Top Items:
John Brockman / edge.org:
GOT OPTIMISM? — THE WORLD'S LEADING THINKERS SEE GOOD NEWS AHEAD — While conventional wisdom tells us that things are bad and getting worse, scientists and the science-minded among us see good news in the coming years. That's the bottom line of an outburst of high-powered optimism gathered …
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Apple iTV availability to escape Macworld Expo — Apple Computer chief executive Steve Jobs should have more to say about the company's forthcoming iTV set-top media hub at next week's Macworld Expo in San Francisco, but the launch party may have to wait a few more weeks.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Infinite Loop, Apple Gazette, The Unofficial Apple Weblog, broadbandreports.com and digg
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Jason D. O'Grady / The Apple Core:
Crystal ball: Macworld Expo 2007 — Another January means another round of fortune telling. The week leading up to Macworld Expo is when pundits predict what Apple has in store for us in the new year. With that let's dive into what Steve Jobs could announce at the Moscone Center in San Francisco one week from today.
Discussion:
The Test Bed, O'Grady's PowerPage, Mickeleh's Take, VoIP & Gadgets Blog and Laughing Squid
Ethan Smith / Wall Street Journal:
Music Industry Changes Its Tune on Podcasting — After two years of hesitancy, the music industry is finally taking its first steps toward embracing podcasting. — When podcasts attained prominence in 2004, amateurs and advertisers alike heralded the downloadable audio programs as the next step in the evolution of broadcasting.
Antony Bruno / Reuters:
Ailing music biz set to relax digital restrictions — LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - The anti-digital rights management (DRM) bandwagon is getting more crowded by the day. Even some major-label executives are pushing for the right to sell digital downloads as unprotected MP3s.
Christopher Elliott / New York Times:
Wi-Fi Is Hitting the Road in Cars From Avis, but Technical and Legal Bumps Lie Ahead — Try connecting to a high-speed wireless network from a car, and you are pretty much limited to one method: rigging your laptop computer with a special modem and subscribing to a costly, and sometimes temperamental, wireless service.
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Damon Darlin / New York Times:
Is it a bargain or obsolete? — It's getting harder to know when to buy — The day after Christmas, prices on big-screen TVs went down and Raul Axtle pounced. — Axtle and his 16-year-old son, Shaheen, headed to a Best Buy electronics store in Emeryville, Calif., to buy the TV that Shaheen …
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Mike / Techdirt:Product Improvements Outpacing Even Planned Obsolescence?
Discussion:
robhyndman.com
Silicon Valley Watcher:
1.2.07: Apple probe focuses on Anderson, GC Heinen — While Apple has taken pains to clear Steve Jobs of any wrong-doing in its option backdating troubles, the company's internal investigation focused on two unnamed executives who may have fraudulently altered documents.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal
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Ellie Gibson / GamesIndustry.biz:
Xbox 360 topped US hardware sales chart over Xmas - NPD — But Nintendo Wii close behind with 1.8m units sold — Market analysts NPD have suggested that the Xbox 360 was the best-selling console in the US over Christmas - with the Nintendo Wii trailing by just 200,000 units.
Discussion:
GigaGamez, InterActive Home, VoIP & Gadgets Blog, Microsoft News Tracker, Neowin.net, I4U News and Guardian Unlimited
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
2007: Web 2.0 Companies I Couldn't Live Without — A year ago I wrote a post called "Web 2.0 Companies I Couldn't Live Without" and listed thirteen startups who's products made a real impact in my life. Those were the products that I loved, and used every day.
USA Today:
'Gears of War' breaks out for Xbox — In what is expected to be another record-breaking year for the more than $10-billion-a-year video game industry, the breakout hit is a science-fiction action game called Gears of War. — The game didn't sneak up on anyone — developer Epic Games …
Joris Evers / CNET News.com:
Google plugs Gmail data leak flaw — Google has fixed a security hole in several of its services that exposed the address books of Gmail users, the company said Tuesday. — An attacker could create a malicious Web site that would copy all the entries in a Gmail user's address book …
Dave Winer / Scripting News:
RSS wasn't invented — In the dustup over Microsoft's RSS patents, some of the mainstream press brought up, once again, the issue of Who Invented RSS. But RSS doesn't have an inventor. It wasn't invented. Something else happened, something harder than invention, imho …
BBC:
$100 laptop project launches 2007 — The first batch of computers built for the One Laptop Per Child project could reach users by July this year. — The scheme is hoping to put low-cost computers into the hands of people in developing countries. — Ultimately the project's backers hope …
Discussion:
Techdirt
Lifehacker:
Download of the Day: Software for Starving Students (Win/Mac) — Windows and Mac only: Software for Starving Students has released a 2007 edition of its collection of freeware and open-source software. — The collection includes well-known gems like 7-Zip, Audacity, Blender, and OpenOffice.org …
Adam Pash / Lifehacker:
Hack Attack: A guide for switching to a Mac — If Amazon's hot holiday seller list is any indication, a lot of you got new Macs this holiday season. If you switched to a Mac from a PC, you've probably noticed that there are a lot of differences between the two.
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Video retrenchment begins, Juice Wireless going for broke — Juice Wireless, the New York mobile video-sharing start-up, is still on hunt for financing, raising questions about its prospects amid a retrenchment hitting the video sharing industry in the new year.
Karlene Lukovitz / MediaPost Publications:
Marketer of the Year: Apple Computer — IF THERE'S A RECIPE FOR success in the relentlessly churning PC and digital entertainment industries, it may go something like this: Combine innovative, consumer-friendly technology with sleek design. Add impeccably crafted, integrated branding and marketing strategies.
Katherine Conrad / Mercury News:
Google, Apple, Yahoo boost valley market in real estate — Commercial real estate in Silicon Valley turned a corner in 2006 that it had been approaching for three years, thanks largely to property purchased by high-tech behemoths Google, Apple Computer and Yahoo.
