Top Items:
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Microsoft backtracks on severance issue — This story was updated at 3:45 p.m. PST with an official statement from Microsoft. — Amid a wave of criticism, Microsoft is backtracking on a decision to require laid off workers to pay back money that the software maker said was in excess of its planned severance, CNET News has learned.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Digital Daily, TechFlash, Computerworld, Microsoft Pri0, PC World, Switched, Silicon Alley Insider, Ars Technica, InformationWeek, DailyTech, internetnews.com, Between the Lines, ZDNet, MacDailyNews, Associated Press, Gizmodo, Pulse2, www.itexaminer.com, Tech Central, BloggingStocks, ChannelWeb, Geek.com, FierceCIO News and Maximum PC all
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Joseph Tartakoff / The Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft will let laid-off workers keep extra severance — Microsoft Corp. will let laid-off employees who were overpaid severance keep the extra money, the company's senior vice president of human resources said Monday. — The company received heavy criticism over the weekend after it wrote …
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Snow Leopard screenshots show interface tweaks — A gallery of screenshots from the latest build of Apple's upcoming Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard operating system showcases a handful of minor design tweaks that have been reported around the web in recent weeks.
Discussion:
Softpedia News
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Alex Brooks / World of Apple:
A Look at Build 10A261 of Snow Leopard [Images + Video] — The latest build (10a261) of Mac OS X “10.6″ Snow Leopard was released towards the start of February, much like many of the previous builds it contained very little user interface changes compared to Mac OS X “10.5″ Leopard.
Connie Loizos / PE Hub Blog:
Who's Advising Tom Friedman? I Have a Guess — A lot of people have been expressing their surprise and disappointment in the recent writings of Thomas Friedman, the New York Times columnist who has, inarguably, become one of the nation's most influential journalists over the past decade.
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Joe Weisenthal / Silicon Alley Insider:Another Reason Friedman's Wrong: Most Startups Bomb
Thanks:jwyarow
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:
ParisLemon, The Register, CenterNetworks, Obsessable, The Outsidr, Workbench, WebGuild, Download Squad, WebProNews, AppScout, TheNextWeb.com and Neowin.net
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Nick Farrell / www.itexaminer.com:
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 …
Discussion:
PC World, CNET News, Silicon Alley Insider, Obsessable, Tech Trader Daily, TG Daily, Macsimum News, Between the Lines, MobileDevicesToday and DSLreports
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Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Analyst: iPhone benefits from carrier rate war — AT&T's rivals have become more aggressive about their pricing, and that — paradoxically — could be good for Apple (AAPL), according to Kaufman Bros.' analyst Shaw Wu. — In a report to clients issued Monday, Wu notes that Sprint's (S) …
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Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
With Chernin Out At News Corp, What Happens To FIM? — Peter Chernin, the long-time president and COO of News Corp, is leaving the company after protracted negotiations over his contract could not be resolved. Chernin's salary was $28.8 million in the last fiscal year …
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Staci D. Kramer / paidContent.org:It's Official: Chernin's Tenure As News Corp. COO Will Expire …
Discussion:
Tech Trader Daily, Los Angeles Times, Nikki Finke's Deadline …, Silicon Alley Insider and MediaMemo
Microsoft:
Microsoft Advertising Announces Formation of Publisher Leadership Council — Consortium of leading Web publishers will consult on next-generation advertising platform, Microsoft PubCenter. — Microsoft Corp. today announced the creation of the Publisher Leadership Council …
Discussion:
The Register, Coop's Corner, LiveSide, paidContent.org, Silicon Alley Insider and The Microsoft Blog
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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0:
Do you really think Apple's going to take business advice from a bunch of cheapskates? — I can't be the only one who'd tired of reading about the opinions of cheapskates who feel that Apple, for some bizarre reason, owes them a low-cost Mac OS powered computer. Read my lips: It's not gonna happen!
Discussion:
Tech Trader Daily
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Gregg Keizer / PC World:Analyst: Apple Could Score with $599 Netbook
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Computerworld Blogs
Douglas A. McIntyre / 247 Wall Street:
The Twenty Five Most Valuable Blogs — It is extremely difficult to put accurate financial values on blogs. Almost all of them are private companies. Some do raise VC money and those sums can be used as guidelines if and when they are disclosed. Like many content businesses, the only worthwhile value is what an acquirer will pay.
Robin Abcarian / Los Angeles Times:
Hit ‘send,’ then hit the door — ‘SO LONG, SUCKERS!’ Jason Shugars, who left Google for the website Imeem, said, “I didn't want to send out a stale ‘good working with you, please reach me here’ e-mail.” — Farewell e-mails become an art form in this age of pink slips.
Thanks:atul
Kelly K. Spors / Wall Street Journal:
So, You Want to Be an Entrepreneur — First, answer these questions to see if you have what it takes — Thinking about starting a business? Make sure you're cut out for it first. — In this bleak economy, lots of people are contemplating striking out on their own …
Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch:
HTC uses Twitter to confirm Touch Pro2 coming to North America — Last time HTC used Twitter to confirm something, it was to let everyone know that the HTC Touch HD wouldn't be coming stateside. This time, they bring good news! — We were already pretty sure that the Touch Pro2 was headed …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Yahoo News Head Khemlani Departs for Hearst as VP Digital Media — [UPDATED: With Hearst press release confirming the move at the bottom.] — Neeraj Khemlani (pictured here), Yahoo's general manager and executive editor of news, is set to leave his job-right in the midst of a major restructuring …
Discussion:
paidContent.org, InformationWeek, Susan Mernit's Blog, CNET News, Jobwire and Search Engine Watch
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
AT&T pulls Quickfire handsets from shelves, floor — We got a couple tips this morning that AT&T has issued a notice to all store managers to stop selling AT&T Quickfires, and they've even been asked to pull the demo handsets from the floor. We heard the reason that AT&T is bailing on the phone is due to “quality issues”.
Kevin Marks / TechCrunchIT:
Social Web Q&A with Google's Kevin Marks — This guest post is written by Kevin Marks, Developer Advocate for OpenSocial at Google. Over the last 20 years he has alternated between giant companies and founding startups - BBC, The UK MultiMedia Corporation, Apple QuickTime, Technorati and now Google.
APC:
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.
Discussion:
WMExperts, MobileDevicesToday, Mobilewhack.com, Engadget, Tech Ticker, Neowin.net, Gizmodo and InformationWeek
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
Publisher speculates about Amazon/Google e-book “duopoly” — Speaking at Princeton on Thursday, Richard Sarnoff, chairman of the Association of American Publishers, discussed the landmark settlement in the Google Book Search case. Sarnoff speculated that the agreement could effectively give Google …
Steve O'Hear / last100:
Chumby bets on Internet-connected TVs — Hoping to move beyond being a geek's favorite boutique gadget to something more mainstream, Chumby is partnering with chip maker Broadcom to make it easy for consumer electronics companies to embed its widget platform into Internet-connected TVs, Blue-ray players and set-top boxes.
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Could Wikipedia's Future Be as a Development Platform? — Content creation at Wikipedia is slowing down. The already small number of active regular editors is on the decline and Jimmy Wales has called for live edits to be held for approval on many pages, a step sure to slow contributions even further.
Discussion:
The Noisy Channel
Nicholas Kolakowski / eWeek:
Lenovo ThinkPad Laptop Toughens Up Against Panasonic, Dell — Lenovo is looking to bring its ThinkPad laptops into the semirugged and rugged competition against laptop offerings from the likes of Panasonic and Dell. Lenovo announces that eight of its ThinkPad notebooks now offer the same type …
Stephanie Condon / CNET News:
Obama picks Leibowitz as FTC chairman — President Obama plans to appoint current Federal Trade Commission member Jon Leibowitz to lead the agency, which partially enforces antitrust laws and has taken a recent interest in online advertising. — An administration official on Monday confirmed …
Amazon.com:
Kindle 2 Ships Today — Kindle 2 to arrive on customers' doorsteps one day early — Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced it is shipping Amazon Kindle 2. Already the No. 1 seller in Electronics on the Amazon.com Web site in just 15 days since it was introduced on Feb. 9 …
Sara Silver / Wall Street Journal:
Motorola to Sell Email Unit — Closely Held Visto Buys Service That Competes With RIM — Motorola Inc. has found a buyer for Good Technology Inc., the mobile email provider it bought for about $500 million just two years ago to help it compete against BlackBerry and other messaging devices.
Discussion:
Gear Diary
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
AOL takes one part Bebo, one part AIM, wants to create central lifestreaming service — What does AOL get when it pairs aging instant message service AIM with Bebo, the also-ran social network that it bought for $850 million last spring? A web service that could one day be a main way for people …
