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12:30 PM ET, December 4, 2009

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Mark Milian / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Google quietly rolls out Dictionary [Updated]  —  What does “googling” mean?  Google can tell you.  —  The search giant has quietly rolled out Google Dictionary, which presents definitions and synonyms.  Exactly what you'd expect from a dictionary.  —  In addition to Google's own database …
RELATED:
Patrick Hoge / bizjournals:
CrunchPad partner plans media event  —  The man whom TechCrunch blog network founder and editor Michael Arrington blamed for killing his CrunchPad hardware project has scheduled a video call with reporters and industry analysts for Monday, according to a Silicon Valley public relations firm.
John Leyden / The Register:
Spyware threat haunts squeaky-clean iPhones  —  Research finds rogue app privacy risks to regulation models  —  Apple's line that iPhone users who toe the line and resist any temptation to jailbreak, unlock or otherwise desecrate their smartphone are protected from threats has been called into question by new research.
Discussion: The Next Web and Pocket-lint.com
Leland / Twitter Blog:
Takeout dogfood  —  Hi all, this is @leland, user experience lead on the @twittermobile team.  I wanted to share a little bit of what we've been working on and thinking about.  —  It's probably no secret that Twitter has an active developer community, using our APIs to create fantastically innovative apps.
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Microsoft is making progress on search: You noticed Bing's glitch  —  It's a happy day for Microsoft's search team.  Bing had a half hour outage late Thursday and a few folks actually noticed.  —  Bing went down for a half hour between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. PST over a configuration glitch.
Discussion: LiveSide and PC World
RELATED:
Search Blog:
A note about today's outage  —  Bing.com was down between about 6:30 and 7:00 PM Pacific Time on Dec 3, 2009.  During this time, users were either unable to get to the site, or their queries were returning incomplete results page.  —  The cause of the outage was a configuration change during …
Ryan Singel / Threat Level:
Geez, Google Wants to Take Over DNS, Too  —  Google now wants to be your browser's phone book, launching a DNS service Thursday in hopes that users will let the ad and search giant take over yet another part of their net experience.  —  Browsers ask Domain Name System (DNS) …
Matt Wilson / L.A. Daily News:
Apple clears first hurdle in bid for new Cupertino campus  —  Apple Inc. is one step closer to building a second campus in Cupertino after waiting eight months for city planners to rezone its 7.78-acre property on Pruneridge Avenue to allow office use.  —  The planning commission …
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Vendors to launch Atom N450-based netbooks on January 11, 2010  —  Asustek Computer, Acer, Lenovo and even Micro-Star International (MSI), which originally planned to launch in December, are all set to launch their Atom N450-based netbooks on January 11, 2010, complying with their agreement …
Jonny Evans / 9 to 5 Mac:
Apple announces free iTunes Christmas give-aways for Europe  —  Apple UK has announced the ‘iTunes 12 Days of Christmas’ promotion, offering free songs, music videos, apps, TV episodes and films on a daily basis during the promotion.  —  The promotion run from December 26 to January 6.
Randy Abrams / ThreatBlog:
PayPal Admits to Phishing Users  —  Yes, it is true, I am not making this up.  I do not believe that PayPal has stolen anything from users, but they have told me that their own email is phishing.  —  Here's what happened.  I sent them one of their own legitimate emails and told …
Chris Matyszczyk / CNET News:
New Droid ad: iPhone is ‘digitally clueless’  —  Perhaps you have already become used to Verizon's Droid tossing names at the iPhone like an 8-year-old boy behind his teacher's back.  —  However, the latest ill feelings directed at Apple's little cutey seem beyond even anything heard in an elementary school.
Melanie Lee / Reuters:
Friendster to be sold by month's end -source  —  * To be sold to an Asian buyer end-Dec for at least $100 mln  —  * More than half of Friendster's 100 mln users from Asia  —  * Industry blog values Friendster at $210 million (Adds background, details)  —  Friendster, one of the world's …
iSuppli:
Acer Takes No.-2 PC Rank in Q3; Market Returns to Annual Growth  —  Marking a major milestone in the history of the computer industry, an Asian OEM has captured the No.-2 position in the global PC market on a quarterly basis for the first time, according to iSuppli Corp.
Nathan Becker / Dow Jones Newswires:
Kodak Sells OLED Business To LG, Cos Will Share Patents  —  Eastman Kodak Co. (EK) agreed to sell its organic light-emitting diode business to a group of South Korea's LG companies and also said it has an agreement with LG Electronics Inc. (066570.SE) that will allow each company “ broad access” to the other's patent portfolio.
David Kaplan / paidContent:
With Redesign, Reuters.com Goes After Consumer Audience  —  With the general business magazines that are still in existence trying to keep their heads above water, Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI) believes this is a good time for a major overhaul of its consumer-facing website.
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Apple sued for infringing digital camera patent with iPhone  —  St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming the company is violating several of its digital camera patents.  —  Filed in the United States District Court in Delaware …
Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac and Pocket-lint.com
Om Malik / GigaOM:
FCC Wants to Know Why Verizon Increased Termination Fees  —  The Federal Communications Commission wants to know why Verizon decided to double its early termination fee (ETF) for new customers who sign on to the wireless service using advanced devices...longhand for smartphones.
Discussion: Post Tech and DSLreports
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Quietly Adds 3.33 GHz Quad-Core Option to Mac Pro [Updated: Xserve]  —  Apple has quietly upgraded its Mac Pro offerings, adding the option of a 3.33 GHz quad-core processor and adding the ability to configure both the quad-core and 8-core models with 2 TB hard drives …
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
MySpace Launches New Mobile Website with Built-in IM  —  Social networking site MySpace has just launched a new version of their mobile website designed for iPhone, Android, and Palm WebOS users.  The now improved site at m.myspace.com offers quick access to your profile, including comments …
Discussion: Erictric and MySpace Press Room
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Seeking a Symbol for ‘This Ad Knows About You’  —  A proposed symbol, the asterisk with a head, is meant to tell people that Internet ads collect and use information about them.  It is shown here with the text that appears when users move the mouse over the logo.
Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch:
AdMob Launches Beta Ads For Palm WebOS  —  Though its had an application store of its own for many months now, Palm's webOS has really yet to flourish as a development platform.  As it currently stands, webOS' App Catalog only offers up around 400 applications.
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch Europe:
Amazon and Vente-Privee in talks over 2 billion Euro acquisition, say sources  —  [France] US retailing giant Amazon is in deep and secret negotiations with Vente-Privee, the French private sales club which has taken the ecommerce and fashion industries by storm, our sources say.
 
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 More Items: 
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Star That Tweet! Favit Launches in iTunes App Store
Discussion: The Next Web and TUAW
Lee Mathews / Download Squad:
Google Chrome Extension Gallery treads lightly on copyright issues
Alan Long / Hitwise Intelligence:
Facebook driving the Industry growth (NZ)
Elinor Mills / CNET News:
Defense Dept. pulls software over privacy issues
Frank Watson / Search Engine Watch:
It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas: Changes At Google to Increase Ad Spends
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
ExactTarget Raises $75 Million More, Up To $145 Million In Venture Capital
Discussion: Pulse2
 Earlier Items: 
Dan Macsai / Fast Company:
G-Railed: Why Did Google Bury the Web's Oldest Entertainment Publication?
Discussion: IMDb and digiday:DAILY
Sean / Inside BlackBerry:
BlackBerry App World Test Center Launches
Alaska Miller / Silicon Alley Insider:
EBay Founder Invests $1.4 Million Into Emergency Alert System
Matt Asay / The Open Road:
Open source: The money is in the cloud
Discussion: SitePoint
John Cook / TechFlash:
Exclusive: Wetpaint cuts staff, changes focus to publishing
Discussion: Xconomy
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Nicholas Carlson unveils Dynamo, a video-focused company that aims to make “cinematic” stories, and raised $3.4M from Henry Blodget, Jessica Lessin, and others

Hugh Dougherty / The Daily Beast:
Chris Wallace quits CNN after three years, opting not to renegotiate his contract, and says he will instead go independent

Lily Ford / The Hollywood Reporter:
Gary Lineker plans to step down from soccer show Match of the Day after 26 years, but extends his BBC Sport contract; he is the BBC's highest-paid presenter

 
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