Top Items:

Bill Gates On The Future Of DRM — Microsoft convened a small group of bloggers today at their Redmond headquarters to discuss the upcoming Mix Conference in Las Vegas. Highlights of the day included: — The receipt of a Zune as a gift (the third I've received from Microsoft - I now have all three colors)
Discussion:
Mathew Ingram, Apple Gazette, JD on EP, Smalltalk Tidbits …, Rex Hammock's weblog and digg
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Bill Gates on the Future of Web Apps — I'm up at Microsoft HQ with a group dubbed "leaders in various aspects of the web community" for a day that closed with an hour-long conversation with Bill Gates. Gates opened with remarks about recent products, as well as the coming ascension …

Talking Linux IP with Bill Gates — If you could ask Bill Gates one question, what would you ask? I spent an hour today with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on the company's Redmond campus. I chose to ask Bill about Microsoft's intellectual property stance against Linux and its open source developers …


Our Sixty Minutes with Bill Gates — A group of bloggers and online influencers, myself included, got to sit down today with Bill Gates as part of Microsoft's special Mix n' Mash 07 event. The day's participants included an eclectic group of individuals. Some were bloggers …


Vista Wins on Looks. As for Lacks ... After five years of starts, stops, executive shuffling, feature rethinks and delays, Windows Vista is finally complete. It's available to corporations already, and starting Jan. 30, it's what you'll get on any new PC.
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New Virtual Earth release launches — Although its a minor point release, this build of Virtual Earth packs a few great new features. I mentioned a couple days ago that the Birds Eye navigation control was being replaced soon, and today marks the day. Makes me want to sing the witch is dead song from Wizard of Oz.
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First Look: StumbleUpon Announces New Video Surfing Site, StumbleVideo — If you're familiar with StumbleUpon, the web surfing toolbar, you've probably spent countless hours hitting the "stumble" button and discovering sites that are eerily tailored towards your taste.
Discussion:
IP Democracy, Bloggers Blog, The Technology Chronicles, CenterNetworks, alexbarnett.net blog, Web Strategy, PodTech.net and Reel Pop
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Rumor: Brutes are playable in Halo 3, video on Dec. 20th — We get tips from time to time, some of them small and some of them big. The tip we received this morning, however, is a doozy. Coming from the blog of YLA G — creator of the kickass Google application, GooMGC …


With Windows MultiPoint, Youths in Developing-World Classrooms Learn 21st-Century Skills — The solution underscores Microsoft's commitment to innovating ways to help people in emerging markets - especially children - realize educational opportunities through technology.


Start-up Jaxtr lets friends phone you on your blog — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A Silicon Valley start-up is gearing up to embed free, Web-based telephone services on a variety of popular social networking and blogging services, including MySpace, Friendster and Blogger.

Online Influence Tied to Search, Social Media Use — According to a new research report, "Engaging Advocates through Search and Social Media," released today by Yahoo! and comScore Networks, not only is social networking's influence on marketing growing, but particularly vocal individuals are having more of an effect than ever.
Discussion:
Search Engine Watch Blog
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MyBlogLog's Growth — I wrote in my Social Networking Interconnects post the other day: … Well maybe Eric read that. Or maybe not. But he wrote a post on the MyBlogLog blog yesterday outlining exactly how fast MyBlogLog is taking off. Here's my favorite chart.

Why YHOO Will Outperform GOOG in 2007 — I was on CNBC tonight making the bullish case for Yahoo: — Yahoo needs to grow earnings faster than Google to regain investor interest — It can do that by cutting costs, growing audience, acquisitions or improving monetization (or some combination of all four)

Apple offers developers new build of Leopard operating system — Apple Computer on Tuesday evening released to developers a new pre-release build of its Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system, AppleInsider has learned. — The new distribution, labeled Mac OS X 10.5 build 9A321 …
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But How Will Mozart Have Incentive To Write New Music With All His Works Available For Free? — from the just-wondering dept — Last year, when the BBC decided to record and then give away free downloads of all nine of Beethoven's symphonies, some classical music record label execs complained …
Discussion:
Associated Press

Yahoo: Lower Page Views Due to AJAX — Yesterday's comScore Media Metrix report, exclaiming that estimates of page views for social networking site MySpace at 38.7 million for the month of November topped those for Yahoo by 600,000, came with some small print that should have generated …
Discussion:
O'Reilly Radar, Reel Pop, Lost Remote, Ajaxian, a shel of my former self, CenterNetworks and PaidContent


Marrying the Cellphone to Cheap Internet Calling — MATTHEW MILLER wanted to cut the cost of his cellphone plan. He and his wife, Dayna, had regularly exceeded their 2,000-minute-per-month T-Mobile family plan, incurring extra-use charges that reached $60 some months.