Top Items:
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.
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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 Microsoft Blog, paidContent.org, Between the Lines, Data Center Knowledge and MarketingVOX
Benjamin J. Romano / Microsoft Pri0:
Microsoft cutting 1,400 jobs today; up to 5,000 in next 18 months as recession hits harder — In a press release issued moments ago, Microsoft announced that it is cutting up to 5,000 jobs in research and development, marketing, sales, finance, legal, human resources and IT in the next 18 months, starting with 1,400 today.
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:Microsoft to cut 5,000 jobs
Discussion:
HardwareGeeks RSS Feed …
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:
eWeek, PC World, Quick Online Tips, Feld Thoughts, TechFlash, Gearlog, Geek News Central, Smalltalk Tidbits … and Associated Press
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.
Apple:
Apple Reports First Quarter Results — Best Quarterly Revenue and Earnings in Apple History — iPod Sales Set New Record — Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 first quarter ended December 27, 2008. The Company posted record revenue of $10.17 billion …
Discussion:
DailyTech, PhoneReport v2.0, I4U News, Wall Street Journal, Local Mobile Search, The Register, Gearlog, Bits, Technologizer, MacBlogz, TechFlash, TECH.BLORGE.com, Infinite Loop, RCR Wireless News, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Apple Watch, Apple TV Junkie - HD, InformationWeek, Tech Central, Kevin Restivo's Tech Blog, MacDailyNews, PC World, Apple 2.0, Apple, AppleInsider, Gizmodo, Engadget, VentureBeat, TidBITS, 148AppsNews Archives, 9 to 5 Mac, paidContent, MacRumors, Insanely Great Mac, paidContent.org, Between the Lines, BloggingStocks, mocoNews.net and techblog.dallasnews.com
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Marc Ambinder:
Obama Will Get His Blackberry — President Barack Obama is going to get his blackberry. — On Monday, a government agency that the Obama administration — but that is probably the National Security Agency — added to a standard blackberry a super-encryption package. …
Violet Blue / San Francisco Chronicle:
A Twitter Sex Guide — Violet Blue: A Twitter Sex Guide — Do you Tweet during sex? You might moan or squeal, but even if you've never heard of the free, minimalist social networking service that allows users to write, send and post to the Internet short messages via devices ranging from phones to laptops via SMS (text).
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
Best Yet: OS 4.7.0.90 Leaked for the Storm 9530 & 9500! — So long .86! Another week, another leaked OS for the BlackBerry Storm. Can I hear a w00t?! A helpful friend put OS 4.7..90 into the wild for the both the BlackBerry Storm 9530 and 9500 and the initial impressions …
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Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Nokia Cuts '09 View After Grim Q4 Report; Stock Slides — Nokia (NOK) this morning reported a dismal Q4 - and forecast more grim days ahead. — The world's largest handset maker posted sales of 12.67 billion Euros, down 19.5% from 15.7 billion a year ago. Revenue was up 3% sequentially.
Wall Street Journal:
Even in Test Form, Windows 7 Leaves Vista in the Dust — This will be a big year for new operating systems. Apple plans a new version of its Macintosh operating system, to be called Snow Leopard. Palm plans an all-new smart phone operating system called Palm WebOS.
David Jolly / New York Times:
Sony Expects $3 Billion Loss for the Year — Sony, the Japanese electronics company, said Thursday that it expected to post a record annual operating loss of nearly $3 billion because of the rapid deterioration of the global economy. It also announced a major restructuring that will include layoffs and factory closings.
Discussion:
paidContent.org, Silicon Alley Insider, CNET News, Financial Times, Digital Daily, Bloomberg and Reuters
Claire Cain Miller / New York Times:
Publisher Rethinks the Daily: It's Free and Printed and Has Blogs All Over — SAN FRANCISCO — Amid the din of naysayers who insist that newspapers are on the verge of death, a new company wants to start dozens of new ones — with a twist. — The Printed Blog, a Chicago start-up …
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
Giz Explains: Why the Windows 7 Taskbar Beats Mac OS X's Dock — Yeah, I said it. The Windows 7 taskbar is the most important Windows UI change since Windows 95, and it will dramatically change the way you use Windows. And it's better than the Mac's Dock.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Exclusive: YouTube Will Soon Let Big Content Partners Bring Their Own Ads — Big media companies have always had a love-hate relationship with YouTube. They don't know whether to sue YouTube for abetting copyright infringement or get in bed with it because it is the biggest Web video game in town.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
YAHOO=Yet Another Hiring Over and Out (Hadley Heads Back to Microsoft) — One of Yahoo's top marketing execs, Eric Hadley, who came to the company with a lot of acclaim in only November, is set to leave for a new job in working in branding and global marketing for Microsoft's MSN online service, several sources said.
Smashing Magazine:
More Web Design Trends For 2009 — Last week we presented 10 Web Design Trends For 2009, our review of the most promising developments and techniques in web design that may become big in 2009. In the first part we covered embossing letters ("letterpress"), rich user interfaces, PNG transparency …
Daniel Terdiman / CNET News:
EA shows ‘Creature Keeper,’ ‘Spore’ for kids — SAN FRANCISCO—Electronic Arts said Wednesday that it plans this summer to release an all-new, stand-alone version of Spore for kids. — The new game, which will allow multiple children to play together in a very Spore-like universe …
Discussion:
VentureBeat
HTC:
ALL NEW HTC TOUCH CRUISE WITH HTC FOOTPRINTS™ HELPS CAPTURE AND RELIVE LIFE'S JOURNEYS — Compact and Sophisticated Design Delivers an Advanced Location-Based Experience That Changes How People View Their Locations and Memories — HTC Corporation, a global leader in mobile phone innovation …
Ed Felten / Freedom to Tinker:
DRM In Retreat — Last week's agreement between Apple and the major record companies to eliminate DRM (copy protection) in iTunes songs marks the effective end of DRM for recorded music. The major online music stores are now all DRM-free, and CDs still lack DRM, so consumers who acquire music will now expect it without DRM.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Skype's Growth Starts to Slow — eBay today turned in a lukewarm performance for the fourth quarter of 2008, posting sales of $2.04 billion vs. an average forecast of $2.12 billion. Earnings per share were a penny better than expected, at 40 cents a share.
Discussion:
FierceVoIP, Communications …, Skype Journal, WebProNews, 24/7 Wall St., VentureBeat, Mercury News and Tech Trader Daily
Jenna Wortham / Bits:
Polaroid Fans Try Making New Film for Old Cameras — Before the advent of the digital camera, Polaroid reigned supreme when it came to photographs you could view in an instant. When the company announced last year that it would cease film production and abandon the technology that made it famous …
Discussion:
Imaging Insider
Bill Ray / The Register:
Oprah slow to Kindle - fans left out in cold — What, no O? — Oprah fans who bought into the electronic book revolution for Christmas have been disappointed to find that less than half of Winfrey's recommended books have gone electronic, and the chat show goddess hasn't even put her own magazine O onto an e-ink screen.
Discussion:
TeleRead
William M. Bulkeley / Wall Street Journal:
IBM Employees Report Job Cuts — Affiliate of Communications Union Cites ‘Resource Action’ at Some Sites — International Business Machines Corp. employees have informed Alliance@IBM, an affiliate of the Communication Workers of America, that workers at a number of locations have been told their jobs are being eliminated.
