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.
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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.
Discussion:
TechFlash, Byte of the Apple, PC World, Ed Bott's Windows Expertise, Between the Lines, Search Engine Land, Beyond Binary, CNNMoney.com, Bloomberg, Reuters, Ars Technica, Financial Times, InfoWorld, Microsoft Pri0, BoomTown, 9 to 5 Mac, VatorNews, Silicon Alley Insider, All about Microsoft, Computerworld Blogs, Dealscape, Search Engine Watch, New York Times, TechCrunch, CrunchGear, Computerworld, Xconomy, Bink.nu, SlashGear, OSNews, Microsoft News Tracker and TG Daily
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft to cut 5,000 jobs — The official word on layoffs is out: Microsoft is going to cut 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months, 1,400 of them today, January 22. — From the company's Q2 earnings release: … I was predicting the Softies were going to get by simply by shuffling folks around and quietly closing groups.
Who da'Punk / Mini-Microsoft:
Microsoft Layoff 2009 - Now What? — 22 January 2009: here we are at Microsoft: realigning resources and reducing costs. And laying people off. The day that has been rumored for a month now has come. And the staff reductions I've been wanting since starting this blog back in 2004 are here …
Benjamin J. Romano / Microsoft Pri0:Majority of today's Microsoft job cuts to be in Redmond …
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
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 …
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.
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Nick / Rough Type:
All hail the information triumvirate! — I was reading an interview today with Jorge Cauz, the president of Encyclopedia Britannica, in which he describes some of the Web 2.0-y tools that the company is preparing to roll out to enable readers to contribute to the encyclopedia's content.
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.
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Ed Bott / Ed Bott's Windows Expertise:Windows 7 earns kudos from surprising sources
Discussion:
New York Times
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 …
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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 …
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 …
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Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Nokia Cuts 2009 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.
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 …
Jessan Hutchison-Quillian / Gmail Blog:
Watch videos right in Gmail chat — My friends always hate it when I multi-task in other tabs while chatting with them (they can tell because of my obviously delayed reactions...). But sometimes it's not my fault: if they send me a link to a YouTube video, I have to open another tab in order to watch it.
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
An odd choice to help government with open source strategy — In an effort to reduce rising government IT costs, the Obama administration could turn to open source software. Sun cofounder and former CEO Scott McNealy says that the Obama administration has asked him to prepare a paper …
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 …
Discussion:
Engadget, Obsessable, MobileCrunch, SlashGear, Phone Arena, IntoMobile, PalmAddicts, Engadget Mobile, BerryReview.com and mobilesyrup.com
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Apple proposes audio sensor to auto-adjust iPhone ringtones — Apple is exploring the possibility of adding an ambient sound sensor to the iPhone that would allow the handset to adjust its ringtone volume to its surrounding audio environment, which would ameliorate potentially-disruptive audio outputs.
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 …
Discussion:
Beyond Search
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
Comcast To Launch Online Backup Service - In 10, 50, or 200GB flavors...will count against new cap... Comcast insiders have informed Broadband Reports that the cable giant will soon be launching an online backup and storage service called Comcast Secure Backup and Share, for which customers can pay a monthly or yearly fee.
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).
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.
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:
So What's Up With FeedBurner Now? — As many of you know, I was very disappointed when FeedBurner was acquired by Google. The FeedBurner service had so much potential, both from the user- and publisher-side. Not to mention a great team which I had the chance to spend the day with in Chicago.
Sarah Lacy:
Google Dethroned? — by sarah lacy. — There's a truism in Silicon Valley that Peter Thiel describes in my book: No publicly-traded Internet company stays on top for more than four years. We saw it with Netscape, Yahoo, eBay, and I think we started seeing the beginnings of it with Google at the end of 2008.
