Top Items:
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
Apple to sell a $99 4GB iPhone at Walmart? — We just got a tip that in addition to the iPhone 3G actually making its way to Walmart, as we exclusively told you, there will be a 4GB model priced at $99 with a 2-year agreement. We're not putting our stamp of approval behind this one just yet …
Rick Turoczy / ReadWriteWeb:
Times Extra: The New York Times Opens Web Front Page to Outside Content — New York TimesAt a time when the online world is continually seen as a more trusted source of news, mainstream media outlets find themselves forced into the position of becoming more and more open to keep their readers coming back.
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Kogan intros world's second Android phone: Agora / Agora Pro — We'll be totally honest — we pretty much blew Ruslan Kogan off when he proclaimed that he was about to push out a $199 Android phone by the year's end. And truthfully, the guy still hasn't totally delivered …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Boing Boing Gadgets, Pocket-lint.co.uk, Electricpig.co.uk, Mobility Site, Neowin.net and PalmAddicts
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Alex Zaharov-Reutt / iTWire:World's second Google Android gPhone launches!
Discussion:
www.kogan.com.au, Gizmodo, Gadget Lab, Android Community, Mobile Tech Addicts, CrunchGear, Android Phone Fans and Phone Arena
Business Wire:
AT&T Announces Job Reductions — DALLAS—(BUSINESS WIRE)—AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - News) today announced a planned reduction of approximately 12,000 jobs, or about 4 percent of the company's total workforce, citing economic pressures, a changing business mix and a more streamlined organizational structure.
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Online auctions remain piracy problem for Microsoft — Attention software buyers: There's no such thing as Microsoft Office “Blue Edition.” — That's the latest ruse making the rounds on the online auctions. Allegedly it supposed to be some sort of technician version of Microsoft's software …
Techmeme News:
Guess what? Automated news doesn't quite work. — Any competent developer who tries to automate the selection of news headlines will inevitably discover that this approach always comes up a bit short. Automation does indeed bring a lot to the table — humans can't possibly discover and organize news as fast as computers can.
Discussion:
Technologizer, Decision Factory, Inc., VentureBeat, The Blog Herald, bub.blicio.us, Bits, Jobwire, broadstuff, timesonline.typepad.com, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Life On the Wicked Stage, Data Mining, ReadWriteWeb, RexBlog.com, TECH.BLORGE.com, Webware.com, TechCrunch, Beet.TV, Search Engine Land, Susan Mernit's Blog and Glass House
Josh Lowensohn / Webware.com:
New Firefox extension turns Amazon.com into illegal free-for-all — A new Firefox extension called Pirates of the Amazon lets users download movies, games, TV shows, and MP3s free of charge by cross referencing Amazon's product pages with torrent files from the Pirate Bay.
William M. Bulkeley / Wall Street Journal:
IBM Offers ‘Microsoft-Free’ Desktop — Applications for Thin Clients Would Operate From Back-Office Server — International Business Machines Corp. is hoping to convince corporate customers that they no longer need Microsoft Corp. — IBM says it has created a “Microsoft-free” …
Discussion:
CNET News
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Viacom Lays Off 850, Takes $450 Million Charge — Viacom's long-rumored cuts are here. The media conglomerate is firing 850 people — 7% of its workforce — and will take a charge of up to $450 million. Viacom (VIA.B) says the cuts will save it up to $250 million next year.
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Adobe lays off 600 workers, CS4 demand weaker than expected — Adobe said Wednesday that it will eliminate 600 full-time positions, or roughly 8 percent of its workforce, amid weaker than expected fourth quarter earnings. — The company said in a statement that it will deliver fourth …
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Jose Fermoso / Gadget Lab:
Nintendo Thinking About Changing the Accelerometer in Wiimote — At the heart of the success of the Wii is the accelerometer chip inside the Wiimote that detects motion in three dimensional space. — Now, the company that provided that first chip, STMicroelectronics …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Amazon Launches Public Data Sets To Ease Research — Amazon released its previously announced Public Data Sets web service this evening. The project encourages developers, researchers, universities and businesses to upload large (non-confidential) data sets to Amazon - things like census data …
Discussion:
Between the Lines
Paul Graham:
The High-Res Society — For nearly all of history the success of a society was proportionate to its ability to assemble large and disciplined organizations. Those who bet on economies of scale generally won, which meant the largest organizations were the most successful ones.
Discussion:
The Equity Kicker
Arkansas IMC:
Forget Cyber Monday: COBY Plans “Moore's Law” MIDGET PC for $100 in March — Sales of 100 million, worldwide, in five years? — Coby Electronics, a leading international manufacturer and distributor of electronics consumer-packaged goods for discount stores, plans to introduce the first under-$100 laptop by March 2009.
Discussion:
Out of the Box, UMPCPortal, CrunchGear, Liliputing, Gizmodo, thegadgetsite, LAPTOP Magazine and Engadget
Yahoo! Search Blog:
Look Before You Click: Search Assist for Image Search — We just took a look back at the progress we've made over the last year with Search Assist and a look forward to our goals of continuing to improve the usefulness of our assistance technology. — With this objective in mind …
Bobbie Johnson / Guardian:
Startups seek more dignified exit than a belly flop into the dead pool — Remember the dead pool? No, not Clint Eastwood's fifth and final Dirty Harry movie, but the internet graveyard that became a byword for failure during the last dotcom crash. In the lowest days of 2000 and 2001 …
Royal Pingdom:
Google Apps SLA loophole allows for major downtime without consequences — Gmail could be unavailable for more than 21 hours in a day, and Google could still tell you that according to their SLA, the service has had 100% uptime. — It sounds impossible, but it's a direct consequence …
Discussion:
TechCrunch
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Apple's unexpected iPod shortage spreading — Although Macs and iPhones were seen as Apple's ticket to a healthy holiday quarter, the electronics maker has reportedly been struck by surprising demand for iPods and is now scurrying to restock some of its reseller channels.
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Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Tapulous Brings Weezer And World-Class DJs To Tap Tap Revenge — iPhone development house Tapulous has announced two new premium versions of its mega-hit Tap Tap Revenge, both of which feature licensed music (still a rarity on the fledgling platform). Tap Tap Revenge is an intuitive …
Nick O'Neill / The Social Times:
Google Makes a Hard Push With Friend Connect — Tonight I've been seeing a lot of buzz about Friend Connect, Google's open initiative to take of Facebook Connect. The service lets you login using your Google, Orkut, or Plaxo account. Both MySpace and Facebook decided to opt-out of integrating …
Discussion:
VentureBeat
Egan Orion / Inquirer:
Apple says others are behind Psystar's misdeeds — Will make them pay — APPLE FILED a motion on Tuesday to amend its complaint in its lawsuit against Psystar. — Psystar attracted Apple's lawsuit by selling unauthorised clones of Apple brand computers.
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Virtually every Windows PC at risk, says Secunia — Almost all PCs scanned by patch tool have an unpatched app; 46% have 11-plus — Computerworld) More than 98% of Windows computers harbor at least one unpatched application, and nearly half contain 11 or more programs at risk from attack …
Gavin Clarke / The Register:
Sun sneaks JavaFX Mobile into desktop FX — Any RIA in a storm — Sun Microsystems, it is generally felt, lost the desktop to Microsoft a long time ago. Aware of this, Sun in recent years evangelized mobile as Java's habitat - mobile is, after all, where Microsoft's at its weakest.
Meghan Keane / Epicenter:
Greystripe Brings Flash to the iPhone, Sort Of — Adobe may be hard at work creating a version of its Flash Player that works on the iPhone, but until Apple gives its OK, iPhone users must muddle along without viewing most online video content. — Except that on Monday …
