Top Items:
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google Ends Google Video Uploads, Shutters Notebook, Catalog Search, Dodgeball & Jaiku — Google's announced they're closing or ceasing development of a variety of products as part of an already continuing move to keep efforts focused on other products with greater usage.
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Vic Gundotra / Google Code Blog:
Changes for Jaiku and Farewell to Dodgeball and Mashup Editor — Google has long believed that thoughtful iteration is the best way to build useful products for our users. As part of that process, we are always looking for ways to better focus our teams on the products that can have the most impact.
Laszlo Bock / The Official Google Blog:
Changes to recruiting — As we made clear during our last quarterly earnings call in October, Google is still hiring but at a reduced rate. Given the state of the economy, we recognized that we needed fewer people focused on hiring. — Our first step to address this was to wind down almost …
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Google's new years revolution: Six products slashed or maimed — Well, Google picked a good day to announce layoffs and kill a bunch of products. While everyone is busy reading about Apple chief executive Steve Jobs' leave of absence for health related issues, Google has more or less killed six of its products.
Raj Krishnan / Notebook Blog:
Stopping development on Google Notebook — At Google, we're constantly working to innovate and improve our products so people can easily find and manage information. At times though, we have to decide where to focus our efforts and which technologies we expect will yield the most benefit to users in the long run.
Discussion:
PC World, Webware.com, Digital Inspiration, Newsome.Org, Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com and Search Engine Journal
Michael Cohen / Google Video Blog:
Turning Down Uploads at Google Video — At Google, we like to launch early, launch often, and to iterate our products. Occasionally, this means we have to re-evaluate our efforts and make difficult decisions to be sure we focus on products that make the most sense for our users.
Apple:
Apple Media Advisory — Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple employees: — Team, — I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues …
Discussion:
Apple 2.0, Forbes, Music Ally, Neowin.net, PhoneDog.com Cell …, PC World, I4U News, Computerworld, The Ponderings of Woodrow, geeksugar, mobilesyrup.com, Silicon Alley Insider, Digits, TUAW, Gadget Lab, MacDailyNews, VatorNews, Contentinople, Tech Sanity Check, Open Sources, TidBITS, RCR Wireless News, Network World, InformationWeek, InfoWorld, iLounge and Homotron.net
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Bloomberg:
Tim Cook: the man in Steve Job's shoes — Apple Inc. founder and chief executive Officer Steve Jobs is prone to fits of passion, table pounding and screaming. — Tim Cook, who will oversee the company while Jobs takes medical leave, never raises his voice. Still, Cook's management style won't be a shift for employees.
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Steve Jobs Takes Leave (AAPL) — Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs will take a medical leave of absence until the end of June. Apple COO Tim Cook will take over for Steve until then. Apple shares are down about 7% in after-hours trading. — The Latest: — Apple Without Jobs: Fine For Now, But...
Discussion:
TUAW, MethodShop, DealBook, Boy Genius Report, AppleInsider, Tech Broiler, Phone Arena, Reuters, Gawker, Gizmodo, Rational rants, CNBC.com, Associated Press, Computerworld, Beyond Binary, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, Digital Daily, VentureBeat, louisgray.com, ChasNote, Obsessable, Ars Technica and The Toybox
John Carney / Silicon Alley Insider:Apple Shareholders Suits Coming In 10, 9, 8, 7...
Discussion:
dot.life blog
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Fake Steve Jobs Banned From CNBC For Life — Newsweek's Dan Lyons — “Fake Steve Jobs” — is banned from CNBC for life because of his appearance on the cable network earlier this evening, we have learned. — In a special report about Steve Jobs' stepping down from day-to-day operations at Apple …
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Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
On Apple Reporting: Fake Steve Rips CNBC a New One — When this rumor broke we got raked across the coals by Jimbo over sources. Wrongly. UPDATE: Video clip of Fake Steve Jobs asking Jim to apologize on CNBC. Now he's banned. — Here's Dan Lyons, AKA, Fake Steve Jobs on CNBC …
Jim Goldman / Tech Check with Jim Goldman:For Apple's Jobs, What a Difference a Week Makes
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, Guardian, Gizmodo, BloggingStocks, CNET News, MacDailyNews and rizzn's personal blog
WebOS Arena:
Best Buy to be Palm Pre's exclusive retailer — We received news from a credible source that Best Buy Mobile will be getting an exclusive deal with Sprint for the Palm Pre release. For 60 days the number one consumer electronics retailer will be the only place where you can get your hands on the Palm Pre, besides Sprint of course.
Nick Wingfield / Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft Is Exploring Job Cuts — Microsoft Corp. is seriously exploring significant work force reductions that could be announced as early as next week, in a sign that the weak economy is prompting tough decisions even at one of the steadiest ships in the technology industry.
Discussion:
Digital Daily, SlashGear, InformationWeek, Electronista, Microsoft Pri0, Engadget, Beyond Binary, Silicon Alley Insider, TechFlash and paidContent.org
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
How Warner Music Killed Facebook Music — Facebook's ongoing effort to launch a free streaming music service is stalled, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation. The company was close to a deal that would bring free streaming music from three of the four big labels …
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Mark Milian / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Rose to co-host live Web game show at Sundance — If you're attending the annual Sundance Film Festival, which kicks off Thursday in Park City, Utah, don't be alarmed by the person running around with a canned ham or the lunatic who seems convinced that Ashton Kutcher …
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Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Facebook Blows A Whopper Of An Opportunity — Burger King, through their insanely creative advertising agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky (see their recent Burger King perfume launch), launches a Facebook application that encourages users to remove Facebook friends. Sacrifice ten of them and you got a free Whopper.
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Dusan Belic / IntoMobile:
PerfectStorm theme makes your iPhone look like the BlackBerry Storm — Here's a cool theme for BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM)-to-iPhone switchers. The so called PerfectStorm brings the BlackBerry Storm look and feel to the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) iPhone. And while I don't personally like Storm's icons …
Discussion:
BerryReview.com
Cat Keynes / The Register:
China's three-horse mobile bet: Repeating America's mistakes — Incompatibility, high costs... who's really losing out? — Column China has just awarded 3G contracts - three of them. The numbers of subscribers there already is huge, with ten times as many mobile subscribers as there are people …
Craig Simms / CNET News:
Dell 2209WA — Design and features — Dell's 2209WA is a screen, we expect, that will be snapped up rather quickly. It's an eIPS based, 22-inch screen with a resolution of 1,680x1,050, 300cd/m⊃2; brightness, 1,000:1 typical contrast ratio monitor, with a 6ms grey-to-grey response time — and it's only AU$459.
Discussion:
Engadget
Alistair Croll / GigaOM:
Identi.ca Gets Funding to Make Open-source Twitter Variant — Identi.ca's plans to build an open-source alternative to Twitter got a vote of confidence this week with an investment from the VCs at Montreal Start Up. While the amount of the financing wasn't disclosed, Montreal Start …
