Top Items:
Brad Stone / New York Times:
Apple Strikes Deal to Buy the Music Start-Up Lala — SAN FRANCISCO — In the most recent sign that Apple is looking at alternative ways for people to store and play their digital music, the company has agreed to buy Lala, a four-year-old start-up based in Palo Alto, Calif., a person with knowledge of the deal said Friday.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, VentureBeat, CNET News, Wall Street Journal, Maximum PC, 9 to 5 Mac and Gizmodo
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Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Confirmed: Apple Buys Music Service Lala, At a Fire Sale Price — Apple has purchased online music service Lala, I've confirmed with a source familiar with the transaction. Both Bloomberg and CNET reported the chats earlier today. If you'd like other confirmation, New York Times also reports that the deal has closed.
Discussion:
CNET News, Between the Lines, Technologizer, BusinessWeek, App Advice, MacRumors, VentureBeat, Mashable! and DisplayBlog
The EtherPad Blog:
Google Acquires AppJet — We are happy to announce that AppJet Inc. has been acquired by Google. The EtherPad team will continue its work on realtime collaboration by joining the Google Wave team. — For Current Users and Customers: — What will happen to my account? Will I still be able to use EtherPad?
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Bryan Horling / The Official Google Blog:
Personalized Search for everyone — Today we're helping people get better search results by extending Personalized Search to signed-out users worldwide, and in more than forty languages. Now when you search using Google, we will be able to better provide you with the most relevant results possible.
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Intel: Initial Larrabee graphics chip canceled — Intel said Friday that its Larrabee graphics processor will initially appear as a software development platform only. — This is a blow to the world's largest chipmaker, which was looking to launch its first discrete (standalone) graphics chip in more than a decade.
Discussion:
Computerworld, VentureBeat, The Register, Ars Technica, Electronista, Maximum PC and Gizmodo
John Leyden / The Register:
Spyware threat haunts squeaky-clean iPhones — Research finds rogue app privacy risks to regulation models — Apple's line that iPhone users who toe the line and resist any temptation to jailbreak, unlock or otherwise desecrate their smartphone are protected from threats has been called into question by new research.
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Andre Lebedev / The Official Google Blog:
Now on Google Finance: streaming news — Ever since we launched real-time and streaming quotes on Google Finance last year, we've heard from users how vital that up-to-date information has been. Especially in today's volatile financial environment, current information can be the difference between …
Discussion:
CNET News, Search Engine Journal, TechCrunch, Mashable!, Maximum PC, Erictric, VatorNews, Bloomberg and ResourceShelf
Yahoo!:
Yahoo! and Microsoft Finalize Search Agreement — Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corporation today announced that the companies have finalized and executed the definitive Search and Advertising Services and Sales Agreement and License Agreement in accordance with the letter agreement announced in July.
Discussion:
internetnews.com, eWeek, Search Engine Watch, paidContent, BoomTown, Search Engine Land, CNET News, The Microsoft Blog, The Register, TechCrunch and Mashable!
Lee Brodie / Fast Money Rapid Recap:
CEO Eric Schmidt Reveals ‘Centerpiece’ Of Google's 2010 Strategy — On Thursday President Obama summoned Corporate America to the White House in an attempt to help tackle the problem of unemployment. — And among the many corporate leaders who answered the President's call was Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Quietly Adds 3.33 GHz Quad-Core Option to Mac Pro [Updated: Xserve] — Apple has quietly upgraded its Mac Pro offerings, adding the option of a 3.33 GHz quad-core processor and adding the ability to configure both the quad-core and 8-core models with 2 TB hard drives …
Discussion:
SlashGear, AppleInsider, PC World, The Loop, Engadget, 9 to 5 Mac, ChannelWeb, Hardware 2.0, The Apple Core, TechSpot, Ars Technica, Electronista, TUAW and Gizmodo
Om Malik / GigaOM:
FCC Wants to Know Why Verizon Increased Termination Fees — Updated with Verizon's response: The Federal Communications Commission wants to know why Verizon decided to double its early termination fee (ETF) for new customers who sign on to the wireless service using advanced devices...longhand for smartphones.
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
FCC admits CableCARD a failure, vows to try something else — The Genachowski-led Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seems to delight in dropping bombshells on a weekly basis, but we didn't see this one coming: the FCC admits that its CableCARD mandate has been an abysmal failure.
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Apple Told To Pay Patent Troll OPTi $21.7 Million — Apple was told to pay $21.7 million in a patent case against OPTi Inc., a semiconductor vendor-turned-patent troll. — The patent (no. 6.405,291) regards “pre-snoop” cache memory technology. — The decision was made in the plaintiff …
Eric Eldon / Inside Facebook:
Sources: Facebook Connect Will Be “Everywhere” on MySpace Next Year — Yahoo announced that it will be making Facebook Connect a deeply-integrated part of its site earlier this week. The move surprised some people, because Yahoo itself has historically been the largest social site on the web.
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Apple sued for infringing digital camera patent with iPhone — St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming the company is violating several of its digital camera patents. — Filed in the United States District Court in Delaware …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Maximum PC, App Advice, EverythingiCafe, Macsimum News, The iPhone Blog, MobileCrunch, 9 to 5 Mac and Pocket-lint.com
Seth Rosenblatt / The Download Blog:
Google Chrome now bundled with Avast — You wouldn't necessarily expect it, but Avast and Google Chrome might be the next peanut butter-and-jelly combo in the software world. Google's nascent browser has paired with one of the most popular free security programs in the world so that when users run …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
CrunchPad Litigation Imminent — It has been a busy week for our former partners on the CrunchPad. The company has deleted their corporate blog, taken the time to hire a PR firm and schedule an event Monday morning to “give their side of the story.” — They still have not returned our calls or emails.
Paul Thurrott / WindowsITPro:
Windows 7 Family Pack Disappears in the United States — WinInfo — This week in Australia, Microsoft began shipping a limited pilot version of its Windows 7 Family Pack, which provides for three upgrade installations of Windows 7 Home Premium for one low price.
Josh Lowensohn / Crave: The gadget blog:
Hardware for Gmail: The ‘Gboard’ keyboard — Gmail has long had keyboard shortcuts, though learning them can be difficult. Enter the Gboard, a specialized mini-keyboard for Google's e-mail service. It debuts this Friday at an asking price of $19.99. — The Gboard consists …
Discussion:
Mashable!, PC World, EveryJoe, Digital Trends, SlashGear, Gadgetell, Mobilewhack.com, The Huffington Post and Gizmodo
EurActiv.com:
Web inventor: ‘Snooping’ authorities threaten Internet — Governments and companies pushing for greater monitoring of Internet activity pose a major threat to freedom and democracy, according to Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web. … To read a shortened version of this interview, please click here.
Kevin Rose / Digg the Blog:
Five Years of Digg...and counting — Five years ago today, Digg.com went live. What started as a simple idea has certainly come a long way. From a vision of a new way to surface news, and a team of three, to 40+ million monthly visitors and 80+ passionate employees...well, suffice it to say that I'm very proud of what we've become.
Eric Zeman / InformationWeek:
HTC Droid Eris To Get Android 2.0 Update — Verizon Wireless has said that the HTC Droid Eris will receive a significant system update at some point in the fist quarter of 2010. The update will boost the Eris' version of Android to at least 2.0, and possibly even 2.1.
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
First commercial tool to crack BitLocker arrives (Updated) — BitLocker Drive Encryption can now be successfully cracked with Passware Kit Forensic version 9.5, though it will set you back $795. — Passware, a software firm that provides password recovery, decryption …
Discussion:
Lockergnome Blog Network
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
An In-Depth Look At Pivot, Microsoft's Newest Data Visualization Tool — At Microsoft's PDC event a few weeks ago, Microsoft Live Labs introduced a new technology, called Pivot, to make sense of interconnectedness between objects on the web. The underlying premise of Pivot is to view relationships between …
Discussion:
Microsoft
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Web-TV Divide Is Back in Focus With NBC Sale — As she prepared her daughter for college, Anne Sweeney insisted that a television be among the dorm room accessories. — “Mom, you don't understand. I don't need it,” her 19-year-old responded, saying she could watch whatever she wanted on her computer, at no charge.
Agam Shah / PC World:
Dell to Set up Mobile Business Unit — Dell is setting up a new business unit surrounding mobile products as it tries to expand its presence in the communications market, the company said on Friday. — The newly formed communications solutions division will be responsible …
