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11:20 PM ET, January 7, 2010

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Jason Chen / Gizmodo:
Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus Are Coming to Verizon Exclusively January 25  —  The Palm Pre plus removed the navigation button, has 2x internal RAM, 16GB storage, and a built-in inductive back cover for Touchstone inductive charging.  —  The Pixi Plus is still “thin and lightweight” …
RELATED:
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus first hands-on (video)!  —  We just had a chance to play around with the new Palm Pre Plus (and Palm Pixi Plus), and we must say — they've made some solid improvements to these devices.  We're going to focus on the Pre, since it's really had the bulk of the changes.
The Official Palm Blog:
Palm unveils new phones, new carriers, developer programs, and video capabilities at CES  —  Today at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Palm and Verizon Wireless introduced Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus, two new phones combining the power of the Palm webOS platform with several new enhancements.
Avner Ronen / Boxee Blog:
Boxee Beta Goes Public, Download Now  —  The Boxee Beta is officially out.  You can grab it here.  —  The Beta is available for Mac, Windows and Ubuntu (including 64bit.. ).  The version is still not available for Apple TV, yet, but we are working with the atv-creator community, and look forward to having news on this front.
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple Reveals New Touch Screen Technology for iPhone & MacBook Tablet  —  On January 7, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals one of the next chapters for Apple's multi-touch screen technology.  Apple's patent generally relates …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
The Other HP Slate Runs On Android  —  Last night, during his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showed off a prototype for a new HP Slate computer running on Windows 7.  It was supposed to be an Apple-stealing moment and it was Microsoft's moment …
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Plastic Logic (Finally) Shows Off The Que, Its (Very Expensive) Kindle Competitor  —  After promising to deliver its take on Amazon's Kindle for a couple of years, Plastic Logic is finally delivering: Here comes the Que proReader, which the company promises is “more than an eReader"-it's a “paperless briefcase.”
RELATED:
Phil Wahba / Reuters:
Borders in deal with Alex e-reader for e-books
Discussion: jkOnTheRun, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Microsoft: Google's Phone Plan ‘Very Difficult’  —  Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp.'s Robbie Bach, head of the division that makes mobile-phone programs, said Google Inc. will have a hard time attracting partners to its wireless software after introducing its own handset.
Discussion: TechFlash, WebProNews and Bloomberg, Thanks:mrinaldesai
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Apple Seizes 16 Domain Names From A Guy In One Fell Swoop  —  When you own domain names associated with the trademarks of a large company, more often than not, they're going to file a complaint with the ICANN UDRP (Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy).  And more often than not, they're going to win control of the name.
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Google real-time search: 6 min. to spot quake  —  At 10:09:36 a.m. PST, a modest but noticeable magnitude 4.1 earthquake rattled the San Francisco Bay Area.  Six minutes later, Google's real-time search system had spotted the activity and spiced up its search results.
RELATED:
Eric Eldon / Inside Facebook:
Earthquake in the Bay Area? …
Ryan Lawler / NewTeeVee:
Forget TV Everywhere, How About Netflix Everywhere?  —  It seems Netflix has already reached a tipping point in the consumer electronics market, as it signed up five more CE manufacturers to enable its streaming services on their devices.  Panasonic, Sanyo, Sharp, Toshiba and Funai …
RELATED:
Will Richmond / VideoNuze:
Why Netflix's Long-Term Focus in New Warner Bros. Deal is a Win for Everyone
Discussion: TechCrunch, Digital Trends and Netflix
Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint.com:
Dell confirms Android-powered tablet device  —  CES 2010: New slate-like 5-incher shown off  —  Dell has teased with a new tablet/slate PC at its keynote speech at CES in Las Vegas.?  —  Giving virtually no details, as per usual with Dell's teasers, the new device will get a 5-inch screen size and be Android powered.?
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
Surprise, surprise: HTC's Euro-spec Nexus One does multitouch  —  Alright, Google, we get it: you hate America.  That's the only conclusion we can reach for why the company's last two Android version hero devices — the Droid for 2. and the Nexus One for 2.1 — have mysteriously opted …
Tyler Tschida / App Advice:
EA Reveals The Sims 3 World Adventures Details And Screenshots  —  It looks as if EA is going to try and ride the Sims brand all the way to the bank on the iPhone and iPod touch just as they have on the PC.  The company has revealed a brand new iPhone and iPod touch Sims game titled …
Discussion: PC World and IntoMobile
Timothy B. Hurst / ecopolitology:
USGS Develops Twitter-Based Earthquake Detection System  —  Seismologists say Twitter is the fastest way to get information out of an earthquake area, especially in those less densely populated.  —  People love to Twitter about what's going on around them, especially when that something is exciting or otherwise newsworthy.
Devindra Hardawar / Royal Pingdom:
Why Twitter is Digg's biggest threat  —  The launch of the social news site Digg in 2004 was the perfect example of a good idea at the right time.  That was the year the term “Web 2.0″ started being thrown about to describe the rise of new web technologies that allowed for more interactive sites …
Thanks:atul
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
@ CES: Silverman's Electus Has First Deal—Yahoo  —  Just as one of his last moves at NBC—moving Jay Leno to prime time—starts to publicly unravel, Ben Silverman has the first deal for his new venture with IAC (NSDQ: IACI), Electus: a strategic partnership with Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) to develop and produce exclusive original content.
Discussion: BoomTown
Vladislav Savov / Engadget:
Intel Core presser: 32nm Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 CPUs (update: video!)  —  Intel has just concluded its first CES press event of 2010, dedicated to “announcing” the already well known Arrandale and Clarkdale CPUs.  They will be part of Intel's planned 27 total SKUs coming in 2010 …
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
AOL Might Dump Google For Microsoft (AOL, MSFT, GOOG)  —  AOL CEO Tim Armstrong says the company's search deal with Google expires soon, and that while it'd be happy to re-up, Microsoft (MSFT) and others will get a fair chance to earn AOL's business.  —  “I had a Google sweatshirt on for almost …
David Dahlquist / Macworld:
Security Cam app turns iPhone into a security camera  —  Developer Crowded Road has had a rather difficult time getting its Security Cam App approved.  In fact, it claims its app was submitted to Apple back in December of 2008, yet was just approved recently.
Discussion: CNET News
John Timmer / Ars Technica:
768-bit RSA cracked, 1024-bit safe (for now)  —  With the increasing computing power available to even casual users, the security-conscious have had to move on to increasingly robust encryption, lest they find their information vulnerable to brute-force attacks.
Discussion: The Register
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Google muses about ads in Street View  —  It might have been just a trial balloon, but last year Google floated the idea of putting ads in Street View.  —  Could virtual billboards one day show up in Google Street View?  —  A few months ago, Google gave a presentation to marketing …
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
Notify Your Neighbors: EveryBlock Launches User-Contributed Announcements  —  Until now, all the news on the hyperlocal news site EveryBlock was compiled by the site's editors and algorithms.  Today, EveryBlock launched a nifty new feature that allows its users to post stories to the site …
Darren Murph / Engadget:
HP updates Envy 13 and Envy 15 laptops, lowers prices significantly  —  HP's Envy lineup was introduced way back in the dark ages of last decade, so it's clearly due for a significant update.  In all seriousness, the refresh that popped up today for both rigs probably has a lot …
Ryan Naraine / Zero Day:
Microsoft planning quiet Patch Tuesday this month  —  Microsoft's first Patch Tuesday for 2010 will be very light: A solitary bulletin addressing a vulnerability that is rated critical only for Windows 2000 users.  —  According to Redmond's advance notice for the next batch of patches due on January 12 …
Kelly Hodgkins / Boy Genius Report:
T-Mobile to discontinue @Home service  —  About a month ago, one of our tipsters hit us up to let us know that T-Mobile was probably in the process of shutting down their @Home service.  The @Home service allowed T-Mobile customers to make home phone calls via a T-Mobile router connected to the internet.
 
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 More Items: 
Martyn Williams / Computerworld:
U.S. consumer electronics revenue dropped 8% in '09
Derek Kerton / Techdirt:
Embedded Wireless: A Step Towards Dumb Pipes?
Philip Willan / PC World:
Italian Suit Over Preinstalled Windows Likely Next Week
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Is the YouTube Case Finally Ready to Start Moving Again?
Discussion: CNET News
 Earlier Items: 
Phone Arena:
French President receiving a new encrypted phone after a BlackBerry ban
Discussion: The Register
Eric Eldon / Inside Facebook:
Facebook is Building a New Payment Operations Team
Discussion: Inside Social Games, Thanks:mrinaldesai
David Sarno / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Journalist, freelance and sci-fi authors groups take aim at Google book settlement
Kartik Singh / The Official Google Blog:
Chat on Translator Toolkit
Discussion: Search Engine Watch and WebProNews
Martin LaMonica / CNET News:
‘Google Energy’ subsidiary considers clean power
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Tom McArthur / BBC:
RSF publishes its World Press Freedom Index and places Norway, Denmark, and Sweden in the top three, the US down 10 spots at 55, and Eritrea in last place

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Sources: the expectation at Paramount Global is that neither of the two offers in play, Skydance-RedBird and Sony Pictures-Apollo, will come to fruition

Matt Cooper / University of Oregon:
A group of researchers say Twitch is increasingly becoming a news source, and traditional news outlets could use it for added income and audience engagement

 
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