Top Items:
Gmail Blog:
A picture is worth a thousand words — Here on the Gmail team, we're always thinking of ways to help you communicate. Back in the day, we put chat right inside Gmail. Then along came group chat and more emoticons. And when we realized that late night communication had its downsides …
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Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Will the Kindle Get an Oprah Bump? — Update: Oprah Winfrey doesn't really strike me as a gadget girl. Of course, I've never even watched her show, so maybe she is. One way or another, when I saw the Financial Times reporting that the cultural icon looked ready to endorse the Amazon Kindle today, I made a point of setting my DVR.
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Chris Nuttall / blogs.ft.com:
Oprah likely to kindle big interest in digital books — Kindle sales appear likely to get a significant boost on Friday, with talk-show megastar Oprah Winfrey apparently about to endorse Amazon's digital book reader. — Amazon is featuring a trailer of her Friday show on its site …
Discussion:
Guardian, Epicenter, Tech Trader Daily, CrunchGear, Gizmodo, TeleRead, Boing Boing Gadgets and Voices
Miguel Helft / Bits:
A New (Fighter) Jet for Google's Founders? — A company controlled by Google's top executives, including billionaire founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, appears to have added a new plane to its well-equipped fleet: a fighter jet, or more precisely a Dornier Alpha Jet.
Discussion:
Industry Standard, Search Engine Land, TG Daily, Gizmodo, mv-voice.com, InformationWeek, Silicon Alley Insider, Valleywag, SEO BlackHat and Slashdot
Danny Coleman / PR Newswire:
Hop-on Will Launch Its Google Android Alliance Phone at 2009 International CES — Hop-on (Pink Sheets: HPNN) will be launching its new open “Android Platform” device at the Consumer Electronic Show, in Las Vegas January 2009. This phone will be sold for under $200.
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Electronista:
Hop-on readying Android phone — Small-scale phone maker Hop-on on Friday said it would develop a phone based on Google's Android platform. The open-source mobile operating system is pitched as giving the company a boost in competing in the high-end phone business, where it has little presence …
Michael Learmonth / AdAge:
Sarah Palin ‘SNL’ Online Clips Soon to Eclipse TV — Among the Top ‘Most Popular’ Shorts on Hulu.com — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's appearance was very good for “Saturday Night Live,” bringing the show its best ratings in 14 years.
Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:
The New York Times Readies HD Online Video Channel As Part of New Brightcove Implementation — The New York Times has launched a new HD-format video player with a 16:9 wide-screen frame. Other new features include a redesigned video library, a “Most Viewed” rank, and tools to share videos to social sites like Facebook and Digg.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, The Universal Desktop, Digital Media Wire, Business Wire, NewTeeVee and Silicon Alley Insider
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Study: Sequoia e-voting machines disturbingly easy to hack — The Princeton University Center for Information Technology Policy has published a report disclosing security vulnerabilities that researchers have detected in Sequoia's AVC Advantage voting machine.
Ben Fritz / Variety:
Legendary to acquire Epic Games — Talks underway for ‘Gears of War’ developer — Legendary Pictures is in talks to acquire Epic Games, developer of vidgames including ‘Gears of War.’ — Legendary may be getting Epic. — Private equity-backed film financier Legendary Pictures …
Tony Smith / The Register:
Dell readies small, cheap computer for small biz — Dell is preparing an all-black version of its Inspiron Mini 9 netbook, this one aimed at small businesses and set to ship as the Vostro A90. — Dell's Vostro A90: rebranded Inspiron Mini 9 — The PC giant launched the machine in Japan today …
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Apple to oppose anti-gay marriage ballot question — Apple has joined Google in publicly opposing a California ballot initiative that would deny marriage rights to same-sex couples. — The company announced Friday that it would donate $100,000 to the No on Prop 8 campaign …
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Russia Realizes That Free Software Beats Sending Principals To Siberia For Piracy — You may recall the story last year of a Russian school principal who was arrested for buying computers for his school that had counterfeit versions of Windows. Even though he had no idea that the software …
Discussion:
Slashdot
Associated Press:
Source: Yahoo to announce plans for Neb. facility — LA VISTA, Neb. - Yahoo Inc. is expected to unveil plans to build a new facility in Nebraska on Friday, just days after the California-based Internet company announced it will cut at least 1,500 workers as it deals with the economic downturn.
Patrick Smith / paidContent.org:
Spain's Terra Wins South American Mobile And Online Video Rights For 2010 And 2012 Olympics — The long march to the 2012 Olympics continues with the announcement that Spanish web portal Terra, part of the Telefónica group, has bagged the exclusive South America mobile and online video rights …
Discussion:
paidContent
Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:
Voodoo newspaper economics — The formidable problems of the newspaper industry won't get solved if industry leaders substitute voodoo economics for rational discourse. So, let's dispense with some of the bad juju we have heard in the last couple of days. — Voodoo Economics 101
Kasper Jade / AppleInsider:
Informed players say Apple's Mac mini still kickin' — First on AI: With Apple's recent ‘State of the Mac’ omitting any mention of the Mac mini and reports surfacing over the current line's discontinuation, there's been some speculation that the diminutive desktop's days may (again) be numbered.
Discussion:
CNET News, Electronista, CrunchGear, MacRumors, Gearlog, TechNewsWorld, Insanely Great Mac, MacDailyNews, Edible Apple and Technology Live
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Just In Time For The Election, Politics.com (re)Launches — It might be too little, too late to launch a political news site. The U.S. election is only 11 days away, and interest in politics will taper off from the fever-high pitch we see now. But that's not stopping Politics.com …
Discussion:
The Social
Noah Shachtman / Danger Room:
Spy Fears: Twitter Terrorists, Cell Phone Jihadists — Could Twitter become terrorists' newest killer app? A draft Army intelligence report, making its way through spy circles, thinks the miniature messaging software could be used as an effective tool for coordinating militant attacks.
Jon Swaine / Telegraph:
Man sued for libel over comments on eBay — A man is being threatened with a libel action after posting critical comments on the internet about an eBay user who sold him a mobile phone. — Chris Read used the auction website's feedback facility to claim that the device he was sold by Joel Jones …
Electronista:
HTC Touch Pro for Sprint gets launch info — Wireless provider Sprint on Friday announced it will soon offer the HTC Touch Pro for sale and use on its network, bringing with it HTC's TouchFLO 3D interface on its 2.8-inch screen along with a five-row QWERTY keyboard and Windows Mobile 6.1.
Stacey Higginbotham / Business Week:
Facing Downturn, Venture Capital Prunes Prospects — With lean times ahead, venture capital firms are turning to triage—supporting promising companies while shooting dead the weak — The credit crunch has scared America straight for at least a few quarters.
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
The XO laptop gets a Windows makeover — On the outside, the Windows version of the XO laptop looks just like the Linux model. But simply booting up the device shows that the Windows version bears little resemblance to the original One Laptop Per Child device.
