Top Items:
Tom Neumayr / Apple:
iTunes Store Top Music Retailer in the US — Apple® today announced that the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com) surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number one music retailer in the US, based on the latest data from the NPD Group*. With over 50 million customers, iTunes has sold …
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Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:
Seesmic Acquires Popular Twitter AIR Client Twhirl — San Francisco video/chat startup Seesmic has acquired Twhirl, a popular application created by German developer Marco Kaiser that allows users to access the Twitter service directly from their desktop, and also cross post to other services like Pownce and Jaiku.
New York Times:
MySpace and Record Companies Create Music Site — SAN FRANCISCO — In the latest effort by the ailing music industry to bolster its declining prospects, three of the four major music companies have struck a deal with MySpace to start an music Web site. — As part of the deal …
Discussion:
Podcasting News, Associated Press, Business Week, TECH.BLORGE.com, mathewingram.com/work, paidContent.org, Contentinople, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, JupiterResearch, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Business Week, Slashdot, Searchviews, Digital Daily, Listening Post, Guardian Unlimited, Techdirt, Download Squad, WebProNews and FaceReviews
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Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft: June 30 Windows XP cut-off set in stone — Microsoft made it official on April 3: There will be no new reprieves for Windows XP (other than on Ultra Low-Cost PCs). — Some customers and partners had been hoping the company might extend again the deadline for all PC makers …
Discussion:
IDG News Service, Microsoft, Techlog, InformationWeek, GottaBeMobile, Tech Tracks, Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog, BetaNews, Engadget and Electronista
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Google Public Policy Blog:
Cone of silence (finally) lifts on the spectrum auction — For three weeks at the end of January and early February, a small team of us holed up in double super secret “war rooms” in Mountain View, CA and Washington, D.C. to bid on Google's behalf in the FCC spectrum auction.
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Rumor: Ad network Federated Media raises $50M from Oak Hill Capital Partners, at $200M valuation — The ad network Federated Media has raised $50 million at a $200 million pre-money valuation from private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners, I've heard from a source, with investment bank Savvian helping to broker the deal.
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
TechCrunch v DEMO Smackdown! Calacanis Blasts IDG, Offers Shipley a Job — Now that TechCrunch and Jason Calacanis have scheduled their TechCrunch50 start-up celebration conference at the same time as IDG's DEMO start-up celebration conference, the allegations are flying:
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Gavin O'Malley / MediaPost Publications:
Study: ‘Influencers’ Possess Less Clout — IN THE WORLD OF SOCIAL media, so-called “influencers” might have less clout than some marketers think. — According to a new study from Canadian research firm Pollara, self-described social media users put far more trust in friends and family online …
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Michelle Meyers / CNET News.com:
Motorola to eliminate 2,600 jobs — Ouch. — Motorola took another hit Thursday in announcing, through a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, that it will lay off 2,600 employees. As a result, it will take a $104 million pretax charge in the first quarter of the year for severance costs.
Nicholas Carlson / Valleywag:
South Park kills 10 YouTube memes for good — Viacom continues to pursue a $1 billion lawsuit against Google's YouTube for allowing video piracy. On Viacom's Comedy Central, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone aren't helping their corporate parent's legal case.
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
OpenID Status Check: A Guide to Getting and Using Your OpenID — You've heard a lot about OpenID, the decentralized framework for authenticating users across the web. OpenID is convenient for end users, allowing them to login to numerous web sites using one set of credentials - their OpenID.
Bryan Gardiner / Wired News:
Trademark Dispute Pits Apple vs. The Big Apple — The Big Apple has a new logo, and Apple says: Drop dead. — At issue is the emblem for New York City's GreeNYC campaign, which has started to appear around the city on bus shelters, hybrid gasoline-electric taxicabs and even Whole Foods shopping bags.
David Pogue / New York Times:
A Camera for the Shot You Missed — When you're a professional gadget reviewer, you see plenty of cellphones, music players, camcorders and computers. But in two weeks, Casio will offer an entirely new device for sale, the first of its kind: a time machine. — Now, the Exilim EX-F1 is not a time machine in the H. G. Wells sense.
John Markoff / Bits:
A 3-D Viewfinder for a Shoebox of Digital Photos — The tension between computing technology that augments human activity and technology that automates it goes all the way back to the 1960s. — It can be seen today in Viewfinder, a demonstration of a photo-sharing or photo-placing system developed …
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
The bubble to end all bubbles? — Are we in a bubble? Far too late to be asking that question, says Chris Nolan, a former Valley newspaper gossip who now runs a startup, Spot-On. She weighs in on the current market crisis and its effects on the tech business.
Discussion:
Spot-On
