Top Items:
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Live from Apple's “spotlight turns to notebooks” event — 9:08AM PT - We've got a little less than an hour to go, so we'll just kind of be loitering outside Apple Town Hall, waiting to spot Steve and the unicorn that is his new MacBook Pro. — We're at Apple HQ!
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Paul Miller / Engadget:
Apple's all-new MacBook Pro packs new NVIDIA GPUs, glass trackpad — Oh, don't act so surprised. A refresh of Apple's long-in-the-tooth MacBook Pro line was pretty much the only sure thing slated for today's event, and Apple certainly delivered. As for looks, you probably know the score by now …
Discussion:
AppleInsider, SlashGear, 9 to 5 Mac, Boy Genius Report, DailyTech, Gizmodo, Electronista and Obsessable
John Mahoney / Gizmodo:
Next-Generation MacBook Ditches the Plastic, Becomes MacBook Pro Mini — Joining the MacBook Pro, Apple's MacBooks, their best-selling mac ever, also received a complete hardware re-tooling today, with rejuvenated hardware packed inside a brand-new aluminum case, thus putting one of the final stakes …
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Apple finally refreshes Cinema Display: 24-inch, LED backlit, $899 — Another rumor to tick off the list, Apple just announced the 24-inch Cinema Display. LED-backlit, check; Mini DisplayPort, check; $899 list price, check; MagSafe adapter, check. In fact, it has a tri-pronged cable that also includes USB .
Adam Frucci / Gizmodo:
New MacBooks Get Glass Trackpad with New Multitouch Gestures, No Buttons — One of the biggest new features in the new MacBooks that Apple just unveiled is the glass trackpad, one that ditches the button in favor of turning the entire trackpad into a button.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Contains Spoilers — Engadget just posted the first real picture and accurate description I've seen in public of the new 15-inch MacBook Pro, set to be announced later today. It's the real deal. Major visible changes from the previous MacBook Pros: — A new iMac-style black border around the display.
Discussion:
Technologizer, Infinite Loop, Boy Genius Report, Bits, 9 to 5 Mac, Salon, Engadget, Guardian, Crave, Silicon Alley Insider, Portfolio, Geek.com, Digital Daily, Tech Check with Jim Goldman, Apple 2.0, Lockergnome Blog Network, TG Daily, AppleInsider, Between the Lines, Tech Trader Daily, LAPTOP Magazine, Gizmodo, Gadget Lab, The Apple Blog, Cult of Mac, I4U News and The iPhone Blog
Ben Jones / TorrentFreak:
Bush Signs Draconian Anti-Piracy Law — Over in California, champagne corks are popping. In the offices of the MPAA and RIAA, lawyers turned lobbyists are dancing jigs. In houses all around the US however, people are left dumbfounded by the passage of a bill based on appeasement to big money …
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John R. Wilke / Wall Street Journal:
Google, Yahoo Seek to Avoid Antitrust Suit Over Ad Deal — Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. are in talks with the Justice Department in an effort to head off an antitrust challenge to their proposed advertising agreement. — The settlement negotiations are at an early stage and it isn't clear whether …
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Yun-Hee Kim / Wall Street Journal:
Samsung Plans to Tackle U.S. PC Market — HONG KONG — Samsung Electronics Co. is making a foray into the U.S. notebook PC market, taking on established players such as Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Apple Inc. — The South Korean company, more well-known in overseas markets …
Discussion:
Ars Technica
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Yahoo! Search Blog:
Yahoo! Search Hits the Airwaves — A little over four years ago, we launched our own search engine and became a principal in the search business. Our focus since then has been the same - building the best search experience to give users a fast, easy and intuitive way to get straight to their answers.
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
JS-Kit, the widget company for dummies, gets boost — JS-Kit, the Silicon Valley company that makes it easy for bloggers to add comments, polls, product reviews or ratings system to their website, has gotten a boost when it most needs it. — It has raised $3.6 million in a second round …
Discussion:
JS-Kit Blog, TechCrunch, Download Squad, The Social, Mashable!, Paying Attention, The Drama 2.0 Show and The Next Web
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Mint Leaves Beta, Brings A Bunch Of New Features With It — Mint, the personal finance startup that won last year's TechCrunch 40, has launched a host of new features including investment tracking, 401k managment, and more flexible budget sheets. CEO Aaron Patzer says that the new features finally …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Angel Investor Ron Conway Speaks (About His Wise-Up-Silicon-Valley Missive) — Of course, the stock market had to come roaring back and it had to be extra sunny on the very day I was scheduled to have lunch with well-known Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway to talk about the worrisome state of the digital sector.
Discussion:
The Drama 2.0 Show
Vishesh Kumar / Wall Street Journal:
Economic Woes Hit HDTV Sales — Satellite, Cable Providers Could Suffer as Consumers Scale Back on Pricey Purchases — Reeling from a stock-market crash and a looming recession, consumers may finally be putting the brakes on the purchase of pricey luxury items like high-definition televisions.
Discussion:
NewTeeVee
Matt Cutts / Gadgets, Google, and SEO:
Free links to your site — I can't believe a new feature from Google isn't getting more notice, because it converts already-existing links to your site into much higher quality links, for free. The Google webmaster blog just announced that you can find the pages that link to 404 pages on your site.
Steve O'Hear / The Social Web:
Top Digger helps launch Tip'd, a Digg clone for financial news — Tip'd, which launched today, describes itself as “a place for investors... to meet, share, discuss, comment, and vote on what's happening on both Wall Street and Main Street.” Essentially, it's another Digg clone targeting a particular vertical.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
BillShrink Grows By $8 Million With Plans To Expand To New Markets — BillShrink, a startup that aims to help users save money across a variety of vertical markets, has closed an $8 million Series B funding round led by Trinity Ventures and Bessemer Venture Partners.
Andy Space / 9 to 5 Mac:
Microsoft declares war on the ‘Apple tax’ — Microsoft is on the warpath once again, with some Redmond executive slamming Apple for putting a tax on Macs and suggesting (in a kind of roundabout way) that Macs aren't really more secure than Windows. (Yeah, right)...
Wagner James Au / GigaOM:
Confirmed: Obama Is Campaigning on Xbox 360! — Last week we noted unconfirmed sightings of an “Obama for President” billboard in the Xbox 360 racing game Burnout Paradise. Today we're able to report that it is, in fact, an official advertisement placed by the senator's campaign team.
MarketWatch:
Wizzard Media & WatchMojo Team to Expand Distribution of Extensive Video Catalog — Wizzard Media (AMEX:WZE), the world's largest podcasting network, and WatchMojo, one of the largest producers, publishers, and syndicators of video on the web, announced today that they will bring WatchMojo.com's catalog …
Microsoft:
Microsoft Unveils Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 — Update builds on momentum behind software-powered unified communications and voice. — Today, Microsoft Corp. debuted Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 (R2), an update to the award-winning Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.
John Leyden / The Register:
Storm botnet blows itself out — But will the zombie network rise again? — Security watchers Marshal claim the infamous Storm botnet is no more, after waning spam emails finally dried up altogether last month. — Other security researchers have noted a similar decline …
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
AT&T goes wild with texting, announces four QWERTY phones — If you're into that whole SMS craze and you're on AT&T, you're in luck — four times over. The carrier's gone ahead and announced not one, not two, but four QWERTY-equipped dumphones today, including a dual slider and a Pantech being billed as …
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
McCain Campaign Sends Letter To YouTube Defending Fair Use — from the what-the...? dept — This is impressive, and somewhat unexpected. It's rather rare to see politicians (other than maginal ones, at least) showing any sort of recognition of fair use.
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
AOL - Yahoo Merger NOT A Done Deal, Says Time Warner Source* — A source close to AOL told us earlier that Yahoo's acquisition of AOL was a done deal. However, another senior source at Time Warner emphatically denied this. We apologize for the head-fake.
