Top Items:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Google Acquires Aardvark For $50 million — Google has acquired social search service Aardvark, says a source that has been briefed on the deal, for around $50 million. We first reported on the discussions between the two companies in December. Those discussions have now turned into a signed deal …
Discussion:
BoomTown, PC World, Venture Capital Dispatch, alarm:clock, Macworld, VentureBeat, Guardian, ReadWriteWeb, CNET News, GigaOM, ChannelWeb, Tech Eye, Search Engine Watch, bub.blicio.us, Tech Trader Daily, VatorNews, InformationWeek, Search Engine Journal, L.A. Times Tech Blog, paidContent, Epicenter, Pulse2, NBC Bay Area, lalawag, Mashable!, John Battelle's Searchblog, The Next Web, Technology Review, TechSpot, Search Engine Land and Silicon Alley Insider
Andrew Munchbach / Boy Genius Report:
Palm orders halt on production of Palm Pre, Palm Pre Plus, and Palm Pixis? — According to an OTR Global report, three different sources have confirmed that all future orders of the Palm Pre and Palm Pre Plus are being suspended as of Wednesday. One of the sources said, “The decision is very sudden …
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Nilay Patel / Engadget:
Debunk: Palm not halting Pre / Pixi production, just on hold for Chinese New Year — Oh boy. Research firm OTR Global is making some waves today with a report claiming that Palm ordered all Pre and Pixi manufacturing to be halted, but apparently they didn't look at a calendar — or, you know, call Palm.
T3.com News:
Microsoft hints at Office for iPad — Microsoft has revealed to T3 that it may be ready to unleash a version of Office for Mac for the Apple iPad. — The Seattle-based company let slip the possibility of a suite for the new tablet during a demonstration of the brand new Office for Mac 2011 …
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John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Office For Mac 2011 First Look: Ribbons, Sharing, and... Outlook? — Preemptive apologies to those of you who read Gizmodo to get away from work: Sorry! Now pay attention: The next version of Office for Mac is on its way, and we've got a sneak peak. — There's been a funny disconnect …
Discussion:
AppleInsider, eWeek, BetaNews, All about Microsoft, 9 to 5 Mac, CNET News, PR Newswire, The Microsoft Blog, Brainstorm Tech, O'Grady's PowerPage, Geekword and MacRumors
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Veoh Finally Calls it Quits: Layoffs Yesterday, Bankruptcy Filing Soon — Veoh, one of several well-funded startups that have tried and failed to cash in on the Web video boom, is finally calling it quits. The company let go of the remainder of its workforce yesterday …
Mark Mentovai / The Official Google Blog:
Bringing extensions to Google Chrome for Mac — As thousands of Mac fans and developers gather in San Francisco for this week's Macworld conference, we're particularly delighted to announce a new beta release of Chrome for Mac. Today's release includes some of our most requested features …
Jay Yarow / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google Paying Apple More Than $100 Million Annually For iPhone Search Deal (AAPL, GOOG) — The rumor that Apple is building its own search engine “isn't credible,” according to a source familiar with Apple's operations. — Our source tells us “there's too many options” for search on the market …
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.
Discussion:
BoomTown, Computerworld, TechCrunch, Online Dating Insider, Daily Patricia, internetnews.com, PC World, /message and Silicon Alley Insider, Thanks:atul
Dharmesh Shah / HubSpot Company Product News Blog:
One Lesson From The Twitter Grader Screw-up: OAuth Rocks — Most days, I lead a pretty happy existence. I write code. I meet with folks at HubSpot. I talk to fellow entrepreneurs and generally try to spread goodwill and love. Today, however, it sucks to be me.
Thanks:atul
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Wall Street Journal:
Apple Is in TV-Pricing Talks — Apple Inc. is in discussions with television networks to lower the price of downloaded TV shows when the company begins selling its new iPad tablet computer, people familiar with the talks said. — One of these people said Apple has already been testing a price of 99 cents …
Discussion:
The Next Web, Digital Trends, Digital Daily, Geek.com, SlashGear, I4U News, TheAppleBlog and Electronista
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Declan McCullagh / CNET News:
Feds push for tracking cell phones — Two years ago, when the FBI was stymied by a band of armed robbers known as the “Scarecrow Bandits” that had robbed more than 20 Texas banks, it came up with a novel method of locating the thieves. — FBI agents obtained logs from mobile phone companies corresponding …
Bloomberg:
Microsoft Said to Be Among Suitors for Facebook Gaming Startup Crowdstar — Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. is among companies in talks to buy CrowdStar, the creator of games for social- networking site Facebook, according to two people familiar with the matter.
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.
Discussion:
The Register, Blogger Buzz, GigaOM, Mashable!, p2pnet, Softpedia News, PlagiarismToday and Techdirt
Anna Richardson / YouTube Blog:
Speed Matters: Introducing the YouTube Video Speed Dashboard — Your YouTube video speed can mean the difference between a fast and fun video viewing experience, or a slow and frustrating one. That's why, today, we're launching a YouTube video speed dashboard to make the speed information available to you.
Opera browser:
You have never browsed this fast before — Introducing Opera 10.50 beta for Windows — Opera today released the beta of Opera 10.50 — the latest and the most advanced version of its cutting-edge desktop Web browser. Besides being the fastest Web browser, Opera 10.50 beta also offers a minimalist …
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Zynga Buys Social Gaming Startup Serious Business — Zynga, the heavily-funded social gaming company, today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Serious Business, fellow creators of social games on Facebook. The terms of the agreement were not disclosed …
Jeremiah Owyang / Web Strategy:
Web Strategy Matrix: Google Buzz vs Facebook vs MySpace vs Twitter (Feb 2010) — Lack Of Signal In A Sea of Noise — There's an incredible amount of media and blogger noise about social networks, yet there are few viewpoints that are looking at the networks objectively minus the “killer app” hype.
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft to push new piracy-detection update to Windows 7 users — Microsoft is planning to push to Windows 7 users a set of anti-piracy updates before the end of February. — Called the Windows Activation Technologies Update for Windows 7, the Windows Genuine patch is designed to detect …
Gregg Keizer / InfoWorld:
Windows patch cripples XP with blue screen, users claim — Angry customers blame MS10-015 for Blue Screen of Death and XP reboot hell — Tuesday's security updates from Microsoft have crippled Windows XP PCs with the notorious Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), users have reported on the company's support forum.
Matt Burns / CrunchGear:
TiVo schedules a March 2nd NYC event and we'll be there — We've known that TiVo was cooking up something tasty for a bit now. It could be the Premiere that leaked a few weeks back or something entirely different. We really don't know at this point. But what we do know is that we'll …
comScore, Inc.:
comScore Releases January 2010 U.S. Search Engine Rankings — comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace. In January 2010, Americans conducted 15.2 billion core searches …
Tom Warren / Neowin.net:
Pirate Bay co-founder launches social payments system - Flattr — Peter Sunde, co-founder of the popular BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay, has launched a new service this week aiming to revolutionize how people pay and get paid for content on the internet.
Tom Warren / Neowin.net:
Russia revealed as biggest pirates of Microsoft software — Microsoft revealed this week that 25% of Russian software outlets sell pirated Microsoft software. — The findings were published as part of a survey the software giant carried out recently. According to The Associated Press …
Discussion:
Softpedia News
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”:
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) …
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Dell's acquisition of KACE: A smart move — Dell on Thursday acquired KACE, which makes systems management appliances, for an undisclosed sum and the deal adds up on many fronts. — Andrew Nusca has the breakdown of the deal and Dell's statement outlines the following:
Olga Kharif / Business Week:
FCC May Pay Broadcasters for Airwaves — To relieve the strain on mobile networks caused by smartphones, the agency is considering a plan to pay broadcasters to vacate some of their airwaves — The Federal Communications Commission is considering a plan to pay broadcasters to vacate airwaves …
Discussion:
Hillicon Valley, VentureBeat, Fast Company, DSLreports, AppleInsider, FierceWireless and dailywireless.org
