Top Items:
Stephen Lawson / Macworld:
AT&T hopes for single smart phone OS — AT&T hopes to standardize on a single operating system for AT&T-branded smart phones as part of a “dramatic consolidation” of its mobile platforms over the next few years, a company executive said Thursday. — The mobile operator believes smart phones …
Discussion:
InformationWeek, Boy Genius Report, Local Mobile Search, Gizmodo, Electronista, FierceWireless, Engadget Mobile, Phone Scoop and TeleRead
Dave Winer / Scripting News:
Soon it will be time to start over, again — Here's how the tech industry cycle goes. — A new generation of young techies comes along, takes a look at the current stack, finds it too daunting (rightly so) and decides to start over from scratch. They find that they can make things happen …
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Juan Carlos Perez / PC World:Facebook, Google Launch Data Portability Programs to All
Discussion:
Economist, Search Engine Watch, GO2WEB20 Blog, Profy, SEO and Tech Daily and Google Operating System
Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:Oh No You Don't, Google! Facebook Connect Now Generally Available, Too
Discussion:
broadstuff, Gear Diary, AppScout, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Marc's Voice, TECH.BLORGE.com, Between the Lines, CNET News and Obsessable
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Did YouTube Just Turn On HD For Real? — After teasing us for a year with the option to watch “higher quality” videos that weren't quite high-def, it appears that YouTube is making the switch to HD, at least for some videos that have been uploaded in that quality.
Discussion:
SlashGear
Chris Coletta / Silicon Valley San Jose …:
Google opts out of grant for North Carolina data center — Google Inc. has opted not to take a $4.7 million state grant to build a data center in the town of Lenoir, N.C. - a sign the company may be slowing down its expansion in the state. — Google on Thursday formally withdrew its application …
Discussion:
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
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Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge:Google Slows N.C. Build, Foregoing State Grant
Discussion:
Rough Type
Paul Graham:
Could VC be a Casualty of the Recesssion? — (I originally wrote this at the request of a company producing a report about entrepreneurship. Unfortunately after reading it they decided it was too controversial to include.) — VC funding will probably dry up somewhat during the present recession, like it usually does in bad times.
Discussion:
HipMojo.com
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Social Network Profile Costs Woman College Degree — Forget losing your job, apparently your MySpace or Facebook profile and photos can now cause you to lose your degree. In what may be one of the most frightening rulings regarding social networks and privacy to date …
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
RealDepressing: The Entire RealNetworks Layoff Memo — Earlier this afternoon, Peter Kafka reported in Media Memo that RealNetworks (RNWK) was “next up in today's layoff parade.” Here's the official internal memo from RealNetworks founder, chairman and CEO, Rob Glaser:
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Stephen Myers / Cygnet Engineering:
Iphone as a Universe Controller: Part 1 — Why have a universal remote control when you can have a universe controller? I was fortunate enough to get to beta test some of ioBridge's forthcoming hardware. Their hardware lets you connect just about anything to the internet.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Yahoo CEO Countdown, 26 Days to Go: As Chernin Declines, Will a Dark Horse Emerge? — With Yahoo board Chairman Roy Bostock reportedly assuring investors and others that the company will have a CEO in place by the end of the year, it seems prudent for BoomTown to initiate an official Yahoo CEO Countdown.
Arielle Reinstein / Gmail Blog:
Get your Gmail stickers — Not too long ago, one of the Gmail engineers broke out her vinyl cutter and made some Gmail m-velope stickers. Pretty soon, they were pasted to our desks, stuck on our laptops, and adorning the walls around the office. Then other people started asking us about them — first it was just other Googlers.
DigiTimes:
Acer branded smartphones to hit the market in 1Q09, company clarifies — Yen Ting Chen, Taipei; Meiling Chen, DIGITIMES [Friday 5 December 2008] — Despite a bleak economic outlook, Acer remains optimistic about its growth opportunities for 2009. The company expects its notebook shipments …
Discussion:
SlashGear
David Rothman / TeleRead:
Gasp, MIGHT Sony have sold more e-readers than Amazon has? And has Amazon bungled the ePub-creation question? — I should have picked up on this yesterday. A CNN story says “more than a quarter million” Kindles have been sold. Whose numbers are most helpful? CNN or Forrester Research, which estimates 400,000?
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Amazon's Team of Rivals — Not so long ago, much of my life this time of year was spent following the toy wars. From 1999 to 2001, Amazon.com, eToys and Toys ‘R’ Us battled for dominance in the online toy market. (Ultimately, Toys ‘R’ Us joined forces with Amazon, and eToys failed and changed hands several times.)
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
100Mbps FiOS Will Arrive Next Year - Largely aimed at winning the marketing wars... We've known that Verizon has been testing 100Mbps FiOS for much of this year in select employee homes. We also know that Verizon has admitted that 100Mbps service is more about marketing bragging rights than anything else.
Discussion:
Electronista
Google Webmaster Central Blog:
One place for changing your site's settings — One of the many useful features of Webmaster Tools is the ability to adjust settings for your site, such as crawl rate or geographic target. We've been steadily adding settings over time and have now gotten to the point where they merit their own page.
David Pogue / New York Times:
Readers React to David Pogue's Review of the BlackBerry Storm — I learned something last week. — In my Times print column, I reviewed the BlackBerry Storm, by far the worst product Research in Motion has ever produced. I had problems with its concept, problems with its clicky touch screen …
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, I4U News, mocoNews.net, MacDailyNews, MSNBC, Gadget Lab, The iPhone Blog, Boing Boing Gadgets and digg.com
Yinka Adegoke / Reuters:
IAC sees cascade of M&A opportunities — NEW YORK (Reuters) - IAC/InteractiveCorp (IACI.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Barry Diller is sitting on a pile of cash but he isn't going to give in to investor demands that he buy back stock to rescue the company's ailing share price.
Devin Coldewey / CrunchGear:
New Samsung webcam sensor does 720p and more — Seeing that PC users on desktop and laptop are embracing both HD video and built-in webcams, Samsung has decided to put the two together in the obvious form of a HD webcam. Until now, webcams have been pretty much limited to VGA (640×480) …
Doug McLean / TidBITS:
Grey Lines Mar MacBook Air Displays — Some MacBook Air users have been reporting the appearance of grey horizontal lines across the screens of their late 2008 models. Discussion threads on the issue began in early November 2008 on both Apple's discussion forums and the MacRumors forums.
David Sarno / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
‘Koobface’ virus spreading fast on Facebook — Reports circulated today about a virulent piece of malware making its way around Facebook, a major hub of the social Web with 120 million users. Because of its walled-off internal e-mail system, Facebook has long been a tough target for spammers …
Dan Gallagher / MarketWatch:
Kotick changes the game at Activision Blizzard — Video game executive parlays ‘Guitar Hero’ blockbuster into lucrative merger — SANTA MONICA, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Oversized egos and celebrity hype may permeate the executive suites of the entertainment industry, but Bobby Kotick doesn't follow that script.
Joseph L. Flatley / Engadget:
OpeniMac offers cut-rate, aesthetically challenged Apple clones direct from Argentina — After seeing how well Psystar did with its Open Computer, we think we'll just build our own Hackintosh rather than jump into this OpeniMac we've recently been hepped to. But who knows?
