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, All about Microsoft, the Econsultancy blog, Lifehacker, Neowin.net, I4U News and Ars Technica
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.
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.”
Adrian Covert / Gizmodo:
Palm Pre Preview: Simply Amazing — Hey, I just had some time to play with the Palm Pre, maybe the most important handset to be announced in two years, and here's what it was like to use it. Updates coming. — The Palm Pre is a lot smaller than I initially thought it would be.
Discussion:
Technologizer, DSLreports, dailywireless.org, Gadget Lab, textually.org, Nerd World, Internet Evolution, Zef Hemel.com, InformationWeek, techblog.dallasnews.com, Wall Street Journal, PC World, MobileCrunch, techeblog.com, Paul Kedrosky's …, Mac Soda, Open Sources, MediaMemo, last100, Ben.geek.nz and digg.com
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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 …
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Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:Is Yahoo CEO Candidate Carol Bartz Any Good? (YHOO)
Discussion:
p2pnet
Jonathan Skillings / Webware.com:
Google tunes up Chrome development — Google's Chrome development team has offered a status update of its work on the company's young open-source browser. — The most significant changes, according to a Chromium Development Documentation posting on Thursday, include the following:
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Scott Gilbertson / Epicenter:Chrome 2.0 Preview Means Mac, Linux Versions Coming Soon
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
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 …
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:
ReadWriteWeb, Data Center Knowledge, CloudAve, PC World, CNET News and Between the Lines
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch UK:
The UK government's plans to retain email data and rate online content will cost too much, destroy business, liberty and must be stopped - start making placards — 20 Comments — From March this year all ISPs will by law have to keep information about every e-mail sent or received in the UK for a year.
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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, 9 to 5 Mac, Silicon Alley Insider, CrunchGear, Gizmodo and MacDailyNews
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:
Infinite Loop, CNET News, Gizmodo, The Apple Core, New York Times, Obsessable, Computerworld Blogs and MacRumors
Nate Mook / BetaNews:
Dell follows Apple with LED flat panel monitors of its own — Dell on Thursday took the wraps off a new line of flat panel displays that feature LED backlighting and consume less than half the power of comparable monitors, the company claims. But the G2210 and G2410 use lower-quality screens …
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, FierceWireless, DSLreports, InformationWeek, dailywireless.org and Washington Post
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.
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
CES: A Chat With Cisco CEO John Chambers — Cisco (CSCO) CEO John Chambers just might be one the most careful executives in the Valley in the way he talks to the press; in a brief chat with Tech Trader Daily at a media reception last night, he didn't give away much about his views on the state of the economy or the current quarter.
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?”
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
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
John Oates / The Register:
Ballmer tries to breathe life into Yahoo! deal — Dead! horse! flogged! — Steve Ballmer is still trying to resurrect a possible search deal with Yahoo!. — Ballmer told the FT that he thought a search deal was still possible - and that it would most likely happen when Yahoo! …
Mark Ward / BBC:
Do-it-yourself 3D movies at home — BBC News technology correspondent, Las Vegas — 3D films may soon no longer be the sole province of movie studios with big budgets. — At CES, two firms have been showing off ways for home users to make and share their own 3D films.
Jacob Schulman / Engadget:
Coby's sub-$200 netbooks handled at CES — Remember those sub-$100 Coby netbooks that we deemed a hoax? Well, it looks like they might not be as hoax-y as we originally thought. Here at CES, Coby has a bunch of base models on the show floor in a myriad of color combos.
Dianne See Morrison / paidContent.org:
Is The Rising Popularity Of The iPod Touch Cutting Into iPhone Sales? — According to early reports, the iPod Touch was a hot seller over the holidays. At the same time, sales of the mighty iPhone have been slowing in some places. Is there a connection between the two?
Discussion:
Business Week
