Top Items:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Death To The Embargo — PR firms are out of control. Today we are taking a radical step towards fighting the chaos. From this point on we will break every embargo we agree to. — Background: — Tech companies are desperate for press and hammering their PR firms for coverage on blogs and major media sites.
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Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Entrepreneurs: We Will Happily Respect Your Embargoes — Michael Arrington at TechCrunch said today that his site will no longer respect press embargoes, the informal system where press outfits agree to hold back publishing until an agreed upon time so that multiple sources can cover a story well.
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Piper believes leadership shift at Apple is underway — Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, one of the most outspoken figures on all things Apple, told clients on Wednesday that Steve Jobs' absence from this year's Macworld Expo signals “the beginning of a shift in leadership roles” at the company.
Discussion:
Infinite Loop, Guardian, PC World, Tech Trader Daily, Pogue's Posts, Computerworld Blogs and GMSV
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Jim Dalrymple / Macworld:
Apple Expo Paris cancelled — Reed Exhibitions will not hold Apple Expo Paris in 2009. The show organizers confirmed its plans for Macworld on Wednesday. — Apple has slowly been moving away from the Paris expo for the last several years. In 2005 Apple cancelled Steve Jobs' keynote in Paris …
Arik Hesseldahl / Byte of the Apple:
Might Apple Be Ditching Macworld For CES? — Many have been the times that I attended the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and wished that I were actually at Macworld, which often coincides or overlaps on the calendar. I stopped attending CES in 2005 after going for what felt …
Discussion:
Gadget Lab, AppleInsider, Gizmodo, Macworld, Computerworld Blogs, LAPTOP Magazine, MacRumors and Lockergnome Blog Network
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Behind Steve Jobs' Macworld exit — Truth is, nobody outside Steve Jobs' inner circle knows why Apple's CEO won't be giving his annual Macworld keynote this year. — The news broke Tuesday afternoon, and by dawn Wednesday just about every reporter who follows the company had filed a story.
Discussion:
Guardian, CNET News, Ed Burnette's Dev Connection, Fast Company, Ars Technica, Silicon Alley Insider, jkOnTheRun, Gearlog and Macsimum News
Jessica Guynn / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Major leadership shakeup at LinkedIn: Nye leaves, Hoffman back at the helm — After a two-year stint in which he helped propel dramatic growth, LinkedIn Corp. Chief Executive Dan Nye is handing back the reins to company founder Reid Hoffman in a major leadership shakeup at one of Silicon Valley's hottest companies.
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Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
LinkedIn's Hoffman Takes Back CEO Title, as Nye Departs and Weiner Enters — Well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneur Reid Hoffman (pictured here) will become CEO of LinkedIn again, taking on the job he had for nearly four years after founding the business networking company in 2003.
Discussion:
Valleywag
Microsoft:
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-078 - Critical — Security Update for Internet Explorer (960714) — Version: 1.0 — General Information — Executive Summary — This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability. The vulnerability could allow remote code execution …
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Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo:
The Definitive Coast-to-Coast 3G Data Test — After a grueling eight-city coast-to-coast test of the 3G networks run by AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, we've come up with some clear-cut test results. Think you know who has the best network? Think again. — The Test — 3G is more important now than ever before.
Chris Foresman / Infinite Loop:
iPhone gaming is maturing as more major games join the fray — With Apple pushing iPhone game development, industry veterans quitting their jobs to focus on game programming, and some developers making record profits with their iPhone apps, it's getting harder and harder to argue that the iPhone isn't a good gaming platform.
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Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Walmart iPhone on sale the 28th for a lot more than $99 — At this point, it's clear that the $99 iPhone 3G rumor was just that: rumor. We have a letter that we believe to be authentic from a source within Walmart that says the iPhone will launch in the house that Sam built at 9am December 28th.
Discussion:
The Register, Unwired View, PMP Today, IntoMobile, ChannelWeb, VentureBeat, Boy Genius Report, Local Mobile Search and FierceWireless
asa.org.uk:
Number of complaints: 1 — Media: — Sector: — Leisure — Agency: — Freedman International — Ad — A TV ad, for the computer game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09, showed Tiger Woods swinging a Wii handset. The background showed scenes of a golf course from the game.
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Ben Worthen / Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft Targets Adobe in Web-Design Software — Adobe Systems Inc. is facing increasing pressure from Microsoft Corp., which is using its deep pockets to challenge Adobe's dominance of Web design software. — Adobe's Flash software, which adds video and animation to Web sites, is at the heart of many popular Internet destinations.
Discussion:
Microsoft Pri0
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Steve Gillmor / TechCrunchIT:
Why Track will be back - Fred Wilson says so — For those of you new to the Web since the end of May, you can be forgiven for having no clue about why Track is the s**t. Despite months of denial, an open source clone war, a VC-backed API counter offensive, and unknown secret plans …
Chris Nuttall / blogs.ft.com:
GTA maker is hit-and-run victim — Video game software sales are up 30 per cent this year in the US, but the rising tide is not floating all boats - most publishers appear to be holed below the waterline. — Take-Two, publisher of the Grand Theft Auto series, is the latest harbinger of bad news.
Yahoo!:
Yahoo! Sets New Industry Privacy Standard with Data Retention Policy — With Consumer-Friendly Standard, Yahoo! Sets 90-Day Data Retention — Policy — Today, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) announced a new global data retention policy that sets an industry-leading approach to user data privacy.
Discussion:
Computerworld, Google Watch, The Microsoft Blog, GigaOM, Epicenter, Search Engine Land, Yodel Anecdotal, InformationWeek, Ars Technica, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Wall Street Journal, Obsessable, Associated Press, Boy Genius Report, WebGuild, ZDNet Government, Profy, MarketingVOX and The Register
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Matt Gil / Reuters:
French watchdog suspends Orange iPhone deal — * Apple/France Telecom iPhone exclusivity deal suspended — * Watchdog says 5-yr deal “serious” competition threat — The French competition watchdog suspended an agreement between Apple Inc (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) …
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Marshall Kirkpatrick / Jobwire:
Dave McClure Joins Founders Fund — Startup aficionado Dave McClure has formally joined VC firm the Founders Fund as an angel investor, according to an update he made to his LinkedIn profile this week. The Founders Fund was created by former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel in 2005 and is described …
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Your Privacy Is Protected Only if You Are Really Sick — The advertising trade group that proposed that people with cancer deserve more privacy protections than those with heart disease has adopted a new version of its guidelines for how ad networks use data about Internet users.
Discussion:
Ars Technica
Douglas MacMillan / Business Week:
The Recession: My Facebook, My Therapist — In a time of growing unemployment, tumbling stocks, and rising foreclosures, people are finding comfort on social networking sites — When Ian Schlueter found out he'd be among the casualties of a layoff announced Dec. 11 by global shipper DHL …
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Toshiba to show 512GB solid-state drive at CES — Toshiba said Wednesday that it will showcase a 512GB solid-state drive at the Consumer Electronics Show next month and begin shipments in the second quarter of 2009. — To date, this would be one of the largest-capacity solid-state drives …
Discussion:
Electronista
Ed Bott / Ed Bott's Microsoft Report:
Windows Live drops the ball on support — Microsoft has rolled out an impressive array of apps and services under the Windows Live banner, including the new Windows Live Essentials package (see Mary Jo Foley's write-up for more details on what's in this new release).
