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7:00 AM ET, October 31, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Court Greatly Limits Software And Business Method Patents  —  from the huge-victory-for-innovation dept  —  I don't say this often, but it looks like the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) — or “the patent court” — got a big one mostly right.
RELATED:
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:   Appeals court deals severe blow to business method patents
Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:
Talks Over Google-Yahoo Search Deal Fail to Progress  —  The likelihood that Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. will walk away from their planned search partnership has risen, say people familiar with the matter.  —  The two Internet companies have so far failed to reach an agreement on their partnership …
RELATED:
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Is Google Playing Chicken With the Justice Department?
Discussion: Techdirt
Reuters:
Yahoo, Google may walk away from search deal: reports
Discussion: Search Engine Journal
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Apple hires top IBM chip designer and blade server guru  —  Apple's decision to hire Mark Papermaster away from IBM could mean that its Xserve lineup is taking on a more prominent role.  —  (Credit: Apple)  —  Updated throughout at 4:55 p.m. PT with additional details and comment from IBM.
RELATED:
John Markoff / New York Times:
I.B.M. Sues to Block Executive's Move to Apple
Discussion: Edible Apple
Michael Calore / webmonkey:
OMG!  Gmail Adds SMS Chat  —  Users of Google's Gmail service can now send text message chats to mobile phones using the webapp's built-in Chat feature.  —  Google is adding the experimental functionality through Gmail Labs.  To turn it on, go to the Labs tab within Gmail's settings.
Discussion: Profy and CostPerNews
RELATED:
Google Watch:
Google Now Lets You Text Message from Gmail  —  Because we can't get enough new Gmail features, Google today rolled out a Gmail Labs feature that lets you send text messages from your Gmail chat window.  —  I got a hands-on demo of this simple, but useful feature from Gmail Product Manager Keith Coleman …
Discussion: Webware.com
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Google Now Indexes Scanned Documents  —  Google has announced that it will now begin including scanned documents in its search results - a feat that requires an immense amount of processing power and advanced image recognition technology.  Unlike standard text documents …
Discussion: GigaOM
RELATED:
Kurt Mackey / Ars Technica:
More on the Windows 7 UI: new taskbar will be mandatory  —  While we haven't yet gotten our hands on a Windows 7 build with the new taskbar, we did talk to Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky about the various UI changes and what we can expect at release time.  —  It's not a surprise …
Discussion: OSNews
Charlie Sorrel / Gadget Lab:
8 Things to Expect in the Next iPhone Update  —  One of the great things about the iPhone is the regular software updates.  Free and automatic improvements are piped, hot and steaming, to your pocket computer.  —  We don't know exactly when the next version of the iPhone operating system …
Arn / MacRumors:
Opera Browser Not Allowed in iPhone App Store  —  The NY Times profiles Opera Software, the company that distributes the Opera browser for multiple platforms.  According to the article, however, Apple is not allowing an iPhone version of the browser into the App Store:
The Official Google Blog:
What we learned from 1 million businesses in the cloud  —  The reliability of cloud computing has been a hot topic recently, partly because glitches in the cloud don't happen behind closed doors as with traditional on-premises solutions for businesses.  Instead, when a small number …
Paul Buchheit / FriendFeed Blog:
Share your FriendFeed activity on Twitter  —  We want to make it easier for you to share your FriendFeed activity on the web services you're already using.  Now you can publish your FriendFeed updates directly to Twitter.  —  To enable this feature, go to your Account page and find the 'Post …
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
Google Clarifies Its OpenID Implementation  —  Update: We've been contacted by members of the OpenID community who argue that we've mischaracterized the controversy in this post.  Additional complications not discussed here include the now-ceased process of whitelisting domains that could use Google OpenID.
RELATED:
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Study: Google runs more than 10 million Web sites  —  There's no doubt Google is a vast power on the Internet, but because the company uses its own software to host Web sites, it's possible to see just how powerful.  —  Specifically, Google operates about 10.5 million Web sites in October …
Jacobs School Computer Science and Engineering News:
Keys Can be Copied From Afar, Jacobs School Computer Scientists Show  —  UC San Diego computer scientists have built a software program that can perform key duplication without having the key.  Instead, the computer scientists only need a photograph of the key.
PBS:
Azure Blues: Microsoft and the electric power industry have a lot in common.  —  It isn't very often I get to apply Moore's Law to a non-Information Technology business and rarer still that I can then relate the whole thing back to Microsoft, so I'm going for it.  Here's what the solar power industry can teach us about Microsoft:
Discussion: Microsoft Watch
Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:
Hard Times?  Not for iPhone Developers  —  Job seekers struggling to land gigs during the economic downturn are going to wish they had iPhone programming skills.  —  The demand for iPhone developers worldwide has grown 500 percent in the past six months, according to oDesk, an outsourcing firm for technology jobs.
Discussion: Listening Post and Edible Apple
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
BlackBerry Curve 8900 First Impressions (Kills the Original)  —  RIM excels at many things, but keeping secrets ain't one of 'em, so we'd eyeballed the BlackBerry Curve 8900 (nee Javelin) quite a bit before this AT&T-branded one dropped in our laps.  It's a Bolder version of the current Curve …
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Pirate Bay Talk: How To Dismantle a Billion Dollar Industry  —  Pirate Bay co-founders Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij gave a keynote speech at the Hack In The Box Security Conference 2008, entitled “How to dismantle a billion dollar industry - as a hobby.”  The two discuss how The Pirate Bay grew …
Discussion: digg.com
John Kennedy / Silicon Republic:
BlackBerry Storm price plans revealed  —  Vodafone today revealed the price plans for the much-anticipated BlackBerry Storm device that will enter the market just in time for Christmas.  The device will come with mobile TV and music downloads included.  —  The new BlackBerry …
Discussion: I4U News and Engadget Mobile
Sam Diaz / Between the Lines:
Sun posts $1.67 billion loss on write-off  —  updated: Sun Microsystems reported a loss for the first quarter of its fiscal 2009 year of $1.67 billion, or $2.24 per share, on revenue for $2.99 billion, down from $3.22 billion for the first quarter of 2008 (statement).
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
True Ventures Bets $2.35 Million On Syncplicity  —  San Francisco based Syncplicity, a startup who entered the crowded market of online storage and file synchronization service providers last April, has raised $2.35 million in Series A funding from True Ventures and other private investors …
 
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 More Items: 
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Facebook May Be Growing Too Fast.  And Hitting The Capital Markets Again.
PR Newswire:
Sprint-Nextel Severs Its Internet Connection to Cogent Communications
Discussion: GigaOM and WebProNews
Sam Churchill / dailywireless.org:
Intel & Taiwan Develop Moblin WiMAX
Discussion: InformationWeek and Intel
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0:
Does anyone expect Apple's ads to be truthful?
Discussion: Infinite Loop
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
MTV Bleeps File Sharing Software Out Of Music Videos
Discussion: Slashdot
 Earlier Items: 
Declan McCullagh / CNET News:
Where have Silicon Valley's Republicans gone?
Discussion: The 463 and GOP.com
Stephanie Condon / CNET News:
The first wiki president? Obama adviser votes ‘yea’
Discussion: PC Magazine
David Pogue / Pogue's Posts:
The MacBook Makeover  —  Apple's bestselling MacBook laptop just got its 2008 makeover.
Discussion: Social Media
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Google to AdSense users: Please don't dump us in crap economic times
Discussion: AppScout and SitePoint Blogs
Chloe Albanesius / PC Magazine:
Motorola Delays Cell-Phone Spinoff, Drops Platforms
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Sewell Chan / Columbia Journalism Review:
Mariel Garza, editorials editor of the Los Angeles Times, resigns after the outlet's owner blocked the editorial board's plans to endorse Harris for president

David Folkenflik / NPR:
A look at what Donald Trump says he will do to the media if elected, including jailing reporters, investigating TV networks, and taking their licenses away

Eric Newcomer / Newcomer:
Eric Newcomer, founder of the Newcomer newsletter on startups and VCs, marks its four-year anniversary and says he expects $1M in profit on $2M in 2024 revenue

 
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