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 …, InformationWeek, TeleRead, Epicenter, GMSV, Gearlog and Slashdot
RELATED:
Chris Nuttall / blogs.ft.com:Oprah likely to kindle big interest in digital books
Discussion:
Guardian, TECH.BLORGE.com, CrunchGear, Gizmodo, 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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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, MacRumors, The Technology Chronicles, Cult of Mac, TomsTechBlog.com, Gizmodo, Valleywag, MacBlogz, Gearlog, TUAW and Obsessable
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.
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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:
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
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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:
TG Daily, mv-voice.com, Industry Standard, Search Engine Land, Gizmodo, InformationWeek, The Register, Valleywag, GMSV, SEO BlackHat, Silicon Alley Insider and Slashdot
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.
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 …
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 …
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
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.
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 …
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
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.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
19,683 Tech Layoffs And Counting — This has been a brutal month or so for tech layoffs. According to our Layoff Tracker, there have been 19,683 job eliminations at tech companies announced since mid-September, and we're not even counting the 24,600 people at Hewlett-Packard who are being eliminated …
Discussion:
F**kedStartups
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.
