Top Items:
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft Is in Talks To Buy Facebook Stake — SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft Corp. is in talks with Facebook Inc. about making an investment in the social-networking startup that could value Facebook at $10 billion or more, according to people familiar with the matter.
Discussion:
24/7 Wall St., CenterNetworks, mathewingram.com/work, paidContent.org, Silicon Alley Insider, VentureBeat, Inside Facebook, IP Democracy, Read/WriteWeb, TechCrunch, HipMojo.com, Search Engine Land, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, FaceReviews.com, Greg Galitzine's VoIP …, Valleywag, IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband, Scobleizer, The Viral Garden, Clickety Clack, ResourceShelf and All Facebook
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Microsoft reportedly eyeing Facebook stake — Microsoft is eyeing an investment in Facebook that would value the social networking company at about $10 billion. — The investment, which was reported by The Wall Street Journal citing "people familiar with the matter, connects a few dots on the social networking landscape.
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 …
Discussion:
Associated Press, Business Week, Insider Chatter, Download Squad, Epicenter, alarm:clock, Digital Daily, TechBlog, Valleywag, michael parekh on IT, VoIP & Gadgets Blog, p2pnet, MediaBytes with Shelly …, dailywireless.org, Alec Saunders .LOG, BloggingStocks, dslreports.com, Incremental Blogger and ReveNews Online Revenue …
RELATED:
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 …
Ted / Ted's Take:
"PayPal Meets MasterCard" Without The High Fees — MEDIA CONTACT: — Brad Burns — 202-776-1400 — brad.burns@revolution.com — REVOLUTION JOINED BY INDUSTRY LEGENDS AND MAJOR BANKS TO LAUNCH REVOLUTIONARY PAYMENT SYSTEM — Steve Case, Ted Leonsis, Larry Summers, David Pottruck …
RELATED:
Daniel Terdiman / Webware.com:
GOOGLE EYEING ITS OWN 'SECOND LIFE?' — For some time now, we here at CNET News.com have been hearing whispers that Google might be looking to get into the virtual world space, particularly in light of the increasing interest of existing environments like Second Life, and the success …
Discussion:
The Social Web
RELATED:
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:Google Prepping A Second Life Competitor?
Discussion:
Download Squad, TECH.BLORGE.com, Google Blogoscoped, Valleywag, Virtual Worlds News, Searchviews, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Search Engine Land, Insider Reports Feed, Between the Lines, Metaversed, Infocult, ParisLemon, RealityPrime, Mark Evans, Portfolio.com, 3pointD.com and Mashable!
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:Google testing "My World" for launch later this year
Discussion:
Valleywag
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:
Gizmodo, Yahoo! News, Gadget Lab, Orbitcast, Newlaunches.com, The Globe and Mail, ExtremeTech and Ubergizmo
RELATED:
Jeremy Kirk / InfoWorld:
Virgin drops Windows Media-based music download service — San Francisco (IDGNS) - Virgin Group Ltd. will shut down its online music subscription and download service in the U.S. and U.K. next month, leaving one less competitor for Apple Inc.'s iTunes Music Store.
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:
Read/WriteWeb, The Browser, Cinema Blend Feeds, Daggle, broadstuff, Wikinomics, Guardian Unlimited, Between the Lines, Mashable! and Digg
RELATED:
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.
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Experience Blog:
Experiencing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta — Today Microsoft is releasing the Beta of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 which was announced by Nick White few weeks ago. I'd like to take the opportunity to share my very own experiences with Windows Vista SP1 Beta running on several PCs of my own.
RELATED:
Astrid Wendlandt / Reuters:
Vivendi calls Apple iTunes contract terms "indecent" — PARIS (Reuters) - Vivendi condemned as "indecent" the contract terms between its Universal Music Group (UMG) unit and Apple Inc, the computer maker whose iTunes online store dominates the digital music market.
RELATED:
Donald Melanson / Engadget:CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XLIII: Vivendi CEO calls iTunes contract "indecent"
Discussion:
Infinite Loop
Adam Frucci / Gizmodo:
Military: Lockheed Martin Developing 'Maple Seed' Flying Cameras — The Pentagon is giving the war profiteers over at Lockheed Martin a nice chunk of change to develop a spy camera modeled after a maple seed. Loaded up with two rockets, the wee, single-winged camera would be used …
Official Google Blog:
It's all about today — A lot of us love video games, and everyone here has their favorite from the latest generation of consoles. We have a game room in our building that happens to have all three of the latest systems: Artem loves Microsoft's Xbox 360, Niv can't part with Sony's Playstation 3 …
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.
Prince McLean / AppleInsider:
Updated Leopard requirements to exclude 800MHz systems — Just weeks ahead of its public launch, Apple Inc. has updated the minimum system requirements for its next-generation Leopard operating system to exclude 800MHz PowerPC-based Macs, AppleInsider has learned.
Discussion:
Byte of the Apple, Compiler, CrunchGear, Gizmodo, The Unofficial Apple Weblog and Ubergizmo
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 …
