Top Items:


Should Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail block Facebook? — Apparently Facebook will ban you (or at least Robert Scoble) if you attempt to extract your friend's email addresses from the service. — Automated access is a difficult issue for any web service, so I won't argue with their decision — it's their service and they own you.
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Facebook lets me back in... I just received this email. — I answer Mike Arrington and several others in a video that now is up at http://www.mogulus.com/robertscoble. — UPDATE: In the video I cover a whole bunch of topics and take questions from the live audience that was there when filmed.

The Coming War Over Data On The Web — If you dig beneath the surface of the brouhaha over Robert Scoble getting his Facebook account suspended for testing a new Plaxo Facebook app that mines user email addresses in violation of Facebook's terms of service, you'll find evidence …


Plaxo Flubs It — News leaked prematurely today …
Discussion:
Get Engagd, Web Strategy …, BuzzMachine, Peter Adams Weblog, Elliott C. Back, Guardian Unlimited, Rough Type, WebProNews, Tech Confidential, Valleywag, CNET News.com, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Technovia, People Over Process, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, The Technology Liberation … and theory.isthereason

Scoble and his Facebook data
Discussion:
WinExtra, MediaFlect, cubicgarden.com, Now I Have a Blog Too, JasonKolb.com, LucaFiligheddu.com and hubbub

A Heart-to-Heart with GigaOM Readers — Happy New Year. As you may have noticed, my byline hasn't been up on the site for a few days. That's because the holidays weren't exactly my most jolly. — I had a heart attack on Dec. 28. I was able to walk into the hospital for treatment …
Discussion:
VoIP Watch, TechCrunch, THE BLOGGING JOURNALIST, Master of 500 Hats, Loic Le Meur Blog, WebMetricsGuru, Between the Lines, Valleywag, Geek Speaker, VentureBeat, WebProNews, FoundRead, IP Democracy, atmaspheric, BoomTown, Epicenter, Silicon Alley Insider, The Jason Calacanis Weblog, Digital Common Sense, Marketing.fm, bub.blicio.us and Scripting News


“Major Nelson” emerges as face of Xbox — REDMOND, Washington (Reuters) - Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and sporting unkempt graying hair, Larry Hryb looks like just another guy in Microsoft's corporate headquarters. — But Xbox 360 players know Hryb by his alter ego, “Major Nelson,” …
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Xbox Live outage, day 13: still up and down, still preventing fun from being had
Discussion:
Hacking NetFlix

Intel Leaves Group Backing Education PCs — SAN FRANCISCO — Intel said Thursday that it had chosen to withdraw from the One Laptop Per Child educational computer organization, which it joined in July after years of public squabbling between Intel's chairman, Craig R. Barrett, and the group's founder, Nicholas P. Negroponte.
Discussion:
Bloomberg
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Intel pulls out of One Laptop Per Child group — Here's another turn in a soap opera. I'm sure that kids in developing countries are not going to benefit from this internecine squabble. — Intel has decided to pull out of the One Laptop Per Child nonprofit organization after a dispute with its chairman, Nicholas Negroponte.


CES gadgets: Sling Media unveils new Slingbox PRO-HD for moving HD video around the home — Sling Media, the local outfit recently acquired by Echostar, is benefiting from our urge to watch videos anytime, anywhere, and to sling it around the house so we can watch it in whatever room, except maybe the bathroom.
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Microsoft Takes Heat for Office 2003 SP3 File Format Blocking — CorelDraw .CDR files are one of the formats that have been blocked. — Microsoft is facing criticism from a competitor and some customers for its decision to block some older file formats with Office 2003 Service Pack 3, which it released last September.
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Microsoft Office 2003 Abandons Support for Older File Formats
Discussion:
Security Watch, Christopher Null, Download Squad, Blackfriars' Marketing, One Microsoft Way and Zoli's Blog


Leah Culver, 25, writes the code that powers Pownce — Technorati — Facebook — Digg — How does a 25-year-old computer science major from the University of Minnesota wind up as a co-founder of one of Silicon Valley's most closely watched startups?
Discussion:
CenterNetworks


Mac's market share growth is “nothing short of spectacular,” suggests analyst — Apple has been on a tear of late, but it's not just a story of iPods. Indeed, web analyst Net Applications now puts the Mac's market share at 8%, up from 5.3% in early 2007. That is stunning growth by any measure …

Antitrust Lawsuit Charges Apple With Monopolizing Online Music — The complaint takes issue with Apple's refusal to support the Windows Media Audio format. — An antitrust lawsuit filed against Apple on Dec. 31 charges the company with maintaining an illegal monopoly on the digital music market.
Discussion:
Apple 2.0, Byte of the Apple, Podcasting News, TeleRead, Macsimum News, TechSpot News and Insanely Great Mac

iSteamy Converts iPhone in Handheld Porn Powerhouse (Extremely NSFW) — Here's our Extremely Not Safe For Work video review of iSteamy, a software program designed to easily browse porn on your iPhone, complete with category-based picture, video and audio navigation and a “steamy room” …
Discussion:
Insanely Great Mac


Facebook Widget Installing Spyware — Fortinet Global Security Research Team discovered a malicious Facebook Widget (officially, a “Platform Application") actively spreading on the social networking site which ultimately prompts users to install the infamous “Zango” adware/spyware.