Top Items:
Rory Cellan-Jones / BBC NEWS | dot.life:
Facebook - back to the kids? — Facebook - it's so over. That's been the tenor of most of the commentary since Thursday's figures showing a slight dip in Facebook's UK users. The general feeling is that the kids, with their minute attention spans, have already tired of the social networking site …
Bernard Lunn / ReadWriteWeb:
Why Google Apps is a Serious Threat to Microsoft Office — This is the perspective of a “skeptical, later early adopter”; the sort of person who Microsoft needs to retain and should have been able to retain easily. I don't spend time on productivity tools that may at some date make me more productive …
Discussion:
Google Blogoscoped
Nick Miller / The Age:
$10 chip puts Australia on the fast track — A new silicon chip developed in Melbourne is predicted to revolutionise the way household gadgets like televisions, phones and DVD players talk to each other. — The tiny five-millimetre-a-side chip can transmit data through a wireless connection …
John Markoff / New York Times:
A Method for Critical Data Theft — SAN FRANCISCO — A group led by a Princeton University computer security researcher has developed a simple method to steal encrypted information stored on computer hard disks. — The technique, which could undermine security software protecting critical data …
Discussion:
Electronista, Guardian Unlimited, Ars Technica, Zero Day, Apple, Computerworld, CNET News.com, Engadget and eWeek
Nik Fletcher / Download Squad:
UK Facebook users ‘dropped 5% in January’ — For all the talk of Facebook being the $15-billion dollar social network de jour, it would appear that the heavyweight may be losing its touch, at least in the UK. The BBC quotes Nielsen Online figures for last month, showing Facebook dropping …
Discussion:
AppScout
RELATED:
BBC:
Facebook ‘sees decline in users’ — Social networking site Facebook has seen its first drop in UK users in January, new industry data indicates. — Users fell 5% to 8.5 million in January from 8.9 million in December, according to data from Nielsen Online.
Associated Press:
Google's Brin spooked by Microsoft's Yahoo bid — Speaking after a Google press event, Sergey Brin calls the possibility of a Yahoo takeover ‘unnerving.’ — MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin called Microsoft Corp.'s takeover bid for Yahoo Inc. an “unnerving” …
Arn / MacRumors:
Apple Releases iTunes 7.6.1, $0.99 Rental Discounts — Apple released iTunes 7.6.1 today through the Mac OS X Software Update. This maintenance release includes several bug fixes and improves compatibility with Apple TV 2.0. The included description remains the same as the original 7.6 release:
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David Chartier / Ars Technica:Apple patent seeks to marry TiVo, podcasts, and iTunes Store
Discussion:
The Unofficial Apple Weblog
Brier Dudley / Brier Dudley's blog:
Maritz joins EMC, to battle Microsoft in the cloud — Microsoft's cloud computing efforts have a formidable and familiar new competitor. — Paul Maritz, the former Microsoft platform boss, is becoming president of EMC's cloud computing initiative, which competes directly with Microsoft.
Discussion:
InfoWorld, eWeek, p2pnet, Inquirer, Bits, Alec Saunders .LOG, The Register, All about Microsoft and Virtualization.com
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Stephen Shankland / CNET News.com:
Firefox crosses 500 million download mark — Sometime last night, Firefox downloads crossed the 500 million threshold. — It's an arbitrary but interesting milestone for the open-source Web browser, whose development is overseen by Mozilla but that's also developed and extended by a large number of outside programmers.
Discussion:
AppScout
Lewis Page / The Register:
EU data guardians: search engines must obey our rules — European gov data-privacy supremos have collectively said that search engines operating in their jurisdiction are governed by EU personal-data regs even if headquartered elsewhere. — The Article 29 Working Group …
Discussion:
WebProNews
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Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Microsoft Fishes in Silicon Valley For New Yahoo Board Members — According to a source with knowledge of the situation, as part of the preparation for a possible proxy fight it is preparing to wage against Yahoo, Microsoft has been angling in Silicon Valley for prominent techies to serve on a board it must nominate.
Reuters:
EU, U.S. vow crackdown on computer counterfeits — EU and U.S. senior officials on Friday said they would crack down on the counterfeiting of computer components after they seized more than 360,000 fake items in just two weeks in a joint operation at the end of last year.
Discussion:
Newspond.com
BBC:
ISPs could face piracy sanctions — Internet service providers must take concrete steps to curb illegal downloads or face legal sanctions. — That is one of the proposals expected to be outlined by the government in an attempt to curb internet piracy. — Culture secretary Andy Burnham told …
Erica Sadun / The Unofficial Apple Weblog:
TUAW Responds: iPhone LoJack — Way back, one of our readers begged for an iPhone LoJack solution. He wanted his iPhone to “call home” regularly in case of loss or, let's be more realistic, theft. Over the past week, I finally had a chance to give this request some time, and I put together findme.
Tech-On! : tech news:
[MacBook Air Teardown] ‘No Waste Outside, Nothing but Waste Inside’ [Part 5] — “Can we say that the MacBook Air has a perfect, sophisticated external appearance, but its insides are full of waste?” asked Mayuko Uno, a squad member, as if speaking for the engineers that had finished the teardown process.
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Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
NAND and demand: How the chips fall at Apple, Inc. — News out of overseas chip factories this week cuts both ways for Apple (AAPL), the world's No. 3 buyer of NAND flash memory. — The report getting the most attention — and stirring the most controversy — is the one published Wednesday …
Ryan Kairer / PalmInfocenter.com:
Buy a Palm TX, Get a Free Z22 Handheld — Palm's online store is running an interesting new promotion. From now until the end of February, anyone who purchases a new Palm TX gets a free Palm Z22 handheld (a $99 value). The Palm.com store is also offering free ground shipping on all orders as well.
