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7:10 PM ET, December 28, 2006

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Joel Spolsky / Joel on Software:
Bribing Bloggers  —  There's an interesting debate going on about whether bloggers should accept gifts from vendors.  —  Lately Microsoft, working through their PR agency, Edelman, has been getting rather aggressive about trying to buy good coverage from bloggers.
RELATED:
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
I think the Microsoft Vista giveaway is an awesome idea  —  Lots of people like BL Ochman are screaming bloody murder about Microsoft giving bloggers and other influentials free laptops loaded with Windows Vista.  I personally don't get it.  —  That is a GREAT idea.
Marshall Kirkpatrick:
Now Microsoft Wants Its Laptop Back  —  Microsoft and AMD sent out a pile of very expensive (yet trashy looking) laptops to a number of bloggers over the past week.  We were told we could keep them - now after a day of minor outrage by some people they are emailing us back with the following request that we not keep them after all!
Michael Gartenberg:   Lessons from the Ferrari Fiasco
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
News site Digg raises $8.5M more, rejects evidence it has been gamed  —  Digg, the news site that lets users rank stories by voting, has raised $8.5 million in fresh financing from existing backers, putting to rest for now speculation that it might sell to a bigger media player.
RELATED:
Wendy Tanaka / Red Herring:
Digg Raises $8.5 Million  —  New funding might suggest that the news site will remain independent.  —  Digg, the San Francisco-based site that lets users rank news stories, raised $8.5 million from two of its existing investors, according to a report from VentureWire.
easybourse.com:
Web 2.0 Content Provider Digg Raises $8.5 Million In New Funding  —  By Jonathan Shieber Of DOW JONES NEWSLETTERS NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- After spending 2006 riding the crest of the Web 2.0 wave, Digg Inc., which offers a service allowing users to post and prioritize content …
Discussion: GigaOM
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:   No Acquisition For Digg - Raise Series B Round Instead
LeeAnn Prescott / Hitwise US:
Google Blog Search Surpasses Technorati  —  When Google Blog Search launched last year, I wondered if it would surpass Technorati in market share of visits.  This week Hitwise data show that the market share of visits to Google Blog Search surpassed visits to Technorati for the week ending 12/23/06.
RELATED:
Niall Kennedy / Niall Kennedy's Weblog:   Google Blog Search overtakes Technorati's market share according to Hitwise
CNET News.com:
Top ten Apple rumours of all time  —  What do you get when you cross a notoriously tight-lipped computer company with rabidly fanatical users?  A whole lot of gossip, speculation and hearsay, that's what.  Thirty years of Apple Computer has seen the company rise, fall and rise again like a kind …
Discussion: MacUser, Joystiq, Slashdot and Infinite Loop
RELATED:
Peter Rojas / Engadget:
Apple faked files in Steve Jobs stock options scandal  —  It seems that the scandal related to Apple backdating stock options has gotten a little more serious.  According to the Financial Times, in 2001 Steve Jobs was granted 7.5 million stock options without the proper authorization …
Discussion: Seeking Alpha
Richard Waters / Financial Times:
Apple 'falsified' files on Jobs' options
Xeni Jardin / Boing Boing:
Google "disappears" sex blogs?  UPDATED  —  Xeni Jardin: UPDATE (Dec. 28, 12PM ET): Readers have been writing in to say that whatever happened here, the issue appears to be resolved for now — at least for the specific sex blogs cited in this post.  I haven't verified this, but if it's true, great.
Discussion: Search Engine Watch Blog and digg
RELATED:
Tony / Real Talk About Making Real Sex Films:   Will Google Kill Comstock Films?
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0:
HD-DVD AACS hacked  —  A hacker going under the alias "muslix64" has written a utility which is capable of decrypting a AACS (Advanced Access Content System) protected HD-DVD discs.  —  The decryption tool, called BackupHDDVD, is a Java-based command-line utility which decrypts …
Jim Tharpe / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Busy travelers snap up iPods from Hartsfield vending machines  —  Concourse A machine sold $55,000 worth of electronics in a month  —  Anita Leopold has a little surprise for anyone who thinks vending machines were created to dispense lightly salted snack food and sugar-laced temptations.
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Suzuki's Xbox 360-infused SXBox concept vehicle  —  It's not often that companies hit it big twice in a row, but we'd say Suzuki's SXBox concept car is just as nifty (albeit in a very different manner) as its previous carpet-ready ride, the MIO.  Although this is likely a case …
Discussion: You NEWB and Xbox 360 Fanboy
Josh Goldman / CrunchGear:
Amazon.com's Best Of 2006 List Released  —  Amazon.com released its year-end "Best of" lists, which tallies up not only the best-selling items for the site's various stores, but also the most positively reviewed, most wished-for and most frequently purchased as gifts.
Ionut Alex. Chitu / Google Operating System:
Screenshots of Gmail's Mail Fetcher  —  Gmail added a new feature that lets you fetch mail from up to 5 POP3 accounts, but the feature is not yet enabled in all Gmail accounts.  Here's what you'll see:  —  You'll find the mail fetcher in Settings / Accounts.  —  You can add up to 5 accounts.
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Korea considering gold farming regulation  —  A controversial bill proposed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in South Korea aims to control the exchange of virtual currency.  Described by the deputy director of the mMinistry's Game Industry Division as an attempt to …
Carlo / Techdirt:
iPod's Present Popularity Brings Down iTunes Music Store  —  from the i'm-giving-her-all-she's-got-got- captain dept  —  Several well-known retailers' web sites went down during the Thanksgiving weekend when they couldn't keep up with the traffic their promotions were generating.
Discussion: Slashdot
RELATED:
Jordan Robertson / Associated Press:
Online shoppers overwhelm iTunes store
Peter Pachal / SCI FI Tech:
The Eclipse: One hot cell phone, hold the extras  —  If you think cameras, video, and the Internet have no place on a cell phone, designer Rune Larsen is right there with you.  His Eclipse slider phone gets rid of any and all features besides calling, keeping the size down to just a couple of inches with the screen retracted.
Discussion: Gizmodo and I4U News
Gamasutra:
PlayStation 3 Gets Downloadable Tekken 5  —  Previously available only in arcade and PSP formats, Namco Bandai's Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection has been released overseas as a fully digitally distributed PS3 title over Sony's PlayStation Store.  —  First hinted at in a Weekly Famitsu report …
Discussion: You NEWB, Joystiq and PSP Fanboy
Stephen Wellman / InformationWeek Weblog:
Get A Second Life  —  Now that 2006 is fast slipping away, everyone has turned on their nostalgia and is eagerly looking back at the "top" stories of the last 12 months.  I usually find these kinds of pieces interesting, but instead, I want to look at what I think will turn into one of the top trends of 2007.
The Sun:
Talk talk naked  —  NEARLY half of Brits regularly chat to friends and family on their home phone NAKED, a survey has revealed.  —  The poll showed 49 per cent of 600 people questioned were happy to use the phone in their birthday suit.  —  Women are more likely than men to go au naturel …
Discussion: 21talks and Reuters
Louis Hau / Forbes:
Free Music—Next Year?  —  SpiralFrog, the free music downloading service that made a series of splashy announcements in 2006, has yet to get wet.  —  The New York City-based company drew attention in August, when it announced plans to distribute music downloads from Vivendi's Universal Music Group …
David Pogue / New York Times:
Brilliant Ideas That Found a Welcome  —  It may take a village to raise a child, but that's a trivial task compared with the act of bringing a new electronic gadget to market.  —  Marketers determine what the masses want, product managers guide the design, engineers bring the thing to life — it's a lot of cooks.
 
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 More Items: 
Om Malik / GigaOM:
WiFi Chip Makers vs Open Source Software
Reuters:
Gadgets seen as best way to tell white lies
Discussion: Techdirt
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Read the Exchange 2007 small print
Discussion: Ed Brill
Jeremy Toeman / LIVEdigitally:
How to Survive CES: 10 Practical Tips
Discussion: jkOnTheRun
Darren Murph / Engadget:
I-O Data unveils internal / external Vista-approved TV tuners
Discussion: I4U News and PVR Wire
 Earlier Items: 
Chris Winfield / 10e20:
101 Biggest Stories in Search 2006
Pete Cashmore / Mashable!:
Mashable's 2007 Predictions  —  It's now only a few days until 2007 …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
ProfileLinker Takes Meebo Approach to Social Networking
Discussion: The Next Net and Zoli's Blog