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, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Gizmodo, InfoWorld, iLounge, Byte of the Apple, Boy Genius Report and blogs.ft.com
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, CrunchGear, 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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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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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.
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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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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David Kaplan / paidContent.org:
Ziff Davis Gets Out Of The Game: Sells 1UP To Hearst, Shutters EGM Mag To Focus On PCMag Network — Looking to conserve its resources for its PC Mag Digital business, Ziff Davis Media has sold off the 1UP Digital Network, its collection of video game sites, to Hearst Corp., which will fold it into the UGO Entertainment division.
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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, TUAW, gizmag Emerging …, TechCrunch, 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
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, OSNews, GottaBeMobile.com, Lockergnome Blog Network and Brier Dudley's blog
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 …
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.
Bobby White / Wall Street Journal:
Cisco Woos Entertainment Firms — Consumer Electronics Show Is Forum to Sell Service for Social Networks and Company's First Home Audio System — Cisco Systems Inc., stepping up its effort to court media and entertainment companies, is using the Consumer Electronics Show to deliver …
Discussion:
GigaOM
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:
$9 million for SpotMixer's video ad service — One True Media, the parent company of an online video ad creator called SpotMixer, has announced a fresh $9 million in Series B venture funding. The round was led by DAG Ventures, with contributions from NTT Finance and existing investor Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
Discussion:
VentureBeat
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
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.
