Top Items:
Business Wire:
AOL to Acquire Global Social Media Network Bebo — NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—AOL announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Bebo (http://www.bebo.com), a leading global social media network. Together with its AIM and ICQ personal communications network …
Discussion:
GigaOM, Rev2.org, Guardian Unlimited, Search Engine Journal, Screenwerk, PE Hub Blog and Mashable!
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Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:
Breaking: Bebo To AOL for $850 Million — AOL has announced this morning that they have acquired social networking service Bebo for $850 million in cash. Bebo has 100 employees operating in offices in the UK, San Francisco and Austin, TX. Bebo is the third-largest social networking service in the U.S. behind MySpace and Facebook.
AOL News:
AOL to Acquire Social Media Network Bebo — AOL has entered into an agreement to acquire Bebo, a leading global social media network. Founded in 2005, Bebo now has 40 million members worldwide. Together with AIM and ICQ, AOL will have a social network of approximately 80 million unique users worldwide …
Discussion:
Download Squad, The Next Web, Digital Daily, Creative Capital, ResourceShelf and paidContent.org
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
AOL buys social network Bebo for $850 million — AOL issued a press release on Thursday morning to announce that the company has acquired social-networking site Bebo. The price tag, according to the AOL statement, is $850 million in cash. Neither company has yet stated when the deal is expected to be closed.
Robert Andrews / paidContent.org:
AOL-Bebo: Balderton VCs Reap $140 Million From Acquisition — VC firm Balderton Capital will reap about $140 million - nine times what it invested in Bebo less than two years ago - by selling its 15.7 stake in the social net to AOL (NYSE: TWX). That's a huge return on the $15 million investment …
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
The Future Of Voice May Be Voiceless — The above video is a little rough in terms of processing delay, but it's staggering. Voice without voice. — According to New Scientist, the neckband translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals; “with careful training a person …
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Tom Simonite / New Scientist:
Nerve-tapping neckband allows ‘telepathic’ chat — A neckband that translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals has been used to demonstrate a “voiceless” phone call for the first time. — With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, GottaBeMobile, BUZZYEAH, Tom Raftery's Social Media, textually.org, jkOnTheRun, VoIP Blog, Boing Boing and Slashdot
Elinor Mills / CNET News.com:
Google testing service to let publishers manage ads — Google is testing a new service called Ad Manager that will give Web site publishers more control over their ad sales and ad serving, The Wall Street Journal reported late on Wednesday. — Publishers can sell their own ads …
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Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:Google Ad Manager Targets Medium-Sized Publishers, Seeks Broader …
Discussion:
The Paradigm Shift
Scott Hillis / Reuters:
Microsoft says no Blu-ray for Xbox 360 — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) is not in talks to include Sony Corp's (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) Blu-ray high-definition DVD technology in its Xbox 360 video game console, an executive said on Wednesday.
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Matt / Photo Matt:
WordPress is Open Source — Six Apart has recently decided that the best way to win back customers fleeing their platforms is to target WordPress, which is a new strategy they call competing. (What have they been doing the past 7 years?) A good example is this exchange between a commenter …
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Video Road Hogs Stir Fear of Internet Traffic Jam — Caution: Heavy Internet traffic ahead. Delays possible. — For months there has been a rising chorus of alarm about the surging growth in the amount of data flying across the Internet. The threat, according to some industry groups …
louisgray.com:
Elite Bloggers Joining FriendFeed In Droves — Although it hasn't even been a month since FriendFeed opened up to the masses, and announced Series A financing of $5 million, momentum is definitely on the company's side. Garnering incredible media and blog coverage, FriendFeed has also been a magnet …
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
User Interfaces Rapidly Adjusting to Information Overload — People who in the next few years solve big problems in Information Overload are going to be very important, and some of them are going to be UI and UX (user experience) designers. — German ISP T-Online demonstrated …
Discussion:
Fresh Creation
BBC:
BBC releases fix for iPlayer hack — The BBC has issued a fix to stop people downloading programmes from the iPlayer website that were intended for streaming on an iPhone of iPod only. — Hackers had discovered an exploit that allowed them to save the programmes to hard disk and share them with others.
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Canon USA:
CANON'S TRENDSETTING TRIO OF NEW DIGITAL ELPH SUPERMODELS INSPIRE FRESH EXPRESSIONS OF INDIVIDUAL STYLE, VISION & TRUE IMAGING INNOVATION — From Sensuous Flowing Contours, Hot Highlights and Finely Chiseled Lines That Beg to Be Held and Beheld, the Optically Image-Stabilized …
Peter Kafka / Silicon Alley Insider:
Disney: $123 Million From iTunes Since 2006 (AAPL) — Disney CEO Bob Iger tells the audience at the Digital Hollywood Media Summit that he's sold 4 million movies and “40 to 50” million videos through iTunes since he launched the service in 2006. What does that mean in terms of dollars? Not much.
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