Top Items:


RIAA denies rumors that Last.fm turned over user data — Contrary to recent rumors, Last.fm did not hand over user data to the RIAA after U2's yet-to-be-released album leaked online last week. In fact, no such request was even made, according to both the RIAA and Last.fm.
RELATED:

“Techcrunch are full of s**t” — On Friday night a technology blog called Techcrunch posted a vicious and completely false rumour about us: that Last.fm handed data to the RIAA so they could track who's been listening to the “leaked” U2 album. — I denied it vehemently on the Techcrunch article …
Discussion:
Download Squad, Workbench, WebGuild, Neowin.net, Pulse2, blogs.telegraph.co.uk …, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Technovia and digg.com

iTunes Concept Shows How iPhone App Management Should Have Worked From the Start — Add, delete, rate, and move—these are your app options on the iPhone. This interface concept, though, puts full app management within iTunes, and makes us wonder why it wasn't there in the first place.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, last100, The Apple Core, Electronista, Out of the Box, Electronic Pulp and digg.com

Surprise: America is No. 1 in Broadband — There is a constant refrain that the United States is falling behind in broadband, as if the speed of Internet service in Seoul represents a new Sputnik that is a challenge to national security. — It's certainly true that in some countries …
Discussion:
Between the Lines, GigaOM, DSLreports, dailywireless.org, blogs.chron.com, Obsessable, Zoli's Blog, Gizmodo, New York Times and CircleID

AT&T rivals seen driving down cost of iPhone service — Tough macroeconomic conditions are causing wireless carriers like Sprint and T-Mobile to become more aggressive with pricing of their monthly service plans, a move which could ultimately help drive down the cost of owning an iPhone.
Discussion:
Macsimum News
RELATED:

Analyst: iPhone benefits from carrier rate war
Discussion:
Ars Technica


Apple to allow Verizon connections — When Jobs is away the cats will play — Apple is certain to allow Verizon to join its elite band of Iphone providers, bringing to an end the exclusive and somewhat stupid exclusivity deal in its biggest market. — Deep throats in Apple claim …
RELATED:

Apple To Launch iPhone On Verizon Wireless? — So, this is a pretty sketchy report, but fascinating if right. — A Rome-based reporter for the Bangalore-based tech news site ITExaminer.com is reporting that “deep throats” at Apple (AAPL) say “iPhones for Verizon Wireless (VZ, VOD) will be announced soon.”

Why Kindle Should Be An Open Book — Unless Amazon embraces open standards, the Kindle's lead will become a very short story. — SEBASTOPOL, Calif. — The Amazon Kindle has sparked huge media interest in e-books and has seemingly jump-started the market.
Discussion:
TeleRead


TV, Internet And Mobile Usage In U.S. Continues To Rise — Viewing of video on television, Internet and mobile devices — the Three Screens — continues to increase and has hit record levels. Nielsen's fourth quarter A2/M2 Three Screen Report reports that the average American watches …
RELATED:

Information Wants to Be Expensive — Newspapers need to act like they're worth something. — With newspapers in cities across the country on the brink, an old idea is being resurrected in the hope of saving them: They should charge for access to their journalism on the Internet.

OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Build 10A261 Highlights — The latest OS X 10.6 build has multiple observable (some intriguing) changes — World of Apple, which usually posts entire sets of release notes / seed notes the instant Apple makes a new move in the Snow Leopard area, has “refrained” …


AOL Socializes Even More With New Lifestream — As part of its ongoing rejiggering of its social-networking offerings, AOL is formally rolling out its expected Lifestream platform today, with a new “timeline” depicting a user's online life in a streaming horizontal calendar called a Lifestory.
RELATED:


The Yahoo Management Structure: Who Is In and Who Is Out? — On Friday, BoomTown first reported that new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is likely to be announcing a sweeping new management structure soon, which can only mean the possibility that some existing top execs are likely to be broomed out, even as some new ones are ushered in.
Discussion:
Industry Standard, Silicon Alley Insider, Contentinople, WebProNews and Gawker, Thanks:atul

Red Dog: Can you teach old Windows hounds new tricks? — It has been four months since Microsoft took the official wraps off its cloud-computing initiative. Yet still relatively little still is known about the Azure platform and plans. — The part of Azure which intrigued …

iPhone apps for Lady Gaga, Pussycat Dolls and other UMG artists — Interscope Geffen A&M is launching iPhone applications for five of its key artists, through a partnership with mobile firm Kyte. The five are Lady Gaga, the Pussycat Dolls, Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, the All American Rejects, and Keri Hilson.


The day iTunes died? Spotify is working on a killer iPhone app — Ever since hot streaming music startup Spotify hired a director of “portable solutions” you just knew they were going to do something cool in mobile. And frankly there is no cooler place to do it right now than on the iPhone.


IPhone-controlled car to demo at Geneva Motor Show — It can send e-mails, play video, access the Web and snap pictures, but control a car? Swiss automobile design house Rinspeed will unveil a concept electric car controlled by an iPhone at next week's Geneva Motor Show.


Sol's stolen phone wiped remotely … Where are the leaked screenshots of the supposedly top secret Windows Mobile 6.5? After last week's pick-pocketing theft of a handset given to Telstra head honcho Sol Trujillo we'd be expecting someone, somewhere to be leaking details of the latest mobile OS from Redmond.


MSI unveils new X-Slim models ahead of CeBIT — We certainly aren't tired of the X-Slim 320 laptop from MSI, with its Air-like form-factor in less expensive and slightly more practical packaging — it's still many moons away from release, after all. Despite that, MSI felt the need to announce …

Startups in a Downturn — Entrepreneurs who helped build their startups into tech stalwarts—companies like Cisco, Oracle, and Google—share lessons on how to thrive during tough times — December 1987 was no time to be raising money for a startup. Computer engineer Len Bosack was trying …


The Social Network Twitter Is Becoming Something of a Hangout for High-Profile TV Anchors — The sun was not yet up when David Gregory checked in with his followers: — “646 am. Just got to NBC. Almost showtime. Betsy just sent me Frank Rich piece. Actually read during night.
Discussion:
Tech President

Windows 7 will be “great for games” — Microsoft's VP of the Interactive Entertainment Business for the EMEA region, Chris Lewis, has told GamesIndustry.biz that the corporation's next major PC operating system, Windows 7, will be a positive step over and above Vista with respect to gaming.


The Media Baron and His Soft Spot — Rupert Murdoch had an office built for him at The Wall Street Journal within days of buying it 14 months ago, and he has made ample use of it — ordering up a wave of changes in the once-staid paper's content and culture, from the addition of a weekly sports page …

Associated Press Considers Locking Up Its Online Content — You can almost hear Reuters, CNN, UPI and a few others laugh maniacally over the news that the Associated Press is considering locking up its content. The Associated Press has a pretty long history of not having much of a grasp …
Discussion:
Slashdot