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.
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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.
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?
Discussion:
TidBITS, Y Combinator Posterous, TechCrunch, Google Operating System, Between the Lines, VentureBeat, ITworld.com, RyanSpoon.com, CNET News, MediaMemo, InformationWeek, Search Engine Journal, TeleRead, GigaOM, Silicon Alley Insider, Download Squad, WebProNews, Mashable!, Daring Fireball and paidContent, Thanks:atul
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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.
Stephen Baker / Business Week:
Beware Social Media Snake Oil — Hordes of marketing “experts” are promoting the value of wikis, social networks, and blogs. All the hype may obscure the real potential of these online tools — For business, the rising popularity of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media Web sites presents a tantalizing opportunity.
Ross Miller / Engadget:
Barnes & Noble's Nook gets a brief and early hands-on — Thanks to a very generous anonymous tipster, we've gotten a number of hands-on pics of Barnes & Noble's soon to be released (for some) Nook e-reader. The impressions we've been given, however, weave a tale of a laggy Android interface …
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.
Jared Newman / PC World:
Experts Not Surprised By iPhone Malicious App Report — Malicious iPhone apps that Apple unwittingly approves could attack even non-jailbroken iPhones, according to a developer, but security experts say this isn't earth-shattering news. — “If you understand the way the security of the iPhone works …
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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, Electronista, The Register, Ars Technica, Maximum PC and Gizmodo
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:
paidContent, internetnews.com, eWeek, Mashable!, BoomTown, Search Engine Watch, Search Engine Land, CNET News, The Microsoft Blog, The Register and TechCrunch
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, Maximum PC, VatorNews, Mashable!, Erictric, WebProNews, Bloomberg, TechCrunch and ResourceShelf
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.
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.
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 …
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.
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, ChannelWeb, Engadget, AppleInsider, Macworld, The Loop, TechSpot, Hardware 2.0, Ars Technica, The Apple Core, 9 to 5 Mac, Electronista, Gizmodo and TUAW
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 …
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sharon Vaknin / Countdown to CES:
Maplock drives off GPS thieves — GPS sales have risen more than 700 percent in recent years, according to Who-Rae, an Australian company that develops and manufactures a range of consumer products. With increased popularity and usage comes crime, however—GPS are now the most commonly stolen item from vehicles, the company says.
Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge:
DoD: Cloud Will Save Us ‘Hundreds of Millions’ — Moving the U.S. military's IT operations to a cloud computing model hasn't been easy. But the payoff is clear, according to Henry Sienkiewicz, who oversees the Department of Defense's cloud computing platform, known as the Rapid Access Computing Environment (RACE).
