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1:50 AM ET, January 20, 2012

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Why the feds smashed Megaupload  —  The US government dropped a nuclear bomb on “cyberlocker” site Megaupload today, seizing its domain names, grabbing $50 million in assets, and getting New Zealand police to arrest four of the site's key employees, including enigmatic founder Kim Dotcom.
Discussion: TeleRead
RELATED:
Molly Wood / CNET:
Anonymous goes nuclear; everybody loses?  —  #OpMegaUpload: like watching “War Games” play out, but with cyber-bombs.  —  In the aftermath of the Jan. 18 SOPA/PIPA blackout protests, the Internet community had amassed quite a bit of goodwill, flexed its muscles in a friendly, humorous …
Discussion: eWeek and Pocket-lint
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Justice Department calls MegaUpload an ‘international organized criminal enterprise,’ founder Kim Dotcom arrested in New Zealand  —  The United States Justice Department filed charges against MegaUpload today, calling the file-sharing service an “international organized criminal enterprise …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Before shutdown, Megaupload ate up more corporate bandwidth than Dropbox  —  Before being shut down by the feds today, the file-sharing site Megaupload was extraordinarily popular with home Internet users—so much so that the file downloading habit was spilling over into the workplace in a significant way.
Discussion: Gizmodo, Techie Buzz and Digital Trends
Chris Ziegler / The Verge:
Anonymous claims DOJ and record label site takedowns in response to MegaUpload suit
Billboard:
Swizz Beatz's Resume: The History of a Multi-Tasker
Discussion: BET.com
Dan Wineman / venomous porridge:
The Unprecedented Audacity of the iBooks Author EULA  —  Apple just released iBooks Author, a free Mac app for creating digital books for the new version of iBooks.  I haven't played with it much, but so far it looks like a very good tool.  However, a curious thing happens when you go to export your work in iBooks format:
RELATED:
Tom Neumayr / Apple:
Apple Unveils All-New iTunes U App for iPad, iPhone & iPod touch  —  Entire Courses from Top Universities Now Available in One App  —  Apple® today announced an all-new iTunes® U app, giving educators and students everything they need on their iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch® to teach and take entire courses.
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Apple's New Math.  Or: Why A $15 E-Book Equals a $75 Paper Book.  —  McGraw-Hill normally sells high-school textbooks for $75 a pop. Now it says it will sell electronic versions of the same books, via Apple, for $15 apiece.  How can the publisher make that work?
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:   Kno CEO Osman Rashid To Apple: “Now We Will Fight On Who Has The Better Product”
Megan Garber / The Atlantic Online:
A Brief History of Textbooks, or, Why Apple's ‘New Textbook Experience’ Is Actually Revolutionary
Paul Carr / PandoDaily:
iBooks Author Is Not Going To Hurt Publishers. It Might Even Help Them
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Do we want textbooks to live in Apple's walled garden?
Google Investor Relations:
Google Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2011 Results  —  Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced financial results for the quarter and the fiscal year ended December 31, 2011.  —  “Google had a really strong quarter ending a great year.  Full year revenue was up 29% …
RELATED:
Dan Gallagher / MarketWatch:
Google earnings rise 6%, but miss targets
Discussion: Bloomberg
New York Times:
Dodd Calls for Hollywood and Silicon Valley to Meet  —  WASHINGTON — When Jack Valenti walked the halls of Congress, friends by the dozen gripped, grinned and took note of what was worrying the movie industry's dapper chief lobbyist.  —  Christopher J. Dodd now fills Mr. Valenti's shoes.
Discussion: Digital Trends and @johnolilly
RELATED:
David Edwards / The Raw Story:
After Internet blackout, all GOP candidates agree SOPA sucks
Discussion: Alexander Howard and Mediaite
Summify:
Summify Joins The Flock At Twitter!  —  You've probably noticed we've been quiet lately.  Well, we're extremely excited to announce that Summify has been acquired by Twitter!  I know, right?  We can hardly believe it ourselves!  —  Roughly 2 years ago, we moved from Romania to Vancouver …
Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint:
Bing Maps to get Nokia branding on all devices - including rivals'  —  Nokia CEO, Stephen Elop, has told Pocket-lint that we shall soon be seeing the Nokia brand name within other devices and not just the company's own phones.  —  “You'll starting seeing the word ‘Nokia’ on a map …
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
The Valley Girl Takes On Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg (Video)  —  Double snaps to Jesse Draper, whose kookified online interview show, “The Valley Girl Show,” managed to get a very decent interview with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.  —  And by decent, I mean that Draper actually elicits …
Discussion: TechCrunch
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Damning Evidence Emerges In Google-Apple “No Poach” Antitrust Lawsuit  —  Next week a class-action civil lawsuit will be heard in San Jose to determine if Google, Apple, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Adobe, Intel, and Intuit conspired to eliminate competition for skilled labor.
Discussion: 9to5Mac
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Does Google Have An Interest In Pinterest?  —  I've spent about a week trying to track down the rumors that Google had expressed interest in a Pinterest acquisition and here's what I know thus far (here's where to email if you know more): So Google never gave an official offer …
Discussion: Electronista
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Why Kodak's bankruptcy should scare Nokia  —  Yesterday, a friend of mine, someone who is quite savvy about technology and the startup landscape stopped by for a chat.  Our conversation veered towards the state of the web, media and of course Silicon Valley.
Discussion: The Economist and Forbes
Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
Who Says Intel Is Weak?  Just Look At Those Crazy Numbers!  —  Chipmaker Intel has grown its annual revenue by nearly $20 billion in two years.  Let that thought sink in for a minute.  —  In 2011 it crossed the threshold of $50 billion in annual sales for the first time, having hit the $40 billion mark only last year.
Discussion: Intel
Antonio Rodriguez / The Grain:
How iOS can lose: the independent developer as a canary in the coal mine  —  Try as I might to find objective data in their financials to show the slow of the platform, I found it difficult to observe any cracks in the iOS money-making machine.  Apple is continuing to spend fewer dollars …
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Microsoft Reports Record Revenue: Up 5% To $20.9B, Earnings At $0.78 Per Share  —  Microsoft just reported its second quarter 2012 earnings with revenues of $20.9 billion, an 5% increase from the same period of the prior year.  Microsoft's operating income, net income, and diluted earnings per share …
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Pages With Too Many Ads “Above The Fold” Now Penalized By Google's “Page Layout” Algorithm  —  Do you shove lots of ads at the top of your web pages?  Think again.  Tired of doing a Google search and landing on these types of pages?  Rejoice.  Google has announced that it will penalize sites with pages that are top-heavy with ads.
 
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 More Items: 
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
VC Investing Soars 22 Percent To $28.4B In 2011, Internet Sector Reaches Highest Levels In A Decade
Discussion: GigaOM and GeekWire
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple Store coming to London's world-famous Harrods department store
Discussion: MacRumors
Adrianne Jeffries / Betabeat:
Layoffs at Lot18: 15 Percent of Employees Were Just Let Go From Fast-Growing Luxury Discount Site
Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:
High-res images in iBooks 2 are no accident, they're for the iPad 3′s Retina display
Discussion: 9to5Mac, @sonnydickson, CNET and Gizmodo, Thanks:padandquill
Matt Lynley / Business Insider:
Path Is Raising A Big Funding Round To Go With Its Shiny New App
Nancy Messieh / The Next Web:
Death sentence for Iranian programmer accused of developing software used by porn sites
Discussion: CNET and Gizmodo
David Goldman / CNN Money:
At $400 billion, Apple is worth more than Greece
Discussion: CNNMoney.com, AllThingsD and 9to5Mac
 Earlier Items: 
Melanie Lee / Reuters:
China's challenge to the iPad raises a red flag
Discussion: CNET, Techland and PadGadget
Kathleen De Vere / Inside Mobile Apps:
Exclusive: Xbox Live games coming to other platforms
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Amazon Makes More Than $100 Off Each Kindle Fire
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple introduces us to Siri, the Killer Patent
Discussion: NBC Bay Area, CNET and BGR