Top Items:
Sky Canaves / China Real Time Report:
Clearing Up Confusion on Google and China — From Silicon Valley to Zhongguancun, Google's surprise announcement that it may pull out of China has fueled an enormous amount of discussion in recent days, not all of it 100% accurate. Below are some misstatements and misunderstandings we've seen:
Discussion:
SiliconANGLE, Wall Street Journal, Voices on All Things Digital, Imagethief, New York Times and Guardian
RELATED:
Agence France Presse:
US to formally ask China for explanation on cyber-attacks — WASHINGTON — The United States said Friday that it will formally ask the Chinese government in “the coming days” for an explanation of China-based cyberattacks on the Internet giant Google. — “We will be issuing a formal demarche …
Bloomberg:
Google Said to Have Tried to Enlist Companies as Allies After Cyber Attack — Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc. approached other companies to seek their help drawing attention to a cyber attack from China last month and was frustrated by their reluctance to come forward, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Discussion:
McAfee Security Insights Blog
CNBC.com:Microsoft to Study Possible Role in China's Google Attack
Discussion:
Threat Level, BBC, Softpedia News, blogs.chron.com, p2pnet, Graham Cluley's blog, Neowin.net, Reuters, Ars Technica, InfoWorld, TechFlash, PC World, Bits, Guardian, L.A. Times Tech Blog, internetnews.com, Security Watch, Bink.nu, Microsoft On The Issues, CNET News, eWeek, Microsoft, ZDNet, SC Magazine US, The Register, BetaNews, MSRC, InformationWeek and SANS Internet Storm Center …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Twitter's Answer To Facebook Connect — Twitter is preparing to launch a new set of tools that will let third party websites easily integrate Twitter features directly into their web sites and services, multiple sources have confirmed. In a nutshell, this is their response to the massively popular Facebook Connect.
Discussion:
Fast Company, GigaOM, Softpedia News, SocialTimes.com, VatorNews, Silicon Alley Insider, BaltTech and All Facebook
RELATED:
Eric Eldon / Inside Facebook:Facebook Connect Appears on MySpace Video Site
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Mashable!, Technology News, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, bub.blicio.us and Softpedia News
Peter Burrows / Business Week:
Is Apple Ready for Merger Mania? — The company has hired a banker from Goldman Sachs and looks to be in a more acquisitive mode — Historically, Steve Jobs has not been the acquisitive type. Since he returned to Apple (AAPL) as chief executive in 1997, the company has bought only 11 small companies …
Discussion:
Digital Daily, Silicon Alley Insider, LAW.com, 9 to 5 Mac, The Apple Core, Macsimum News, Edible Apple, MacRumors, MacNN, iLounge, AppleInsider and MacDailyNews
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Verizon Wireless revamps calling plans; Goes for customer grab ahead of 4G — Verizon Wireless is going on offense as it tweaks pricing plans, pares its device portfolio and markets heavily with its “there's a map for that” ad campaign. The grand plan for Verizon Wireless: Grab customers …
Discussion:
Verizon, BetaNews, Wall Street Journal, Tech Trader Daily, Engadget, eWeek, DSLreports, Ars Technica, jkOnTheRun, Phone Arena, WMExperts, Internet2Go, Digital Daily, PreCentral.net, IntoMobile, Electronista, Reuters and Gizmodo
RELATED:
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Verizon undercuts AT&T, reduces monthly voice plan by $29 — Competition in the mobile landscape became more intense Friday, when Verizon Wireless announced it has cut its basic voice plan by $29 per month, to $69.99 for unlimited calling. — Verizon also has an unlimited voice and text plan …
Matthew Moore / Telegraph:
Sarcasm punctuation mark aims to put an end to email confusion — Expressing sarcasm in the written word can be a dangerous business, as anyone forced to apologise for sending a tongue-in-cheek email will confirm. — The SarcMark costs $1.99 to download — Now a US firm has come …
Phil Wainewright / Software as Services:
Why freemium is bad for business — I've never been comfortable with free products for business use, even though it's difficult to avoid using them if you're a small or one-person business (web analytics, for example, has been all but wiped out as a low-end paid service by Google's free offering).
Sajid Farooq / NBC Bay Area:
Apple Cofounder Confesses: He Loves the Google Phone — Steve Wozniak admits he's jumped to Google's ship — Steve Wozniak may have once cut in line to get an iPhone. But now he's moved on to a hotter gadget. — The cofounder of Apple — the company that made him millions — told NBC Bay Area a dirty little secret.
Taylor Wimberly / Android and Me:
Google changes pricing options for Nexus One: 100 new reasons to purchase the N1 — Customers who recently paid $379 for the Nexus One will soon be receiving a $100 refund from Google. The refund does not apply to any other customers who purchased the Nexus One.
RELATED:
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple's Media Players will One Day be Both Portable TV & DVR — On January 14, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals one of the next chapters coming to Apple's Media Players. In Q4 2010, Apple introduced their fifth generation iPod nano …
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
The Original Tablet — I enjoyed Paul Thurrott's daily coverage of CES last week. A big trade show is a hard thing to capture in prose, and Thurrott got it. — But I chuckled at this piece starting his CES coverage, “Exclusive! Microsoft to Announce Tablet PC Before Apple!”:
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Nokia 2010 Symbian UI update detailed: built on Qt — Remember the concept mockups of what Nokia envisaged its Symbian S^4 UI might look like after it's reworked in 2010? The company showed off a brief video demo back in early December 2009, and now they're opening up the floodgates …
Discussion:
PC World, Gizmodo, Electronista, 901am, Pocket-lint.com, DailyTech, Softpedia News, Mashable!, Fone Arena, Electricpig and Ubergizmo
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
OneRiot's Realtime Ad Network RiotWise Now Open To The Masses — OneRiot's recently ventured into the advertising world with RiotWise, an ad format which places content in an emphasized position in their realtime feed. A few weeks ago, the realtime search engine launched a pilot program …
BBC:
Music file-sharer ‘Oink’ cleared of fraud — A man who ran a music-sharing website with almost 200,000 members has been found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud at Teesside Crown Court. — Alan Ellis, 26, was the first person in the UK to be prosecuted for illegal file-sharing.
Gregg Keizer / Computerworld:
Mozilla dumps Firefox 3.7 from schedule, changes dev process — Plans to quicken development pace by adding some features via security updates — Computerworld - Mozilla has made major changes to how it develops Firefox, and plans to drop Firefox 3.7 from its schedule and instead roll …
Grant Gross / Computerworld:
RIAA tells FCC: ISPs need to be copyright cops — IDG News Service - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission should avoid adopting strict net neutrality rules that would limit broadband providers' flexibly to “address” illegal online file sharing, the Recording Industry Association …
RELATED:
Gagan Biyani / MobileCrunch:
Patent Reveals Possible Groundbreaking Multi-Touch Features for Apple's iSlate — Now that everyone knows the iSlate is real, the question is: what the hell is this thing going to be like? How will it work? What will wow us about the iSlate that we never really expected?
Electronista:
Justice Dept completes inquiry of text messaging rates — The Justice Department has finally completed its investigation over text messaging fees charged by carriers such as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile, according to the Wall Street Journal. Industry and government officials familiar …
Discussion:
Between the Lines, DSLreports, ReadWriteWeb, Wall Street Journal, FierceWireless and Phone Scoop
Clint Boulton / eWeek:
Google, Bing Gain in U.S. Search While Yahoo's Slide Continues — comScore Jan. 15 said Google and Microsoft grabbed more U.S. search market share from Yahoo in December, with Bing ascending to its greatest search share since August 2007. Google, which earlier this week threatened to close …
Discussion:
TechCrunch
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Amazon Opens Up Kindle Digital Text Platform To Authors Outside The U.S. — Amazon.com this morning announced that it is expanding its self-service Kindle Digital Text Platform worldwide, giving more authors and publishers the chance to upload and sell books in English …
