Top Items:
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Inside Apple's shareholders meeting — The press, as usual, was barred from bringing communication devices into the Apple (AAPL) shareholders meeting that began at 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST) Thursday. — But, as often happens, word is leaking out despite the blackout thanks to iPhones in the hands of shareholders who shall go unnamed.
Discussion:
internetnews.com, Ars Technica, Reuters, Digital Daily, 9 to 5 Mac, Associated Press, Dow Jones Newswires, CNET News, AppleInsider, Epicenter, MacNN, The Loop and iLounge
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Bloomberg:
Apple Chief Jobs Prefers Holding Cash to Dividends — Feb. 25 (Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said he prefers having cash for investments to paying dividends or doing stock buybacks. — Apple is holding onto cash to take “big, bold” risks, Jobs said at the company's shareholder meeting today.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, 9 to 5 Mac, MacRumors, AppleInsider, TG Daily, Reuters, Gearlog and Tech Trader Daily
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Planning to Open 25 Retail Stores in China [Updated] — Apple is currently conducting its annual shareholders meeting on the company's campus in Cupertino, California, and while attendees were not permitted to bring communication devices into the meeting, Fortune is gathering reports …
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Facebook Patents The News Feed (Updated) — On Tuesday, Facebook was awarded a major patent for “Dynamically providing a news feed about a user of a social network”. This is a huge deal for a number of reasons, most significantly that it grants Facebook the opportunity to pursue …
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Tits and Apps — So with this whole thing where Apple has removed and banned like 5,000 “sexy apps” from the App Store, I think I've figured out the reason why, including why they're granting exceptions to established names like Sports Illustrated, Playboy, and Victoria's Secret. It's about branding.
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Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
Apple Removes Explicit Option From iTunes — The joy didn't last long. According to an iPhone developer, the new “Explicit” option available this morning on the App Store submission software is now gone. He just got off the telephone with Apple, who confirmed the removal.
Discussion:
Gadget Lab, Digital Trends, Telegraph, iPhone Buzz, Softpedia News, PhoneDog.com, PC World, Apple Gazette, Fonehome.co.uk, Download Squad, Kotaku, MobileCrunch, Pocket-lint, TiPb, EverythingiCafe, Phones Review, MacNN, bub.blicio.us, Mobile Industry Review, Silicon Alley Insider and iLounge
Harsh / AdMob Metrics:
January 2010 Mobile Metrics Report — For this month's feature section, we ran an opt-in survey of consumers on iPhone, iPod touch, Android and webOS devices to learn more about how they are engaging and interacting with applications. The behavioral and demographic insights taken …
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Paul Boutin / VentureBeat:iPad purchase plans sluggish, AdMob survey finds
Discussion:
Ars Technica, CNET News, Electronista, Mobile Entertainment, Digital Daily, BetaNews, Mashable!, Tech Eye, ContentBlogger and PC World
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
LG's first Windows Phone 7 handset shipping as early as September — Our buds over at Engadget Chinese are just reporting back from a sitdown it had with LG Mobile in Hong Kong at a Chinese New Year event. The most tantalizing bit of truth is confirmation of that September launch date rumor …
Discussion:
Electronista, Geekword, Mashable!, Softpedia News, MobileCrunch, Gizmodo, eWeek, SlashGear, WMPoweruser.com, Gadgetell, MobileTechWorld, Pocket-lint, Go Rumors and Phones Review
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Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:Microsoft shares more details on Windows Phone Starter Edition
Discussion:
Engadget, Neowin.net, MobileCrunch, WMPoweruser.com, MobileTechWorld, Electronista and Gizmodo
Yukari Iwatani Kane / Digits:
Palm CEO's Letter to Employees — Palm said on Thursday that its phones aren't selling as well as it had hoped and that revenues for its fiscal year would be “well below” its forecasts. In an internal company-wide email, Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein elaborated further about the reasons behind …
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Ryan Lawler / NewTeeVee:
Chatroulette: 71% Boys, 15% Girls, 14% Perverts — Chatroulette has become all the rage among folks in the online video and social media scene, prompting coverage in the NY Times, CNN and other major national news outlets. Well if you've ever wanted to learn more about Chatroulette …
Scott M. Fulton, III / BetaNews:
Define ‘monopoly:’ Foundem's argument against Google linking to Google — Yesterday, after the European Commission announced it had sent Google earlier in the month copies of complaints it had received from three search providers that Google refused to rank their search results highly in its index …
Thanks:atul
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Amit Singhal / European Public Policy Blog:This stuff is tough — Yesterday's news that the European Commission …
Discussion:
Hillicon Valley, Silicon Alley Insider, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Financial Times and Search Engine Roundtable, Thanks:atul
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Pandora spurs music sales; Spotify not so much — NEW YORK—Free on-demand music sites haven't fared very well when it comes to driving song sales. — Russ Crupnick, an analyst with market researcher NPD Group, told a crowd of music and tech executives here Wednesday that free streaming-music sites …
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Jolie O'Dell / ReadWriteWeb:
Facebook Discloses How Much Money It Makes From Facebook Credits — Over the past several months, Facebook has been testing and rolling out new features for Facebook Credits - a virtual currency that collected and exchanged users' real-world money for on-site credits that could be used …
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Time for Apple to get serious about video — Netflix is cruising. The cable guys are catching on. Wal-Mart just rumbled in. — The Web's video-on-demand sector is filling up fast with some serious heavyweights. If Apple wants to make a mark in digital video that even vaguely resembles …
Jennifer Valentino-DeVries / Digits:
Facebook Glitch Sends Messages to Wrong People — Last night, in an embarrassing glitch for Facebook that raises questions about privacy on the site, some users of the social-networking service began getting hundreds of personal messages that weren't intended for them.
Discussion:
All Facebook, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Ars Technica, Silicon Alley Insider, Gawker and Switched
Tom Perkins / Wall Street Journal:
Silicon Valley Is Not Wall Street — Too often, there is confusion between investment banking and venture capital. This isn't helped by investment bankers' occasional assertions that they too do venture capital. They don't. In light of the attention both of these activities …
Discussion:
PE Hub Blog
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
TiVo Premiere, XL DVRs show up in Best Buy systems for $299, $499; due March 27 — It's not March 2 yet, but we do have another early indication of what TiVo's big announcement will be as a tipster spotted two new DVRs in Best Buy's intranet. Other than the shocking revelation that the two SKUs …
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Microsoft to Withdraw Copyright Complaint, Cryptome Coming Back Online — Great news from Web hosting company Network Solutions this morning. A company representative tells us that Microsoft will withdraw the copyright complaint against long-time watchdog website Cryptome.org, and the site will be back online later today.
Discussion:
internetnews.com, Guardian, The Register, Techdirt, Computerworld, p2pnet, PC World, CNET News, Krebs on Security, Softpedia News and Gizmodo, Thanks:marshallk
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Location Data Sensitive Like Medical Information, Says Congressional Witness — “The writing is on the wall that there will be baseline privacy legislation introduced,” said John Morris, general counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology at a Congressional hearing on location data and privacy yesterday.
Steven Musil / CNET News:
Report: Teen gets 15 years for Facebook blackmail — A Wisconsin teenager convicted of using Facebook to blackmail classmates into sex was sentenced to 15 years in prison, according to an Associated Press report. — Anthony Stancl, 19, plead no contest in December to two felonies …
Discussion:
Associated Press, VatorNews, Techmamas, Switched, Pulse2, Threat Level, The Monash Report, JSOnline and AppScout
Sam Diaz / Between the Lines:
Citibank to startup: Your blog is OK and we're not homophobic — If Citibank executives - and you, for that matter - had never heard of fabulis, a start-up social networking site for gay men, that's about to change. — One of the nation's biggest banks was scrambling today …
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:
Opera 10.50 for Mac brings HTML5 video support, Multitouch gestures, crazy speed — Update: Whoa! Opera just beat stock Safari in its own Webkit Javascript benchmarking tests. — Frankly, we mostly use Opera for its in-line (legal!) Torrent downloading ability, but it is always …
Discussion:
Technologizer, My Opera, Download Squad, Computerworld, Geekword, MacRumors, Mashable!, Webmonkey, Gizmodo, Web Browsers and Lifehacker
Jacob Dirr / bizjournals:
Facebook opening 200-person Austin office — Facebook Inc. is creating 200 jobs in Austin, thanks to a $1.4 million incentive from the state of Texas. — The move will be the first major U.S. expansion outside of Palo Alto, where the company is headquartered, according to officials.
Discussion:
Inside Facebook, GigaOM, Facebook, All Facebook, The Texas Tribune, Statesman Business Blog, silicontap.com and Associated Press
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Guy Who Makes Simple Caller ID App For Android Forced To Shut Down Due To Patent Threat — You may recall that, a couple years ago, Apple was sued over its implementation of caller ID technology on the iPhone. Some company claimed to hold a patent on the basic caller ID display technology from 1990.
Claudine Beaumont / Telegraph:
Virgin to roll out 100mbps broadband service — Next-generation web connection will provide internet access at more than 24 times the current average speed — Virgin Media said it would start rolling out the 100 megabits per second broadband service to its 3.8 million cable broadband customers by the end of the year.
Discussion:
BBC, VentureBeat, dailywireless.org, fierceonlinevideo.com …, SlipperyBrick.com and SlashGear
Eric Engleman / TechFlash:
Verizon wields Myhrvold patent in dispute with TiVo over DVR tech — TiVo made headlines last year for suing Verizon and AT&T for patent infringement over time-shifting DVR technology. Now Verizon is fighting back — with help from a patent from former Microsoft CTO Nathan Myhrvold's firm.
