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:
Good Morning Silicon Valley, Bits, Ars Technica, mathewingram.com/work, VentureBeat, Salon, Things That, Crave, Digital Media Wire, Digital Noise, Silicon Alley Insider, Between the Lines, Electronista, The Register, Listening Post, TechCrunch, Guardian Unlimited, Wikinomics, Gizmodo, Wired, Valleywag, p2pnet, BloggingStocks, bit-tech.net, CrunchGear, Blackfriars' Marketing, Gadgetell, TheFeed, Mashable!, The Viral Garden, Download Squad, 901am, MacUser, Christopher Null, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, Neowin.net, Macsimum News, Engadget, hypebot, Podcasting News, MacRumors, TechSpot News, WebProNews, Business Filter, Smalltalk Tidbits …, UNEASYsilence, Technology Live, Slashdot 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:
Futuristic Play, Screenwerk, Digital Daily, Sadagopan's weblog …, Howard Lindzon and Joe Duck
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
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.
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, PC World, Insider Chatter, Download Squad, wipo.int, ParisLemon, TechCrunch, Web Worker Daily, Searchviews, WebMetricsGuru, Mashable!, WebProNews and All Points Blog
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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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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:
TechCrunch, Search Engine Land, WebProNews, Phil Windley's Technometria, Google Blogoscoped and Mashable!
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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Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:Kleiner steals Chi-Hua Chien, Web 2.0 guru, from Accel
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Mashable!
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:
Silicon Alley Insider, Tech Check with Jim Goldman, Electronista, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, Bit Player, Engadget HD and Digg
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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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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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.”
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
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 …
Ashkan Karbasfrooshan / HipMojo.com:
Web Starting to Surpass TV Advertising in Europe: Sweden First, then UK, then... Every time I think I am being bullish on Web and online video growth rates, something comes along that makes me realize I am actually being conservative. Case in point: … This is pretty impressive and actually in line with two analysis I did:
