Top Items:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
OMG Britney! On Twitter! — This is perhaps the most exciting news since the May launch of TomCruise.com: I'd like to welcome Britney Spears to our world. She (or rather her people) have launched both a Twitter account and a bloggy sort of site with near constant updates on her fascinating life.
Discussion:
Profy, RotorBlog.com, Guardian, The Social, GO2WEB20 Blog, MediaFuturist, TECH.BLORGE.com, Pulse 2.0, I4U News and Brian Alvey
RELATED:
Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:
Yahoo Plans Major Cost Cuts, Including Layoffs — Struggling Internet Giant to Disclose Significant Reductions as Economic Troubles Spread and Rivals Pose Stiff Competition — Yahoo Inc. is drafting significant cost-cutting plans to try to reverse its fortunes from the inside.
Discussion:
CNET News, paidContent.org, Tech Trader Daily, TECH.BLORGE.com, Valleywag and Silicon Alley Insider
Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
RIAA now wants to avoid trial in innocent infringement case — The RIAA has apparently had a change of heart towards a Texas woman accused of sharing music over KaZaA when she was 16 years old. In Maverick v. Harper, the industry group has backed off its demand for a jury trial …
Discussion:
ZDNet Government
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Apple Q4 earnings smackdown — Andy Zaky has a bone to pick with Wall Street — or rather, with the professional analysts who cover Apple (AAPL) at Morgan Stanley (MS), Citigroup (C), Bank of America (BAC), and the rest. — “I could write a book on what Wall Street analysts don't know,” he says.
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac
RELATED:
Who da'Punk / Mini-Microsoft:
Is Microsoft Recession Proof? — Is Microsoft recession proof? No, of course not. While it can be buffeted back in forth in a mild recession and get through without group parties here and there, it's pretty unclear what kind of Microsoft will emerge at the other end of a deep global recession.
Discussion:
Startup Chatter
Olga Kharif / Business Week:
Motorola Readies Its Own Android Social Smartphone — Amid a boom in social-network-friendly handsets, Motorola prepares a new entry, but its Android may not debut until 2009's second quarter — As the wireless world awaits the Oct. 22 debut of the first phone based on the Google-backed Android software …
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Apple: Will Carriers Sell Subsidized MacBooks? — With the iPhone, Apple (AAPL) has found a happy partnership with global wireless carriers. Could they extend that relationship to include carrier-subsidized sales of MacBooks? — Lisa Thompson, an analyst with research boutique JRPG …
Randall Stross / New York Times:
Why This Storm May Stay Away From Apple — VIOLENT waves are tossing about the world's largest financial institutions like toys made of balsa. The dark skies ahead can't be anything but a recession. Sheets of cold rain have already been smacking the retail sector.
Business Technology:
Linking the Real Web with Virtual Worlds — Most of the hype has faded about services known as virtual worlds, particularly the idea of companies reaching customers by setting up the equivalent of animated storefronts. For one thing, many more people hang out on the Web than in isolated communities such as Second Life.
Discussion:
Pulse 2.0
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
Record Label ‘Infringes’ Own Copyright, Site Pulled — The website of a record label which offers completely free music downloads has been taken down by its host for copyright infringement, even though it only offers its own music. Quote Unquote Records calls itself “The First Ever Donation …
Benny Evangelista / San Francisco Chronicle:
Blu-ray has case of the economic blues — This year, Blu-ray won the war. Now it faces another battle. — Technology analysts say the world's economic roller coaster could mean consumers will be holding onto their money instead of buying pricey Blu-ray players and discs - the high-definition DVD format.
Elinor Mills / CNET News:
The Internet is no 21st-century boob tube — Remember when you were young and your family used to gather 'round the television eating dinner on TV trays, fixated by programs like M*A*S*H and All in the Family? Chit chat about what happened at school and work was relegated to commercial breaks.
