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12:50 PM ET, January 21, 2010

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
BBC:
US calls for China Google probe  —  The US has called on Beijing to investigate the recent cyber attacks on Google, which have prompted the search giant to threaten to leave China.  —  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that companies such as Google should refuse to support “politically-motivated censorship”.
RELATED:
New York Times:
China Paints Google Issue as Not Political  —  BEIJING — The Chinese government is taking a cautious approach to the dispute with Google, treating the conflict as a business dispute that requires commercial negotiations and not a political matter that could affect relations with the United States.
Brad Stone / Bits:
Amazon Cracks Open the Kindle  —  As Motoko Rich and I report in Wednesday's Times, Amazon.com is finally opening up the Kindle to developers.  This has the potential to turn a popular single-purpose device into a more interesting and versatile gadget, limited only by the imagination …
RELATED:
Amazon.com:
Amazon Announces Kindle Development Kit—Software Developers Can Now Build Active Content for Kindle  —  Travel books that suggest activities based on real-time weather and current events, cookbooks that recommend menus based on size of party and allergies, and word games and puzzles …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
With New Ovi Maps, Nokia Seeks Location Heaven  —  In an attempt to ward of competition from the likes of Google, Nokia, the largest maker of mobile phones, has released the latest version of its Ovi Maps software and made the app available for free.  Nokia, despite an early start …
RELATED:
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple sees tablet as one device shared by the whole family - WSJ  —  The Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell of tablet and Apple-related information Wednesday evening.  Among the new details: Apple sees its tablet as a device that will be shared by multiple family members — and it might even recognize their faces.
RELATED:
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Survey: 18% likely to buy Apple's tablet
Michael Mace / Mobile Opportunity:
Google shoots itself in the foot in mobile  —  I wish I knew the inside story on Google's recent confrontation with the Chinese government.  At first Google's announcement looked like a principled, well thought-out stand in a long behind-the-scenes dispute (link).
Peppi Kiviniemi / Wall Street Journal:
EU Clears Oracle to Buy Sun Microsystems  —  BRUSSELS — After a drawn out investigation, the European Commission on Thursday unconditionally cleared U.S. software giant Oracle Corp. to take over smaller rival Sun Microsystems Inc. in a $7.4 billion deal.  —  “I am now satisfied that competition …
Emma Barnett / Telegraph:
Spotify now makes record labels money  —  Spotify now offers the music industry a sustainable revenue model according to a UK record label executive.  —  Revealing for the first time today how the commercial relationship works between the streaming service and the record labels, Rob Wells …
Discussion: paidContent and The Next Web
RELATED:
Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Digital Music Sales Are Booming, But Industry Still Cites Piracy Woes
Discussion: Telegraph, Guardian, Reuters and p2pnet
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Seesmic Look Is A Tablet-Friendly Twitter Client For The Oprah Crowd  —  A couple days ago we caught wind of a new Seesmic product called Seesmic Look.  Today it is launching and we finally get a look at it.  As suspected, it is a streamlined Twitter client aimed at the Oprah crowd.
Mia / YouTube Blog:
Introducing YouTube HTML5 Supported Videos  —  A while ago, YouTube launched a simple demo of an HTML5-based video player.  Recently, we published a blog post on our pre-spring cleaning effort and your number one request was that YouTube do more with HTML5.
Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:
Man Buried in Haiti Rubble Uses iPhone to Treat Wounds, Survive  —  U.S. filmmaker Dan Woolley was shooting a documentary about the impact of poverty in Haiti when the earthquake struck.  He could have died, but he ultimately survived with the help of an iPhone first-aid app that taught him to treat his wounds.
BBC:
Tim Berners-Lee unveils government data project  —  Web founder Tim Berners-Lee has unveiled his latest venture for the UK government, which offers the public better access to official data.  —  A new website, data.gov.uk, will offer reams of public sector data, ranging from traffic statistics …
Camille Ricketts / VentureBeat:
AdMob: Apple may break its tie with Nokia for world domination  —  It's almost like Apple and Nokia are locked in a neck-and-neck game of Risk.  The former, with its iPhone OS, is the dominant force in North America, Western Europe, Latin America and Oceania, while the latter, running the Symbian OS …
RELATED:
Phil Nickinson / Android Central:
AdMob: Android numbers nearly double again
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Amazon Promotion Tempts Book Lovers With Free Kindles  —  Hesitant about ordering an Amazon Kindle?  The online retailer is apparently making a very tempting proposition to some of its customers: go ahead and order a Kindle, and if you don't like it, you'll get your money back — and get to keep the device.
Ashlee Vance / New York Times:
If Your Password Is 123456, Just Make It HackMe  —  Back at the dawn of the Web, the most popular account password was “12345.”  —  Today, it's one digit longer but hardly safer: “123456.”  —  Despite all the reports of Internet security breaches over the years, including the recent attacks …
Computerworld:
Microsoft confirms 17-year-old Windows bug  —  Google engineer reveals ancient flaw in all 32-bit versions of Windows  —  Computerworld - Microsoft late yesterday issued its second advisory of the last week, warning users that a 17-year-old bug in the kernel of all 32-bit versions of Windows could be used by hackers to hijack PCs.
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Palm Pre Plus (and Pixi Plus) review  —  It's been about a year since Palm pulled itself back from the brink of imminent destruction with the announcement of webOS and the Palm Pre, and even less time since the products announced actually hit the market.  In that time span …
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Apple again delays 27-inch iMac shipment by 3 weeks  —  Just when it looked like Apple was putting its 27-inch iMac troubles behind it with a balance in supply and demand, the company has abruptly pushed new direct orders of its big screen desktop machines out by three weeks.
Melissa Shapiro / The Mozilla Blog:
Mozilla Delivers Firefox 3.6 to Millions of Users  —  Mozilla, a public-benefit organization dedicated to promoting choice and innovation on the Web, today released Firefox® 3.6, an update to its popular, free and open source Web browser.  The latest version of Firefox introduces cutting-edge features …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Netflix Just Gave iTunes A Big Fat Kiss  —  A new movie came out on DVD this week called The Invention Of Lying.  It's co-written, co-directed, and co-starring Golden Globe host Ricky Gervais and looks mildly entertaining enough that I want to rent it.  So I load up Netflix to add it to my queue …
Thanks:atul
Christian / OkTrends:
The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures  —  Hello, old friends.  I am back from dark months of data mining, here now to present my ores.  To write this piece, we cataloged over 7,000 photographs on OkCupid.com, analyzing three primary things:  — Facial Attitude. … - Photo Context.
Discussion: Ars Technica
Los Angeles Times:
At Hulu, ‘free’ may soon turn into ‘fee’  —  The video website, launched by studios to distribute TV shows over the Internet without charge, now is considering ways to draw revenue, including charging for some episodes of popular shows.  —  Hulu soared to popularity by offering free online viewing of popular TV shows.
Jennifer Valentino / Digits:
New Software Aims to Keep Facebook Safer  —  As social-media sites like Facebook and Twitter have expanded to include more of the online population, spammers and hackers have come along for the ride.  Even the FCC chairman has seen his Facebook page taken over by a malicious program that sent spam to his friends.
DigiTimes:
HP to launch mini-projector-integrated notebook  —  Hewlett-Packard (HP) is planning to push two major PC systems for 2010 - tablet PCs and notebook with integrated mini-projectors, according to Monty Wong, vice president and manager of personal computing systems group at HP Taiwan.
Josh Silverman / GigaOM:
How Video Changes Everything  —  Whether it's a clip of “Tajik Jimmy” putting Bollywood soundtracks to shame, catching a friend's wedding eight time zones away or working “side by side” with coworkers in another country, it's all video.  And it's changing the way we communicate with one another.
Discussion: Skype Blogs and FierceVoIP
 
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 More Items: 
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Posterous Turns Post.ly Into A New Media Sharing Service For Twitter
Carolyn Duffy Marsan / Network World:
80% of government Web sites miss DNS security deadline
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
Verizon Is NOT Booting P2P Users Off Of Network …
Clint Boulton / eWeek:
IBM Lotus Connections Adding Social Analytics, Moderation
Kim-Mai Cutler / VentureBeat:
MIT project lets you author code with screenshots, pictures
Gus Sentementes / BaltTech:
Apple working on parking app for mobile devices
 Earlier Items: 
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Pirate Bay's Ipredator VPN Opens To The Public
Discussion: Softpedia News and Pocket-lint
Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:
Digital File Cabinet You Can Bring With You Anywhere
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Comcast Looking To Offer À La Carte Streaming Music To ISP …
Discussion: DSLreports, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Ross Miller / Engadget:
Microsoft's Twitter chatter suggests Danger is up to something — Pink drawing near?
Discussion: SlashGear and Gizmodo
Bloomberg:
Microsoft May Lose More of Facebook's Advertising Business
Discussion: Search Engine Land and paidContent, Thanks:atul
Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge:
Facebook to Build Its Own Data Centers
Discussion: All Facebook and Computerworld, Thanks:atul
Boy Genius Report:
AT&T prepping network to handle “unannounced” devices?
Discussion: The iPhone Blog
 

 
From Mediagazer:

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”

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

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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