Top Items:
Michael V. Copeland / Fortune:
Hearst to launch a wireless e-reader — The publisher plans to introduce a large-format device this year based on electronic-ink technology. — NEW YORK (Fortune) — Against a backdrop of plummeting ad revenue for newspapers and magazines, and rising costs for paper and delivery …
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog, PC World, TechFlash, VentureBeat, Podcasting News, Digits, Gizmodo, Crave, MediaMemo, Gawker, paidContent.org, InformationWeek, Pocket-lint.co.uk, SiliconAngle, Engadget, Gadget Lab, GottaBeMobile.com, The Constant Observer, Electronista, CrunchGear, Silicon Alley Insider, Mobilewhack.com, Electricpig.co.uk, Computerworld Blogs, Gearlog, TeleRead and techblog.dallasnews.com
Brad Stone / Bits:
Amazon Backs off Text-to-Speech Feature in Kindle — Amazon announced today it will let publishers decide whether they want the new Kindle e-book device to read their books aloud. — The text-to-speech feature allows Kindle owners to have books read to them in a male or female computerized voice.
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog, ReadWriteWeb, CNET News, New York Times, Brier Dudley's blog, Engadget and Download Squad
RELATED:
Amazon.com:
Statement from Amazon.com Regarding Kindle 2's Experimental Text-to-Speech Feature — Kindle 2's experimental text-to-speech feature is legal: no copy is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being given. Furthermore, we ourselves are a major participant …
Kit Eaton / Fast Company:
Amazon Kindle 3 Rumors Surface: Bigger, Better (Of Course) — The ink has barely dried on the new production Amazon Kindle 2 e-readers and now there's a hot rumor surfacing about the Kindle 3. Among the speculation is one interesting suggestion: The Kindle version 3 may actually arrive on the shelves before Christmas.
RELATED:
Susie Pan / DigiTimes:PVI expects Kindle 2 to boost EPD shipments
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Electronic Pulp, Gadget Lab, Gadgetell, Maximum PC all, Crave, CrunchGear, TechFlash, Electricpig.co.uk, TeleRead, Ubergizmo and Pocket-lint.co.uk
Justin Smith / Inside Facebook:
Facebook's “In-House Sociologist” Shares Stats on Users' Social Behavior — The famous Dunbar number, or “theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships”, is generally accepted to be about 150. However, in a recent interview with The Economist …
RELATED:
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Why Are Book Publishers Making The Same Mistake The Record Labels Made With Apple? — from the we've-seen-this-movie-before,-and-it- doesn't-end-well dept — Back in 2005, we noted that Apple's dominance over the online music space, which upset the record labels tremendously …
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Cellular providers want Nokia to drop Skype from cell phones — Two cell service providers in the UK are supposedly up in arms over Nokia's inclusion of Skype software on its N97 handset, and are threatening not to carry the device unless the software is ditched.
Discussion:
CNET News, mocoNews.net, Electronic Pulp, Electronista, TechSpot, Mobile Today, Obsessable, FierceVoIP, Engadget and IntoMobile
Sachi Izumi / Reuters:
DoCoMo halts BlackBerry Bold sales due to overheating — TOKYO (Reuters) - NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's biggest mobile phone operator, said on Friday it has halted sales of Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold because the phone can overheat while the battery is being recharged.
Discussion:
NEWSFACTOR, PC World, Electronic Pulp, Silicon Alley Insider, CNET News, Electronista, Boy Genius Report, Mobilewhack.com, Digital Daily, Unwired View, InformationWeek, IntoMobile, BetaNews, Electricpig.co.uk, Tech Trader Daily, MobileCrunch, BlackBerryNews.com, Tech-Ex, Gearlog and mocoNews.net
Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:
Why the Japanese Hate the iPhone — Apple's iPhone has wowed most of the globe — but not Japan, where the handset is selling so poorly it's being offered for free. — What's wrong with the iPhone, from a Japanese perspective? Almost everything: the high monthly data plans that go with it …
Discussion:
iLounge, Slashdot, SiliconAngle, Boing Boing Gadgets, Smalltalk Tidbits … and The Register
Erica Sadun / Ars Technica:
Apple issues App Store-wide Emoji take-down order — Apple has issued an App Store-wide take-down of all Emoji-enabling iPhone applications. There may be a few reasons for this decision, ranging from the gray area of how developers are switching on Emoji support to possible licensing issues.
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
The New York Times Expected To Launch Local Blog Network On Monday (Confirmed) — If this post on a local blog about Brooklyn has it right, the NY Times will be debuting a neighborhood blog project next week on Monday. Here's the gist: … Still according to the blog …
Discussion:
paidContent.org, Webware.com, Brownstoner, Silicon Alley Insider and AppScout, Thanks:blogfisher
Rik Ferguson / TrendLabs:
A Second Rogue Facebook Application in Just a Week? — In a second attack, extremely reminiscent of the one that took place this weekend, Facebook users have once again been victimized by cybercriminals. Reports started surfacing this afternoon of yet another rogue Facebook application posting notifications …
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
BlackBerry 9630 is the Niagara, Verizon World Edition? — So... we've just got word from a really trusted source, dropping bombs all around on the BlackBerry “Niagara”. First off, the model number we're told is the BlackBerry 9630, not 8930 or 9030, or anything like that.
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Calacanis, Lindzon To Box For Charity — It's on: Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis and Stocktwits/Wallstrip co-founder (and SAI investor) Howard Lindzon, who periodically spar on Twitter, will duke it out in real life. — The two will box for charity 100 days from tomorrow, which is... sometime in June.
ASUSTeK Computer:
ASUS Raises the Bar for Mobile Web Surfing and Multimedia Enjoyment with P835 WVGA PDA Phone — ASUS, a leading producer of innovative handhelds, today launched the P835, a PDA phone that delivers an Internet browsing and multimedia viewing experience without equal.
Seth Rosenblatt / Download.com editors:
iVerse brings comic books to iPhone, Android — There's no question that comic books and magazines will eventually have a portable platform suited to them, just as the iPod took nearly four years to reach a saturation level as the de facto portable music player.
Schneier on Security:
Privacy in the Age of Persistence — Note: This isn't the first time I have written about this topic, and it surely won't be the last. I think I did a particularly good job summarizing the issues this time, which is why I am reprinting it. — Welcome to the future, where everything about you is saved.
Discussion:
BBC
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Seattle PC builder beats Microsoft with free Windows 7 upgrade offer — Launches free Vista-to-Windows 7 upgrade program to tempt hesitant buyers — Computerworld) A Seattle-area PC seller will offer free Windows 7 upgrades to customers who buy new Vista-powered machines starting next week …
Discussion:
TechFlash
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Microsoft App-V Support for the Windows 7 Beta — Our MDOP customers have told us that they want to see Windows 7 Support for Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) so that they can move ahead with their application testing for enterprise deployments of Windows 7 early on. We heard you loud and clear.
Jeffrey Scott Shapiro / Wall Street Journal:
Confessions of a Facebook Social Climber — You too can become important. To start, all you need is one celebrity friend. — I recently became friends with Charlie Sheen — but not exactly. It's a little complicated. You see, I've spent the past three months moving up the Facebook social ladder …
Thanks:mrinaldesai
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Massive Layoffs Hit The RIAA: Maybe Focus On Building Business Rather Than Suing Customers Next Time? — Details have been spilling out over the last few days that the RIAA has been making pretty massive cuts to staff. We already knew that EMI was cutting back on its support of the RIAA/IFPI …
Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:
Will the Future of the Web Be More Like the Present? — When I was a kid one of my favorite parts of Disney World was Tomorrowland's Carousel of Progress. It was steeped in 1950's futurism: Why, of course! Every family will have their own electric paint mixer in the future!
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Gary Vay •ner •chuk Expands His Web Video Empire With Obsessed TV — Gary Vaynerchuk is going after the Oprah set. The wine wholesaler who launched a career as a Web video celebrity talking about wine and marketing is just launched Obsessed, a new video talk show hosted by Samantha Ettus.
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Sony's Silos Finally Start to Fall — It looks like Howard Stringer will have at least another year to shake Sony into fighting shape for the 21st Century. Sony announced a sweeping reorganization Friday that gives Mr. Stringer even more power than ever. — For the last few months …
Mike Celizic / MSNBC:
‘Face of Facebook’ defends his site's policies — CEO of red-hot social network says that users control their own information — The face of Facebook, the burgeoning social networking site, was supposedly in damage-control mode, but you wouldn't have known it from looking at the site's 24-year-old founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
Bobbie Johnson / Guardian:
Microsoft's window on the future — For nearly 18 years, Rick Rashid has been the man with a unique window into Microsoft's future. — As the company's senior vice president of research, he is responsible for an important part of the software corporation's mammoth research and development operation.
Mike Cassidy / Mercury News:
Finding our own little worlds has never been easier — What an author won't do for a book. — In 2004, San Jose State University associate professor Andy Wood decided to embark upon an experiment: He would fly from San Jose to New York, rent a car and drive back the 3,000 miles …
Thanks:mrinaldesai
Bill Gurley / abovethecrowd.com:
Perfect Online Video Advertising Model: Choose Your Advertiser — Many companies and visionaries have pontificated about the future of video ads and different techniques for monetizing online videos. A big part of this is driven by the fact that while YouTube is a huge user success, its a less proven monetization success.
Thanks:atul
Epicenter:
Epicenter Q&A: Google's Vint Cerf on Recession, Recovery and Innovation in Hard Times — On assignment for Wired.com, Sam Gustin is exploring the economic meltdown's impact on Silicon Valley, and the prospects of innovating our way out of the current financial debacle.
Jason Chen / Gizmodo:
Apple Officially Brings Back MobileMe's Push, Improves Features — Apple just sent out an email to MobileMe subscribers to let them know of some new(ish) features. The biggest bullet point is the fact that push is back. … After a lousy launch in 2008, Apple decided to avoid associating the word …
