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, Silicon Alley Insider, PC World, Google Watch, Infinite Loop, AppleInsider, 9 to 5 Mac, Search Engine Watch, Webware.com, Gadget Lab, Search Engine Journal, AndroidGuys, Gizmodo, Boing Boing Gadgets, MacRumors iPhone Blog, Obsessable, Unwired View, InformationWeek, I4U News, Screenwerk, dailywireless.org, The iPhone Blog, GottaBeMobile.com, Lifehacker, TheAppleBlog, CrunchGear, TECH.BLORGE.com, Profy, TheNextWeb.com, Electricpig.co.uk, IntoMobile, VentureBeat, RexBlog.com, The 26th Story, Webmetricsguru, AppScout, Phone Scoop, iLounge, Search Engine Land, Mashable!, MacNN, 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 …
Discussion:
Between the Lines, Guardian, Digital Daily, VentureBeat, GigaOM, Inquirer, Tech Trader Daily, TMCnet, Tech Confidential, Web Strategy and Tim Anderson's ITWriting
RELATED:
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, Reuters, Outside the Lines, InfoWorld, 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:
Digital Daily, Gizmodo, Electronista, Engadget, DailyTech, Obsessable, The Windows Blog and Addicted to Digital Media
RELATED:
Trevin Chow:
Introducing the Microsoft Store US — We previously launched Microso ft Store internationally in the UK, Germany and Korea. I'm now happy to announce that we have officially launched Microsoft Store for the U.S! — With this launch, our customers in the U.S. are able to buy …
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
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.
RELATED:
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.
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
Discussion:
Venture Chronicles, Ars Technica, Electronista, Kotaku, VoIP & Gadgets Blog and The Technology Chronicles
RELATED:
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 …
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
Ashlee Vance / New York Times:
Crisis Spreads to Tech Sector as Sun Plans to Cut Work Force — Joining a rapidly growing list of technology companies reeling from the financial turmoil, Sun Microsystems, which sells server computers, has started a broad restructuring that could see up to 6,000 employees lose their jobs.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
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.”
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
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.
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.
Discussion:
MacBlogz
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Universal Music Group: We're Still Selling Tunes, Amazingly — Universal Music Group, the world's biggest music company, insists the music business isn't dying. Yesterday, it released numbers to help bolster its case. — UMG saw sales drop 6.2 percent in the last quarter, parent company Vivendi disclosed yesterday.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
GirlInYourShirt: $75 Buys Your Startup Marketing For A Day — I imagine more than a few startups will take Jenaé up on her offer to wear your startup shirt and talk about your company for a day. It's $75, and she posts videos on her site, YouTube, Seesmic and Viddler, posts pictures on Flickr and tweets about it all as well.
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.
Discussion:
MSN
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 …
