Top Items:
Andy Ihnatko / Chicago Sun Times:
Need a last-minute gift? Go get yourself an eBook reader — It's the week before Christmas. You were hoping to find a gift that would be so thoughtful and such an emotionally-compelling statement about your relationship that your loved one would never intellectually work out just how little you spent on it.
Discussion:
TeleRead
Paul Bradshaw / E-Media Tidbits:
In the E-mail Era, Who Owns the Interview? — Some time ago I was interviewed via e-mail for an article and, as I often do, after providing answers to the nine questions, I asked the following: “Mind if I republish these answers in full on my blog after the piece goes live?”
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Google To Acquire DocVerse; Office War Heats Up — Google, which is currently on one heck of a spending spree, is closing an acquisition of San Francisco based DocVerse, a service that lets users collaborate around Microsoft Office documents, we've heard from a source with knowledge of the deal.
Lee Mathews / Download Squad:
Opera 10.5 pre-alpha leaks: Windows 7 integration, per-tab private browsing — While version 10.5 has not been released yet by Opera officially, there's a pre-alpha build that has been turned loose by someone. It seems legit enough: help -> about reports that the browser is version 10.5 internal, build 20192.
Charlie Stross / Charlie's Diary:
Gadget Patrol: 21st century phone — (This isn't a product review, it's a big-picture overview brought to you from the universe of “Halting State”.) — It shouldn't be news to anyone that smartphones — as a category — really took off in the second half of the noughties.
Popular Mechanics:
How James Cameron's Innovative New 3D Tech Created Avatar — Director James Cameron is known for his innovations in movie technology and ambitions to make CG look and feel real. His next film, Avatar, will put his reputation to the test. Can Cameron make blue, alien creature look real on the big screen?
Associated Press:
Stock windfall for Google employees — NEW YORK — Google's employees couldn't have timed the stock market's turn any better. — A day before stocks bottomed in March, Google let almost 16,000 of its workers exchange their stock options. It turned out to be the deal of a lifetime.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Poor iPhone reception graduates to SNL ‘Weekend Update’ joke status — “It was reported this week that Google would soon launch its own cellphone as a challenge to the iPhone. Also a challenge to the iPhone? Making phone calls.” — Cue uproarious applause. — Update: Video after the break!
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac, Gizmodo, TUAW, Techcraver.com, The iPhone Blog, Android Central and App Advice
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Smart Customer Service Lessons: Responding Faster To Complaints About Your Competitors — This post is part of the IT Innovation series, sponsored by Sun & Intel. Read more at ITInnovation.com. Of course, the content of this post consists entirely of the thoughts and opinions of the author.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
David Pogue Weighs In On Ebook DRM: Non-DRM'd Ebook Increased His Sales — Mark Rosedale (an employee of O'Reilly) was the first of a few to send in David Pogue's recent column in which he discusses the question of ebook DRM. Remember, just recently a Sony exec claimed that you couldn't make money on ebooks without DRM.
Discussion:
TeleRead
David Chartier / Macworld:
Twitter client Kiwi lets you style, hide, organize tweets — PEOPLE WHO READ THIS ALSO READ: — You would be right in many ways if you said that Twitter clients figuratively cost ten cents for every twelve apps you can round up. They typically compete in terms of redesigning …
Discussion:
Mashable!
Kevin Kelleher / GigaOM:
For Palm, Yet Another Wrenching Crisis — Palm is the Jack Bauer of the mobile industry. Its story is one of high-tension drama in which it lurches from one crisis to another, saving itself from the jaws of despair only to face some new and more daunting threat, all while the clock ominously ticks away.
