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8:45 PM ET, March 17, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:
New York Times paywall: wishful thinking or just crazy?  —  The New York Times just announced a new paywall that will let you see 20 articles a month and thereafter redirect you to a signup for paid access.  However, if you follow a NYT link from some search engines and services like Twitter …
RELATED:
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
The Google Loophole Has Become The Facebook/Twitter Loophole  —  There are a lot of interesting angles to the news this morning about The New York Times' new paywall.  Top news will remain free, a set number of articles for all users will remain free, there will be different pricing tiers …
Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:
The newsonomics of The New York Times' pay fence  —  t's official — and the world still turns.  After 14 months of planning, The New York Times is finally launching its pay system, starting in the U.S. March 28.  It's been a gestation period longer than a manatee's, due to customer-service identification …
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Apple Gets Its First Big Publisher: New York Times Subscriptions Will Be Sold Through iTunes
Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
The Times Announces Digital Subscription Plan
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Study comparing Android to iPhone Web browsing speed flawed  —  A Canadian software company, Blaze Software, released a report today of what it calls the “largest ever research study of smart phone browser performance.”  The problem is, the study is flawed.
RELATED:
Cade Metz / The Register:
Apple: Yes, Safari outperforms embedded iOS web viewer  —  IPhone web API lacks optimizations, Apple tells El Reg  —  Apple has confirmed that the web viewer embedded with iOS 4.3 does not offer certain optimizations included with the Safari browser bundled with Apple's mobile operating system.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Why the Nitro JavaScript Engine Isn't Available to Apps Outside Mobile Safari in iOS 4.3  —  Along a similar line to today's story about the performance differences between Mobile Safari and the system-wide UIWebView control in iOS 4.3, was Tuesday's mini-brouhaha about web app performance outside Mobile Safari.
Discussion: The Loop
Jay Yarow / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Exclusive: Yahoo Is About To Sell Delicious For $1-$2 Million  —  Yahoo is about to close a deal to sell bookmarking site Delicious for $1-$2 million, says a source familiar with the discussions.  —  Our source isn't sure what company is buying it, but says it's a “strategic partner,” something like StumbleUpon.
Discussion: @dannysullivan and The Next Web
Paul Graham:
Subject: Airbnb  —  Yesterday Fred Wilson published a remarkable post about missing Airbnb.  VCs miss good startups all the time, but it's extraordinarily rare for one to talk about it publicly till long afterward.  So that post is further evidence what a rare bird Fred is.  He's probably the nicest VC I know.
Guardian:
Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media  —  Exclusive: Military's ‘sock puppet’ software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda  —  Jeff Jarvis: Washington shows the morals of a clumsy spammer  —  The US military is developing software …
Charles Starrett / iLounge:
iPad 2 Wi-Fi, 3G models show microphone differences  —  iLounge has discovered that the microphones in the Wi-Fi and 3G models of the iPad 2 have different sonic qualities.  As noted in our comprehensive review, the microphone hole of the iPad 2 has been moved from its position beside …
Scott Austin / Venture Capital Dispatch:
Groupon Valued At $25B?  That Would Top Google At IPO  —  Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports today that Groupon Inc. is shopping itself to bankers for an initial public offering that could value the company up to $25 billion.  There's a bit of caution here — bankers like to puff up the valuation …
Discussion: SAI
RELATED:
Douglas MacMillan / Bloomberg:
Groupon Is Said to Discuss IPO Valuation of Up to $25 Billion
Arn / MacRumors:
Apple Airs 'If You Don't Have an iPhone' TV Ads  —  Apple has posted three new iPhone ads to their website and YouTube channel.  The new ads start off with the phrase “If you don't have an iPhone” and demonstrate some specific features found on the iPhone.  The three ads include:
Ben Horowitz / ben's blog:
Titles and Promotions … Often when I meet with startups, the employees have no job titles.  This makes sense, because everybody is just working to build the company.  Roles needn't be clearly defined and, in fact, can't be, because everyone does a little bit of everything.
Stephen Chapman / Between the Lines Blog:
Internal Microsoft video shows plans for next-gen gaming experience  —  While searching around the Internet to find information the future of the Xbox, I stumbled across an internal video dated May 2010 which showcases some of the WGX (Windows Gaming eXperience) team's ambitions …
Discussion: WinRumors, GeekWire, The Next Web and Neowin.net, Thanks:manan
Robin Davey / hypebot:
Only 10% of Your Friends See Your Facebook Posts, And Only 1% Like It.  —  Post by: Robin Davey, Head of Music and Film Development at GROWVision.  —  How do I know this?  Well I conducted a simple experiment that you are all welcome to replicate.  —  I simply posted on my wall asking anyone who saw the post to like it.
Discussion: All Facebook
Michael Kleber / Google Code Blog:
Your Web, Half a Second Sooner  —  At Google we're constantly trying to make the web faster — not just our corner of it, but the whole thing.  Over the past few days we've been rolling out a new and improved version of show_ads.js, the piece of JavaScript used by more than two million publishers …
Discussion: Inside AdSense and Softpedia News
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Exclusive: Facebook Co-Founder Eduardo Saverin Leads $6.5M Round For Jumio  —  Jumio is still gearing up for the launch of its online and mobile payments solution, due for release in 6 to 8 weeks, but the company has lined up an investor that is sure to draw even more attention to the stealth startup …
Discussion: Betabeat and Pulse2
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
Paramount Pictures Partner With BitTorrent Release Movie  —  Distracted Media's Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey first hit the BitTorrent conciousness in mid 2010 when trying to raise funding for their latest project by selling frames of their upcoming horror movie.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Scribd's HTML5-Based Document Viewer Is Now Portable, Retroactively Upgrades 20M+ Embeds  —  Last May, document sharing hub Scribd launched one of its biggest features yet: a document reader based entirely in HTML5.  Up until then Scribd had presented its documents using …
Discussion: VentureBeat and MacStories
Eric Chu / Android Developers Blog:
Application Stats on Android Market  —  On the Android Market team, it's been our goal to bring you improved ways of seeing and understanding the installation performance of your published applications.  We know that this information is critical in helping you tune your development and marketing efforts.
Maggie Shiels / BBC:
Twitter boss on application snub  —  Twitter co-founder Biz Stone insists that improving the user experience is his company's main priority.  —  Twitter founder Biz Stone has rejected suggestions that the site is shunning developers in order to make money.
Discussion: Gartner, IntoMobile and The Next Web
AppleInsider:
Owners of Apple's new MacBook Pros report issues with iTunes Home Sharing  —  Numerous owners of Apple's early 2011 MacBook Pros report being unable to connect devices or maintain connections through iTunes Home Sharing.  —  A support thread in Apple's Discussion forums has received …
Discussion: MacRumors, TUAW and MacStories
Jeff Bertolucci / PC World:
Samsung's MacBook Air Challenger Ready to Ship  —  You can thank me in advance for not calling the ultra-slim Samsung Series 9 laptop a “MacBook Air killer,” which it certainly is not.  It is, however, a sleek featherweight of a portable PC, one that gives Apple's attractive Air a run for its money in the look-at-me competition.
Arn / MacRumors:
Steve Jobs Offers Support to Apple Employees Affected by Earthquake  —  Photo of Apple Store in Sendai, Japan by naok  —  Apple CEO Steve Jobs is reported to have sent a message to Apple staff regarding the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan.  The contents of the email were posted to Chihouban.com …
Discussion: MacNN, BGR, Pulse2, Gearlog, GeekSmack, TUAW, iClarified and SAI
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Rustock Botnet Flatlined, Spam Volumes Plummet  —  The global volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide took a massive nosedive today following what appears to be a coordinated takedown of the Rustock botnet, one of the world's most active spam-generating machines.  —  Rustock spam volumes, from M86 Security Labs
 
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 More Items: 
Josh Lowensohn / Crave: The gadget blog:
Mac App Store low on freebies, high on games
Discussion: SAI
Christian Zibreg / 9 to 5 Mac:
Fan backlash over adverts injected in Angry Birds HD
Discussion: App Advice and SlashGear
Electronista:
Mosaid sues ASUS, Dell, RIM, more; ‘all’ owe Wi-Fi royalties
Gautham Nagesh / Hillicon Valley:
Consumer group: Google CEO not good for Commerce post
 Earlier Items: 
Wall Street Journal:
Retailers Push Amazon on Taxes
Liz Gannes / NetworkEffect:
Can a Spot on Apple's Top App List Be Bought? Welcome to Cross-Selling!
Christian Belady / TechNet Blogs:
How Big is the Datacenter Construction Business?
Discussion: Seattle Times
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:
The day Apple landed in Gauna
Discussion: Digital Daily, TUAW, MediaMemo and SAI, Thanks:philiped
Tricia Duryee / eMoney:
Zong Extends Mobile Payments to Game Consoles and More
Discussion: TechCrunch, GigaOM and VentureBeat
Devin Coldewey / CrunchGear:
Rumor: Asus To Launch $200 Chrome Netbook
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Indian streaming service JioCinema launches an ad-free subscription plan with the lowest tier costing $0.35/month for a single device, undercutting rivals

Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
Warner Music Group sells Uproxx, HipHopDX, and other assets to a new company, Uproxx Studios, formed by Jarret Myer, Rich Antoniello, and will.i.am

New York Times:
Sources detail NPR's struggles with declining audiences, falling sponsorship revenue, internal conflicts over turning things around, and a diversity push

 
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