Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
10:50 PM ET, April 20, 2007

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
BBC:
Blackberry reveals failure cause  —  The maker of the Blackberry wireless e-mail device says an insufficiently tested software upgrade was the cause of this week's network failure.  —  Blackberry's US and North American users lost their service on Tuesday and Wednesday as a result of the problem.
RELATED:
Ian Austen / New York Times:
R.I.M. Offers a Reason for BlackBerry Failure  —  The installation of an insufficiently tested piece of software set off a chain reaction that eventually cut off BlackBerry service to more than five million users in North America users, the devices' maker said late Thursday.
Valleywag:
PODCASTING: Battle over — and Apple won  —  Can we officially declare the end of the podcasting boom?  Sure, internet users will continue to subscribe to audio files, the experience will become ever more like interactive radio, and existing broadcasters will supply their programs in chunks — just like the visionaries predicted.
RELATED:
Dave Winer / Scripting News:
Oh Valleywag
Discussion: The Last Podcast
Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:
Amazon Sues Alexaholic...Everyone Loses  —  Alan Graham published a great account of my discussion with Jeff Bezos about Alexaholic (now Statsaholic at the Web 2.0 Expo on Monday.  Entitled Amazon sues Alexaholic...Everyone Loses, Alan's blog entry does a good job of summarizing the the conversation …
Stefanie Olsen / CNET News.com:
Google draws privacy complaint to FTC  —  Three public-interest groups are expected to file a joint complaint on Friday with the Federal Trade Commission calling for an investigation into the potential threat to consumer privacy posed by Google's planned acquisition of DoubleClick.
Karen / Official Google Blog:
Collaborating with Marratech  —  As a company, we thrive on casual interactions and spontaneous collaboration.  So we're excited about acquiring Marratech's video conferencing software, which will enable from-the-desktop participation for Googlers in videoconference meetings wherever there's an Internet connection.
RELATED:
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Video reasons for Google-Marratech deal
Ron Nixon / New York Times:
U.S. Database Exposes Social Security Numbers  —  The Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of people who received loans or other financial assistance from two Agriculture Department programs were disclosed for years in a publicly available database, raising concerns about identity theft and other privacy violations.
Discussion: Techdirt and Boing Boing
Pete Cashmore / Mashable!:
MySpace News...Kinda Sucks  —  Update: Ironically, I just saw this post at the top of MySpace News.  Feel free to vote for it.  —  Mashable was the first blog to announce the imminent launch of MySpace News on Wednesday evening, but now the site is live, it seems to, well, suck a little bit.
RELATED:
Owen Thomas / Business 2.0 Beta:
Rupert, the Cowardly Internet Lion
AppleInsider:
Target stores to pick up Apple TV  —  Big-box retailer Target is poised to become the next third-party retailer to market Apple Inc.'s new Apple TV device at its brick-and-mortar retail stores, AppleInsider has learned.  —  The bullseye-themed shop will join Best Buy, which agreed to cary …
Winda Benedetti / MSNBC:
Were video games to blame for massacre?  —  Pundits rushed to judge industry, gamers in the wake of shooting  —  Jack Thompson, a Florida attorney and opponent of violent video games, said Va. Tech gunman Cho Seung-Hui played 'Counter-Strike,' Valve Software's popular multiplayer game.
Discussion: Game | Life, Kotaku, PE HUB, Neowin.net and digg
Kelly Yamanouchi / Denver Post:
Southwest reaching for Wi-Fi in sky  —  Southwest Airlines is exploring how to put Wi-Fi Internet service on its airplanes, as the no-frills carrier seeks to add some frills.  —  Southwest plans to outfit a few planes with in-cabin wireless Internet service that would "allow for e-mail …
BBC:
Users force Dell to resurrect XP  —  Responding to customer demand Dell has restarted selling new PCs with Windows XP installed on them.  —  The decision reverses a policy begun in January that meant Windows Vista was the only operating system available on almost all new home machines.
Discussion: Gadget Lab, Techdirt and Technovia
alarm:clock:
Podcast Advertising Firm PodBridge Raises $8.5M More  —  By most accounts podcast advertising has been very disappointing.  There is just not enough podcast listeners for advertisers to scale as they can with Adsense or other buys.  But a couple of research groups keep publishing glowing reports about the future.
Cathryn Atkinson / Globe and Mail:
Internet hosts should be made to pay for libellous statements, suit contends  —  The hosts of the speed-of-light world of Internet blogs and interactive websites that publish anonymous commentary should be forced to pay when reputations are damaged, says a former Green Party staff member who is suing three such sites.
Discussion: WebProNews
RELATED:
Mike / Techdirt:
Google, Wikipedia Sued By Politician Confused About How The Internet Works
Discussion: robhyndman.com
John Battelle / John Battelle's Searchblog:
NEWS ANALYSIS: MICROSOFT GENERAL COUNSEL ON DOUBLECLICK AND ANTITRUST  —  I had an interesting call today with Brad Smith, the general counsel of Microsoft.  I was eager to understand Microsoft's position on the Google/Doubleclick deal, and to parse the issues swirling around the companies decision to …
Discussion: alarm:clock and Search Engine Land
Gizmodo:
Override Your Buddy's Lame Ringtone  —  This is just a practical joke waiting to happen.  Emotive got the funding they needed—$7.7 million—from a variety of investors, including Warner Music Group, to create a product that can override the callee's ringtone.  It is called a "Push Ringer."
Tom / New Scientist Technology Blog:
Seeing through walls  —  Have you considered that someone could be reading what's on your monitor from a few rooms away?  It's unlikely, but possible, as work by Cambridge University computer security researcher Markus Kuhn shows.  —  A radio antenna and radio receiver - equipment totalling less than £1000 - is all you need.
Discussion: Slashdot
Ogle Earth:
Oh the irony: Google Earth ban in Sudan is due to US export restrictions  —  I've been sending emails to people located in Sudan asking if they could corroborate the Sudan aid worker's strange report of no longer being able to download copies of Google Earth locally, though still being able to access the data servers.
Discussion: Compiler
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 10:50 PM ET, April 20, 2007.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Techmeme Sponsor Posts: 
Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Zoho:
Meet Taz: Your virtual assistant in Zoho Cliq  —  Imagine this: You're a professional, constantly juggling a million things at once.  Deadlines sneak up on you, important details slip through the cracks, and your to-do list seems to grow by the second.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Sponsor Techmeme
 
 See Also: 
Techmeme: site main
Techmeme River: reverse chronological Techmeme
Techmeme Mobile: for phones
Techmeme Leaderboard: Techmeme's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
Techmeme RSS feed
Techmeme on X
Techmeme on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Bryan Eisenberg / Conversion Rate Marketing Blog:
Shame on WSJ For Not Asking What Nielsen Is Smoking
Ina Fried / CNET News.com:
Vista's not doing THAT bad
Thomas Ptacek / Matasano Chargen:
Hot Off The Matasano SMS Queue: CanSec Macbook Challenge Won
John K / Got Ads?:
Why Can't Yahoo Compete?  —  Yahoo reported yet another depressingly weak quarter.
Brian Caulfield / Forbes:
MetroPCS Dials Up IPO
Discussion: MSNBC and GigaOM
Jeff Sandquist:
The Mix BlogZone  —  During Mix my team will be filming a variety …
Discussion: Channel 9 and Paul Mooney
Emily Price / Download Squad:
Mix up your photos with Mixercast
Discussion: Webware.com
Mark Henderson / Times of London:
Yahoo! sued over torture of Chinese dissident
Discussion: IP Democracy
 Earlier Items: 
Gizmodo:
Helio Disconnecting EVDO/WiFi Service
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
Stephen Colbert finally drops a Google bomb
James Kendrick / jkOnTheRun:
HTC Shift is appearing in the wild
Discussion: Mobility Site
Hardware News:
Microsoft slams iPhone as irrelevant
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
STUMBLEUPON LAUNCHING SITE-SPECIFIC STUMBLING