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8:30 PM ET, February 27, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Michael V. Copeland / Fortune:
Hearst to launch a wireless e-reader  —  The publisher plans to introduce a large-format device this year based on electronic-ink technology.  —  NEW YORK (Fortune) — Against a backdrop of plummeting ad revenue for newspapers and magazines, and rising costs for paper and delivery …
Brad Stone / Bits:
Amazon Backs off Text-to-Speech Feature in Kindle  —  Amazon announced today it will let publishers decide whether they want the new Kindle e-book device to read their books aloud.  —  The text-to-speech feature allows Kindle owners to have books read to them in a male or female computerized voice.
Kit Eaton / Fast Company:
Amazon Kindle 3 Rumors Surface: Bigger, Better (Of Course)  —  The ink has barely dried on the new production Amazon Kindle 2 e-readers and now there's a hot rumor surfacing about the Kindle 3.  Among the speculation is one interesting suggestion: The Kindle version 3 may actually arrive on the shelves before Christmas.
RELATED:
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
Facebook's “In-House Sociologist” Shares Stats on Users' Social Behavior  —  The famous Dunbar number, or “theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships”, is generally accepted to be about 150.  However, in a recent interview with The Economist …
Discussion: Beyond Search and The Noisy Channel, Thanks:mrinaldesai
RELATED:
Sachi Izumi / Reuters:
DoCoMo halts BlackBerry Bold sales due to overheating  —  TOKYO (Reuters) - NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's biggest mobile phone operator, said on Friday it has halted sales of Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold because the phone can overheat while the battery is being recharged.
Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:
Why the Japanese Hate the iPhone  —  Apple's iPhone has wowed most of the globe — but not Japan, where the handset is selling so poorly it's being offered for free.  —  What's wrong with the iPhone, from a Japanese perspective?  Almost everything: the high monthly data plans that go with it …
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Microsoft App-V Support for the Windows 7 Beta  —  Our MDOP customers have told us that they want to see Windows 7 Support for Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) so that they can move ahead with their application testing for enterprise deployments of Windows 7 early on.  We heard you loud and clear.
Discussion: Teching It Easy
RELATED:
Karrial / The Official MDOP Blog:
Get your applications virtualized on Windows 7 Beta with Microsoft App-V
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
The New York Times Expected To Launch Local Blog Network On Monday (Confirmed)  —  If this post on a local blog about Brooklyn has it right, the NY Times will be debuting a neighborhood blog project next week on Monday.  Here's the gist: … Still according to the blog …
Erica Sadun / Ars Technica:
Apple issues App Store-wide Emoji take-down order  —  Apple has issued an App Store-wide take-down of all Emoji-enabling iPhone applications.  There may be a few reasons for this decision, ranging from the gray area of how developers are switching on Emoji support to possible licensing issues.
Discussion: The iPhone Blog, TUAW and Edible Apple
Rik Ferguson / TrendLabs:
A Second Rogue Facebook Application in Just a Week?  —  In a second attack, extremely reminiscent of the one that took place this weekend, Facebook users have once again been victimized by cybercriminals.  Reports started surfacing this afternoon of yet another rogue Facebook application posting notifications …
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Why Are Book Publishers Making The Same Mistake The Record Labels Made With Apple?  —  from the we've-seen-this-movie-before,-and-it- doesn't-end-well dept  —  Back in 2005, we noted that Apple's dominance over the online music space, which upset the record labels tremendously …
ASUSTeK Computer:
ASUS Raises the Bar for Mobile Web Surfing and Multimedia Enjoyment with P835 WVGA PDA Phone  —  ASUS, a leading producer of innovative handhelds, today launched the P835, a PDA phone that delivers an Internet browsing and multimedia viewing experience without equal.
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Cellular providers want Nokia to drop Skype from cell phones  —  Two cell service providers in the UK are supposedly up in arms over Nokia's inclusion of Skype software on its N97 handset, and are threatening not to carry the device unless the software is ditched.
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Calacanis, Lindzon To Box For Charity  —  It's on: Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis and Stocktwits/Wallstrip co-founder (and SAI investor) Howard Lindzon, who periodically spar on Twitter, will duke it out in real life.  —  The two will box for charity 100 days from tomorrow, which is... sometime in June.
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
BlackBerry 9630 is the Niagara, Verizon World Edition?  —  So... we've just got word from a really trusted source, dropping bombs all around on the BlackBerry “Niagara”.  First off, the model number we're told is the BlackBerry 9630, not 8930 or 9030, or anything like that.
Jeffrey Scott Shapiro / Wall Street Journal:
Confessions of a Facebook Social Climber  —  You too can become important.  To start, all you need is one celebrity friend.  —  I recently became friends with Charlie Sheen — but not exactly.  It's a little complicated.  You see, I've spent the past three months moving up the Facebook social ladder …
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Seattle PC builder beats Microsoft with free Windows 7 upgrade offer  —  Launches free Vista-to-Windows 7 upgrade program to tempt hesitant buyers  —  Computerworld) A Seattle-area PC seller will offer free Windows 7 upgrades to customers who buy new Vista-powered machines starting next week …
Discussion: TechFlash
Schneier on Security:
Privacy in the Age of Persistence  —  Note: This isn't the first time I have written about this topic, and it surely won't be the last.  I think I did a particularly good job summarizing the issues this time, which is why I am reprinting it.  —  Welcome to the future, where everything about you is saved.
Discussion: BBC
Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:
Will the Future of the Web Be More Like the Present?  —  When I was a kid one of my favorite parts of Disney World was Tomorrowland's Carousel of Progress.  It was steeped in 1950's futurism: Why, of course!  Every family will have their own electric paint mixer in the future!
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Massive Layoffs Hit The RIAA: Maybe Focus On Building Business Rather Than Suing Customers Next Time?  —  Details have been spilling out over the last few days that the RIAA has been making pretty massive cuts to staff.  We already knew that EMI was cutting back on its support of the RIAA/IFPI …
Discussion: hypebot, Digital Music News and Slashdot, Thanks:atul
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Gary Vay  •ner  •chuk Expands His Web Video Empire With Obsessed TV  —  Gary Vaynerchuk is going after the Oprah set.  The wine wholesaler who launched a career as a Web video celebrity talking about wine and marketing is just launched Obsessed, a new video talk show hosted by Samantha Ettus.
Discussion: paidContent.org, NewTeeVee and bub.blicio.us, Thanks:atul
Mike Celizic / MSNBC:
‘Face of Facebook’ defends his site's policies  —  CEO of red-hot social network says that users control their own information  —  The face of Facebook, the burgeoning social networking site, was supposedly in damage-control mode, but you wouldn't have known it from looking at the site's 24-year-old founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
Discussion: VentureBeat and All Facebook
Stephanie Condon / CNET News:
Lieberman questions accessibility, privacy of court docs  —  Carl Malamud, the tech activist campaigning to be named head of the Government Printing Office, appears to have the support of at least one Washington politician.  —  Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) sent a letter Friday …
Discussion: Threat Level and hsgac.senate.gov
Mike Cassidy / Mercury News:
Finding our own little worlds has never been easier  —  What an author won't do for a book.  —  In 2004, San Jose State University associate professor Andy Wood decided to embark upon an experiment: He would fly from San Jose to New York, rent a car and drive back the 3,000 miles …
Bill Gurley / abovethecrowd.com:
Perfect Online Video Advertising Model: Choose Your Advertiser  —  Many companies and visionaries have pontificated about the future of video ads and different techniques for monetizing online videos.  A big part of this is driven by the fact that while YouTube is a huge user success, its a less proven monetization success.
Thanks:atul
Epicenter:
Epicenter Q&A: Google's Vint Cerf on Recession, Recovery and Innovation in Hard Times  —  On assignment for Wired.com, Sam Gustin is exploring the economic meltdown's impact on Silicon Valley, and the prospects of innovating our way out of the current financial debacle.
Jason Chen / Gizmodo:
Apple Officially Brings Back MobileMe's Push, Improves Features  —  Apple just sent out an email to MobileMe subscribers to let them know of some new(ish) features.  The biggest bullet point is the fact that push is back. … After a lousy launch in 2008, Apple decided to avoid associating the word …
Discussion: CNET News, TUAW and 9 to 5 Mac
Camille Ricketts / VentureBeat:
VCs challenge Obama plan to up carried interest tax  —  Earlier this week, president Obama announced his intention to raise taxes on carried interest for hedge funds and private equity firms as part of his bold new budget plan.  Not surprisingly, members of the venture capital community …
Thanks:atul
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
World Of Warcraft: As Addictive As Cocaine?  —  We know the FCC blames World of Warcraft addiction for college drop-outs, but is the massively popular game as “addictive as cocaine?”  —  The Swedish Stiftelsen Ungdomsvård (Youth Care Foundation) thinks so, and is set to release …
 
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 More Items: 
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Mufin Incorporates Powerful Recommendation Engine Into New Native Music Player
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
iPhone finally reaches 1 million mark in U.K.
Zachary Rodgers / ClickZ:
Ads in Google News Search May Tempt Media Lawsuits
Discussion: Search Engine Land
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Intel, Taiwan Semi Plan Strategic Announcement
Mike Hendrickson / O'Reilly Radar:
State of the Computer Book Market 2008, part 5 — eBooks and Summary
Discussion: DeWitt Clinton, Thanks:atul
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Canadian Court Apparently Decides That Private Facebook Profiles …
Scott Ferguson / eWeek:
AMD Says Yes to the Cloud, No to Smartphones
Discussion: Digits
 Earlier Items: 
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Sony's Silos Finally Start to Fall
Discussion: TG Daily and Digital Daily
Economist:
Out on its own  —  Autonomy, Britain's largest software firm, is prospering amid the gloom
Sramana Mitra / Forbes:
India: Where Angels Fear To Trade
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
JPG Magazine Has Been Acquired, Lives Anew
Discussion: Texas Startup Blog and Guardian
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Cell Phones: Demand Is Even Worse Than You Think
Bret Taylor / Bret Taylor's blog:
How FriendFeed uses MySQL to store schema-less data
Discussion: Simon Willison's Weblog, Thanks:atul
Jens Roland / TorrentFreak:
How To Kill The Music Industry
Discussion: Techdirt, CrunchGear and digg.com
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Athena Stavrou / The Independent:
More than 230 media industry professionals, including anonymous BBC staff, sign a letter accusing the BBC of bias favoring Israel in coverage of Gaza

Devin Gordon / New York Times:
AI in Hollywood is a tech leap with a vast impact but remains a tool, not a replacement, for creatives; its speed, quality, and cost allow for VFX breakthroughs

Ben Jacobs / Slate:
A profile of John Avlon, former CNN anchor, former Daily Beast EIC, former speechwriter for Rudy Giuliani, and now a congressional candidate running in New York

 
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