Top Items:
Michael Barbaro / New York Times:
Wal-Mart and Studios in Film Deal — Wal-Mart Stores may have lost the online DVD rental battle, but it has no plans to lose the higher-stakes video downloading war. — Today the company will introduce a partnership with all of the six major Hollywood studios — Walt Disney, Warner Brothers …
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Gizmodo:
Breaking! Wal-Mart First to Offer Digital Movies From All "Big Six" Studios — Interrupting my sleep and scoring a major coup in digital distribution—one not even his Jobsness has pulled off (yet)—Wal-Mart has become the first (and thus far, only) digital distributor to go into business …
Ken Fisher / Ars Technica:Wal-Mart signs all six studios to new service, beating Mr. Jobs (for now)
USA Today:Wal-Mart to launch video downloads
Discussion:
Valleywag, PaidContent, eHomeUpgrade, Zatz Not Funny!, UNEASYsilence and Hacking NetFlix
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:Walmart Officially Enters Movie Download War
Discussion:
Michael Arrington Sucks
InterActiveCorp:
IAC Reports Q4 Results — IAC (Nasdaq: IACI) released fourth quarter 2006 results today, reporting $1.8 billion in revenue, an 8% rate of growth over the prior year, and $268 million in Operating Income Before Amortization, reflecting slight growth. Adjusted EPS was $0.67, compared to $0.50 in the year ago period.
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Danny King / Bloomberg:
IAC Profit Declines 98% on Writedown of Coupon Unit (Update3) — Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) — IAC/InterActiveCorp, the Internet and media company assembled by billionaire Barry Diller, said fourth-quarter profit fell 98 percent after the company wrote down the value of its entertainment coupon division.
Discussion:
Screenwerk
USA Today:
Kodak plans to sell inkjet printers with cheaper ink — Struggling photo giant Eastman Kodak is launching a new line of inkjet printers aimed at luring digital shutterbugs back to Kodak paper. The pitch: cheap ink. — Kodak's ink will sell for about $25 when the printers hit stores in March.
Discussion:
Good Morning Silicon Valley, Guardian Unlimited, Techdirt, Business Filter, VoIP & Gadgets Blog and Gadgetopia
Tropical SEO:
Andy Hagans' Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and Social Media Marketing — Is anyone else sick of link baiting yet? I sure am. It's dominating talk on all the SEO forums and conferences; it's gumming up the works of all of my favorite social bookmarking sites; and it's forcing me get off of my lazy rear and make good content.
brad's life:
Microsoft & OpenID — So Bill Gates just announced earlier this morning (while I was sleeping in / recovering) that Microsoft is supporting OpenID. — When I made OpenID, I intentionally left the method of authentication undefined. (feature, not a bug!)
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Reuters:
Gorbachev to Gates: Show software 'pirate' mercy … MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) — Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Monday asked Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to intercede on behalf of a Russian teacher accused of using pirated software in his classroom.
Rustybrick / Search Engine Roundtable:
Google Webmaster Central Adds Link Analysis Tool — Google has announced the release of a tool that many thought would never come but always dreamt of - a tool that shows us our links for our sites. It has been sought over since Google changed the link command.
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VoIP News:
Hacking Skype: 25 Tips to Improve Your Skype Experience — How versatile is your Skype? Ours can podcast, translate French, take conference calls from 15 people, and tutor calculus. — HACKING SKYPE: 25 TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR SKYPE EXPERIENCE — How versatile is your Skype?
Martin Beckford / Telegraph:
Apple warns iPod users against Vista — IPods could be damaged by Microsoft's new computer operating system, the company behind the popular digital music players has warned. — Apple, the long-standing rival of Bill Gates's Microsoft, is urging users not to upgrade their PCs …
Emily Nussbaum / New York Magazine:
Say Everything — As younger people reveal their private lives on the Internet, the older generation looks on with alarm and misapprehension not seen since the early days of rock and roll. The future belongs to the uninhibited. — Find Kitty Ostapowicz on Livejournal, MySpace.com. — Y
Joseph Menn / Los Angeles Times:
Disney yet to refresh website as promised — Walt Disney Co.'s commitment of late to new technology has boosted the company's stock and earned Chief Executive Robert Iger a reputation as a far-seeing leader in a hidebound industry. — Now for the downside.
Amy Roe / Seattle Times:
A Kirkland cafe with no prices — With its blood-red walls and black leather sofas, Kirkland's Terra Bite Lounge looks like any other coffee shop — until you get to the menu. There are no prices listed. Terra Bite doesn't have them. — You read that right: No prices.
Mike / Techdirt:
How Can You Test An E-Voting Machine For Malfunctions If You Don't Get To Test The Machine? — from the just-wondering dept — Now that Florida's governor has admitted that e-voting machines without a paper trail are not such a good idea (though, the optical scan machines he wants to replace …
Discussion:
Freedom to Tinker
Kotaku:
What's Wrong With You? — Seriously. Microsoft pulls out the annoying with its WHATS WRONG WITH U campaign aimed at Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea. A click on the English language Korean version pulls up the following question: … Select from these choices: — GREAT JAPANESE GAMES
Jon Udell:
Critical mass and social network fatigue — At the MIT Enterprise Forum tomorrow in Boston, I'll be moderating a panel with three social software entrepeneurs on the topic of getting to critical mass. I want to ask the panelists about overcoming the friction involved in joining and learning to use their services.
Stephen Shankland / CNET News.com:
More megapixels, better photos: Fact or fiction? — Digital camera makers continue to squeeze ever more megapixels into their products. But does that make for better pictures? — Some experts say no. Image quality isn't improving, they say, and some fear it may actually be degrading as the megapixel race escalates.
