Techmeme
February 8, 2012, 3:25 PM

Top News

Ed Bott / The Ed Bott Report Blog:
Windows 8 Consumer Preview due February 29: why it's not called beta  —  Summary: The Windows 8 Consumer Preview will be available for download on February 29.  Why isn't it called a beta?  Blame Google.  And Apple.  And Microsoft.  Especially Microsoft.
Amazon.com:
Amazon Announces Increased Prime Instant Video Selection for Kindle Fire and Prime Customers via Digital Video License Agreement with Viacom  —  Prime Instant Video now offers thousands of TV episodes from MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Spike, VH1, BET, CMT and Logo …
Ryan Lawler / GigaOm:
With Viacom deal, Amazon looks like a real competitor to Netflix  —  Amazon continues to ramp up the amount of video content it offers for free to its Amazon Prime subscribers.  On Wednesday it announced a deal with Viacom that will bring the number of titles available as part …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Why we are buying paidContent  —  First the news: Yes, the rumors are true.  We are indeed buying the assets of ContentNext Media from Guardian News & Media Limited.  And no, we are not disclosing the terms of the deal, except that we are buying the entire group of properties — paidContent.org …
paidContent:
GigaOM And paidContent Join Forces  —  Yes, it's true: We are joining GigaOM.  And the combined group will be a powerhouse, with more than 20 writers and editors, a strong presence on the East and West coasts and in Europe, and coverage of everything from media and big data, to the cloud and mobile …
Tweets: @mediatwit.  Thanks:@bradmccarty
Michael Arrington / Uncrunched:
Hey Path, Just Nuke All The Data  —  The story of the day is definitely about Path (a CrunchFund portfolio company).  The company has been copying address book information to their servers without user knowledge.  —  The company was apparently already aware of the issue and was taking steps …
Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:
Google Screenwise: New Program Pays You To Give Up Privacy & Surf The Web With Chrome  —  Google is quietly taking requests from web users who want to get paid to surf the web using the Chrome browser while sharing data with Google.  The program is called Screenwise and …
David Goldman / CNNMoney.com:
The iPhone is a nightmare for carriers  —  NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The iPhone may be great for consumers, but takes a nasty toll on wireless carriers' bottom line.  —  Apple's ( AAPL, Fortune 500) iconic smartphone has almost single-handedly devastated profit margins for Verizon and AT&T. Sprint …
Scott Moritz / Bloomberg:
Sprint Reports Wider-Than-Estimated Loss on Costs for Subsidizing IPhone  —  Sprint Nextel Corp., the third- largest U.S. wireless carrier, reported a wider fourth-quarter loss after demand for Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s iPhone boosted costs to subsidize the device.
Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:
Apple requires iPhone developers to submit Retina screenshots, may herald end of 3GS era  —  Apple has issued a notification to iOS developers today, informing the that they need to begin submitting screenshots that are Retina resolution or above, that is 960×480 pixel images.
Stefanie Fogel / VentureBeat:
Study: U.S. gaming population has nearly tripled in three years  —  The number of people playing video games in the U.S. has risen 241 percent since 2008, according to a new study from market research and consulting company Parks Associates.  —  The study, Trends in Digital Gaming …
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Boxee clashes with cable companies over encryption  —  Boxee's live TV dongle has only been available for a few weeks, but the company is already embroiled in a fight with cable giants like Comcast and Time Warner Cable over it, and it is now getting support from groups like Public Knowledge and the Consumer Electronics Association.
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Apple Gets the Credit (And the Cash) for Growth of Mobile Computing Revenue  —  What would the mobile computing industry (defined for this purpose as smartphones and tablets) be without Apple, had the company not entered it in June of 2007 with the iPhone?  —  Less lucrative, that's what.
John Biggs / TechCrunch:
Executives Of Swedish Start-Up Klarna Arrested For Alleged Molestation  —  Details are sparse and we have calls in, but the two execs at Klarna, Jens Saltin and Niklas Adalberth, were arrested at the W Hotel in New York for alleged molestation.  The victim was a 19-year-old tourist from Texas.
Zachary Lutz / Engadget:
LG teases Optimus Vu Android smartphone with 5-inch screen, 4:3 aspect ratio (video)  —  If you're into high strangeness in the mobile realm, you'd be wise to check out the video of the Optimus Vu that LG just posted — just follow the break.  While our Korean translation skills aren't quite up to par …
Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:
Yammer Closing Monster $50M+ Funding Round Imminently  —  We hear that the paperwork has just been signed on a monster new funding round for Yammer.  There was more than $100 million in interest, and the company took just north of $50 million, last we heard, although that may still creep up as the deal closes.
Agam Shah / PC World:
Rambus, Nvidia Settle Lawsuits, Sign IC Patent Deal  —  Rambus and Nvidia have settled past lawsuits and signed a patent agreement covering a broad range of integrated circuit products, Rambus said on Wednesday.  —  Under the patent agreement, Nvidia will be able to use Rambus technology in its products.
Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:
Behind the Scenes at Groupon's Tech Headquarters as It Prepares to Report First Public Earnings  —  In a three-story building in Palo Alto, Calif. — formerly occupied by Danger, the developer behind the T-Mobile Sidekick — Groupon has been trying to build out a Silicon Valley technology center, one acquisition at a time.
Tweets: @rakeshlobster
Jamie Keene / The Verge:
Vonage Mobile app for Android and iOS promises to undercut Skype's rates by 30 percent  —  Vonage is gunning for the mobile VoIP market in a big way with its new Vonage Mobile app for iOS and Android, which it says offers calls that are typically 30 percent cheaper than Skype's rates …
John Cook / GeekWire:
Supercomputer maker Cray forms YarcData, a new unit to capitalize on ‘big data’  —  One of the tech buzzwords du jour right now is “Big Data,” the idea of companies mining ever-increasing data sets to glean insightful information.  That's an arena where supercomputers can have an especially powerful role …
Dan Frommer / ReadWriteWeb:
Q&A: Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley on What He's Learning From Twitter and What's Next  —  Foursquare, about to celebrate its third birthday, is big but not huge.  It has signed up 15 million users, hired over 100 employees and now boasts several million check-ins per day.
Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:
Video Network Blip Drops ‘.tv’, Picks Up $12 Million  —  Another signal of the growing attention being paid to the streaming video sector, and specifically the growing emphasis on made-for-web content: online video network Blip.tv announced a $12-million round of funding, and a rebranding.
More: GigaOM and TechCrunch
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:
Apple's $90 billion run  —  The company has gained nearly one Facebook in value since Steve Jobs died  —  On Oct. 4, the day before Steve Jobs passed away, Apple (AAPL) shares closed at $372.50 and its market cap stood at $347 billion.  —  Four months later, the stock is up nearly $100 and it's market cap is $437 billion.

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Azure Content Understanding: Building on lessons from a decade of Document Intelligence  —  What a decade of teaching machines to read real-world documents taught us about what LLMs can and can't do.
Will Reed:
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Matt Brian / The Next Web:
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