Top Items:
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
30GB Zunes Failing Everywhere, All At Once — Right, so this is a weird one: we're getting tons of reports—tons—about failing Zune 30s. Apparently, the players began freezing at about midnight last night, becoming totally unresponsive and practically useless.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Large Form iPod Touch To Launch in Fall '09 — We've got this from three independent sources close to Apple: expect a large screen iPod touch device to be released in the Fall of '09, with a 7 or 9 inch screen. Prototypes have been seen and handled by one of our sources, and Apple is talking to OEMs in Asia now about mass production.
Discussion:
PC World, Apple 2.0, Infinite Loop, TeleRead, A VC, timesonline.typepad.com, Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com, Mark Evans, Core77, VoIP & Gadgets Blog, Sevenmac.net, Boy Genius Report, I4U News, The iPhone Blog, Newlaunches.com, CNET News, Gizmodo, SlipperyBrick.com, Silicon Alley Insider, Electronista, HighTouch, VentureBeat, MacBlogz, O'Grady's PowerPage, AppleInsider, MacRumors, TUAW, GottaBeMobile.com, mathewingram.com/work and digg.com
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Local yogurt store tells blogger that Steve Jobs is “in great health” — Amid a flurry of (disputed) reports and rumors about Apple chief executive Steve Jobs' “rapidly declining health,” blogger Robert Scoble did some field work to dig for the truth today.
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Jim Goldman / Tech Check with Jim Goldman:
Jobs', Cancer Rumors and a Whole Lot of ‘Here We Go Again’ — I've gone down this road before, and I'm growing tired from it. Unlike so many of you, however, I don't have a financial horse in this race since my company prevents me from owning any shares in any individual company.
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Dell shuffles management deck; Focuses on global units — Dell ended 2008 with a management shakeup. — The company said Wednesday that it has realigned its business to focus on four global groups: Large enterprise, public, small and medium sized business and consumer, which is already set up as a global unit.
RELATED:
Owen Thomas / Gawker:
Marissa Mayer's 2009 Resolution: Leave Google — What will Google be like without Marissa Mayer, the glamour nerd whose goofy laugh so neatly captures the search engine's adolescent awkwardness? We'll know soon. We hear the company's 19th employee is planning her goodbye.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Google's Top Ten Products (More Or Less) — Can you name Google's top ten products? If you look at how Quantcast ranks Google's subdomains, you can get a sense of which Google products are the most popular, since they each have their own subdomain. Google's main search engine tops the list …
Discussion:
Search Engine Land
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Hulu: Turns Out We Didn't Miss Sarah Palin So Much, After All — File under “interesting and a bit surprising”: Earlier this month I cited Comscore data which showed that traffic to red-hot Hulu had fallen off from October to November. That made sense, because the site had shown a huge spike due …
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Guardian:
Private firm may track all email and calls — The private sector will be asked to manage and run a communications database that will keep track of everyone's calls, emails, texts and internet use under a key option contained in a consultation paper to be published next month by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary.
Damian Koh / CNET News:
The Storm is a Netbook, says RIM's founder — WATERLOO, Canada—Even as the weather drop to sub-zero temperatures and snow powders Research In Motion's campus in Waterloo, Mike Lazaridis certainly didn't feel it. The company's founder and co-CEO carries into a meeting room a little black box …
Joey deVilla / Global Nerdy:
The Air Force's Rules of Engagement for Blogging — You've probably seen many articles on companies and organizations saying that they take social media seriously. Here's one such organization that you might not expect: the United States Air Force. Take a look at the Air Force Blog Assessment chart, reproduced below:
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Turns Out You Can't Sue SexSearch.com If The Girl You Met Via It Is Underage — Another day, another case where someone tried to blame a website for the actions of its users. In this case, a guy used the website SexSearch (seriously) to find someone to have sex with (ah, the internet...).
Ylan Q. Mui / Washington Post:
A Few Popular Presents Rise Above Recession — The presents have been unwrapped, the tree taken down. And Santa still hasn't brought you that Wii. — Don't worry. You are not alone. — Despite the economic gloom and doom that saddled this Christmas shopping season …
Discussion:
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Ben Robinson / IntoMobile:
Spatial View Introduces New Wazabee 3DeeShell for Vivid Stereoscopic 3D Graphics on the iPhone — Spatial View, a leader in manufacturing products for creating 3D effects, introduces its latest product, Wazabee 3DeeShell, a special protective skin with an integrated removable lens …
Discussion:
iPhone Buzz
Associated Press:
Sex offenders must hand over passwords — Privacy advocates are questioning the aggressive new Georgia law — ATLANTA - Privacy advocates are questioning an aggressive Georgia law set to take effect Thursday that would require sex offenders to hand over Internet passwords, screen names and e-mail addresses.
Discussion:
digg.com
Rob Bushway / GottaBeMobile.com:
OQO To Debut Model 2+ With 1.86 Intel Atom, Touch At CES, Digital Experience — As an attendee of Digital Experience, I just got a list of vendors planning to present at Digital Experience emailed to me; and, what do I find but this little nugget of info listing OQO as a presenter …
Om Malik / NewTeeVee:
Viacom to Take Jon Stewart, MTV & SpongeBob Off The Air on Time Warner Cable Networks — What would happen to New York if The Daily Show went off the air? Where would hipsters get their daily Moment of Zen? No Spongebob Squarepants either - which means the Upper East side mommies would actually have to talk to their kids.
Avram Piltch / LAPTOP Mag:
Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds — Is a quad-core processor, built-in digitizer, and color-calibrator not enough innovation for you? Lenovo also crams in a slide-out second display into this behemoth workstation. — Price as Reviewed: $5,100.00 — Review Contents:
Alana Semuels / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Texting while driving: everything you need to know about the new law — On New Year's Day, it will become illegal to text message while driving in California. You probably have a lot of questions about what precisely that means: Can you still use your BlackBerry to get directions while driving?
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
Why Facebook Opted for Platform Growth Over Platform Monetization in 2008 — When the Facebook Platform launched in May 2007, many speculated on Facebook's various opportunities for revenue generation on Platform. However, while there has been much talk of Facebook's revenues throughout 2008 …
Discussion:
Technosailor.com
Steven Sande / TUAW:
Rumor Watch: New Mac mini go for launch — When it comes to the Mac mini, there are people out there who know everything there is to know... and now, those savvy sources are telling TUAW that they are confident a new Mac mini is set to be announced at Macworld Expo 2009 next week.
Chris Ziegler / Engadget Mobile:
HTC believes Cupcake will come to the T-Mobile G1 — We've already seen it go down unofficially, but we've received word from HTC today that Android's coveted “Cupcake” branch of updates and fixes — or at least a majority of it — will likely be making it to the G1 in the future as a legitimate over-the-air push.
