Top Items:
Miguel Helft / Bits:
YouTube On the Go — YouTube first dipped its toe in the mobile world in November of 2006 with a deal to deliver some video clips through the VCast service of Verizon Wireless. Last year it created a mobile Web site accessible on many Sprint and AT&T phones. But the site only carried a small slice of YouTube content.
Discussion:
Podcasting News, WebProNews, Search Engine Land, Engadget, Reuters, dailywireless.org and Phone Scoop
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Emily Steel / Wall Street Journal:
Wall Street Journal Web Site To Remain Subscription-Based — The Wall Street Journal's Web site, WSJ.com, will keep a significant portion of its content behind its paid-subscription wall, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said Thursday. — Speculation that News Corp. would make WSJ.com …
Discussion:
Techdirt, CenterNetworks, ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, Furrier.org, Mashable!, Davos Conversation and MediaFlect
Robert Andrews / paidContent.org:
Music Biz Pushes Piracy Blame To ISPs; Digital Sales Up 40 Percent — We said in December the music industry would this year start to shift blame for piracy on to ISPs. As of today - and buoyed by recent similar French moves - the business is going after access providers in a big way.
Discussion:
Electronista, E-Commerce Times, PC World, Digital Daily, Silicon Alley Insider and DSLreports
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Robert A. Guth / Wall Street Journal:
Gates Calls for Kind Capitalism — Famously Competitive, Billionaire Now Urges Business to Aid the Poor — Free enterprise has been good to Bill Gates. But later today, the Microsoft Corp. chairman will call for a revision of capitalism. — In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos …
InfoWorld:
How the wireless spectrum auction could change your life — Depending on who's talking, the wireless spectrum auction that starts on Jan. 24 will significantly change the mobile and wireless landscape in the U.S., or it won't have much impact at all. — Some believe it will lead to creation …
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Robert X. Cringely / Popular Mechanics:
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the 700-MHz Auction but Were Afraid to Ask: Expert Op-Ed — From Google to the FCC, the new race for America's last broadcast spectrum holds many secrets. One of America's leading tech pundits unlocks the ones you need to know.
John P. Falcone / CNET News.com:
Vudu drops price to fend off resurgent Apple TV — Vudu is knocking 25 percent off the price of its eponymous video-on-demand box. Effective immediately, the Vudu is now $295, down from its original $399 asking price. Customers who've purchased the unit in the past 30 days …
Discussion:
Engadget, Electronista, Podcasting News, eHomeUpgrade, Gadgetell and Silicon Alley Insider
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Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Battelle Turns Down $100 Million Offer For FM Publishing. Decides To Shop Around For a Higher Price. — Yesterday, news started circulating that Federated Media Publishing hired Savvian, a boutique San Francisco investment bank, to shop around the blog ad network to potential buyers.
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Adchemy raises $19M to use science for online ads — Adchemy, which uses “predictive algorithms” to help companies place online ads more efficiently, said it has raised $19 million in a third round of funding. — Adchemy is a relatively quiet Silicon Valley company that has been studying what makes ads more effective.
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Netflix bringing streaming rentals to Macs, game console next? — Recent announcements on iTunes rentals certainly caused a stir amongst the neglected Mac-masses, but it looks like the online rental game is about to get a little more cutthroat for fanboys and fangirls everywhere.
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InfoWorld:
NTT DoCoMo in talks on Android-based cell phone — San Francisco - Japan's biggest mobile telecom carrier gave its strongest support yet to Google's Android platform on Thursday when it said it is considering a cell phone based on the technology. — “We are starting discussions to offer handsets …
Discussion:
Reuters, Electronista, WebProNews, Search Engine Land, Gizmodo, IntoMobile, localmobilesearch.net, Mashable! and InfoWorld
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Bill Snyder / InfoWorld:
Has open source sold out? — As open source goes mainstream, big commercial software companies reap as much revenue as scrappy independents — Has the open source software movement become a victim of its own success? A provocative new study by a longtime software analyst suggests …
Discussion:
Open Source
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Sprint Cleans House: CFO, CMO, Sales Chief Get The Boot — Sprint Nextel (S) this morning started cleaning house: the company announced the departures effective tomorrow of CFO Paul Saleh, Chief Marketing Officer Tim Kelly, and President of Sales and Distribution Mark Angelino. Buh-bye. Buh-bye.
Discussion:
Sprint, Podcasting News, CNET News.com, Techland, Reuters, Digital Daily, DSLreports, Gadgetell, mocoNews.net and Seeking Alpha
Alex Iskold / ReadWriteWeb:
The “Work From Home” Generation — For decades in American households the most dreaded morning sound was that of an alarm clock. Sometime between 6 and 7am a beep or radio music signaled that it was time to get up and head to work. But in the early 21st century two things have begun to change.
Josh / Redeye VC:
After the Techcrunch Bump — I see many consumer Internet pitches these days where the basic marketing strategy is to (1) get covered by Techcrunch, (2) get tens of thousands of users from the “Techcrunch Bump”, and then (3) “grow virally". While a positive Techcrunch review has the potential …
Julian Sanchez / Ars Technica:
Smartphones, seat belts, searches, and the Fourth Amendment — When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone as a “revolutionary” device, he probably wasn't thinking of its effect on the Fourth Amendment. But a new paper by Adam Gershowitz, a professor at the South Texas College of Law …
Brian Crecente / Kotaku:
EA Calls Fox Out on “Insulting” Mass Effect Inaccuracies — Electronic Arts, likely sick of having their recently-acquired role-playing franchise Mass Effect dragged through the mud on national television, has requested that Fox News Channel correct their error-plagued segment on the game.
Discussion:
Opposable Thumbs, Game|Life, Xbox 360 Fanboy, Slashdot, Joystiq, GamePolitics.com and Digg
Smaran / TorrentFreak:
Alchemist Author Pirates His Own Books — Coelho's view is that letting people swap digital copies of his books for free increases sales. In a keynote speech (embedded below) at the Digital, Life, Design conference in Munich he talked about how uploading the Russian translation of …
