Top Items:
John Markoff / New York Times:
Google Is Taking Questions (Spoken, via iPhone) — SAN FRANCISCO — Pushing ahead in the decades-long effort to get computers to understand human speech, Google researchers have added sophisticated voice recognition technology to the company's search software for the Apple iPhone.
Discussion:
PC Magazine, PC World, AppleInsider, Google Watch, Infinite Loop, 9 to 5 Mac, Search Engine Watch, Webware.com, iPhone Buzz, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, Search Engine Journal, TG Daily, MacRumors iPhone Blog, Obsessable, Unwired View, Gizmodo, Gadget Lab, Screenwerk, TheAppleBlog, InformationWeek, TECH.BLORGE.com, AndroidGuys, The iPhone Blog, GottaBeMobile.com, Lifehacker, Boing Boing Gadgets, CrunchGear, Silicon Alley Insider, I4U News, Profy, dailywireless.org, Electricpig.co.uk, TheNextWeb.com, RexBlog.com, The 26th Story, IntoMobile, VentureBeat, AppScout, Phone Scoop, iLounge, Webmetricsguru, Search Engine Land, MacNN, Mashable!, iPhone Atlas and textually.org
Business Wire:
Sun Microsystems Aligns Business with Global Economic Climate and Amplifies Growth Opportunities Across Open Source Platforms — SANTA CLARA, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ:JAVA - News) today announced a series of changes designed to align its cost model …
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Margaret Kane / CNET News:
Sun restructures, lays off up to 6,000 — Sun Microsystems has announced a restructuring that will involve layoffs of 15 percent to 18 percent of its global workforce. — The company also announced a reorganization of its software operations and the departure of Rich Green, executive vice president of software.
Discussion:
The Open Road, Outside the Lines, InfoWorld, Reuters, The Register, DailyTech and OStatic blogs
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Microsoft launches online store: Is there deeper meaning here? — Microsoft has launched something long overdue: An online store. Yes Virginia, you can download Windows. — The launch is a bit quiet. Trevin Chow, a senior program manager at Microsoft, announced the “first-party” store on his blog.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Electronista, DailyTech, Engadget, Addicted to Digital Media, Obsessable and The Windows Blog
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Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
IBM must put up $3 million in Papermaster case — IBM only had to pay a $350 filing fee to sue Mark Papermaster, the 25-year IBM (IBM) veteran hired by Steve Jobs last month to run Apple's (AAPL) iPod and iPhone division. — It's going to cost them a lot more to pursue the case.
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Paul McDougall / InformationWeek:
Revenge Of The Papermaster: Apple Exec Countersues IBM — Newly appointed iPhone chief claims a noncompete agreement he signed with former employer Big Blue is invalid. — Mark Papermaster, the microchip expert that a court last week ordered to stop working at Apple while it hears a breach …
Martin Peers / Wall Street Journal:
Google's Consumers Are Checking Out — Google's business model is revealing its Achilles' heel. — The Internet giant's big perceived advantage over traditional media has long been its consumer-driven business model. Whereas traditional media has more of a marketer-driven approach …
Discussion:
Valleywag
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
October Game Sales: Nintendo Wii Kicking PS3 Butt — Nintendo (NTDOY) is eating Microsoft (MSFT) and Sony's (SNE) lunch in the console wars, the NPD Group says. — Look at the sales figures for consoles in October: — Wii: 803,000 consoles — Xbox 360: 370,000 — PS3: 190,000
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Royal Pingdom:
The world's most super-designed data center - fit for a James Bond villain — This underground data center has greenhouses, waterfalls, German submarine engines, simulated daylight and can withstand a hit from a hydrogen bomb. It looks like the secret HQ of a James Bond villain. — And it is real.
Business Technology:
How Old Is Your Work Computer? — It used to be that every three years, workers would get brand new computers from their businesses' tech departments. But for many those days are over. — The reason: Delaying computer upgrades is one of the easiest ways for a tech department to cut its budget.
Jose Antonio Vargas / Washington Post:
The YouTube Presidency — The White House has gone YouTube. — Today, President-elect Obama will record the weekly Democratic address not just on radio but also on video — a first. The address, typically four minutes long, will be turned into a YouTube video and posted on Obama's transition site …
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, Profy, Threat Level, CNET News, Gizmodo, Save the Internet Blog, Mashable!, The Utube Blog and Associated Press
Vivek Wadhwa / Business Week:
Engineering: Suddenly Sexy for College Grads — As the financial crisis deepens, science and math grads who once flocked to investment banking are now considering jobs in engineering — Early in his college career, Tyler Bosmeny assumed that after graduating, he would do what hundreds …
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
BBC:
European debut for ‘$100 laptop’ — Europeans will soon be able to buy their own XO laptop. — The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organisation is planning to sell the devices via online store Amazon's European outlets from 17 November. — The machines will be sold under the Give One …
WindowsForDevices.com:
Smart camera sports Atom — Matrox Imaging announced a Windows CE “smart camera” that uses a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor. The Iris GT features 256MB of RAM, 1GB of flash storage, a gigabit Ethernet port, USB 2.0 and RS232 serial ports, plus an opto-coupled trigger input and strobe output, says Matrox.
Slash Lane / AppleInsider:
Apple sued over hairline cracks in iPhone 3G casings — Apple is facing yet another lawsuit over the performance of its iPhone 3G on AT&T's network but with added allegations that the company is ignoring the occurrence of hairline cracks in the handset's enclosure.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
The Very Curious Microsoft-Facebook User Data Relationship — Facebook's ties to Microsoft go back to 2006 when they first signed an advertising deal. A year later they took a $240 million investment, and the advertising relationship was extended this year.
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Businesses warming up to the iPhone — Apple has captivated the general public with the iPhone, but has it convinced the business world to take the plunge? — Even after the March preview of the “business-friendly” iPhone 2.0 software for the iPhone released in July …
Discussion:
wmpoweruser.com
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Is the VC Model Broken? Far From it — Updated: Adeo Ressi, the serial entrepreneur behind the venture-capital rating site TheFunded, has been getting a lot of attention for a presentation he gave at Harvard Business School in which he argued that the VC industry is “broken.”
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
New court documents reveal internal Microsoft fighting over Vista, Intel — A new court filing reveals disputes at Microsoft's highest levels leading up to Windows Vista's release — including CEO Steve Ballmer describing former Windows chief Jim Allchin as “apoplectic” …
