Top Items:
Matt Akers / forums.zune.net:
Official response for Zune 30 Freezing Issue (Zune 30gb stuck at reboot screen) — Early this morning we were alerted by our customers that there was a widespread issue affecting our 2006 model Zune 30GB devices (a large number of which are still actively being used).
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Alex Pham / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Microsoft to Zune 30 owners: It's a leap-year problem. Wait until tomorrow — Microsoft this afternoon sent out a message to frustrated owners of its Zune 30 digital media player: Wait until tomorrow. — An estimated 1 million owners of the 30-gigabyte Zune woke up this morning to find their devices inoperable.
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Reports: 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.
Discussion:
Corey Gouker's Machine Inside …, PC World, TechFlash, Ed Bott's Windows Expertise, EW.com, CrunchGear, Electronista, Silicon Alley Insider, InformationWeek, Crave, Technologizer, Destructoid, Microsoft Pri0, Pulse2, Agence France Presse, Podcasting News, GamePolitics News, CyberNet, Boy Genius Report and digg.com
9 to 5 Mac:
Macworld 2009 Announcemnt: iWork '09 goes Cloud — We just got a truckload of Macworld information dumped on us from our best source. As we piece it together we'll trickle it out. The first big piece of information is that iWork is going into the Cloud. Not just storage, either.
Discussion:
Infinite Loop, Outside the Lines, VentureBeat, SlashGear, MacRumors, AppleInsider, ReadWriteWeb, Mac Soda and Gizmodo
Lars-Göran Nilsson / Fudzilla:
Microsoft getting ready to lay off 17% of staff — Worldwide cutbacks — The rumor that Microsoft was set to lay off people on January 15th, 2009 is no longer a rumor but a fact. Staff at Microsoft have been informed that the company is readying major layoffs to its worldwide operations and it's not a small cut, either.
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
Viacom Threatens To Pull Content Offline - While Time Warner tells us customers will see refunds... This morning we noted how a feud between Time Warner Cable and Viacom could result in Time Warner Cable and BrightHouse customers losing Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central and 16 other channels.
Discussion:
The Earth Times Online …
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Joe Wikert / TeleRead:
Memo to Jeff Bezos — As 2008 comes to a close I find I'm less of a Kindle advocate than I was earlier in the year. My new iPhone is partially to blame. After all, it's one of the reasons I wrote this critical post on my other blog yesterday. It's not just about the iPhone though.
Discussion:
RyanSpoon.com
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
A $3 billion buried treasure found via Google Maps? — Between my computer and my iPhone, I use Google Maps to find just about everything these days. Still, I never thought about using it to find buried treasure — but Nathan Smith did. — The 39-year-old musician supposedly used Google Maps …
Michael Calore / Epicenter:
Ubiquity Add-on for Firefox Gets an Update, New Interface — Mozilla's Ubiquity add-on for Firefox, the so-called “command line interface for the web” has been updated. The new release features substantial interface and speed improvements, and it's an essential update for anyone who considers themselves a web power user.
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb
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.
Tiernan Ray / Tech Trader Daily:
Apple: Friedman, Billings Sees iPhone Nano in Q2 — While rumors of forthcoming Apple (AAPL) products for at Macworld next week have been relatively muted this month, Friedman, Billings, Ramsey analyst Craig Berger put out a note this morning stating that his “incremental checks into the Apple supply chain” …
AppleInsider:
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to appear at Macworld — While the verdict is out on whether Apple chief executive Steve Jobs will make some form of appearance at next week's Macworld Expo, the ‘other Steve’ that helped co-found the company more than 30 years ago will be on hand to throw his weight behind a third-party product launch.
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
Evite fails on the year's biggest party night — No one cool uses Evite anymore. You know this. I know this. Auren Hoffman, chief executive of search startup RapLeaf and an investor in competitor Socializr, wrote a column for us two years ago about why he hates Evite.
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.
Discussion:
Search Engine Land, Google Watch, Search Engine Watch, WebProNews and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
Richard Owen / Times of London:
Fury as Mafia godfathers idolised on Facebook — To the fury and dismay of relatives of Mafia victims, pages posted on the social networking site Facebook idolising notorious Cosa Nostra Godfathers have generated thousands of supporters in Italy. — The fan sites offer tributes not only to Salvatore …
Discussion:
CNET News
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Scribd Had A Blowout Year, And So Did the Web Document — The biggest surprise fro me in the social media rankings that I posted earlier today was the appearance of document sharing service Scribd in the top 20. According to the comScore numbers, it has more unique visitors worldwide …
Jonathan V. Last / Wall Street Journal:
Playing the Fool — How Sony inadvertently helped a competitor and lost position in the videogame market. — Like dynasties rising and falling, videogame systems enjoy periods of ascendancy and popular support, only to be thrust aside by a new and conquering power.
Susan Straccia / The Official Google Blog:
Google blogging in 2008 — Every year right about now we round up our blogging activity across Google. Ready? Here goes. — This is our 368th post of the year on the main Google blog, which is 23% more than in 2007. In addition to more posts, we are thrilled to know that we have many more readers now — 78% more, to be exact.
Discussion:
WebProNews
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
A Record Label That Embraces BitTorrent — While the major record labels still insist that BitTorrent and any sort of file sharing is evil and needs to be wiped out, it's great to see some indie record labels fully embracing how BitTorrent is actually a much cheaper and much more efficient distribution and marketing tool.
Discussion:
TorrentFreak
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Michael Dell Cans Execs He Handpicked To Save The Company (DELL) — After Dell founder Michael Dell came back as CEO in 2007, he hired former Solectron chief Michael Cannon as president of global operations and former Oracle exec Mark Jarvis as chief marketing officer.
Discussion:
Technologizer, Business Week, Electronista, Computerworld, CNET News, Between the Lines, Wall Street Journal and BloggingStocks
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Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Audiolizer Puts Your iTunes Library In The Cloud, But Lala Does It Better — Audiolizer is a new music streaming service that lets you put your iTunes library in the cloud. After uploading your iTunes Library database file, the site will automatically compile a list of links to every song …
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb
Will Park / IntoMobile:
iPhone 3G unlock imminent! iPhone Dev Team says “vtaber” — What is this “vtaber” we speak of? Well, it has to do with the binary code that was posted to the iPhone Dev Team's blog. We've been checking the iPhone Dev Team blog religiously over the past 12 hours in hopes of catching …
Donald Melanson / Engadget:
DIY external iPhone keyboards get a tad more practical — That 360 Chatpad hack we saw back in November was certainly an impressive enough proof of concept, but if you want to get a bit more typing done with a bit less cluttter, you'll no doubt be quite a bit more impressed with this latest mod by the very same Ralf Ackermann.
Discussion:
O'Grady's PowerPage
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
MySpace Video Blocking Not An Antitrust Violation — Brad Greenspan, who at one point was CEO of Intermix, the spyware/adware firm that originally created MySpace, has been complaining for years that News Corp. engaged in fraud when it purchased Intermix in order to get MySpace at a discounted price.
Jon Swartz / USA Today:
Bad news for workers is good news for LinkedIn — MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Where everyone else sees economic gloom and doom, Reid Hoffman sees opportunity. — As the freshly minted CEO of LinkedIn (and its founder), he is shepherding a moneymaking tech company in battered Silicon Valley.
