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Matt Richtel / New York Times:
Palm Unveils iPhone Competitor, the Pre — LAS VEGAS — Seeking to revive its sharply fallen fortunes and produce a successor to its aging Treo device, Palm on Thursday unveiled a new smartphone, the Pre, and an exclusive partnership with Sprint to distribute it.
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Tech Trader Daily, FierceWireless, Bits, Open Sources, techblog.dallasnews.com, HackingCough, GPS Obsessed, GMSV, Technologizer, Engadget and Silicon Alley Insider
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Steve O'Hear / last100:
Have we just witnessed the second coming of Palm? — Ex-Engadget editor Ryan Block put it best when he said that Palm's much anticipated CES announcement “will either mark the beginning of the company's second coming — or the beginning of the end.” Thankfully, for those like me who were rooting for Palm …
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Palm Unveils Its iPhone Rival: The Pre. Don't Expect to Buy One Cheap. — Palm used to own the smartphone market, but now it's barely hanging on amid competition from Research In Motion's (RIMM) BlackBerry line and Apple's iPhone. Today the company unveils its long-awaited comeback plan …
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Palm Pre in-depth impressions, video, and huge hands-on gallery — We just sat down with Palm for a more in-depth look at the device, and here are our takeaways. First off, the software and hardware they're showing right now aren't the final versions. They're updating and tweaking as we speak …
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Engadget Mobile, iLounge, Computerworld Blogs, Switched, Silicon Alley Insider, Ben.geek.nz, 9 to 5 Mac and VentureBeat
Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Palm announces webOS platform — Palm just got official with its new webOS platform, running on the new Palm Pre. According to the company, anyone who knows CSS, HTML and XML will be able to develop for the OS without having to learn any new languages — sounds kind of like it's a jacked …
Palm, Inc.:
Palm Unveils All-new webOS — Web-Centric Platform and New Palm Pre Phone to Debut Exclusively on — Sprint's Mobile Broadband Network in First Half of 2009 — Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) today unveiled its groundbreaking Palm(R) webOS(TM) mobile platform, built from the ground …
Discussion:
TreoCentral, GigaOM, Mobility Site, Signaling IT, The iPhone Blog, Telecompetitor, Gizmodo, Unwired View, Mobile Tech Addicts, Gadgetell and PalmInfocenter
Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Chrome 2.0 Pre-Beta — Google Chrome's development is high-paced and version numbers are not very significant, but it's weird to see a pre-beta release of Chrome 2.0, four months after Chrome 0.2. There are many new things in Chrome 2.0: — * form autocomplete …
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Matt Richtel / Bits:
Microsoft: Expect Fewer Phones With Windows — Microsoft says it is responding to the fierce competition in the phone market by retooling and beefing up its mobile operating system-and by putting it on fewer devices. — Todd Peters, the vice president of marketing for the Windows Mobile division …
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wmpoweruser.com
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Jason D. O'Grady / The Apple Core:
Four core iPhones and firmware 3.0 — One of the most interesting rumors I've been tracking here at Macworld Expo in San Francisco surrounds the mysterious four-core iPhone. While the current iPhone has (roughly) the processing power of the Sony PSP, an upgraded four core iPhone …
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Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Stop chatting! Facebook shuts up IM integration with Meebo — Instant message aggregator Meebo integrated MySpace's and Facebook's chat services last month. It let Meebo users chat with friends on either site from within Meebo. Now Facebook is making Meebo turn its connection off …
Chaim / About Skype:
Skype Launches on Android Platform and more than 100 Java-Enabled Mobile Phones — Updated Beta version of Skype offered for millions worldwide to load onto their mobile phones — LAS VEGAS (CES BOOTH: HILTON #5121), January 8, 2009 - Skype today announced the release of a lite version of Skype&trade …
Discussion:
GPS Obsessed, Latest Geek Stuff, AndroidGuys, Skype Journal, jkOnTheRun and The Tech Report
Benjamin J. Romano / Microsoft Pri0:
CES: Ford Sync, a Ford feature with lots of local hands involved — LAS VEGAS — The Sync in-vehicle information and entertainment is one thing that's gone right for Ford as automakers have struggled mightily with the recession. The company is rolling out a third generation of Sync …
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TechFlash
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Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Delete 10 Facebook friends, get a free Whopper — Facebook's developer platform has been used for a zillion marketing campaigns so far, but this one is actually dead-on hilarious. — Fast-food chain Burger King has created “Whopper Sacrifice,” a Facebook app that will give you a coupon …
Discussion:
All Facebook, AppScout, RotorBlog.com, Maximum PC all, Computerworld, kevinbriody.net, Marc's Voice, techblog.dallasnews.com and Gawker
Richard Waters / Financial Times:
Microsoft turns up heat on Yahoo — Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive officer, has increased the pressure on Yahoo to hand over control of its search business to his software company. — Speaking in an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Ballmer set the stage for a new showdown nearly …
Mark Wilson / Gizmodo:
NIMble: $300 Android Desktop Phone Designed by iPhone Engineer — We've all heard about the prospects of Android in the mobile-phone market, but the NIMble is an Android phone meant for actual desktops. — By Touch Revolution, the NIMble features a 7-inch multitouch screen (800x400) …
Joanna Glasner / PE Hub Blog:
Startup Valuations Dropped 24% in Q4 — VCs commonly note that it takes longer for valuations to correct among private companies than among public ones. But the lag-time might not be that long, judging by fourth quarter data from Angelsoft, a software company that tracks valuation trends.
Nate Elliott / The Forrester Blog …:
The Easiest Way to a First-Page Ranking on Google — If you're like most interactive marketers, you probably don't think much about search optimizing your online video content. Less than 20% of marketers tell us they insert keywords into the filenames of the videos on their site …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
MySpace And Wall Street Journal Partner (?) to Send One MySpacer To Davos — MySpace, like YouTube, is holding a contest to send one MySpace user to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland later this month. — MySpace has teamed with the Wall Street Journal on the contest …
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Ballmer: Google, Google, the economy, Google — LAS VEGAS—Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer arrived at the Consumer Electronics Show with his usual optimism, but he also brings a clear sense of reality: The tech industry is in for some rough times. — “The fact of the matter is, this is not a downturn, this is a bit of a reset.
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CNET News
Open:
Announcing the Congress API — On Tuesday, members of the 111th Congress convened in Washington. Over the next two years, the 535 men and women of the House and Senate will introduce, consider and vote on a range of issues, from an economic stimulus package to confirmation of President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet nominees.
Joseph Tartakoff / The Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft “actively” considering rebranding Live Search — LAS VEGAS — Microsoft is “actively” considering rebranding its Live search engine, a spokeswoman confirmed this morning. — The company has trademarked the Kumo brand name for search-related purposes and registered several Kumo domain names.
John Timmer / Ars Technica:
Report: Gmail about one-third as expensive as hosted e-mail — What does it cost to host an e-mail account? It seems like a simple question, but a remarkable number of enterprises surveyed by Forrester had no idea of how to answer that question. A new report by the research company …
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Computerworld
Kim Hart / Washington Post:
Obama Urges Delay In Digital TV Switch — President-elect Barack Obama's transition team today asked key members of Congress to consider delaying the nation's switch to digital television scheduled for Feb. 17, saying there is “insufficient support” for the problems consumers will experience during the shut-off of analog signals.
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Broadcasting & Cable, NewTeeVee, DailyTech, Phil Windley's Technometria, eWeek, Gearlog, CNET News and Techdirt
David Phillip Oster / Google LatLong:
Flying Through Google Earth at Macworld — This year for Macworld I decided to create a program that allows people to “surf” any region on the Earth's surface using a Nintendo Wii Balance Board and the Google Earth API. To do this, I used the Google Earth Browser Plug-in with a Javascript API.
Sinead Carew / Reuters:
Touch-screen gadgets alienate blind — NEW YORK (Reuters) - The craze for touch-screen gadgets, sparked by Apple Inc's popular iPhone, is raising worries that a whole generation of consumer electronics will be out of the reach of the blind. — Motown icon Stevie Wonder and other advocates came …
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Business Week
