Top Items:
Cleve Nettles / 9 to 5 Mac:
HP MediaSmart Home Server may get some competition from Apple — HP this week updated its MediaSmart home server, which has many services Mac users would love to take advantage of. Centralized iTunes music database for the home, picture sharing, even file sharing over the Internet.
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Alex Kuretz / MediaSmartServer.net:
Review: HP MediaSmart Server EX487 — When the MediaSmart Server was first released, it didn't take long for limitations and areas of improvement to be discussed amongst the Home Server community. One of the first improvements was to upgrade the memory from the stock 512MB, usually to 2GB.
Arn / MacRumors:
Vaja Also Hints at iPhone Nano? — Relatively well-known iPhone case manufacturer Vaja has curiously added an “iPhone Nano” listing to their website. The link simply directs you to a form asking you to sign up for information about “the upcoming release of our iPhone nano cases.”
Saul Hansell / New York Times:
With a Digital Stereo, Cisco Systems Is Starting a Push Into Home Electronics — Your plumber would like to take you dancing. — Cisco Systems, the dominant provider of the digital pipes that run the Internet, is making a big play in digital entertainment.
Discussion:
GigaOM, PC World, Gizmodo, Contentinople, Digital Daily, GMSV, Engadget, atmaspheric and VoIP Watch
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Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
CES preview: what to expect at the big, not-so-gloomy tech trade show — THE BIGGEST U.S. TECH TRADE SHOW WILL FEATURE EMERGING MARKET TECHNOLOGY, 3-D GLASSES, AND DIGITAL CONTENT, ACCORDING TO SHOW CHIEF GARY SHAPIRO — The International Consumer Electronics Show coming up next week promises to be a sober extravaganza.
Rick Merritt / EE Times:
Server makers get Goooogled — Elements of Google's most secretive product—its unique PC server design—is beginning to ripple throughout the rest of the industry. — Like many companies with giant Internet data centers, Google uses big clusters of commodity x86 servers.
David Meyer / CNET News:
Microsoft outlines pay-per-use PC vision — Microsoft has applied for a patent on metered, pay-as-you-go computing. — U.S. patent application number 20080319910, published on Christmas Day, details Microsoft's vision of a situation where a “standard model” of PC is given away or heavily subsidized by someone in the supply chain.
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Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
It's Not How Many Followers You Have That Counts, It's How Many Times You Get Retweeted — Over the weekend a lot of tech bloggers got into a tizzy over a suggestion that Twitter search should rank Tweets by authority, with Tweets from people who have the most followers coming up first.
Michael Santo / Alice Hill's Real Tech News:
Facebook's War Against Lactivists — As a new father, I have to admit, watching my wife breastfeeding our daughter brings on feelings in me, but not sexual ones, rather sweet ones, as I find the interaction between mother and daughter beautiful. Facebook, on the other hand seems …
Andrew Chen / Futuristic Play:
Freemium business model case study: AdultFriendFinder ARPU, churn, and conversion rates — A case study for the Freemium business model — There's been a lot written about the Freemium model over the years, particularly from Fred Wilson at AVC. Here'a couple articles I'll recommend on the topic:
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Music Labels Might Just Take Their Business To Hulu — Fed up with lousy ad revenues from Google's video-sharing service YouTube (GOOG), we've heard the four major music labels — Universal MG, EMI, Warner and Sony BMG — are in preliminary talks to create their own destination Web site.
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internetnews.com:
Work Ethic 2.0: Attention Control — Commentary: A person who works with total focus has an enormous advantage over a workaholic who's “multi-tasking” all day, answering every phone call, constantly checking Facebook and Twitter, and indulging every interruption.
Discussion:
The Noisy Channel
Lyndon W. Wong / The Official Netflix Blog:
New DVD shipping process — Netflix recently changed the DVD shipping process when your first choice movie is not available at the shipping center nearest you. — We have 55 shipping centers throughout the U.S., including Anchorage, Alaska and Honolulu, Hawaii.
Steve O'Hear / last100:
Deja vu: Internet ‘widgets’ coming to the TV in 2009 — I'm getting a case of deja vu. Apparently, 2009 will be the year that Internet ‘widgets’ come to the TV. — At this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to be held in Las Vegas next month, Samsung, Toshiba and other manufacturers …
Wired News:
Vaporware 2008: Crushing Disappointments, False Promises and Plain Old BS — Welcome to Wired's 11th annual Vaporware Awards, our annual roundup of the tech industry's biggest, brashest and most baffling unfulfilled promises. — This year, handset makers were exhaling more vapor than anyone …
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Semantic Tagging Service Zigtag (Finally!) Launches — It was two years ago that we first heard of Zigtag, a service that promised to “transform how people search, save and share knowledge & information.” Now, after a nine-month private beta, this semantic tagging service has finally launched.
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
The Dream iPhone Pro — Here's the new iPhone Pro, something that we don't expect at MacWorld 2009 at all. However, we do expect something like this to come at a later date. Why? Because it just makes sense. — Click on image above for higher resolution version
Discussion:
RyanSpoon.com, MediaFile, Webomatica, CNET News, SlipperyBrick.com, VentureBeat, iPhone Savior, Gear Diary, CrunchGear, Boing Boing Gadgets, Planet Mat and MacBlogz
Electronista:
LG introduces 3G HSDPA wrist phone — Korea-based LG has introduced its latest mobile device, the LG-GD910 wrist-phone featuring support for both 3G and HSDPA technology. The user interface is presented through a 1.43-inch color LCD touchscreen, while a video camera has been integrated …
Discussion:
Gearlog, Mobility Site, eWeek, Unwired View, Akihabaranews.com, Technologizer, Screenwerk, Engadget Mobile, Boing Boing Gadgets, Boing Boing and dailywireless.org
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
DMFail Fails, Twitter To Fix Private Messages Snafu — Say goodbye to the fun of reading private Twitter messages sent improperly and gathered on DMFail. Sometime today, Twitter says in an email, they'll change the way private messages are sent so that you can use either [D + username + message] OR [DM + username + message].
Ian King / Bloomberg:
AMD to Trim About 600 Jobs, 100 More Than Planned — A A A — Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) — Advanced Micro Devices Inc., the second-largest producer of personal-computer processors, will cut about 600 jobs, 100 more than previously planned, as it struggles to return to profitability.
Wall Street Journal:
Internet Providers Join Broadband Push — President-elect Barack Obama's call to improve the nation's broadband infrastructure has cable and phone company lobbyists maneuvering to get a leg up. — Lawmakers in Congress want a plan that will create jobs over the next two to three years …
Marguerite Reardon / CNET News:
RIAA loses mistrial appeal — A federal judge has denied the Recording Industry Association of America's request for an appeal of the judge's earlier decision to grant a retrial in its case copyright infringement case against Jammie Thomas. — Earlier this year a jury found that the Minnesota woman …
Discussion:
DSLreports
InfoWorld:
What future is in store for Microsoft? — It's been six months since Bill Gates retired from Microsoft, though he remains an adviser, and the Redmond giant is chugging away as if business were usual. Work continues on Windows 7, Internet Explorer 8, Windows Mobile 6.5, the Azure cloud development platform, and so on.
Mary Jane Irwin / Forbes:
‘Gears Of War’ Creator On Gaming's Future — Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski chats about his inspirations and innovations. — A chainsaw revs. The heavily armored Marcus Fenix lumbers forward, ripping through a Locust soldier as if he were shredding turkey with an electric carving knife.
