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10:00 AM ET, January 15, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google Ends Google Video Uploads, Shutters Notebook, Catalog Search, Dodgeball & Jaiku  —  Google's announced they're closing or ceasing development of a variety of products as part of an already continuing move to keep efforts focused on other products with greater usage.
RELATED:
Vic Gundotra / Google Code Blog:
Changes for Jaiku and Farewell to Dodgeball and Mashup Editor  —  Google has long believed that thoughtful iteration is the best way to build useful products for our users.  As part of that process, we are always looking for ways to better focus our teams on the products that can have the most impact.
Laszlo Bock / The Official Google Blog:
Changes to recruiting  —  As we made clear during our last quarterly earnings call in October, Google is still hiring but at a reduced rate.  Given the state of the economy, we recognized that we needed fewer people focused on hiring.  —  Our first step to address this was to wind down almost …
Raj Krishnan / Notebook Blog:
Stopping development on Google Notebook  —  At Google, we're constantly working to innovate and improve our products so people can easily find and manage information.  At times though, we have to decide where to focus our efforts and which technologies we expect will yield the most benefit to users in the long run.
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Google's new years revolution: Six products slashed or maimed  —  Well, Google picked a good day to announce layoffs and kill a bunch of products.  While everyone is busy reading about Apple chief executive Steve Jobs' leave of absence for health related issues, Google has more or less killed six of its products.
Discussion: Guardian and TECH.BLORGE.com
Michael Cohen / Google Video Blog:
Turning Down Uploads at Google Video
Discussion: silicon.com and NewTeeVee
Owen Thomas / Gawker:
Google's Loss of Innocence: 100 Jobs Cut
Discussion: Bits and Search Engine Land
The Official Google Blog:
Changes to engineering  —  At Google we recognized early …
Discussion: APC
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
Google killing Jaiku, Dodgeball, Notebook, other projects
Discussion: the Econsultancy blog
Google Book Search Blog:   Farewell, Google Catalog Search
Apple:
Apple Media Advisory  —  Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple employees:  —  Team,  —  I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community.  Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues …
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Tim Cook: the man in Steve Job's shoes  —  Apple Inc. founder and chief executive Officer Steve Jobs is prone to fits of passion, table pounding and screaming.  —  Tim Cook, who will oversee the company while Jobs takes medical leave, never raises his voice.  Still, Cook's management style won't be a shift for employees.
Discussion: Digits and Gadget Lab
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Steve Jobs Takes Leave (AAPL)
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Jobs Health Concerns Related to Food Absorption, Not Cancer?
John Carney / Silicon Alley Insider:
Apple Shareholders Suits Coming In 10, 9, 8, 7...
Discussion: dot.life blog
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Fake Steve Jobs Banned From CNBC For Life  —  Newsweek's Dan Lyons — “Fake Steve Jobs” — is banned from CNBC for life because of his appearance on the cable network earlier this evening, we have learned.  —  In a special report about Steve Jobs' stepping down from day-to-day operations at Apple …
RELATED:
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
On Apple Reporting: Fake Steve Rips CNBC a New One  —  When this rumor broke we got raked across the coals by Jimbo over sources.  Wrongly.  UPDATE: Video clip of Fake Steve Jobs asking Jim to apologize on CNBC.  Now he's banned.  —  Here's Dan Lyons, AKA, Fake Steve Jobs on CNBC …
WebOS Arena:
Best Buy to be Palm Pre's exclusive retailer  —  We received news from a credible source that Best Buy Mobile will be getting an exclusive deal with Sprint for the Palm Pre release.  For 60 days the number one consumer electronics retailer will be the only place where you can get your hands on the Palm Pre, besides Sprint of course.
Nick Wingfield / Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft Is Exploring Job Cuts  —  Microsoft Corp. is seriously exploring significant work force reductions that could be announced as early as next week, in a sign that the weak economy is prompting tough decisions even at one of the steadiest ships in the technology industry.
Agence France Presse:
PC shipments up just 1.1 percent in fourth quarter: Gartner  —  WASHINGTON - Worldwide shipments of personal computers grew by just 1.1 percent in the fourth quarter compared with a year ago, the worst growth rate since 2002, market research firm Gartner reported Wednesday.
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
RELATED:
Craig Simms / CNET News:
Dell 2209WA  —  Design and features  —  Dell's 2209WA is a screen, we expect, that will be snapped up rather quickly.  It's an eIPS based, 22-inch screen with a resolution of 1,680x1,050, 300cd/m⊃2; brightness, 1,000:1 typical contrast ratio monitor, with a 6ms grey-to-grey response time — and it's only AU$459.
Discussion: Engadget
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
How Warner Music Killed Facebook Music  —  Facebook's ongoing effort to launch a free streaming music service is stalled, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.  The company was close to a deal that would bring free streaming music from three of the four big labels …
Discussion: p2pnet
RELATED:
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:   Lala, Qloud may be leading contenders for Facebook music deal
Dusan Belic / IntoMobile:
PerfectStorm theme makes your iPhone look like the BlackBerry Storm  —  Here's a cool theme for BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM)-to-iPhone switchers.  The so called PerfectStorm brings the BlackBerry Storm look and feel to the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone.  And while I don't personally like Storm's icons …
Discussion: BerryReview.com
Cat Keynes / The Register:
China's three-horse mobile bet: Repeating America's mistakes  —  Incompatibility, high costs... who's really losing out?  —  Column China has just awarded 3G contracts - three of them.  The numbers of subscribers there already is huge, with ten times as many mobile subscribers as there are people …
Amanda Lenhart / Pew Internet:
Adults and Social Network Websites  —  The share of adult internet users who have a profile on an online social network site has more than quadrupled in the past four years — from 8% in 2005 to 35% now, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project's December 2008 tracking survey.
Discussion: RotorBlog.com and Ars Technica
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Facebook Blows A Whopper Of An Opportunity  —  Burger King, through their insanely creative advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky (see their recent Burger King perfume launch), launches a Facebook application that encourages users to remove Facebook friends.  Sacrifice ten of them and you got a free Whopper.
RELATED:
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
Whopper Sacrifice Forced to Disable Behavior by Facebook (Updated)
Discussion: The Social, ClickZ and All Facebook
 
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 More Items: 
Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:
Bartz Could Boost Chance of Search Deal
Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider
Diane Garrett / Variety:
Blockbuster links with CinemaNow
Discussion: paidContent.org
Alistair Croll / GigaOM:
Identi.ca Gets Funding to Make Open-source Twitter Variant
Discussion: StartupNorth and VentureBeat
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
American Idol branding lands in Habbo
Discussion: paidContent.org
Mark Milian / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Rose to co-host live Web game show at Sundance
Discussion: The Social and Quick Online Tips
 Earlier Items: 
Stephanie Condon / CNET News:
Democrats' 2009 legislative plan: Net neutrality, copyright rewrite
Daimaou / Akihabaranews.com:
Sony Vaio P Unboxing... Do You Think I'm Sexy?
Discussion: CrunchGear, jkOnTheRun and SlashGear
Bob Walsh / Webware.com:
GoDaddy.com outage takes sites offline
Julian Sanchez / Ars Technica:
4G war, conflicts of interest loom behind possible DTV delay
Brent Frei / Smartsheet:
Value Investing? Answer: Invest in Yourself
Discussion: TechFlash, VentureBeat and Xconomy
Po Bronson / Fast Company:
What Should I Do with My Life, Now?  —  Author Po Bronson addresses …
 

 
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

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Internal memo: the BBC plans to cut 155 BBC News jobs, including closing Asian Network News and the HARDtalk program, to save £24M, or 4% of BBC News' budget

 
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