Top Items:
Brad Stone / Bits:
Amazon Cracks Open the Kindle — As Motoko Rich and I report in Wednesday's Times, Amazon.com is finally opening up the Kindle to developers. This has the potential to turn a popular single-purpose device into a more interesting and versatile gadget, limited only by the imagination …
RELATED:
Amazon.com:
Amazon Announces Kindle Development Kit—Software Developers Can Now Build Active Content for Kindle — Travel books that suggest activities based on real-time weather and current events, cookbooks that recommend menus based on size of party and allergies, and word games and puzzles …
Discussion:
Fast Company, Digital Daily, Between the Lines, 9 to 5 Mac, The Toybox, GigaOM, VentureBeat, Regular Geek, Internet2Go, MobileContentToday and Zatz Not Funny!
Om Malik / GigaOM:
With New Ovi Maps, Nokia Seeks Location Heaven — In an attempt to ward of competition from the likes of Google, Nokia, the largest maker of mobile phones has released the latest version of its Ovi Maps software and making the app available for free. Nokia, despite an early start …
Discussion:
Engadget, Hardware 2.0, eWeek, PC World, Tech Trader Daily, Mashable!, mocoNews, Bloomberg, Guardian, Tech Central, ITworld.com, ReadWriteWeb, Wall Street Journal, The Register, Erictric, Financial Times, Tech Eye, Reuters, Electronista, CNET News, Telegraph, San Francisco Chronicle, WCCFtech.com, Reuters, The Nokia Blog, CellPassion, SlashGear, atmaspheric, Gadget Lab, GPS Obsessed, I4U News, pluGGd.in and Vector One
RELATED:
Nokia:Nokia makes walk and drive navigation free on its smartphones …
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, Pocket-lint, InformationWeek, Unwired View, Phone Scoop, Electricpig.co.uk and Gizmodo
Ginny Mies / PC World:Nokia Delivers Free Navigation Service to Customers
Discussion:
Internet2Go, Mobile Industry Review, Nokia Conversations, GottaBeMobile.com, Softpedia News and 901am
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple sees tablet as one device shared by the whole family - WSJ — The Wall Street Journal dropped a bombshell of tablet and Apple-related information Wednesday evening. Among the new details: Apple sees its tablet as a device that will be shared by multiple family members — and it might even recognize their faces.
Discussion:
Music Ally, TUAW, Wall Street Journal, Computerworld, iLounge, Silicon Alley Insider, Apple Gazette, Engadget, Brainstorm Tech, TechCrunch, Mobile Entertainment, SlashGear, CNET News, Erictric, VG247, I4U News, louisgray.com, Edible Apple, MacRumors, Softpedia News, Electronista, 9 to 5 Mac, EverythingiCafe, Kotaku, Pocket-lint and MacDailyNews
RELATED:
Ryan Tate / Gawker:More Evidence ‘iPad’ Is the Apple Tablet's Name
Discussion:
The Next Web, MacNN, The Jesus Tablet, App Advice, Electricpig.co.uk, Go Rumors and AppleInsider
Mia / YouTube Blog:
Introducing YouTube HTML5 Supported Videos — A while ago, YouTube launched a simple demo of an HTML5-based video player. Recently, we published a blog post on our pre-spring cleaning effort and your number one request was that YouTube do more with HTML5.
BBC:
Tim Berners-Lee unveils government data project — Web founder Tim Berners-Lee has unveiled his latest venture for the UK government, which offers the public better access to official data. — A new website, data.gov.uk, will offer reams of public sector data, ranging from traffic statistics …
Discussion:
Pocket-lint
RELATED:
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:UK Launches Open Data Site; Puts Data.gov to Shame
Discussion:
The Register, Guardian, Tech Eye, ProgrammableWeb, TechCrunch Europe, Telegraph, Guardian and the Econsultancy blog
Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:
Man Buried in Haiti Rubble Uses iPhone to Treat Wounds, Survive — U.S. filmmaker Dan Woolley was shooting a documentary about the impact of poverty in Haiti when the earthquake struck. He could have died, but he ultimately survived with the help of an iPhone first-aid app that taught him to treat his wounds.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Amazon Promotion Tempts Book Lovers With Free Kindles — Hesitant about ordering an Amazon Kindle? The online retailer is apparently making a very tempting proposition to some of its customers: go ahead and order a Kindle, and if you don't like it, you'll get your money back — and get to keep the device.
Michael Mace / Mobile Opportunity:
Google shoots itself in the foot in mobile — I wish I knew the inside story on Google's recent confrontation with the Chinese government. At first Google's announcement looked like a principled, well thought-out stand in a long behind-the-scenes dispute (link).
Discussion:
thebigmoney.com
RELATED:
Nick Bilton / Bits:
The War Between Apple and Google Has Just Begun — Friends or ‘frenemies’? Apple C.E.O. Steve Jobs, left, and Google C.E.O. Eric Schmidt, right, at Macworld in 2007. — Consumers are witnessing the beginning of a new war between computer companies. Instead of the Apple-Microsoft conflict …
RELATED:
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Seesmic Look Is A Tablet-Friendly Twitter Client For The Oprah Crowd — A couple days ago we caught wind of a new Seesmic product called Seesmic Look. Today it is launching and we finally get a look at it. As suspected, it is a streamlined Twitter client aimed at the Oprah crowd.
Discussion:
GigaOM, CNET News, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, The Huffington Post, Techland, Mashable!, louisgray.com and Microsoft Startup Zone
Peppi Kiviniemi / Wall Street Journal:
EU Clears Oracle to Buy Sun Microsystems — BRUSSELS — After a drawn out investigation, the European Commission on Thursday unconditionally cleared U.S. software giant Oracle Corp. to take over smaller rival Sun Microsystems Inc. in a $7.4 billion deal. — “I am now satisfied that competition …
Discussion:
GigaOM, Open Source, New York Times, EU Press Room, Computerworld, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Softpedia News, The Register, TechCrunch and Neowin.net
Ashlee Vance / New York Times:
If Your Password Is 123456, Just Make It HackMe — Back at the dawn of the Web, the most popular account password was “12345.” — Today, it's one digit longer but hardly safer: “123456.” — Despite all the reports of Internet security breaches over the years, including the recent attacks …
Discussion:
Venture Capital Dispatch, Guardian, Tech Eye, Help Net Security, TechCrunch, PRWIRE, Telegraph and Wi-Fi Networking News
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Palm Pre Plus (and Pixi Plus) review — It's been about a year since Palm pulled itself back from the brink of imminent destruction with the announcement of webOS and the Palm Pre, and even less time since the products announced actually hit the market. In that time span …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, PreCentral.net, I4U News, Brainstorm Tech, EverythingPre, MobileCrunch, SlashGear, Gadgetell, DisplayBlog and The iPhone Blog
Gmail Blog:
Serving better ads in Gmail — Ever since we launched Gmail, we've tried to show relevant and unobtrusive ads. We're always trying to improve our algorithms to show better, more useful ads. — When you open a message in Gmail, you often see ads related to that email.
RELATED:
Los Angeles Times:
At Hulu, ‘free’ may soon turn into ‘fee’ — The video website, launched by studios to distribute TV shows over the Internet without charge, now is considering ways to draw revenue, including charging for some episodes of popular shows. — Hulu soared to popularity by offering free online viewing of popular TV shows.
Boy Genius Report:
AT&T prepping network to handle “unannounced” devices? — We've been told by one of our connects that AT&T has apparently been meeting individually with regional executives to inform them of some changes to the AT&T network. What have we heard? Well, for starters, they seem to be focused …
Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge:
Facebook to Build Its Own Data Centers — A look at the fully-packed racks inside a Facebook data center facility. — Facebook has decided to begin building its own data centers, and may announce its first facility as soon as tomorrow. The fast-growing social network has previously leased server space …
Alex Williams / ReadWriteWeb:
Box.net: New Features and a New Phrase for the Cloud — Box.net acquired a young company last October called Increo Solutions. The features that this young company provided allow for viewing content of most any file and the ability to share and embed files across the Web.
Josh Silverman / GigaOM:
How Video Changes Everything — Whether it's a clip of “Tajik Jimmy” putting Bollywood soundtracks to shame, catching a friend's wedding eight time zones away or working “side by side” with coworkers in another country, it's all video. And it's changing the way we communicate with one another.
Gus Sentementes / BaltTech:
Apple working on parking app for mobile devices — One of the Apple patent applications made public today details the company's efforts to create a useful parking application that mashes up a user's geo-location data with information about parking garages and parking regulations.
Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:
Digital File Cabinet You Can Bring With You Anywhere — What if you could collect, in one well-organized, searchable, private digital repository, all the notes you create, clips from Web pages and emails you want to recall, dictated audio memos, photos, key documents, and more?
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Pirate Bay's Ipredator VPN Opens To The Public — In the last year, pressure from the entertainment industries on ISPs and governments to crack down on copyright infringers has steadily increased, resulting in ISPs sending out mass copyright warnings. This, of course, is coupled …
