Top Items:
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Steve Ballmer's Entire Memo to the Microsoft Troops About Layoffs and Weak Results — Here is the full memo to employees from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (pictured here) about the 5,000 layoffs and other cost cuts just announced, due to economic slowdown, which also resulted in weak financial results for the second quarter.
Discussion:
The Register, AppleInsider, Electronista, Search Engine Watch, TidBITS, GPS Obsessed, Tech Beat and Silicon Alley Insider
RELATED:
Microsoft:
Microsoft Reports Second-Quarter Results — Modest revenue growth despite difficult economy; announces cost management initiatives. — Microsoft Corp. today announced revenue of $16.63 billion for the second quarter ended Dec. 31, 2008, a 2% increase over the same period of the prior year.
InfoWorld:
Vista main culprit in Microsoft layoffs — Windows Vista has been trouble for Microsoft perhaps since the operating system's beginning. And this last quarter was certainly no exception. Despite a dip in client software revenue, however, one analyst says the workforce reduction Microsoft detailed …
Google Investor Relations:
Google Announces Fourth Quarter And Fiscal Year 2008 Results — Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) today announced financial results for the quarter and for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2008. — “Google performed well in the fourth quarter, despite an increasingly difficult economic environment.
RELATED:
Jay Adelson / Digg the Blog:
Brief update on Digg — Wanted to reach out to folks with an update on Digg and our priorities for 2009 as well as address some of the recent speculation about our business. — As we've often stated over the past couple of months, given the current economic climate, we've made the decision …
RELATED:
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
Digg to cut workforce 10%, hire new sales team — Digg CEO Jay Adelson on Thursday morning is announcing that the social media site is laying off a “very small” portion of its workforce, but will also be hiring a new direct sales force and head of sales to drive the company to profitability this year.
Discussion:
VentureBeat
Intego:
Mac Trojan Horse OSX.Trojan.iServices.A Found in Pirated Apple iWork 09 — Exploit: OSX.Trojan.iServices.A Trojan Horse — Description: Intego has discovered a new Trojan horse, OSX.Trojan.iServices.A, which is currently circulating in copies of Apple's iWork 09 found on BitTorrent trackers …
Discussion:
Download Squad, MacRumors, The Register, Tech Beat, Gizmodo, BetaNews, CNET News, Pocket-lint.co.uk, Obsessable, Neowin.net, Zero Day, Security Fix, Computerworld and OSNews
Laszlo Bock / The Official Google Blog:
Announcing Google's Employee Option Exchange Program — Today we announced our plans to do something more for the people who are responsible for Google's success — our employees. Recognizing that about 85% of our employees have at least some stock options that are underwater (i.e. …
Discussion:
The Register, Digits, VentureBeat, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Silicon Alley Insider and TG Daily
Anne E. Kornblut / Washington Post:
Obama Staff Arrives to White House Stuck in Dark Ages of Technology — If the Obama campaign represented a sleek, new iPhone kind of future, the first day of the Obama administration looked more like the rotary-dial past. — Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign …
Discussion:
Communications …, Gearlog, eWeek, Gawker, Engadget, The Open Road, PC World, Infinite Loop, The Social Times, Gizmodo, Xbox 360 Fanboy, BUZZ NEWSROOM, Collaboration 2.0 and TUAW
RELATED:
PC Pro:
Q&A: Microsoft defends return to DRM — Microsoft yesterday unveiled its MSN Mobile Music service - and a surprise return to digital rights management (DRM). — While companies such as Apple and Amazon have finally moved to music download services free of copy protection …
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Advanced Micro Devices Q4 Even Worse Than Expected — Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) this afternoon posted even worse fourth quarter results that the Street had expected. — For the quarter, the company posted revenue of $1.162 billion, below the Street consensus of $1.23 billion, down 35% sequentially and off 33% from a year earlier.
Discussion:
Business Wire
RELATED:
Globe and Mail:
Securities watchdog pursues record fine for RIM execs — Regulator seeks up to $100-million in stock option controversy — The Ontario Securities Commission is seeking a record penalty — one that could be as high as $100-million — from the top two executives of Research In Motion Ltd …
Discussion:
Associated Press, Electronista, Reuters, Agence France Presse, Between the Lines and Boy Genius Report
RELATED:
Android Tapp:
Android Cupcake Update: The Official Word — According to an announcement by T-Mobile's Product Development and Public Relations departments, a message approved by Google sent via email to Will (T-Mobile Forums Administrator), the Cupcake update will not be released to the general public …
RELATED:
Stephen Hutcheon / Sydney Morning Herald:
Watch out Wikipedia, here comes Britannica 2.0 — Encyclopedia Britannica president Jorge Cauz. Inset: Wikipedia's cofounder Jimmy Wales. — In a move to take on Wikipedia, the Encyclopedia Britannica is inviting the hoi polloi to edit, enhance and contribute to its online version.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, ReadWriteWeb, Obsessable, GMSV, Epicenter, SitePoint, Pulse2, Ars Technica, the Econsultancy blog, WebProNews and Webware.com
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Stanford Students Release A Cool Batch Of iPhone Apps — Students from Stanford's Fall 1008 iPhone class CS193P created a nice crop of apps that are now available or will be soon for the iPhone (see our Stanford Facebook apps posts here and here). — A list of them is here, and some of them I'm going to keep on my phone.
Discussion:
Infinite Loop
Peter Ha / CrunchGear:
Fact: There is no HP Mini 1100 series — I've been exchanging e-mails with HP for the better part of the day and we have the final word on the supposed Mini 1100 series with an ExpressCard slot. It doesn't exist and it was mistake made by the Web team. This is straight from horse's mouth, people.
Jim Goldman / Tech Check with Jim Goldman:
Bartz Gets Millions; Yahoo Bails on Pay Increases for Rank and File — For the first time in its history, Yahoo [YHOO Loading... () ] has suspended scheduled pay increases for the company's rank and file, even as it signs up new CEO Carol Bartz with a pay package that some say could be worth …
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft seeking Win 7 testers for netbooks? — Microsoft has put out feelers among the beta-testing community for individuals in a number of countries outside the U.S. who'd be interested in trying Windows 7 on lower-power PCs. — It's not clear whether Microsoft's Windows team is interested …
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Republicans, wireless companies object to broadband package — Republican leaders in the House aren't thrilled with the $6 billion broadband stimulus package currently being debated. Joe Barton (R-TX) is the ranking member on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and he set the tone …
John C Abell / Epicenter:
Wired.com Image Viewer Hacked to Create Phony Steve Jobs Health Story — A widely-circulated URL which points to an image that purports to be a Wired.com story about Steve Jobs' health is a hack job. We won't provide the URL here, but the Twitterverse quickly surmised that the item was not correct.
Steve O'Hear / last100:
What if Apple sued Palm, would Microsoft come to the rescue? — When the iPhone first launched at Macworld in 2007, I distinctly remember Apple CEO Steve Jobs boasting that the company had over 200 patents on this thing. At the time, that boast stuck out like a sore thumb …
Ben Lisbakken / Google Code Blog:
Playing around with Google's AJAX APIs — For me, documentation isn't always enough to learn about APIs; I need examples that I can play with. That's why I started a fun project recently—a tool for teaching developers how to use Google's JavaScript APIs: the AJAX API Playground.
Paul Buchheit:
Communicating with code — Some people can sell their ideas with a brilliant speech or a slick powerpoint presentation. — I can't. — Maybe that's why I'm skeptical of ideas that are sold via brilliant speeches and slick powerpoints. Or maybe it's because it's too easy to overlook the messy details …
