Top Items:
Microsoft TechNet:
Welcome to the Windows 7 Beta Customer Preview Program — Test Windows 7 Beta in your lab environment — Stay informed on updates and resources — Windows 7 is... the next release of the Windows client operating system, built on the secure foundation of Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.
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Emil Protalinski / One Microsoft Way:
Windows 7 public beta is available now — As Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer promised at CES 2009 during his preshow keynote, the Windows 7 beta is now available to the public for download. It is only available to the first 2.5 million people who download it, so make sure to get your hands on it as soon as you can!
Discussion:
Hardware 2.0, Electronista, the Econsultancy blog, Lifehacker, I4U News, Maximum PC all and Ars Technica
Michael Calore / Epicenter:
Windows 7 Public Beta Will Be Available at 12 Noon PST — [Update! The Microsoft Partner Program website has the official time: “Partners with a MSDN or TechNet subscription can download Windows 7 Beta now. All other partners can download Windows 7 Beta starting January 9, 2009 at 12:00 P.M. Pacific Time.”
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, Intel Software Network Blogs, Full of I.T., Gizmodo Australia and Lifehacker
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Web site problems as Windows 7 beta hits — Microsoft's Windows Web site will be the place to go to get the Windows 7 beta later on Friday. At the moment though, many users are encountering just error messages when they try to reach the site. — This was the message I got—"HTTP Error 503.
Scott Gilbertson / Epicenter:
Chrome 2.0 Preview Means Mac, Linux Versions Coming Soon — Google has rolled out an alpha preview of the next major revision for its Chrome web browser. Those undaunted by the current alpha status of 2.0 can get an early taste of what's to come in Chrome.
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Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Dell Adamo hands-on! (Update: now with video!) — Looks like our puppy-dog eyes have served us well yet again — we just got to spend some time with Dell's ultra-hot Adamo. It's really small, less than an inch thick, we'd say — and although we didn't measure, we'd say that 13-inch screen rumor was spot on.
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Erica Ogg / Crave: The gadget blog:
Dell officially unveils Adamo, Mini 10 — A model shows off Dell's new luxury notebook called Adamo. — (Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET Networks) — LAS VEGAS—Dell trotted out a fashion model to show off the newest addition to its notebook lineup, but beyond explaining the name of Adamo, gave no further details.
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
Google's New Favicon (Again) — Google changed their favicon once more (the last change happened in May 2008). Above you can see the recent history of this icon showing in the address bar and elsewhere. The new design consists of four color areas - blue, red, green and yellow - overlaid by a lowercase white “g”.
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 …
RELATED:
Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:Is Yahoo CEO Candidate Carol Bartz Any Good? (YHOO)
Discussion:
p2pnet
Amazon Web Services Blog:
Manage Amazon EC2 With New Web-Based AWS Management Console — Today we're announcing the availability of the Web-based AWS Management Console, which in this first release provides management of your Amazon EC2 environment via a point-and-click interface. A number of management tools already exist …
Discussion:
GigaOM, CloudAve, ReadWriteWeb, Data Center Knowledge, PC World, CNET News and Between the Lines
Stephanie Clifford / New York Times:
For BlackBerry, Obama's Devotion Is Priceless — This week, Michael Phelps signed a deal worth more than $1 million to advertise Mazda in China. Jerry Seinfeld earned a reported $10 million to appear in Microsoft's recent television campaign. — But the person who may be the biggest celebrity pitchman …
Discussion:
Gawker, Todd Watson, Unwired View, GPS Obsessed, CrunchGear, Silicon Alley Insider and BloggingStocks
Richard Waters / Financial Times:
Microsoft's quest to beat Google — The consumer electronics and technology world is used to starting the year with a landmark presentation from one of the industry's leading figures. — That role has traditionally fallen to Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, whose annual appearances …
Discussion:
Between the Lines, Silicon Alley Insider, 9 to 5 Mac, Rolling Stone, Gawker, Gizmodo, CrunchGear and MacDailyNews
Clint Ecker / Ars Technica:
The pre's got Mojo: a developer speaks about Palm's new SDK — Thursday Palm announced its next-generation foray into mobile computing with a one-two hardware/software punch at CES 2009. The company talked about its new mobile phone platform called pr that combines impressive hardware …
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Google, Facebook, MySpace and More Meet to Talk Activity Streams — Last night at the offices of blogging software company Six Apart, engineers and social media specialists from a number of companies large and small met to discuss proposed standards for the future of “activity streams” …
Associated Press:
Verizon Wireless completes $5.9B Alltel buyout — LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Verizon Wireless said Friday it has completed its $5.9 billion purchase of Little Rock, Ark.-based Alltel Corp., making Verizon the nation's largest mobile phone company. — Verizon said Friday it will also take on $22.2 billion in Alltel debt.
Brian James Kirk / MobileBurn.com:
Palm Pre to be released in the U.K. — News by Brian James Kirk on Friday January 09, 2009. — Pocket-lint is reporting that Palm is preparing the Palm Pre, the companies new multi-touch smartphone unveiled yesterday, for release in the UK. “The pre will indeed be available in H2 …
RELATED:
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:Palm did what Nokia, RIM, and Microsoft couldn't: build a better …
Discussion:
BloggingStocks, MacDailyNews, Gadget Lab, Bits, Zef Hemel.com, GigaOM and FierceWireless
Richard MacManus / ReadWriteWeb:
Report: Community Platforms Market Led by Jive Software and Telligent — Forrester released a report today about the ‘community platforms’ market. They evaluated nine vendors, concluding that Jive Software and Telligent Systems “lead the pack because of their strong administrative and platform features.”
Matt Asay / The Open Road:
Goldman Sachs: IT-spending growth to halt — Investment bank Goldman Sachs just released its “Americas: 2009 Software Outlook” report, and it promises near-term pain for an already struggling technology industry: … (Credit: Goldman Sachs) — In other words, things are going to get worse before they get better.
Discussion:
OStatic blogs
Ed Sutherland / Cult of Mac:
Apple Ditching MacWorld in Favor of CES? — Apple is ditching MacWorld to instead exhibit at CES next year instead, according to one source. — The source, citing “friends who work at Apple,” insisted the company is ditching MacWorld because it will “go large” at CES, which typically runs concurrently with MacWorld in early January.
Discussion:
CNET News, Gizmodo, Infinite Loop, Electronista, The Apple Core, Obsessable and Computerworld Blogs
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Delaying DTV Could Mean Longer Wait for LTE — President-elect Barack Obama is asking Congress to delay the transition that will force the nation's TV broadcasts to switch from analog to digital signals. Depending on how long the delay is, it could affect the deployment of several services destined …
Discussion:
PC World, Consumers Union, InformationWeek, FierceWireless, dailywireless.org, DSLreports and Washington Post
Jemima Kiss / Guardian:
Fatal police shooting posted on YouTube — The footage is shaky and low quality, with chaotic shouts and protests from onlookers at a subway station in San Francisco's east bay. But it clearly shows three policeman roughly handling a group of young men - including one who is pinned to the ground by two officers and shot in the back.
The Ask.com Blog:
Semantic Search Technology Advances from Ask.com — For millions of everyday queries, there is one, simple, direct answer the user is seeking, but the current generation of search relegates consumers to sifting through links and then searching through the Websites themselves to find the answer.
John Cook / TechFlash:
Business wiki AboutUs lands $2.5 million from Voyager Capital — Portland-based AboutUs, which today is announcing a $2.5 million venture round from Voyager Capital, has something going for it that many Internet startups can only dream of. Last year, the 3-year-old business wiki turned a profit …
Discussion:
VentureBeat
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
YouTube Is Changing How We Think About Video — from the it's-not-just-for-presenting-a- story dept — Whenever we talk about changes impacting the movie industry or the television industry, there's always someone who chimes in with claims about “how will we be able to make $200 million movies any more?”
