Top Items:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Facebook Fatigue? Visitors Level Off In the U.S. — The number of people who visit Facebook has been leveling off over the past few months in the U.S., and even dipped by about 800,000 individuals in January. According to the latest stats from comScore, Facebook attracted 33.9 million unique visitors …
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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 …
Caroline McCarthy / Webware.com:
Facebook's traffic may be plateauing. So what? — There's been a lot of buzz this week about Facebook's traffic leveling off or declining, and naturally, it's been accompanied by schadenfreude over the fact that the hottest start-up in Silicon Valley may soon be losing its laurels.
Mat Lu / The Unofficial Apple Weblog:
iTunes Store adds 99 cent weekly movie rental specials — Along with the iTunes update we noted earlier, Apple has introduced a new weekly special movie rental for 99 cents. Macrumors reports that each Thursday Apple will make available a new movie at the special price, good until the following Monday.
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Scott Gu / ScottGu's Blog:
First Look at Silverlight 2 — Last September we shipped Silverlight 1.0 for Mac and Windows, and announced our plans to deliver Silverlight on Linux. Silverlight 1.0 is focused on enabling rich media scenarios in a browser, and supports a JavaScript/AJAX programming model.
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Ryan Stewart / The Universal Desktop:Scott Guthrie gives us a first look at Silverlight 2.0
Discussion:
Bink.nu
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 …
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Russell Shaw / IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband:New “GiFi” wireless chip unveiled: 5 gigs per second up to 10 meters!
Discussion:
CrunchGear
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Facebook Headhunter: The Quest for the Golden Geek! — If Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is serious about finding a true No. 2 to replace outgoing exec Owen Van Natta and more, then BoomTown has certainly at least two cents to add. — So here is our list of ideas, which include a number of women execs …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, CNET News.com, HipMojo.com, Fortune, Valleywag, FaceReviews and Silicon Alley Insider
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.
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Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Microsoft's Johnson: “Once Yahoo And Microsoft Agree On A Transaction” — This afternoon, Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft Platforms & Services Division, issued an email to Microsoft employees (that was released via its PR firm). The letter has a tone of confidence that assumes that a deal with Yahoo will ultimately take place.
Discussion:
TechCrunch
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 …
John Markoff / New York Times:
Researchers Find Way to Steal Encrypted Data — 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 …
Anthony James / Yanko Design:
Window To The World — Some technology concepts just make sense the second you see them. This concept tablet ultra-connected device by Tokyo resident Mac Funamizu, has me wishing for tomorrow today. Though he has not named it as of yet, I will drink the potion and call it “The Looking Glass.”
Ryan Block / Engadget:
Optimus Maximus: at long last, we bring one home to test — It's the damndest thing: years after seeing the renders we're actually finally writing this post on our very own Optimus Maximus. We've had ours for a few weeks for testing, but we weren't able to do a whole lot with it until we got some later firmware updates.
Jason Mick / DailyTech:
DoubleTwist Beta Debuts, Makes Facebook P2P — New program not only enables file sharing on Facebook, but also allows swapping of iTunes content — ‘DVD Jon’, or Jon Lech Johansen, is one of the most famous hackers in recent history, claiming the DVD encoding and Apple's FairPlay DRM as two of his highest profile encryption victims.
