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11:20 PM ET, December 19, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
AT&T:
AT&T Ends Bid To Add Network Capacity Through T-Mobile USA Purchase  —  AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) said today that after a thorough review of options it has agreed with Deutsche Telekom AG to end its bid to acquire T-Mobile USA, which began in March of this year.  The actions by the Federal …
RELATED:
Dan Frommer / SplatF:
AT&T-Mobile deal is dead: Now what?  —  AT&T's $39 billion bid for T-Mobile is finished: Thanks to the U.S. government's efforts to block the deal, AT&T is pulling out.  So, now what?  — AT&T will have to pay T-Mobile a $3 billion breakup fee, plus a large amount of wireless spectrum …
Discussion: Deal Journal and Sramana Mitra
Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
Sprint Wins the Argument, but It's Still Losing the War  —  Shares of Sprint are rallying by about 6 percent in after-hours trading, on word that AT&T has abandoned its $39 billion bid for T-Mobile.  —  That's really only a jump of 13 cents per share — a figure that says a lot about the pickle …
Discussion: CNET News and IntoMobile
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:   Despite AT&T's defeat, wireless deals will continue
Emily Chang / @emilychangtv:
AT&T pulls bid for T-Mobile USA, expects pre-tax charge of $4 billion in the fourth quarter via @BloombergTech
Discussion: Business Insider
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Apple wins ITC ruling of narrow technical scope against HTC: a limited victory but just the beginning  —  After twice postponing its final ruling on Apple's first complaint against HTC, the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) has finally announced its decision.
RELATED:
Zach Epstein / BGR:
HTC responds to ITC ruling, says it has a solution ready to address Apple patent violations  —  HTC on Monday responded to a ruling from the United States International Trade Commission that will ban the import of several HTC devices beginning April 19th, 2012.
Seth Weintraub / 9to5Google:
Google X's wearable technology isn't an iPod Nano, but rather a heads up display (glasses)  —  Google Goggles gets a new meaning  —  The New York Times today relayed an open secret among some in the Google community: the company is working on wearable technology in its secret off-campus Google X lair.
RELATED:
Nick Bilton / Bits:
Wearing Your Computer on Your Sleeve  —  Technology often has a way of fixing the problems it creates.  Here's one that needs solving.  —  The invention of the smartphone has created a world where millions of people stroll through life constantly staring into a mobile device, like Narcissus at the edge of a pond.
Paul Sloan / CNET News:
Marc Andreessen: Predictions for 2012 (and beyond)  —  Marc Andreessen's view of the world boils down to software.  —  From where he stands, as the guy who co-founded Netscape Communications and now co-runs the powerful Silicon Valley venture firm Andreessen-Horowitz, no industry is safe from software.
Discussion: Business Insider
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Microsoft Shrinking Margins Loom on Cloud Push  —  Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s push into cloud computing will help the company compete with Google Inc. (GOOG), Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Salesforce.com Inc. (CRM) It also will hurt profit margins.  —  The company's cloud software lets corporate customers pay …
Discussion: Internet Evolution
John Tenanes / Facebook:
Our New Menlo Park Home  —  This morning, the final wave of employees walked through the doors of the new Facebook Menlo Park campus, and my team greeted them with coffee, snacks, and maps to help them find their new desks.  For years, we've been moving from one building to the next …
Stanford Law Review:
Don't Break the Internet  —  Two bills now pending in Congress—the PROTECT IP Act of 2011 (Protect IP) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House—represent the latest legislative attempts to address a serious global problem: large-scale online copyright and trademark infringement.
RELATED:
Brian Heater / Engadget:
Two days in the desert with Apple's lost founder, Ron Wayne  —  “I have to ask you something,” Ron Wayne begins, as we stand to leave his office, signaling the close of our day-long conversation.  He takes a slightly dramatic pause, adding, “compared to other people, is my life really that interesting?”
Discussion: TUAW
Social Media Intelligence:
Friends & Frenemies: Why We Add and Remove Facebook Friends  —  To friend or to de-friend, that is the question.  New research from NM Incite, a Nielsen McKinsey company, reveals that there are innumerable factors that help Facebook users decide to add a friend or cull someone from the fold …
Brad McCarty / The Next Web:
Google pays $18 million to shutter Apture, CloudFlare clones it in 12 hours  —  Even if you've never heard of Apture, you've probably used the company's products before.  If you've ever been on a site where you copied some text, and then had a box pop up that offered to show you context related …
Lucas Mearian / Computerworld:
Hard drive manufacturers slash warranty periods  —  Seagate cuts warranties from five years to one for certain desktop and laptop drives  —  Seagate and Western Digital are cutting back on hard drive warranties, in some instances from five years to one, in order to save money or redirect it to product development.
Discussion: TechSpot, TechCrunch and Electronista
Lori Grunin / CNET News:
A more secure SD for HD content  —  A quintet of companies have banded together to promise a new HD-friendly encryption scheme for SD cards and embedded flash.
Discussion: PC World
Sebastian Anthony / ExtremeTech:
Firefox 9 unofficially released, JavaScript performance improved by 20-30%  —  Ahead of an official release tomorrow, Firefox 9 has winged its way to various mirrors across the web and is now available to download from the official Firefox website — no messing around with a hammered Nightly FTP server this time, oh no!
Matthew Goldstein / Reuters:
Exclusive: Falcone's wireless company running out of cash  —  (Reuters) - The upstart wireless company that is being bankrolled by Philip Falcone's $5 billion Harbinger Capital Partners hedge fund could run out of money during the second quarter of 2012, according to the company's financial statement.
Discussion: VentureBeat and MediaFile
Laurie Segall / CNNMoney.com:
What's really behind Twitter's staff exodus  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Twitter's transformation from startup to power player has hit its rocky adolescent stage.  In the past six months, more than a dozen high-level employees have departed.  The sudden exodus set Silicon Valley chattering: What's going on at Twitter?
Discussion: ITworld.com and Tech Daily Dose
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Quora Expands Beyond Q&A, Launches ‘Boards’ — A Way To Personally Curate Information  —  Quora is taking a step beyond Q&A this morning with its latest product launch, boards.  Users can now set up their own personal-themed bookmarking boards, sort of like a Pinterest for text-based information.
Bradley Horowitz / The Official Google Blog:
Google+: A few big improvements before the New Year  —  Today we're pleased to announce a goodie basket full of Google+ features and functionality for you to unpack and enjoy over the holidays.  Some of these were on nearly everyone's wishlist... and some we hope will be welcome surprises.
Jim Puzzanghera / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Sens. Herb Kohl and Mike Lee call for Google antitrust probe  —  The chairman and top Republican on the Senate antitrust subcommittee have asked regulators to investigate Google Inc.'s search practices, saying they were concerned the company was biasing results to favor its own products.
Susan Decker / Bloomberg:
Sprint Sues Time Warner, Comcast Over Digital Phone Technology  —  Sprint Nextel Corp. (S), the third- largest U.S. wireless operator, accused Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC), Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) and two other cable-TV companies of infringing patents related to transmitting phone calls over digital lines.
Chris Dixon:
An internet of people  —  Over the past few years, a bunch of web-based marketplaces have gotten popular - Etsy, Kickstarter, AirBnb, to name a few.  Many of these business ideas had been tried before but are succeeding only now.  —  When a trend like this emerges, it's always interesting to ask “why now?”
 
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 More Items: 
Tarmo Virki / Reuters:
Nokia CEO says to keep headquarters in Finland: TV
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Red Hat third quarter solid, better than expected
Andrew Hampp / Billboard:
Exclusive: MySpace Launches New Music Player, Search Function, Facebook Integration
Discussion: Electronista and hypebot
Nathan Olivarez-Giles / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
IBM ‘5 in 5’ predicts no more passwords, mind-reading smartphones
Chris Ziegler / The Verge:
‘So, what phone should I buy?’ and other unanswerable questions
Kim Zetter / Threat Level:
Forensic Examiner Found No Match of Cables on Manning's Laptop to WikiLeaks'
Discussion: Electronista
 Earlier Items: 
Clay Johnson / Information Diet:
Dear Internet: It's No Longer OK to Not Know How Congress Works
Matt Brian / The Next Web:
Google gives out customised Galaxy Nexus handsets to employees for Christmas
Svea Herbst-Bayliss / Reuters:
MIT to offer labs, certificates to virtual students
Discussion: Pulse2 and CNET News
Jon Russell / The Next Web:
Facebook introduces private messages between business pages and fans