Top Items:
Farhad Manjoo / Slate:
What does the “netbook” craze tell us about the future of laptops. — There isn't much mystery to why a little-marketed computer known as the Eee PC has lately seized the top spot on Amazon's laptop best-seller list. The machine, a three-pound ugly duckling made by the Taiwanese company Asus …
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.”
Discussion:
SlashGear, Mobile Tech Addicts, Gizmodo, Mobilewhack.com, iPhone Buzz, HotHardware.com News, Sevenmac.net, AppleInsider, Unwired View, Tech-Ex, InformationWeek, Engadget, MacBlogz and Tech Beat
tera.ca:
PHOTO PAGE 6 — This page is dedicated to breastfeeding women everywhere. They provide a superior and inimitable start to life for their children, among much else! — Here we present photos banned from the social utility Facebook, as well as photos that it would probably remove.
RELATED:
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.
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.
RELATED:
iSuppli:
Second-Generation PlayStation 3 Features Cost Reduction, Supplier Shifts — Sony Corp.'s new-generation PlayStation 3 (PS3) features a cost-reduced design due to integration and some key changes in components from the previous-generation model, according to a teardown conducted by iSuppli Corp.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
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.
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.
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
It's Time For An Apple Tablet: Where's My iPod Touch HD? (AAPL) — Apple's (AAPL) iPod touch is a hit, and PC makers like Dell (DELL) and Asus are doing good business selling cheap, small “netbook” laptops. It's time for Steve Jobs to smash them together into a killer multi-touch tablet.
TOP 20 MSI News:
The World's First Hybrid Storage Netbook- MSI U115 Hybrid — Taipeiã€' MSI today announces U115 Hybrid. The very first notebook computer in the world that is capable of operating both SSD and HDD hard drives simultaneously, combining all the features of SSD and HDD in the U115 Hybrid for your enjoyment.
Jason Chen / Gizmodo:
Apple's Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter Has Periodic Distortion Issues — We've been waiting a few months for the Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adapter in order to hook up our 30-inch Dell 3007WFP monitor, but when it got here, it was periodically unusable.
Matthew Lasar / Ars Technica:
Martin drops porn filtering from FCC free wireless broadband plan — Kevin Martin, the Chair of the Federal Communications Commission, called Ars Technica today to let us know that he has revised his proposal to roll out a free (and smut-free) wireless broadband service.
Discussion:
The Register
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Content Sites Bracing For 50% Revenue Slowdown — The U.S. economy has likely been in recession for a year, and tech companies have been bracing for a big slowdown in growth. But the fact is that revenues for most Internet-based companies haven't dropped yet.
Daniel Lyons / Washington Post:
The iPhone's Golden Touch — Ge Wang never dreamed of becoming a high-tech Silicon Valley entrepreneur. He's an assistant professor at Stanford, a specialist in computer science and music whose biggest passion has been organizing nerdy “laptop orchestras” composed of 20 people each “playing” a notebook computer.
Discussion:
textually.org
Emil Protalinski / One Microsoft Way:
The Windows 7 build 7000 leak and Microsoft's reaction — This past weekend, Windows 7 build 7000 leaked to torrent sites. It's not the first build of Windows 7 to leak, but it definitely is the most important one so far. You see, the first 7xxx build marks the entrance of Windows 7 into beta phase …
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:
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.
Justin Berka / Infinite Loop:
Contract-free iPhones now available in France — The iPhone 3G is available without a contract in a handful of countries, but iPhone owners in France have been tied to Orange under Apple's current exclusivity contract. Until now, that is. MacNN has pointed out that French store FNAC is now selling the iPhone 3G without a contract.
Discussion:
The Register, Gadget Lab, SlashGear, VentureBeat, TUAW, Engadget Mobile, MacBlogz and AppleInsider
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Cisco's Misguided Foray Into the Living Room — Cisco Systems, a company best known for selling mundane (albeit very lucrative) routers, switches and other networking gear, has designs on the consumer electronics market. To that end, at the upcoming CES trade show, the company plans to launch …
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Samsung Snubs Qualcomm, Builds 4G Chips — Samsung Electronics is making its own WiMAX and LTE baseband chips for wireless handsets, according to an article in EETimes. The move by the Korean electronics maker shows how much opportunity it sees as the wireless industry transitions to 4G …
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 …
MSRC:
Questions about Vulnerability Claim in Windows Media Player — Happy holidays to everyone. While it's been a snowy holiday season for us in the Pacific Northwest (some of us are still snowed in), the MSRC never closes and we are always working to help keep customers safe.
Discussion:
The Register, Security Vulnerability …, eWeek, Computerworld, CNET News and One Microsoft Way