Top Items:
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM Daily:
Surprise! VC Funding Fell Off a Cliff in Q4 — As expected, the venture industry is seeing the fallout from the economic crisis, with fourth-quarter investments dropping to a total of $5.4 billion invested in 818 companies, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers …
Discussion:
TechCrunch
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John Cook / TechFlash:
Is the sky falling? VC investments plunge 82 percent in Washington — Venture capital investments in the state fell to the lowest level in more than a decade last quarter, yet another sign that the economic meltdown is having a negative effect on the state's high-tech industry.
Discussion:
The Technology Chronicles
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
General availability for the Windows 7 Beta to end — First off: thank you for your interest in beta testing Windows 7! As we near January 24th, we wanted to update everyone again on the next steps for the Windows 7 Beta. The amount of feedback we have received has been amazing and continues to pour in.
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Elisabeth Lewin / Podcasting News:
Zune Death Watch: Microsoft Zune Revenues Plummet — Microsoft has revealed in a Security and Exchange Commission filing that the company's Zune revenue in the 4th quarter of 2008 was less than half of what it was the previous year. — According to the filing, “Zune platform revenue decreased $100 million …
Discussion:
Engadget, Beyond Binary, Digits, Technologizer, Digital Daily, Byte of the Apple, TechSpot, Insanely Great Mac, Electronista and ParisLemon
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Al Gore headlining Google event: Google Ocean? — Layoffs and other expense controls show that Google isn't immune to mundane economic realities. But the company's cool factor is still intact, judging by the fact that it signed up former Vice President Al Gore to speak at a Google Earth event next month.
Connie Loizos / PE Hub Blog:
Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Slow It Down — Four firms that ranked among the top 10 most active U.S. venture firms in each of the first three quarters of 2008 didn't make the top 10 list in the fourth quarter of last year, according to new Thomson Reuters' data.
Discussion:
VentureBeat
Verizon:
February 1: Verizon Wireless Reimagines The Home Phone — Innovative Verizon Hub Helps Manage Busy Lives and Helps Users Stay Connected to Family and Community — BASKING RIDGE, NJ — In a dynamic move sure to rattle devotees of plain old home phones, Verizon Wireless will introduce the new Verizon Hub on Feb. 1.
Discussion:
CrunchGear, Phone Scoop, FierceVoIP, Boy Genius Report, Between the Lines, VoIP & Gadgets Blog, Engadget, Gizmodo, PhoneNews.com and Gadget Lab
Benjamin J. Romano / Microsoft Pri0:
Senator wants Microsoft to preserve American jobs over those of foreign guest workers — Update after the jump. — U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Thursday expressing concern over how the company may go about its layoffs.
ms datacenters:
Building a Better Mousetrap a.k.a. Optimizing for Maximum Efficiency in an Economic Downturn — By Arne Josefsberg and Mike Manos, January 23, 2009 — As you might have read in Microsoft's Q2 FY09 earnings release yesterday, the company has announced cost management initiatives due to the global economic downturn.
Discussion:
Data Center Knowledge
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Chris Ziegler / Engadget Mobile:
AT&T dropping unlimited data and messaging to $30 — Info's flowing fast and furious on this whole MEdia Net thing now, and it turns out that there's more than just a name change involved. MEdia Basic, MEdia Works, MEdia Max 200, and MEdia Net 1MB are all going away (one megabyte, seriously? …
Discussion:
DSLreports, Boy Genius Report, Gizmodo, IntoMobile, Electronista, Silicon Alley Insider, techblog.dallasnews.com and The Toybox
CircleID:
Network Solutions Under Large Scale DDoS Attack, Millions of Websites Potentially Unreachable — “DNS queries for web sites should be responding normally. Thank you all for your understanding. As always, we will continue to work to take measures to prevent these and other types …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
ComScore: Internet Population Passes One Billion; Top 15 Countries — The number of people on the Internet surpassed one billion in December, according to comScore. The actual number is probably higher than that (Internet World Stats counted nearly 1.5 billion Web surfers worldwide as of June 30, 2008).
Discussion:
CNET News, dailywireless.org, Obsessable, internetnews.com, SitePoint, Search Engine Journal, Digital Daily, Profy and digg.com
Ben Kuchera / Opposable Thumbs:
Exclusive: Microsoft to get Resident Evil 5 bundle, red 360s — “Do you really have to go?” my wife asked. It was late, and the night was still. I put on my press hat, grabbed my notebook and, after a moment's hesitation, my revolver. — “Yes. He always gives me good information, and the Mole-signal is lit.”
Jim Goldman / Tech Check with Jim Goldman:
Apple nano Owners Gettin' A Little Extra ‘Scratch’ — Four years in the making, it looks like those early adopters of the Apple [AAPL Loading... () ] iPod nano will be getting a little relief, in the form of a $22 million class-action suit filed against the company because the devices scratched too easily.
Discussion:
Macworld, Technologizer, iLounge, CNET News, The Toybox, TheAppleBlog, Obsessable, AppleInsider, Infinite Loop, 9 to 5 Mac and MacRumors
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Palm to Apple: Bring It … Though Apple COO Tim Cook didn't mention any companies by name in his recent warning to those who would take liberties with Apple's intellectual property, it was clear to whom he was referring: Palm. — Palm, whose new Pre handset, though built around …
Discussion:
Byte of the Apple, Technologizer, DailyTech, Gadget Lab, Reuters, VentureBeat, The Technology Chronicles, techblog.dallasnews.com, CrunchGear, SlashGear, Boy Genius Report, Gizmodo, ChannelWeb, GPS Obsessed, Mobility Site, AppleInsider, BUZZ NEWSROOM, The Apple Core, Between the Lines, Boing Boing Gadgets, Electronista, ZDNet Government, Pre Community, PalmAddicts, iPhone Buzz, Engadget, 9 to 5 Mac, Pocket-lint.co.uk and Gearlog
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Skype Sees a Bright Future; Will It Be Spun Off? — When asked by Wall Street analysts if eBay was going to spin out Skype, CEO John Donahue answered with something that resembled a maybe. In a comment worthy of a former consultant, Donahue said, “I think we are now confident …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Microsoft's game studios take a beating in layoffs; flight sim studio closure confirmed — Amid the news that Microsoft is laying off 5,000 people over the next 18 months, sources report that the game division has taken its share of the beating. — Gamasutra reports that the Flight Simulator studio …
Discussion:
Technologizer, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, AppScout, Kotaku, Switched, Obsessable, Guardian, The Microsoft Blog, GMSV, TechFlash, Gizmodo, All about Microsoft, Microsoft Pri0, Xbox 360 Fanboy, CNET News and Joystiq
Daniel Terdiman / CNET News:
Are today's Macs related to the Mac Daddy? — The MacBook Air seems a long way off from the original Macintosh. But according to some, there remains some hereditary DNA from its 1984-era ancestor. — (Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News) — What is a Macintosh?
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
In The Valley, Even Stanford GSB Feels The Pinch — Stanford University's Graduate School of Business earlier this month laid off 49 employees, or 12% of its staff, due to a $15 million revenue shortfall, or about 10% of its annual budget, according to Palo Alto Online, which is published by the Palo Alto Weekly.
Nancy Gohring / PC World:
Monster.com Reports Theft of User Data — Monster.com is advising its users to change their passwords after data including e-mail addresses, names and phone numbers were stolen from its database. — The break-in comes just as the swelling ranks of the unemployed are turning to sites like Monster.com to look for work.
Andrew LaVallee / Digits:
Obama's Black-Ops BlackBerry — It appears that President Barack Obama gets to keep his BlackBerry after all, but some experts are questioning whether the Research In Motion device will provide enough security for the president. — At a press conference Thursday, a White House spokesman …
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
The First Ever Apple Computer Running Windows — Yesterday we missed this in our look at the first review of Windows ever: Here's the first known photo of an Apple computer running Windows 1.0 software. Yes, Mr. Bootcamp, Windows on Apple in 1983. — It wasn't a Macintosh …
Discussion:
Windows Vista Weblog
Noam Cohen / Bits:
Wikipedia May Restrict Public's Ability to Change Entries — Stung by criticism after vandals changed Wikipedia entries to erroneously report that Senators Edward Kennedy and Robert Byrd had died, Wikipedia appears ready to introduce a system that prevents new and anonymous users …
Discussion:
Capitol Briefing
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
‘Vista Capable’ case could cost Microsoft $8.5B — Expert estimates damages based on 19.4 million Vista Capable PCs — Computerworld) Microsoft Corp. would have to come up with as much as $8.5 billion to settle accounts with the customers affected by its 2006 “Vista Capable” marketing program …
Discussion:
Electronista, Technologizer, ChannelWeb, Obsessable, CrunchGear, BUZZ NEWSROOM and Tynan on Tech
Google Watch:
Google CEO Hints at Semantic, Contextual Search — With financial analysts, online ad-focused press and pundits bowing to Google's fourth quarter success, a jaw-dropping feat considering the recession and woes of rivals Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL, Google CEO Eric Schmidt discussed …
