Top Items:
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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Tony Bradley / PC World:
Nexus One Complaints Mount, Honeymoon is Over — The Nexus One “superphone” revolution appears to be experiencing some backlash. Google's Nexus One has been available for less than a week, yet customers and developers are already amassing a growing list of issues and complaints.
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:
MacRumors, AppleInsider, Silicon Alley Insider, App Advice, O'Grady's PowerPage, 9 to 5 Mac, Mashable!, The Mac Observer, Ubergizmo and Go Rumors
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
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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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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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:
Telegraph, The Pondering Primate, the Econsultancy blog, NBC Bay Area, Pocket-lint.com and Gawker, Thanks:atul
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 …
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 …
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
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., paidContent, Andrew Chen and VentureBeat, Thanks:daniel_levine
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, Ubergizmo, MobileContentToday, TechSpot, Softpedia News and Go Rumors
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 …
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.
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.
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.
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
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Explaining The Copyright Bubble... And Why Big Corporations Want To Keep ACTA Secret — Shane Chambers was the first of a few of you to send in this fantastic Slashdot comment by someone going by the name girlintraining, that encapsulates very clearly the nature of the copyright “wars” …
Joop Dorresteijn / The Next Web:
Baidu, China's Largest Search Engine, Hacked by “Iranian Cyber Army” — Baidu is suddenly unavailable, with sources all over China confirming this. — It seems that China's most popular search engine, with a market share of over 77% has been hacked by Iranian hackers.
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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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.
John Capone / MediaPost:
Texting: It's Not Just For Children Anymore — The stereotypes of the teenager whose thumbs are surgically attached to his or her mobile device and the older parent who sees the same as a phone without wires are, like most stereotypes, not entirely inaccurate — but also not very reliable either.
