Top Items:
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
With an official description, Google Drive is more real than ever — Almost everyday now brings a new hint into what Google is planning for its “GDrive” online storage service. Today, a piece of code found in the Google Pack software bundle includes both a product category and description for GDrive.
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Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
First Official Description of GDrive — Brian Ussery noticed an interesting reference to GDrive in a file used by Google Pack. The file includes “localized information which is sent to translators”. — The product category for GDrive is “online file backup and storage” and there are two lines that describe the application:
Brian Ussery / beu blog:
GDrive — “Online file backup and storage... GDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents... GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device - be it from your desktop, web browser or cellular phone”.
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Is Dell's Phone Called The MePhone? (DELL) — We've received a few tips from someone who claims to be close to Dell (DELL) about the company's entry into the smartphone market. We don't know if they're true, but they're not unreasonable, so we decided to share them for discussion.
Discussion:
Boy Genius Report, GigaOM, I4U News, VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal, Telecompetitor, Newsome.Org, wmpoweruser.com, MacDailyNews, 9 to 5 Mac, Computerworld Blogs and Crave
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Daniel Ionescu / PC World:
Dell to Make Google and Microsoft Phones - Really? — Just when you thought there are enough not-so-good looking and overrated phones out there, Dell is said to announce two iPhone and Blackberry competitors sometime next month. Code named MePhone (hopefully not the final name) …
Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo:Dell Builds Prototype Android and Windows Mobile Phones, May Finally Sell Them
Discussion:
Boing Boing Gadgets, Engadget, MobileBurn.com, Gadget Lab, Electronic Pulp and Pocket PC Thoughts.com
Scobleizer:
Zuckerberg: Facebook's “intense” year — Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, in a tie? Oh my. — If you know Mark you know he's a pretty casual dresser. Usually seen in T-shirt, jeans, and sandals. — But not here at the World Economic Forum where we walked around downtown Davos …
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Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Mark Zuckerberg's sentiment engine? — It's sort of cute, really: blogger Robert Scoble went on a nice snowy stroll with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg while the two were in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum. — Of course, he wrote about it.
MediaShift:
Warning: Dependence on Facebook, Twitter Could Be Hazardous to Your Business — You've probably heard how much the micro-blogging service Twitter can help your business, or that being on social networking site Facebook can boost your company's profile. But what you might not have considered …
Discussion:
Beyond Search
TechCrunch:
The Economy According To Mint — Aaron Patzer is the CEO and founder of Mint.com, a personal finance site that helps 900,000 consumers keep track of their spending. Mint's data is a snapshot of the consumer economy. In the guest post below, Aaron parses the data to tell us what the economy looks like from consumer's eyes.
Long Zheng / istartedsomething:
Sacrificing security for usability: UAC security flaw in Windows 7 beta (with proof of concept code) — This is dedicated to every ignorant “tech journalist” who cried wolf about UAC in Windows Vista. A change to User Account Control (UAC) in Windows 7 (beta) to make it “less annoying” …
Discussion:
CrunchGear, Hardware 2.0, Within Windows, Windows Connected, Neowin.net, Electronic Pulp and Channel 10, Thanks:longzheng
Stephen Shankland / Webware.com:
Google fakes out Hotmail for Chrome support — Google has added a patch to its latest beta and stable versions of Chrome to make the browser work better with Microsoft's Hotmail site. — With the patch, Chrome tells Microsoft's site it's actually Apple's Safari browser …
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Kevin Poulsen / Threat Level:
Fannie Mae Logic Bomb Would Have Caused Weeklong Shutdown — A logic bomb allegedly planted by a former engineer at mortgage finance company Fannie Mae last fall would have decimated all 4,000 servers at the company, causing millions of dollars in damage and shutting down Fannie Mae for a least a week, prosecutors say.
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Michael Learmonth / AdAge:
ABC Says Web Viewers Will Tolerate Twice the Ads — How Long Before an Online TiVo? — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The web is about to get a little more like TV — minus the ad-skipping. ABC.com has started to peddle research that shows online viewers will tolerate shows such as “Grey's Anatomy” …
David Schlesinger / Full Disclosure:
Twittering away standards or tweeting the future of journalism? — I've been tweeting from the World Economic Forum, using the microblogging platform Twitter to discuss the mundane (describing crepuscular darkness of the Swiss Alps at 5 a.m.) or the interesting (live tweeting from presentations).
Discussion:
The FASTForward Blog
Times of India:
Rs 500 laptop display on Feb 3 — Text: — NEW DELHI: A $10 laptop (Rs 500) prototype, with 2 GB RAM capacity, would be on display in Tirupati on February 3 when the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Techology is launched.
Roger A. Grimes / Security Adviser:
Browser security wars — Looking for a magic bullet against malware? You won't find it in a browser. Roger A. Grimes tested all the major browsers (and some that aren't so major) and found that the browsers are probably safer than your computing practices are
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
11 Business Plans For Twitter — Start the slideshow — Deadline for entry into our Create Twitter's Revenue Model contest is up and we thought we'd share some of the best entries. We haven't decided on a winner yet, so check them out and let us know what you think.
Thanks:indiatweets
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Once Again, You Don't Get To Use DMCA Takedowns To Remove Any Content You Don't Like — from the it-has-to-be-copyright-infringement- of-your-content dept — Michael Geist has the latest example of what appears to be a company abusing the DMCA takedown process to try to quiet the speech …
Ben Kuchera / Ars Technica:
Gears of War DRM screwup makes PC version unplayable — It seems that the DRM on Gears of War came with a built-in shut off date: the digital certificate for the game was only good until January 28, 2009. Now that the game fails to work unless you adjust your system's clock, what's Epic's response?
Dave Morin / Facebook Developers:
Facebook Connect and Apple's iPhoto '09 — At Facebook, we think that photos are one of the most powerful ways to connect and share with friends. Since 2005, Facebook Photos has given users a chance to share rich experiences with their friends who are on and off Facebook.
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
The Handset Market Is Getting Darwinian — The economic downturn knocked the wind out of the handset market in the third and fourth quarters of 2008, resulting in shipments of 1.2 billion handsets for the year and overall growth of just 5.4 percent, according to data released today from ABI Research.
Associated Press:
Swiss police spy marijuana field with Google Earth — ZURICH, Switzerland - Swiss police said Thursday they stumbled across a large marijuana plantation while using Google Earth, the search engine company's satellite mapping software. — Police said the find was part of a bigger investigation …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, TECH.BLORGE.com, Electricpig.co.uk, GPS Obsessed, Gizmodo, CrunchGear and InformationWeek
Neil McAllister / Fatal Exception:
The case against Web apps — Five reasons why Web-based development might not be the best choice for your enterprise. — For most of us, especially given these tough economic times, for the Web to have become the platform of choice for enterprise application development seems like a no-brainer.
Discussion:
Slashdot
internetnews.com:
Super Bowl 09: Social Media Hits the Gridiron — Twitter, YouTube, Facebook — round up the usual suspects! Super Sunday is going to be a Web 2.0 extravaganza. — There's an old saw about the Super Bowl that the game itself is really just an excuse to watch the ads.
Discussion:
ClickZ
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
Rumor: Sony PS4 Plans Leaked, And It Targets Casual Gamers (SNE) — Take this one with a massive dose of skepticism, folks: A site we're not familiar with called gamingfront.net claims to have a leaked report from inside Sony (SNE) explaining the technical specs and thinking behind the so-called PS4, successor console to the PS3.
Thanks:anjrued
Antone Gonsalves / InformationWeek:
Samsung Touts Highest Density Memory Chip — Samsung is targeting manufacturers' new generation of “green” PCs with its new technology, which will be used in servers, workstations, desktops, and laptops. — Samsung Electronics on Thursday said it has used its 50-nanometer circuit technology …
