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5:00 PM ET, August 18, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Minnie Ingersoll / The Official Google Blog:
Time to “Free the Airwaves”  —  For quite some time we've been talking about the potential of the unused airwaves between broadcast TV channels ("white spaces") to provide affordable, high-speed wireless Internet connectivity nationwide.  For this to happen, the Federal Communications Commission …
RELATED:
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Google Pushes White Space, Says Free The AirWaves  —  Updated: Today, Google is launching a new advocacy campaign, Free The Airwaves, an effort by the company to get some traction around white spaces, the tiny slivers of spectrum that resides in the 700 MHz band spectrum vacated by analog television's switch to digital transmissions.
Amy Schatz / Wall Street Journal:
FCC to Decide in Battle for TV Spectrum  —  As Google, Others Push for Sharing, Broadcasters Fret  —  Landover, Md. — After eight months of testing, a plan to employ unused TV channels to provide cheap, high-speed wireless Internet networks still faces determined opposition and an uncertain future.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Google Uses YouTube To Try To Rally Public Support For WiFi 2.0
Discussion: Ars Technica
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
HTC Dream FCC approved, Android clear for launch?  —  The long rumored HTC Dream handset — once referred to as “The Googlephone” — just received FCC approval.  The handset is listed as type, “Dream' with a model of “DREA100.  ” The same model also appears with a WiFi Interoperability Certificate touting 802.11b/g WiFi.
RELATED:
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Google's Android phone, the HTC Dream, is apparently approved by FCC — Nov. 10 is the latest release date  —  The Federal Communications Commission has approved the much anticipated Google Android phone, and documents suggest a release date of about Nov. 10 at the latest.
Randall Kennedy / Windows Sentinel:
Bursting the Vista sales bubble  —  Our Windows Sentinel tracking data shows that 35 percent of mainly enterprise-class users “downgrade” their Vista systems to XP  —  For weeks now there've been rumors that major PC makers, like Hewlett-Packard, have been quietly selling PCs with a Vista license …
RELATED:
InfoWorld:
New data: 1 in 3 business PCs drop Vista for Windows XP  —  San Francisco - When Microsoft stopped selling new licenses to Windows XP on June 30, it gave users and PC makers a “downgrade” loophole so that those who wanted XP could still get it, even though they still had to buy a Vista license.
Mark Wilson / Gizmodo:
Leaked: Dell Inspiron 910 (Mini Note) Specs and Release Date  —  A few weeks ago we ran some rumored specs of Dell's answer to the Eee, the Dell Inspiron 910 (aka Mini Inspiron and Inspiron Mini).  Now we've gotten our hands on the full (internal) 910 web documentation.
Michael Learmonth / Silicon Alley Insider:
Video Ad Companies: People Love Watching Video Ads!  —  Everyone knows it, so it must be true: Everyone hates pre-roll video ads — the mini-ads that publishers want you to sit through before you actually watch a clip.  We bail out on them constantly, and everyone we know does the same.
Chrix Finne / Google Reader:
Read what they read  —  The Reader team has always been interested in politics, and we use Reader (of course) to stay current on all the political happenings.  As we were reading and sharing amongst ourselves, it got us thinking: what would happen if political newsmakers used Reader too?
Discussion: Mashable!
RELATED:
Android Developers Blog:
Announcing a beta release of the Android SDK  —  I'm pretty happy today, for two reasons.  First, I'm happy because I get to let everyone know that we're releasing a beta SDK.  You can read about the new Android 0.9 SDK beta at the Android Developers' Site, or if you want to get straight to the bits, you can visit the download page.
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Scratch that.  Windows Server 2008 R2 still lives  —  What do you do with a blog post that is so messed up that you can't even go in and edit it in order to fix it?  That's my dilemma with my post from August 15 about Microsoft skipping over Windows Server 2008 R2 and proceeding direct to Windows 7 Server.
RELATED:
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Windows 7 Server to be ‘minor release’
Discussion: Teching It Easy
Arn / MacRumors:
iPhone 3G Connectivity Affecting 2% of Customers?  Software Fix Soon?  —  One MacRumors reader claims to have received a response from Steve Jobs after emailing in a complaint about the current iPhone 3G connectivity issues that have been widely reported.  —  According to the email response …
HP:
HP Lightens the Load for Business Travelers  —  HP today introduced three ultra-portable notebook computers, including a three-pound(1) EliteBook, the smallest and lightest HP notebook with a built-in optical drive.  —  Inspired by aircraft construction and designed for style-conscious mobile professionals …
Discussion: Gizmodo, TechSpot and I4U News
RELATED:
Long Zheng / istartedsomething:
FCC approves Microsoft's unreleased 120GB Zune  —  Ever since Samsung had announced their new 120GB 1.8-inch hard drive in April 2007, Zune fansites has been buzzing with anticipation of a new Zune fitted with the higher capacity drives.  Now the wait is nearly over as the FCC publishes a test report …
Christine Tsai / Google Mobile Blog:
This is a test — ads on YouTube's mobile site  —  Over the past year, we've focused on creating and delivering a full-featured YouTube mobile user experience.  We think we've made great strides in doing this, allowing you to access YouTube wherever you are, whenever you want it.
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
EA revises Take-Two acquisition offer, again  —  Spore isn't the only thing on Electronic Arts' mind.  It still wants Take-Two Interactive.  —  On Monday, CEO John Riccitiello sent an open letter to Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick saying that the company's existing offer to acquire …
RELATED:
Aaron Ricadela / Business Week:
Open Source: An Open Question for Red Hat and Others  —  It's been tough lately for companies like Red Hat and Novell that bet their business on open source.  Here's a look at the haves and the have-nots  —  Software supplier Red Hat is racking up growth figures that much of techdom might envy.
 
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 More Items: 
Tim Anderson / The Register:
Microsoft Silverlight: 10 reasons to love it, 10 reasons to hate it
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
Not The Typical Quarter: Newspaper Websites' Revenue Growth …
Discussion: AdAge and Lost Remote
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Where Are We In The Hype Cycle?
Discussion: PSFK
Prince McLean / AppleInsider:
Apple Enterprise sending thousands of Macs into hotels, cruise ships
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Intel on what computers ought to be able to do
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Nokia helps port Firefox to Qt
Jeff Smykil / Infinite Loop:
Apple building fire caused $2 million in damages
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Might Office be where Microsoft gets socked with Chinese antitrust charges?
 Earlier Items: 
Jeremiah Owyang / Web Strategy:
Web Strategy: The Evolution of Brands on Twitter
Discussion: CostPerNews
Steven Musil / CNET News.com:
Bono blamed for unreleased U2 songs on Internet
John C. Drake / Boston Globe:
Judge awaits students' research paper
Discussion: CNET News.com
John Timmer / Ars Technica:
Evolution of DRM: streaming services use unencrypted MP3s
BBC:
Clipboards hijacked in web attack
Wall Street Journal:
AC/DC to Sell New Album Only Through Wal-Mart