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John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
More on the Amazon MP3 Store — So why Amazon is even bothering with a music download store, given that "everyone knows" the iTunes Store is a loss-leader that Apple offers just to sell more iPods? — Because that's bulls**t. Apple is making good money from the iTunes Store.
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Om Malik / GigaOM:
Vonage: How Low Can You Go? — Vonage (VG), the Holmdel, NJ-based VoIP service provider has been on the ropes for so long that you think it can't get any worse. But it does! Earlier this year the company lost a patent infringement case to Verizon, and was asked by the courts to pay Verizon …
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Alec Saunders .LOG, Digital Daily, Business Week, Todd Watson, IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband and CNET News.com
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David Gainer / Microsoft Excel:
Calculation Issue Update — Yesterday we were alerted to an issue in Excel 2007 (and Excel Services 2007) involving calculation of numbers around 65,535. The Excel team would like to provide a description of the issue and explain what we're doing about it. — Background
Official Google Blog:
A new caffeine-free way to stay alert — Since new videos are constantly appearing all over the web, it's difficult to keep tabs on all of them. But now Google Alerts will make it easy for you to add video to your other Alerts: News, Web, Blog and Groups.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Sling Media, EchoStar & Ma Bell: The Buyout Game — The $380 million purchase of Sling Media by EchoStar (DISH) may turn out be act one of a drama that climaxes with AT&T (T) buying EchoStar's satellite broadcast business. The company has asked its board of directors to split the company into two divisions — both publicly traded.
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Robert A. Guth / Wall Street Journal:
Inside Microsoft's Plan To Bring In Outside Talent — Before Brian McAndrews agreed to take charge of a crucial piece of Microsoft Corp.'s online advertising business, he insisted on a key condition: that he be granted certain power over the engineering part of the operation.
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Liz Gannes / GigaOM:
Midnight Madness: Benjamins for iPhones in Manhattan — In New York this week for the NewTeeVee Pier Screenings, I was stranded without a crucial piece of Apple (AAPL) equipment and had to make an emergency run to the store tonight. I decided that with the time difference in my favor …
Andrew Lavallee / Wall Street Journal:
A New Short Story Imagines Google as a Bad Big Brother — In science-fiction author Cory Doctorow's short story "Scroogled," a woman shrugs when she sees "Immigration—Powered by Google" on an airport sign, but that's just the beginning of the search giant's presence in a not-too-distant future.
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
T-Mobile announces Sidekick LX and Sidekick Slide — Capping off months of rumor and speculation, T-Mobile and Danger have announced two new Sidekicks today targeting decidedly different segments of the market. The Sidekick LX takes over as the new king of the Hiptop hill …
Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:
RealNetworks To Buy Online Casual Games Site GameTrust; Price Less Than $50 Million — RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) is making a smallish online gaming acquisition, paidContent.org has learned: NYC-based online casual gaming site Gametrust. While we don't know the exact price, we do know it is less than $50 million.
Will Knight / New Scientist:
Robot dogs race to be soldier's best friend — A timid-looking four-legged robot about the size of a Chihuahua might seem like an unlikely companion for soldiers of the future. — Yet the robot, called LittleDog, could ultimately help researchers create more sophisticated robotic assistants …
Discussion:
The Register
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Global Grind: Ajax, Finally, For The Hip Hop Demographic — The global hip-hop community: twenty four million people between the ages of 19-34, from a range of nationalities, ethnic groups and religions. Their collective spending power is $500 billion annually in the U.S. alone.
Mike Schramm / The Unofficial Apple Weblog:
Apple sends takedown notice to iPod hacker's ISP — Yesterday, Erica posted in her state of the iPod touch jailbreak that a hacker named "Martyn" had obtained a broken iPod touch, and was planning to dive in and download every bit of code on it in the increasingly complicated effort to put 3rd party applications on the iPod touch.
Pdp / GNUCITIZEN:
Google GMail E-mail Hijack Technique — I feel a bit dirty now. First of all, I would like to say that I am a huge Google fan, so don't take this post personally. Here I am going to show you how someone can install a persistent backdoor within your GMail account and snoop onto all your conversations.
Kenji Hall / Business Week:
Sony PSP Says Change Your Shirt — Games for nongamers are in style, and on its redesigned handheld, Sony is meeting demand with—among other offerings—My Stylist, a wardrobe organizer — As one of the leaders in the game-console industry, Sony (SNE) has a reputation for putting hard-core gamers first.