Top Items:
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:
Tech Sanity Check, Gadget Lab, Silicon Alley Insider, PC World, mobilesyrup.com, The Ponderings of Woodrow, PhoneDog.com Cell …, geeksugar, Digits, I4U News, Computerworld, TidBITS, RCR Wireless News, Forbes, Rational rants, TUAW, InfoWorld, iLounge, VentureBeat, VatorNews, Homotron.net, Contentinople, Apple 2.0, WebProNews, Creative Capital, MacDailyNews, Industry Standard, Scobleizer, The Drama 2.0 Show, Digital Daily, Open Sources, InformationWeek, AppleInsider, Tech Beat and Network World
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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:
Boy Genius Report, Reuters, Gawker, Tech Broiler, AppleInsider, Gizmodo, Phone Arena, CNBC.com, Associated Press, Computerworld, Beyond Binary, ChasNote, Digital Daily, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, Coolest Gadgets, TechCrunch UK, The iPhone Blog, Ars Technica, Obsessable, GigaOM, VentureBeat, louisgray.com, The Toybox, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Guardian, The Register, WinExtra, Epicenter and Apple 2.0
Yukari Iwatani Kane / Wall Street Journal:
Apple's Steve Jobs Takes Medical Leave — Just a week after reassuring investors and employees about his health, Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs disclosed he has a “more complex” medical condition and would take a leave of absence until the end of June.
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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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.
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.
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, Technologizer, VentureBeat, B. Mann Consulting, Mashable!, Google Operating System, nokiAAddict.com and The Blog Herald
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 …
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 …
Discussion:
PC World, CNET News, Silicon Alley Insider, InformationWeek, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Engadget, VentureBeat and Tech Beat
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The Official Google Blog:
Changes to engineering — At Google we recognized early on that branching out beyond Mountain View was key to building innovative products for users everywhere. That's why we put so much effort into hiring outstanding engineers in a wide mix of countries.
Owen Thomas / Gawker:
Google's Loss of Innocence: 100 Jobs Cut — The Magical Kingdom of Larry and Sergey has laid off 100 full-time recruiters, a tipster tells us. Inevitable, given the economy. But a crushing blow to Google's self-image as a kinder-than-thou employer. — In the last dotcom bust …
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.
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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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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Jeff Widman / TechCrunchIT:
Salesforce.com Launches The Service Cloud, A Customer Service SaaS Application — These days, when I have technical question, I reach for Google long before customer service. What if customer service could reach for Google? — Salesforce.com just launched a new customer service application called Service Cloud.
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Windows 7 on older hardware: A Catch 22 for Microsoft — There are a few bloggers wondering aloud about how well Windows 7 ultimately is going to run on older hardware. That's an interesting question, given Microsoft's symbiotic relationship with its hardware partners who constantly …
Brent Frei / Smartsheet:
Value Investing? Answer: Invest in Yourself — The last 8 months I've gone few days without an investment-related question from a friend, colleague or distant relative. Should I stay in? Should I get out? Where should I invest? Should I maintain a cash position? What about T-bills?
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Gmail Grew 43 Percent Last Year. AOL Mail And Hotmail Need To Start Worrying. — Google launched Gmail only four years ago, and it is now the fourth most popular e-mail service on the Web after Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, and Windows Live Hotmail. In 2008, it saw some serious growth …
Discussion:
The Microsoft Blog
YouTube Blog:
User Choice and Music Licensing — Music licensing can get very complicated, but we try to make your experience as simple as possible. We want you to have options when uploading videos with music in them. And if your video is subject to a copyright claim, you should have some choices too.
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Lala, Qloud may be leading contenders for Facebook music deal — Two online music companies are leading contenders for a partnership with Facebook on its prospective streaming music initiative, I'm hearing. Lala and Qloud — not the most prominent companies Facebook has talked to about a potential deal.
Discussion:
TechCrunch
Bob Walsh / Webware.com:
GoDaddy.com outage takes sites offline — A distributed denial-of-service attack turned dark at least several thousand Web sites hosted by GoDaddy.com Wednesday morning. The outage was intermittent over several hours, according to Nick Fuller, GoDaddy.com communications manager.
Stephanie Condon / CNET News:
Democrats' 2009 legislative plan: Net neutrality, copyright rewrite — WASHINGTON—It may seem as though Congress has completely forgotten about Net neutrality, a topic that has languished in legislative purgatory since mid-2006. But a Democratic aide said Wednesday that it's likely to come back this year …
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
American Idol branding lands in Habbo — American Idol, one of the only television franchises that's truly interactive with its audience, is getting a brand extension through of a deal with the teen social network service Habbo. The match makes a lot of sense if you look at the demographics …
Discussion:
paidContent.org
Julian Sanchez / Ars Technica:
4G war, conflicts of interest loom behind possible DTV delay — Last week, President-elect Barack Obama's call for a delay in the Digital TV transition, long scheduled for February, sent tech and telecom firms into a tizzy. Both Verizon and the Consumer Electronics Association have been pushing …
