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10:05 PM ET, December 20, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Nadia Damouni / Reuters:
Exclusive: Amazon weighed buying RIM but interest cooled:sources  —  (Reuters) - Research In Motion Ltd has turned down takeover overtures from Amazon.com Inc and other potential buyers because the BlackBerry maker prefers to fix its problems on its own, according to people with knowledge of the situation.
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft, Nokia Flirted With RIM  —  Microsoft Corp. and Nokia Corp. in recent months flirted with the idea of making a joint bid for Research In Motion Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter.  —  The status of the talks remains unclear.  But the fact that the discussions took place …
The Mozilla Blog:
Mozilla and Google Sign New Agreement for Default Search in Firefox  —  We're pleased to announce that we have negotiated a significant and mutually beneficial revenue agreement with Google.  This new agreement extends our long term search relationship with Google for at least three additional years.
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
ITC Initial Ruling: Motorola Infringes Single Microsoft Patent, but Not Six Others  —  Microsoft won a partial victory in its patent dispute with Motorola, as the International Trade Commission issued an initial ruling that certain Motorola products infringe on one of the software maker's patents.
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Rolls Out ‘Complete My Season Pass’ for TV Shows  —  While Apple has long offered a “Complete My Album” feature in the iTunes Store to allow users who have previously purchased individual tracks to upgrade to the full album at a discounted price reflecting their single-track purchases …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook Sponsored Story Ads To Appear In The Web News Feed In 2012  —  Starting in January 2012, Facebook will gradually begin showing Sponsored Stories social ads in the main news feed of the web version of the site, a representative of the company tells us.
Charles Arthur / Guardian:
Nokia and Microsoft fingered over comments on adverse Lumia review  —  An Indian site's ‘reviewing’ of the Nokia Lumia 800 phone purely on its specifications was a strange thing to do - but anonymous commenting apparently from Nokia and Microsoft staff didn't help matters
Thomas Ricker / The Verge:
Kickstarted: How one company is revolutionizing product development  —  Kickstarter is funding an era of product development uncompromised by focus groups and committees  —  The million dollar idea.  We've all had it at one time or another, with very few luxuries to show for our sudden fits of brilliance.
Discussion: Gizmodo
Chris Ziegler / The Verge:
T-Mobile to get seven-year 3G roaming deal, 128 markets of AWS spectrum from AT&T  —  Deutsche Telekom now is detailing the consolation prize it's getting from AT&T in the aftermath of its failed acquisition of T-Mobile — and in looking through the details, calling it a “consolation prize” really doesn't do it justice.
RELATED:
Electronista:
Google halts Nexus S Android 4.0 updates, Galaxy Nexus hit  —  Google Nexus S and Galaxy Nexus hit by battery bug  —  Google's Android 4.0 update for the Nexus S stalled out Tuesday.  The company posted on its forums that it was holding the update to “monitor feedback” after users reported unusually high battery drain.
Discussion: CNET News and Softpedia News
Joel Housman:
This Week In Douchebaggery: AllThis  —  Well, it's Monday - I guess that means it's time for another douchebag to create a startup on the Internet.  —  Introducing, Allthis.com.  They list themselves as being in “beta” on their website and claim to be “the ten-minute exchange”.
Discussion: @eldon, Thanks:joelhousman
Sara Forden / Bloomberg:
Verizon Wireless Probed Over Cable Deals  —  Verizon Wireless's deals for spectrum with cable companies are under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for their potential to hurt competition in the wireless and cable industries.  —  Gina Talamona, a Justice Department spokeswoman …
Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
Oracle Falls Short on Weak Software Sales  —  Software giant Oracle reported quarterly results that fell short of the expectations of analysts, as licenses for new software rose only slightly and sales were $430 million below what analysts had forecast.  Hardware sales were down by 14 percent year on year.
Corynne McSherry / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Ninth Circuit Puts Lump of Coal in UMG's Stocking, Affirms DMCA Safe Harbors for Veoh  —  Today the Ninth Circuit handed the Internet a bittersweet and crucial victory by affirming a district court's holding that the safe harbors created by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) …
Jolie O'Dell / VentureBeat:
First Round Capital rings in the holidays with “Friday” spoof  —  First Round Capital is famous in these parts for its irreverent, awkward and often hilarious holiday e-greetings.  —  This year, the team and its family of startups pitched in to create an elaborate send-up of Rebecca Black's soulless mistake of a song, “Friday.”
Joe Schneider / Bloomberg:
Apple Claims Samsung Tablet, Phone Cases Infringe Patents  —  Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) — Apple Inc., which on Dec. 9 lost a bid to keep Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy 10.1 tablet out of Australia, claims the case for the device and cases for Samsung phones infringe its patents and registered design.
Matthew Humphries / Geek.com:
Sony sued over PSN “can't sue us” clause  —  Following the huge security breach of the PlayStation Network, Sony realized that not only did it require better security for PSN, it also needed to protect itself as a company from millions of gamers potentially suing it in the future.
Ina Fried / AllThingsD:
LightSquared Asks FCC to Declare GPS Interference Not Its Fault  —  Aspiring wholesale wireless provider LightSquared wants the Federal Communications Commission to declare that any interference between its network and GPS systems is the fault of the way those systems are designed.
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
iPhones, iPod Touches still on iOS 3.1.3 can't download new apps directly from the App Store  —  While fragmentation is a rare(r) problem on iOS there's still quite a few users rocking older versions on their devices.  Unfortunately for them, ever since a recent update on the 16th …
Janice Wood / Psych Central News:
Meta-Twitter Analysis Shows Happiness Trending Down  —  Using Twitter, a team of scientists from the University of Vermont has created a happiness graph, which shows happiness has fallen over the last few years.  —  “After a gradual upward trend that ran from January to April 2009 …
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Indeed Replacing Recalled iPod Nano Units with Current-Generation Models  —  Just hours after we reported that Apple appeared to have begun shipping out current-generation iPod nanos as replacements for recalled first-generation units, users are beginning to report in that they are indeed receiving the current models.
Jeff Roberts / paidContent:
Publishing Insider Tipped Law Firms About E-Book Price Fixing Conspiracy  —  The decision by major publishers to strike a pricing deal with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has been the source of speculation and several antitrust investigations.  Now, a new court filing suggests someone inside the industry …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Health 2.0 startup Keas gets $6.5 million in new funds  —  Keas, a San Francisco-based startup co-founded by veteran technologist Adam Bosworth and enterprise software entrepreneur George Kassagbi, has raised $6.5 million in new funds from existing investors Atlas Ventures and Ignition Parters.
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple Wins Patent for iPhone GUI Supporting Application Switching during a Call and More  —  The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of eight newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today.  This morning's report mainly focuses in on two of these patents.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Lamar Smith Says ‘Just Joking...’ About Tomorrow; SOPA Markup Postponed  —  Well, look at that.  There's been a lot of back and forth over the past few days concerning whether or not Lamar Smith was serious about holding the continuation of the SOPA markup tomorrow morning.
Frederic Lardinois / SiliconFilter:
Super Bowl to be Streamed Live for the First Time  —  There is no other television event in the U.S. that commands as much attention and viewership as the annual Super Bowl.  Last year's event attracted 111 million viewers.  NBC and the National Football League (NFL) today announced …
 
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 More Items: 
Chris Foresman / Ars Technica:
Half a billion dollars: why Apple's acquisition of Anobit matters
Discussion: Engadget, Reuters and TUAW
Daniel Terdiman / CES 2012:
CES setting up its own startup alley
Jennifer Allen / Computerworld:
Sony PlayStation Vita Launches With Technical Problems
Discussion: PC World, BBC and CNET News
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
PayPal Tests In-Store NFC Payments App With Swedish Retailers, Similar Mobile ‘Experiments’ To Roll Out Soon
Discussion: waroncash
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Busy Signal Service Targets Cyberheist Victims
Discussion: SecurityNewsDaily
Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:
Twitter will open source security software from its Whisper Systems acquisition
 Earlier Items: 
Jeffrey Gettleman / New York Times:
U.S. Considers Combating Somali Militants' Twitter Use
Discussion: The Verge
Mark Suster / Both Sides of the Table:
The End of the Web? Don't Bet on It. Here's Why
Discussion: Global Nerdy
Hunter Walk / Elapsed Time:
Hyperbolic Headlines: Five Ways the Zynga IPO Changes Everything!!!
Thanks:samrzrkat
Frederic Lardinois / SiliconFilter:
YouTube in 2011: Over 1,000,000,000,000 Playbacks, 140 Views for Every Person on Earth
Deadline.com:
‘Wolverine’ Pirate To Serve Year In Prison
Discussion: GMSV, Betabeat and VentureBeat
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Kindle Fire On Track For Hundreds Of Millions Of Monthly Ad Impressions; Growing Faster Than The iPad In Early 2010
 

 
From Mediagazer:

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

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”

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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