Top Items:
Michael Gartenberg / MobileDevicesToday:
Microsoft will NOT do their own phone anytime soon — Rumors persist and folks believe that there will be a Zune or some other Microsoft branded phone. I've talked about this in the past but it's worth saying again. — Sorry Joe and David, there won't be a Microsoft phone. I say this for a simple reason.
Discussion:
Alley Insider, Smartphones and Cell Phones, Pocket PC Thoughts.com, GigaOM, Microsoft Watch, TeleRead and Technologizer
RELATED:
Jim Goldman / Tech Check with Jim Goldman:
Microsoft's Zune To Evolve Into New “Pink” Smart Phone? — I'm hearing from a good source that Microsoft is ready to give a major facelift to the company's Zune music player that could mean its evolution into a new smart phone from the company. — My source says that the new device falls under …
ifoAppleStore:
Apple Store Will Now Match Competitors' Prices — Apple has apparently fired the first shot in the holiday shopping battle, by announcing internally that retail store employees have the authority to match the prices of other authorized retailers. The stores have also cancelled …
Discussion:
Technologizer, AppleInsider, Infinite Loop, CNET News, Apple Watch, TUAW, The Apple Core, Edible Apple, CrunchGear, The Mac Observer, MacRumors, MacBlogz, iLounge, Crave, Macsimum News and digg.com
RELATED:
AppleInsider:
Piper Jaffray addresses 12 more ‘unanswered Apple questions’ — Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster on Tuesday issued one of his trademark reports to address a number ‘unanswered questions surrounding the Apple story,’ such as when the company plans to next update its iPhone and the prospects for an Apple netbook.
RELATED:
Brad Stone / Bits:
E-Commerce Shrinks for First Time, Research Firm Says — Just as many Web retailers feared, online shoppers are being unusually frugal this holiday season. — During the first 23 days of November, according to a report to be released later on Tuesday by the research firm comScore …
Discussion:
CNET News, Tech Trader Daily, MarketingVOX, Alley Insider, Voices and Search Engine Guide
RELATED:
Henry Blodget / Alley Insider:
eBay Traffic Plummeting (EBAY) — eBay's (EBAY) core business continues to fall apart. Some of the decline is likely the result of the declining economy. The rest of it is likely the result of the trends that have been clobbering eBay for the past two years: competition, overpricing …
Tim Arango / New York Times:
Digital Sales Surpass CDs at Atlantic — Since MP3s first became popular a decade ago, music industry executives have obsessed over this question: when would digital music revenue finally surpass compact disc sales? — For Atlantic Records, the label that in years past has delivered artists …
Discussion:
paidContent.org
RELATED:
Peter Kafka / All Things Digital:
What Happened to the Digital Music Boom? Ask Apple. [MediaMemo] — Big music ignored digital music for a long time. But over the last few years, that's changed. Now the industry is hoping that fast-growing digital revenue can help it overcome slumping CD revenue. — That has yet to happen.
Google LatLong:
Happier travels through Street View with Pegman — Today we're happy to announce some big improvements to the Street View feature in Google Maps! Thanks to feedback from our users, we've now made Street View even better and easier to use. — For one thing, Pegman, our plucky mascot, is now close at hand wherever you go.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Cisco To Shut Down For 4 Days At Year End — Updated with Cisco Confirmation: If you want to know how bad it is going to get for all of us in Silicon Valley, just look at Cisco Systems. For first time in its history the company is going to shut down for four days at the end of the year, according to a report by UBS Research.
Discussion:
The Platform, CNET News, The Register, Technologizer, Communications …, Alley Insider and Between the Lines
eMarketer:
Economy Deals Online Ad Spending a Hit — Digital still stronger than traditional — There seems to be more bad news about the economy every day, and falling ad spending numbers are part of the mix. Although online advertising is still on a positive growth curve, that growth is slowing …
Discussion:
NewTeeVee, VentureBeat, Search Engine Land, TechFlash, WebProNews, HipMojo.com, Epicenter, paidContent.org, broadstuff and Adweek
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Amazon Kindle 2 Slated For “Early Q1″ — Update on the Kindle 2: It was scheduled to be released in October in time for this holiday season, but Bezos himself reportedly pulled the plug for last minute changes to the software. Our sources now say it's tentatively scheduled to go on sale in “early next quarter.”
Discussion:
Alley Insider, Gadget Lab, Andrea on Amazon …, Homotron.net, TeleRead, Boy Genius Report, TechFlash, Electronista, Gear Diary, Gadgetell, Engadget, SlashGear, Gizmodo, Crave and Gearlog
Stephen Shankland / Webware.com:
Why I switched from Firefox to Chrome — Sorry if it sounds like I'm drinking the Google Kool-Aid here, but I switched from Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome as my default browser for the very reason Google's executives said we should: speed. (Get Google Chrome from Download.com.)
Discussion:
digg.com
Nathania Johnson / Search Engine Watch:
Microsoft, Yahoo Take Major Hits in Nielsen Online Search Share Rankings for October 2008 — Microsoft and Yahoo took a tumble in their year-over-year search share in October 2008, according to Nielsen Online. All searches were down 2%, which is quite surprising considering the election and the economy.
Mike Blumenthal / Search Engine Land:
MapQuest: “We've Come Out Of Hibernation” — I recently had the opportunity to interview two senior level executives from Mapquest to find out what the longtime provider of online mapping services is up to. Despite perceptions, MapQuest is actually a more popular mapping destination …
Eric Horvitz / Microsoft Research Home:
Cyberchondria: Studies of the Escalation of Medical Concerns in Web Search — Available Documents: — The World Wide Web provides an abundant source of medical information. This information can assist people who are not healthcare professionals to better understand health and disease …
Murad Ahmed / Tech Central:
10 celebrities who play World of Warcraft — First of all, I should come clean about something. — I'm not really a Warcraft player or fan. Over the past few weeks I've had to report on a number of World of Warcraft events (see here and here). This has allowed me to meet and befriend …
Discussion:
digg.com
Mike Shields / Mediaweek:
Social Networking Traffic Up as Advertising Falls Flat — More than half the country actively uses social networking sites, but so far advertising on these properties is nothing short of anemic — More than half the country actively uses social networking sites, but so far advertising …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
It's Official: MTV Exec Courtney Holt Leaves To Run MySpace Music — MySpace Music's long awaited leader has arrived. As expected, MTV Networks' EVP Digital Music and Media Courtney Holt has taken the job, says the LA Times. — Until today Holt was EVP of Digital Music for the MTV Networks Music and Logo Group.
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Young entrepreneurs bond on the beach — The coastal resort that hosted the Summit Series event last weekend. — (Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News) — PUERTO MORELOS, Mexico—They kept their Twitter feeds quiet and their iPhone cameras dormant. Most of them didn't want their names to be used.
Discussion:
Gawker
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Move over, Ajax. Here comes Microsoft's ‘Kojax’ — Let me start out by saying I don't know whether Microsoft will finally decide to sell a Microsoft-branded Windows Mobile phone. (Company officials have gone back and forth over that idea for more than a year.)
Richard Jalichandra / Technorati:
Changes and Tough Decisions at Technorati — Changes and Tough Decisions at Technorati — There's not much I can say about the economy that hasn't been said a hundred times already. We're facing the worst crisis of our lifetimes, and no one can say with certainty what lies ahead or how long it will last.
Dana Blankenhorn / Open Source:
A great time to start an open source company — Think of a redwood forest after the fire. — Great time to be a seed. Or imagine being an alligator after the peat in your swamp is burned out. Life is good. — In that same way, now may be the best time to launch an open source company.
Discussion:
dailywireless.org
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Apple's new VP could cause ‘irreparable harm’ to IBM, says judge — Unsealed opinion spells out concerns over former IBM exec's role — Computerworld) A federal judge ordered Apple Inc.'s newest executive to leave the company just five days after starting work because he might cause …
ongoing:
What Sun Should Do — Sun is going through a lousy spell right now. Well, so is the world's economy in general and the IT business in particular, but this is about Sun. This is my opinion about what my employer should do about it. … Our Advantages — As I look at Sun's portfolio …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Update on the AOL-Yahoo Deal: “Like Trying to Catch a Falling Knife” — Last week, Bloomberg reported that Yahoo and AOL were still chit-chatting about a possible deal-non-news, actually, given the pair have never stopped talking. — Nonetheless, it set off yet another flurry of excitement …
Discussion:
Valleywag
Scott Gilbertson / The Register:
Rock-solid Fedora 10 brings salvation to Ubuntu weary — Next RHEL looking good — Review Fedora might not be getting a complete makeover or flashy new features in version 10, out today, but some welcome enhancements under-the-hood make this a worthwhile upgrade.
Zachary M. Seward / Nieman Journalism Lab:
NYT sees success in Facebook push — The New York Times is happy to be your Facebook friend. An internal memo yesterday from Times president Scott Heekin-Canedy touted the newspaper's “successful” advertising campaign on Facebook in the days following the presidential election.
Discussion:
paidContent.org
David Spark / Mashable!:
12 Great Tales of De-Friending — David Spark (@dspark) is a veteran tech journalist and the founder of Spark Media Solutions, a storytelling production company. — De-friending has always been awkward. Social networks offer one click “remove a friend” options, but it still doesn't make the decision any easier.
