Top Items:
Sylvie Barak / TG Daily:
Apple takes a bite out of LCD and OLED supply — An interesting rumor reached the ever alert ears of TG Daily's hacks on the CES showroom floor last week, with word that Apple has snapped up all available supply of 10.1-inch multi-touch display LCD and OLED screens for its upcoming tablet.
Discussion:
The Mac Observer, MacRumors, AppleInsider, Silicon Alley Insider, App Advice, O'Grady's PowerPage, 9 to 5 Mac, Mashable!, Ubergizmo and Go Rumors
Ross Miller / Engadget:
Google imposes $350 early termination fee for subsidized Nexus One in addition to carrier's own ETF — Here's another reason to consider going the unlocked route with the Nexus One, in addition to having the AT&T (non-3G) and international GSM option. As a number of people have noticed …
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Rob Jackson / Android Phone Fans:
WTF: Google Charging Nexus One ETF In ADDITION To Carrier ETF — Oh boy - queue up the backlash. Your parents always told you to read the fine print and the Nexus One Terms Of Sale reveal a troubling detail that we can't quite figure out. If you buy a subsidized Nexus One through …
Arn / MacRumors:
Fingerworks.com Content Pulled Ahead of Apple Tablet Announcement — The content of Fingerworks.com has been removed this week after remaining online for nearly 5 years after the acquisition of the company by Apple. The removal seems to correspond with the impending announcement of an Apple tablet later this month.
Ronen Halevy / BerryReview.com:
HOT! First Picture of BlackBerry Curve 8910 — We first heard about the BlackBerry Curve 8910 earlier today. Tonight one of our Secret Agents scored a live picture of the BlackBerry Curve 8910 for us to ogle. From what I am seeing this revision replaces the trackball with a trackpad …
Discussion:
Unwired View, SlashGear, BlackBerry Cool, IntoMobile, CrackBerry.com blogs, Phone Arena and Ubergizmo
Liz Gannes / GigaOM:
Google's Approach to Social for 2010 — Though Google's social strategy has been catch-up at best to date, the company does have a master plan — at least according to engineering director David Glazer, whom I spoke with last week at Google HQ. He said across a variety of products …
Discussion:
chrisbrogan.com
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Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Ok You Luddites, Time To Chill Out On Facebook Over Privacy — In 2004 everyone freaked out when Gmail launched because Google would be reading your emails to figure out what ads to serve you. “Privacy advocates objected to the advertising model, which involves Google's robot eyes scanning every e-mail …
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Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:Why Facebook is Wrong: Privacy Is Still Important
Discussion:
AccMan, The Atlantic Business Channel, Tech Central, Skeptic Geek, Macworld and InformationWeek
Joe Sharkey / New York Times:
E-Mail? Free. Internet? That'll Cost You. — EVERYBODY wants to be connected, and most major airlines in the United States have made bets that in-flight Wi-Fi Internet service will be a profitable sideline, or at least a worthwhile brand enhancer. — As the year started …
David Ebner / Globe and Mail:
The killer app that busted ski-resort snow jobs — Exaggerated reports of snow on ski hills used to be routine leading up to the weekend, but not since the iPhone began to expose the truth — Do you want to know how much fresh powder has really fallen on your favourite ski hill? There's an app for that.
Discussion:
Fast Company
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
Google Plans to Upgrade Old Billboards in Street View — According to a new patent that was just granted to Google, the company could soon extend the reach of its advertising program in Google Maps to Street View. This patent, which was originally filed on July 7, 2008 …
Discussion:
Fast Company, Telegraph, the Econsultancy blog, The Pondering Primate, Pocket-lint.com, Gawker and NBC Bay Area, Thanks:atul
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Mochi Media Acquired By Shanda Games For $80 Million — Mochi Media, a Flash game advertising network and payments platform funded by Accel Partners and Shasta Ventures, has been acquired by Shanda Games for $60 million in cash and $20 million in equity. The company has raised $14 million over two venture rounds.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Tech Trader Daily, Shanda Games Ltd., Andrew Chen, VentureBeat, paidContent and silicontap.com, Thanks:daniel_levine
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Pandora: Now Playing Everywhere — Now that Pandora, a next-generation online music streaming service, has turned its first quarterly profit, the Oakland, Calif.-based company is looking at life beyond the web. And by doing so, Pandora is moving to embody what's being called the device-agnostic Internet.
Brad Burnham / Union Square Ventures:
We need an independent invention defense to minimize the damage of aggressive patent trolls — Almost a third of our portfolio is under attack by patent trolls. Is it possible that one third of the engineering teams in our portfolio unethically misappropriated technology from someone else …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Foursquare Now Seeing A Check-In Each Second — Last Friday, the location-based service Foursquare announced that it was opening their service to be used anywhere in the world. The following day, they saw the biggest day in terms of usage ever, apparently.
Discussion:
atmaspheric
Phil Wong / The Rumpus.net:
Conversations About the Internet #5: Anonymous Facebook Employee — Facebook employees know better than most the value of privacy. — This past summer Facebook relocated from University Avenue in Palo Alto, CA — where several buildings fan out along the downtown strip — to a new central office in Stanford Research Park.
Discussion:
PC World, Gawker, All Facebook, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Neowin.net, Electricpig.co.uk, broadstuff, The Huffington Post, CNET News, Boing Boing and Gizmodo Australia
Douglas MacMillan / Business Week:
E-Readers Everywhere: The Inevitable Shakeout — Samsung, Plastic Logic, enTourage Systems, Hearst, and Spring Design launched e-readers at CES against Sony, Amazon, and even Apple's rumored tablet — Johnny Makkar is intent on buying a digital book reader.
Jon Brodkin / Network World:
Half of all data centers understaffed, Symantec survey finds — Budget, lack of qualified applicants challenge IT shops — Fifty percent of IT executives say their data centers are understaffed, and companies are still looking for more ways to cut costs, according to Symantec's latest “State of the Data Center” report.
Theo Valich / Bright Side Of News:
Windows Mobile 7 definitely delayed to 2011 — After speaking with multiple sources, we're now certain that we won't be seeing Windows Mobile 7 before World Mobile Congress in Barcelona in February 2011. — We spoke with representatives from Microsoft, Lenovo, Qualcomm, TI, Nokia, nVidia …
Discussion:
PC World, Download Squad, SuperSite for Windows, Ubergizmo, MobileContentToday, TechSpot, Softpedia News and Go Rumors
Kim Zetter / Threat Level:
Airport Scanners Can Store, Transmit Images — Contrary to public statements made by the Transportation Security Administration, full-body airport scanners do have the ability to store and transmit images, according to documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
VigLink Raises $800K To Take Hassle Out Of Affiliate Programs — Most online publishers are at least vaguely familiar with affiliate programs, which can help them generate revenue from the stores and products they link to. Unfortunately, actually managing accounts with these programs …
Discussion:
CNET News, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, Search Engine Land, GigaOM, silicontap.com and paidContent
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Is Wal-Mart Ready to Try Web TV Again, With Vudu's Help? — Wal-Mart has tried twice to deliver movies and TV shows to its customers. Is it ready to try again? — Maybe. Sources tell me Web video startup Vudu is in “meaningful” acquisition discussions, and industry executives believe Wal-Mart is the likely buyer.
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Gizmodo
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Forrester Forecasts 8.1 Percent Increase In Global IT Spending In 2010 — For the technology industry, 2009 was a pretty tough year, but Forrester says the tech downturn is now ‘unofficially over’. — The research firm says the global technology industry will see an 8.1 percent increase …
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
The best of the best and the worst of the worst of 2010 CES — I've been watching Twitter for the best of CES lists, and since I went last week I've got my own perspective on it too. First, the coolest display I found was the Intel infoscan touch monitor. That's the video that's above.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Dave McClure To Launch Early Stage Venture Fund — Dave McClure has been investing in early stage startups for years. He is a direct angel investor in a half dozen or more startups, including Mint, Simply Hired, Mashery, TeachStreet and others. And he has invested in dozens more through fbFund …
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Microsoft pulls Office from own online store — On injunction deadline, Microsoft yanks all but one edition; other online retailers have suite to sell — Computerworld - Microsoft Corp. has pulled almost every version of Office from its own online store to comply with a court order requiring …
Discussion:
p2pnet, Guardian, The Microsoft Blog, All about Microsoft, Mashable!, CNET News, eWeek, Macworld, Macworld UK, TUAW and Macsimum News
Ashlee Vance / New York Times:
Giving Electronic Commands With Body Language — LAS VEGAS — The technology industry is going retro — moving away from remote controls, mice and joysticks to something that arrives without batteries, wires or a user manual. — It's called a hand. — In the coming months …
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Andy Atkins-Krüger / Search Engine Land:
Is Facebook A Global Threat To Google? — In December, Hitwise released data showing that the top Google search term of 2009 was “Facebook” having moved up from position number ten in the previous year. Hitwise also wrote that Facebook took the number one spot on Christmas Day—a claim Barry Schwartz later investigated.
