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11:50 PM ET, December 20, 2010

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
AOL Acquires Personal Profile Startup About.Me  —  Personal profile startup About.me launched publicly, oh, all of four days ago.  And, boom.  Today AOL (our parent company), will announce that they've acquired the company.  It will become part of the consumer applications group, led by AOL exec Brad Garlinghouse.
RELATED:
Tony Conrad / Tony Conrad's Photo Blog:
Booyah!  —  Ryan, Tim and I are thrilled to announce that about.me has been acquired by Aol.  Whereto begin, there is so much to say but we'll try to be informative, yet brief for today's ‘get it now, read it fast, tweet it’ internet reader.  —  We founded about.me so that any of us …
Al Franken / The Huffington Post:
The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time  —  This Tuesday is an important day in the fight to save the Internet.  As a source of innovation, an engine of our economy, and a forum for our political discourse, the Internet can only work if it's a truly level playing field.
RELATED:
Robert M. McDowell / Wall Street Journal:
The FCC's Threat to Internet Freedom
Robin Schriebman / Gmail Blog:
Free calling in Gmail extended through 2011  —  When we launched calling in Gmail back in August, we wanted it to be easy and affordable, so we made calls to the U.S. and Canada free for the rest of 2010.  In the spirit of holiday giving and to help people keep in touch in the new year, we're extending free calling for all of 2011.
Tim Bray / Android Developers Blog:
It's not “rooting”, it's openness  —  “Nexus S has been rooted, let the madness commence!” proclaims Engadget.  “This is only possible because Android's security is crap and it's exploited easily to gain root priviledges [sic]” adds a commenter.  You'll have to excuse me if I strongly disagree.
Wall Street Journal:
SEC Probes Hurd Exit From H-P  —  The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the circumstances surrounding Mark Hurd's departure from Hewlett-Packard Co., in a broad inquiry that includes claims that the former chief executive shared inside information about an acquisition, people familiar with the matter said.
Kim-Mai Cutler / Inside Facebook:
After Critiquing Facebook, Google Researcher Paul Adams Joins It  —  Paul Adams, the Google user experience researcher who critiqued Facebook in a lengthy report over the summer, is leaving the search giant to join them.  His report is said to have accelerated the Groups product …
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Title Junk  —  The recent hubbub about Delicious got me thinking about bookmarking in general, and brought to mind a long-standing irritation: poorly designed web page titles.  —  Here's an example that I bookmarked last night: Roger Ebert's 1968 review of 2001: A Space Odyssey.  The title of that web page is:
Joe Maller:
iTunes slowdowns with Google DNS  —  Last night we tried to rent an iTunes movie on our newish Apple TV.  Instead of starting right away, the Apple TV said it would be 2+ hours before we could start watching.  I've got a healthy 15-20Mb/s connection and a clean wire to the Apple TV, so this shouldn't be happening.
Staska / Unwired View:
Holy crap!  Nokia is in talks with Microsoft about Windows Phone devices?!  —  Holy crap!  —  I don't believe I'm writing this, especially after publicly ridiculing even idea of such a thing for a year now.  But given the source of the info...  Here it goes- in his weekly op-ed Mobile …
RELATED:
Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:
Apple will close Mac OS X downloads site on January 6  —  Apple has informed developers of applications and widgets on Apple's downloads website that the site will be closing down come January 6th when the Mac App Store opens for business.  Apple believes that the Mac App Store will truly …
Discussion: MacRumors and TUAW
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Is Google In A Dream World?  If So, Just How Close To Limbo Are They?  —  “Well dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right?  It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.”  —  Cobb's quote from Inception reminds me of something.  Something going on right now, seemingly all around us.
Discussion: parislemon, GigaOM and Neowin.net
Elizabeth Weingarten / The Atlantic Online:
Forget Journalism School and Enroll in Groupon Academy  —  It's a Friday afternoon and Jane Flotte is getting a little tired of spa treatments.  “Today I've written a lot of salon deals,” the Groupon employee said.  “And I'm getting kind of sick of talking about facials.”
Federico Viticci / MacStories:
Apple Launches iAd Producer - HTML & CSS Layout App for iAds  —  A few minutes ago Apple launched a new app for the Mac called iAd Producer which is aimed at developers and designers willing to create visually rich, interactive iAds. iAd Producer “automatically manages the HTML5 …
Reed Hastings / Seeking Alpha:
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Responds to Whitney Tilson: Cover Your Short Position.  Now.  —  A great investor and a wonderful human being, Whitney Tilson recently posted an article about why he is short Netflix (NFLX).  Whitney, who is a major co-donor with me to charter public schools like KIPP …
Wall Street Journal:
Hulu Puts IPO Idea on Back Burner, Focuses on Pay Video  —  Online video site Hulu LLC has taken off the table the idea of going public, at least for now, and may consider other financing options, people familiar with the matter said.  —  Hulu also is mulling new subscription plans …
Discussion: SAI and Company Town
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Adobe Has Its First $1 Billion Quarter, Revenue Up 33%  —  Software maker Adobe has once again posted record revenue results this quarter, surpassing the $1 billion milestone for the first time.  Adobe revenue for the fourth quarter of 2010 was $1.008 billion versus $757.3 million reported …
Discussion: Forbes and Tech Trader Daily
RELATED:
Bloomberg:   Adobe's Forecast Exceeds Estimates on Sales of Desktop-Publishing Software
Thomas E. Weber / The Daily Beast:
Cracking the New York Times Popularity Code  —  Just how many people does it take to propel a story onto the Times' influential most-emailed list?  And can it be gamed?  Thomas E. Weber finds the answers.  —  The most-emailed articles list on the New York Times website …
Oliver Chiang / SelectStart:
Facebook Should Be In China, Says Baidu  —  Image by Getty Images North America via @daylife  —  As I reported earlier, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg has begun his trip in China, with a stop by top Chinese search engine Baidu in Beijing.  Though Baidu's director of international communications Kaiser Kuo …
Royal Pingdom:
The most reliable (and unreliable) blogging services on the Web  —  Blogging services have been around for a long time, with pioneers like Blogger paving the way for WordPress.com and more recent arrivals like Tumblr and Posterous.  There are millions upon millions of blogs out there, many of them residing on these services.
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
1 Billion Peoples' Interests Now Tracked by AddThis  —  AddThis, one of the leading link sharing services used by sites all around the web (including this one), announced today that it now offers publishers information about the types of interests their readers and content sharers have demonstrated on the other sites they have visited.
 
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 More Items: 
Dan Frommer / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Foursquare Already Getting Almost One Photo Upload Per Second
Verne G. Kopytoff / New York Times:
Skype Looks for a Spot in Offices and Cellphones
Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:
Bleacher Report Raises $10.5M; Now Fifth Largest Sports Site
Discussion: alarm:clock
Ina Fried / Mobilized:
Pen Computing Backers Hope to Write New Chapter With Android
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Undue process: how Uncle Sam seized BitTorrent domain names
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Twitter List Service TLists Becomes Sulia, Raises $3.5 Million
Jon C. Ogg / 24/7 Wall St.:
Zipcar Closer to IPO (ZIP)
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Will the FCC Approve Qualcomm's Spectrum Sale to AT&T?
 Earlier Items: 
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Amazon Vet Jason Child Joins Groupon As CFO
Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:
Google Poaches Paramount Executive For Content Role
John Biggs / CrunchGear:
Motorola Teases With The New “Buzz” Tablet
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Professional Social Network LinkedIn Takes Groups Public
David Dalka / TechCrunch:
Dear Facebook, Please Return Our Social Networking Space
Discussion: MediaPost, Thanks:jimhedger
Vlad Savov / Engadget:
iPhone 4 hits new low of $147 on contract at Sam's Club this week
Hiroko Tabuchi / New York Times:
Sony Optimistic About Google TV Despite Setbacks
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Liam Scott / Voice of America:
RSF says 23 journalists were jailed in Syria and 10 others were missing as of December 9; press freedom groups call for accountability for Assad's government

Katie Kilkenny / The Hollywood Reporter:
The WGA demands studios take “immediate legal action” against companies that used writers' work to train AI, in a letter to CEOs of Disney, Netflix, and others

Aidan Ryan / The Boston Globe:
Boston NPR affiliate WBUR to cancel Radio Boston, its midday show that spent 15 years on air, and move its staff to a new production team focused on local news

 
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