Top Items:
Om Malik / GigaOM:
How Much Did Microsoft Pay For Danger? — Microsoft is in some of kind of spending mood. First they offered up $45 billion for Yahoo (not enough for some!). And then there was that Danger acquisition. But how much did they spend on the Palo Alto-based company started by Android leader Andy Rubin?
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Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Microsoft paid $500 million for Danger, and there's got to be a reason — Software giant Microsoft reportedly spent $500 million to acquire Danger, the company that developed software to power the youngster-popular Sidekick. — The figure, while not officially announced, was dug up in reporting by GigaOm's Om Malik.
Joshua Karp / The Boy Genius Report:
Apple TV Take 2 out now — Does anyone out there actually own an Apple TV? If you do, today is your lucky day. Apple has just released the software update promised as a part of this year's Macworld Keynote. The update sports a number of significant enhancements, including set-top HD …
Discussion:
The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Apple 2.0, Infinite Loop, Podcasting News, MacRumors and Zatz Not Funny!
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Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Big Yahoo shareholder: There are few alternatives to Microsoft bid — Legg Mason-which owns 80 million shares of Yahoo, or about 6 percent of the company-said in its fourth quarter commentary that Yahoo will be hard-pressed to find alternatives to Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid.
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Dawn Kawamoto / CNET News.com:Yahoo's second-largest shareholder says Microsoft will need to up ante
Discussion:
TechSpot News
Francis Eliott / Times of London:
Internet users could be banned over illegal downloads — People who illegally download films and music will be cut off from the internet under new legislative proposals to be unveiled next week. — Internet service providers (ISPs) will be legally required to take action against users …
Discussion:
Financial Times, Digital Daily, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Slyck, GigaOM, Telegraph Blogs, mathewingram.com/work, Teblog, IP Democracy, IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband, The 463, p2pnet, TECH.BLORGE.com, Virtual Economics, Techdirt, TechCrunch, CrunchGear, TechCrunch UK, Geek News Central, The Globe and Mail, GoNintendo, VoIP Blog, open, paidContent, All News Feeds and MCV
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Bob Sullivan / MSNBC:
A lost laptop, a $54 million lawsuit — How much compensation does a consumer deserve for the loss of a laptop computer loaded with personal information? Raelyn Campbell figures it's $54 million — if you throw in a little extra for lost time and frustration.
Google Earth Blog:
Twelve New Cities With Google Street View Available — [UPDATE: Ok...according to Google - there are 12 new cities in the collection (they counted the Raleigh area as 3 cities). Originally, I said only six. I've updated the list below.] — Google has not announced it yet …
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Sonia Zjawinski / Wired News:
How Google Got Its Colorful Logo — In just a few short years, Google's logo has become as recognizable as Nike's swoosh and NBC's peacock. Ruth Kedar, the graphic designer who developed the now-famous logo, shows the iterations that led to the instantly recognizable primary colors and Catull typeface that define the Google brand.
Discussion:
Valleywag, Google Operating System, Natural Search Blog, greg hughes and Google Blogoscoped
Ben Worthen / Business Technology:
Bill Gates Quits Facebook — Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has stopped using the Web site Facebook, the most damning indictment in a week full of bad press for social-networking technology. — Social-networking Web sites, which help people share and find information about one another …
Discussion:
Download Squad, Web Strategy, Virtual Worlds News, FaceReviews, A Media Circus, Zoli's Blog, CNET News.com, Valleywag, PDA, All Facebook, VoIP Blog, Insider Chatter and Redeye VC
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Donna Bogatin / Insider Chatter:MySpace To Google: Learn How To Sell Advertising, OMMA Report
Discussion:
WebProNews
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Yahoo's Purchase of Maven Adds Complexity — Yahoo is buying Maven Networks, a company that helps outfits like CBS and Sony put their video online. Its press release is full of all sorts of ways this will help Yahoo: It gets video technology. Yahoo will be able to use its sales force to sell video ads on partner sites.
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times
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Vincent Nguyen / PHONE Magazine:
E28 show working Android cellphone: Video from MWC — You may not have heard of E28, but they have something particularly rare on show at the Mobile World Congress: a current, off-the-shelf handset that's running Google's Android cellphone platform. I stopped by to shoot some video and find …
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Nick White / Windows Vista Team Blog:
Windows Vista SP1 Prerequisites & Non-Security Update coming via Windows Update — Today we have a non-security update scheduled for distribution via Windows Update that you may find of some interest. The non-security update KB947172, a Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista …
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Skrentablog:
Amazon is the Google of buying stuff — I went into a little corner non-chain convenience store by my house (the “Devonshire Little Store") for some milk and noticed a big plastic tub of Dubble Bubble at the cash register. — Folks I've worked with know that I have a thing for gum.
CNET News.com:
Yahoo pink slips arrive — As expected, Yahoo lays off more than 1,000, but details are not disclosed. — Senate shields phone companies from spy lawsuits — update Civil liberties groups bash vote as “get-out-of-jail-free card” for AT&T and others accused of illegally opening their networks to the feds.
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Twittershare Brings File Sharing to Twitter — I love Twitter but even when it's not down it's got its limitations. Enter the API and a world of developers eager to engage with the active community of Twitter users. Twittershare is the newest truly useful development on top of Twitter …
Discussion:
Download Squad
Patricia Cohen / New York Times:
At Harvard, a Proposal to Publish Free on Web — Publish or perish has long been the burden of every aspiring university professor. But the question the Harvard faculty will decide on Tuesday is whether to publish — on the Web, at least — free. — Faculty members are scheduled to vote …
Adam Pash / Lifehacker:
DVD Rip Automates One-Click DVD Ripping — Windows only: Rip and back up any DVD to your hard drive with DVD Rip, a freeware Windows application that automates the entire DVD-to-hard-drive backup process. All you need to do is insert your DVD, run DVD Rip, and let it take care of the rest. Why?
Discussion:
Download Squad
Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:
How Audible Sold Itself To Amazon; No Competing Bids; Price Came Down From Earlier Hopes — Audible (NSDQ: ADBL), the spoken word company which is in the process of being bought by Amazon.com (NSDQ: AMZN), has filed with SEC on a timeline of how the process of its sale went through.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Yahoo's oneConnect: One Mobile App to Rule Them All — Today at the Mobile World Congress in Spain, Yahoo announced a mobile app called oneConnect that will be available in the second quarter as part of the upcoming release of Yahoo Go 3.0. I have not seen a demo of this myself …
Ben Worthen / Business Technology:
Brotherly Love: Michael Dell Buys Sibling's Company — Dell acquired MessageOne, which makes email-management software, for $155 million in cash. One of the deal's big beneficiaries is the Dell family, although the company says the transaction will also help businesses who want to outsource management of their tech equipment to Dell.
