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9:30 PM ET, January 4, 2008

Techmeme

 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 …
RELATED:
Ken Fisher / Ars Technica:
Lone holdout in DRMed music recommends DRM circumvention
Discussion: MacUser, Podcasting News and Valleywag
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 …
RELATED:
PR Newswire:
Toshiba's Comment on Announcement from Warner Bros.  Entertainment of Its Exclusive Support for Blu-ray Disc Format  —  Toshiba is quite surprised by Warner Bros.' decision to abandon HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray, despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD.
David Carnoy / Crave: The gadget blog:
Warner goes Blu-ray exclusively, delivering crushing blow to HD DVD
Discussion: TechLifeBlogged
Gizmodo:
Confirmed: Warner Going 100% Blu-ray; Is This HD DVD's Deathblow?
Discussion: DVICE
Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:   Warner tries to curtail format war by ending HD DVD support
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.
Joe Wilcox / Microsoft Watch:
Scoble's Scrape with Facebook Isn't Friendly … On Wednesday, Facebook suspended the former Microsoft evangelist blogger for a terms-of-service violation.  He had used a testing Plaxo tool to mine, or “scrape” information from about 5,000 of his contacts.  —  Scoble is back on Facebook now, but he shouldn't be.
Discussion: eWEEK.com and loose wire blog
RELATED:
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) …
Discussion: WebProNews
RELATED:
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Digg And Others Sued For Infringing Infamous Computer Solitaire Patent
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
Embed Google Presentations  —  Google rolled out an update to Google Presentations that lets you embed a presentation into your own website.  Just switch to the Publish tab and hit the publish button - you will now find some inline frame code Google calls the “Mini Presentation Module” to copy & paste.
RELATED:
Official Google Docs Blog:
New features for 2008!  —  It's been two months since …
Discussion: Googlified
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Kleiner steals Chi-Hua Chien, Web 2.0 guru, from Accel  —  For quite some time, renowned venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers has been looking for a partner who can focus on investing in web startups, we've been hearing.  —  Now they've finally found somebody.
Discussion: Mashable! and Paul Kedrosky's …
RELATED:
Megan McCarthy / Epicenter:   Kleiner Perkins Adds Facebook-Savvy General Partner
Pat Phelan / Roam4free:
Never mind what are Twitter costs, whats the cost of Twitter?  —  Over the past few days we have seen lots of posts on the cost of running Twitter from such luminaries as Jason Calacanis, Paul Walsh, Marc Canter, Dave Winer , Fred Wilson and Allen Stern  —  Myself and my business partner …
Ina Fried / Crave: The gadget blog:
Windows Home Server remains a tough sell  —  Microsoft has largely succeeded in getting a PC into the home, but its effort to put a server there will be an uphill battle.  —  Bill Gates announced the product to much fanfare at last year's Consumer Electronics Show.
RELATED:
Todd Bishop / Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog:
Pre-CES: A glimpse inside a real Microsoft home
Discussion: CNET News.com
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.”
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.
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 …
Discussion: Macworld and The Apple Core
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 …
Discussion: Gizmodo and Engadget
 
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 More Items: 
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Nasdaq: Worst Percentage Drop Since March 2003; Biggest Point …
Discussion: GigaOM
NEWSFACTOR:
Suit Demands Apple License Microsoft DRM
Discussion: Techdirt
Electronista:
Digital Foci rolls OLED keychain albums
Discussion: Gizmodo and SlashGear
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
New Year's Tech Resolutions
Tom Simonite / New Scientist:
Google tool could search out hospital superbugs
Discussion: InfoWorld, WebProNews and Slashdot
Electronista:
Energizer unveils iPod battery extender, more
Mark / dive into mark:
2008 is the year of Linux on the desktop
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
iLuv announces a slew of new iPod accessories, including the i399
Discussion: Gizmodo
 Earlier Items: 
Elizabeth Woyke / Forbes:
Imagine A Web Site For Your Toaster
Discussion: larry borsato
Karl / DSLreports:
HDMI Over Coaxial - Another option for home networking
Mathew / mathewingram.com/work:
The RIAA: Possibly right, still weasels
Discussion: Techdirt and Engadget
Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Radar:
Human vs. Machine: The Great Challenge of Our Time
I, Cringely . The Pulpit | PBS:
Always Certain, Sometimes Correct
Discussion: The Mac Observer
Arik Hesseldahl / Business Week:
A Little ‘Intel’ on Apple's Next Move
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Lachlan Cartwright / The Ankler:
Sources: MSNBC renewed Rachel Maddow's contract early this fall, but with a pay cut; MSNBC bosses' plan to shake up daytime and weekend programming

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Internal memo: Hearst Magazines president announces layoffs as part of a decision to “reallocate resources” to “continue our focus on digital innovation”

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced she will leave the agency on January 20; she was the first woman to be confirmed to lead the agency

 
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