Top Items:
Chippy / UMPCPortal:
New Sony UMPC info includes specs and a sub $1000 price. — Our podcast partner, Sascha, from EeePCNews.de (which has just relaunched as netbooknews.de) reports that he's secured some new info on the Sony UMPC. … The Sony Vaio P will run on an Atom Z250 (1.33 as we've tested on the WiBrain i1 …
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
The Alternative to the iPhone Pro — Knowing that it is very hard that Apple would ever release an iPhone Pro with physical keyboard, Mat Brady from planetmat has sent me another image of a potential accessory. It looks great. — Mat says that he created the accessory answering readers' feedback on sliding keyboards.
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Spotify, An Alternative to Music Piracy — Spotify is a music service that gives users access to a huge library of music, through a lightweight application that looks like a mashup of the best parts of iTunes and Last.fm. Music is streamed, partly supported by P2P technology, but it plays instantly, like we've never seen before.
Discussion:
digg.com
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
The Secret Origins of Clippy: Microsoft's Bizarre Animated Character Patents — Of all the peculiar ideas that Microsoft has pursued over its almost 34 years in business, I can't think of many that are more inexplicable than its long-standing interest in using animated characters to provide help …
Discussion:
Slashdot
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
The Facebook Breastfeeding Debate Continues — Earlier this week we posted about Facebook's ban on breast feeding. The debate has gained a lot of coverage in the media. So much that the CBS early morning show recorded the following segment on the topic.
Discussion:
Bits
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Jose Fermoso / Gadget Lab:
Tech Pundits Put Their 2009 Predictions On the Line — The beginning of any year seems to be the best time to make any predictions. — At first glance, it seems like there's no harm in putting out a little list among the glut of year-ends and year-to-come lists.
Eric Engleman / TechFlash:
Will economy dent Amazon's hiring spree? — Will Amazon.com prove immune to the layoffs gripping the rest of the tech industry? A lot of the speculation at the moment is focused on the Seattle area's other tech giant, Microsoft, which is rumored to be planning layoffs this month …
Andy Merrett / The Blog Herald:
JournalSpace blogging platform dies: why you must keep your own backups — It may not have been the largest free blogging platform available, but for anyone who used JournalSpace for their blog the events of the last week were catastrophically significant. — Three days ago, JournalSpace lost all of its data.
Iljitsch van Beijnum / Ars Technica:
The year in IPv4 addresses: almost 200 million served — One of the first things I do every year on the first of January is have a look at what happened with the IP address stockpile during the previous year. We started 2008 with 1,122.85 million unused addresses left and we ended it with 925.58 million.
Chris Walters / Consumerist:
Fisher-Price Kiddie Camera Comes With Fun And A Computer Virus — Jeff says his kid's new toy, a working camera from Fisher-Price, tried to give his computer a virus when he plugged it in! … Well you wouldn't take the leaded paint or the melamine, Jeff. China has to export something...
Julian Sanchez / Ars Technica:
Reinventing conservatism, one tweet at a time — Since the humbling results of the November election came in, the conservative movement has been scrambling to assess what happened—and to figure out how to prevent it from happening again. Much of this effort, in light of the Obama campaign's …
Discussion:
TomsTechBlog.com
AppleInsider:
Macworld site rife with concealed banners (photos) — Despite lessened expectations for next week's Macworld Expo, the Moscone Center venue for the trade show already sports roughly a dozen sprawling, cloth-concealed banners that hint at several product announcements.
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John Cook / TechFlash:
EMC buys SourceLabs, operator of open source site Swik.net — SourceLabs, an open source software support startup based in Seattle, has been sold to storage giant EMC for an undisclosed price, according to a source familiar with the deal. — The evidence suggests it is true …
