Top Items:
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Sources: Apple to expand DRM-free music, pricing — Apple has cut deals that will finally enable iTunes to offer songs free of copy protection software from the three largest music labels, according to two sources close to the negotiations. In exchange, Apple has agreed to become more flexible on pricing, the sources said.
Discussion:
MediaMemo, Bits, PC World, Silicon Alley Insider, VentureBeat, FierceMobileContent, TeleRead, AppleInsider, Gizmodo Australia, I4U News, louisgray.com, hypebot, BoomTown, Music Ally, The iPhone Blog, CrunchGear, Epeus' epigone, Insanely Great Mac, 9 to 5 Mac, Boy Genius Report, Macsimum News, MacNN, Technology Live, Technologizer and Mashable!
Motorola Media Center:
Motorola Unveils World's First Mobile Phone Made Using Recycled Water Bottle Plastics and New 3G Touch Tablet with Customizable Home Screen — Latest devices to be displayed at 2009 International CES in Las Vegas — Las Vegas - CES - Jan. 6, 2009 - Today Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) …
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Kent German / CNET News:
Surfing with the Motorola A3100 — Motorola got a jump start on CES when it announced its new crop of phones two days before the show opens. The most high-end of the bunch is the new Surf A3100 smartphone, which offers an expansive touch screen and support for Windows Mobile 6.1.
Discussion:
Electronista
Dan York / Disruptive Telephony:
Skype 2.8 Beta for Mac OS X provides screen sharing, WiFi access, chat features and Twitter-like mood messages — Tonight out at the “ShowStoppers” event at MacWorld in San Francisco, Skype announced the new 2.8 Beta for Mac OS X. The new version will apparently be available for download tomorrow, January 6, 2009, from Skype's website.
Discussion:
Skype Journal, The Register, Webware.com, Alec Saunders SquawkBox, ReadWriteWeb and Pat Phelan
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
MediaSentry may be gone, but RIAA tactics will live on — The Wall Street Journal reported Monday (subscription) that the Recording Industry Association of America has dropped long-time P2P investigator MediaSentry in favor of European firm DtecNet. — The move comes as the RIAA switches tactics …
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Jessica Dolcourt / CNET News:
SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone announced — Six months after announcing its intention to bring SlingPlayer to the iPhone 3G, Sling Media has another announcement to make—just not the one you're wishing for. — SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone isn't ready yet, Sling said on Tuesday, but it is on its way.
Microsoft:
Xbox 360 Records Its Biggest Year Ever — Driven by record sales at retail along with an 84 percent jump in online consumer spending; global install base lead over PlayStation 3 expands to more than 8 million units. — Despite a tough economy, the gaming industry held strong in 2008 …
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Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
HP unleashes a series of new low-cost computers at CES — Hewlett-Packard is launching a bevy of new products today that show it is designing its products to take into account the lighter pocketbooks and energy usage concerns of consumers. — These products being unveiled this week …
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Dan Whitworth / BBC:
Facebook ‘sets Christmas record’ — Facebook has set a new record as it had its busiest day ever over the Christmas holidays. — The social networking site accounted for one in every 22 online visits on Christmas Day, according to internet research company Hitwise.
PC World:
AMD: Creating a New Laptop Category (PC World) — Netbooks have their appeal—tiny budget machines with just enough oomph to run Windows XP. Ultraportables have horsepower in spades, but they cost too much to suit some people. This year we're going to see a whole new category of notebook …
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Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Netbooks and the Death of x86 Computing — Freescale said Monday it would offer an ARM-based chip that could lead to a $200 Linux-based netbook, offering about twice the amount of usage on a single battery charge as Intel's Atom processor allows. Freescale's efforts are nothing new …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Following The Twitter Hack Trail To DigitalGangster — One thing that didn't make a lot of sense about the 33 celebrity Twitter accounts hacked this morning - the messages left on the various accounts weren't consistent and were clearly written by different people with different agendas.
Discussion:
Music Ally
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The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
HTC announces HTC S743: U.S. edition, suckaz — Not forgetting about those ever-important arrogant American consumers, HTC has crafted a U.S.-specific version of their HTC S740 Windows Mobile Standard device. Supporting 850MHz/1900MHz HSDPA bands (sorry, T-Mo users), they're taking …
Susanna Leng / The Official Google Blog:
Introducing Picasa for Mac (at Macworld!) — Sometimes I find it hard to describe Picasa without sounding like a late-night infomercial for a multi-bladed thingamabob: “It's a photo organizer! A photo editor! A web-savvy photo sharing and management system in just one tiny package!”
Discussion:
Search Engine Land, The Register, Google Mac Blog, Network World, geeksugar, Lifehacker, Gear Live, O'Grady's PowerPage, Macsimum News and Epicenter
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Brian Axe / Google Photos Blog:Announcing Picasa for Mac
Discussion:
Macworld, TheNextWeb.com, Google, Technology Live, I4U News, Gizmodo, WebProNews, MacRumors, The Mac Observer and InformationWeek
InfoWorld:
Bringing Macs into business: Real-life IT stories — As more businesses bring Apple Macintoshes into their regular operations, IT has to figure out how to ensure the Macs play well in the typical Windows-dominated environments. Several companies share the lessons — good and bad — that they have learned.
Arik Hesseldahl / Business Week:
Was Apple ‘Adequate but Late’ on Jobs? — Some corporate governance experts question whether the tech giant could have been more forthcoming about its CEO's hormone imbalance — Apple (AAPL) investors got answers to some of their nagging questions about the health of the company's chief executive …
Discussion:
Big Tech, dot.life blog, MacDailyNews, Infinite Loop, Business Week, Profy and mathewingram.com/work
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch UK:
If a 13 year-old can launch a startup you have no excuse — “My name's Scott. I'm 13 and have launched a web startup.” So began an email exchange over last weekend which culminated with me chatting to Scott's mum today to verify, that, indeed, he was actually 13 and really had launched a blogging site for people in Scotland.
Gizmodo Australia:
New Kogan Agora Shots Get Us Excited For Android All Over Again — Australia's first Android phone, the Kogan Agora, is only a few weeks away from its official release, and they've decided to keep us excited by sending us these spy shots of it in action. While the photos aren't fantastic …
comScore:
Americans View 34 Percent More Online Videos in November 2008 Compared to Year Ago — Hulu Sustains Strong Online Viewership on the Heels of October Surge — comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released November 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing …
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