Top Items:
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Facebook Bails on Project Playlist, Too — Four days after MySpace cut the legs out from under Project Playlist by disabling the music streaming service's app, Facebook is following suit. Here's the official statement from Facebook PR: … The only surprise here is that it took Facebook …
RELATED:
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:
Facebook Joins MySpace In Banning Project Playlist — Facebook resisted a few days longer than MySpace but finally has given in to the RIAA's demands that the Project Playlist app be removed for copyright violation. It's been a real take-one-step-forward and two-steps-back few days for Project Playlist …
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
iPhone fart app pulls in nearly $10,000 a day — Apple's App Store is currently experiencing a plague of fart applications. Last week, I detailed one day in which at least 14 new fart apps were accepted into the store. And now, just in a quick search, it looks like there are about 50 apps …
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Adult FriendFinder Files To Go Public — Florida-based FriendFinder Networks (formerly Penthouse Media Group), a group of sites that includes Penthouse and Adult FriendFinder, has filed a registration statement with the SEC to go public. — Little known Russian investment bank Renaissance Capital is representing them in the deal.
New York Times:
After Slow Start, E-Books Turn Page and Find Fans — Could book lovers finally be willing to switch from paper to pixels? — For a decade, consumers mostly ignored electronic book devices, which were often hard to use and offered few popular items to read.
Discussion:
Marketing Nirvana, L.A. Times Tech Blog, TechCrunch, TeleRead, Obsessable, GottaBeMobile.com, CostPerNews and Epicenter
CyberCrime & Doing Time:
More than 1 Million Ways to Infect Your Computer — An unknown hacker has been on a Search Engine Optimization rampage to flood search engines with more than a million ways to infect yourself with his virus. This is the first major “Scareware” infection we've seen since writing …
David / weblog.rubyonrails.org:
Merb gets merged into Rails 3! — It's christmas, baby, and do we have a present for you. We're ending the bickering between Merb and Rails with a this bombshell: Merb is being merged into Rails 3! — We all realized that working together for a common good would be much more productive …
Khowell / University of Florida News:
Engineers: Efficient organic LEDs a step toward better lights — GAINESVILLE, Fla. — For those who love “green” compact fluorescent bulbs but hate their cold light, here's some good news: Researchers are closer to flipping the switch on cheaper, richer LED-type room lighting.
Ashlee Vance / Bits:
Dell's MacBook Air Rival Confirmed by . . . Dell — CLARIFICATION 5:55 p.m. - The story below references a Dell ad placed in UptownLife magazine. The online version of that ad, which has since been removed, appeared to include both an image from Dell and text.
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Notebook PC Sales Outpace Desktops: Good News For Apple (AAPL) — Notebook computer sales outpaced desktop PC sales for the first time last quarter, according to research firm iSuppli. — Worldwide, PC companies shipped 38.6 million notebook computers in Q3, up almost 40% year-over-year.
RELATED:
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Will Microsoft throw in the towels? — Google, Microsoft and other big tech companies spent the past few years ramping up employee perks as they battled each other for top talent. Now, as the tech industry tries to weather the economic storm, the fate of those extras will be an interesting barometer …
James Kendrick / jkOnTheRun:
Netbook enthusiast web sites getting C & D using term “netbook” — This is very preliminary but we are hearing that some netbook enthusiast sites are getting “cease & desist” letters from a firm in the UK ordering the sites to stop using the term “netbook”.
Chris DannenTue / Fast Company:
What Ever Happened To Garmin's NuviFone? [video] — It looked like it could be the ultimate iPhone-killer, but delay after delay has kept it from market. Some reports say it will be ready soon, while others suggest it's been abandoned all together. Will we ever see Garmin's [GRMN] nuvifone?
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Tweet A Last-Minute Gift To Charity — It's micro-messaging meets micro-funding. Marketing consultant Laura Fitton is trying to raise money $2 at a time through Twitter. She is using Tipjoy, which allows people to turn Tweets into payments (via PayPal). Help her raise $25,000 for Charity:Water by Christmas.
Lawrence Lessig / Newsweek:
Reboot the FCC — We'll stifle the Skypes and YouTubes of the future if we don't demolish the regulators that oversee our digital pipelines. — Economic growth requires innovation. Trouble is, Washington is practically designed to resist it. Built into the DNA of the most important agencies created …
Jim Goldman / Tech Check with Jim Goldman:
Venture Capitalist: Big 3 Should Turn To Silicon Valley — Ray Lane's got a bone to pick with Detroit and Washington: quit your whining, partner up with innovators here in Silicon Valley, and consumers, investors, auto industry workers, politicians, executives and America will be better off for it.
Discussion:
HipMojo.com
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Twitter relaunches name search, still no tweet search on site — The micro-messaging service Twitter has taken the slow time during the holiday to bring back a feature that, like so many others, went away when the site was having performance issues during the earlier part of this year: people search.
Discussion:
Twitter Blog, John Battelle's Searchblog, bub.blicio.us, Download Squad, ReadWriteWeb and Mashable!
Matt / Burning Questions:
Our 210th variation on the theme, “Thank you for using FeedBurner.” — Interesting Fact: this is the 210th time we've posted to this blog. Bittersweet Reality: it will be the last. — Our team has used Burning Questions to provide FeedBurner product announcements and stories …
Julia Angwin / Wall Street Journal:
Looking for a Few Good Answers Online — Why is the sky blue? How do you bleach a stained shirt? Why does cheese smell? — The answers to these questions used to be sought in encyclopedias and other reference books. Now, we increasingly seek the answers to such questions online …
Stephen Shankland / Crave:
iPhone claims high-ranking spot on Flickr — The iPhone has risen to prominence on Flickr, rivaling most SLRs in popularity. These statistics from Yahoo cover the last 12 months. — (Credit: Yahoo) — The iPhone is the mobile device of choice these days for doing most things that need a network.
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Analyst says Steve Jobs' spirit has been institutionalized — Investment bank Kaufman Bros. on Tuesday downplayed renewed concerns over the health of Apple chief executive Steve Jobs, arguing that although the co-founder has been critical to the company's resurgence, his spirit and drive …
Adam Lashinsky / Fortune:
Google still wants something for nothing — Tech Daily: The Internet giant responds to criticism that it has reversed course on a key issue facing the Web: Should some users be required to pay more for faster service? — SAN FRANCISCO (Fortune) — The Wall Street Journal unleashed a firestorm …
Discussion:
The 463
Arik Hesseldahl / Business Week:
Teardown of Sony's PlayStation 3 — According to iSuppli, the device costs significantly less to build than when it was first released in 2006, and is nearing break-even — One of the great articles of faith in the consumer electronics industry might be stated thusly: “Time heals all costs.”
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:
‘New’ iMacs to begin shipping in January — We were pretty sure we'd see upgraded iMacs introduced at Macworld, but according to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) via Digitimes: — .. sources inside the component supply chain as saying that Apple plans to launch a new iMac …
