Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
8:00 PM ET, December 4, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Bloomberg:
Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Online Music Service Lala  —  Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. is in talks to acquire online music service Lala, according to two people familiar with the matter.  —  The terms of the deal for privately held Lala weren't known.
RELATED:
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Apple in ‘advanced’ acquisition talks with Lala  —  Apple is close to acquiring digital music service, Lala, according to two sources with knowledge of the discussions.  —  Talks are very advanced said the sources.  One of the sources said that the sides have already agreed on terms and have only to sign a final agreement.
The EtherPad Blog:
Google Acquires AppJet  —  We are happy to announce that AppJet Inc. has been acquired by Google.  The EtherPad team will continue its work on realtime collaboration by joining the Google Wave team.  —  For Current Users and Customers:  —  What will happen to my account?  Will I still be able to use EtherPad?
RELATED:
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Confirmed: Google Acquires AppJet, The Maker Of EtherPad  —  That didn't take long.  Less than half an hour ago we broke the news that Google was in the process of acquiring AppJet, the startup behind the powerful real-time document editor EtherPad.  The official EtherPad blog has just been updated confirming the news.
Discussion: ReadWriteWeb
Andre Lebedev / The Official Google Blog:
Now on Google Finance: streaming news  —  Ever since we launched real-time and streaming quotes on Google Finance last year, we've heard from users how vital that up-to-date information has been.  Especially in today's volatile financial environment, current information can be the difference between …
Bryan Horling / The Official Google Blog:
Personalized Search for everyone  —  Today we're helping people get better search results by extending Personalized Search to signed-out users worldwide, and in more than forty languages.  Now when you search using Google, we will be able to better provide you with the most relevant results possible.
John Leyden / The Register:
Spyware threat haunts squeaky-clean iPhones  —  Research finds rogue app privacy risks to regulation models  —  Apple's line that iPhone users who toe the line and resist any temptation to jailbreak, unlock or otherwise desecrate their smartphone are protected from threats has been called into question by new research.
Yahoo!:
Yahoo! and Microsoft Finalize Search Agreement  —  Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corporation today announced that the companies have finalized and executed the definitive Search and Advertising Services and Sales Agreement and License Agreement in accordance with the letter agreement announced in July.
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Apple sued for infringing digital camera patent with iPhone  —  St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming the company is violating several of its digital camera patents.  —  Filed in the United States District Court in Delaware …
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Quietly Adds 3.33 GHz Quad-Core Option to Mac Pro [Updated: Xserve]  —  Apple has quietly upgraded its Mac Pro offerings, adding the option of a 3.33 GHz quad-core processor and adding the ability to configure both the quad-core and 8-core models with 2 TB hard drives …
Lee Brodie / Fast Money Rapid Recap:
CEO Eric Schmidt Reveals ‘Centerpiece’ Of Google's 2010 Strategy  —  On Thursday President Obama summoned Corporate America to the White House in an attempt to help tackle the problem of unemployment.  —  And among the many corporate leaders who answered the President's call was Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Apple Told To Pay Patent Troll OPTi $21.7 Million  —  Apple was told to pay $21.7 million in a patent case against OPTi Inc., a semiconductor vendor-turned-patent troll.  —  The patent (no. 6.405,291) regards “pre-snoop” cache memory technology.  —  The decision was made in the plaintiff …
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
FCC admits CableCARD a failure, vows to try something else  —  The Genachowski-led Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seems to delight in dropping bombshells on a weekly basis, but we didn't see this one coming: the FCC admits that its CableCARD mandate has been an abysmal failure.
Discussion: Engadget, Electronista, Bits and Gizmodo
Om Malik / GigaOM:
FCC Wants to Know Why Verizon Increased Termination Fees  —  Updated with Verizon's response: The Federal Communications Commission wants to know why Verizon decided to double its early termination fee (ETF) for new customers who sign on to the wireless service using advanced devices...longhand for smartphones.
Paul Thurrott / WindowsITPro:
Windows 7 Family Pack Disappears in the United States  —  WinInfo  —  This week in Australia, Microsoft began shipping a limited pilot version of its Windows 7 Family Pack, which provides for three upgrade installations of Windows 7 Home Premium for one low price.
Eric Eldon / Inside Facebook:
Sources: Facebook Connect Will Be “Everywhere” on MySpace Next Year  —  Yahoo announced that it will be making Facebook Connect a deeply-integrated part of its site earlier this week.  The move surprised some people, because Yahoo itself has historically been the largest social site on the web.
Discussion: All Facebook and Mashable!
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Intel: Initial Larrabee graphics chip canceled  —  Intel said Friday that its Larrabee graphics processor will initially appear as a software development platform only.  —  This is a blow to the world's largest chipmaker, which was looking to launch its first discrete (standalone) graphics chip in more than a decade.
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Vendors to launch Atom N450-based netbooks on January 11, 2010  —  Asustek Computer, Acer, Lenovo and even Micro-Star International (MSI), which originally planned to launch in December, are all set to launch their Atom N450-based netbooks on January 11, 2010, complying with their agreement …
Matt Wilson / L.A. Daily News:
Apple clears first hurdle in bid for new Cupertino campus  —  Apple Inc. is one step closer to building a second campus in Cupertino after waiting eight months for city planners to rezone its 7.78-acre property on Pruneridge Avenue to allow office use.  —  The planning commission …
Seth Rosenblatt / The Download Blog:
Google Chrome now bundled with Avast  —  You wouldn't necessarily expect it, but Avast and Google Chrome might be the next peanut butter-and-jelly combo in the software world.  Google's nascent browser has paired with one of the most popular free security programs in the world so that when users run …
EurActiv.com:
Web inventor: ‘Snooping’ authorities threaten Internet  —  Governments and companies pushing for greater monitoring of Internet activity pose a major threat to freedom and democracy, according to Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web. … To read a shortened version of this interview, please click here.
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
First commercial tool to crack BitLocker arrives (Updated)  —  BitLocker Drive Encryption can now be successfully cracked with Passware Kit Forensic version 9.5, though it will set you back $795.  —  Passware, a software firm that provides password recovery, decryption …
Eric Zeman / InformationWeek:
HTC Droid Eris To Get Android 2.0 Update  —  Verizon Wireless has said that the HTC Droid Eris will receive a significant system update at some point in the fist quarter of 2010.  The update will boost the Eris' version of Android to at least 2.0, and possibly even 2.1.
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
An In-Depth Look At Pivot, Microsoft's Newest Data Visualization Tool  —  At Microsoft's PDC event a few weeks ago, Microsoft Live Labs introduced a new technology, called Pivot, to make sense of interconnectedness between objects on the web.  The underlying premise of Pivot is to view relationships between …
Discussion: Microsoft
Kevin Rose / Digg the Blog:
Five Years of Digg...and counting  —  Five years ago today, Digg.com went live.  What started as a simple idea has certainly come a long way.  From a vision of a new way to surface news, and a team of three, to 40+ million monthly visitors and 80+ passionate employees...well, suffice it to say that I'm very proud of what we've become.
Discussion: TechCrunch and Erictric
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Microsoft is making progress on search: You noticed Bing's glitch  —  It's a happy day for Microsoft's search team.  Bing had a half hour outage late Thursday and a few folks actually noticed.  —  Bing went down for a half hour between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. PST over a configuration glitch.
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 8:00 PM ET, December 4, 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:
Instant invoice insights with Zoho Cliq and Zoho Invoice  —  Timely communication is the cornerstone of successful invoicing management.  Picture this: your business diligently sends out invoices to customers …
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: 
Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge:
DoD: Cloud Will Save Us ‘Hundreds of Millions’
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Web-TV Divide Is Back in Focus With NBC Sale
Discussion: Gizmodo
John Fontana / InfoWorld:
Microsoft releases two more pieces of Forefront security suite
Discussion: eWeek and internetnews.com
 Earlier Items: 
Ben Fritz / Los Angeles Times:
Redbox blames studios, stores for DVD shortage
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Clint Boulton / eWeek:
Google Visual Search Coming for Android Phones
Discussion: Android and Me
Randy Abrams / ThreatBlog:
PayPal Admits to Phishing Users
Discussion: Softpedia News and The Register
Mark Milian / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Google quietly rolls out Dictionary [Updated]
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Michael Sisak / Associated Press:
A US appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 conviction, finding the trial judge let women testify about allegations that were not part of the case

Eli Stokols / Politico:
Interviews with 24 people reveal the tense relationship between President Biden and the New York Times, beset by misunderstandings, grudges, and a lack of trust

Laura Kukkonen / Columbia Journalism Review:
After a reporter for Aamulehti, Finland's second-largest daily, acknowledged in his autobiography that he fabricated stories, the paper removes 551 articles

 
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