Top Items:
Buckpost / Twitterrati:
Tweetree: Twitter.com on Steroids — Although I'm a big Twitter fan, the company has its shortcomings. Fortunately, there's no lack of third-parties more than happy to step into the fray. — Case in point is Tweetree, which has developed a better and more user-friendly online interface than Twitter.com.
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0:
First look at Windows 7 beta 1 (build 6.1.7000.0.081212-1400) — I have to thank Santa for leaving me a copy of Windows 7 beta 1 in my stocking for Christmas Day. This beta (build 6.1.7000.0.081212-1400) should be the first and only beta from Microsoft of Windows 7, and I'm pleased to report that it's a good one.
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Mike Musgrove / Washington Post:
Play Station's Virtual Home Is Less Than Hospitable — “Dude, this place is quiet,” says one avatar, a rather generic-looking 20-something guy as we lurk on one side of the Home central plaza, watching virtual people go by on what appears, on my television screen, to be a sunny day in a modern town center.
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Ryan Kim / San Francisco Chronicle:
Sony struggles with creation of its virtual world — Michael Marsh, an 18-year-old gamer from Norwalk, Conn., wanted to set up a gay/straight alliance club in PlayStation Home, Sony's new free 3-D virtual world component for the PlayStation 3. — The problem was that the words he was using …
Discussion:
Destructoid
Randall Stross / New York Times:
What Carriers Aren't Eager to Tell You About Texting — TEXT messaging is a wonderful business to be in: about 2.5 trillion messages will have been sent from cellphones worldwide this year. The public assumes that the wireless carriers' costs are far higher than they actually are, and profit margins are concealed by a heavy curtain.
Brad Reed / PC World:
Do You Miss the AT&T Monopoly? — When AT&T grudgingly agreed to break itself up 25 years ago, it was seen as a truly momentous event in the history of the telecommunications industry. Today, however, some experts question not only whether the breakup of AT&T was necessary …
Discussion:
VoIP Watch
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
2008 Intel converts: Bigger flock than Apple — When Apple converted to Intel in 2005 that was big. But 2008 Intel Atom converts make this look like a small-town baptism. — Overall, it was a good year for the Intel faithful despite the Wall Street financial crisis.
Gina Bianchini / New York Times:
The Benefits of a Network — I'M a child of Silicon Valley. I grew up in Cupertino, Calif., in the 1970s and '80s, just as the area was transitioning from an agricultural center to a technological one. — My dad taught high school history and my mom was a homemaker, although I think of her as an entrepreneur.
Discussion:
Beet.TV
David Ho / San Francisco Chronicle:
FCC, TV, Internet set for big changes in 2009 — From an Obama administration plan to give all Americans broadband to the nation's looming switch to digital television, the communications landscape is expected to see big shifts in 2009. — At the heart of much of the change …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Bloggers Lose The Plot Over Twitter Search — Wow. Loic Le Meur asks for a simple feature on Twitter search - the ability to filter results by the number of followers that a user has to make sense of thousands of messages - and the blogosphere calls for his head. — For the record, I agree with Loic.
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Steven Sande / TUAW:
First Look: Will It Blend? for iPhone and iPod touch — Apparently I'm not the only person who loves to watch the Blendtec “Will It Blend?” videos on YouTube. The company reports that the video series has had over 100 million views so far, making it one of the more successful viral marketing campaigns.
WebNetta:
Hack connects T-Mobile G1 to iPod Dock — We received a few HTC ExtUSB connectors from PodGizmo. — The first thing we thought of, was making the T-Mobile G1 send the audio to an iPod Speaker set we have. — There is a sea of iPod accessories, so naturally the dock connector has a well known pinout.
