Top Items:
Om Malik / GigaOM:
MySpace, R.I.P — It's not a good idea to speak ill of the dead. It is OK, however, to speak the truth, however harsh it might seem, about the living dead. — Rupert Murdoch's $580 million MySpace purchase has outlived not only its utility, but has also finally hit its expiration date.
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Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
MySpace CEO Van Natta Was Fired by News Corp. Digital Head Miller in Late Afternoon Meeting — The long-running telenovela that has been MySpace over the years took yet another dramatic turn late today when News Corp. Chief Digital Officer Jon Miller fired MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Silicon Alley Insider, Telegraph, Guardian, Beyond Search, Gawker and paidContent
Brent Schlender / Perspective:
Bill Gates Joins the iPad's Army of Critics. Steve Jobs Couldn't Care Less. — With the sudden ridicule of Steve Jobs' new do-everything media player, Apple has abruptly become a ripe target for those who would like to take it down a notch. The tsunami of criticism is probably excessive …
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
WARNING: Google Buzz Has A Huge Privacy Flaw (GOOG) — There is a huge privacy flaw in Google's new Twitter/Facebook competitor, Google Buzz. — When you first go into Google Buzz, it automatically sets you up with followers and people to follow. — A Google spokesperson tells us …
Discussion:
eWeek, The Register, Computerworld, Tech Eye, CNET News, InfoWorld, Collaborative Thinking, Zatz Not Funny!, ChannelWeb, Security Bytes, Gizmodo, iGeneration, 1001 Noisy Cameras, Google Blogoscoped, AccMan, Twittercism, Techdirt, Social Business, Shooting at Bubbles, Between the Lines, Giles Bowkett, The Jason Calacanis Weblog, ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, Datamation, bit-tech.net and Simon Willison's Weblog
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Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:
On Potential Privacy Problems With Gmail Buzz Exposing Email Contacts — Nicholas Carlson of Business Insider calls Gmail Buzz's (apparently default-settings) exposure of some of those you are in contact with - by auto-suggesting people to follow, and displaying that list on your public profile - a “huge privacy flaw”:
Discussion:
Lifehacker
Fox News:
Iran Shuts Down Gmail, Announces National E-Mail Service — Iran's telecommunications agency announced what it described as a permanent suspension of Google's e-mail services, saying that a national e-mail service for Iranian citizens would soon be rolled out.
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Wall Street Journal:
IPad Magnifies Apple's Flash Feud — Apple Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc. used to be cozy partners, but they have become increasingly estranged since the computer maker unveiled its iPad tablet late last month. — While Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs announced that the iPad will revolutionize Web surfing …
Discussion:
Beet.TV
Stephen Chapman / MSFTKitchen:
Windows 8 to be “Completely Different” and “Mind-Blowing” — Over the course of the past week and a half, a couple of individuals from Microsoft have commented about Windows 8 in a rather excited manner. First, there was a blog entry on January 31, 2010 (which has since then been deleted) …
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
iBooks Isn't Bundled With iPad — Apple didn't emphasize this heavily at the introduction, but the iBooks app is not going to be bundled with the iPad — it's an app you download from the App Store, putting it on an (at least somewhat) equal footing to e-book readers from other companies.
Sean Michaels / Guardian:
Google shuts down music blogs — Bloggers told they have violated terms without further explanation, as years of archives are wiped off the internet — In what critics are calling “musicblogocide 2010”, Google has deleted at least six popular music blogs that it claims violated copyright law.
Kelly Hodgkins / Boy Genius Report:
Motorola has an oopsie, Android 2.1 update for the DROID not rolling out this week? — Potentially bad news for DROID owners as word out of Motorola's support forums suggest that the Motorola DROID will not see the rumored 2.1 update drop this week. According to Matt, forums manager over at Motorola …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Hulu Could Still Launch On The iPad — When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad last month, one notable potential partner absent from the stage was Hulu, now the second-largest video site on the Web. The launch event focussed more on the iPad as an eBook reader to rival the Kindle, but watching videos on it will be just as important.
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Garmin-Asus nuvifone A50 runs Android, knows where you are turn-by-turn — The long rumored Nuvifone jump to Android is here just as we get set to kick off Mobile World Congress next week. Garmin and ASUS claim that the A50 brings “more location technology than any other smartphone” …
Discussion:
Business Wire, Softpedia News, TmoNews, Gearlog, GPS Tracklog, Android Community, MobileTechWorld, Android Central and Electronista
Michelle Megna / Enterprise Mobile Today:
BlackBerry OS: New BlackBerry Apps, MS Buying RIM? — Two new BlackBerry applications out today are aimed at helping mobile IT with wireless security and mobile device management issues relating to the BlackBerry OS. — But that's not the only news pertaining to Waterloo that's grabbing headlines …
Clint Boulton / eWeek:
Wowd Guns for Google With Real-time Tag Cloud, SearchStream — Real-time search engine Wowd, has added a real-time tag cloud and a real-time streaming feature to the second version of its platform. Available Feb. 11 in Wowd 2., the tag cloud feature is based on hot topics customized …
New York Times:
The Cost of an E-Book Will Be Going Up — In the battle over the pricing of electronic books, publishers appear to have won the first round. The price of many new releases and best sellers is about to go up, to as much as $14.99 from $9.99. — But there may be an insurgency waiting to pounce: e-book buyers.
Discussion:
TeleRead
Andrew Warner / Mixergy:
How Y Combinator Helped 172 Startups Take Off - With Paul Graham — Want to see how much impact Paul Graham can have an a startup? Here are 3 examples from past Mixergy interviews. The first is Alexis Ohanion, who told me that his life changed when he headed to snowy Boston over Spring break …
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
300,000,000 Downloads Later, OpenOffice Ships Version 3.2 — The OpenOffice.org Community this morning announced the release of the latest version (3.2) of its personal productivity suite, and simultaneously announced that the software has been downloaded an impressive 300 million times in total since its public debut in April 2002.
Discussion:
PRWeb
Marguerite Reardon / CNET News:
Is Google a wolf in sheep's clothing to ISPs? — Is Google a friend or foe to Internet service providers? It's a question many broadband providers are likely asking themselves Wednesday after Google's announcement that it will build fiber networks in communities across the U.S. to test new broadband services and capabilities.
Discussion:
New York Times, Shelly Palmer, Search Engine Land, The Register and Wi-Fi Networking News
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John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
WSJ Op-Ed Piece by Holman W. Jenkins Jr. Argues Apple Is Getting All Microsofty — Holman W. Jenkins Jr. on the iPad: … So his argument is that no matter how bad Flash is technically and experience-wise, Apple should add it to the iPad so people can watch Hulu.
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Marc Ambinder / The Atlantic Politics Channel:
U.S. To Be Hit By Massive Cyber Attack On Feb. 16. Asterisk. — On February 16, at about 10:00 am ET, the U.S. will be hit by a massive, crippling cyber attack from an unknown entity. Key players will convene in the White House situation room and plan the response, from mitigation to (possibly) retaliation.
The Age:
Google baulks at Conroy's call to censor YouTube — Google says it will not “voluntarily” comply with the government's request that it censor YouTube videos in accordance with broad “refused classification” (RC) content rules. — Communications Minister Stephen Conroy referred …
