Top Items:
Oprah.com:
Oprah's Favorite New Gadget — This page requires Flash 9. Download it here. — This summer, Oprah received a gift that she says changed her life. “I'm telling you, it is absolutely my new favorite thing in the world,” she says. — Meet the Amazon Kindle&trade …
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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, TECH.BLORGE.com, Gizmodo, CrunchGear, Epicenter, Tech Trader Daily, TeleRead, Voices and Boing Boing Gadgets
Mike Nash / Windows Vista Team Blog:
Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta — Hi there, Mike Nash here. — As you know we are getting ready to talk about Windows 7 at the PDC next week. Before we do that, I thought I would give you an update on our latest work for Windows Vista. — We are committed to continually improving Windows …
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Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Yahoo discontinues Vista-optimized IM program — Yahoo Messenger for Vista, now discontinued, offered richer graphics that took advantage of Vista's Windows Presentation Foundation engine. — (Credit: Yahoo) — One of the first applications designed to run only on Windows Vista has been discontinued.
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, mv-voice.com, Search Engine Land, TG Daily, Gizmodo, InformationWeek, The Register, Valleywag, SEO BlackHat, Slashdot, GMSV and Silicon Alley Insider
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.
Discussion:
Boy Genius Report, Android Phone Fans, Android Community, Engadget Mobile and AndroidGuys
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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 …
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 …
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:
Contentinople, TechCrunch, Business Wire, Digital Media Wire, The Universal Desktop and NewTeeVee
RELATED:
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:How The New York Times (NYT) Can Save Itself
Discussion:
Recovering Journalist
Michelle Quinn / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Apple donates $100,000 to fight same-sex marriage ban — Apple is contributing $100,000 to fight Proposition 8, the California ballot measure that would define marriage as only between a man and a woman. The company's announcement today came as the fight over Prop. 8 grows hotly contested …
RELATED:
Tom Krazit / CNET News:Apple to oppose anti-gay marriage ballot question
Discussion:
AppleInsider, MacRumors, TomsTechBlog.com, The Technology Chronicles, Gizmodo, Valleywag, TUAW, Obsessable and Gearlog
Brian X. Chen / Epicenter:
Apple Is Ready to Take a Bite of Silicon Valley — Comments from Apple CEO Steve Jobs this week suggested that the cash-rich computer and phone maker might be in a good position to start snapping up struggling tech companies. — During Apple's earnings call Tuesday, Steve Jobs proudly reported …
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.
Jim Goldman / Tech Check with Jim Goldman:
What's Apple Really Worth? — That's the $150 billion question and the crux of a simmering debate between Apple fans, Apple customers, Apple investors and Wall Street. — This all hit a head earlier this week when Apple released its fourth quarter earnings and while earnings per share handily beat the Street, revenue came up light.
Discussion:
The Mac Observer
Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:
Live: Yahoo Previews Its New Application Platform — I'm here at Yahoo Brickhouse in San Francisco for an event where Yahoo will preview its new Application Platform for developers, the latest effort in an ongoing strategy to be more “open” that was announced last April.
Discussion:
VentureBeat
Brian Shih / Google Reader:
Reading The Guardian, full-text style — We've always used Reader to keep up to date on news and current events and today it just got a little easier: The Guardian just moved all of their RSS feeds from partial to full-text. They are the first major newspaper in the world to do so, and this is, well, great news.
Will Park / IntoMobile:
Box.net iPhone application for FREE on AppStore — Well that sure was fast. Just the other day I sat down with Sean from Box.net to discuss the online data storage service's plans for the mobile space. In talking about how Box.net was gunning to cover the mobile, desktop …
Discussion:
Mashable!
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
Harris Lin / DigiTimes:
Skype sees WiMAX as business opportunity, says COO — During his visit to Taiwan, Skype COO Scott Durchslag noted that Skype is looking to extend its business operations from PCs to mobile communication devices, with WiMAX being one technology that afford the company potential business opportunities for Skype VoIP services.
Laura Rich / Portfolio:
When Will Microsoft Go in for the Kill? — Sam Gustin writes: If the tech world were the animal kingdom, this week's earnings results from Yahoo and Microsoft would show that the former is a wounded animal, while the latter remains a robust, healthy specimen. — According to the law of the jungle, the strong eat the weak.
