Top Items:
Louise Story / New York Times:
Company Will Monitor Phone Calls to Tailor Ads — Companies like Google scan their e-mail users' in-boxes to deliver ads related to those messages. Will people be as willing to let a company listen in on their phone conversations to do the same? — Pudding Media, a start-up based in San Jose …
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Peter Svensson / Associated Press:
New service eavesdrops on Internet calls — NEW YORK - A startup has come up with a new way to make money from phone calls connected via the Internet: having software listen to the calls, then displaying ads on the callers' computer screens based on what's being talked about.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
The Mad Ad World & Cheap Calls — Technology business often goes through periods where rationality and reality are suspended. We just might be in that phase, and nothing highlights that than the launch of ad-supported phone services. In UK, Blyk, an ad-supported mobile service we wrote about eons ago launched.
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Today's Terrible Idea: Pudding Media — A new start-up called Pudding Media is offering free PC-based telephone calls—if users allow the company to listen in on their conversations and serve targeted ads based on what they're talking about (NYT). This is one of the worst business ideas we've heard …
Discussion:
Webware.com, WebProNews, ExtremeTech, IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband, BloggingStocks and VoIP Watch
Jonathan Fildes / BBC:
'$100 laptop' to sell to public — Computer enthusiasts in the developed world will soon be able to get their hands on the so-called "$100 laptop". — The organisation behind the project has launched the "give one, get one" scheme that will allow US residents to purchase two laptops for $399 (£198).
Discussion:
The Browser, Daggle, broadstuff, Between the Lines, Guardian Unlimited, Wikinomics, Mashable! and Digg
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Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Buy a Laptop for a Child, Get Another Laptop Free — One Laptop Per Child, an ambitious project to bring computing to the developing world's children, has considerable momentum. Years of work by engineers and scientists have paid off in a pioneering low-cost machine that is light, rugged and surprisingly versatile.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Smart Mobs, IP Democracy, Memex 1.1, Digital Trends, dailywireless.org, Compiler and Slashdot
Carolyn Y. Johnson / Boston Globe:
Building a critical mass
Building a critical mass
Discussion:
Digital Daily, Fast Company Now, Mobile Technology News, Business Week, p2pnet, TeleRead and The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Is FeedHub the answer to information overload? — I've been playing with mSpoke's FeedHub, releasing today at the Demo Conference. I'll have a video up later today demonstrating the product. — Dan Farber has a review and info up on his ZDNet blog. — I've been interested i this topic for some time.
Discussion:
Chuqui 3.0.1 Beta
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Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
Pownce vs Digg: Who Will Kevin Rose Back? — I've speculated previously on the growing conflict Kevin Rose has between his roles at Digg and Pownce, and now it would appear that we may finally be on the eve of Rose being forced to decide between the two. — Leah Culver, a co-founder …
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Associated Press:
Starbucks to Give Away 50 Million Songs — SEATTLE (AP) — Starbucks Corp. plans to give away 50 million free digital songs to customers in all of its domestic coffee houses to promote a new wireless iTunes music service that's about to debut in select markets.
Discussion:
Newlaunches.com, ExtremeTech, Yahoo! News, Gadget Lab, Gizmodo, The Globe and Mail and Ubergizmo
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James Kendrick / jkOnTheRun:
We need a real handheld computer, who will build one? Apple of course — It's a great time to be a handheld PC enthusiast, not because there are so many good devices to choose from, because I don't think there are, but because public awareness of handheld PCs are at an all-time high.
Jackson West / NewTeeVee:
Rocketboom Moves to Blip.tv — Rocketboom, the popular news and entertainment show which has pioneered a number of innovations for online video programs, has chosen Blip.tv as a publishing partner. Besides taking on the duties of serving new and archived videos, Blip.tv will also be helping …
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Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
Google Prepping A Second Life Competitor? — Rumors of a Google powered virtual world based on Google Earth surfaced in January; today there is word that Google may be testing their virtual world at Arizona State University (ASU). — According to Google Operating System …
Candace Lombardi / CNET News.com:
Think tank to EU: Unbundle Windows on PCs — The Globalization Institute, a Brussels-based EU think tank, has recommended the European Union require all PCs to be sold without pre-loaded operating systems such as Microsoft Windows. — There is no reason why computer operating systems …
Forbes:
Stealing Clicks — The devil is in the data—and in this case, in the clicks. Google and third-party auditors disagree on whether click fraud—the practice of inflating pay-per-click ad fees with automatic clicking software—is at bay or on the rise. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has dismissed click fraud as "immaterial."
Discussion:
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
USA Today:
Account number, name not on this credit card — NEW YORK — U.S. consumers on Monday can begin signing up for the RevolutionCard, a new kind of "plastic" designed to be unlike any other card. — Among its features: a line of credit, the ability to store up to $15,000 on the card …
Dave McClure / Master of 500 Hats:
VCs & Tech Lawyers: INNOVATE, AUTOMATE, SIMPLIFY — i'll have a lot more to say about this in the future, but at the moment i just want to observe that for a group of folks who hang around startups & talk about technology & innovation all day long, most VCs & lawyers i know really need to eat some of their own [startup's] dogfood.
Discussion:
Jeremy Toeman's LIVEdigitally