Top Items:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Yahoo: Poor, Alone and Sad — Six months ago Jerry Yang took the stage at the D Conference to talk about the state of his business. His painted a picture of a Yahoo that was spinning in circles with no clear future. — Fast forward six months and nothing has changed.
RELATED:
Reuters:
Yahoo's Yang Says Microsoft Deal Still Best Option — Microsoft had offered to buy Yahoo's search business after withdrawing an offer for the whole company in May. — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - After nearly a year spent seeking alternatives to Microsoft Corp's buyout offer …
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Jerry Yang: I'm a fighter — Yang (left) and Battelle on Wednesday at the Web 2.0 Summit. — (Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET News) — SAN FRANCISCO—This hasn't been the best year for a lot of people in the tech industry. But nobody can argue that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang hasn't had a particularly rough time.
Margaret Kane / CNET News:
Obama names tech execs to transition team — President-elect Barack Obama has named tech executives from Google.org and IAC to his transition team, according to reports. — Google.org's Sonal Shah and Julius Genchowski, a former IAC executive who also served as chief counsel …
Discussion:
GigaLaw.com Daily News
RELATED:
Cecilia Kang / Washington Post:
Obama Picks High-Tech and Washington Veteran to Transition Team — A veteran of Internet business operations and Washington tech policy was named to President-elect Barack Obama's transition team, a move that could signal the prominence of high-tech policy in the new administration.
Declan McCullagh / CNET News:An Obama presidency: Good, bad news for technology
Discussion:
PE Hub Blog, TECH.BLORGE.com, p2pnet, VatorNews, SOMEWHAT FRANK, Profy, AppScout and Michael Geist Blog
Verizon:
BlackBerry Storm Connects Customers Around The Globe — New BlackBerry Storm - Available Exclusively in the U.S. to Verizon Wireless Customers - Makes Globetrotting a Breeze — Customer Inquiries — For customer inquiries, please call 800-922-0204 or go to
Discussion:
Boy Genius Report, Gizmodo, InformationWeek, BlackBerry Cool, BerryReview.com and Phone Scoop
RELATED:
Kelly Hodgkins / Boy Genius Report:
Best Buy to start pre-selling the Blackberry Storm — Well, the rumors were true! Want to reserve a Blackberry Storm and guarantee yourself one of hottest phones to hit Verizon? Don't call a Verizon Wireless store and put yourself on some waiting list that the manager may or may not even bother …
Discussion:
PC World, CrunchGear, BlackBerry Cool, MobileBurn.com, Engadget, RIMarkable, I4U News, IntoMobile, BerryReview.com, BlackBerryNews.com and CrackBerry.com blogs
Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
John Doerr's Advice for Barack Obama: Hire Bill Joy — At the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco Wednesday, billionaire venture capitalist John Doerr was interviewed by John Heilemann, a contributing editor at New York magazine who came in from Chicago, fresh off the Obama campaign trail.
RELATED:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:Web 2.0 Summit: a conversation with venture capitalist John Doerr
Discussion:
dot.life blog, Bits, Webware.com, Between the Lines, Don Dodge on The Next … and Tech Trader Daily
Robert McMillan / PC World:
Once Thought Safe, WPA Wi-Fi Encryption Is Cracked — Security researchers say they've developed a way to partially crack the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption standard used to protect data on many wireless networks. — The attack, described as the first practical attack on WPA …
Discussion:
CrunchGear, Boy Genius Report, SlashGear, Engadget, webmonkey, Neowin.net and Technology Live
Arn / MacRumors:
Apple Activates Podcast Downloads in 2.2 Firmware — German blog Schimanke.com publishes new screenshots from the iPhone 2.2 firmware that reveal that Apple has activated iTunes and App Store features that will make their debut in the next iPhone update. Prior to this past week, these new features had not been fully enabled.
Dawn Kawamoto / CNET News:
AT&T to acquire Wi-Fi network provider Wayport — AT&T announced plans on Thursday to acquire Wi-Fi network provider Wayport in a $275 million cash deal. — The acquisition will expand AT&T's network of free U.S. hot spots by an additional 20,000 locations, adding such select hotels as Wyndham …
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Feature films coming to YouTube — YouTube will begin offering feature films produced by at least one of the biggest Hollywood movie studios possibly as early as next month, according to an executive with a major entertainment company. — For months, Google, YouTube's parent company …
Discussion:
Edible Apple
Sony Ericsson:
Sony Ericsson takes mobile music into 2009 with the W705 Walkman™ phone and Wireless Home Audio System MBS-900 — Building on an array of innovative launches in 2008, Sony Ericsson announces two new products into its mobile music range looking beyond music into 2009 to offer the most state-of-the art mobile music experience.
Discussion:
IntoMobile, Gizmodo, I4U News, Unwired View, CrunchGear, Engadget, Phone Scoop and Engadget Mobile
Matthew Futterman / Wall Street Journal:
NFL Games Go Wireless — Sprint Will Kick Off a Series of Eight Football Phone-Casts — In the era of the 52-inch plasma television set, marketers at Sprint Nextel Corp. are banking on football fans to seek out a decidedly smaller viewing experience. — For the first time Thursday …
Discussion:
DSLreports, PC World, Engadget Mobile, Gizmodo, mocoNews.net and MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer
Suzanne Tindal / CNET News:
Ballmer dismisses Google Android — Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer on Thursday dismissed the Android mobile operating system, saying he believed that building it was financially unsound for Google. — Speaking at Telstra's annual investment day, Ballmer said designing Android wasn't easy for Google.
YouTube Blog:
New Features for the YouTube Embeddable Video — You don't have to be on the YouTube site to watch videos. The YouTube player can be added to virtually any website, giving website creators and web surfers infinite access to the YouTube library. With close to 44 percent …
Sarahintampa / Channel 10:
Photosynth Comes To Live Maps — There's a new feature now available on Live Maps: Photosynth! The Microsoft Live Labs technology, Photosynth, which launched publicly back in August, allows you take your photos and turn them into rich, 3-D experiences. Now, with the new Live Maps integration …
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
LinkedIn Cuts 10% Of Staff — We've just heard from LinkedIn that the Sequoia-backed business network will be cutting 36 of 370 employees, or around 10% of the company. LinkedIn is saying that some of these employees will be reassigned to new roles (though the company won't comment on how many new roles there will be).
RELATED:
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
News Corp.: Business Worse Than We Thought, Ad Weakness Catching Up to MySpace — Rupert Murdoch, who has been dour about the economy since last spring, now says things are worse than he thought. Three months ago, the News Corp. (NWS) CEO was predicting operating profits to increase 4% …
Discussion:
Search Engine Watch
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Online News Has No Choice But To Be Free — There's a great opinion piece by Shane Richmond on the website for the UK's Telegraph newspaper, pointing out that various newspaper execs complaining about the fact that news is free online seem to be missing the point.
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Video: Windows 7 promises faster boots and up to 15% better battery life — Now that Windows 7 has launched into pre-Beta, Microsoft has joined the world in Vista-bashing as they look to differentiate their newest OS from the incumbent. Speaking to its hardware partners at WinHEC …
Bob Tedeschi / New York Times:
Hesitating Over a Smartphone's Price? It Could Save You Money — If you can't quite bring yourself to spend hundreds of dollars on a smartphone, here's a thought to quiet your conscience: It might save you money. — Because newer devices like the Apple iPhone, the T-Mobile G1 from HTC …
Discussion:
Big in Japan
