Top Items:
Engineering Windows 7:
Our Next Engineering Milestone — Many posts start with a thank you and I want to start this post with an extra special thank you on behalf of the entire Windows team for all the installs and usage we are seeing of the Windows 7 Beta. We've had millions of installations of Windows 7 …
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Joe Wilcox / Microsoft Watch:
Next Windows 7 Milestone: Release Candidate — Can you say Windows is shipping sooner than later? Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president for the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, broke the news in a blog post time-stamped Midnight EST that popped up in my RSS feeds at noon. He writes:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
OpenTable Files For IPO, And Reveals Its Finances — OpenTable, the online restaurant reservation site that was founded in 1998, is hoping to raise as much as $40 million in an IPO, according to a filing with the SEC (embedded below). The prospectus offers a detailed look at the company's finances and operations.
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OpenTable Restaurants and Restaurant Reservations:
OpenTable, Inc. Files Registration Statement for Proposed Initial Public Offering — OpenTable, Inc. ("OpenTable") announced today that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC") relating to a proposed initial public offering of shares of its common stock.
Michael Calore / Epicenter:
Ma.gnolia Suffers Major Data Loss, Site Taken Offline — There was a meltdown at bookmark sharing website Ma.gnolia Friday morning. The service lost both its primary store of user data, as well as its backup. The site has been taken offline while the team tries to reconstruct its databases …
Discussion:
/Message, Technologizer, Data Center Knowledge, CloudAve, SheGeeks, SitePoint and Mashable!
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Printing The NYT Costs Twice As Much As Sending Every Subscriber A Free Kindle — Not that it's anything we think the New York Times Company should do, but we thought it was worth pointing out that it would cost the Times about half as much money to send its subscribers a brand new Amazon Kindle …
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Tech espionage? Microsoft claims former employee spied for startup — Microsoft says a startup founder took a job at the Redmond company under false pretenses, then used his inside access to download confidential documents for a patent complaint his company has since filed against major computer makers.
Discussion:
The Microsoft Blog
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Sergey Ryazanov / The Official Google Blog:
Google Toolbar in Firefox: a personalized new tab page — Those of you who use Google Toolbar on Firefox are probably pretty familiar with the many features Toolbar 5 (beta) has to offer — from bookmarks to buttons and search box to “send to.” We've added a couple more features to the Firefox Toolbar …
Discussion:
Mashable!, Download Squad, Webware.com, SheGeeks, Search Engine Journal, Electronic Pulp, InformationWeek and WebProNews, Thanks:atul
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Apple warns of reduced iMac availability in near term — Apple this week is advising members of its reseller channels that supply of iMacs will be constrained in the immediate future, a move that may signal new models are nearing production. — In particular, people familiar with the matter …
Discussion:
Electronista, CNET News, Silicon Alley Insider, Obsessable, Digital Daily and MacRumors, Thanks:pinkblob
Marisa Taylor / Digits:
Turning the Ads Off — By Marisa Taylor — Ever wonder what your Web-surfing experience would be like if online advertising simply disappeared? So did Jack Herrick, founder of wikiHow, a user-contributed how-to site. There, where visitors can learn how to do anything …
BBC:
Gates predicts four-year downturn — Microsoft founder Bill Gates has told the BBC that it could take as much as four years for economies in trouble to return to positive growth. — He said the upturn would be driven by innovations in science and technology.
Amina Khan / Forbes:
Venture Rogues — How one Silicon Valley VC tried to get away with millions. — LOS ANGELES - William “Boots” Del Biaggio III was a wealthy and successful venture capitalist on the cusp of achieving his lifelong aspiration of owning a National Hockey League team.
Rod Bauer / Technologizer:
The Loneliness of the Early Adopter — I'm an Early Adopter. I like to be among the first to try out new products and services. If you were looking for me on the Rogers Technology Adoption Lifecycle—the bell-shaped curve that's a favorite of product managers—you'd find me on left side of the curve …
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Even Wall Street Won't Pay for Content: Financial Times Sues Blackstone for Web “Fraud” — Earlier today I suggested that we were headed toward a two-tier information economy where wealthy people pay for good stuff and everyone else gets free crappy stuff. But I may have miscalculated-maybe …
Discussion:
PE Hub 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.
Discussion:
Obsessable, TeleRead, Electricpig.co.uk, GPS Obsessed, CrunchGear, Liliputing and Slashdot
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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” …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
What will Nathan Myhrvold do with microprocessor patents? — Intellectual Ventures, the patent-licensing firm created by technologist Nathan Myhrvold, has purchased the patent portfolio of microprocessor maker Transmeta, according to an announcement yesterday.
Rodney Rumford / FaceReviews:
Facebook Gifts: No More Missed Birthdays! — Don't you hate being late for friends' birthdays? Well, as of today (in a limited rollout fashion) facebook is helping to put an end to “belated” birthdays on Facebook. Now, on your friend's profiles, you'll be able to schedule the delivery …
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
A look at Microsoft's hiring plans — Almost lost amid the recent news of Microsoft's unprecedented layoffs was a glimmer of hope for technology job seekers: The company is still hiring. — Even as Microsoft lays off up to 5,000 employees from some positions over the next 18 months …
Jenna Wortham / Bits:
Sexy Nerve.Com Kicks Parenting Site Out of the Nest — Rufus Griscom, founder of racy Web publication Nerve.com, is the first to admit it may defy logic that a Web site containing detailed essays about bondage and the effects of the recession on the sex industry spawned Babble, a parenting Web site aimed at urban hipsters.
Discussion:
Gawker
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Red Herring R.I.P.? — We're not sure if Red Herring, the once-high-flying tech magazine is finally dead. But that's the rumor on Twitter: “Heard my former employer Red Herring is closing. Surprised it survived for so long,” says Falguni Bhuta. — What we do know: The Web site is down …
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Steve Jobs a music visionary? Judge for yourself — Steve Jobs is a Bob Dylan fan because the folk singer is, in the words of Apple's CEO, a “clear thinker.” — Jobs' own lucid and careful contemplation of the music industry is apparent in a 2003 interview he gave to Rolling Stone magazine's Jeff Goodell.
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
Comcast Engaged in Free Wi-Fi Trial - Working with Cablevision on Wi-Fi trial in New Jersey — Broadband Reports has learned that Comcast is engaged in trials that may (or may not) result in the company offering Comcast customers free Wi-Fi. According to sources within Comcast …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Exclusive: Former Yahoo Scott Moore Heads Back to Microsoft As U.S. Content Head — [UPDATED AND EXPANDED] — In an unusual homecoming and odd job switcheroo between two Internet execs, former Yahoo media head Scott Moore is returning to Microsoft to lead its U.S. content efforts …
Discussion:
paidContent.org
Christopher Rhoads / Wall Street Journal:
GOP's Atwitter About the Net — Republican Hopefuls Ponder a ‘Tech Gap’; Chuck DeVore's ‘Tweets’ Raise Campaign Cash — At a recent debate, the candidates to become chairman of the Republican National Committee were asked — after rattling off how many guns they own — whether they have any …
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Microhoo: What might have been — A year ago Sunday, on February 1, 2008, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told the world his company wanted to buy Yahoo. — Despite months of discussions, the deal never materialized, distressing many Yahoo shareholders and hastening Yahoo's replacement of CEO Jerry Yang with Carol Bartz.
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?
Discussion:
Techdirt, Computerworld, Neowin.net, AppScout, TorrentFreak, Electricpig.co.uk, Game|Life, DefectiveByDesign.org, Kotaku, Joystiq, TeleRead, Ripten Video Game Blog and Slashdot