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12:00 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:
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 has its new CEO.  The exec is currently in charge of the large eBay online payments unit.  —  He'll start next week …
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
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.
Matt Burns / TechCrunch:
Ebay Boss John Donahoe To Serve PayPal's Interim President
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 …
RELATED:
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 …
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 …
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.
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) …
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 …
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 …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google requiring default ‘Holo’ theme in Android 4.0 devices for Android Market access  —  When Google unveiled the SDK for Android 4.0, the first thing we noted about Ice Cream Sandwich is that the default “Holo” theme would be baked right in at the OS level.
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
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 …
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.
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: Marketing Land
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Codecademy's CodeYear Attracts 100,000 Aspiring Programmers In 48 Hours  —  Talk about starting your year off on the right foot.  —  Two days ago, Codecademy — a startup that's looking to bring programming to the masses — launched a nifty initiative called Code Year.
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.
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 …
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 …
Kevin Fitchard / GigaOM:
Meet the spectrum bosses  —  If AT&T-Mo's failure taught us anything it's that if the big U.S. operators are going to grow they can't do it by acquiring each other.  Instead they're going to have to buy up what unused spectrum is left on the market to stockpile bandwidth for their future mobile broadband networks.
David Kravets / Threat Level:
No Warrant Needed for GPS Monitoring, Judge Rules  —  A Missouri federal judge ruled the FBI did not need a warrant to secretly attach a GPS monitoring device to a suspect's car to track his public movements for two months.  —  The ruling, upholding federal theft and other charges …
Fraser Speirs:
Misconceptions About iOS Multitasking  —  There is one iOS “tip” that I keep hearing and it is wrong.  Worse, I keep hearing it from supposedly authoritative sources.  I have even heard it from the lips of Apple “Geniuses” in stores.  —  Here is the advice - and remember it is wrong: … Wrong.
Adam Taylor / Business Insider:
Anonymous Have Begun Targeting German Neo-Nazis  —  The Anonymous hacking network has a new target — German Neo Nazis.  —  Deutsche Welle reports that the new operation is nicknamed “Operation Blitzkrieg”, and sees the group attacking a number of websites linked with the National Democratic Party (NPD).
Sarah Hodges / RunKeeper:
How Getting Featured in the Android Market Boosted RunKeeper App Downloads by 637%  —  When the clock struck midnight this weekend, ringing in the New Year, social feeds lit up with New Year's resolution chatter.  And RunKeeper's inbox lit up with news that we'd been featured in the Android Market's Health and Fitness section.
Discussion: 9to5Google
 
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 More Items: 
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Spool Raises $1 Million To Let You Cache Content To Mobile And Push It To Friends
Discussion: AllThingsD, Thanks:joshconstine
Emil Protalinski / Friending Facebook Blog:
Citi lets Facebook friends share points
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 Softpedia News
 Earlier Items: 
Eric Eldon / TechCrunch:
CrunchBase Reveals: The Average Successful Startup Raises $25.3 Million, Sells For $196.8 Million
Karen Gullo / Bloomberg:
Apple Loses Bid to Keep Software Information Under Seal in Psystar Case
Discussion: Inquirer, SlashGear, CNET and Electronista
 

 
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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