Top Items:
USA Today:
AT&T flings cellphone network wide open — NEW YORK — Starting immediately, AT&T (T) customers can ditch their AT&T phones and use any wireless phone, device and software application from any maker — think smartphones, e-mail and music downloading. And they don't have to sign a contract.
Discussion:
GigaOM, Christopher Null, Epicenter, mathewingram.com/work, DSLreports, IP Democracy, WebProNews, Digital Trends, Digital Daily, mocoNews.net, Blackfriars' Marketing, dailywireless.org, bijansabet.com, michael parekh on IT, IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband, ParisLemon, atmaspheric, Mashable! and Podcasting News
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Ryan Block / Engadget:
AT&T claims completely open network, too — "the most open," even! — Who'd have thought the end of 2007 would see US cellphone carrier heavyweights duking it out with PR one-upsmanship to be... open? Seriously, someone pinch us, it's as amazing as it is farcical.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
AT&T Does Nothing, Convinces Reporter It Has Now 'Opened' Its Network — When Verizon Wireless announced last month its plans to "open" its network some people noticed very quickly that what Verizon Wireless was announcing didn't sound any different from what GSM operators, like AT&T and T-Mobile already had.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Facebook Messages: Small Change, Big Impact. — Dear Facebook: Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. — In August Facebook opened up their messaging system to allow people to add normal email addresses. I wrote a post praising the change, but I specifically asked for more:
Declan McCullagh / CNET News.com:
House vote on illegal images sweeps in Wi-Fi, Web sites — The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wi-Fi connection to the public must report illegal images including "obscene" cartoons and drawings—or face fines of up to $300,000.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Read/WriteWeb, WebProNews, DSLreports, Gadget Lab, Channel 9, Podcasting News, Engadget, WebProBlog, Slashdot, Wi-Fi Networking News, RSS and The Last Podcast
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George Ou:
We need to calm down over the SAFE act — Slashdot had this eye-popping headliner "House Bill Could Criminalize Free Wi-Fi Operators" which linked to Declan McCullagh's story "House vote on illegal images sweeps in Wi-Fi, Web sites". The bill in question H.R.876 would enact huge fines …
InfoWorld:
IBM researchers build supercomputer-on-a-chip — San Francisco - Supercomputers may soon be the same size as a laptop if IBM brings to market research detailed on Thursday, in which pulses of light replace electricity to make data transfer between processor cores on a chip up to one-hundred times faster.
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Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
IBM creates a chip-sized supercomputer — Good news, everybody! Those super-geniuses over at IBM have whipped up a new form of CPU transfer which utilizes pulses of light instead of electricity to move data between cores on a chip. The new technology — which is one-hundred times faster …
Discussion:
Data Center Knowledge
Declan McCullagh / CNET News.com:
Major copyright bill boosts penalties, creates new agency — In the aftermath of the $222,000 jury verdict that the Recording Industry Association of America recently won against a Minnesota woman who shared 24 songs on Kazaa, the U.S. Congress is preparing to amend copyright law.
Discussion:
TorrentFreak
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Electronista:
iPhone 1.1.3 to bring voice capture, disk mode? — Apple may be preparing a significant update for the iPhone as early as this weekend that will have some heavily requested features, according to a claim from CNET France. The site points to multiple reports that a 1.1.3 upgrade for the iPhone …
IEBlog:
Internet Explorer 8 — Just as he was the first to talk about IE7, Bill Gates kept the tradition alive and discussed IE8 at the Mix 'n Mash event here on campus yesterday. Bill was talking to some bloggers about IE.Next and called it IE8, the same way we do here in the IE team hallway.
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Vauhini Vara / Wall Street Journal:
Facebook Rethinks Tracking — Site Apologizes, — Makes It Easier — To Retain Privacy — After weeks of criticism over a new advertising program that was perceived as a privacy threat, Facebook Inc. has tweaked its privacy settings and offered a public apology from its chief executive — but advertisers remain wary.
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Yahoo! Messenger Blog:
Yahoo! Messenger for Vista: Preview Release Available! — It's here! It's really here! We're thrilled to bring you the preview version of Yahoo! Messenger for Vista, the first Yahoo! Messenger built from the ground up for the Windows Vista operating system.
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Robert A. Guth / Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft to Field Test PC For Developing Countries — Microsoft Corp. said that it will field test an inexpensive laptop PC for developing nations being championed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nicholas Negroponte. — Microsoft's plans mark a step closer …
Discussion:
Between the Lines, Engadget, Digital Daily, TECH.BLORGE.com, Microsoft and All about Microsoft
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Ina Fried / CNET News.com:More on Microsoft's effort to put XP on XO
Discussion:
InfoWorld, BetaNews, Ars Technica, Inside UP, Gadgetell, Microsoft Watch, Gizmodo and TechSpot News
Chris Kanaracus / PC World:
SourceForge Opens Online Marketplace — SourceForge.net now has a marketplace, where users can offer support services. — Recommend this story? — SourceForge Inc.'s open-source, project-hosting Web site now has an eBay-like marketplace, where users can offer support services for sale.
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
Google Books Adds Hand Scans — The often controversial Google Books program, Google's effort to scan and digitize every book ever printed has an interesting new addition: hand scans. — It appears that the Google employees scanning 3000 books a day may be under a bit too much pressure …
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
TripIt Adds Calendar Sync, Travel Confirmations — Online travel organization startup (and TechCrunch 40 finalist) TripIt will today release some new features that aim to further simplify booking travel online. — TripIt is a travel organizer that helps do-it-yourself travelers manage their travel plans.
