Top Items:
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.
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 / CNBC.com:
Apple's Jobs is (Still) Fine — You want to know how skittish Apple investors are and how little conviction they have in the company, or trust in its message, look no further than today's Gizmodo rumor fiasco. — The blog reports a serious decline in Steve Jobs' health as the real reason …
Discussion:
Mobility Site, Tech Check with Jim Goldman, L.A. Times Tech Blog, The Mac Observer, Gawker and digg.com
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
Steve Jobs' Health Declining Rapidly, Reason for Macworld Cancellation — According to a previously reliable source, Apple misrepresented the reasons behind Macworld and Jobs' keynote cancellation. Allegedly, the real cause is his rapidly declining health. In fact, it may be even worse than we imagined:
Discussion:
Webomatica, Macworld, Infinite Loop, Silicon Alley Insider, VentureBeat, Gawker, Computerworld, Mobility Site, Chuqui 3.0, 9 to 5 Mac, Reuters, HotHardware.com News, Broadband Developments, The Mac Observer, Guardian, iPhone Savior, Tech-Ex, CrunchGear, Digital Daily, NEWSFACTOR, AppleInsider, ChannelWeb, Boy Genius Report, Between the Lines, GMSV, SlashGear, Macsimum News, Perez Hilton, TUAW, Tech Trader Daily, Apple 2.0 and digg.com
Stephanie Clifford / New York Times:
Consumers Union to Buy Gawker Blog Consumerist — Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, planned to announce on Wednesday that it had acquired Consumerist.com, a popular blog formerly owned by Gawker Media. — Consumerist is one of several sites Gawker has sold this year …
Discussion:
Technologizer, Center for Citizen Media, CNET News, VentureBeat, Consumerist and BuzzMachine
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Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Gawker Media's Nick Denton Sells Another Blog and Puts Another One on the Block — Gawker Media's Nick Denton continues to shrink his blog empire: He has sold off Consumerist.com to Consumers Union, the nonprofit that publishes Consumer Reports. And he is in talks to sell Defamer.com.
win.tue.nl:
MD5 considered harmful today — Creating a rogue CA certificate — Jacob Appelbaum, Arjen Lenstra, David Molnar, Dag Arne Osvik, Benne de Weger — We have identified a vulnerability in the Internet Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) used to issue digital certificates for secure websites.
Discussion:
CrunchGear, Hack a Day, Security Fix, Computerworld Blogs, Computerworld, InformationWeek, hackademix.net, Zero Day, securosis.com, internetnews.com, Errata Security, Tech Beat, Washington Post, Tech-Ex, CNET News, TidBITS, Obsessable, Technologizer, Engadget, Destructoid, Mozilla Security Blog, Threat Level, SC Magazine US, Bits, eWeek, Security Research, Windows Connected, GMSV, The Register, BreakingPoint Labs Blog, Data Center Knowledge and Simon Willison's Weblog
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Megan McCarthy / Techmeme News:
Top 10 objectively biggest tech stories of 2008 — Unlike other news sites, our impartial and omniscient news relevance engine enables us to produce a purely objective top story list for the year. Ok, ok, that's not strictly true, in fact manual editing was even phased in recently.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
The Sequoia Layoff Scorecard — Back in October, when I broke the news that uber venture fund Sequoia Capital had organized a secret meeting in which it warned its portfolio companies to prepare for the pending financial apocalypse, the revelation was met with some skepticism.
comScore:
Sales during Online Holiday Shopping Season Decline by 3 Percent — Despite Weak Season Apple, Amazon, Wal-Mart and Sears Post Traffic Increases — comScore (NASDAQ : SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported its tracking of holiday season retail e-commerce spending …
Discussion:
CNET News, TechFlash, VentureBeat, Tech-Ex, Digital Daily, TechCrunch, Silicon Alley Insider and L.A. Times Tech Blog
Brad Stone / Bits:
Adobe's Flash and Apple's Safari Fail a Privacy Test — In the new browser war, privacy is a crucial battleground. — Mozilla's Firefox, Google's Chrome, Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari all compete to give users the most control over their online identities and the best protection …
Matt Asay / The Open Road:
Why is OpenOffice “profoundly sick”? — OpenOffice.org developer and Novell employee Michael Meeks calls OpenOffice “profoundly sick” and chides Sun for retaining too much control over the project for its own good. He's right, and here's why. — First, though Meeks thinks it's critical …
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
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.
Wall Street Journal:
Dell Shakes Up Management — Dell Inc. is preparing management changes that are expected to shake up an executive team that Chief Executive Michael Dell brought in as part of his turnaround plan for the big computer maker. — As part of the moves, which are expected to be announced soon …
Wall Street Journal:
Musician Finds a Following Online — Word-of-Mouth on Blogs and Other Sites Attracts Fans — and a Record Deal — In late 2006, Justin Vernon, a musician in Eau Claire, Wis., recorded nine songs while staying at his parents' hunting cabin in northern Wisconsin after a breakup with a girlfriend and his long-time band.
Pete Barlas / Investor's Business Daily:
Google's Product Search Catching Up Fast With Shopping Rivals — Google is catching up in the comparison shopping game. — In the last year, traffic to Google (NasdaqGS:GOOG - News) Product Search has soared closer to rivals such as Yahoo (NasdaqGS:YHOO - News).
Lee / Liliputing:
RunCore's new low-cost SSDs now shipping — RunCore's new line of SSDs is now shipping, and the drives are priced very competitively. They're available in 16, 32, 64, and 128gb capacities and should retail at $69, $119, $199, and $389. Price/performance ratio is good, with read/write speeds on the drives at about 75/40 mb/s.
NokiaPressServices / Nokia Press Bulletin Board:
The new Nokia 6208c — In an event held today in Nanjing Nokia unveiled the Nokia 6208c, a new pen input device which caters for a number of different customers, specifically those in China. The touch screen on the 6208c is optimized to write Chinese characters and messages in the most natural way, with a pen.
Ryan Singel / Epicenter:
With Flickr Layoffs, Whither ‘The Commons’? — In mid-December, when Yahoo laid off George Oates, one of the original employees of the photo-sharing website Flickr, Oates immediately feared for The Commons, Flickr's project to have its millions of members turn their distributed intelligence to the world's photo archives.
Emily Steel / Wall Street Journal:
Obama's Digital Campaign Allies Seek to Cash In — Tech-savvy tactics helped give Barack Obama's presidential campaign an edge. Now, several of the ad-technology companies that powered the campaign's digital push are touting their role in its success, hoping to gain an edge over their own competitors.
en.apa.az:
Nokia phones with the portrait of Stalin begins to sell in Moscow — Moscow-APA. Nokia mobile phones with the image of Joseph Stalin appeared in the sale in Moscow shops, APA reports. The cost of such phones, depending on the model ranges from 1000 to 60000 rubles.
Adam Frucci / Gizmodo:
Game Consoles Sucking Up $1 Billion in Energy Costs Per Year — According to a study by the National Resources Defense Council, Americans use up about $1 billion worth of energy per year powering video game consoles, enough to power the entire city of San Diego.
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Report: Via readying dual-core Atom rival — Dual-core Intel Atom rivals are in the works. — Via Technologies is planning a very low-power, dual-core Nano 3000 processor, according to Chinese-language Web site HKEPC. — Intel currently offers the dual-core Atom 330 that is targeted at Nettops—small desktop computers.
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:
Did Digg Really Improve Their Ad Targeting? — Nicholas Carlson at Silicon Alley Insider has an investigative post today where he analyzed the advertising that is running on Digg. At the end of his investigation, he noted that Digg is clearly running targeted ads now because he viewed ads that matched three of Digg's categories.
Robin Goad / Hitwise Intelligence:
Social Xmas: Facebook's busiest day ever, YouTube overtakes Hotmail, Social networks = 10% of UK Internet traffic — With all of the focus on the economic downturn and the troubles in the retail sector, it's easy to forget the continued growth of social networking in the UK.
