Techmeme: T-Mobile Bobsled adds free calling for iOS and Android, expands group messaging (Paul Miller/The Verge)

12:30 AM ET, January 11, 2012

Top Items:

Amit Singhal / The Official Google Blog:

Search, plus Your World — Google Search has always been about finding the best results for you. Sometimes that means results from the public web, but sometimes it means your personal content or things shared with you by people you care about. These wonderful people and this rich personal content …

MG Siegler / parislemon:

Antitrust+? — Given my post last night, this will probably sound like piling on. But I'm sorry, it's the first thing that comes to mind. I don't see how it can't. — How on Earth is Google going to avoid antitrust inquiries with their new Search+ features announced today?

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

Twitter Complains About Google Giving Preference to Google+ Content — Twitter is now officially speaking out against Google's new search features that give prominent placement to content from its own social network, Google+. — In a statement, Twitter complained that “people, publishers …

Discussion: Reuters, TechCrunch, Google+, John Battelle's Search Blog, VentureBeat, @amac, Marketing Land, GigaOM, Business Insider, SiliconFilter, parislemon and Bits

Mathew Ingram / @mathewi:

Google says (on Google+, of course) that it is “surprised” by Twitter's angry response to Google+ results in search: http://t.co/VQRxpfL7

Discussion: TechCrunch, Digital Trends, parislemon, L.A. Times Tech Blog, @dannysullivan, @alexia, @alexia, @mathewi, @lizgannes and @mathewi

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google's Results Get More Personal With “Search Plus Your World”

Discussion: Marketing Land, Forbes, Gizmodo, GSMArena Blog, Digits, The Verge, Engadget, Search Engine Watch, CNET, Inquirer, @manan, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Marketing Pilgrim, SiliconFilter, The Next Web and VentureBeat

Mike Isaac / Epicenter:
With Search+, Google Fires Another Shot at Facebook

Discussion: @miguelrios, Tom Anderson, All Facebook, Ben Parr's Entrepreneurial … and TechCrunch

Brittany Darwell / Inside Facebook:

Breaking: Sponsored Stories begin to appear in News Feed — Facebook is now showing Sponsored Stories in users' News Feeds, a Facebook spokesperson tells us. These paid units include a subtle indication that the post is “Featured.” However, to respect the user experience …

Discussion: Marketing Land, The Next Web and @joshconstine

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook Rolling Out News Feed Ads Ambiguously Marked “Featured”

Thanks:joshconstine

Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:

Eastman Kodak sues Apple over four and HTC over five digital imaging patents — Eastman Kodak keeps trying to force Apple into a license agreement relating to its portfolio of approximately 1,000 digital imaging patents. It hasn't achieved a breakthrough in an ongoing ITC investigation …

Discussion: Computerworld, The Tech Trade, CNET, AllThingsD, Bloomberg, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Electronista, The Next Web, MobileBurn.com, iPhone Savior and 9to5Mac

Beth Jinks / Bloomberg:
Kodak Adjusts Structure Under Faraci, Quatela to Cut Costs

Discussion: mocoNews and The Verge

Tom Krazit / paidContent:

@ CES: Apple Is Scouting The Competition — Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) famously avoids the biggest event on the tech industry calendar, and given the traffic on Paradise Road this morning you can't exactly blame them. But that doesn't mean Apple isn't scouting the competition in person at CES 2012.

Discussion: MacRumors, Gadget Lab, 9to5Mac and iClarified

Joanna Stern / The Verge:

Motorola to make Intel-powered phones and tablets, first phone coming in the second half of 2012 — You've read that headline right: Motorola and Intel have inked a multi-year, multi-device partnership, meaning Motorola will be making both phones and tablets powered by Intel's new Medfield, Atom Z2460 processor.

Discussion: Guardian, The Register, Inquirer, LAPTOP Magazine, AllThingsD, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, Between the Lines Blog, VentureBeat, Engadget, mocoNews, Mashable! and ces.cnet.com

Joel Hruska / ExtremeTech:
Intel's Medfield SoC unveiled, x86 Android phones from Motorola and Lenovo incoming

Discussion: The Verge, Wall Street Journal and Windows 8 Tablet Forum

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Exclusive: Windows 8 pre-beta hands-on video and pictures — Microsoft is well on its way to providing a public beta copy of Windows 8, and we got an early hands-on with a pre-beta version of the operating system today. Windows 8 build 8175 is on show at CES 2012, and Microsoft is demonstrating …

Discussion: VentureBeat, @tomwarren, Business Insider, Windows 8 Tablet Forum, Pocketables, Liliputing and Forbes

Poornima Gupta / Reuters:

Exclusive: Dell plots late-2012 consumer tablet launch — (Reuters) - Dell Inc intends to launch its first consumer tablet computer in late 2012, marking its entry into a hotly contested and increasingly crowded arena that has already claimed arch-foe Hewlett Packard.

Discussion: The Next Web

Agam Shah / PC World:
Dell Announces XPS 13, Its First Ultrabook

Discussion: VentureBeat, Engadget, The Seattle Times and CNET

Bloomberg:

Apple Acquires Israel-Based Flash-Memory Part Maker Anobit — Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. said it acquired Anobit Technologies Ltd., an Israeli company that makes a flash-memory drive part for the iPhone and iPad, confirming a press report from last month.

Discussion: CNET, MacRumors and Macgasm

Jeremy Horwitz / iLounge:

Hope To See The Next iPad At CES? You Might, Without Knowing It — Yesterday, one day ahead of the 2012 CES, I saw what's supposedly the next-generation iPad. I'd show you a picture, but there's honestly nothing to be seen. Think iPhone 4 to iPhone 4S: this device so resembles the iPad 2 …

Discussion: Geek.com, Macgasm, Apple Bitch, GigaOM, Redmond Pie, 9to5Mac, Electronista, everythingiCafe, MacRumors, Business Insider, iClarified and T3 News

Sam Biddle / Gizmodo Australia:

Samsung's New TVs Beat Apple To The Voice (And Face!) Recognition Game — Samsung's long made some of the best HDTVs — and now that they're all decked out with 3D and apps, what's left? Beautiful, slim TVs that'll use your voice and face as controls. That rumoured Apple iTV just got jumped.

Daniel Cooper / Engadget:
Samsung 2012 SmartTVs will access DirecTV without a set top box, minimalists rejoice

Discussion: GigaOM and Electronista

Jason Hiner / Tech Sanity Check Blog:

Tablets: What Amazon and Apple know that all the CES tablet peddlers are still missing — Takeaway: Tablets are everywhere again at CES 2012, but none of them combine the two big reasons why Apple and Amazon tablets have succeeded. — When I wrote about why Android tablets did a faceplant coming …

Paul Miller / The Verge:

T-Mobile Bobsled adds free calling for iOS and Android, expands group messaging — T-Mobile's Bobsled Messaging and VoIP service has been slowly expanding its reach. The calling features were originally Facebook-to-Facebook, then to outbound calls from the desktop to regular phones.

Discussion: VentureBeat and AllThingsD

Anna Heim / The Next Web:

Google Maps game coming to Google+ [Video] — Google is soon to release a game based on Google Maps, the company announced in a short video. — This is not the first time Google Maps has inspired fun stuff, not only from artists but also from Google developers themselves, as Google Maps is well known for its easter eggs.

Discussion: Marketing Land, Mashable! and WebProNews

Nathan Ingraham / The Verge:

Amazon the first UltraViolet retail partner; Samsung offering disc-to-digital on 2012 Blu-Ray players — UltraViolet announced a few big new partnerships that should give the fledgling digital distribution system a big boost. Amazon is the first official retail partner …

Discussion: Gizmodo and PC Magazine

Amar Toor / Engadget:

Polaroid announces Android-powered SC1630 Smart Camera, slated for release this year — Here's something we weren't expecting to see at CES today: Polaroid has just announced a new camera... powered by Android. The company's new, 16-megapixel SC1630 Smart Camera features a 3x optical zoom lens …

Discussion: Gizmodo, ces.cnet.com, Polaroid.com Latest Press, The Verge, 1001 Noisy Cameras, 9to5Google, Electronista and GottaBeMobile

Elizabeth Woyke / Mobilized:

Qualcomm Unveils Thinnest, Lightest Mirasol E-reader, The Hanvon C18 — Chinese e-reader maker Hanvon will sell the thinnest and lightest e-reader yet to utilize Qualcomm's energy-efficient mirasol displays, the Hanvon C18. — Hanvon's C18 e-reader is the thinnest and lightest e-reader yet to use Qualcomm's mirasol display.

Discussion: SlashGear, Engadget, PhoneArena, Gizmodo, ONE37, BetaNews, The Verge and VentureBeat

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