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1:55 PM ET, January 4, 2012

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Yahoo! Inc.:
Yahoo! Appoints Scott Thompson Chief Executive Officer  —  SUNNYVALE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)— Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), the premier digital media company, today announced the appointment of Scott Thompson as Chief Executive Officer, effective January 9, 2012, at which time Tim Morse will resume his role as Chief Financial Officer.
RELATED:
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Brand new CEO, same old messed up Yahoo  —  Yahoo has finally found a new chief executive to replace Carol Bartz (who left in a huff) and he is Scott Thompson, who till recently was the president of the PayPal division of eBay A surprise candidate, it is not very clear what his strategy …
Discussion: Motley Fool and @danprimack
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Confirmed: Yahoo Names PayPal Head Scott Thompson as New CEO  —  As I reported late last night, Yahoo said it had named PayPal President Scott Thompson as its new CEO.  The exec is currently in charge of the large eBay online payments unit.  —  He'll start next week, but there are staff …
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Yahoo's new CEO Thompson: Five big challenges  —  Summary: Yahoo's likely new CEO—PayPal president Scott Thompson—has a big to-do list including making the company relevant again.  —  Yahoo is reportedly set to name a new CEO—PayPal president Scott Thompson—but challenges abound.
Paul Thurrott / SuperSite for Windows:
Exclusive: Microsoft and Nokia's Plans for Marketing Windows Phone in 2012  —  With tech blogs leaking somehat inaccurate information about Microsoft and Nokia's plans for marketing Windows Phone in the US during the first half of 2012—and others still predictably parroting that information …
RELATED:
Ed Oswald / BetaNews:
Windows Phone partners bet $100M on Nokia Ace  —  The importance of the Nokia Ace to Microsoft's mobile plans is apparent as sources tell BetaNews of a major marketing push for the smartphone in the second quarter of this year.  The Ace will launch in late March, sources confirm …
Tiuri van Agten / Distimo:
Google Android Market Tops 400,000 Applications  —  Google Android Market gave itself a nice new year's present last weekend.  The total number of active applications worldwide in the Android Market reached the 400,000 milestone.  Android Market has topped the 200K and 300K available apps milestones …
Lauren Goode / AllThingsD:
Roku to Launch Cordless Streaming Stick for TVs  —  Roku, maker of competitively priced set-top boxes that stream Web video on TVs, is introducing a new device it thinks will offer a simpler option for Internet connectivity than some “smart” TVs.  —  Today, the company is unveiling plans …
Darrell Etherington / GigaOM:
Apple's long silence on call mute issue raising ire of iPhone owners  —  Apple's iPhone 4S wasn't without its share of launch troubles, including complaints of poor battery life.  But while Apple was quick to address said issues in an update (and then promised to do so again in another) …
Julie Bort / Business Insider:
Cisco's Alternative To Skype Has Quietly Been Killed  —  Cisco has quietly pulled the plug on its ill-fated consumer home videoconferencing system, Umi.  This could be the final blow to the company's once-grand consumer plans.  —  Umi was introduced a little over a year ago, in October, 2010.
Dennis K. Berman / Wall Street Journal:
So, What's Your Algorithm?  —  We are ruined by our own biases.  When making decisions, we see what we want, ignore probabilities, and minimize risks that uproot our hopes.  —  What's worse, “we are often confident even when we are wrong,” writes Daniel Kahneman, in his masterful new book …
Michael Arrington / Uncrunched:
Nobody Goes to Facebook Anymore.  It's Too Crowded.  —  A year ago Steven Levy suggested that Facebook should give us each a single “friend-list do-over.”  —  A lot of commenters challenged him.  “Grow some balls and just unfriend people,” said one of the more even tempered readers.
Discussion: @loic and @howardlindzon
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Oracle's lawsuit against Google to go to trial on or after March 19, 2012  —  This morning, Judge William Alsup, the federal judge presiding over Oracle's Java-related infringement lawsuit against Google at the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, entered his final pretrial order.
RELATED:
Karen Gullo / Bloomberg:
Apple Loses Bid to Keep Software Information Under Seal in Psystar Case
Discussion: SlashGear, Inquirer and CNET
Larry Downes / Forbes:
Why Best Buy is Going out of Business...Gradually  —  Electronics retailer Best Buy is headed for the exits.  I can't say when exactly, but my guess is that it's only a matter of time, maybe a few more years.  —  Consider a few key metrics.  Despite the disappearance of competitors including Circuit City …
Discussion: Business Insider and Newsome.Org
Eric Eldon / TechCrunch:
IFTTT, A Glue Gun For Sticking Together The Web, Raises $1.5M Seed Round From Top Investors  —  Want to instantly save all your Instagram photos to Dropbox when you take them?  What about automatically updating your Twitter profile when you update your Facebook profile?
Discussion: AllThingsD
Vlad Savov / The Verge:
Microsoft sues UK retailer Comet for ‘creating and selling’ counterfeit Windows Vista and XP CDs  —  Now this is highly unusual.  Microsoft has just reported it's taking legal action against Comet, one of the two big high street tech retailers in the UK, for “creating and selling …
Krystal Peak / VatorNews:
Netflix's 20M members streamed 2B hours in Q4 of 2011  —  Down from 25M+ streaming subscribers, Netflix is poised for growth again in 2012  —  As Netflix continues to wrangle the conversation on its future, the video viewing and rental company announced that more than two billion hours …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Samsung Series 5 Ultra up for pre-order in the US, brings optical media to the ultrabook for $949  —  Koreans won't be the only ones sticking DVDs into exceptionally thin laptops this year: Samsung's Series 5 Ultra laptops are now available for pre-order at J&R. The first time we heard …
Wall Street Journal:
Spam Finds New Target  —  Facebook and Twitter Build Up Their Defenses as Hackers Attack Social Networks  —  Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. are building up their forces to fight an emerging enemy: “social” spam.  —  One of their foot soldiers is Tao Stein, a Facebook engineer.
Discussion: WebProNews and Marketing Land
Jennifer Van Grove / VentureBeat:
Embroiled in the Google sponsored-post debacle, Unruly raises $25M (exclusive)  —  Happier times: Unruly team poses for company photo  —  A five year-old company that seeks to deliver “awesome social video campaigns” finds itself embroiled in a hairy Internet pickle on a day that would have otherwise been ripe for celebration.
Dante D'Orazio / The Verge:
HP announces Omni 27 all-in-one PC, brings h9 Phoenix desktop stateside  —  HP might be all about laptops right now, but the company has a few desktops up its sleeves, like this Omni 27 all-in-one PC.  As you might expect from the name, it's got a 27-inch 1080p LED-backlit display …
Roger Cheng / CNET:
MetroPCS to offer live local TV on its smartphones  —  MetroPCS said today it was partnering with a consortium of broadcasters to bring live local television to its wireless customers later this year.  —  The prepaid mobile service provider is working with Mobile Content Venture …
Discussion: 9to5Google, TechCrunch and Electronista
Stephanie Clifford / New York Times:
Online Sales Buoy U.P.S. And FedEx  —  With sales rising to a record $35.3 billion in November and December — a 15 percent increase from a year ago, according to the research service comScore — online retailers are celebrating.  —  There is another less obvious beneficiary of the e-commerce boom …
Discussion: TechnoBuffalo and Fast Company
Chetan / Always On Real-Time Access:
2012 Mobile Industry Predictions Survey  —  First things first.  From all of us at Chetan Sharma Consulting, we wish you and yours a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2012.  My thanks to all who participated in our 2012 Mobile Predictions Annual Survey.  It gives our community an insider's view of trends.
 
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 More Items: 
Kevin Lincoln / Business Insider:
The Guys Behind The Verge Just Went On Another Huge Talent Raid For A New Gaming Site
Discussion: The Verge, GamePolitics blogs and VG247
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Spool Raises $1 Million To Let You Cache Content To Mobile And Push It To Friends
Discussion: AllThingsD, Thanks:joshconstine
Kevin Fitchard / GigaOM:
Meet the spectrum bosses
 Earlier Items: 
David Kravets / Threat Level:
No Warrant Needed for GPS Monitoring, Judge Rules
Andrew Clay Shafer / fate = will && choice:
incubators are a ghetto
Matt Brian / The Next Web:
Samsung has no plans to deliver ‘Value Pack’ for Galaxy S smartphones
Electronista:
Nintendo rumored encouraging iOS to Wii U ports, e-reading
Discussion: Forget The Box and Geek.com
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Codecademy's CodeYear Attracts 100,000 Aspiring Programmers In 48 Hours
Fraser Speirs:
Misconceptions About iOS Multitasking
Discussion: Daring Fireball
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google requiring default ‘Holo’ theme in Android 4.0 devices for Android Market access