Techmeme: After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses (Julie Bosman/Media Decoder)

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March 14, 2012, 1:35 AM

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Andy Baio / Wired:

A Patent Lie: How Yahoo Weaponized My Work — While most of the tech world was partying at South by Southwest in Austin yesterday, Yahoo announced it was filing a lawsuit against Facebook for allegedly infringing on 10 patents from their 1,000+ patent warehouse. — I'm no fan of Facebook, but this is a deplorable move.

More: GigaOM, BuzzFeed, Fortune, Feld Thoughts, Linux Foundation Blogs, Business Insider, parislemon and AllThingsD

Tweets: @shaig, @parislemon and @dannysullivan

Mark Cuban / blog maverick:

I Hope Yahoo Crushes Facebook in its Patent Suit — Anyone who reads this blog knows how much I hate patent laws. I think 99pct of the time they are anti-competitive, corruptive, impede creativity and innovation and can kill small businesses. I think the ratio of patent law doing …

More: AdExchanger.com, Slate, The Tech Trade, Business Insider, Dalton Caldwell and Gizmodo. Tweets: @wadhwa

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Everyone Has The Features Yahoo's Suing Facebook For: Here They Are — Yahoo reared its patent troll head this week, and it's not just Facebook that has reason to be worried — at least, judging by the extremely broad features that it's being targeted for. Yahoo could easily sue Twitter …

More: Law Blog

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

AOL Has Some Pretty Sweet Patents, Too, Tim Armstrong Tells Wall Street — Yahoo's Facebook lawsuit doesn't seem to have done much for its share price. And it is going over like a lead balloon with the digerati (Union Square Ventures portfolio companies shouldn't expect a Sunnyvale deal anytime soon).

More: A VC, TechCrunch, Washington Post and BGR. Tweets: @zamosta

Julie Bosman / Media Decoder:

After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses — After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print. — Those coolly authoritative, gold-lettered sets of reference books that were once sold door to door by a fleet of traveling salesmen and displayed …

More: Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Wall Street Journal, The Next Web, Howard Lindzon, Reuters, The Verge, Boing Boing, Britannica Blog, Techland, peterme.com, Associated Press, The Daily What, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, Gotta Be Mobile and Daring Fireball. Tweets: @qthrul. See also Mediagazer

James Whittaker / MSDN Blogs:

Why I left Google — Ok, I relent. Everyone wants to know why I left and answering individually isn't scaling so here it is, laid out in its long form. Read a little (I get to the punch line in the 3rd paragraph) or read it all. But a warning in advance: there is no drama here …

More: GeekWire, CNET, Business Insider, FM Signal and Neowin.net. Tweets: @counternotions

Matt McGee / Marketing Land:

Ex-Google+ Engineer: “Sharing Was Not Broken ... Google Just Wasn't Part Of It” — The war of words between Google and Microsoft has gotten personal. — While the two companies have recently been trading shots via ad campaigns and blog posts, today a former Googler — and current Microsoftie …

Hacker News:

New: Apply to Y Combinator without an Idea — Y Combinator is trying an experiment this funding cycle. We're going to have a separate application track for groups that don't have an idea yet. — So if the only thing holding you back from starting a startup is not having an idea for one, now nothing is holding you back.

More: TechCrunch. Tweets: @semil, @lizgannes and @counternotions

Bloomberg:

Apple Said to Be Subpoenaed by U.S. Regulators on Google's Mobile Search — The U.S. Federal Trade Commission subpoenaed Apple Inc. (AAPL) as part of its antitrust probe of Google Inc. (GOOG), seeking information on how the computer maker uses the search engine on the iPhone and iPad, two people familiar with the matter said.

More: IntoMobile, Between the Lines Blog, iPhone, CNET, SlashGear, VentureBeat, SiliconBeat, Mashable!, BetaNews, paidContent, MacRumors, The Next Web, PhoneArena, WebProNews, parislemon, 9to5Mac and Techie Buzz

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:

FTC Subpoenas Apple in Google Antitrust Probe

More: The Next Web, Ars Technica, BGR and iDownloadBlog.com. Tweets: @satariano

Jun Yang / Bloomberg:

Samsung to Supply Apple With IPad Screen After LG, Sharp Miss Requirements — Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) will supply the touch screen for Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s new iPad after LG Display Co. (034220) and Sharp Corp. (6753) didn't meet the U.S. company's quality requirements, according to an analyst with iSuppli.

More: Examiner, The Next Web, 9to5Mac, PadGadget, Gotta Be Mobile, iDownloadBlog.com, Gizmodo UK, MacRumors, CNET, App Advice and Techie Buzz

Nick Bilton / Bits:

AOL Slashes Staff at AIM Unit; Wider Cuts Expected — On Friday, AOL notified more than 40 employees from its West Coast offices that they would be out of jobs by the end of the month. More cuts are scheduled in the coming weeks across AOL, according to a number of executives …

More: Gizmodo, The Verge, Between the Lines Blog, 9to5Mac and Business Insider

Ryan Naraine / Zero Day Blog:

Microsoft warns: Expect exploits for critical Windows worm hole — Summary: Microsoft to Windows administrators: Due to the attractiveness of this vulnerability to attackers, we anticipate that an exploit for code execution will be developed in the next 30 days.

More: TechNet Blogs, Microsoft TechNet, Ars Technica, TechNet Blogs, Ed Bott, ITworld.com, SC Magazine, Help Net Security, Krebs on Security, gHacks Technology News and The Register

Loretta Chao / Wall Street Journal:

Apple Calls Proview Stance ‘Misleading’ — BEIJING—Apple Inc. elaborated on its claim to the iPad trademark in China on Tuesday, saying that the computer maker's opponent in a court battle is “misleading Chinese courts and customers.” — Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu said Proview International Holding Ltd …

More: CNET, MobileBurn.com, MacNN, PhoneArena, The Loop and AppleInsider

Peter Svensson / Associated Press:

AT&T offers quiet settlement with iPhone user — NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T is offering to discuss a settlement to an iPhone user who won a small-claims case that alleged the company was slowing down his “unlimited” data service. — In a letter dated Friday, a law firm retained by AT&T Inc …

More: TechCrunch, CNET, SlashGear and Gotta Be Mobile

Bloomberg:

Zynga Said to Plan Secondary Offering — Zynga Inc. (ZNGA), the social-gaming company that held its initial public offering in December, is planning an offering of additional shares, two people familiar with the matter said. — The move is designed to let Zynga (ZNGA) …

More: Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, Business Insider, VG247 and WebProNews

Tom Curtis / Gamasutra:

Double Fine's record-breaking Kickstarter closes with $3.33M earned — After a bit more than a month, Double Fine's extremely popular Kickstarter campaign has ended with an overall donation pool of $3,335,265, making it one of the highest funded projects in Kickstarter's history.

More: The Verge, The Next Web, Los Angeles Times and Kotaku. Tweets: @glennf

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

To Boost Windows Azure, Microsoft Launches Company's First-Ever Startup Accelerator — Today, Microsoft is launching the first startup accelerator* in the company's history in an effort to encourage more entrepreneurs to build their cloud-based applications using Windows Azure.

More: All about Microsoft Blog and VentureBeat. Thanks:@blonde20

Peter Pachal / Mashable!:

Google Confirms It's Working on Chrome for Windows 8 — Google says it's working on a version of Chrome that will run in the Metro environment of Windows 8. The news follows the revelation that Mozilla is building Firefox for Metro as well. — A Google spokesperson told Mashable …

More: Ars Technica, Techie Buzz, AnandTech, All about Microsoft Blog, Computerworld, Pocket-lint, gHacks Technology News, WebProNews, PC World and The Ed Bott Report Blog

Brandon Griggs / CNN:

Pinterest: Revamped profile pages, iPad app coming soon — Austin, Texas (CNN) — You might excuse Ben Silbermann, co-founder and CEO of photo-sharing site Pinterest, if he looks a little overwhelmed these days. — Pinterest, which encourages users to collect images of their passions …

More: Mashable!, Wall Street Journal and Reuters

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Exclusive: Spotify family plans ‘definitely coming’ — We just caught up with Spotify's chief content officer Ken Parks outside of his “Future of Music” panel here at SXSW, and he told us that Spotify family plans are “definitely coming.” That would fulfill a longstanding request …

More: VentureBeat, SlashGear, PandoDaily and LAPTOP Magazine

Dante D'Orazio / The Verge:

Official BlackBerry PlayBook Mini Keyboard has a trackpad and 30 days of battery life for $119.99 — Now that the BlackBerry PlayBook has a native email client and Documents to Go with update 2.0, users may be finding the on-screen keyboard isn't quite up to snuff for drafting business proposals.

More: Inside BlackBerry …, Engadget, Research in Motion, IntoMobile, Softpedia News, Business Insider, GadgeTell, GigaOM, MobileSyrup.com and SlashGear

Erica Ogg / GigaOM:

IT buyers think beyond the PC: 84% to buy iPads next quarter — Apple's iPad has the almost completely undivided attention of corporate IT departments right now. It's far from the only tablet out there, yet according to a ChangeWave Research survey of 1,604 businesses, IT buyers are interested in little else.

More: Los Angeles Times, ChangeWave Research, CNET, GeekWire, 9to5Mac, eWeek, Wired, VentureBeat, WebProNews, TUAW, FierceWireless, Fortune, PhoneArena and Electronista

Rdio Blog:

Introducing: New Rdio — Welcome to new Rdio. We built it for you — it's faster, simpler, and more social. — New Rdio is a visually beautiful and dynamic way to play Rdio's massive catalogue of 15 million songs. New features include the oft requested drag and drop playlist creation …

More: Mashable!, VentureBeat, BuzzFeed, PC Magazine, Social Markets, Engadget and MacStories

Wall Street Journal:

At Sprint, Directors Watch CEO Closely — Sprint Nextel Corp. chief Dan Hesse is negotiating one of the trickiest high-wire acts in corporate America. And behind the scenes, the company's board of directors is taking an unusually active role to head off missteps amid vocal investor complaints.

More: CNET, GigaOM, Sprintfeed and FierceWireless

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