Techmeme: U.S. Internet Users Pay More for Slower Service (Susan Crawford/Bloomberg)

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December 31, 2012, 3:35 AM

Top News

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Game Over: Zynga Shuts Down PetVille And 10 Other Titles To Cut Costs — Executing the cost-reduction plan CEO Mark Pincus announced in November, Zynga has shut down, pulled from the app stores, or stopped accepting new players to 11 games, with some turning off today.

Tweets: @adamdempsey, @carnage4life and @brettwdiamond. Thanks:@ryanlawler

Nick Bilton / NYT Bits:

Disruptions: The Real Hazards of E-Devices on Planes — A pilot uses the FlySmart with Airbus app on an Apple iPad. The F.A.A. has no proof that electronic devices can harm a plane's avionics, but it still perpetuates such claims. — Over the last year, flying with phones and other devices has become increasingly dangerous.

More: Gawker, The Verge and Gizmodo. Tweets: @brianstelter

Hunter Walk / Elapsed Time:

Trying to be the one true social graph is like trying to hold water in your fist — Facebook needed to buy Instagram because it was creating a mobile-first photo-centric social network. Snapchat is interesting to Facebook because it's creating a mobile-first ephemeral content social network.

More: TechCrunch and Business Week. Tweets: @davemcclure, @joshconstine and @elizakern

Josh Miller / Medium:

Tenth Grade Tech Trends

Tweets: @hunterwalk, @mathewi, @grobertson and @joshm

Sebastien Page / iDownloadBlog:

Hackulous shuts down: piracy app Installous is gone — In what seems like a small victory against app piracy, the Hackulous team announced today on its site that it is shutting down, bringing down its most popular apps in the process: Installous and AppSync.

More: TechCrunch and App Advice. Tweets: @idannyocean

Susan Crawford / Bloomberg:

U.S. Internet Users Pay More for Slower Service — Terry Huval is a large, friendly man with a lilting Southern accent who plays Cajun fiddle tunes in his spare time. He is also the director of utilities in Lafayette, Louisiana. “Our job is making sure we listen to our citizens,” he says.

Tweets: @esotericbuddha, @klonkadonk, @aawayne and @pkfranz

Steve Stecklow / Reuters:

Exclusive: Huawei partner offered embargoed HP gear to Iran — (Reuters) - A major Iranian partner of Huawei Technologies offered to sell at least 1.3 million euros worth of embargoed Hewlett-Packard computer equipment to Iran's largest mobile-phone operator in late 2010, documents show.

More: CNET, Gizmodo, Electronista, AllThingsD, TechCrunch and ZDNet

Josh Ong / The Next Web:

Yahoo completes its planned exit from South Korea — True to its word, Yahoo has pulled out of the South Korean market by the end of 2012, as noted by the Yonhap News Agency. A notice on the company's site provides detailed instructions to users on when exactly all of its services will go dark …

More: Yonhap News Agency, CNET, TechCrunch and Electronista. Tweets: @kowiana

Martin Bryant / The Next Web:

Foursquare updates privacy policy to show users' full names publicly and share more data with venues — Foursquare has sent an email to its users detailing changes to its privacy policy that are due to come into effect late next month. — The company says that the changes are aimed at making …

More: TechCrunch, Foursquare, CNET, Business Insider, PC Magazine, AllThingsD, Electronista, The Verge, Engadget, FierceMobileContent News, Android Phone Fans, Mashable!, TweakTown News and About Foursquare

Emil Protalinski / The Next Web:

Google blocks TwitPic over alleged malware, causing Chrome to deny access to some Twitter pages [Update: Fixed] — Google's malware checker on Sunday has for some reason detected TwitPic.com as a threat. As a result, if you try to access the site from Google.com using any browser (link), you'll get a malware warning.

More: CNET, The Verge, BrowserFame, BGR India, The Hacker News and Mashable!

Tweets: @twitpic, @twitpic, @declanm and @tomwarren

Dave McClure:

Why Menus Suck + Other Deep Thoughts on the Food Tech Revolution. — abstract: menus suck. … everyone eats, everyone is online; what the hell we waiting for? — disclosure: 500 Startups is an investor in E la Carte, and other food-tech startups like Blissmo, Chewse, ClubW, CraftCoffee …

More: Business Insider. Thanks:@davemcclure

Matt Burns / TechCrunch:

Kim Dotcom To Host Mega's Launch Event At His New Mega Zealand Mansion Next Month — Kim Dotcom doesn't do things small. The man behind the Megaupload empire is about to launch his next service dubbed simply Mega. But don't expect a simple press event in a hotel conference room.

Tweets: @kimdotcom and @kimdotcom

Salman Masood / New York Times:

Pakistan Lifts YouTube Ban, for 3 Minutes — ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A ban on YouTube, which Pakistan imposed after an anti-Islam video caused riots in much of the Muslim world, was lifted Saturday, only to be reinstated — after three minutes — when it was discovered that blasphemous material was still available on the site.

More: The Express Tribune, CNET, The Truth Journal, TechCrunch, Times of India, Examiner, Social Barrel, AllThingsD, The Verge, Electronista, CHINAdaily, The Lede and Business Insider

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