Top Items:
Owen Thomas / Gawker:
Bono and Steve Jobs No Longer BFFs — What did Steve Jobs do to his old buddy Bono? The Irish rock star, once the Apple CEO's adoring buddy, is funding the most credible threat to the iPhone yet. — Bono is a founder of Elevation Partners, the Silicon Valley private-equity firm named after the U2 song.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
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Om Malik / GigaOM:
Another $100 Million for Palm From Bono & Pals — It must be Christmas, as the guys at Elevation Partners are feeling generous enough to invest another $100 million into beleaguered smartphone maker Palm, which has been slip-sliding away for a very long time.
Discussion:
Apple 2.0, Computerworld, Tech Trader Daily, MobileCrunch, Boy Genius Report, GMSV, CNET News, Electronista and Engadget
Arn / MacRumors:
More Hints of an ‘iPhone Nano’ from Case Manufacturers — iPhone case manufacturer XSKN has labeled a section on their site for the “iPhone Nano”. This description suggests that long running rumors of a miniaturized iPhone could be true. — XSKN gained some notoriety earlier this year …
Discussion:
TeleRead, CNET News, Appletell, Infinite Loop, Mobilewhack.com, VentureBeat, IntoMobile, Gadget Lab, SlashGear, Unwired View, I4U News, Boy Genius Report, The iPhone Blog, CrunchGear, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, TUAW, Silicon Alley Insider, 9 to 5 Mac, AppleInsider and MobileDevicesToday
Owen Thomas / Gawker:
Google Hands Out ‘Dogfood’ as Christmas Bonus — Groans are issuing from the Googleplex over this year's holiday bonus. In the past, the search engine paid cash — as much as $20,000 or $30,000 per Googler, we hear. This year? A cell phone. — Oh, but not just any cell phone …
Michael S. Malone / Wall Street Journal:
Washington Is Killing Silicon Valley — Entrepreneurship was taken for granted. Now we're seeing a lot less of it. — Even as economic losses and unemployment levels mount, America's most effective engine for wealth and job creation is being dangerously — perhaps fatally — compromised.
Discussion:
Texas Startup Blog
BBC:
Windows XP allowed to live again — Microsoft has given yet another reprieve to its seasoned Windows XP operating system. — The cut off date for PC makers to obtain licenses for the software was 31 January 2009. — But now Microsoft has put in place a scheme that will allow …
Discussion:
Engadget, Neowin.net, Computerworld, TG Daily, The Register, I4U News, SlashGear, DailyTech, jkOnTheRun, Obsessable, CrunchGear, Digital Daily, CNET News, Switched, Ubergizmo, Gadgetell, Gizmodo, WebProNews and AppScout
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Music Labels In Talks To Create Hulu-For-Music (GOOG) — Warner Music Group — now banned from YouTube following failed licensing negotiations — isn't the only major record label tired of doing business with Google's video-sharing site. — A source familiar with the negotiations tells us …
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Mozilla CEO: Ties with Google ‘complicated’ since Chrome — John Lilly also says Microsoft's disinterest in faster browsing a cause for concern — Computerworld) Mozilla Corp. has a “reasonable” relationship with long-time partner Google Inc., but it's gotten complicated since Google launched …
Discussion:
techno.blog, OStatic blogs, SitePoint, The Register, Search Engine Land, TechSpot, WebProNews, Obsessable, WebGuild and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
Chris Snyder / Epicenter:
App Developer Strikes E-Book Deals With Major Publishers — ScrollMotion, a New York mobile app developer, has concluded deals with a number of major publishing houses, and is in talks with several others, to produce newly released and best-selling e-books as applications for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Paul McDougall / InformationWeek:
Apple Failed To Copyright Mac OS X, Psystar Claims — The charge is the latest in a series of allegations in the ongoing legal spat between the clone maker and Apple. — Mac clone manufacturer Psystar said that Apple's copyright suit against it should be dismissed because Apple has never filed …
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Scrapplet: Powerful Social Web Canvases That Are As Easy As Drag-And-Drop — There are a few sites out there that let you aggregate your entire online presence into a single place, but for the most part they offer little control over the way your information is actually presented.
Discussion:
Webware.com
John Timmer / Ars Technica:
Australian 'Net filter testing set, will include P2P — Australia's Minister of Broadband, Communications, and the Digital Economy (BCDE), Stephen Conroy, appears to have recognized that his country's plan to install mandatory content filters at the ISP level is causing a public backlash.
Discussion:
TechSpot
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Andrew Ramadge / NEWS.com.au:Internet filtering plan may extend to peer-to-peer traffic, says Stephen Conroy
Discussion:
Liquidmatrix Security Digest, Neowin.net, Techdirt, The Register, Maximum PC all, Gizmodo and Obsessable
Newsweek:
The Web Masters — Five who are changing the face of the Internet. — Think of 2008 as the year the Internet got greedy. As the recession goes digital, it's no longer enough to have an easy-to-use social-networking site, or blog software that corners the market on 13-year-olds.
Gerard Fitzgibbon / Limerick Today:
Dell job losses: “A massive blow to the region” — MINISTER Willie O'Dea today described Dell's decision to cut up to two-thirds of its Limerick workforce a “massive blow for the region”, and said it is now the Government's job to “minimise the fallout as best we can.”
Discussion:
Digits
Geoff Boucher / Los Angeles Times:
VHS era is winding down — Ryan Kugler, left, president of Distribution Video Audio in Burbank, and his brother Brad, the CEO, have shipped their last truckload of VHS tapes. “Anything left in warehouse, we'll just give away or throw away,” Ryan Kugler said.
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Report Says Twitter Would Take 36 Years to Catch Facebook - If Facebook Stopped Growing Today — Marketing firm HubSpot will publish a report tomorrow on the state of Twitter at the end of 2008, based on user data the company harvested from its controversial app TwitterGrader.
Discussion:
TechCrunch
Paul Carton / ChangeWave HotWire Blog:
BlackBerry vs. iPhone - The Smart Phone Battle Rages On — Research In Motion (RIMM) and Apple (AAPL) continue their smart phone battle for the hearts and minds of consumers, according to the latest ChangeWave survey. The survey shows Apple enjoying another good quarter in the aftermath of its 3G iPhone release.
Lisa Fernandez / Mercury News:
Fry's executive arrested in alleged $65M fraud to pay off gambling debts — A one-time computer salesman who rose through the ranks to help build Fry's Electronics into a robust national retailer is facing allegations that he defrauded the San Jose-based company out of $65 million …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Dead Simple Posterous Gets A Round Of Funding And Launches Group Blogs — Posterous, which launched in June, is one of those sites that I tested and it stuck - I continue to post pictures to it regularly. — What I like about it - you don't have to create an account to use it.
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
As Intel ships 160GB SSD, pricing nags buyers — Intel is now shipping 160GB solid-state drives as it vies with Samsung and Toshiba to deliver high-capacity SSDs that rival hard-disk drives in capacity. Price, however, remains a big obstacle for many consumers.
Matt Asay / The Open Road:
In Google we trust? — The more Google grows, the more it becomes a cause for concern for many people—and not simply its competitors. But should it? — On the one hand, Google has become a privacy bogeyman, dropping off the list of the top 20 companies trusted with customer privacy.
David Carr / New York Times:
Newspaper Shuns Web, and Thrives — With 2008 drawing to a brutal close on the media beat — bankruptcies, daily newspapers that are no longer daily, magazines that are downsizing into brochures — a little ray of light appeared in my e-mail inbox. It was from a newspaper owner, of all people.
Discussion:
HipMojo.com, Communications …, TeleRead, WebProNews, Silicon Alley Insider, Pulse2, sfnblog and BuzzMachine
Patrick Foster / Times of London:
Long Tail theory contradicted as study reveals 10m digital music tracks unsold — Digital sales figures dent niche market theory — The internet was supposed to bring vast choice for customers, access to obscure and forgotten products - and a fortune for sellers who focused on niche markets.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Even Bigger Nightmare On Tech Street — Updated: The technology sector, already rocked by the credit crunch and slowing global economies, is facing a bleak 2009, the impact of which is going to be felt across the entire ecosystem. From PC makers to chipmakers to chip equipment makers …
Kevin C. Tofel / jkOnTheRun:
First Look: AT&T USBConnect Quicksilver 3G Adapter — Regular readers know that in these parts, we thrive on 3G wireless broadband service. An always-on, high-speed wireless connection is the most empowering mobile technology I've used in the past several years.
Discussion:
atmaspheric
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Ping.fm Gets Backing from Reid Hoffman, Joi Ito — Who uses cross-posting social media app Ping.fm? A lot of people do, but now you can add LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and Creative Commons Foundation Chairman Joi Ito to the list. The two are among the most high profile angel investors …
