Top Items:
Antony Bruno / billboard.biz:
ZUNE GETS IN THE RING — Microsoft Preps Music Player, Service To Rival Apple's Wares — Microsoft officials for the first time have confirmed that the Redmond, Wash.-based company is readying a portable music player and integrated service, shedding new light on a topic …
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CNET News.com:
Microsoft's Zune to rival Apple's iPod — update After trying for years to compete with the iPod through an array of partners, Microsoft confirmed Friday that it plans to directly go after Apple Computer with its own rival, Zune. — Confirming weeks of rumors, Microsoft …
Gizmodo:
Zune News Trifecta — Since Microsoft's official announcement in Billboard didn't tell us all that much new info, here's a little bit more on Zune's rumored capabilities from another tipster. — There's going to be an add-on game pad similar to the Sony Ericsson P800 Bluetooth game pad.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Microsoft Partners, You Been Zunked — So Microsoft is going to get into the music device business - imitating the same "integrated experience" philosophy as Apple has successfully deployed to carve itself a big share of the portable music player and online music business. Devices, the store, and the whole nine yards.
Don Dodge / Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing:
Zune entertaintment experience — Microsoft has officially announced the Zune entertainment device that will compete with iPod. Microsoft said Zune will deliver "a family of hardware and software products" that will "bring together technology and community to allow consumers to explore and discover music together."
Fred / A VC:
Scars From The Last Bubble — In general, I think entrepreneurs and VCs who lived through the last bubble and its burst are better off because of it. We've seen what can go wrong and what happens when it does go wrong. I think it has made us all better at what we do.
Ryan Block / Engadget:
Apple to do eBooks? — We tend to field a lot of inside information here at Engadget HQ, but we've gotten not one, but two bits from separate, trustworthy insiders that Apple's not satisfied merely vending Audible's books-on-digital-audio solution. With the iRex iLiad and Sony PRS-50 Portable Reader …
Discussion:
rexblog, TeleRead, Infinite Loop, CyberNet Technology News, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, MobileRead Networks and digg
Michelle Pearcy / Dell one2one:
No Bloatware, Please — Michelle Pearcy, WW Client Software Manager — Lots of chatter these days on why Dell pre-loads so much software on new systems. Several of you have asked about how this software affects performance, some have commented about the sheer number of apps …
Kevin O'Keefe / Real Lawyers:
Best blogs send audience away — Jeff Jarvis writes "The problem with portals is that they aren't portals at all. ... They want to lure you in and then not let you leave." … Some of the best blogs are what Buzz Bruggeman describes as intelligence agents.
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Russell Shaw / IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband:
Skype applies for trademark that could mean worldwide free calling to any phone — This is going to sound strange and quite likely improbable, but I have information that may indicate that Skype could be considering dropping the equivalent of a nuclear bomb on the VoIP world.
Matt Cutts / Gadgets, Google, and SEO:
Independent report on invalid clicks released — Seems like a good time to remind people of my disclaimer, because this post is purely my opinion. — Normally, reading court documents is nearly the last thing I would want to do on a Saturday. But if you're a search engine geek like me …
Discussion:
Don Dodge on The Next …, WebMetricsGuru, Publishing 2.0, Clickety Clack and Search Engine Watch Blog
Reuters:
AMD seen close to $5.5 billion chip deal — Source says Applied Micro Devices could announce deal with #2 Canadian chipmaker as early as Monday. — PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) — Advanced Micro Devices, the No. 2 supplier of computer processors, is close to a deal to buy graphics chip maker ATI …
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Nick / Rough Type:
When "direct" becomes a disadvantage — Dell's latest and greatest earnings disappointment pretty much settles it: The company isn't just struggling to overcome a blip; its traditional strategy is no longer working, at least not the way it used to. — What went wrong?
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Profit Lags as Microsoft Spends to Meet Competitors — Microsoft reported yesterday that its sales grew strongly in the recent quarter, but its profits lagged. — The company is in the midst of product transition as sales of its new, as yet unprofitable, Xbox video game console are increasing rapidly …
Discussion:
DealBreaker.com
Jon Arnold / Jon Arnold's Blog:
Gizmo Project, Part 2 - What About the Biz Model? — Yesterday, I posted about Gizmo's All Calls Free offering. Notice that I'm calling this an "offering" - not a "plan". It's an offering - you can take it or leave it. — I don't normally do follow-ons to my posts, but I am here.
Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:
Too many journalists — The accepted wisdom in the news biz is that you can never have too many journalists and that the ad and circ crunch hitting papers will hurt papers by reducing newsroom staff. I've been questioning that wisdom here. — But sitting on another darned panel yesterday …
Discussion:
michael parekh on IT
Robert X. Cringely / I, Cringely:
They Wrap Fish, Don't They?: — Internet News Isn't What It's All Wrapped Up to Be — I have been writing for the World Wide Web since April 1997, which is about as long as anyone on continuous duty can claim. That's 480+ columns, totaling just over 800,000 words (at least one version …
Rick Segal / The Post Money Value:
TEO 3.0 - Goooood eatin.. — Josh Einstein's latest release of Tablet Enhancements for Outlook should be the first software product every Tablet PC user and developer gets at Microsoft. It is the perfect showcase Tablet PC application and Josh is the perfect ISV case study when it comes …
