Top Items:
Tom Neumayr / Apple:
Changes Coming to the iTunes Store — Apple® today announced several changes to the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com). Beginning today, all four major music labels—Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI, along with thousands of independent labels …
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Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
The Price Of Going DRM-Free: Apple's Hidden $1.8 Billion Music Tax — Nearly two years ago, Steve Jobs published an open letter to the music industry calling for the death of DRM (digital rights management). He convinced EMI to ditch DRM back in April, 2007, but the three other major music labels held out.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:Confirmed: iTunes Going DRM-Free. Unclear: Does Anyone Care?
Discussion:
GigaOM, Slate, USA Today, Gizmodo, L.A. Times Tech Blog, InfoWorld, iLounge, Byte of the Apple, Boy Genius Report, blogs.ft.com, Network World and Epicenter
Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo:
Apple Confirms $179 Battery Swap Cost for 17" MacBook Pro — We just confirmed with Apple that swapping out the 17" MacBook Pro's non-removable battery will cost $179. Fortunately, says Apple, the swap might not be needed for a long time: — From a spokesperson at Apple:
Discussion:
PC World, Infinite Loop, SlashGear, DVICE, Boing Boing Gadgets, TheAppleBlog, VentureBeat and CNET News
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Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
MacBook Pro 17-inch first hands-on (update: video added) — Yep — it looks just like its little brothers! Feels like 'em too, except the obvious bit of heft added by that 17-inch display. Of course, they don't have that sweet, gigantic battery inside, or that matte display option (until we torch Curpertino, of course... in love).
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Sony's VAIO P ultraportable revealed — Chicklet keyboard, check. Tiny pointing nub, check. Looks like this is Sony's Vaio P series ultraportable on display at CES. By on display we mean, on display as these shots were taken off the display monitors here at CES.
Discussion:
Liliputing, Mobility Site, SlashGear, DisplayBlog, Sony Insider, Electronista and techeblog.com
Michael Hirschorn / The Atlantic Online:
End Times — VIRTUALLY ALL THE predictions about the death of old media have assumed a comfortingly long time frame for the end of print—the moment when, amid a panoply of flashing lights, press conferences, and elegiac reminiscences, the newspaper presses stop rolling and news goes entirely digital.
Discussion:
New York Post
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Jack Shafer / Slate:
How Newspapers Tried to Invent the Web — But failed. — A moment of sympathy, please, for newspapers, whose readers and advertisers have been fleeing at a frightening rate. — It would be easy to accuse editors and publishers of being clueless about the coming Internet disruption …
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
Stevenote? Here's Your Stevenote. Or, More Specifically, Your Woznote. — Call Steve Wozniak the anti-Steve Jobs. He's far nerdier than Jobs ever was; he's not a polished presenter; he has a zillion passions beyond Apple (Segway Polo, anyone?); and nobody's ever going to spend any time worrying that he's looking gaunt.
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Nicholas Deleon / CrunchGear:
Say hello to iWork 09: Like iWork 08, but plus one — Whoever predicted that Apple would introduce iWork '09 today gets a gold star. Keynote, Pages and Numbers all received what I would consider minor updates; no need to run around all willy nilly for these, methinks.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Obsessable, SlashGear, Infinite Loop, Industry Standard, Epicenter and ReadWriteWeb
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Reuters:
Apple disappoints-no Jobs, big news at Macworld — (Refiles to delete extraneous words in paragraphs one and three) (Adds analyst comment, product details) — Apple Inc (AAPL.O) said on Tuesday it was dropping copy protection from songs sold on the Internet and debuted its slimmest 17-inch laptop yet …
Discussion:
jkOnTheRun, Technologizer, Engadget, Digital Daily, The Tech Report, Reuters, MacDailyNews and TUAW
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Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Pandora Radio 2.0 Lands On The iPhone Tonight — Pandora Radio, the personalized internet radio service that has remained among the most popular iPhone apps on the iTunes App Store since its inception in July (and that I've previously called the iPhone's killer app), will be releasing its most significant update yet later today.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Webware.com, greg hughes, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, iPhone Buzz and Edible Apple
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Report: PC makers to provide free Vista-to Win-7 upgrades starting July 1 — In yet another indicator as to the progress of Windows 7, the Tech ARP site reported that Microsoft plans to allow PC makers to offer customers who buy Windows Vista machines as of July 1 free upgrades to Windows 7 once it ships.
Discussion:
InfoWorld, Computerworld, One Microsoft Way, GottaBeMobile.com, OSNews, Brier Dudley's blog and Lockergnome Blog Network
Ryan / Signal vs. Noise:
iPhoto '09 and Domain Language … Karlton's quote isn't just for techies. Interface designers are in the business of naming things too. We're copywriters. It matters if we call something an Event or a Milestone or a Deadline. And it also goes deeper than that. The names we choose shape our software.
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Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo:Apple Revamps iLife for '09 with iPhoto Facial Recognition and More
Discussion:
Infinite Loop, Inside Facebook, Apple, MacRumors, TechCrunch, TUAW, gizmag Emerging …, Obsessable and Lifehacker
Guardian:
The shape of things to come — A self-confessed ‘pretty unlikely early adopter’, the digital guru Clay Shirky still proved to be uncannily prescient about the impact of the web - which is why Tom Teodorczuk is getting his media forecast for 2009 — Clay Shirky, with his bald head and composed manner …
Discussion:
Podcasting News
Jose Martinez / NY Daily News:
Model Liskula Cohen sues Google over blogger's ‘skank’ comment — A Vogue cover girl is suing Google in an attempt to unmask the blogger who trashed her as a “skank” and an “old hag.” — Liskula Cohen, a blond beauty who has modeled for Giorgio Armani and Versace, made headlines last year …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
WebEx on Your iPhone, Finally — If I had to name one collaboration application that I to use on an almost daily basis, with the exception of Google Docs, my answer would be Cisco's WebEx. A lot of companies make pitches to me using WebEx. Despite its patchy performance on the Mac …
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
On Google Disallowing Crawling of Their LIFE Hosting — Isn't it great how Google makes millions of photos available to the world in their LIFE photo archive? Well - with one exception: they disallow other search engines to access these photos. The same access rights that make Google Image search crawl …
Discussion:
Beyond Search
Humberto Saabedra / PhoneNews.com:
Pharos Announces Traveler 137 with PAYG Maps — The location and global positioning services provider Pharos Sciences has announced the Traveler 137 Windows Mobile smart device with a triband 3G radio, along with its novel Pay As You Go map access service. — The device is manufactured …
Discussion:
PR Newswire
Mark Ward / BBC:
The dark side of the flash drive — To most people the USB stick is a humble, innocuous device that does nothing more than help them tote around their most important files. — But to the US Department of Defense (DoD), the USB stick has a dark side - one that criminally-minded hackers are only too eager to exploit.
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
Apple's Brilliant Video Engineer: Anonymous No More — My favorite moment at this year's Macworld Expo keynote had nothing to do with any of the products that were unveiled-it was was about the unveiling of a person. — At last year's Macworld Expo keynote, Steve Jobs waxed rhapsodic …
VMware:
VMware Appoints Tod Nielsen as Chief Operating Officer — Veteran from Leading Software Companies Including Borland, BEA, Oracle and Microsoft Brings Proven Executive Leadership to VMware — VMware Inc., (VMW: NYSE) the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter …
Declan McCullagh / CNET News:
Obama picks RIAA's favorite lawyer for a top Justice post — As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama won applause from legal adversaries of the recording industry. Stanford law professor Larry Lessig, the doyen of the “free culture” movement, endorsed the Illinois senator, as did Google CEO Eric Schmidt and even the Pirate Party.
