Techmeme: Imagine A Web Site For Your Toaster (Elizabeth Woyke/Forbes)

5:15 PM ET, January 4, 2008

Top Items:

Catherine Holahan / Business Week:

Sony BMG Plans to Drop DRM — The last major label will throw in the towel on digital rights management and prepare to fight Apple for valuable download revenues — In a move that would mark the end of a digital music era, Sony BMG Music Entertainment is finalizing plans to sell songs without …

Ken Fisher / Ars Technica:

Lone holdout in DRMed music recommends DRM circumvention — With three of the big four music labels abandoning DRM, that leaves Sony as the big holdout. That's right, the same company that brought you the Sony rootkit scandal is also the last of the major labels to repent and abandon their DRMed ways.

Discussion: Podcasting News

Fury.com:

Today is My Last Day at Google — After a life-changing four and a half years of working with the most talented group of people I have ever met, I've decided to take the plunge and do it all over again, working for a very small start-up. Today is my last day at the Big G.

Discussion: Google Blogoscoped, WebProNews, Phil Windley's Technometria and Mashable!

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Google's User Experience Expert, Kevin Fox, Joins New Start-up Company

Discussion: TechCrunch, techno.blog and WebProNews

Greg Linden / Geeking with Greg:

The coming 2008 dot-com crash — Early January is the time we see many predictions for 2008. I have not played this game since 2006, but I want to chime in this year. — I am only going to make one prediction, but one with broad impact. We will see a dot-com crash in 2008.

Discussion: Digital Daily, Screenwerk, Sadagopan's weblog …, Howard Lindzon and Joe Duck

Ben Edelman:

Sears Exposes Customer Purchase History in Violation of Its Privacy Policy — Want to know what a given customer has purchased from Sears? It's surprisingly easy to find out. Here's the procedure: — 1) Go to the Sears “Manage My Home” site, www.managemyhome.com . Create an account and sign in.

Discussion: Zero Day, Techdirt and Computerworld

Darren Murph / Engadget:

Warner goes Blu-ray exclusive — We've all been wondering what to make of those whispers that Warner was indeed going Blu-ray exclusive, and apparently, those rumblings are true. Based on a breaking release, Warner Bros. Entertainment will be releasing its high-definition titles …

Discussion: Electronista, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, Bit Player, Engadget HD and Digg

TimeWarner:

Warner Bros. Entertainment to Release its High-Definition DVD Titles Exclusively in the Blu-Ray Disc Format Beginning Later This Year — In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year …

Discussion: ParisLemon and TECH.BLORGE.com

Thomas Claburn / InformationWeek:

Google Patent Imagines Robots Indexing The Grocery Aisle — The two computer scientists behind “recognizing text in images” search technology also worked on Google Street View and Google Book Search. — A patent application filed by Google with the World Intellectual Property Organization …

Discussion: PC World, ParisLemon, Insider Chatter, Download Squad, wipo.int, TechCrunch, Web Worker Daily, Searchviews, WebMetricsGuru, Mashable!, WebProNews and All Points Blog

Bill Slawski / Search Engine Land:

Googlebot In Aisle Three: How Google Plans to Index the World? — Robots reading cereal boxes in the Supermarket? Googlebot at the Art Museum? Street signs and building addresses snatched from Street View images for local search, image search, and product search?

Discussion: Google Blogoscoped, SEO by the SEA, Screenwerk and Search Engine Guide

Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:

Will fans pay? Reznor opens books on 'Net music experiment — Radiohead isn't talking numbers, but Trent Reznor is. After producing Saul Williams' The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust and offering it to fans online, Reznor yesterday laid out the numbers from his experiment.

Discussion: ParisLemon, mathewingram.com/work, Mashable! and John Carroll

Gizmodo:

Sennheiser Wireless Earphones Utilize Kleer Technology Instead of Bluetooth — Sennheiser MX W1: First Wireless Stereo Earphones Using the Kleer Bluetooth Alternative — Kleer wireless technology has shown promise in terms of both energy efficiency and sound quality when compared to Bluetooth …

Discussion: Electronista

John Biggs / CrunchGear:
Sennheiser releases first untethered Kleer wireless earbuds

Discussion: Gizmodo

Jeremy Kirk / Macworld:

Apple music monopoly lawsuit seeks class-action status — A class-action suit filed against Apple alleges the company unfairly uses technological restrictions with its iPod line and iTunes Music Store to beat out competitors. — The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District …

Discussion: The Macalope, Hardware 2.0, The Register and MacUser

Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica: Apple antitrust suit alleges monopoly over music, players

Troll Tracker / Patent Troll Tracker:

4 Interesting New Cases From Last 2 Weeks of December — Well, what do we have for you today? How about the Rothschild family investing in a Eurotroll, and suing in Marshall, Texas? How about an ex-Fish & Richardson associate buying patents for millions of dollars (while an associate) …

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Digg And Others Sued For Infringing Infamous Computer Solitaire Patent

Discussion: Ed Burnette's Dev Connection

Karl / DSLreports:

HDMI Over Coaxial - Another option for home networking — If you're lucky enough to no longer be worrying about the speed of your broadband connection, you may still be concerned about the speed of your home network, particularly when it comes to shoveling HD content around the house.

Discussion: Electronista

Business Wire:
Gefen and Pulse~LINK Introduce the World's First Consumer HDMI …

Discussion: Engadget HD and SlashGear

Elizabeth Woyke / Forbes:

Imagine A Web Site For Your Toaster — Judging from the buzz surrounding this year's Consumer Electronics Show, every device in our homes may soon go online, right down to the toaster. The Las Vegas show, which kicks off on Sunday evening, will be stuffed with products meant to tap the Internet on the go …

Discussion: larry borsato

Arik Hesseldahl / Business Week:

A Little ‘Intel’ on Apple's Next Move — Wondering what Steve Jobs will announce in his Macworld keynote on Jan. 15? The newest chips from Apple's sole supplier offer some intriguing hints — With Macworld Expo just days away, the pre-"Stevenote" buzz is building fast.

Discussion: localmobilesearch.net

Joseph Weisenthal / paidContent.org:

Monster Acquires Affinity Labs, Developer Of Vertical Career Sites, For $61 Million — Online jobs firm Monster Worldwide has acquired SF-based Affinity Labs, a developer of community sites centered around various vocations, for $61 million in cash. Examples of its portfolio include Policelink.com …

Discussion: TechCrunch, GigaOM, VentureBeat, Affinity Labs, Mashable!, Silicon Alley Insider and cheezhead

Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:

Human vs. Machine: The Great Challenge of Our Time — In an email conversation with Bill Janeway about our upcoming Money:Tech Conference, he said something really profound: … I've written quite a bit about “bionic software,” the idea that one of the distinguishing characteristics of Web 2 …

Discussion: Paul Kedrosky's …

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