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4:30 PM ET, May 5, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Ina Fried / CNET News:
Microsoft sends second wave of layoff notices to 3,000  —  Microsoft on Tuesday notified more than 3,000 workers that it was eliminating their jobs.  —  The software maker said in January that it would cut up to 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months.  It made 1,400 cuts at the time.
Discussion: Tech Trader Daily and TechSpot
RELATED:
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Microsoft continues layoff plan, eliminates thousands more jobs  —  Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer this morning informed employees that the company will be cutting more jobs — going forward with the second phase of its previously announced plan to eliminate up to 5,000 positions by June 2010.
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Ballmer's layoff mail to the troops fails to rule out more cuts  —  On May 5, Microsoft began the second round of job cuts it announced it would make back in January.  —  Here's the full text of the e-mail that CEO Steve Ballmer sent to Microsoft employees notifying them of today's actions.
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Amazon Kindle DX to feature 9.7-inch display?  Update: Pictures!  —  [It's still an elusive target for our old friend Mr. Blurrycam, but ]We just got some basic specs on the new, decidedly more newspaper- and college textbook-friendly Amazon Kindle DX.  Here's what we know: it's got a 9.7-inch display …
RELATED:
Mikko / F-Secure Antivirus Research Weblog:
Windows 7 Fail  —  Windows 7 RC is out today.  —  This is great news.  —  Because surely by now they've fixed Windows Explorer.  —  You see, in Windows NT, 2000, XP and Vista, Explorer used to Hide extensions for known file types.  And virus writers used this “feature” …
Discussion: Technologizer and Hardware 2.0
RELATED:
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
The Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) is here!  —  As we previously announced, today the Windows 7 RC is now available for anyone interested in giving it a spin!  Typically, a release candidate is the last development milestone before release to manufacturing (RTM), signifying that engineering …
Ed Bott / Ed Bott's Microsoft Report:
What to expect from Windows 7  —  It feels odd to be writing a review of Windows 7 this early.  Normally, software reviews don't make sense until the code is officially released and you have to make a buying decision: upgrade, pass, or buy a new PC with the new OS.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Twitter Mania: Google Got Shut Down.  Apple Rumors Heat Up.  —  Twitter!  Whether you use it or not, or understand it or not, it's the hottest thing in Silicon Valley right now.  It's brought up in every conversation.  And no wonder - the service has exploded to somewhere north …
RELATED:
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Ignore the Twitter Buyout Rumors: Here Are the Facts in Five Beyoncé-Madonna-Approved Steps  —  Was it more than a month ago that Google was rumored to be in “late-stage negotiations to acquire Twitter”?  —  Not so much late-stage, I guess, with a gestation period that seems interminable …
Owen Thomas / Gawker:
The Webby Awards Remain the Best Scam Going  —  For a dozen years, the Webby Awards have tried to make the Web glamorous.  But what they've really done is distill the hucksterism of the Internet into its purest form.  —  Among the inside crowd, the Webby Awards were always a joke …
RELATED:
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Antitrust inquiry: How Apple and Google compete  —  Given the looming presence of Microsoft (MSFT) on the PC desktop, we tend to think of Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) as corporate best friends united by a common enemy.  —  But the news Monday night that the U.S. government has opened …
RELATED:
Code Android Singapore:
Leaked Image of G3 aka HTC Hero Surfaced  —  An anonymous reader sent us these photos of the G3, aka as the HTC Hero, that will be released probably in Q3 this year.  This device look very similar to the HTC Magic in terms of the form factor and possibly slightly slimmer …
Mark Wilson / Gizmodo:
iPhone 3.0 Firmware Taking Better Pictures than 2.2.1?  —  The iPhone's camera resolution leaves much to be desired, but there's more to image quality than just resolution.  And according to one series of tests, the firmware 3.0 is taking better photos than its predecessor.
Gary Allen / ifoAppleStore:
Report: Water-Damaged iPhones Now Swappable  —  Careless iPhone owners who have flipped their handset into a swimming pool-or glass of beer-can now reportedly save themselves the expense of purchasing a new handset under a new Apple store policy allowing the replacement of a liquid-damaged handset for $199.
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:
Hulu's Kilar: Great To Have Disney But 'We're Still An Extremely Young Company'  —  When I caught up with Jason Kilar the day the Disney-Hulu deal finally was announced, the CEO was in a rental car in Atlanta on a mission to woo advertisers—a task that should get a boost by adding ABC and Disney …
RELATED:
Robert X. Cringely / I, Cringely:
The Future of Internet TV (in America)
Thanks:atul
Erik Palm / Webware.com:
Google launches stand-alone contacts manager  —  Google has launched a contacts manager that users of services like Google Docs, Picasa, and Calendar can use, without having to be a Gmail users.  —  Aimed at letting users share contacts more easily between different services, Google Contacts works like any other contacts function.
David / TmoNews:
Visual Voicemail Coming!  —  Well I bet at least a few of you will be more than interested in getting your hands on this feature and while the above picture lacks any real detail, an approaching release date is interesting enough.  Visual voicemail is a feature the iPhone popularized …
Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life:
RSS readers modeled after email clients are fundamentally broken  —  Farhad Manjoo has an article on Slate entitled Kill your RSS reader which captures a growing sentiment I've had for a while and ranted about during a recent panel at SXSW.  Below are a few key excerpts from Farhad's article that resonate strongly with me
Rachael King / Business Week:
Hungry for iPhone Business Apps  —  The iPhone is gaining wider acceptance at companies, but the selection of useful business apps is still paltry  —  David Lin is traveling lighter for business lately.  Ever since the software marketing exec bought an iPod Touch, he's often able to leave his notebook computer behind.
Discussion: NEWSFACTOR and GigaOM
John Cook / TechFlash:
Foundry Group, Allen's Vulcan inject $6.75 million into Gist  —  Anyone who feels overwhelmed with email, blog posts, Twitter messages and Facebook updates will understand the business problem being addressed by Gist.  The year-old Seattle startup company, which today is announcing $6.75 million …
Alexei Oreskovic / Reuters:
Hope and fear mark Yahoo at crossroads  —  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Four months into her fix-it job at Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O), Chief Executive Carol Bartz has worked through an impressive checklist.  —  The 60-year-old executive has moved swiftly to rebuild the Internet company to her specifications …
Seth Weintraub / Computerworld Blogs:
Evidence points to 3G radios in MacBooks, Tablets?  —  From the rumor mill to the evidence mill....  I heard from an Apple source last month that Apple laptops were going to get a slight update this summer.  There was speculation that update might be a 3G wireless radio added to MacBooks.
Avner Ronen / boxee blog:
announcing the boxee app dev challenge  —  the new boxee API enables developers to build and publish apps for boxee users. while people are working on a variety of boxee apps, we thought it would be a good idea to provide some extra incentive for the developers.
Discussion: last100 and eHomeUpgrade, Thanks:omfut
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Apple's FileMaker division launches Bento personal assistant iPhone app  —  In a rare move, one of Apple's own divisions is launching an app for the iPhone.  —  Apple's FileMaker is publishing its Bento personal database app today for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
 
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 More Items: 
Asa Dotzler:
firefox at 270 million users
canada.com:
Ottawa courtroom joins Twitter age for mayor's trial
BBC:
US needs ‘digital warfare force’
Discussion: Softpedia News
David Richards / Smarthouse:
Telstra Tipped To Launch Palm Pre In August
Andru Edwards / Gear Live:
Exclusive: Upcoming Verizon FiOS TV features
Discussion: Gizmodo, Engadget HD and DSLreports
David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
CBS Pulls Last.fm, Radio Into Interactive Music Group; CBS Radio's …
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Demand for Bandwidth Leads to Fiber Boom
 Earlier Items: 
Tameka Kee / paidContent.org:
McDonald's Rolls With YouTube For McCafe Launch
Will Oremus / Mercury News:
Facebook to vacate downtown Palo Alto in May 14 move
Thanks:atul
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google Reader Still Trying To Figure Out This Whole Social Thing.
Declan McCullagh / CNET News:
P2P bill could regulate Web browsers, FTP clients
Discussion: Electronista
Naomi Alderman / Guardian:
If you can't buy it legally, then ofcourse you'll download it
Discussion: TeleRead and WatchingTV Online
Bill Ray / The Register:
Apple drives iPhone app developers to the brink
Discussion: mocoNews
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Why Hasn't Google Cleared, Fired Or Suspended Accused AdWords Employee?
Thanks:atul
David Talbot / Technology Review:
Wolfram Alpha and Google Face Off
Discussion: Boston Globe and Gizmodo