Top Items:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
VOIP - The Details Kill The Fun — A bunch of VOIP services have launched to help people make cheaper calls from normal phones. None of them are compelling for the mass market. — VOIP is great when you initiate calls from VOIP phones or software (Skype, Vonage, etc.).
Discussion:
Naked Conversations
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Erick Schonfeld / B2Day:
With a Rebtel Yell, Swedish Startup Raises $20 Million — I got a call this morning on my cell phone, which showed a local New York number with a 646 area code. But it wasn't a local call at all. On the other end was Hjalmar Winbladh, CEO of Swedish mobile VoIP startup Rebtel.
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Some VoIP services surpass traditional phones — A large-scale VoIP study from Keynote Systems concludes that VoIP audio quality is improving, and in some cases exceeds that of the traditional phone network—so long as you're making calls within the US. More than 100,000 people a month …
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Mike / Techdirt:
Put Down The VoIP Phone, And Come Out With Your Hands Up — from the underground-voipers dept — It's well known that some countries (usually with government owned telcos) are not at all enthusiastic about VoIP system undercutting their telco monopolies. We've heard more than a few stories about VoIP bans in some countries.
Jason Calacanis / The Jason Calacanis Weblog:
Apple to trademark Podcast? (or "How to fight the good fight") — In perhaps the worst trademark enforcement decision—ummm—ever, it seems Apple is trying to get people to NOT use the term Podcast/Podcasting in the names of their companies. Podcasting for those of my readers who are non-technical, is best defined two ways:
Esther Dyson / Release 0.9:
Click fraud - here we go again — Yet another piece on click fraud, this time from Businessweek - which of course is an "old medium" itself. What amazes me is the elephant in the room: This is not an intractable problem. (Ask me about intractable: I just came back from the Middle East!)
Rich Miller / Netcraft:
HostGator: cPanel Security Hole Exploited in Mass Hack — HostGator says hackers compromised its servers using a previously unknown security hole in cPanel, the control panel software that is widely used by hosting providers. "I can tell you with all accuracy that this is definitely due …
Discussion:
Slashdot
Long Zheng / istartedsomething:
Windows Vista: fitted and nearly-finished — Vinny Pasceri, the Aero Program Manager for Windows Vista, has the daunting task of oversighting the user experience development project. Many people and especially Microsoft enthusiasts do not understand why Windows has so many legacy …
Pete Cashmore / Mashable!:
The Internet Address Book - Social Networks in One Place — The Internet Address Book, which launched this week, is a new service from the Netherlands that brings together all your online identities in one place - social networking URLs, instant messaging IDs and web addresses.
Rob Hyndman / robhyndman.com:
The HP Saga: Dunn is Indeed Done; Hunsaker Sacked — The WSJ and NYT have now issued their first pieces (AP here) after the news flashes that followed HP CEO Hurd's press conference today (audio). HP Chair Patricia Dunn is resigning as Chair and from the Board effective immediately, at the request of the Board.
Tim Arango / New York Post:
RETAIL-IATION — WAL-MART WARNS STUDIOS OVER — DVD DOWNLOADS — Worried about its massive DVD sales, retail behemoth Wal-Mart has told some of Hollywood's biggest players it will retaliate against them for selling movies on Apple's iTunes. — Last year when Disney announced …
Valleywag:
Yahoo pulls a Scrooge with forced unpaid holiday vacation — Several Yahoos confided their frustration to me when the company sent an all-hands memo this week, forcing all employees to take the Christmas-to-New-Year week off, either unpaid or using their allotted vacation days.
Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
New fitness center targets teens with games — Walk through the malls and high school halls in America, and you'll quickly notice that kids in the US could use a few good workouts. A new fitness center opening this Saturday hopes to lure kids in with a combination of a "fitness arcade," …
Paul Miller / Engadget:
Palm confirms low-end Treo, "680" device rumored — We're still not sure when Cingular is going to get that 750 hotness, but it doesn't look like us Stateside peeps will have to wait too terribly long to get some antenna-free Treo action. Palm, in a recent earnings call …
David Weinberger / Joho the Blog:
One Web Day - Invitation, Celebration, Gratitudination — Can't you just smell One Web Day in the air? I know I can't. But nevertheless, this is the big day. So celebrate the Web, and try to make it a little better for us all. Then let OWD know what you're doing by posting a photo …
Discussion:
Listics
Google Blogoscoped:
Google Belgium Publishes Ruling — Oh my. Google Belgium followed up on the court order and is now printing the full ruling of the case on their homepage (otherwise, they'd have to pay half a million Euro per day). That's a walloping 14,342 letters, included as Iframe …
Discussion:
Digital Inspiration
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
DRM is old and busted, according to BitTorrent cofounder — BitTorrent cofounder Ashwin Navin believes that DRM is not the answer to legal online video services despite his company's getting ready to launch its own DRM-based movie service in the near future.
