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2:15 PM ET, May 12, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Did Microsoft Just Announce a Zune Phone on Twitter?  —  The blogs are buzzing over some tweets from a Twitter account run by the Office 2010 team, noting what looks like the outright announcement of a Zune phone.  Something doesn't feel right.  —  First, the tweets:
RELATED:
Tom Warren / Neowin.net:
Microsoft hints at June for new Zune  —  Microsoft is heating up the Zune advertising and is hinting at June for a “new product launch”.  —  We've had the hints that a new Zune, namely the Zune HD, could be surfacing this year but an interesting twitter update from the Microsoft Office 2010 …
Aidan Malley / AppleInsider:
Chinese rumor claims 2009 iPhone will be modest upgrade  —  A forum thread on a Chinese Apple fan site is generating some interest by AppleInsider readers because one commenter claims to have used prototypes of Apple's next-gen iPhone because he purportedly has a friend working at the company's manufacturing partner Foxconn.
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Motoko Rich / New York Times:
Print Books Are Target of Pirates on the Web  —  Ursula K. Le Guin, the science fiction writer, was perusing the Web site Scribd last month when she came across digital copies of some books that seemed quite familiar to her.  No wonder.  She wrote them, including a free-for-the-taking copy …
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Intel outlines notebook plans for 2H09  —  Intel recently outlined its plans for traditional notebook, CULV-based ultra-thin notebook and netbook product lines for its partners, according to sources at notebook makers.  —  Intel's next-generation Calpella notebook platform will launch …
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Live Blogging Google Searchology 2009  —  Almost an annual event, Google Searchology is a time when Google struts its search stuff in front of assorted reporters.  Today's event gets going at 10am Pacific time.  I'll be live blogging from this page, and you can also watch the event yourself via this webcast.
Aurora Dizon / PC World:
Security Alert: Twitter Porn Names Scam  —  Popular social networking site Twitter's current top trending topic, or things that are twittered the most in a period of time has a security hole.  What larger hole to patch then that of human error itself.  The “twitter porn names” …
Discussion: Download Squad and TheNextWeb.com
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
Palm and Sprint announcing Pre availability May 19th in the WSJ?  —  We just got a tip from a very proven tipster who informed us that Palm and Sprint were set to make a big announcement in the Wall Street Journal on May 19th.  They said that there's a very good chance of Palm and Sprint announcing the Pre release date then.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Stepping up graphics war, Intel invests $12 million in German research lab  —  If Intel is going to get anywhere chasing after the graphics chip business, it has to invest heavily in research and development.  The world's biggest chip maker took a step in that direction today as it announce …
Discussion: CNET News and E-Commerce Times
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Thomas Mennecke / Slyck:
BSA Finds that Software Piracy Continues to Climb
Discussion: p2pnet
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
Microsoft's next Apple price attack: Zune Pass vs iTunes  —  Microsoft's Laptop Hunter ads (one, two, three, and four) must be doing quite well, because what Microsoft started off as a price attack on Macs seems to have transcended over to the online music store business.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google News Gets An Update.  Still Sucks.  —  I'm sorry, but for as good as Google is at organizing the world's data, Google News absolutely sucks.  Now, to be fair, I'm going to focus on Google News from a tech news perspective, because that's what I follow.  Maybe it's better in other areas, but I doubt it's much better.
Discussion: Google News Blog
Jeff Longo / MacRumors:
SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone Release Imminent?  Wi-Fi only?  —  MacRumors has heard that Sling Media's long awaited SlingPlayer Mobile may finally appear on the App Store tonight.  —  In addition to full support of current Slingboxes (PRO-HD and SOLO), legacy Slingboxes, which include the Classic …
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Apple, Dell, HP laptop owners sue Nvidia over faulty graphics  —  Five plaintiffs join forces to demand class-action lawsuit  —  Computerworld) Owners of Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard laptops have combined their lawsuits against Nvidia in an attempt to force the graphics chip maker …
Discussion: AppleInsider and The Mac Observer
Pui-Wing Tam / Wall Street Journal:
At Start-Ups, Boards Spar Over Cash Plans  —  Managers Face Dilemma Over Whether to Save or Spend Amid Recession, Slump in Financing  —  SAN FRANCISCO — At a recent board meeting, Jaspersoft Corp. Chief Executive Brian Gentile found himself stuck between two camps: the savers and the spenders.
Wladimir Palant / Adblock Plus and (a little) more:
An approach to fair ad blocking  —  Update: Sorry but I won't answer most comments individually any more - they are just reiterating points that have been mentioned already.  I am going to summarize the feedback in a new blog post soon.  —  As I stated many times before …
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:
Adobe beams up new Strobe video framework  —  As part of the Streaming Media East conference in New York, Adobe has unveiled “Strobe,” the “open framework” for its Flash video player that the company first announced last month.  It's expected to be available in the third quarter of this year.
Discussion: Pulse2
John Markoff / New York Times:
Tracking Cyberspies Through the Web Wilderness  —  For old-fashioned detectives, the problem was always acquiring information.  For the cybersleuth, hunting evidence in the data tangle of the Internet, the problem is different.  —  “The holy grail is how can you distinguish between information …
Matt Asay / CNET News:
Up to 24 percent of software purchases now open source  —  Open source has become big business, suggests an article in the Investors Business Daily, but it has done so by becoming more like the proprietary-software world it purports to leave behind.  —  The article cites recent research …
ABCNEWS:
Nightline Teams Up With Twitter for New Web Show  —  Join the Conversation With Nightline Wednesdays at 12:30 p.m. ET  —  “Nightline” is expanding its ongoing relationship with Twitter to develop “NightTline,” a new half-hour digital program hosted by the show's anchors and correspondents …
Discussion: NewTeeVee and Mashable!
Eric / Technology & Marketing Law Blog:
Google Hit With Major Class Action Trademark Lawsuit Over Trademarked Keyword Ad Sales—FPX v. Google  —  FPX, LLC v. Google, Inc., 2:2009cv00142 (E.D. Tex. complaint filed May 11, 2009)  —  In retrospect, it seems so obvious.  Why were the lawyers for these chickenscratch plaintiffs (Rescuecom?
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Facebook to test payments system with developers “in a few weeks”  —  Developers may be making tens of millions of dollars through games and virtual goods on Facebook's platform, but the social network itself hasn't had a way to get a share of that money.  This may be about to change …
Discussion: All Facebook, GigaOM and TechCrunch
Darren Waters / BBC:
Call to ‘disconnect file-sharers’  —  Persistent illegal file-sharers should be cut off from the net, an alliance of UK creative industries will tell the government on Tuesday.  —  The alliance wants the government to force internet service providers (ISPs) to disconnect users …
Arjun Banker / Facebook Blog:
Be the First to Know with Immediate Notifications  —  Notifications let you know when people take actions on Facebook related to you, so you can quickly check out a photo you've been tagged in or read a new posting on your Wall.  They already are available from your home page …
Discussion: bub.blicio.us and Mashable!, Thanks:atul
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Facebook Remains Stubbornly Proud Of Position On Holocaust Denial  —  Facebook is apparently done talking about Holocaust denial for now.  A couple of groups that got more out of hand than the rest were taken down, but the company's policy of permitting the groups on the site remains.
Nancy Gohring / Macworld:
Notes push e-mail coming to iPhone  —  The newest version of Lotus Notes and Domino will push e-mail, contacts and calendar items to iPhone users.  —  Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5.1 includes a few other incremental updates to functionality.  But the main new feature is the addition …
Washington Post:
DHS to Bolster Protection of Civilian Computer Networks  —  The Department of Homeland Security will step up operations to secure civilian computer networks against cyber attacks in coming years, getting increases in funding and personnel, and coordinating responsibilities …
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Make Room for the Wide Load Ads  —  When the going gets tough, the ads get bigger.  —  Amid all the hand-wringing about the decline of the news business and the need for subscription revenue, big publishers are doing something concrete: They are trying to sell more ads for more money.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
StockTwits Takes Over Chart.ly To Enrich Trading Chatter On Twitter  —  Now businesses that are being built on top of Twitter are starting to consume others that were in fact features of those very businesses to begin with.  Case in point: StockTwits has just acquired Chart.ly, which is a tremendously logical deal.
Discussion: The Post Money Value
alarm:clock:
UK Mobile Ads Firm Velti Buys US Rival AdInfuse  —  A number of the recent mobile ad deals have been salvage jobs but this is a legit deal.  London-based mobile marketing's Velti announced has acquired San Francisco-based mobile ad firm Ad Infuse.  Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Discussion: Digits
internetnews.com:
Android, Palm Pre a New Headache for IT?  —  First it was the iPhone, now a wave of new devices will challenge IT departments used to dealing with RIM BlackBerry and Windows Mobile.  —  Even in a down economy, a raft of new mobile devices is tempting consumers and inevitably, the corporate workforce.
 
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 More Items: 
DealBook:
Sun's Deal Saga and the Mystery Suitor
Discussion: Tech Trader Daily
Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Research: Actually, Readers Would Pay For Online News
Discussion: paidContent.org and mocoNews
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Chrome-on-Mac precursor rough but workable
Rupert Goodwins / CNET News:
Microsoft Research...why make the effort?
Jon Fortt / Fortune:
IBM-SAP combo not in the cards
Discussion: Reuters and The Register
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Madison Avenue and the App Store
Discussion: Wall Street Journal
 Earlier Items: 
David Sarno / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
‘Anonymous’ hacker pleads guilty to 2008 attack on Scientology sites
Eliot Van Buskirk / Epicenter:
SeeqPod Seeks New Life at Microsoft
Joe Sharkey / New York Times:
A Meeting in New York? Can't We Videoconference?
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Overblown Wi-Fi signal worry: Don't toss that baby monitor
Discussion: PC Pro and TechRadar.com
Ryan Singel / Epicenter:
Flickr Creates New License for White House Photos