Top Items:
Joe Hewitt:
On Middle Men — The Internet has been incredibly empowering to creators, and just as destructive to middle men. In the 20th century, every musician needed a record label to get his or her music heard. Every author needed a publishing house to be read. Every journalist needed a newspaper.
Victoria Ho / ZDNet:
Google: Firms can ‘get rid’ of Office in a year — SINGAPORE—In a year, most enterprises will have the choice to “get rid of [Microsoft] Office if they chose to”, suggests Dave Girouard, president of Google's enterprise division. — Girouard, one of the company's four presidents including …
Discussion:
Technologizer, Mashable!, Digital Daily, VentureBeat, Maximum PC, ReadWriteEnterprise, VatorNews, CNET News, Ubergizmo, Gadgetopia and Preston Gralla's blog
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft admits its GPL violation; will reissue Windows 7 tool under open-source license — Microsoft officials confirmed on November 13 — a few days after pulling a Windows 7 download tool that allegedly contained improperly-licensed open-souce code — that the company did …
Discussion:
Lockergnome Blog Network
RELATED:
Chris Crum / WebProNews:
Google: Page Speed May Become a Ranking Factor in 2010 — Algorithm Change Would Make Slow Sites Rank Lower — Over the course of 2009, a consistent theme that Google has been involved with is that of speed. In announcement after announcement, Google has talked about the importance of speed on the web …
Chris Nuttall / Globe and Mail:
RIM takes smartphone fight to rivals — Jim Balsillie headed to San Francisco Bay Area conference to try and prove the BlackBerry can keep up with its U.S. competition — Personal Tech - Back to School Laptop Guide - The Download Decade - Browse the Windows 7 section
New York Times:
Terms of Digital Book Deal With Google Revised — SAN FRANCISCO — Google and groups representing book publishers and authors filed a modified version of their controversial books settlement with a federal court on Friday. The changes would pave the way for other companies …
Discussion:
Google Public Policy Blog, Wall Street Journal, paidContent, Search Engine Land and ResourceShelf
RELATED:
Jessica E. Vascellaro / Digits: Authors Guild Cheers Modified Book Settlement (Which Isn't Even Out Yet)
Chris Messina / FactoryCity:
Don't make me a target — The augmented reality view in Brightkite's mobile app. — Brightkite, a location-tracking service, recently launched version 2.0 of their service after merging with Limbo and taking $9M in funding this past April. — In recent months I've found myself using Foursquare …
Bloomberg:
AdMob Said to Have Been Approached by Apple Before Accepting Google Offer — Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) — AdMob Inc. was approached by Apple Inc. about an acquisition before the company accepted a $750 million bid from Google Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
Dana Oshiro / ReadWriteWeb:
Second Life Founder Launching Reputation Currency System — Six years after creating Second Life, Philip Rosedale announced that he would be focusing on a new project. Shrouded in mystery, the Linden Chairman and fellow Lindenite Ryan Downe began work in October on Love Machine Inc …
Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Digits:
A Later Ship Date For Nook — If you want to put a Nook electronic-book reader under the tree, you'd better move fast — very fast. … Barnes & Noble's Web site now says that new orders are expected to be shipped on Dec. 18, in time to make Christmas delivery.
Discussion:
Technologizer
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:
Running a contest on Facebook? That'll cost you — For Madison Avenue, Facebook just got a little less free. — Last week, the massive social network announced that brands, advertisers, and marketers that want to run contests or sweepstakes on its platform have to go through an approval process first.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Facebook Killed The MTV Star: Shakira To Debut New Music Video On Ustream/Facebook — International music star Shakira is taking a new approach to releasing her latest music video: she's doing it through a live stream on Ustream, which will be emedded on her Facebook Page.
Andrew Munchbach / Boy Genius Report:
WHERE helps us track DROID infestation, sales numbers — The folks over at uLocate, makers of the popular GPS-centric WHERE application, have come through with some stats in order to help us better track the DROID as it leaves store shelves...and there's a map for that. Oh irony.
Discussion:
Electronista
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch Europe:
Badda Bing! Microsoft woos newspapers by funding their stick to beat Google — As Microsoft shed its beta tag for the launch of the UK version of Bing today, TechCrunch Europe has learnt that it held a secret meeting with a group of big European publishers, mainly newspapers.
Joanna Stern / SlashGear:
Hey, Premium Notebooks or Netbooks, Get the Basics Right! — I wrote this column on the Nokia Booklet 3G which is, in my opinion, the most luxurious looking netbook on the market. And for its $600 ($299 with a pretty expensive 2 year AT&T contract) it sure as heck should be.
Discussion:
SlashPhone
Jared Newman / PC World:
Is Dell's Android Smartphone Doomed? — Dell confirmed it is releasing an Android-based smartphone, called the Mini 3, in China and Brazil, but the company's lack of details about the handset makes it hard to get excited. Dell's unwillingness to share more about the Mini 3 also has me wondering …
Tomio Geron / Venture Capital Dispatch:
When A Call From Maine Leads To A $9M Funding In Florida — Sometimes cold calls do pay off - even in venture capital. … Voxeo Corp., which provides Internet and voice communications services, said today it raised $9 million in Series A financing from Maine-based North Atlantic Capital and the newly formed Florida Growth Fund.
Alex Crippen / CNBC.com:
Microsoft's Bill Gates Praises Apple's Steve Jobs For ‘Saving the Company’ — Microsoft's Bill Gates had some words of praise today for Steve Jobs, the CEO of arch-rival Apple, despite the blistering “Mac and PC” television ads that sharply, and humorously, criticize the new Windows 7 operating system.
Kim Hart / The Hill:
Broadcasters: Don't lay a finger our spectrum — Today, 16 local broadcasting companies filed comments with the FCC to get across one very clear message: Don't mess with our airwaves. — Broadcasters, who recently gave up a big chunk of spectrum for public safety uses during the digital TV transition …
Associated Press:
N.J. computer programmer who worked for Bernard Madoff is arrested by FBI — NEW YORK — Two former employees for Bernard Madoff programmed an old IBM computer to generate false records that concealed the money manager's massive Ponzi scheme and were given hush money when they threatened to stop lying, federal prosecutors said today.
Discussion:
Gizmodo
bit.ly blog:
Summary Bit.ly Stats — For a long time, our users have been requesting summarized views of their click data. Today, we have taken the first in a series of steps to expose a summary of data across all of your Bit.ly links. — At the top of your Bit.ly history, you'll see a small chart displaying …
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
The Airfoil Speakers Touch Situation — Regarding today's aforelinked tale from Rogue Amoeba regarding the four-month-long process to get a minor bug-fix update to Airfoil Speakers Touch published on the App Store, several readers who insist upon defending Apple in this matter have pointed me to Jeff LaMarche's response.
Discussion:
Electronic Frontier Foundation, PC World, Under The Microscope, rc3.org, GigaOM and iPhone Development, Thanks:atul
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Dolly Parton Says: You Should Try IE8 Webslices! — In what's got to be the most amusing celebrity tech endorsement of the season so far, Dolly Parton has gone on YouTube endorsing Microsoft's IE8. It's got this great webslices feature, you see. “You've got to have Internet Explorer 8 to use webslices …
