Top Items:
Fred / A VC:
This News Made Me Smile A Mile Wide — Like I do every morning, I logged into Techmeme to find this news: — That's an image, sorry about that, here's the link to the WSJ story, but I wanted you all to see how I heard the news. — This is so great on so many levels. Let's start with the first reason.
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Wall Street Journal:
Genachowski Picked to Head FCC — WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama intends to nominate his technology adviser Julius Genachowski to head the Federal Communications Commission, a source close to the Obama transition team said. — Mr. Genachowksi, 46, is a former Harvard Law School classmate of Mr. Obama.
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
New FCC Chief Julius Genachowski A Google Net Neutrality Shill? — Former IAC (IACI) counsel and Obama insider Julius Genachowski will be tapped by Barack Obama to run the FCC. Not a surprising pick: Julius had been working on Obama's transition team, and was once rumored to be in the running for federal CTO, only to be ruled out.
Matthew Lasar / Ars Technica:
Obama's FCC chairman pick hailed by reform groups — The media reform movement is celebrating reports that President-elect Barack Obama will nominate his tech counselor Julius Genachowski as Chair of the Federal Communications Commission. The Wall Street Journal broke the news late last night …
DigiTimes:
TSMC and UMC likely to receive orders for iPhone nano, says paper — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) will likely land chip orders for Apple's low-cost entry-level iPhone nano, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) reported today.
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Nate Lanxon / CNET News:
iTunes Plus: Everything you need to know — Apple's iTunes Store is almost completely DRM-free, and will be entirely DRM-free from spring. This means files downloaded from iTunes work on heaps of devices that aren't from Apple. What better way to celebrate the final bullet to the living corpse …
Discussion:
The Apple Core, CrunchGear, blogs.chron.com, Slashdot, Lifehacker, TECH.BLORGE.com and AppScout
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Reuters:
Sony may suffer first loss in 14 years — Slumping sales, strong yen expected to weigh on electronics giant's annual results. Stock sinks 9%. — TOKYO (Reuters) — Japan's Sony Corp will likely suffer an annual operating loss of about $1.1 billion, its first such loss in 14 years …
Discussion:
Electronista, Joystiq, Boy Genius Report, CrunchGear, Engadget, MediaMemo, Gearlog and GamesIndustry.biz
Brian Mastenbrook:
Disclosure of information vulnerability in Safari — I have discovered that Apple's Safari browser is vulnerable to an attack that allows a malicious web site to read files on a user's hard drive without user intervention. This can be used to gain access to sensitive information stored …
Discussion:
Infinite Loop, MacRumors, AppleInsider, MacBlogz, The Mac Observer, jkOnTheRun, Insanely Great Mac and TUAW
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Confirmed: Delicious Founder Joshua Schachter Joins Google — We've confirmed that Joshua Schachter, the founder of Delicious and a Yahoo exec until June 2008, joins a number of ex-Yahoo'ers at cross-town rival Google. In a phone call Schachter says he hasn't been assigned to a specific project yet …
Discussion:
Google Watch, Search Engine Watch, Webware.com, Network World, AppScout, PE Hub Blog, Silicon Alley Insider and Jobwire
Declan McCullagh / CNET News:
Obama's new BlackBerry: The NSA's secure PDA? — President-elect Barack Obama checks his BlackBerry while riding on his campaign bus in Pennsylvania last March. — (Credit: Pete Souza/ Rapport Press ) — Bill Clinton sent only two e-mail messages as president and has yet to pick up the habit.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Social Networking: Will Facebook Overtake MySpace In The U.S. In 2009? — Year end Comscore numbers for the U.S. audience are out. The first thing we checked? How the major social networks are doing. — Facebook, which became the largest worldwide social network in mid 2008 …
Andy Greenberg / Forbes:
Privacy Groups Target Android, Mobile Marketers — In a complaint to federal regulators, activists take on the nascent phone-based ad industry. — Amid the buzz surrounding the launch of Google's Android mobile platform last September, the search giant hasn't spelled out just how it will squeeze revenue from its new product.
Electronista:
Dell said nearing smartphone launch — Dell is getting closer to releasing its long-rumored first smartphone, according to a research note by Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu. Investigations within Dell's supply chain point reportedly indicate that a Dell smartphone is “closer to reality” …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
New York Court Dismisses Amazon's Objections To Paying State Taxes — Remember the Amazon Tax? Back in April, the New York State legislature passed a bill requiring Amazon to collect taxes from New York State residents even though it doesn't have a physical presence in the state (the normal requirement for retailers).
Stan Schroeder / Mashable!:
How Would You Like Your Own, Personal iPhone App? — From InfoMedia, the makers of iFart (an odd reference point, I know, but they obviously know something about creating a popular iPhone app) comes an interesting concept. — CEO of InfoMedia Joel Comm claims that the iPhone applications platform …
John Leyden / The Register:
Virus writer signs off in cordial Trojan message to MS — So long, and thanks for all the phish — An unidentified Russian virus writer has reached out to Microsoft with a message buried within a recent variant of the Zlob Trojan. The greeting in the malicious code was friendly and cordial …
Discussion:
Computerworld
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
How to Get, Install and Play With Windows 7, Pain Free — You've been thinking about installing Windows 7 Beta 1 now that it's totally available to anyone. Well, here's our complete guide to grabbing, installing and playing with Windows 7—it's (mostly) painless, so no excuses! — Are You Ready?
ZDNet:
Mashups changing the face of copyright laws — User-generated mashups are changing the face of copyright laws, which have to evolve to catch up with the Internet generation, said Mary Wong, an expert on intellectual property (IP). — The professor of law at the U.S.-based Franklin Pierce Law Center …
Maggie Shiels / BBC:
Digital rights war looms ahead — The future of digital entertainment rights could turn into a battleground for control in the coming months. — In one corner is Apple, the largest music retailer in the United States. — And in the other is DECE, a US consortium of entertainment …
Google Mac Blog:
Search Without Effort: The Quick Search Box — One of our goals at Google is to make your search experience as fluid as possible. While much of our work is focused on Google.com, we're trying to make it just as easy to search outside your browser. — For the last year, we have been working on a new, open-source quick search box.
Jennifer Van Grove / Mashable!:
Did CNN Live Snub Twitter in Favor of Facebook? — CNN and Facebook are partnering to bring you live Inauguration coverage intermixed with Facebook status updates from your friends. It's a neat idea that we happen to love, but with Twitter becoming the standard source for live updates …
Kevin Poulsen / Threat Level:
Hardware Hacker Charged With Selling Cable Modems That Get Free Broadband — Update — In the first case of its kind, a Pennsylvania man faces federal criminal charges for allegedly selling hacked cable modems capable of stealing free, anonymous internet service from broadband providers.
Matt Peckham / PC World:
Could World of Warcraft be a College Class? — If World of Warcraft were a college course, would you enroll? David Friedman, an academic economist “who teaches at a law school and has never taken a course for credit in either field” hopes so. He's laid out a few reasons why he thinks …
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Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Mobile Payments Getting Traction On Social Networks, But Fees Are Sky High — Users are increasingly choosing dead simple SMS mobile payments for micro-transactions on social network applications and gaming sites (it fills the void while they wait for more direct options), but super-high transaction fees are limiting growth.
Lester Haines / The Register:
Danish SWAT team surrounds PlayStation shoot-'em-up — Apartment block ‘gunfire’ incident — A couple of Danish gamers indulging in some light PlayStation shoot-'em-up action were on Saturday night treated to a visit by uniformed blokes carrying real guns after concerned neighbours called in the cops.
John Leyden / The Register:
AVG snaps up behaviour-based threat detection firm — Sana move in uncertain times — AVG, the net security firm best known for its free-of-charge anti-virus tool, has bought anti-ID theft software firm Sana Security. Financial terms of the deal, announced Tuesday, were undisclosed.
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eWeek
