Top Items:
Tim Culpan / Bloomberg:
Apple Expects to Ship 10 Million Tablets in First Year, Lee Kai-Fu Says — Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. expects to ship 10 million tablet computers in the device's first year of release, former Google Inc. Greater China president Lee Kai-fu wrote on his Web log, citing a friend familiar with the project whom he didn't name.
Discussion:
NBC Bay Area, Techie Buzz, iPhone Buzz, AppleInsider, Tech Trader Daily, Gadgetmix news, Fone Arena, MediaPost and E-Commerce Times
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
The Tablet … —"Just a Touch Away, the Elusive Tablet PC", The New York Times, 4 October 2009 — Here's the thimbleful of information I have heard regarding The Tablet (none of which has changed in six months): The Tablet project is real, it has you-know-who's considerable undivided attention …
Discussion:
Paul Buchheit, TeleRead, Electronista, The iPhone Blog, SlashGear, DisplayBlog, CrunchGear and Silicon Alley Insider, Thanks:atul
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Megan McCarthy / Techmeme News:
Top 10 objectively biggest tech stories of 2009 — Ignore all the other lists! As we did last year, Techmeme has distilled its very own Top 10 story list, utilizing headline ranking data archived throughout the year. While we employ a terrific team of news editors to guide our story selection …
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
The Google Countdown Reveals Its Explosively Colorful Secret — A few weeks ago we wrote about a mysterious Easter Egg on Google's homepage that we dubbed The Google Countdown. After clicking the “I'm Feeling Lucky” button with no search query entered, the page would display a countdown timer ticking …
Brad Stone / Bits:
Whoops! F.C.C. Chairman Spams Facebook Friends — Facebook scam artists have closed out 2009 by snagging a prominent victim: Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. — On Friday morning at around 10:30 a.m., Mr. Genachowski sent his Facebook friends this puzzling message …
Kim Zetter / Threat Level:
TSA Withdraws Subpoenas Against Bloggers — TSA Special Agent John Enright, left, speaks to Steven Frischling outside the blogger — In the wake of public outcry against the Transportation Security Administration for serving civil subpoenas on two bloggers, the government agency has canceled …
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Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Did Google Get A TSA Subpoena Over Security Directive? It Can't Say — Many headlines yesterday about two bloggers who received visits — and subpoenas — from the Transportation Security Administration after publishing a security directive that was emailed to them anonymously.
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:
This is why Apple denied Google Latitude from the App Store... Another Apple patent today looks remarkably similar to the functionality of Google Latitude which Apple relegated to WebApp status earlier this year. Obviously if Apple is working on their own version of Google Latitude …
The Real McCrea:
Silicon Valley: Top 10 of the 2000s — It's all too easy to view the first decade of the 21st Century as just an unmitigated series of disasters: September 11th, the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, and the meltdown of the global financial system, to name just a few.
Discussion:
broadstuff, Tom Foremski: IMHO, Silicon Valley Watcher, CNN and dailywireless.org, Thanks:chrismessina
Jeff Bertolucci / PC World:
Google: Never Mind the Nexus One, How About a Cheaper Cell Plan? — Based on this week's flurry of media reports, it appears that Google will introduce its Nexus One smartphone right after the New Year. This HTC-built handset sounds like a very good Android phone, a solid effort …
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Kelly Hodgkins / Boy Genius Report:
Fresh out of China emerges the Motorola Shadow/Mirage, yet another Motorola Android handset — Our Chinese is a bit rusty and the details are sparse but it looks like Motorola may be brewing up another Android-powered handset. This handset, codenamed the Mirage or the Shadow …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Engadget, Mobile Roar, PMP Today, Phone Arena, MobileCrunch, Digital Trends, SlashGear, Android Central, I4U News, Techie Buzz, GPS Obsessed, AndroidGuys and Electronista
Sebastian Rupley / GigaOM:
Mozilla Raindrop Aims to Solve Message Glut in 2010 — As we've noted before, Mozilla's Raindrop messaging project holds a lot of promise. Like many early-stage, open-source Mozilla projects, the design of Raindrop isn't being widely publicized, but there are now more interface clues as to why it could be important.
Rebecca Harper / Hulu Blog:
Live Stream: Times Square 2010 — With a bit of rain and snow in the forecast for the New Year's Eve festivities in the Big Apple, the team at Hulu HQ can't blame you for wanting to stay warm and dry inside. The good news? You can catch all the festivities at home with Hulu.
Eliot Van Buskirk / Epicenter:
MySpace Replaces Embedded Imeem Playlists With Ads — This Wired.com Listening Post article from October 2008 is one of many around the web that now features prominent ads for ringtones by various pop artists where songs and playlists used to be. — Imeem users, bloggers and web users …
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Apple COO Tim Cook Said To Be A “Top Candidate” For GM CEO Job (AAPL, GM) — Apple COO Tim Cook is executive search firm Spencer Stuart's first choice for the open CEO spot at General Motors, a reader tells us. — We have no idea whether this is true or not, but it makes sense.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Time Warner Cable Shows Subscribers How to Cut the Cord — The nightmare scenario for cable companies is that customers drop their TV subscriptions and grab their video directly from the Web, turning the cable guys into mere providers of “dumb pipes.” — But here's a comprehensive set …
David Kaplan / paidContent:
Shelby Bonnie's Whiskey Media Secures $2.5 Million Funding — Social media publisher Whiskey Media has raised a $2.5 million funding, PEHub reported, citing a regulatory filing. No word on who the investors are or what the proceeds will go towards. The Sausalito, CA-based company was started …
Chris / cdixon.org:
What's strategic for Google? — Google seems to be releasing or acquiring new products almost daily. It's one thing for a couple of programmers to hack together a side project. It's another thing for Google to put gobs of time and money behind it. The best way to predict how committed Google …
Bill Ray / The Register:
Hacker rattles 21,000 iPhone unlockers — Claiming moral high ground — Hackers have mailed 21,000 customers of iPhoneUnlockUK to remind them the company uses unlicensed software, and that their details have been compromised. — E-mails were sent out to customers of the iPhone unlocking service …
Pui-Wing Tam / Wall Street Journal:
Start-Up IPOs Go Elsewhere — Not many Silicon Valley companies have gone public in recent years. And as 2009 draws to a close, the past 12 months have followed the same lackluster pattern. — Through early this week, eight venture-capital-backed companies had gone public in 2009, according to research firm VentureSource.
Tim Conneally / BetaNews:
LG finally brings mobile digital TV hardware to the States — Mobile Digital TV is still about a year away from mainstream adoption, but major strides were made in 2009. Now on the last day of the year, consumer electronics company LG has announced it will finally be showing off Mobile DTV products at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Microsoft patent filing: Control a computer by flexing a muscle — We've covered lots of offbeat Microsoft patent filings in 2009, and here's a doozy to round out the year. According to a newly surfaced filing, the company is seeking patents on a method of controlling computers using Electromyography …
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
$7.5 Million: Wikipedia Reaches Fundraising Goal — In what has become a Christmas tradition, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales posted a personal appeal for donations to the Wikimedia Foundation earlier this month. On the first day alone, the nonprofit raised $430,000 from 13,000 people.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
ChaCha Makes Its Crazy Business Model...Profitable — We've always had a lot of fun with Indianapolis-based startup ChaCha. They launched in 2007 as a human powered search engine - meaning a human found you answers when you typed in a query. Pranksters, obviously, loved it.
