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12:50 PM ET, December 9, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Open Handset Alliance:
Open Handset Alliance announces 14 new members  —  The Open Handset Alliance, a group of technology and mobile players, is pleased to announce the membership of 14 additional companies.  By joining the founding members of the Open Handset Alliance, the following companies demonstrate …
RELATED:
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Sprint Getting Closer to Android Phone?  —  Updated: Today Sprint offered the lineup for its upcoming mobile developer's conference on Dec. 10-12, which will include a keynote by Rich Miner, Google's vice president of mobile technology.  While we've known that Sprint was considering Android …
Gmail Blog:
New in Labs: Tasks  —  Posted by Jonathan Terleski, Michael Lancaster, and Brett Lider, Tasks team  —  People use Gmail to get stuff done, so we've added a lightweight way to keep track of what you need to do, right from within Gmail.  —  Take entering a new task: just click in an empty part of your list and start typing.
RELATED:
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PC World:
Microsoft Releases Open-source Content Management App  — Microsoft has released an early version of an open-source content management platform that developers can use to build sophisticated blogs or large Web sites.  —  Called Oxite, its creators describe it as a standards-compliant …
Discussion: The Open Road
RELATED:
Joe Wilcox / Microsoft Watch:
Oxite: Just MIX and Serve
Jeff Sandquist / Microsoft Evangelist:
Supporting Web Standards With Microsoft
Jeremy Kahn / New York Times:
Mumbai Terrorists Relied on New Technology for Attacks  —  MUMBAI, India — The terrorists who struck this city last month stunned authorities not only with their use of sophisticated weaponry but also with their comfort with modern technology.  —  The terrorists navigated across the Arabian Sea …
Aidan Malley / AppleInsider:
Rumor: Apple's iTunes going DRM-free starting Tuesday [u]  —  Apple is believed to be on the verge of an end-of-year push that would start by finally offering unprotected iTunes Store music from all major labels and would switch a special post-holiday campaign giving away music and videos to Europeans.
Bob Walsh / Webware.com:
Appcelerator Titanium puts more Web apps on your desktop  —  The line between Web and desktop apps is getting fuzzier Tuesday, with the preview release of Appcelerator Titanium, platform designed to turn Web app developers into desktop and mobile phone developers.
Discussion: VentureBeat, techno.blog and Ajaxian
RELATED:
Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:
Appcelerator Raises $4.1 Million for Open Source RIA Platform
Discussion: Open Source
Rory Cellan-Jones / dot.life blog:
Kosmix - searching for optimism  —  What's the definition of optimism in these troubled times for the hi-tech economy?  How about starting a business which plans to take on Google from a base in Mountain View, the search giant's home town?  Or maybe ploughing $20m into that business …
Discussion: GigaOM, Tech Beat and paidContent.org
RELATED:
Amanda Kelly / Inside AdWords:
An update to the AdWords alcohol policy  —  As many of you know, we're constantly evaluating our AdWords program policies to keep them current and effective.  This means making changes from time to time by either adding new policies, such as the endangered species policy, or updating existing policies, such as the Display URL policy.
Google Code Blog:
Native Client: A Technology for Running Native Code on the Web  —  Modern PCs can execute billions of instructions per second, but today's web applications can access only a small fraction of this computational power.  If web developers could use all of this power, just imagine the rich, dynamic experiences they could create.
Business Technology:
Tech Spending to Grow 1.6% in 2009  —  Technology spending will grow at its lowest rate in six years in 2009, a research firm said, as businesses shift their buying habits in response to the economic downturn.  —  Businesses and other organizations in the U.S. will spend $573 billion on computer software …
Connie Loizos / PE Hub Blog:
Ex-VC Joins Google's M&A Department  —  Back in 2006, a number of ex-Googlers became full-time investors, including angels Aydin Senkut, Georges Harik and Paul Buchheit (founder of FriendFeed).  —  It would be overstating things to say that the tide has now turned, but at least one former VC …
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
New MacBooks Are Cranky: They Have Insomnia and Hate Third-Party RAM  —  The standard “journalism” rule is that three is trend.  So here's one with the new MacBooks: They've got problems!  Screwy video cards, insomniatic, power-sucking sleep and not playing well with other RAM.
Wall Street Journal:
Yahoo Closer to Naming CEO  —  Yahoo Inc. directors steering the search for a new chief executive are moving closer to a recommendation and have authorized checking references on a few key candidates, say people familiar with the matter, although a decision is likely to be weeks away at the earliest.
Stan Schroeder / Mashable!:
TVLoop.com - Where TV Meets Social Networking  —  If you're an avid Facebook user and TV aficionado, you've probably heard of Watercooler's TVLoop.  It's a Facebook application that brings full TV episodes of many popular shows directly to your Facebook profile; recently …
Discussion: VentureBeat
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Friendster nabs fourth social-networking patent, dozen more pending  —  Friendster was the first modern social network to really gain traction on the web.  But it has lost ground to rivals like MySpace and Facebook over the last five years or so due to a number of missteps.
Discussion: The Social
DisplaySearch:
Strong Mini-Note (Netbook) Shipments Buoy Notebook PC Market in Q3'08; Tier One Product Launches Propel Growth  —  Despite what is looking to be a rather dismal fourth quarter for the PC industry as a whole, one very bright spot has emerged.  The mini-note PC, also called netbook …
Erica Naone / Technology Review:
The Social Life of Routers  —  How a 1960s sociology experiment could hold the key to better Internet routing.  —  Just like an old-fashioned piece of mail, data traveling over the Internet normally follows a predictable path.  As the Internet continues to grow, however …
BBC:
Microsoft Office to debut online  —  Microsoft is preparing web versions of some of its most popular programs.  —  In 2009 web versions of Word, Excel and other programs in the Microsoft Office suite plus Exchange and Sharepoint will go online.  —  Users will be able to get at the programs via …
Adam Frucci / Gizmodo:
FYI: Blending a Charged iPhone Causes Explosions  —  On Saturday at the Gizmodo Gallery, we blended a fully-functioning iPhone with a Blendtec, sacrificing it to the gods of copy and paste.  What we learned was that if you blend an iPhone with its battery inside, it explodes.  Whoops!
 
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 More Items: 
Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
A Web Start-Up Counting on Ad Sales? Good Luck
Philip Blenkinsop / Reuters:
Mobile phone chip to counter radiation unveiled
Discussion: Phone Scoop
BBC:
The mouse hits 40-year milestone
Discussion: Slashdot
PC World:
Novatel Wireless MiFi Puts a Hotspot In Your Pocket
Discussion: FierceWireless
Randy Nelson / Joystiq:
Sony: Home launch ‘imminent,’ will arrive this month in the US
Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
Bringing That Quirky Video Store Clerk to the Web
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Dell, EMC expand storage partnership
 Earlier Items: 
GamesIndustry.biz:
Atari acquires Cryptic Studios
Associated Press:
2 book publishers announce mobile phone plans
Discussion: The Apple Core
Scott M. Fulton, III / BetaNews:
Leaks indicate Microsoft is un-rethinking the Win7 taskbar
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Confused yet?  MySpace updates data-sharing service, fighting Facebook (and Google)
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider and PC World
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Blackbird Is A Custom Browser For African Americans Built On Top Of Mozilla
Discussion: Ars Technica and GreasyGuide.com
Reuters:
Young graduates struggle for Silicon Valley jobs
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Tim Stevens / Engadget:
Contract-laden 3G Acer Aspire One hitting US at just $99?
Ashlee Vance / Bits:
Dell Sees Double With Data Center in a Container
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Spotify is paying hundreds of millions for audiobooks annually; US audiobook users average five more hours on the app in the 60 days after starting a book

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Five ex-Pitchfork journalists launch online music outlet Hearing Things, aiming to capture Pitchfork's independent spirit; subscriptions start at $70 per year

Sophie Culpepper / Nieman Lab:
Kansas City's news nonprofit The Beacon is shutting down its Wichita newsroom, three years after its launch with support from the Wichita Foundation

 
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