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5:05 PM ET, May 12, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Dan Lyons / The Daily Beast:
Facebook Busted in Clumsy Smear on Google  —  THE DAILY BEAST ON:  —  The social network secretly hired a PR firm to plant negative stories about the search giant, The Daily Beast's Dan Lyons reveals—a caper that is blowing up in their face, and escalating their war.
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Facebook Loses Much Face In Secret Smear On Google  —  Facebook secretly hired a PR firm to plant negative stories about Google, says Dan Lyons in a jaw dropping story at the Daily Beast.  —  For the past few days, a mystery has been unfolding in Silicon Valley.
Ben Popper / Betabeat:
Smear Story Source Speaks: Facebook Wanted to Stab Google in the Back  —  Privacy advocate Christopher Soghoian broke open the story of how Facebook tried to use global PR giant Burson-Marsteller to smear Google in the press.  He was pitched to ghost-write the op-ed, but posted the email exchange online instead.
Tonya Garcia / PRNewser:
B-M Says Facebook Assignment “Should Have Been Declined”
Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:
Is Google's Chromebook The Death Knell For Antivirus?  —  Updated and corrected below.  —  The antivirus industry likely let out a collective groan when Google first made a familiar-sounding boast Wednesday: that the just-launched laptops it's calling Chromebooks have “security built …
Discussion: PC World, eWeek and TomsTechBlog.com, Thanks:forbestech
RELATED:
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Google clarifies Chromebook subscriptions, might have just changed the industry
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Twitter Updates Mac Client With Multiple Timelines, Cleaner Design, Auto-Complete And More  —  Twitter for Mac, which launched earlier this year with the rollout of Apple's Mac App Store, is getting its first major update today.  —  Besides a design update, you can now see multiple timelines …
Brad Stone / Business Week:
Why Facebook Needs Sheryl Sandberg  —  Mark Zuckerberg's No. 2 provides “adult supervision” at the company, trying to keep growth at an optimum level  —  On a Tuesday afternoon in late April, 30 managers of Facebook's various business units come together to discuss a matter that preoccupies …
Discussion: SAI, Pulse2 and NetworkEffect
Andrew Song / Facebook:
Introducing Login Approvals  —  Facebook has always been committed to both protecting our users' account and information, as well as giving them more control over their Facebook experience.  From our User Operations team, who work to re-secure compromised accounts, to the Engineering team …
RELATED:
Tim Stevens / Engadget:
Is Comcast blocking the Pirate Bay? (updated: it isn't just Comcast)  —  We've received numerous reports this morning from users indicating that good 'ol Comcast is at it again.  Word on the web is that Comcast ISP subscribers are unable to access torrent site the Pirate Bay, a situation that we've been able to confirm internally.
Kashmir Hill / The Not-So Private Parts:
The White House Offers Up A National Data Breach Law  —  Earlier this week, I asked, “how do we deal with data breaches?”  The White House has a response: legislation.  It's taken note of the rash of data breaches of late (Perhaps President Obama owns a Sony Playstation?) …
RELATED:
Howard A. Schmidt / White House.gov Blog:
The Administration Unveils its Cybersecurity Legislative Proposal
Discussion: Network World
Donald Melanson / Engadget:
Netflix releases Android app for select HTC phones, Samsung Nexus S  —  Well, it looks like the LG Revolution won't be the first Android phone to get Netflix after all.  The app has just hit the Android Market and is apparently available for HTC Incredible, Nexus One, Evo 4G, and G2 …
Reuters:
AT&T, T-Mobile USA break-up is $6 billion: sources  —  (Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N) has promised to give Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) $6 billion in assets, services and cash as a break-up fee if U.S. regulators reject its proposed $39 billion purchase of the German company's T-Mobile USA, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Discussion: Electronista and SAI
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Remember that iPad Wi-Fi Bug?  It's Back...And Affecting iPhones, Too  —  A little over a year ago, some new iPad owners found they were having issues with the device's Wi-Fi connection.  Signals were weak, or worse, dropped altogether.  The only solution at the time, before Apple released a fix …
Nielsen Wire:
Cue the Music: Driven by Digital, Music Sales up in 2011  —  Music sales in the U.S. are up 1.6 percent in 2011, according to The Nielsen Company, as digital album and track sales saw dramatic growth through May 8.  While physical albums saw a decline in year-over-year sales from the same period in 2010 …
Peter Delevett / Mercury News:
Cloud computing pioneer Martin Odersky takes wraps off his new company Typesafe  —  Eight years ago, German programmer Martin Odersky developed a new computer language he hoped would be an alternative to the venerable Java — one that would let applications scale easily to handle huge workloads.
Discussion: typesafe's blog
RELATED:
Nilay Patel / This is my next:
How Google controls Android: digging deep into the Skyhook filings  —  You might remember that a company called Skyhook Wireless sued Google back in September for business interference and patent infringement — the Skyhook XPS WiFi and cell tower positioning system was all set to ship …
Jay Yarow / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
RON CONWAY: The Scariest Man In Silicon Valley  —  Legendary Silicon Valley angel investor Ron Conway is raising a new fund for his investment firm SV Angel, according to an SEC filing.  —  So far, he's raised $12 million out of $40 million planned.  He should have no problem raising the remaining $28 million.
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Intel working on new Atom chip architecture  —  Intel is working on a new Atom chip architecture that goes beyond the 3D transistors announced last week as the chip giant accelerates development of its most power-efficient chip design.  —  The new Atom-based “micro-architecture,” codenamed …
Peter Delevett / Mercury News:
Wiretap: Google's Eric Schmidt chooses Palo Alto penthouse for his venture capital operation  —  Tomorrow Ventures, the personal VC shop of Google (GOOG) Chairman Eric Schmidt, is planting a bigger flag in downtown Palo Alto.  —  I was recently meeting with a CEO in the same High Street building …
Associated Press:
How bin Laden emailed without being detected by US  —  WASHINGTON - Despite having no Internet access in his hideout, Osama bin Laden was a prolific email writer who built a painstaking system that kept him one step ahead of the U.S. government's best eavesdroppers.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Microsoft security report shows abrupt decline in spam  —  Microsoft image showing a decline in spam in the second half of 2010  —  Microsoft this morning released its latest Security Intelligence Report, summarizing the data gleaned by the company about online attacks …
Nat Ives / AdAge:
New York Times' Share of Newspaper Sites' Traffic Hits 12-Month Low  —  April Was a Quieter Month for News Than March, but Other Newspaper Sites Maintained Traffic Better  —  The paywall introduced by The New York Times at the end of March is hurting traffic to its website, as expected, but perhaps within acceptable levels.
Discussion: Techland and Pulse2
DigiTimes:
Supply chain may not be able to satisfy demand from Apple  —  Taiwan-based electronics manufacturing service (EMS) provider Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) is reportedly facing a shortage of both labor and materials at its plants in Chengdu, China, which is likely to affect shipments …
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple Introduces us to a Live Chameleon-Like Screen Saver Designed Specifically for iOS Devices & Fashion Accessories  —  Apple filed for the “Apple” trademark in China this week which we noted as carrying a twist.  We noticed that Apple had, for the first time, emphasized fashion accessories …
 
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 More Items: 
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Apple ‘app store’ trademark challenged in Europe by Microsoft, HTC, Nokia, Sony Ericsson
Discussion: Digital Daily
Joelle Tessler / Associated Press:
Disney-owned company to pay $3M to settle FTC case
Discussion: Wall Street Journal
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Could BitTorrent Be The Distributed Social Network People Have Been Clamoring For?
Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, GigaOM and @xamat, Thanks:alliewag
Diane Bartz / Reuters:
U.S. sues to stop VeriFone buy of Hypercom
Aniket Basu / Reuters:
NTT DoCoMo, Twitter to develop location-based alert
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
RIAA, Lime Wire close to settling copyright suit
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Social media ad network Technorati names a new CEO
Discussion: paidContent and Pulse2
 Earlier Items: 
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
How Amazon Controls Ecommerce (Slides)
Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:
CBSNews.com to debut social show 'What's Trending'
Phil Muncaster / V3.co.uk:
Apple's 64GB 3G iPad 2 continues to dominate tablet sales
Discussion: iPad News Hub