Top Items:
Spencer E. Ante / Business Week:
Facebook's Thiel Explains Failed Twitter Takeover — The social network intends to grow during the downturn, but Facebook's imprecise and illiquid stock valuation limited its appeal to Twitter — Facebook remains on the lookout for acquisitions after its failed attempt to buy microblogging site Twitter …
Discussion:
Venture Capital Dispatch, paidContent.org, Silicon Alley Insider, Inside Facebook, Gawker, VentureBeat, broadstuff and TheNextWeb.com
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Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:
Facebook investor talks about why Twitter bid failed — The murkiness surrounding social network Facebook's valuation got in the way of its attempt to acquire Twitter last year, according to a BusinessWeek interview with early Facebook investor Peter Thiel.
Kip Kniskern / LiveSide:
Live Search to get new features...oh and a new brand, too — Live Search, keeping to a Spring and Fall update schedule, is set to unveil its new name sometime this spring, and now thanks to Twitter it is more than just rumor. We've been hearing about a possible rebrand for quite some time …
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MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
DEMO: Always Innovating's Touch Book sounds amazing. Can it deliver? — I haven't gotten a chance to try a Touch Book yet, but I want to. Who wouldn't? The netbook made by Always Innovating and making its debut at the DEMO conference today, claims to offer 10 to 15 hours of battery life …
Discussion:
TheNextWeb.com
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Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
The Pirate Bay Trial Day 10: Calls for Jail Time — Today, members of the prosecution and representatives for the music and movie industries presented their closing statements to the court. Prosecutor Håkan Roswall stepped up first, followed by Peter Danowsky of the IFPI …
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Alex Brooks / World of Apple:
Apple Event Scheduled for March 24? [Updated] — A source has disclosed to World of Apple that Apple is planning to hold an event on March 24 to unveil new desktop hardware. The source which has been confirmed to be in reach of such information stated that the event would be similar to the notebook event held by Apple last October.
Discussion:
MacRumors, Boy Genius Report, Gizmodo, Softpedia News, SlashGear, MacBlogz, Apple Gazette, Insanely Great Mac, VentureBeat, The iPhone Blog, 9 to 5 Mac, Engadget and Edible Apple
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Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:Apple event rumored for March 24 with iMacs, maybe more
Discussion:
Electricpig.co.uk
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Skittles: Tweet the rainbow (or racial slurs) — In what is either a sign of Twitter's continued transition to the mainstream or of a candy company's epic laziness, Skittles.com is now simply a Twitter Search result page for the candy. — Yes, go visit Skittles.com in your web browser …
Long Zheng / istartedsomething:
Why Windows Mobile 6.5's honeycomb menu is not just a “glorified grid”, rather, simple ingenuity — Several weeks ago, some pundits were quick to dismiss Windows Mobile 6.5's honeycomb menu as a “glorified grid”, an Engadget editorial put it - “a sign that Microsoft has gone out of its way to avoid a grid” …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
DEMO: Gwabbit launches automated email contact manager — Contact managers are ripe for a makeover. As such, Technicopia is announcing a tool called Gwabbit today at the DEMO 2009 conference that could take the tedium out of updating your email contacts. — It's arguable that this has already …
Eric Lai / Computerworld:
GlaxoSmithKline deal highlights Microsoft's overseas launch of hosted collaboration software — 100,000 staffers to use online Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft says at CeBIT — Computerworld) Microsoft Corp. officially launched its Business Productivity Online Suite outside of the U.S. on Monday …
Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
Foxmarks becomes Xmarks, does site discovery — Foxmarks, the browser bookmark utility, is getting new features and a new brand at Demo 09. — Now known as just Xmarks, the tool layers in site discovery features. The Xmarks plug-in shows you sites similar to the one you're on …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Zuora Brings Subscription Billing To Facebook Apps — How much would you pay for a Facebook app? For most apps, most people would probably pay nothing. But for some apps, such as member-to-member online tutorial services, charging could become an option. At least Tien Tzuo hopes so.
Peter Ha / CrunchGear:
Samsung announces NX Series hybrid digital camera — With all the pre-PMA announcements that Samsung made in the last few weeks I wondered if they had anything left in the tank. While it's not a production ready model, the NX Series hybrid looks interesting, but it's a still a hybrid …
Ashlee Vance / International Herald Tribune:
Microsoft mapping course to a Jetsons-style future — Redmond, Washington: Meet Laura, the virtual personal assistant for those of us who cannot afford a human one. — Built by researchers at Microsoft, Laura appears as a talking head on a screen. You can speak to her and ask …
Thanks:zwelgje
Harrison Hoffman / The Web Services Report:
Fred Wilson shows off integrated Twitter Search, featured users — In a presentation to a group of TV execs., Fred Wilson (a VC with Union Square Ventures, one of Twitter's investors) showed off what appears to be integrated search in Twitter. As seen on slide 22 of Wilson's presentation …
Thanks:atul
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Copyright Holders Challenge Sites That Excerpt — When the popular New York business blog Silicon Alley Insider quoted a quarter of Peggy Noonan's Wall Street Journal column in mid-February, the editor added a caveat at the end: “We thank Dow Jones in advance for allowing us to bring it to you.”
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Chris Preimesberger / eWeek:
How Ferrari Is Driving Its New-Generation HPC Data Center — Table of Contents: — Ferrari not only employs data centers for its corporate business, but it also has a state-of-the-art, high-performance data center dedicated to its racing division. Racing is, after all …
Discussion:
Data Center Knowledge
Michael Bettiol / Boy Genius Report:
Alltel to release Palm Treo Pro on the 5th — A little blue bird landed on our window sill this morning to let us in on a little secret - Alltel is all set to launch the Palm Treo Pro this Thursday March 5th. After a $125 rebate, the Treo Pro will set Alltel subscribers back $199 on a 2-year contract.
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
SAP hones sustainability push; Unveils new app (and acronym) — SAP on Monday unveiled a multi-front sustainability push including the launch of an EHS-or environment, health and safety-management application. — The company unveiled its plans at CeBit (statement). Among the moving parts:
Discussion:
CNET News
Abbey Klaassen / AdAge:
SmartMoney Finds Using Fewer Ads Can Boost Click-Through — Users More Likely to Pay Attention When There Aren't So Many Units — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — When it comes to the supply-and-demand balance of online advertising, the supply side is winning — and that's hurting click-through rates and CPMs …
