Top Items:
Sprint:
Sprint Nextel Announces Actions to Reduce Labor Costs by about $1.2 Billion — Sprint Nextel Corp. (NYSE: S) today announced that the company will take actions in the first quarter of 2009 to reduce internal and external labor costs by approximately $1.2 billion on an annualized basis.
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Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Sprint To Chop 8,000 Jobs By March 31 — Sprint Nextel (S) this morning said it will cut 8,000 jobs by March 31 as part of a program to internal and external labor costs by about $1.2 billion a year. The total includes 850 positions expected to be eliminated under a voluntary separation plan started late last year.
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Sprint to Cut 8,000 Jobs — Today, troubled Sprint Nextel ( s S) said it would eliminate 8,000 jobs, freeze salaries and cut its 401 (k) match in an effort to save $1.2 billion. Sprint has 56,000 employees today. Only 850 of the job cuts will be voluntary, and layoffs should be completed by March 31.
Discussion:
Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
RIM CEO: Buggy smartphone software is the “new reality” — While our experience says otherwise, we really hope that the practice of launching buggy smartphones hasn't been institutionalized. The Wall Street Journal just published a report about the “bumpy launch” of the BlackBerry Storm …
Discussion:
AppScout
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Wall Street Journal:
Bumpy Start for BlackBerry Storm — Verizon Wireless and Research In Motion Ltd. have high hopes for the BlackBerry Storm, which they spent nearly two years developing as their big response to Apple Inc.'s iPhone. — But despite a marketing campaign that cost more than $100 million, the smart phone has gotten off to a bumpy start.
Discussion:
CNET News, DailyTech, InformationWeek, BlackBerry Sync, Gizmodo, Electronista, IntoMobile, GigaOM, mocoNews.net, Local Mobile Search, Voices and TomsTechBlog.com
Patrick Foster / Times of London:
Music pirates will not be disconnected from the internet — Internet service providers will not be forced to disconnect users who repeatedly flout the law by illegally sharing music and video files, The Times has learnt. — Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, said last year that the Government had …
Adam Sage / Times of London:
Nintendo brain-trainer ‘no better than pencil and paper’ — A 10p pencil is just as good as a £100 Nintendo at stimulating the memory, according to a study that dismisses the DS Lite's claims to boost the brain. — The survey of ten-year-old children found no evidence to support claims …
Robin Harris / Storage Bits:
Windows kicks Linux to the curb — Gosh, that didn't take long! — Last July Linux had a huge opportunity to beat Windows in the red-hot netbook market (see Linux for housewives. XP for geeks. ). But faster than I'd expected Microsoft has kicked Linux to the curb, claiming an 80% attach rate for netbooks.
Discussion:
AppScout
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Mobile VoIP Startups Looking Beyond Cheap Calls — What do mig33, iSkoot and Truphone have in common? They are all startups that have raised gobs of money from venture capitalists. They all offer mobile VoIP clients. And now, all three are looking beyond plain vanilla voice services …
Discussion:
FierceVoIP
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Long Tail Not Dead Yet: eMusic Says It's Alive And Well — There have been a series of criticisms to Chris Anderson's concept of “The Long Tail” lately. While most don't hold up under scrutiny, a few have made some good points that don't actually go against the long tail concept, but may adjust some of how people understand it.
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Multiple Windows 7 versions coming? Say it ain't so! — These pictures supposedly come from a new build of the Windows 7 beta, 7025. It goes without saying that while we knew this was a possibility, we've been seriously wishing against it. We hope these are fake (and they very well could be) …
Matt Cutts / Gadgets, Google, and SEO:
Four Things You Need To Know About Knol — Recently Google mentioned that 100,000 different articles have been posted to Google Knol. I've been meaning to talk about Google Knol for a while, because there's a few things you need to know. It seemed especially relevant after I saw …
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Joe Wilcox / Microsoft Watch:
Can Microsoft Blame Netbooks? — Over the last two days, a couple people have told me that Microsoft largely blames year-over-year Client revenue division declines on netbooks, which most analysts refer to as mini-notebooks. Yes, netbooks can claim much, perhaps most, of the blame.
