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 …
Discussion:
Outside the Lines, TechFlash, Andrea on Amazon …, TeleRead, GMSV, Epicenter, Slashdot and Gearlog
RELATED:
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 and Voices
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 …
Discussion:
BetaNews, PC World, Download Squad, The Microsoft Blog, TG Daily, InfoWorld, Springboard Series, Gizmodo, jkOnTheRun, AppScout, The Tech Report and Teching It Easy
RELATED:
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:Microsoft to release Vista SP2 beta to more testers next week
Discussion:
Neowin.net
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:
Mike Swift / Mercury News: Google co-founders Brin and Page among large donors to campaign to defeat Prop.
Tom Krazit / CNET News:Apple to oppose anti-gay marriage ballot question
Discussion:
AppleInsider, Cult of Mac, MacRumors, The Technology Chronicles, TomsTechBlog.com, Gizmodo, Valleywag, MacBlogz, Gearlog, TUAW and Obsessable
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:
Gadget Lab, Boy Genius Report, Android Phone Fans, Android Community, MobileCrunch, Engadget Mobile and AndroidGuys
RELATED:
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 …
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.
RELATED:
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:
mv-voice.com, TG Daily, Industry Standard, Search Engine Land, Gizmodo, InformationWeek, The Register, Valleywag, SEO BlackHat, GMSV, Slashdot and Silicon Alley Insider
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 …
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 …
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 …
Discussion:
Apple 2.0
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
What's Up at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (Hint: Cloudy With a Chance of Amazon Pain) — Next week in Los Angeles, Microsoft will kick off its Professional Developers Conference, a place the software giant likes to unveil all kinds of news in a big launchtastic flourish.
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.
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, Business Wire, Contentinople, Digital Media Wire, The Universal Desktop and NewTeeVee
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
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
AOL Begins Shutdown Of AOL Pictures, BlueString And Xdrive — In July we wrote about AOL's plans to shutter a number of services based on an internal email from EVP Products and Marketing Kevin Conroy. — Next week, AOL says, they'll begin to communicate the news to consumers around …
Discussion:
Webware.com
Alex Patriquin / Compete Blog:
The Undiscovered Best: How Yahoo! Actually Leads Paid Search — When Microsoft made an uninvited bid for Yahoo! last February, Yahoo! mounted a “No Sacred Cows” takeover defense and explored all options, even the once unthinkable: outsourcing some search ads to once arch-rival Google.
Discussion:
SitePoint Blogs
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
How The New York Times (NYT) Can Save Itself — The New York Times (NYT) is now running on fumes. S&P has downgraded the company's debt to junk, and Moodys is about to do the same. The stock has fallen to $10 $9, and is being propped up primarily by the company's non-news assets.
Discussion:
Recovering Journalist
Om Malik / GigaOM:
BroadSoft Cuts Jobs As Sales Slow — BroadSoft, a Gaithersburg, Md.,-based VoIP application platform maker, has cut about a dozen positions, according to a source familiar with the company. The cuts are said to have taken place in its sales, product management and engineering divisions, in both the Americas and the EMEA region.
Discussion:
VoIP Watch
