Top Items:
Richard Jones / Last.fm:
“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, Pulse2, blogs.telegraph.co.uk …, Neowin.net, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Technovia and digg.com
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Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
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.
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
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
Saul Hansell / Bits:
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, blogs.chron.com, dailywireless.org, Obsessable, Zoli's Blog, Gizmodo, CircleID and New York Times
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
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
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Wall Street Journal:
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.
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Tim O'Reilly / Forbes:
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
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
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.
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Nielsen Wire:
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 …
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Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
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.”
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Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
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
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
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 …
Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
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.
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch UK:
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.
Martyn Williams / Macworld:
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.
Tim Stevens / Engadget:
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 …
Spencer E. Ante / Business Week:
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 …
Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:
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
GamesIndustry.biz:
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.
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Why Web radio faces another crisis — Few people know this but for a little while last year, the music-royalty rates that Web radio stations have complained about for years appeared to be behind them. — In a midtown Manhattan law office last November 6, representatives from Webcasting companies …
Discussion:
p2pnet
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
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
Wayne Schulz / Gear Diary:
Mini USB to Micro USB adapter solves BlackBerry charger incompatibility issues - $1.94 — You can explain all you want about how Research in Motion had to switch from Mini USB to Micro USB (comparison photo here) to save space on their new BlackBerry Storm, BlackBerry 8220 and BlackBerry Curve 8900.
