Top Items:
Brad Stone / New York Times:
Want to Copy iTunes Music? Go Ahead, Apple Says — SAN FRANCISCO — In moves that will help shape the online future of the music business, Apple said Tuesday that it would remove anticopying restrictions on all of the songs in its popular iTunes Store and allow record companies to set a range of prices for them.
Discussion:
Contentinople, Mark Evans, MediaFile, Between the Lines, Michael Geist Blog and GigaLaw.com Daily News
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Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Why Apple's iTunes Concessions Are a Double-Edged Sword — Apple's announcements at Macworld may have lacked some of the flair and sizzle that CEO Steve Jobs usually brought to his keynote, but there was one announcement that, arguably, will wind up changing the playing field considerably.
Sun Microsystems:
Sun Microsystems Expands Cloud Computing Offerings with Acquisition of Q-layer — Q-layer Technology Simplifies Cloud Computing Development and Deployment — Sun Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: JAVA) today announced it has acquired Q-layer, a cloud computing company that automates the deployment …
Discussion:
Digital Daily, Silicon Alley Insider, The Open Road, Broadband Developments, Lydia Leong and Virtualization.com
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Romit Guha / Wall Street Journal:
Satyam's Chairman Resigns — BANGALORE — Satyam Computer Services Ltd. Chairman B. Ramalinga Raju Wednesday resigned admitting to falsifying company accounts and inflating revenue and profit figures over several years, sending the company's shares plunging 78%.
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Market Wire:
T-Mobile USA to Offer Customers the Thinnest and Lightest Full-QWERTY BlackBerry Smartphone — New BlackBerry Curve 8900 Smartphone Delivers GPS, Wi-Fi, Enhanced Multimedia Capabilities and More — BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON and WATERLOO, ONTARIO—(Marketwire - Jan. 7, 2009) -
Discussion:
IntoMobile, BlackBerry Cool, Unwired View, CrackBerry.com blogs, Gear Diary, Phone Arena and Gadgetell
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Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Asus' Eee Keyboard revealed — The Eee train won't stop until all consumer electronics have been assimilated. Today Asus introduced the world to the Eee Keyboard, a full-sized keyboard with built-in PC including WiFi (and Ethernet), speaker, mic, and 5-inch interactive display and touchscreen.
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Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook Blog:
A Great Start to 2009 — Today, we reached another milestone: 150 million people around the world are now actively using Facebook and almost half of them are using Facebook every day. This includes people in every continent—even Antarctica. If Facebook were a country …
Mark Wilson / Gizmodo:
Asus T91: Your 1-inch Thick Convertible Eee PC — The Asus T91 is an intriguing netbook from Asus. Just 2lbs in weight, it features an 8.9" convertible touchscreen display and Atom processor. Pricing/availability are yet unannounced.
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Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Intel: Q4 Revs Fell 20%; Well Below Previous Guidance — Intel (INTC) this morning said it expects Q4 revenue of about $8.2 billion, down 20% sequentially and 23% year over year, and below its previous projection of $9 billion, plus or minus $300 million, which it provided on November 12.
Discussion:
The Register, Between the Lines, Search Engine Watch, CNET News, Digital Daily, Business Wire, Silicon Alley Insider and Furrier.org
Ryan Kim / The Technology Chronicles:
CES09: Powermat looks to charge your gadgets wirelessly — One of my favorite items from CES last year was WildCharge's wireless charging set up, which allowed you to power up gadgets without actually plugging them in. You just plopped them on a charging pad and away you go.
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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.
Discussion:
Digital Daily, techblog.dallasnews.com, TeleRead, p2pnet, Pocket PC Thoughts.com, Slashdot and digg.com
Renai LeMay / CNET News:
Windows 7 beta: First impressions — Windows 7 could be one of Microsoft's greatest operating systems, if it fulfills the promise shown by the unofficial beta version (build 7000) we have been testing for the past couple of days. — Let me preface these quick impressions of Redmond's latest opus …
Kim Zetter / Threat Level:
Weak Password Brings ‘Happiness’ to Twitter Hacker — An 18-year-old hacker with a history of celebrity pranks has admitted to Monday's hijacking of multiple high-profile Twitter accounts, including President-Elect Barack Obama's, and the official feed for Fox News.
Discussion:
The Register, Maximum PC all, Infosecurity.US, PC World, SecurityFocus, The Marketing Technology Blog and rc3.org
Kevin C. Tofel / jkOnTheRun:
Forget SDHC: SDXC Holds 2-Terabytes — Still struggling to remember the difference between SD and SDHC? Then you don't want to hear about SDXC, which is a new standard from the SD Association. Secure Digital eXtended Capacity is the new name and with it comes huge leaps in flash storage capacity.
Elaine Chow / Gizmodo:
Sony Walkman X-Series Is Surfable, Touchable and Shuts Up the World Around You — Sony's Walkman NWZ-X1000 features an OLED touchscreen, Wi-Fi and built-in noise cancellation and could re-seat the brand as the world's music player of choice... if it doesn't come with typical Sony prices.
Dave Zatz / Zatz Not Funny!:
TiVo Beefs Up Search Functionality — Later today, broadband-connected TiVo Series3 and TiVo HD subscribers will be treated to a revamped search experience. And, marking a first, TiVo is finally taking widescreen televisions seriously with a high-def interface utilizing that extra real estate.
Constantinos Michael / Google Mobile Blog:
Getting directions to businesses now easier on Google Maps for mobile — One of my favorite things about Google Maps for mobile is finding businesses on the go. Today we launched a server-side change that makes it easier to get directions to businesses. You can now get directions to restaurants …
Elinor Mills / CNET News:
Yelp user faces lawsuit over negative review — San Franciscan Christopher Norberg went to a chiropractor after being injured in a car accident in 2006. After a disagreement with the chiropractor over billing, he posted a negative review of the business on Yelp suggesting that the doctor was dishonest.
IEBlog:
IE8 Blocker Toolkit Available Today! — We believe IE8 helps make browsing the web faster, easier, safer and more reliable. To help our users be more secure and up-to-date, we will distribute IE8 via Automatic Update (AU) and the Windows Update (WU) and Microsoft Update (MU) sites much like we did for IE7.
Farhad Manjoo / Slate:
Missing Steve Jobs at Macworld. — Just before the holidays, Apple announced that CEO Steve Jobs would not deliver the keynote address at Macworld, the annual conference that he's long used as a platform for his flashiest product announcements. The company's terse press release …
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch UK:
Demise of Library House shows databases are heading to the cloud/crowd — Cambridge-based technology VC deals tracker Library House, which went into administration last month, has had its database of deals sold to Dow Jones. The Library House database and customers will now go into Dow Jones's VentureSource …
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 …
Daniel Shen / DigiTimes:
HTC records NT$38 EPS in 2008 — High Tech Computer (HTC) has announced revenues for the fiscal year 2008 (ended December 31, 2008) reached NT$152.56 billion (US$4.61 billion), with 28.65% on-year growth. Net income after tax was NT$28.68 billion, with a net EPS of NT$38.03 for the full year, according to the company.