Top Items:
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
Microsoft to kill Encarta later this year — Microsoft has announced that it is discontinuing its Encarta line of products. The software products will be gone by June 2009 and the website will go down October 31, 2009. — When I first saw this, I had to do a double take.
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Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Is a Shorter Web Address Worth Big Money? bit.ly Raises $2 Million — Here's another Web 2.0 riddle that seems particularly hard to solve post-Lehman: What's the value of a service that takes a long Web address and makes it shorter? — One answer: Several million dollars.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, Silicon Alley Insider, The Download Blog and Pulse2, Thanks:mrinaldesai
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Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
If bit.ly Is Worth $8 Million, TinyURL Is Worth At Least $46 Million — In a world where everything is being jammed into 140 characters or less, shorter is better. That goes double (or is it half?) for lengthy URLs. So-called URL shortening services are increasingly becoming indispensable to anyone who uses Twitter.
Matt Cutts / Gadgets, Google, and SEO:
Hacking Google: Retro Links Revives Old Google Feature — Google sometimes turns off features. One such feature that I remember fondly is that at the bottom of Google's search results, we offered nine other search engine suggestions. The idea was if you didn't find what you were searching for on Google …
Spencer Ante / Creative Capital:
It's Official: Twitter Hires Ex-Google Designer Douglas Bowman — Turns out the Web rumors were true for once. In a meeting last Friday afternoon in Twitter's San Francisco office, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone told me that the company had hired ex-Google Visual Design Lead Douglas Bowman to be the company's new creative director.
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Netflix raising rates for Blu-ray subscribers by around 20 percent — Ruh roh. In a move that will undoubtedly cause an incredibly raucous stir, only to fade away as movie renters realize that Netflix is still the best deal going, America's most adored by-mail rental service is hiking the price of Blu-ray rentals once again.
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Jessie / The Official Netflix Blog:
Price update for access to Blu-ray movies — Hi, Jessie Becker here, VP of Marketing, with a message for our members who have added Blu-ray access to their accounts. This message does not apply to you if you have not added Blu-ray access to your account. — The number of titles available …
Kontra / counternotions:
What will the next iPhone be called? — Naming any Apple product — much less the iPhone, the most iconic of them all — is no easy task. — Remember all the mindless chatter when Apple risked legal entanglement with Cisco for the right to use the name “iPhone”? Gizmodo:
Thanks:atul
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Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
RBC says iPhone 3G ‘Pro’ won't boost iPhone momentum — The Royal Bank of Canada is maintaining its bearish near-term outlook on shares of Apple, claiming that although consumer interest in a new version of the iPhone remains healthy, sales of the new device are unlikely to provide the company …
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Twitter quakes as San Francisco shakes — Earthquake news and Twitter have long gone hand in hand because of Twitter's instant mass-communication ability. Today, an earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay area (where Twitter's headquarters is located, along with many of its original users), and Twitter traffic went nuts.
Discussion:
earthquake.usgs.gov
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Ina Fried / CNET News:
Microsoft, TomTom settle patent dispute — Microsoft and TomTom have reached a settlement in their respective patent suits, the companies said Monday. — As part of the deal, as TomTom will pay Microsoft for coverage related to mapping patents and file-management patents that Microsoft claimed …
Discussion:
blogs.ft.com, InfoWorld, TechFlash, Ars Technica, OStatic blogs, Microsoft Watch, Silicon Alley Insider, OSNews, Engadget, Gearlog and Epicenter
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David Chartier / Ars Technica:
Interview: Gmail's product manager on Labs, beta, the future — Gmail is turning five soon, and it was given an experimental feature playground called Gmail Labs nearly a year ago. For the anniversary, Ars Technica spoke with Gmail Product Manager Todd Jackson about the evolution of communication …
Thanks:atul
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Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Intel launches Nehalem server chips to improve data center efficiency — Intel introduced its Xeon 5500 Series family of server chips today — chips it hopes will be the standard for data centers of the future. — The chips (formerly code-named Nehalem) are the server variant …
Discussion:
Intel, Engadget, eetasia.com, eWeek, The Register, Electronista and Virtualization.com, Thanks:atul
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Biz / Twitter Blog:
Replies Are Now Mentions — We're updating the Replies feature and referring to it instead as Mentions. In your Twitter sidebar you'll now see your own @username tab. When you click that tab, you'll see a list of all tweets referencing your account with the @username convention anywhere in the tweet …
IAB:
Internet Advertising Revenues Surpass $23 Billion in '08, Reaching Record High — Q4 '08 Revenues Total $6.1 Billion; Growth Continues Despite Difficult Economy — Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. remain strong, topping $23 billion, according to the 2008 Internet Advertising Revenue Report …
Ben Parr / Mashable!:
MySpace and Microsoft Team Up: What Does it Mean for Facebook and Google? — The world's second largest social network, MySpace, has found a new partner that may make the relationship between MySpace and Google a little more rocky: Microsoft. — Specifically, MySpace and Microsoft announced today …
Discussion:
Signal to Noise
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Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:MySpace Embraces Microsoft Platforms For Mobile And Web Applications
Discussion:
Synergist, CNET News, ReadWriteWeb, Ars Technica, AppScout and WMPoweruser.com, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Review: Skype for iPhone. Verdict: Awesome. — UPDATED: In a few short hours, you will be able to download the native Skype iPhone client and install it on your iPhones and iPod Touch devices. And when you do, you'll be able to replicate almost all of Skype's functions.
Phone Arena:
Verizon's MiFi 2200 is your own personal Hotspot — We've received information that Verizon is preparing to launch a device known as the MiFi 2200. Based on the info and pictures, it appears that the device is a personal Hotspot with built-in rechargeable battery.
Department of Homeland Security:
DHS Releases Conficker/Downadup Computer Worm Detection Tool — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced today the release of a DHS-developed detection tool that can be used by the federal government, commercial vendors, state and local governments, and critical infrastructure owners …
Discussion:
Slate, GottaBeMobile.com, InformationWeek, SC Magazine US, Guardian and US-CERT Current Activity, Thanks:atul
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
TheFunded Not Shutting Down — We're always happy to give a wide berth to people pulling April Fools pranks, but even so it's pushing it to do it on March 27. If you go that early, you need to be side-splittingly funny or earn our disdain until we've forgotten all about it.
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
Macworld Expo Moves, Accepts Its Nickname — Here's the first hint of how IDG's Macworld Expo will change in the wake of Apple's decision to pull out of the show: It's moving from early January to February 9th-13th (which includes a Saturday-the show has been weekday only).
Discussion:
The Technology Chronicles, Macworld, AppleInsider, The iPhone Blog, Ars Technica and Macsimum News
Randy Nelson / Joystiq:
Sony has ‘no plans for a PS3 price drop,’ calls rumors ‘false’ — All those rumors of a PS3 price drop, like as soon as tomorrow? There's absolutely nothing to them according to Sony, who has contacted us with an official comment on the matter. — “As we have stated previously …
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Microsoft Acquires Yahoo ... VP of Ops — Add another name to the list of Yahoo employees defecting to Microsoft. Dayne Sampson, Yahoo's VP of operations for search and advertising, has fled the company for its former suitor, Microsoft confirmed to Digital Daily.
Discussion:
TechFlash
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Microsoft drops plan to charge for WinMo updates — Microsoft has backed off plans to charge Windows Mobile developers $99 for submitting even minor updates to their applications. — Last week, Microsoft said that unless developers submitted updates to their applications within 7 days of their release …
Dan Sabbagh / Times of London:
Authors fight free books site Scribd for ‘pirating’ their work — Bestselling novels are reproduced without publishers' permission — Publishers and agents representing the authors J. K. Rowling and Ken Follett were battling last night to get free copies of their novels removed …
Discussion:
TechCrunch
Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:
Google Prepares Venture Fund — Google Inc. is expected to Tuesday announce more details about its highly anticipated venture-capital fund, including its plan to commit roughly $100 million to the endeavor in its first year, said people familiar with the matter.
Nathan Fouts / Mommy's Best Games' dev log:
Big fish in a shallow pond — True to their word, Microsoft has provided Community Games sales data by the end of March. The results are, in one word, sobering. — First, let me just reiterate that we have been very upfront about what Mommy's Best is trying to achieve. We want to make kick ass games, full-time.
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Yahoo Net service comes to Samsung TVs — Yahoo technology to bring Internet services to TVs has fledged from the demonstration realm to become a available in actual product, Samsung TVs. — Yahoo calls the technology TV Widgets, but Samsung is branding it as Internet@TV.
Discussion:
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