Top Items:
Jim Goldman / Tech Check with Jim Goldman:
Apple Apps “Bubble” Talk Just That, As Downloads Soar — You may have seen the Apple advertisement in the New York Times this morning (back page of the Business section) extolling the virtues of the iPhone. Nothing new there. — If you made it through the fine print …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Silicon Alley Insider, Mashable!, Gadget Lab, MacBlogz and Local Mobile Search
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Jim Dalrymple / Macworld:
Apple: 300 million iPhone apps downloaded — Apple on Friday said 300 million iPhone apps have been downloaded from its App Store since it opened in July. — The news comes in the form of two ads placed in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The ads highlight …
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:Apple: 300 Million App Downloads, But Growth Flat (AAPL)
Discussion:
Distorted-Loop.com
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:
Industry Standard, Webware.com, NewTeeVee, Epicenter, Silicon Alley Insider, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, SlashGear, TheNextWeb.com, Electronista and Engadget HD
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Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:The Age of Grainy Web Videos Has Come to an End: YouTube Turns on HD
Discussion:
Off On A Tangent
Erica Sadun / Ars Technica:
Hidden SDK features transform iPhone into TV gaming device — Look what we found — What do you do after uncovering undocumented SDK features? I got in touch with Freeverse, makers of Moto Chaser, one of the top iPhone games in App Store. After a few back and forth e-mails …
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac, MacRumors, iLounge, 148AppsNews Archives, MacBlogz, Touch Arcade and Engadget
Nick Wingfield / Wall Street Journal:
Ballmer: Yahoo Deal Better if Done Soon — Q&A: Steve Ballmer and Qi Lu — After a nearly five month search, Microsoft Corp. on Thursday said it has found a new executive to lead its charge against Google Inc. in the online search and advertising business: Qi Lu, a technologist who was previously a top executive at Yahoo Inc.
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 …
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.
Discussion:
geeksugar, WebProNews, Gizmodo, GottaBeMobile.com, Maximum PC all and Lockergnome Blog Network
Bonnie Cha / Crave: The gadget blog:
Verizon officially rolls out BlackBerry Storm firmware update — Earlier on Friday, we reported on rumors that Verizon Wireless would release a firmware update for the RIM BlackBerry Storm, but it's now official. — The carrier has begun rolling out the software upgrade via …
Discussion:
IntoMobile, Engadget, MobileCrunch, Electronista, The Toybox, PalmAddicts and CrunchGear
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?
PC World:
AT&T Hopes for Single Smartphone OS (PC World) — AT&T hopes to standardize on a single operating system for AT&T-branded smartphones as part of a “dramatic consolidation” of its mobile platforms over the next few years, a company executive said Thursday.
Discussion:
eWeek, Ars Technica, InformationWeek, Local Mobile Search, Gizmodo, Boy Genius Report, Electronista, AppScout, FierceWireless, Phone Scoop, Engadget and TeleRead
PC World:
Facebook Virus Turns Your Computer into a Zombie — Brennon Slattery, PC World — Hey, I have this hilarious video of you dancing. Your face is so red. You should check it out. — If you've received a message like that through Facebook or MySpace, you may have been exposed to the “Koobface” virus.
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David Sarno / L.A. Times Tech Blog:‘Koobface’ virus spreading fast on Facebook
Discussion:
Feeds, Times of London, Computerworld, CNET News, Epicenter, Digital Alchemy dot TV and WebProNews
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 …
Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:
Industry Moves: NYT Promotes Denise Warren as GM of NYTimes.com — The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) has appointed Denise Warren, SVP and chief advertising officer of the company, as the GM of NYTimes.com, adding to her current duties. She fills the position left vacant by Vivian Schiller, who joined NPR on Dec 1 as the new CEO.
RGS / Random Good Stuff:
DIY iPhone Airplane Holder — I saw this on an other blog couple of days ago and asked the fellow blogger if I could republish the images on RGS. — A big thank you to Hodenmumps who made this post possible. — Who doesn't like free stuff for your gadgets.
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
Hate Vista? Dell Now Charging $150 Extra for Windows XP (MSFT) — We know that many consumers just don't like Windows Vista. But just how much more will people pay for a copy of the now nominally off-the-market Windows XP? — More and more. In June, Dell (DELL) …
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
Qitera: Social Bookmarking for the Deep Web — Earlier this year, we featured a stealth startup called Qitera, which just launched publically today. At its core, Qitera is a social bookmarking service, but unlike most of its competitors, Qitera can not only save a screenshot of the site …
Jennifer Kingson / Bits:
A Credit Card Loses Its High-Tech Cred — Back when it was introduced in 1999, the Blue card from American Express was marketed as the first credit card specifically meant to be used on the Internet. It came with a microprocessor chip embedded in the plastic, as well as a smart-card reader …
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Motorola: It's Junk, Says S&P — Standard & Poor's today cut its long-term corporate credit rating on Motorola (MOT) by two notches to BB+, from BBB, down to junk bond territory. — In cutting its rating, S&P cited the troubles in the company's mobile device unit, which it expects to extend for some time …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal
Katie Hoffmann / Bloomberg:
Cisco, Dell Sales at Risk as Slump Fuels Gray Market — A A A — Dec. 5 (Bloomberg) — The remnants of businesses crushed by the economic slump now sit in Liquid Technology Inc.'s warehouse by the Hudson River in New York's Chelsea district. — Hundreds of servers, personal computers and routers …
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.)
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
SaveThePlanetAndWin: Another Social Network Hoping To Make The World A Little Greener — Save The Planet And Win, a new green social network looking to help users cut back on their carbon deficits, launches today to the public. — Beyond traditional social network features like user messaging …
InfoWorld:
Python 3.0 upgrade incompatible with earlier versions — Python 3.0, a new version of the language released earlier this week, has incompatibilities with the 2.x line, according to the Python Software Foundation. — While saying the language is mostly the same, the foundation said details …
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
A $99 Apple-branded cell phone is inevitable, analyst says — There's no doubt that Apple will release a mobile handset priced at $99, according to Kaufman Bros. It's just a matter of when and in what form. — The firm's comments came as part of a research note responding to investor questions …
Discussion:
Gizmodo
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
If Belkin's Not Exhibiting at Macworld and CES, Who Is? — Next month's Macworld Conference & Expo show floor will be quite a bit easier to navigate than in years past. With registration down by 20 percent over last year, there are likely to be far fewer attendees at the annual marquee Apple …
