Top Items:
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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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 …
Discussion:
MobileCrunch, Helloform, iLounge, Computerworld Blogs, Switched, Engadget Mobile, Gizmodo, Silicon Alley Insider, 9 to 5 Mac and Ben.geek.nz
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 …
Discussion:
jkOnTheRun, blogs.chron.com, RCR Wireless News, Neowin.net, Network World, Gizmodo and Gearlog
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 …
Discussion:
Network World, Electronista, eWeek, NEWSFACTOR, Local Mobile Search, Digits, Mobilewhack.com, blogs.ft.com, Tech Central and L.A. Times Tech Blog
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 …
Discussion:
Technologizer, Digital Daily, CNET News, Silicon Alley Insider, Tech Beat, Gizmodo, Gawker, BoomTown, Gearlog, SlashPhone, Associated Press, SlashGear and Between the Lines
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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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 …
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:
Inside Facebook, All Facebook, AppScout, RotorBlog.com, Maximum PC all, Computerworld, Marc's Voice, kevinbriody.net, Gawker and Todd Watson
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:
Latest Geek Stuff, AndroidGuys, Skype Journal, jkOnTheRun, GPS Obsessed and The Tech Report
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 …
Discussion:
Computerworld
Wall Street Journal:
Yahoo Nears End of CEO Search — Yahoo Inc. is in the final stretch of its search for a chief executive officer, and a decision could come as soon as next week, said people close to the Internet company. — Among candidates still under consideration is Carol Bartz, the former chief executive officer …
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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BBC:
Ofcom benchmarks broadband speeds — The average speed of a broadband connection in the UK is 3.6Mbps (megabits per second) according to new research from regulator Ofcom. — The speed test is described by Ofcom as “one of the most sophisticated and thorough” ever done.
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Techdirt
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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) …
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 …
Datamation:
How China's ‘50 Cent Army’ Could Wreck Web 2.0 — Two years ago, Chinese President Hu Jintao called on Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members to “assert supremacy over online public opinion, raise the level and study the art of online guidance and actively use new technologies to increase the strength of positive propaganda.”
Discussion:
Beyond Search
Owen Thomas / Gawker:
Liberal Blogosphere Proves Trivially Easy to Destroy — Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one. After hackers took down SoapBlox, a one-man blog-hosting company which runs local political websites, a silenced liberal commentariat found out how true that was.
Discussion:
Tech stories
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.
Sam Diaz / Between the Lines:
Reasons to skip Microsoft's Windows 7 Beta download — As many of you know, I'm a hardcore Mac guy - but I wasn't always this way. My experiences with Windows Vista sent me over the edge, prompting me to add the “hardcore” next to my “Mac guy” title. Still, I was excited to hear …
Discussion:
Download Squad, Tech Broiler, All about Microsoft, Maximum PC all, Beyond Binary and The Register
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.
Discussion:
CNET News
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.
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 …
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.
Google Watch:
Is Google Scaring Partners into Microsoft's Arms? — Is Google's hunger for more Internet users biting it in the behind? — That's the question lurking in my mind today as I mull Microsoft's win of Verizon and Dell as new distributors for Live Search, deals Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced …
