Techmeme: Microsoft tries to reinvent the bar code (Ina Fried/CNET News)

12:15 PM ET, February 1, 2010

Top Items:

Tim Stevens / Engadget:

8.9-inch ExoPC Slate has iPad looks, netbook internals, Windows 7 soul — Yes, we realize that it's hard to provide too much visual differentiation between tablet PCs with large, ebony bezels, but we can't help but think that this 8.9-inch multitouch tablet looks a lot like another, recently announced 9.7-inch multitouch tablet.

Discussion: Macworld UK, I4U News, jkOnTheRun, GottaBeMobile.com, The Toybox, SlashGear, Softpedia News and Gizmodo

Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Wacom Intuos4 Wireless Bluetooth graphics tablet debuts

Discussion: Macworld, Crave, GottaBeMobile.com, Gadget Lab, Gizmodo, OhGizmo!, Engadget and Electronista

John Scalzi / Whatever:

All The Many Ways Amazon So Very Failed the Weekend — Leaving aside the moral, philosophical, cultural and financial implications of this weekend's Amazon/Macmillan slapfight and What It All Means for book readers and the future of the publishing industry, in one very real sense the whole thing …

Discussion: GigaOM, GMSV, The Register, Tobias Buckell Online, the Econsultancy blog, Charlie's Diary, Boing Boing and GalleyCat, Thanks:atul

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Amazon Caves To Macmillan's eBook Pricing Demands — A new development in the Amazon vs. Macmillan fiasco. Amazon just posted an announcement indicating that it will be “capitulating” to Macmillan by selling the publishers' books for their desired prices.

Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Hey, John Sargent, CEO of Macmillan Books, Screw You!

Discussion: Softpedia News, Rev2.org, Electronista, CNET News, AppleInsider, Epicenter, broadstuff, Gravitational Pull, Glass House and TeleRead, Thanks:atul

Max Wang / DigiTimes:

Acer has no plans for iPad-like product, says Acer Taiwan president — Acer will focus on pushing ultra-thin notebooks for 2010 and currently has no plans to jump on the bandwagon to launch a hardware device similar to Apple's new iPad, according to Acer Taiwan president Scott Lin.

Discussion: PC World, MacRumors, AppleInsider, I4U News, Softpedia News, CrunchGear, Liliputing, SlashGear, Electronista, 9 to 5 Mac, Maximum PC, Electricpig.co.uk and The Tech Report

Alexander Vaughn / App Advice:

Stephen Colbert Gets An iPad & Shows It Off At The Grammys — Haha, it seems like after begging for one the entire week, Stephen Colbert just saw his dreams come true. — Tonight at the Grammys, instead of pulling out the “Song of the Year” envelope, he managed to surprise everybody with a shiny Apple iPad.

Gizmodo:

Zune Phone to Debut at MWC, Will Use Nvidia Tegra — Spanish blog MuyComputer claims that Microsoft will present the Zune Phone this February, at the MWC in Barcelona. According to them, it's 100% confirmed. Since the Zune Phone will use Tegra, Nvidia will team with Microsoft for the anti-JesusPhone debut.

Discussion: DSLreports, SlashGear, Gearlog, The Next Web, Phones Review and Mobile Tech Addicts

Mike Melanson / ReadWriteWeb:

How to Hate the iPad: A Break-Down of the Backlash — A friend recently admitted a favorite past time of his - watching plane crashes on YouTube. Planes crashing, helicopters twirling out of control, boats sinking - all are fair game. For a lot of people, this has been the story of the iPad over the past few days.

Discussion: Connecting the Dots, CloudAve, EverythingiCafe, broadstuff, The Huffington Post, MacNN, InformationWeek and MobileContentToday

Ina Fried / CNET News:

Microsoft tries to reinvent the bar code — REDMOND, Wash.—Remember the CueCat—the quirky bar code reader that was going to connect magazine readers with digital material? — Well, apparently Microsoft does too. And while the CueCat meowed into obscurity, the software maker thinks …

Discussion: Internet2Go, Mashable! and Engadget

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Facebook COO: 175 Million People Log Into Facebook Every Day — Last year we interviewed Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This year we interviewed her again. Notably, this time I brought a tripod with me and didn't cut off Sheryl's forehead.

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, Master of 500 Hats and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

The iPad And Chrome OS Netbooks Are On A Collision Course — “We don't know how to build a $500 computer that's not a piece of junk.” — “Netbooks aren't better at anything.” — Those two quotes are both from Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The first was during an earnings call in late 2008 …

Discussion: Tech Eye, Thanks:atul

TechCrunch:

Context is King: How Videos Are Found And Consumed Online — Editor's note: This is the third in a series of posts by guest writer Ashkan Karbasfrooshan. Previously, he wrote about the State of Online Video, and 12 Surprising Things Holding Back Online Video Advertising.

Paul Boutin / VentureBeat:

JooJoo CEO pledges to ship this month, claims deal with leading phone maker — During last week's Apple iPad mania, one company was notably silent: Fusion Garage, the 13-person Singapore company that makes the JooJoo tablet, which began life as TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington's CrunchPad.

Discussion: Gizmodo

Lee Mathews / Download Squad:

Google Chrome to go polyglot? Auto-translate lands in Chromium nightly — The Chromium source code has seen a number of changes recently, and a new feature which poked its head out earlier this weekend has now landed. — You can now enable auto-translation of pages in Chromium.

Owen Fletcher / PC World:

China Tablet PC Maker May Sue Apple Over IPad Design — A Chinese company that sells a tablet PC like Apple's newly announced iPad may sue the U.S. company over the similar design between the devices, it said Monday. — Shenzhen Great Loong Brother Industrial started selling its P88 tablet …

Discussion: Gadget Lab, Gizmodo and Electronista

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Ad Data Firm BlueKai Raises $21 Million Third Round — Online ad data provider Bluekai has raised a huge $21 million third round funding led by GGV Capital (formerly Granite Global Ventures). Previous backers Redpoint Ventures and Battery Ventures also participated.

Discussion: AdExchanger.com and TechCrunch

Mike Swift / Mercury News:

Honoring a creative force in high tech: Douglas Engelbart turns 85 — Steve Wozniak leaned over to Douglas Engelbart at The Tech Museum in San Jose on Saturday, to speak a personal tribute to the man who invented the computer mouse and who, back in the 1950s, began to conceptualize the possibility …

Discussion: Silicon Valley Watcher and MobileContentToday

Nick Bilton / Bits:

Foursquare Teams With Bravo TV — Bravo TV and Foursquare will announce a new partnership on Monday that will integrate Bravo TV shows with the game aspects of Foursquare, a social networking site that encourages people to interact in the real world. The partnership hopes to engage viewers long …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Fast Company, PC World, NewTeeVee, New York Times, Internet2Go, BlackBerry Cool, Business Week, paidContent, Lost Remote, Mashable!, All Points Blog, Location Meme and Silicon Alley Insider

Tarmo Virki / Reuters:

Nokia cuts phone prices as market growth returns — HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia (NOK1V.HE) cut phone prices across its portfolio in late January, putting its cheapest smartphones on a collision course with mid-range phones from rivals Samsung (005930.KS) and Sony Ericsson.

Discussion: Digital Daily, Tech Trader Daily, FierceWireless and Electronista

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Local Advertising Booster Yodle Raises Another $10 Million — Yodle, the New York-based startup that helps local businesses advertise more efficiently on the web, has secured $10 million in Series D financing led by JAFCO Ventures and joined by Bessemer Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Growth, and DFJ.

Discussion: paidContent and VatorNews

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Does Foursquare Have A Douchebag Problem? — With Foursquare seeing fast growth and starting to be embraced by elements of the mainstream (like their new deal with Bravo), it might be decision time. — A popular part of the gaming element of the service is gaining badges …

Dan Nystedt / PC World:

Samsung First With Lower Cost, Power Saving 30nm DDR3 DRAM — The most advanced DRAM chips yet from Samsung Electronics, 30-nanometer DDR3 DRAM, have been qualified by customers as ready to go into products, the world's largest memory chip maker said Monday.

Discussion: Engadget

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0:

Google Chrome steals usage share from IE/Firefox, Win 7 breaks 10% — Net Applications' data for January is out, and there are some interesting trends displayed. — First, the data shows that Google's Chrome browser has managed to snatch usage share from Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Discussion: Computerworld

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