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 …
Discussion:
mathewingram.com/work, paidContent.org, Things That, Bits, Crave, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Digital Media Wire, VentureBeat, Digital Noise, Between the Lines, Silicon Alley Insider, Ars Technica, TechCrunch, Guardian Unlimited, Salon, Gizmodo, Listening Post, Wired, Valleywag, BloggingStocks, Wikinomics, p2pnet, bit-tech.net, Blackfriars' Marketing, TheFeed, CrunchGear, Mashable!, The Viral Garden, Electronista, Gadgetell, The Register, Download Squad, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, 901am, MacUser, Christopher Null, Neowin.net, hypebot, Macsimum News, Engadget, MacRumors, TechSpot News, Podcasting News, Business Filter, WebProNews, Smalltalk Tidbits …, UNEASYsilence, Technology Live and Digg
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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.
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.
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:
WebProNews, Brier Dudley's blog, Futuristic Play, Screenwerk, Digital Daily, Furrier.org, Sadagopan's weblog …, Howard Lindzon and Joe Duck
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.
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) …
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WebProNews
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Mike Masnick / Techdirt:Digg And Others Sued For Infringing Infamous Computer Solitaire Patent
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Ed Burnette's Dev Connection
Megan McCarthy / Epicenter:
Kleiner Perkins Adds Facebook-Savvy General Partner — Sand Hill venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield Byers is taking social networking seriously. At least, that's the implication of its most recent hire: KPCB has added former Accel associate Chi-Hua Chien to its stable of general partners …
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John Biggs / CrunchGear:
Sennheiser releases first untethered Kleer wireless earbuds — I pray that Kleer actually takes off but after seeing ideas like this try and fail to gain traction — Zigbee, anyone? — I'm a little dubious. Anyway, Sennheiser just launched the first Kleer compatible headphones which allow …
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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:
The Register, Insider Chatter, PC World, Download Squad, ParisLemon, wipo.int, TechCrunch, Web Worker Daily, Searchviews, WebMetricsGuru, Mashable!, WebProNews and All Points Blog
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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:
Search Engine Land, TechCrunch, Phil Windley's Technometria, WebProNews, Google Blogoscoped and Mashable!
Peter Kafka / Silicon Alley Insider:
NY Google Vet Hirsch Leaving For Startups — David Hirsch, an eight-year Google sales vet who helped open the company's New York office, is leaving the company at the end of January. The 36-year-old is looking, he tells us, to invest in and advise Web startups, with a focus on “helping incubate and accelerate the early stage game.”
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 …
Todd Bishop / Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog:
Pre-CES: A glimpse inside a real Microsoft home — Hakan Olsson, who works in Microsoft's eHome group, uses his Windows Media Center PC in conjunction with a variety of devices in his home to see what is practical. (Scott Eklund/P-I) — Each year at the Consumer Electronics Show …
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CNET News.com
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The Macalope:
Yes, Virginia, any idiot CAN file a lawsuit! — Congratulations, Stacie Somers of San Diego County! You're the first jackass of 2008! — Well, OK, technically, since the suit was filed on December 31, you're the last jackass of 2007. But as it's already prompted some very silly analysis …
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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.
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Electronista
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Electronista:
Energizer unveils iPod battery extender, more — Energizer today unveiled a new iPod battery extender, as well as several new lighting products; it will be demonstrating them at CES 2008. The Energi To Go for iPod uses two AA batteries, and when used with the company's e2 Lithium cells …
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
Mark / dive into mark:
2008 is the year of Linux on the desktop — ...At least in the Pilgrim family. — Over Christmas break, we did a three-way computer upgrade: my sons got my parents' old Mac, my parents got my old desktop, and I got a new desktop. Of course I'm still running Debian Sid …
Tom Simonite / New Scientist:
Google tool could search out hospital superbugs — Transmission of hospital acquired infections like the “superbug” MRSA could be cut using the method that Google uses to rank search results, say UK researchers. — Crunching data from wards using Google's PageRank algorithm …
