Top Items:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Google And Spotify Dance Over U.S. Launch — Spotify. The elusive European streaming music startup that you just can't get access to in the U.S., unless you know someone or jump through a few hoops. — The U.S. launch has been delayed over aggressive negotiations with the labels …
Discussion:
Music Ally, Electronista, PC World, Android Central, Softpedia News, Electricpig.co.uk, Pocket-lint.com and Google Android News …
Brad Stone / New York Times:
Trying to Add Portability to Movie Files — It is easy to take a DVD to a friend's house and watch it on his TV. But things are more complicated when digital video downloads are involved. A movie file bought from Blockbuster.com will not work on a Sony HDTV, for example …
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Freescale reveals 7-inch smartbook reference design, hopes to see it ship for $200 — Freescale Semiconductor is helping to kick this year's CES off with a bang, as its latest reference smartbook design actually has somewhat of a sexy flair to it. Currently, the model is little more than a great idea …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
What to watch for at the Consumer Electronics Show — The International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is the gadget industries SuperBowl. This year's CES events start Tuesday. Floor show exhibits open on Thursday and run through Sunday. VentureBeat's Anthony Ha and I will be covering lots of stories at the show.
David Colker / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Facebook fights back, disallows the Suicide Machine — Like the computer in the movie “2001,” Facebook is struggling to keep its profiles from virtual distinction at the hands of its arch enemy - the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine. — The Suicide Machine is a clever Web site out of the Netherlands …
David Carr / New York Times:
A Savior in the Form of a Tablet — Last year about this time, I was talking with an executive from Apple about e-readers and print at a conference we were both attending, much of it in the context of the mainstream media's original sin of giving away content if people happened to be reading it in digital form.
Ashlee Vance / New York Times:
Watching TV Together, Miles Apart — SAN FRANCISCO — For the lonely couch potato, help is on the way. — Simple technology, including video chatting services like Skype, is making it possible for far-flung friends to watch shows together, even if they can't share the same bowl of popcorn.
Noam Cohen / New York Times:
Link by Link: In Allowing Ad Blockers, a Test for Google — IN a manifestolike e-mail message sent last month to all Google employees, Jonathan Rosenberg, a senior vice president for product management, told them to commit to greater transparency and open industry standards.
Louis Gray:
Twitter Continues Hiring Spree, Adding Ten New Staffers — Twitter's pedigree is getting increasingly rich at the expense of Google and other Silicon Valley tech titans. With the holidays behind us, the microblogging powerhouse is starting the new year with more new faces at its San Francisco headquarters.
Elizabeth Woyke / Forbes:
Vonage's Second Calling — Forbes Magazine dated January 18, 2010 — The Internet telephone company wants to go from your home to your cell phone. — In 2002 Internet telephone company Vonage pioneered service that routed phone calls over the Web, cutting frequent callers' long-distance phone bills by as much as half.
Discussion:
Lockergnome Blog Network
Robert Andrews / mocoNews:
Nokia's New Mobile Chief: We'll Match Apple, RIM By 2011 — If he had wanted to debunk those rumors that it might buy Palm, Nokia's new mobile phones head Rick Simonson could have picked a more outright denial. — Simonson, who in November switched from CFO to run the mobile unit …
John Battelle / John Battelle's Searchblog:
Predictions 2010 — A new decade. I like the sound of that. I'm a bit late on these, but for some reason these predictions refused to be rushed. I haven't had the contemplative time I usually get over the holidays, and I need a fair amount of that before I can really get my head around …
Dave Altavilla / HotHardware.com News:
Intel Arrandale Core i5 and Core i3 Mobile Unveiled — Article Index: — Looking back at silicon innovation over the past decade, you'll notice three primary design targets that tend to dominate industry motivation and trends - power consumption, price and performance.
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Tweexchange Lets You Check Available Twitter Usernames And Domain Names — Tweexchange, once a marketplace for Twitter handles (that operated against Twitter's TOS) is now a site where you can check whether or not the username you had in mind for your new Twitter account is still available.
Discussion:
Mashable!
Gagan Biyani / MobileCrunch:
Weeks after Marrying Pinch Media, Flurry Gets in Bed with comScore and Starts Revenue Machine — Flurry Analytics has been real busy this holiday season. They recently merged with Pinch Media to create the biggest (in terms of user base) mobile analytics platform on the market.
Whitson Gordon / Lifehacker:
RSSOwl Newsreader Updates to 2.0, Adds Feed Importing, Search Features — Windows/Mac/Linux: Feed reader RSSOwl has long been a favorite of open-source advocates, despite being a bit less powerful than its competition. Version 2, however, brings OPML import/export, sharing, and smart searching …
Discussion:
Download Squad
Daniel E. Slotnik / New York Times:
News Sites Dabble With a Web Tool for Nudging Local Officials — Doug Hardy, an associate editor and Internet supervisor for The Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Conn., wanted to increase page views on its Web site. — Mr. Hardy had heard about SeeClickFix.com, a local advocacy Web site …
Dave Rosenberg / CNET News:
IBM software sticks to the plan for 2010 — IBM's software business contributes $20 billion of IBM's revenue and 40 percent of its profits. Suffice to say, it's an important part of Big Blue's market strategy to ensure that the software division performs at or above expectations every year.
Kdoctor / Content Bridges:
Nine Questions: On Tablet Dreams, Schemes and Screens of Hope — Not since a guy named Moses received a tablet have we seen such enthusiasm for the form. — The tablet dream — with its inevitable Apple intrigue and drumbeat of Amazon/Apple war — has rekindled interest in digital publishing …
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:
When/will Apple update the iPhone 3GS's Wifi to 802.11N? — Gizmodo and UberGizmo are both reporting that an Apple Job description is alluding to 802.11N wireless in the next iPhone. … The posting isn't particularly telling but it alludes to an iPhone software engineer needing 802.11N experience.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Facebook Rolling Out Redesign To Some Users — Facebook seems to be rolling out its new site design to at least some people outside the company, although none of us at TechCrunch have yet to be graced with its presence. The new design is “exactly” like the screenshots that GigaOm posted on December 27, says one source.
Jessica Shambora / Brainstorm Tech:
When the Princeton Review met Facebook — At Grockit, students study for standardized tests together, sharing tips via real-time chat. — Grockit marries social media with standardized test prep. — Despite the controversy surrounding standardized tests for college admissions (Are they fair?
