Top Items:
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:
The iPhone Blog, Android Central, Mashable!, App Advice, Gizmodo, TUAW, Techcraver.com and 9 to 5 Mac
Simon Bowers / Guardian:
Google's subsidiaries allow company to avoid £450m tax — Revenues from customers in Britain were diverted to Google Ireland Limited — Google, which has an estimated 90% market share of UK internet searches, last year used a cross-border network of subsidiary companies to ensure …
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
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.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
The World Has Changed. Is Jigsaw Still Evil? — In 2006 I was horrified by Jigsaw, a website that encouraged users to upload people's contact information (often from business cards) for money - $1 per contact. Other people then bought that contact information.
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Brittany Murphy Death & Google's Real Time Search Results — The death of actress Brittany Murphy is probably the first test for Google's new real time search results. Earlier this year, when Michael Jackson died, it took several minutes for the news to make it into Google despite the extraordinary number of searches it was getting.
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.
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?
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.
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?”
Kevin J. O'Brien / New York Times:
As Going Gets Tough, Nokia Brings Out Legal Guns — BERLIN — When Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, sued Apple, Samsung, LG and eight other competitors within six weeks beginning in October, the Finnish technology giant said it was conducting a routine defense of its intellectual property.
Paul Miller / Engadget:
Stable Android 2.1 hacked onto Droid, speeds through those extra home screens — Staying warm out there? Got a cup of hot cocoa in hand? Good, because Mr. Greek35T over at AllDroid has a stable version of the (previously rough-around-the-edges) Android 2.1 ROM ready for all you Droid users to play around with.
