Top Items:
Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:
Ziff Davis To Close PCMag Print; Focus on Online; Still Looking For Options For Gaming Division — Ziff Davis, the tech/gaming media company that recently exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is now taking the brave but inevitable step of closing down the print version of PCMag to focus its energy …
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Nicholas Carlson / Alley Insider:
PC Magazine Goes Out Of Print — Founded in 1982 and at times so rich with ads its issues reached as many as 600 pages, Ziff Davis's PC Magazine will issue its last print edition this January, thereafter becoming an online-only publication. Ziff Davis, which recently exited bankruptcy will lay off seven print production employees.
Discussion:
Crave, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, SmoothSpan Blog, Valleywag, paidContent.org and Know It All
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Ballmer: ‘We are done’ with Yahoo acquisition idea — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer threw his daily bucket of cold water on the notion that the software maker will return with a new bid for all of Yahoo. — “We are done with all acquisition discussions with Yahoo,” Ballmer said …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Microsoft Pri0, TechFlash, CNET News, Epicenter, paidContent.org, HipMojo.com, GMSV and Valleywag
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Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Why Microsoft Should Bid Again — and Yahoo Should Accept — Now that Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang has finally stepped aside, removing what many saw as one of the main barriers to bringing the two companies together, Microsoft should re-ignite acquisition talks with the company.
Annie Chen / Gmail Blog:
Spice up your inbox with colors and themes — Gmail fans have been building unofficial extensions to spice up their inboxes for a while, but up til now themes haven't been an integral part of Gmail. We wanted to go beyond simple color customization, so out of the 30 odd themes we're launching today …
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, Google Watch, Google Operating System, geeksugar, sarahintampa, TheNextWeb.com and InformationWeek
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Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Gmail Themes. That's Totally Ninja. — Apparently a lucky few Gmail users had a “Themes” tab pop up under settings. No longer do you have to suffer through the boring-if-functional standard Gmail interface for the 16 hours a day that you keep the page loaded. Try “Ninja” instead.
Discussion:
VentureBeat
Signal vs. Noise:
Why the Drudge Report is one of the best designed sites on the web — A couple weeks ago on Twitter I said: “I still maintain the Drudge Report is one of the best designed sites on the web. Has been for years.” A few people agreed, but most didn't. Some thought it was a joke. I wasn't kidding.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Yahoo Search Suffers Another Blow, as Key Engineer Departs for Microsoft — Yahoo-which has stuck to its guns by staying in the search business, even though many think it is a losing game and should be sold off to Microsoft-has lost a key engineer in that arena to, uh-oh, Microsoft.
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Mike Butcher / TechCrunch UK:
Updated: BNP member list mashed with Google maps creates a sea of red dots, but dangerously inaccurate — BREAKING NOW: — Creator of the Map, Ben Charlton, removes it from his site. Here's his post explaining why: … [More coverage on this story here and here.] — [Updated: Please see further updates below]
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Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report:
Confirmed: iPhone 3G coming to Wal-Mart on December 28th, select Sam's Club stores as well — Shortly after we posted about the iPhone coming to Wal-Mart this morning, it seemed like all of our ninjas came out of the woodwork to bombard us with info. Rather than post an update, we want to lay out what is now confirmed info.
Arik Hesseldahl / Business Week:
Hewlett-Packard Out-Touches Apple — Apple watchers assumed Jobs & Co. would be the first to offer a multitouch laptop, but Hewlett-Packard has beaten them to the punch — From the first time Steve Jobs demonstrated “the pinch”—the two-finger gesture used to zoom in and out of photos …
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Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Sources: Apple, music labels talk DRM-free songs — A year after iTunes began offering music without copy protection software from EMI, Apple is in discussions with the other three top recording companies about acquiring DRM-free songs, according to two music industry sources.
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Intel to launch 65W desktop CPUs for all-in-one PCs — Intel is planning to launch three 65W low-power desktop CPUs targeting small form factor (SFF) PCs and all-in-one PCs in the middle of January next year, according to sources at PC vendors. — Intel will launch the Core 2 Quad Q8200s …
Jeremy Crane / Compete Blog:
Behold the Power of google.com — What would you give for one day of Google eyeballs? What would it be worth to you to have one single ad running on Google's oh so sparse and much hailed homepage? My guess, that for better or worse, many an online marketing department would be more than happy …
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb
Chris Albrecht / NewTeeVee:
No One Expects... Monty Python on YouTube! — Break out the comfy chair — famed British comedy troupe Monty Python now has a channel on YouTube. And in a very Python-esque manner, they've kicked the whole thing off with an introductory video that calls out YouTube users for ripping them off over the past three years.
Discussion:
Techdirt, Google Blogoscoped, Webware.com, Global Nerdy, paidContent, AppScout, Neatorama and Mashable!
Reuters:
Experts: Cyber-crime as Destructive as Credit Crisis — Cyber-crime is likely to wreak as much havoc as the credit crisis in the coming years if international regulation is not improved, according to some of the world's top crime experts. Damage caused by cyber-crime is estimated at $100 billion annually …
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Microsoft hiring could be slow through 2010 — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told shareholders Wednesday he expects the company's move to slow its hiring will continue beyond the middle of next year. — Headcount, he said, will experience “much, much slower growth for the remainder of this financial year and I suspect into next year.”
Mitchell / Mitchell's Blog:
Sustainability in Uncertain Times — Today we are posting our audited financial statements and tax form for 2007. As in past years, I'll use this event as an opportunity to review both our financial status and our overall effectiveness in moving the mission forward. — Financial
CBC News:
CRTC to rule on Bell's throttling on Thursday — Internet watchers are on the edge of their seats as the CRTC is set to make a landmark ruling Thursday on Bell Canada Inc.'s throttling of speeds. — The regulator will hand down its decision at 9 a.m. after twice delaying the ruling.
Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report:
Nokia E71 coming to AT&T as E71x; live and in the flesh — There it is people, looking sexy as ever - we can only hope that the “X” doesn't stand for “Xtra crippled”. It looks like we're now pretty close to seeing AT&T formally announce the E71, rebranded as the E71x, as a welcome addition to its smartphone line.
Arn / MacRumors:
Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) Due in 1st Quarter of 2009? — Apple's Director of Engineering of Unix Technologies Jordan Hubbard spoke at LISA '08 last week. LISA (or Large Installation System Administration Conference) is a technical conference targeted at engineers and system administrators.
Agence France Presse:
iPhone sex: Google application baffled by British accents — LONDON (AFP) - A new voice-recognition search tool for the iPhone has problems understanding British accents, leading to some bizarre answers to spoken queries, a newspaper report and users said Wednesday.
Ellen Byron / Wall Street Journal:
Google, P&G Swap Workers — At Procter & Gamble Co., the corporate culture is so rigid, employees jokingly call themselves “Proctoids.” In contrast, Google Inc. staffers are urged to wander the halls on company-provided scooters and brainstorm on public whiteboards.
Discussion:
Search Engine Land, BloggingStocks, michael parekh on IT, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim and Valleywag
Heather Hopkins / Hitwise Intelligence:
1 in 10 Brand Searches Led Away from the Brand Website — This week we are publishing a report on online brand protection. This issue is huge for marketers with our research showing that more than 1 in 10 US Internet searches for leading brands is led away from the brand owner's website.
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Music Industry Squanders $69 Billion Worth Of Free Promotions In 2007 — from the got-your-attention? dept — Over the years, we've seen so many bogus reports on the supposed “losses” to various industries due to unauthorized file sharing, that it's about time the story was flipped.
