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, TidBITS, GPS Obsessed, Tech Beat and Microsoft Watch
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 …
Who da'Punk / Mini-Microsoft:Microsoft Layoff 2009 - Now What?
Discussion:
The Register, All about Microsoft, LiveSide, Tech Central, Microsoft Watch, Gizmodo and Silicon Alley Insider
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.
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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 …
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog, Furrier.org, rizzn's socnets, BoomTown, Bits and Silicon Alley Insider
RELATED:
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, InformationWeek, Tech Beat, The Register, Gizmodo, CNET News, Obsessable, Zero Day, BetaNews, Security Fix, Computerworld, OSNews and Pocket-lint.co.uk
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. …
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 …
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 …
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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
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, GMSV, Obsessable, SitePoint, Pulse2, Epicenter, Ars Technica, WebProNews, Webware.com and the Econsultancy blog
RELATED:
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 …
Andrew Sinkov / Evernote Blog:
Welcome You Fine Google Notebook Users — Recently, Google announced that they were stopping development on Google Notebook. We're big fans of Google Notebook, in fact many of used it before Evernote came along. When we heard the news, we immediately began work on a Google Notebook import tool.
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:
Electronista, Associated Press, Reuters, CNET News, Agence France Presse, Between the Lines, Boy Genius Report and mobilesyrup.com
InfoWorld:
Samsung records Q4 loss, annual profit slumps — South Korea's Samsung Electronics recorded a net loss for the last three months of 2008, while its net profit for the entire year fell 26 percent, it said Friday. — The company's net loss for the last three months of 2008 was 22 billion won …
Dan Primack / PE Hub Blog:
Brad Garlinghouse's Next Act — When we last heard from Brad Garlinghouse, he was stepping down as Yahoo's senior VP in charge of such massive properties as Mail, Messenger, Groups and Flickr. That was around six months ago - 20 months after his infamous memo - and it seems that he's finally working on a new project.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 …
Richard Waters / Financial Times:
Sony has lost what made it special — In the glory days of the 1970s and 1980s, Sony's Inazawa factory made cathode ray tubes and sent them down the road to Ichinomiya, where they were used in Trinitron televisions and exported. — After Sony announced an unexpectedly large operating loss …
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Boxee now lets you get “Lost” in ABC content — The new season of ABC's hit show Lost premiered last night. Some people (me, for example) were busy and missed it. I was all set to buy the season pass on iTunes — but it's $50 (in HD). I'd rather watch it for free, streaming at ABC.com, but that leaves me chained to my desk.
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Plinky launches microblogging community site to help you create content — Plinky is a new microblogging service designed for people who have trouble thinking about what to blog. It helps you find and create interesting information to share and discuss. It lets you do things like create …
Chris Soghoian / CNET News:
White House exempts YouTube from privacy rules — The new Web site for Obama's White House is already drawing attention from privacy activists and tech bloggers. While the initial focus has been on the site's policies relating to search engine robots, a far more interesting tidbit …
