Top Items:


Microsoft launches private beta of Internet Explorer 8 — Microsoft has sent out a letter to a select group of beta testers offering a chance to participate in a technical preview of Internet Explorer 8 beta 1. — There's not a whole heck of a lot of information about what IE8 will look like, what features it has, or anything else.
Discussion:
Bb's RealTech
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Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 — Greetings from the Internet Explorer Team! We are nearing the launch of Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 and we will be making it available for the general public to download and test. IE8 Beta 1 is focused on the developer community …

Private IE 8 beta 1 test build coming soon
Discussion:
Mashable!

Why I'm hooked on Twitter — 21st Century Literacies - Technologies of Cooperation … On a message board, a student asked me why I said I was hooked on Twitter. I replied off the top of my head. Sometimes, that's better than taking longer to compose something more elaborately thought out.


Electronic Arts Makes a $2 Billion Cash Bid For Take-Two — Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) has made a $2 billion cash bid for Take-Two Interactive, best known for “Grand Theft Auto”, “Madden” and “Need for Speed”. — Offer details (full offer release here as well at the offer's special website Eatake2.com):
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, Los Angeles Times, CNET News.com, CenterNetworks, Reuters, MTV Multiplayer and Newspond.com
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Electronic Arts Proposes to Acquire Take-Two Interactive Software for $26 Per Share in Cash, or Approximately $2.0 Billion — Proposal Represents 64 Percent Premium to Take-Two's February 15th Closing Price and 63 Percent Premium to Take-Two's Closing Price Over the Previous 30 Days


Microsoft Pulls Plug on HD DVD Players — SEATTLE (AP) — Microsoft Corp. said it will stop making HD DVD players for its Xbox 360 video game system after Toshiba Corp. ceded the high-definition video format battle to Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray. — Microsoft said Saturday it would continue …
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A Haunting Live Soap Opera: A Surveillance ScreenSaver — SurveillanceSaver is a screensaver which shows live images of over 400 network surveillance cameras worldwide. Yep, when your computer is idle you'll get to see a live feed of what's going on in other parts of the world.
Discussion:
Mashable!


Maybe Microsoft Should Stalk Different Prey — OVER the years, Microsoft has pummeled countless rivals, including the superheavyweight I.B.M. But it has never faced a smaller foe as formidable as Google. The tale of the tape gives Microsoft a $100 billion advantage in market capitalization …
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Microsoft Should Buy SAP Instead of Yahoo
Discussion:
CNET News.com

Shared feed mania - What's in it for YOU? — I started using Google's Shared Reader about 8 months ago, when it appeared that the entire tech (SEM?) community was using it (and yes, Twitter) to stay abreast of what was going on around them. — About two months ago, I inserted a subscribe link …

Pakistan declares war on YouTube — What could at first have been just one of those days on the Internet where some newbie engineer accidentally announces a spurious route and takes out a segment of the network has turned into an international fiasco. But no, Pakastan has ordered all ISP's to block YouTube.


Wii Tetris: homebrew edition — If that unplayable version of Pong we saw for the Wii wasn't quite doing it for you, you 'll be happy to know that homebrewer Christian Auby (aka DesktopMan) has just hit the next stage in evolution: Tetris. That's right, you can now get a fully functioning version …


Will There Be A (Successful) iPhone-Only Social Network? — iPhone owners, like users of most Apple products, are a fairly passionate, elitist group of people. — I think an iPhone-only social network, if it had the right features, would be a huge hit with these users.