Top Items:
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Update on Yahoo-Microsoft Talks: “Hot and Heavy” — Microsoft and Yahoo have been busily ferreting away on talks about search and advertising partnership possibilities in what one person close to the situation described as “hot and heavy.” — But exactly how hot and how heavy depends …
Discussion:
Tech Check with Jim Goldman, Tech Trader Daily, tinyComb, Electronista and Silicon Alley Insider, Thanks:mrinaldesai
RELATED:
Heather Hopkins / Hitwise Intelligence:
Oprah Effect on Twitter — Oprah Winfrey, the icon that can turn any book or product into a best seller, posted her first Tweet on Friday on her show. There's been much debate among loyal Twitter users about whether this spells the end for Twitter's coolness, as soccer moms sign up in droves.
Ed Bott / Ed Bott's Microsoft Report:
Living with the limits of Windows 7 Starter Edition — If you've read anything about Windows 7 Starter Edition, your first reaction was probably the same as mine: Is Microsoft nuts? This ultra-cheap edition is intended for use on netbooks, but its biggest restriction sounds like a complete deal-breaker …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, nixCraft Linux Sys Admin Blog, Incremental Blogger, jkOnTheRun, Sunbelt Software, BetaNews and Slashdot
PC Pro:
BT blocks off Pirate Bay — Updated at 1.10pm: BT and other mobile broadband providers are blocking access to The Pirate Bay, as part of a “self-regulation” scheme. — BT Mobile Broadband users who attempt to access the notorious BitTorrent tracker site are met with a “content blocked” message.
RELATED:
Scott Rosenberg / Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard:
Mark Penn's fuzzy pro-blogging stats — I did a lot of digging around in the numbers around blogging for my book, so I'm on alert when I read a piece like Mark Penn's look at pro blogging in the Wall Street Journal, which is getting lots of attention this morning. A little skepticism is definitely in order.
RELATED:
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Study: pirates biggest music buyers. Labels: yeah, right — Those who download illegal copies of music over P2P networks are the biggest consumers of legal music options, according to a new study by the BI Norwegian School of Management. Researchers examined the music downloading habits …
Discussion:
paidContent, Mashable!, Electronista, CNET News, Guardian, Music Ally, CrunchGear, Boing Boing, p2pnet, PSFK and digg.com
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Google joins effort for 3D Web standard with new plugin, API — Google has released a new open source browser plugin that provides APIs for displaying rich 3D graphics in Web content. Google hopes that the plugin will help to advance a collaborative effort to create open standards for bringing 3D to the Web.
Sunshine / LiveSide:
Web IM In Hotmail — Web IM is coming to Hotmail. It became available to users in France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and the UK last month and starting today it will roll out to Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and the USA. If your country is not in this list yet, don't fret!
Business Wire:
The New York Times Company Reports 2009 First-Quarter Results — NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—The New York Times Company announced today a first-quarter 2009 operating loss of $61.6 million compared with operating profit of $6.2 million in the first quarter of 2008.
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
CNBC Is Ridiculous: Macs Come With Photoshop, PCs Need $600 Extra to ‘Perform As Well As a Mac’ — Regular people are probably confused by the re-inflamed Mac vs. PC ad war, which now focuses on price. Never fear, CNBC's Jim Goldman breaks down the true cost of PCs. Wait, Macs come with Photoshop?
Ina Fried / CNET News:
Mayo Clinic, Microsoft deepen health record ties — The Mayo Clinic on Tuesday said it will build a personal health record service based on Microsoft's HealthVault technology. — The product, Mayo Clinic Health Manager, will initially focus on general pediatric and adult health issues, immunization records, pregnancy, and asthma.
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Sharp's Mebius PC-NJ70A packs LCD trackpad for the whiz-bang crowd — And you thought Apple's button-less “glass trackpad” was hot stuff. Sharp has just let loose details on its thoroughly Japanese Mebius PC-NJ70A, which sadly packs an exceptionally boring list of internal components …
Discussion:
Maximum PC all, Akihabaranews.com, SlashGear, Gadgetell, Newlaunches.com, Softpedia News, Incremental Blogger, Obsessable and GottaBeMobile.com
Saul Hansell / Bits:
The Cost of Downloading All Those Videos — In an article in today's New York Times, I wrote about the controversy over the now-abandoned plan by Time Warner Cable to impose additional fees on customers who upload and download more than a set quota. — AT&T continues to test a similar plan …
New Zealand Herald:
MSN website hacked — Visitors to the msn.co.nz website are being re-directed to a site that includes a photograph of Microsoft boss Bill Gates with pie on his face. — The site usually carries news stories. — However hackers have changed the name servers which means that visitors …
Brian Womack / Bloomberg:
Yahoo's Bartz Picks Balogh to Tear Down ‘Wall of Shame’ of Failed Products — Yahoo! Inc. Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz said last month that she created a “wall of shame” for products she isn't happy with. She's counting on her top technology executive to fix them.
Discussion:
Beyond Search
Maggie Shiels / BBC:
Google rolls out search changes — Google has launched two experimental products it hopes will change the way users search for pictures and news. — A feature known as Similar Images uses a picture rather than text to find other matching images. — Timeline presents information already available …
Discussion:
TECH.BLORGE.com
Karl Bode / DSLreports:
Comcast Expands DOCSIS 3.0 In Bay Area - New community launches include Palo Alto and San Mateo — Comcast gave us a nudge this morning to note that the nation's largest cable company is continuing their expansion of faster DOCSIS 3.0 technology into the Bay Area.
Discussion:
GigaOM
Scott Duke Harris / Mercury News:
With Oracle's acquisition of Sun, Larry Ellison's empire grows — This time, there were no jokes about Larry Ellison wanting to kill a rival's dog — or the rival. This time, unlike Oracle's bids for PeopleSoft and BEA Systems, there was no hint of hostility.
Discussion:
Reuters
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Think Big! Could Sun/ORCL Trigger IBM/SAP Combo? — Ah, spring is the air. (In Silicon Valley, where the temps this week have soared into the 90s, it actually feels more like August.) And the natives are in the mood for love. — So far this week, we've seen Sun Microsystems (JAVA) …
Orlando Sentinel:
Lose your job? Tell your Facebook, Twitter friends — Last week, Sarah Bryant was too upset to call anybody after she was fired from her call-center job of three years. Instead, she sat down at her computer and posted “I got fired” on her Twitter and Facebook profiles.
Discussion:
Etan on Tech
Taylor Buley / Forbes:
EBay: Back To Basics — CEO John Donahoe is expected to bring the 10-year-old company back to its marketplace origins. — BURLINGAME, Calif. — When John Donahoe became chief executive of eBay in March 2008, he said it would take him a year to asses the company's portfolio and figure out its next move.
Danny Sullivan / Daggle:
Time For Google To Fund An Online-Only Version Of The Pulitzers? — The Pulitzer Prizes were announced today — and sincere congrats to the hard-working journalists who've won those highest of prizes. But with no online-only publications winning — in the first year they were eligible to enter …
Stephanie Gaskell / NY Daily News:
U.S. Army uses Facebook page, tweets to declare war on Ashton Kutcher's top Twitter spot … The U.S. Army wants you - to be its friend on Facebook. — You can also follow the Army on Twitter. Or post a comment on its new blog. They're all part of the Army's new mission: social networking.
Chris Foresman / Ars Technica:
iPhone OS 3.0 to feature voice control and feedback — Various voice-related features, under the codename “Jibbler,” have been discovered in the version of SpringBoard set to ship with the next update to Apple's mobile operating system. — Sources speaking to Ars have discovered evidence …
Discussion:
AppleInsider, Macworld, CNET News, PC World, Gadget Lab, InformationWeek, The iPhone Blog, TECH.BLORGE.com, SlashGear, Electricpig.co.uk, Local Mobile Search, MacRumors, MacNN, iLounge, I4U News, AppScout, Ubergizmo, Tech Trader Daily, MobileContentToday, Gizmodo, 9 to 5 Mac and digg.com
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Facebook Considers Building An Ad Network — As its been speculated, but never confirmed, Facebook is considering building an ad network on the back of Facebook Connect — but not for at least another six months, an advertising industry source who's discussed the issue with Facebook tells us.
Wall Street Journal:
Computer Spies Breach Fighter-Jet Project — WASHINGTON — Computer spies have broken into the Pentagon's $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter project — the Defense Department's costliest weapons program ever — according to current and former government officials familiar with the attacks.
