web Services Blog:
IBM Tivoli Now Available on Amazon EC2
Discussion: ITworld.com and The Register
Journal Business Staff / Edmonton Journal:
Edmonton company sues Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft
Discussion: Bloomberg
Ramu Nagappan / Macworld:
Apple opens up iTunes LP and Extras to developers
Discussion: SlashGear, CrunchGear and Gizmodo
 Earlier Items: 
Gregg Pollack / Riding Rails:
Ruby on Rails 2.3.5 Released
Discussion: LinuxWorld.com and eWeek
Kim-Mai Cutler / VentureBeat:
Twitter takes down Lists temporarily as site buckles
Discussion: The Next Web and The Social
James Hamilton / Perspectives:
2010 the Year of MicroSlice Servers
Discussion: OakLeaf Systems
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Exclusive: Digg Steals A Google Exec As New VP Product
Discussion: WebProNews and ChasNote
Mark Wilson / Gizmodo:
LEAK: The Google Phone “Is a Certainty”