Top Items:
The Official Google Blog:
Here comes Google Voice — We've just started to release a preview of Google Voice, an application that helps you better manage your voice communications. Google Voice will be available initially to existing users of GrandCentral, a service we acquired in July of 2007.
Discussion:
Download Squad, Telegraph, Macworld, ReadWriteWeb, Gadgetell, The Equity Kicker, Gizmodo, Greg Galitzine's VoIP …, Tech Beat, Open Gardens, Lifehacker, Between the Lines, BetaNews and Mashable!
RELATED:
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
GrandCentral To (Finally) Launch As Google Voice. It's Very, Very Good. — GrandCentral, a phone management service that first launched in 2006 and was acquired by Google for $50+ million in 2007, hasn't been in the news much lately. Other than a few good natured jabs at their marketing gimmicks and coverage of outages, that is.
Discussion:
The Register, Google Blogoscoped, Google Operating System, CNET News, Forbes, Technologizer, SiliconAngle, VentureBeat, Tech Trader Daily and Pat Phelan, Thanks:atul
David Pogue / New York Times:
One Number to Ring Them All — If Google search revolutionized the Web, and Gmail revolutionized free e-mail, then one thing's for sure: Google Voice, unveiled Thursday, will revolutionize telephones. — It unifies your phone numbers, transcribes your voice mail, blocks telemarketers …
Discussion:
Computerworld Blogs
Peter X. Deng / Facebook Blog:
Welcome to Your New Home Page — Last week, we shared our philosophy behind the new updates and changes on Facebook to give you a better understanding of why we make certain product decisions. We explained how we've been mapping out the Social Graph, or the network of connections that exist in the world …
Discussion:
Technologizer, ReadWriteWeb, RotorBlog.com, eWeek, Search Engine Journal, Technology Live, Pocket-lint.com, Inside Facebook, CNET News and Mashable!
RELATED:
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Spoon feeding: Facebook redesign brings feeds (and ads) to the masses — Facebook began rolling out a new design of its homepage today, with a number of subtle features intended to make feed-based social networking more intuitive to the typical user. When the company first showed off its plans last week …
Amazon Web Services Blog:
Announcing Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances — Earlier in my career, I thought that innovation was solely about technology. If you wanted to address a new market or to increase sales, writing more code was always a good option. Having gained some wisdom and experience over the years …
Jenna Bilotta / Google Reader:
Google Reader is your new watercooler — One of the things that we love best about Reader is the ability to easily share interesting items with your friends. In fact, we like it so much that we've been adding bunches of new sharing features over the last year including choosing friends to share with …
Discussion:
The Official Google Blog, louisgray.com, Search Engine Roundtable, Regular Geek, ReadWriteWeb, VentureBeat, Google Blogoscoped, Pocket-lint.com, TechCrunch and Mashable!, Thanks:atul
Ronald Grover / Business Week:
MySpace: A Playbook for Beating Facebook — CEO Chris DeWolfe outlines his strategy for expanding profits, luring advertisers with “hyper-targeting,” and keeping MySpace's U.S. edge over rival Facebook — Hunched over a small conference table, MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe is in full spin mode.
RELATED:
Douglas MacMillan / Business Week:
Mozilla Contemplates a Future Without Google — Mozilla Chair Mitchell Baker says the Chrome browser is making the foundation behind Firefox rethink its reliance on revenues from Google — From the head offices for Mozilla in Mountain View, Calif., executives can see Google (GOOG) in several directions.
Chris Anderson / The Long Tail:
My Two Cents on Charging for Content — Time, the New York Times and others with their back against the economic wall are now reconsidering that whole free thing. — Ann Moore, the CEO of Time Inc, told a British newspaper: … And so on... My take: I actually don't think it matters …
Discussion:
Gawker
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
Worlds.com CEO: We're ‘Absolutely’ Going To Sue Second Life And World Of Warcraft — Worlds.com CEO Thom Kidrin is putting the entire virtual worlds industry on notice: His company claims the idea of a scalable virtual world with thousands of users is its patented intellectual property …
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Fusion-io touts ‘fastest’ solid-state drive — Fusion-io also claims Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak as its chief scientist. — Targeted primarily at business applications, such as database servers, capacities range from 160 gigabytes to 640 gigabytes. And by the second half of this year, this will increase to 1.28 terabytes.
DigiTimes:
Asustek reportedly considering merger of Eee PC and notebook departments — Asustek Computer is considering consolidating its Eee PC and notebook departments to help increase efficiency and decrease the management costs for the two departments, according to market sources.
Saul Hansell / Bits:
The Broadband Gap: Why Do They Have More Fiber? — This is the third in a series looking at the lessons for the United States from broadband deployment in other countries. Read the first and second posts. — In the paradises of broadband — Japan, South Korea and Sweden …
Discussion:
Broadband Politics
Kurt / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Google Begins Behavioral Targeting Ad Program — Today Google launched its behavioral targeting ad program, which it calls “interest-based advertising.” This move has been widely expected once Google completed its $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick one year ago today.
Zach Spear / AppleInsider:
Apple releases iTunes 8.1, Front Row Update 2.1.7 — As anticipated, Apple on Wednesday evening delivered iTunes 8.1 with performance enhancements, support for CD imports to iTunes Plus, and new Genius features. Separately, the company also updated its Front Row media application.
Leo Ting / Google Mobile Blog:
New Image Search Results for Android and iPhone — Today we launched a new Image Search results page for Android, iPhone, and iPod touch in the US, the UK, and Japan. — With the new Image Search results, you can easily scan up to 20 images on a single results page and get the details for images that interest you.
Michelle Kessler / Technology Live:
Watch live NCAA basketball on an iPhone — Live sports are coming to the iPhone. — MobiTV, which offers prime-time TV programming for cellphones, has cut a deal with CBS Sports to show 63 NCAA basketball games in an iPhone/iTouch app for $4.99. The games begin next week, but the App goes on sale Thursday.
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Multitouch Dell Studio One Just Slightly Too Sexy For American Shores — What's that feeling you get when a beautiful, generously specced, 19" multitouch all-in-one PC from a major manufacturer is reported to be available only in Japan? Ahh, right. Disappointment. UPDATED.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
The Digital Divisions Are Dead At Big Media — Big Media's love affair with the Internet ebbs and flows with the markets. When they see money pouring into Web startups, they feel threatened and rush to do the same. They ramp up their digital divisions, which usually are no more than venture arms, and hope to strike it rich.
Thanks:mrinaldesai
Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint.com:
G1 “cupcake” update coming April … T-Mobile has confirmed that it will be bringing the “cupcake” software update to the G1 mobile phone in April. — The news will mean users of the Android handset will get an onscreen keyboard as well as a host of other features to improve the performance of the handset launched last November.
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
Sony: The PS3 Will Always Have Blu-ray — Late last month Janco Partners' Mike Hickey said that: — “Recent channel checks indicate increased speculation for a PS3 price cut announcement from Sony in the next couple of days.” (We're still waiting.) — Sony was planning a PS3 without a Blu-ray drive.
Discussion:
VG247
Rob Pegoraro / Washington Post:
Tax-Prep Software Doesn't Add Up — I knew I was doomed about five minutes into this year's tax-prep ordeal. Two different programs — having been fed nothing more than basic personal info and the contents of a pair of W-2s — did not agree on the total tax bill for my wife and me.
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Can Media Take Tips from Twitter? Techmeme's Experience as Case Study — Can media organizations leverage the social web to get story tips faster than they could through traditional methods? A number of news aggregators believe so and are looking to Twitter for tips.
Thanks:mrinaldesai
Jessica Mintz / Associated Press:
Meltdown 101: Can tech industry save the economy? — SEATTLE (AP) — Technology helped fuel the economic boom of the 1990s. Then the dot-com bust caught some of the blame for the recession of the early 2000s. If technology is so tied to the national economy, and the current recession started …
John Timmer / Ars Technica:
Lithium breakthrough could charge batteries in 10 seconds — A new version of lithium battery technology can either provide a higher storage density than current batteries, or can charge and discharge as fast as a supercapacitor, emptying its entire charge in under 10 seconds.
