Top Items:
Yahoo! Search Blog:
News about our Search Alliance with Microsoft — Today we issued a press release announcing that we've received clearance from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission for our search agreement with Microsoft. Now that we're full steam ahead, I'd like to share what we at Yahoo! …
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Peter Chapman / Bloomberg:
Microsoft, Yahoo Deal Wins European Union Antitrust Approval — Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — Microsoft Corp. won European Union approval to buy Yahoo! Inc.'s Web-search business to speed up its effort to compete with Google Inc. — The deal won't harm competition in the 27-nation EU …
Ryan Tate / Gawker:
What Steve Jobs Said During His Wall Street Journal iPad Demo — We know that Apple's CEO is no fan of Flash, the Web animation software. But it sounds like Steve Jobs really unleashed on the Adobe system to try and convince the Wall Street Journal to ditch it for the iPad.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Gizmodo, MacRumors, The Next Web, Electronista, 9 to 5 Mac, techblog.dallasnews.com, iLounge, EverythingiCafe and TiPb
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Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:
School used student laptop webcams to spy on them at school and home — According to the filings in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, the laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated …
Discussion:
Engadget, 9 to 5 Mac, Ars Technica, GadgetCrave.com, Mashable!, Philly.com, Between the Lines, Techdirt, Computerworld, Geek.com, I4U News, NBC Bay Area, TG Daily, Neowin.net and The Consumerist
Business Wire:
PayPal is Now a Way to Pay for Facebook Ads and Facebook Credits — PALO ALTO, Calif. & SAN JOSE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Facebook and PayPal today announced a strategic relationship to offer PayPal in key parts of Facebook's advertising and developer systems.
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Vladislav Savov / Engadget:
Sony Ericsson CEO: Google asked us to build the Nexus One, we refused — Aw, why don't these CEOs say stuff like this in press conferences? Sony Ericsson's head Bert Nordberg has shared with Swedish publication Sydsvenskan the rather salacious news that his company was asked to build …
Discussion:
MobileCrunch, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, Android Central, Phone Arena, Android Phone Fans, AndroidGuys, Erictric and Mashable!
Scott Moritz / TheStreet.com:
Microsoft, Asus Team on Phone: Exclusive — NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Apple (AAPL Quote) did it. Google (GOOG Quote) did it. Now it's Microsoft's (MSFT Quote) turn. — The Redmond, Wash., software giant is working with computer hardware manufacturer Asustek to build its own phone.
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WMPoweruser.com:
Windows Phone 7 development docs leaked — Click for larger versions. — We can always count on XDA-Developers to bring us the news early. In this case it is some snippets of the developer documentation for Windows Phone 7. The above bit confirms the OS is multi-tasking capable, but then we knew this already.
Discussion:
The Register, eWeek, All about Microsoft, SlashGear, Engadget, Fast Company, DailyTech and www.pocketgamer.biz
Motoko Rich / New York Times:
Apple's Prices for E-Books May Be Lower Than Expected — Maybe e-book prices won't be rising so much after all. — Since Apple announced plans to sell digital books on its forthcoming iPad, it has been cast as something of a savior of the publishing industry for allowing e-book prices …
Discussion:
PC World, Ars Technica, Silicon Alley Insider, Boy Genius Report, MacRumors, DailyTech, TheAppleBlog, Fast Company, EverythingiCafe, Edible Apple, TiPb, Epicenter, SlashGear, GadgetCrave.com, AppleInsider, MacNN and iLounge
Siobhan Gorman / Wall Street Journal:
Broad New Hacking Attack Detected — Global Offensive Snagged Corporate, Personal Data at nearly 2,500 Companies; Operation Is Still Running — Hackers in Europe and China successfully broke into computers at nearly 2,500 companies and government agencies over the last 18 months …
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Zee / The Next Web:
Wordpress.com is down, taking over 9.2 million blogs with it. — This is a rarity but Wordpress.com, the Internet's largest blogging platform is down taking over 9.2 Million blogs with it. — The good news is that the team are aware and hard at work attempting to get things back up and running.
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Apple conceals iPad freight records - report — Moves to hide ocean shipping data from competitors and prying reporters, according to trade privacy group — In preparation for the scheduled March delivery of Apple's (AAPL) new iPad tablet computer, the company has blocked its bills of lading …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google Voice Launches A Series Of Videos To Explain Its “Awesomeness,” Gibberish — Google Voice is a great service, one of the best things Google has released in a long time. Unfortunately, most casual web users have no idea what it is. Or more specifically, what it's purpose is.
Ellen McGirt / Fast Company:
#1 Facebook — It was quite a year for Mark Zuckerberg and crew, whose site added a whopping 200 million users. Now, as they brush off the crumbs of MySpace and other competitors, it's time to look for their next meal. They're very, very hungry. — The photos and updates began appearing …
Discussion:
Fast Company
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Nathan Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures Using Over 1,000 Shell Companies To Hide Patent Shakedown — It's no secret that we think Nathan Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures is a dangerous, innovation harming monstrosity. The company used a bait and switch scheme to get a bunch of big tech companies …
Fred / A VC:
How Unique Is A Unique Visitor? — I access the web each day from at least seven browsers; — Chrome on my windows desktop in the office, — The Android browser on my google phone, — The blackberry browser on my Blackberry 9700 — I know that I am not your typical web user.
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Scout Analytics™
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
The Most Popular YouTube Videos and the Bloggers Who Embed Them — YouTube is, by far, the most popular online video service, but we actually know very little about how bloggers use the service to embed videos on their own sites. Sysomos, the Toronto-based social media analytics and monitoring firm …
Discussion:
Sysomos
tdgresearch.com:
Half of Netflix ‘Watch Instantly’ Users Are Streaming to the TV — New TDG Report Reveals Significant Progress — in Netflix Over-the-Top Efforts, Profiles Early OTT Adopters — According to a newly published study from TDG - the nation's leading new media research consultancy …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Pollice Verso: Google Buys Awesome iPhone Email App; Kills It — As you might have heard earlier today, Google made another acquisition — the email search startup reMail. While its topical description may make it seem like an obvious buy, there's another layer that makes this really interesting. reMail …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Macworld, InformationWeek, Network World, The Apple Core, Digital Trends, Android Phone Fans, App Advice, Computerworld, Mashable! and eWeek
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
CBS: We'll Cut iTunes Prices for Some Shows — Steve Jobs's effort to cut prices on TV shows sold on iTunes has found at least partial backing from CBS. CEO Les Moonves says the broadcaster will mark down the price on some of its shows from $1.99 to 99 cents.
Discussion:
AppleInsider
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft readies new rootkit detection tool in light of Windows XP patching problems — A week ago, Microsoft officials said they were removing one of the company's Windows patches from the Windows Update pipeline because of reports of blue-screening by some XP users after applying that patch.
Discussion:
CNET News, Krebs on Security, MSRC, Hardware 2.0, InfoWorld, Neowin.net, Softpedia News and blogs.chron.com
Robert Andrews / mocoNews:
UK Newspapers Want BBC Mobile Apps Blocked For ‘Undermining’ Them, BBC Disagrees — I wondered how long it would be before print media pointed at the BBC's new smartphone apps plan as another example of expansion in to their commercial territory. The answer: just 24 hours...