Top Items:
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.
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IFPI:
IFPI publishes Digital Music Report 2008 — ‘REVOLUTION, INNOVATION, RESPONSIBILITY’ … Governments are starting to accept that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should take a far bigger role in protecting music on the internet, but urgent action is needed to translate this into reality …
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 …
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Paul Miller / Engadget:Vudu price slashed to keep up with Apple TV
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
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 …
Discussion:
Insider Chatter, CNET News.com, Master of 500 Hats, Techdirt, Harry Chen Thinks Aloud, JD on EP and Slashdot
USA Today:
MacBook Air: The sexy kind of skinny but with some flaws — Apple has earned a sterling reputation designing beautiful products that usually perform as splendidly as they look. — The MacBook Air laptop that CEO Steve Jobs unveiled last week turns heads.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Hardware 2.0, chrisbrogan.com, CrunchGear, jkOnTheRun, Switched, MacDailyNews, New York Times, Macsimum News, Today @ PC World, I4U News and MacRumors
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Steven Levy / Newsweek:The Skinny on the MacBook Air
Discussion:
Personal Technology, MacUser, Computerworld Blogs, Engadget, Insanely Great Mac, Mickeleh's Take and Gizmodo
Arn / MacRumors:
Netflix to Offer Mac Video Streaming in 2008 — AlleyInsider reports that during their Q4 financial results, Netflix confirmed that they were hoping to have a Mac web-streaming video solution available in 2008. An earlier Netflix blog entry from August had reported the same expectation.
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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.
Bill Snyder / InfoWorld:
Move over, Red Hat. Open source ain't what it used to be — Has the open source software movement become a victim of its own success? A provocative new study by a longtime software analyst suggests that the giants of the commercial software world are cashing in on the popularity …
Discussion:
Open Source
Reuters:
Google ties up with Japan's DoCoMo — Google's search engine will be featured on NTT DoCoMo, giving it access to 48 million mobile Net users in Japan. — DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile operator, said Thursday the tie-up on Internet searches, e-mail, and other services …
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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.
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Tony Smith / The Register:
Linux-less Eee PC launched in Japan — Asus has formally launched its bonsai laptop, the Eee PC, in Japan, pre-installing the machine with Windows XP Home Edition rather than Linux. — The machine's specifications proved to be those of the standard 4GB solid-state disc model - the Eee PC 701 …
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 …
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.
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.
Timothy Lee / Techdirt:
Your Website Shouldn't Be Just An Electronic Version Of Your Print Publication — We spend a lot of time here at Techdirt beating up on large media companies for their poor media strategies. For a long time, established media companies saw their websites as little more than an afterthought.
Discussion:
blackrimglasses.com
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
The AT&T leaves: Wireless strong; U-Verse buildout continues; Outlook in tact — AT&T reported its fourth quarter earnings and the big takeaways are that wireless growth is strong and enterprise spending is chugging along. — AT&T's earnings report garnered a little more attention …
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.
