Top Items:
Leahculver / The Pownce Blog:
Goodbye Pownce, Hello Six Apart — We have some very big news today at Pownce. We will be closing the service and Mike and I, along with the Pownce technology, have joined Six Apart, the company behind such great blogging software as Movable Type, TypePad and Vox.
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Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Six Apart acquires and shuts down Pownce — Blogging company Six Apart has acquired micro-blogging startup Pownce for undisclosed financial terms. It looks like one of those acquisitions where the buyer was more interested in the people than the product — the Pownce service will shut down in two weeks.
Amy Schatz / Wall Street Journal:
FCC Head Pushes Free Web Plan — Outgoing Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is pushing for action in December on a plan to offer free, pornography-free wireless Internet service to all Americans, despite objections from the wireless industry and some consumer groups.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / CNN:
Mac Internet share hits record 8.87%; Windows drops below 90% — Apple's (AAPL) slice of the Internet pie grew measurably in November as both the Mac and the iPhone hit record numbers in a Net Applications Web survey issued overnight Monday and updated Monday morning.
Discussion:
eWeek, PC World, MacRumors, SitePoint, Insanely Great Mac, Computerworld, TUAW, Maximum PC all, Electronista and MacBlogz
Andrew D. Smith / Dallas Morning News:
Blockbuster, Microsoft team up on mobile services — asmith@dallasnews.com — Blockbuster Inc. caught up to the competition last week by introducing a set-top box that brings rentals from the Internet to the television. — Now, the Dallas-based company hopes to pass the pack by teaming …
Discussion:
Microsoft Pri0, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, Unwired View, Microsoft Subnet's blog, BetaNews, mocoNews.net, Beyond Binary and Obsessable
Live Search:
You asked for it: instant cashback! — When we asked users about the improvements they'd like us make to Live Search cashback, many said they want to receive cashback instantly instead of waiting for 60 days. Well, I'm happy to announce that we've just released the Instant cashback feature with eBay.
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Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
The Simpsons mocks (m)Apple — Few have been spared the satire of Matt Groening's long running animated sitcom. Last night, The Simpsons took on Apple, or uh, Mapple for a full 6 minutes of lampoonery — a pretty harsh ride at a two-joke per minute pace. It all starts when the Springfield mall gets …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, TechFlash, CNET News, Microsoft Pri0, Gadget Lab, Global Nerdy, The iPhone Blog, Mashable! and Apple 2.0
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Stuart Cohen / Business Week:
Open Source: The Model Is Broken — The open-source business model that relies solely on support and service revenue streams is failing to meet the expectations of investors — For anyone who hasn't been paying attention to the software industry lately, I have some bad news.
Richard Bennett / The Register:
Bittorrent declares war on VoIP, gamers — The next internet meltdown — Gamers, VoIP and video conference users beware. The leading BitTorrent software authors have declared war on you - and any users wanting to wring high performance out of their networks.
Chris Foresman / Infinite Loop:
Apple offers free licensing for Mini DisplayPort spec — When Apple recently introduced its revamped notebook line, it also introduced the world to the Mini DisplayPort. It turns out that the company is offering no-fee licenses to anyone interested in developing products that use the Mini DisplayPort specification.
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
FCC leaks tiny VAIO with WWAN — Sony's first netbook? — They might not like it, but Sony looks ripe to enter the netbook market in the US. Unveiled today is the backside of this tiny “notebook PC” as described by the FCC under the model numbers PCG-1P1L and PCG-1P2L (PCG synonymous with Sony's VAIO laptop brand).
Discussion:
LAPTOP Magazine, Boy Genius Report, Liliputing, SlashGear, CrunchGear, jkOnTheRun, Sony Insider and Electronista
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Huffington Post Nabs $25 Million in Funding-Here's a BoomTown Interview With Oak Investment's Fred Harman — The Huffington Post will announce this morning that it has raised $25 million, in a single investment from Oak Investment Partners. — The large round by Oak, which was led by Palo Alto …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, paidContent.org, TechFlash, The Social, Contentinople, BloggingStocks, Tech Ticker and Media Bullseye
Reuters:
MySpace CEO cautiously optimistic on 2009 — NEW YORK (Reuters) - MySpace, the online social network owned by News Corp (NWSa.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), can grow advertising revenue in 2009, its chief executive said on Monday, even as the economic crisis erodes big media companies' bottom lines.
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
The End Of Online Anonymity — It seems we're approaching a new age here on the Internet. Instead being anonymous, faceless IP addresses, social computing and changing technologies have allowed the lines between the “real” world and the “virtual” world to blur.
Dave Zatz / Zatz Not Funny!:
Blockbuster OnDemand Unboxing & Setuping — So much for a day of vacation recovery... UPS just arrived with the new Blockbuster OnDemand movie rental box, by 2Wire. If you recall, $99 gets you the box and 25 video rental credits. Once those have been consumed, content begins at $1.99 a pop.
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Nokia's touchiest week — We've arrived in Barcelona, Spain for Nokia World, a week where Nokia talks to its top customers. — When we got here a Nokia executive met me and bragged that the Internet has no clue what they will announce this week. I asked “what about the touch screen cell phone that I've seen rumors about?”
Brad Linder / Download Squad:
gOS Cloud - From zero to web browser in just a few seconds — gOS is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu that's designed to make it easy to interface with web-based applications like Gmail, YouTube, and Meebo. It uses the slightly OS X-like Enlightenment desktop environment …
Stephen Shankland / Webware.com:
Google reveals Chrome extensions plan — Google has published its plan to build into Chrome what is arguably its most requested feature: the ability to accept extensions that can customize how the open-source Web browser operates. — And guess what? Google's dependence on advertising notwithstanding …
Discussion:
Lifehacker
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Apple a ‘bright spot’ during lackluster Black Friday kick-off — Although this year's holiday shopping season is expected to present challenges for many consumer-oriented hardware companies, Apple is already showing signs of bucking the trend with Black Friday Mac sales reported to be better than expected.
Discussion:
NEWSFACTOR, CNET News, Infinite Loop, Ars Technica, Associated Press, Alley Insider and Macsimum News
John Markoff / Bits:
A Microsoft Veteran Embraces Open Source — Keith Curtis has just written a book about the future of software. — That in itself isn't unique. More unusual is that Mr. Curtis, an 11-year veteran of Microsoft, the world's largest software company, believes deeply that open source is the future of software.
Discussion:
rand($thoughts);
Jevon MacDonald / The FASTForward Blog:
The uncertain future of Blogging — Blogging is near and dear to my heart. — I admit freely that I am attached to the concept. I think it is better than something (whatever that is), and that is creates a lot of value. — I don't know what the fate of blogging is …
Liz Gannes / NewTeeVee:
ExtendMedia Raises $10M for Video Platforms — ExtendMedia has confirmed with us that it has raised $10 million in Series C funding from previous backers TVM Capital, Atlas Venture and Venrock Associates, as was reported this morning by peHUB based on a regulatory filing.
Eric Goldman / Technology & Marketing Law Blog:
Yahoo Countersues American Airlines for Declaratory Judgment — Yahoo, Inc. v. American Airlines, Inc., C08-05308 (N.D. Cal. complaint filed Nov. 21, 2008). The Justia page. — As you recall, American Airlines recently followed its July settlement with Google by bringing a clone …
Discussion:
Alley Insider
BBC:
EU to search out cyber criminals — Remote searches of suspect computers will form part of an EU plan to tackle hi-tech crime. — The five-year action plan will take steps to combat the growth in cyber theft and the machines used to spread spam and other malicious programs.
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
Songbeat: Interesting New Music Service - But is it Legal? — Songbeat is an interesting new desktop music application that lets you stream and download songs from SeeqPod, Project Playlist, Spool.fm, and iASK. Songbeat also gives you the option to ‘record’ music from your last.fm stations.
Discussion:
TechCrunch
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Amazon's database service enters public testing — SimpleDB, one of Amazon.com's suite of online services that people can use to build Web sites or other computing operations, is out of private beta testing. — The service, lets programmers store database records at Amazon and extract specific data from it.
