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The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
Palm Pre First Hands On! — Yes — you're looking at the first site in the world to have a Palm Pre (or at least be able to post it up). There's so much to say but that's going to have to wait for our full review. In the meantime, here's a couple first impressions of the phone and a few more photos after the break:
Discussion:
TechCrunch, My Pre, InformationWeek, PreCentral.net, jkOnTheRun, Gadgetell, I4U News, SlashPhone, Fone Arena, SlashGear, Mobilewhack.com, Smartphones and Cell Phones, WebOS Arena and Everything Pre, Thanks:fonearena
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Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Scooplet: the Palm Pre syncs with iTunes — It came up briefly at Comdex in January when a Palm (PALM) representative let the cat out of the bag (see here). Nobody followed up. — But with more and more Palm Pres appearing in the wild — in the hands of Palm employees, Elevation partners …
Discussion:
Engadget, TUAW, Gizmodo, CrunchGear, SlashGear, TheAppleBlog, PreCentral.net, The iPhone Blog, Electronista, tinyComb, My Pre, MacDailyNews and TechVi, Thanks:johnboot185
Datamation:
Why the Palm Pre Will Fail — I know, I know. Apple iPhone: old and busted. Palm Pre: new hotness. Palm's new phone will be June's flavor of the month, etc. — The Pre will have smartphone enthusiasts squealing with delight at its feature-rich and innovative user interface …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
AOL Spinoff Approved Last Night by Time Warner Board: Here Are the Inside Details (Not in the Press Release) — While there were reports that the Time Warner board was meeting today to approve the spinoff of its AOL online unit, it actually gave the move an “enthusiastic endorsement” last night, according to sources.
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TimeWarner:
Time Warner Inc. Announces Plan to Separate AOL — NEW YORK - Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized management to proceed with plans for the complete legal and structural separation of AOL from Time Warner. Following the proposed transaction …
Discussion:
DSLreports, paidContent.org, Bits, Associated Press, Financial Times, AppScout, DealBook and TechCrunch
Matt Richtel / Bits:
Google: Expect 18 Android Phones by Year's End — Summer Of '09 Phone War update: By year's end, there will be at least 18 phones on the market worldwide based on the Android operating system, Google disclosed for the first time today. — Andy Rubin, senior director for Mobile Platforms …
Discussion:
Engadget Mobile, Silicon Alley Insider, Gizmodo, CrunchGear, Electronista, TmoNews, Unwired View, Android Central, Google Code, www.pocketgamer.biz, AndroidGuys, The Toybox, Smartphones and Cell Phones, TECH.BLORGE.com, SlashGear, Android Phone Fans, InformationWeek, Google Android News …, Mashable!, Googling Google, TechCrunch, Phone Scoop, OStatic blogs, Gearlog, tinyComb, CNET News, Android Authority, Crave, Technology Review, eWeek, Fone Arena, The Web Life and digg.com
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Meet GigaOM Pro, Our Subscription-Only Research Service — When I was looking for funding for GigaOM nearly three years ago, I had a very simple, four-slide PowerPoint presentation that I showed to potential investors. Two slides focused on the past, but the other two — the “money slides” — focused on my plan to build the company.
Discussion:
paidContent.org, ReadWriteWeb, VentureBeat, Internet Evolution, CenterNetworks, AppScout and Micro Persuasion
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Jeremy Horwitz / iLounge:
Purported next-gen iPhone bezel shows speaker, color changes — Images from Hong Kong depict several significant changes from the bezels of prior iPhones to the next-generation model, if their source is to be believed. Listings pages from Hong Kong-based part vendor China Ontrade depict …
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Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
Next-Generation iPhone 3G Parts Revealed by Chinese Wholesaler? — Wholesaler China Ontrade.com has posted parts from the next-generation iPhone 3G 2009: The LCD screen and the middle internal bezel. They even have pictures comparing the new parts to the old ones: — The wholesaler says the following in their site:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Bing! Microsoft Prepares For War With A Revamped Search Engine (Screenshots) — Today, Microsoft publicly unveiled its soon-to-launch search engine Bing. It will become available over the next few days, and be fully launched by June 3. On the surface, Bing has a distinct gloss.
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Peter Kafka / D7 Highlights:
D7 Tech DEMO: Plastic Logic — Amazon (AMZN) isn't the only company that wants you to read books and newspapers on a handheld device. The Kindle has a bevy of competitors, some of which already exist-like Sony's (SNE) Reader-and those that have yet to hit the market. Plastic Logic falls in the second category.
Discussion:
PC World, New York Times, TeleRead, ITworld.com, SlashGear, Engadget, Technologizer, Bits, CrunchGear, TechFlash, Tech Trader Daily, Incremental Blogger and Crave
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Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
New version of HDMI cables brings Internet into consumer electronics — An industry alliance is announcing today a new version of the popular HDMI cables that connect high-definition video appliances to TVs and other appliances. It's just a simple cable upgrade, but it will mean far easier set …
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Sam Diaz / Between the Lines:
Sergey Brin: Newspapers can still prosper but need time to “figure it out” — Google co-founder Sergey Brin was cornered with a hot-topic question at the tail end of a press conference at the Google I/O Developer's Conference. A “mainstream media” reporter from Australia wanted …
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Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:Sergey Brin On Newspapers, Breaking “Page's Law” …
Discussion:
TechCrunch
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Microsoft Sells 30 Millionth Xbox 360, Grows LIVE Community To 20 Million — Microsoft just announced sales of Xbox 360 consoles have passed the 30 million mark globally, up 28 percent over last year, which it claims is the highest percentage growth in hardware sales of any console so far in 2009.
Chris Lynch / Inside Facebook:
Omniture Releases Analytics Tools for Facebook — While marketers understand it's important to build a presence on Facebook by creating custom applications and pages to interact with customers, sometimes they (rightly) hesitate to make a substantial investment if they can't track the success of those initiatives.
Jefferson Graham / USA Today:
Economy isn't slowing Apple's building plans — Apple (AAPL) isn't letting the recession slow its retail ambitions. — The company said Wednesday that it plans to remodel 100 of its stores this year, to make more room for customer training and displayed products.
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Landmark study: DRM truly does make pirates out of us all — It's a well-known story by now: Europe, the US, and plenty of other countries have made it generally illegal to circumvent DRM, even when users want to do something legal with the content. Sure, it sounds bad and Ars complains …
Ben Kuchera / Ars Technica:
Mole: PSP-Go details confirmed, smaller PS3 is on the way — Our trusty inside source spills the beans about Sony's long-term strategy. The PSP-Go! is real, and should be announced at E3. The more surprising news? A slimmed-down PS3 is in fact coming, but not until Sony sells the PS3s sitting on retail shelves.
Joe Mandese / MediaPost:
Nielsen Finds ‘Cord-Cutting’ Is Real, But Cuts Both Ways: Online Video Churns Almost As Much As TV — In a finding that appears to defy some conventional industry thinking, new research released by Nielsen Co. indicates the so-called phenomenon of “cord-cutting” - people who replace a portion …
Ina Fried / CNET News:
Cuban: Internet video progress ‘disappointing’ — CARLSBAD, Calif.—Mark Cuban says that despite the growth of YouTube, the Internet video market over the last decade has actually been a disappointment. — The problem, he said, is that when Google bought YouTube it focused on ubiquity rather than making money.
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Dell Joins the Budget Ultrathin Party With 14-Inch, $649 Studio 14z — Ok, this trend is really growing some legs. Dell has just announced and made available their Studio 14z, a $649 optical-driveless budget ultralight with a 16:9 HD screen, Nvidia 9400m graphics and a 14-inch screen.
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Obama's Supreme Court Nominee Knows Stuff About Computers — Pundits have framed President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, as a judicial equivalent to her predecessor. Not quite: Justice Souter is a proud luddite who has never owned a computer. Sotomayor, on the other hand, is a nerd.
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Semantic technology gains publishing foothold — OpenCalais, a Thomson Reuters project to improve electronic publishing by adding computer-readable labels to content, has attracted the attention of several media publishing organizations, including CNET. — The OpenCalais product …
Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
Best Buy Backs a Digital Media Venture Fund — Best Buy, the consumer electronics retailer, wants to finance the next hot digital media start-up. — Best Buy is supplying the capital for a new digital media investment fund that will be managed by Velocity Interactive Group, which also happens to be changing its name to Fuse Capital.
