Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
8:00 PM ET, December 19, 2008

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Wall Street Journal:
Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits  —  After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy.  —  The decision represents …
RELATED:
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:   RIAA president: No talk of blacklisting file sharers
David Kravets / Threat Level:
No ISP Filtering Under New RIAA Copyright Strategy
Discussion: The Register
Fred von Lohmann / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
RIAA v. The People Turns from Lawsuits to 3 Strikes
Discussion: CNET News
Times Online / Tech Central:
Is the internet going down?  Undersea sub-cables have just broken...  Breaking news: something's happening to the internet, right now.  We're just not quite sure what.  —  Interoute, the internet networks company, reports that three of the four internet sub-cables that run from Asia to North America have been damaged.
Discussion: The Toybox, Neowin.net and Engadget
RELATED:
fibresystems.org:
3 cables cut this morning (Sea Me We3 partly + Sea Me We4 + FLAG)France Telecom Marine cable ship about to depart  —  PARIS — France Telecom observed today that 3 major underwater cables were cut: “Sea Me We 4” at 7:28am, “Sea Me We3” at 7:33am and FLAG at 8:06am.
Discussion: Threat Level and timesofmalta.com
Bloomberg:
Severed Cables in Mediterranean Disrupt Communication  —  A A A  —  Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) — Internet and telephone communications between the Middle East and Europe were disrupted after three submarine cables between Italy and Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea were damaged.
comScore:
comScore Releases November 2008 U.S. Search Engine Rankings  —  comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace.  In November 2008, Americans conducted 12.3 billion core searches …
RELATED:
T-Marco / Cell Phone Signal:
T-Mobile G2 coming on January 26th '09  —  Yesterday we told you about the new update coming to T-Mobile G1.  This update will include new features like mms, and video capable.  Unfortunately, some features will not be including for the G1.  Instead, they will be include in feature Android devices..oops.. That's right!
Spencer E. Ante / Business Week:
A Wrench in Silicon Valley's Wealth Machine  —  A year ago, cash rained on tech startups like Digg.  Now their valuations are slipping, and venture capital is drying up  —  A year ago there were reports that Digg had hired investment bank Allen & Co. to put the popular news aggregation Web site …
RELATED:
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Report: Digg still mining for profits
Discussion: Lonely CEO Media
Dave / MacBlogz:
One More Thing: Apple's New Multi-touch Mighty Mouse  —  Let's face it, the Mighty Mouse is flawed.  Luckily, Apple has filed for numerous patents directly hinting at a multi-touch Mighty Mouse, which could prove to bring us an unexpected treat sometime in the near future.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Meebo Passes IMs Between MySpace And Facebook  —  MySpace and Facebook may be frenemies forever, but now they have a new mutual friend that will pass notes between them.  Meebo, the Web-based IM service, now supports IM accounts from both social networks.  That means you can enter your Facebook …
RELATED:
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:   AOL using AIM chat to boost Bebo, challenge Meebo
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
UPDATED: Palm doesn't confirm Nova launch at CES, but they may as well have  —  Use a Palm phone?  Like the idea of Nova?  We hope so, because the company revealed in its earnings call yesterday that it'd be transitioning its entire lineup over to the new, homegrown platform …
Discussion: Business Wire, Phone Scoop and Gearlog
RELATED:
Sascha Segan / PC Magazine:
Palm CEO Confirms ‘Nova’ OS Is in the Wild
Discussion: Industry Standard
english.etnews.co.kr:
Samsung Electronics will launch Google Phone in Q2  —  Samsung Electronics will release its first Google phone in the second quarter of the next year in North America.  —  The launch of Google phone by Samsung is regarded as a signal of its plan for increasing the shares in the smart phone market …
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google's Secret Revenue Weapon Revealed (GOOG)  —  All quarter long, Wall Street has been trying to figure out why Google has introduced a slew of new revenue-generating products and suddenly developed new religion with regard to costs.  The obvious answer is that Google is light on revenue and desperately trying to make the quarter.
Discussion: HipMojo.com
Steve Poland:
Evan - Twitter needs a better policy on Usernames  —  I have a bunch of Twitter usernames — I gobbled them up in March 2007.  I'd consider them some of the “quality” ones.  Almost like the domain game of 1995, I grabbed some of the best Twitter usernames, because I could see value in their use in the future.
Arn / MacRumors:
Evidence that Next iMacs and Mac Minis to use NVIDIA Chipsets  —  Configuration files buried within some versions of Mac OS X show evidence that the next iMac and Mac Mini will indeed be based on the NVIDIA MCP79 chipset.  Apple recently switched their MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models to the NVIDIA chipsets in October.
Alexis Madrigal / Wired Science:
Google Shutters Its Science Data Service  —  Google will shutter its highly-anticipated scientific data service in January without even officially launching the product, the company said in an e-mail to its beta testers.  —  Once nicknamed Palimpsests, but more recently going by the staid name …
Discussion: Google Watch
Alan Stafford / PC World:
New eBook Reader Undercuts Kindle, Sony Reader Prices  —  Amazon's Kindle electronic book reader costs $359—but you can't get one until at least February.  Sony's PRS-700BC costs $399—also pretty darn costly.  But Foxit Software will soon begin shipping an eBook reader that costs only slightly more than half what Sony's reader does.
RELATED:
Agence France Presse:
Japanese seek to scrap Google's Street View  —  TOKYO (AFP) - A group of Japanese journalists, professors and lawyers demanded Friday that the US Internet search giant Google scrap its “Street View” service in Japan, saying it violates people's privacy.  —  Google launched Street View …
Eric Lai / Computerworld:
Lenovo to release ThinkPad laptop with 2 LCD screens  —  The 11-lb.  W700ds is ‘the nitro-burning drag racer’ version of the button-downed business laptop, Lenovo exec says  —  Computerworld) Lenovo Group Ltd. today announced the release of a ThinkPad laptop that takes the “desktop replacement” …
Michelle Maltais / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
New question for iPod: Am iDrunk?  —  These days, the iPod can be many things.  A musical instrument, a gaming device, a phone, a taxi hailer, a trail tracker.  —  Apparently, it can also be an alcohol breathalyzer.  —  With iBreath, a $79 accessory that plugs into the base of the iPod, you can perform your own field sobriety test.
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 8:00 PM ET, December 19, 2008.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Techmeme Sponsor Posts: 
Airtable:
3 bold predictions for the future of Product Management  —  Do you know how to set up your product organization for success as you embrace AI transformation to supercharge your operations?  Learn how to win with Airtable.
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.
Zoho:
ProTips: 5 strategies to enhance your customer engagement with an SMS extension  —  It's crucial for every business to stay connected with customers and leads in every medium.  Maximizing the potential …
Notion:
Get up to 6 months free of Notion with unlimited AI  —  Notion is trusted and loved by thousands of startups as their connected workspace—from building product roadmaps to tracking fundraising.  Build and scale your company with one tool!
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: 
Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report:
iPhone 3G goes on sale for two weeks only at Best Buy Mobile
Discussion: PMP Today and IntoMobile
Matt Richtel / Bits:
Job Losses Hit the Tech Sector (At Long Last)
Rory Cellan-Jones / dot.life blog:
Five grand for Sock And Awe
Abbey Klaassen / AdAge:
Google Leads in Ad-Serving Share
Discussion: Microsoft Pri0
Sean O'Malley / The Official Google Blog:
New search-by-style options for Google Image Search
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
YouTube's Music Videos: Popular, Money-Losing. For Now.
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Google: Is The Search Ad Business In Trouble?
Discussion: Clickety Clack
Colin Barras / New Scientist:
Fat fingers no problem with ‘see-through’ touchscreen
Discussion: Engadget
 Earlier Items: 
David Meyer / CNET News:
Google reveals upcoming Android features
Discussion: TECH.BLORGE.com and Obsessable
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Lloyd Braun's Not Going to Take It Anymore: “I Am Not an Umbrella …
Discussion: Valleywag
Richard Siklos / Fortune:
For media, the year that wasn't
Andy Greenberg / Forbes:
Seeking Obama's Cyber Czar
Stephen Shankland / Webware.com:
Search results show Delicious remains a tech niche
Discussion: delicious blog
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Chilling Effects: Another Mixtape Provider Shut Down
Discussion: Epicenter