Top Items:
Wall Street Journal:
Sony Readies Gadgets to Rival Apple — Threatened by Apple Inc.'s growing stable of portable devices, Sony Corp. is developing a new lineup of handheld products, including a smart phone capable of downloading and playing PlayStation games, according to people familiar with the matter.
Discussion:
Digits, Between the Lines, Computerworld, CNET News, 9 to 5 Mac, Phone Scoop, InformationWeek, Silicon Alley Insider, Pulse2, TG Daily, John Battelle's Searchblog, IntoMobile, Digital Trends, Engadget, Techland, CrunchGear, Tech Trader Daily, Electronista, VG247, SlashGear, Edible Apple, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, Ubergizmo and MobileBurn.com
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John Kennedy / Silicon Republic:
In three years desktops will be irrelevant - Google sales chief — Google believes that in three or so years desktops will give way to mobile as the primary screen from which most people will consume information and entertainment. That's according to Google Europe boss John Herlihy …
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ReadWriteWeb, BetaNews, Technologizer, Mashable!, IntoMobile, Webmetricsguru, The Huffington Post, CrunchGear, Softpedia News, GMSV, Pocket-lint, BaltTech, GottaBeMobile.com, Internet2Go, Geek.com, blogs.chron.com, James Fee GIS Blog, Gadget Lab, PC World, SlashGear, broadstuff, techblog.dallasnews.com and Gizmodo
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John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Confirmed: Microsoft's Project Pink Lives, and It's Coming to Verizon — After the Windows Phone 7 launch passed without so much as a mention of Project Pink, Microsoft's other new phone project started to fade into memory. Today, we can confirm: Pink is coming, and Verizon's the carrier.
Discussion:
All Things Digital, All about Microsoft, Ars Technica, VentureBeat, Technologizer, TechFlash, Tech Trader Daily, SlashGear, Engadget, Silicon Alley Insider, MobileTechWorld, Phone Arena, Electronista, GeekSmack, Erictric, Neowin.net, MobileCrunch, Mashable!, WMExperts, WMPoweruser.com, MobileBurn.com and Phones Review
Bill Ray / The Register:
Apple yanks Wi-Fi detectors from iTunes — Pretends they were never there — Wi-Fi hotspot detecting applications are the latest on Apple's list of verboten apps, and even developers are being left in the dark as to why. — Wi-Fi detection is something of a niche …
Discussion:
Three Jacks Software, Erictric, App Advice, Pocket-lint, Digital Trends, iPodNN and dailywireless.org
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Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
YouTube Launches Auto-Captions For All Videos — I'm here at YouTube's office in San Bruno, where the company is holding a press conference to discuss the launch of auto-captions. YouTube Director of Product Management Hunter Walk kicked off the event by discussing some of YouTube's goals through …
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Nick Bilton / Bits:
An Explosion of Mobile Patent Lawsuits — At first glance, it looks as if we're in the middle of a patent lawsuit Super Bowl party. Nearly every large mobile phone player — with the exception of Microsoft, Palm and, so far, Google — has recently been involved in some sort of patent litigation regarding mobile technologies.
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Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Steve Jobs: A man aggrieved — A new theory about why Apple decided to take HTC — and indirectly, Google — to court — Two thirds of the way through a 3,000-word essay on This Apple-HTC Patent Thing, Daring Fireball's John Gruber quotes a tweet by John Siracusa that gets to the heart of the matter:
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Facebook Will Be Worth $35 Billion To $40 Billion When It Goes Public Next Year, Investors Predict — As the WSJ reported in a big page one story today, Facebook will probably go public in 2011, once it's had a year of $1+ billion in sales behind it. (The company expects to do between $1.2 billion and $2 billion in sales this year.)
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Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:Facebook CEO in No Rush To ‘Friend’ Wall Street
Discussion:
TechFlash, Venture Capital Dispatch, All Facebook, BloggingStocks, BoomTown, Download Squad, Seeking Alpha, Mashable!, Reuters and TechCrunch
Yang Li / Google Mobile Blog:
Search your Android phone with written gestures — As mobile phones become increasingly powerful and can store more data, we've introduced new methods of search to get you to your content faster, such as search suggestions or search by voice. But sometimes, typing to get to the right search suggestion takes …
Discussion:
BetaNews, PC World, Fast Company, eWeek, Computerworld, CNET News, InformationWeek, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Techland, Gadgetell, Mashable!, Pocket-lint, TG Daily, Google Android News …, Android Central, Electricpig.co.uk, MobileContentToday, VatorNews, Lifehacker, FierceMobileContent, Silicon Alley Insider, AppScout, Internet2Go, Ubergizmo, Neowin.net, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, paidContent, Search Engine Journal, Erictric, GottaBeMobile.com and Phone Scoop, Thanks:mrinaldesai
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Microsoft Launches Its First Android App. Yes, Google's Platform. — In December 2008, Microsoft surprised a lot of people by releasing an iPhone app — Seadragon Mobile. A month later, they ensured the move wasn't taken as a joke or gimmick by launching another app, Tag, into Apple's App Store.
Discussion:
BBC, Engadget, internetnews.com, All about Microsoft, IntoMobile, Unwired View, Mashable!, Softpedia News, Android Community, VatorNews, Pocket-lint and Electronista
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Benjamin Gauthey / MSDN Blogs:Microsoft Tag Reader for Google Android available
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TechFlash, eWeek, SlashGear, Android Central, Softpedia News, Erictric, Fone Arena, Silicon Alley Insider, ChannelWeb, FierceMobileContent, Neowin.net, AppScout and Gizmodo
Sam Diaz / Between the Lines:
Google adds free cloud “backup” to Apps, feature that reduces risk of data loss — Google, in its continued quest to lure enterprise customers to switch to the cloud-based Google Apps suite, is upping its offering with a free feature called synchronous replication.
TechCrunch:
In Mobile, Fragmentation is Forever. Deal With It. — Editor's note: Richard Wong is a venture capitalist with Accel Partners, an investor in AdMob, GetJar, and SunRun, and a former mobile industry executive. In this guest post he argues that the fragmentation of mobile devices and platforms …
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SiliconANGLE
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
TiVo: Appeals Court Upholds Contempt Finding In DISH Case (Updated) — TiVo (TIVO) shares are rocketing higher after a federal appeals court upheld a lower court ruling which found found DISH Network (DISH) and Echostar (SATS) in contempt of a previous ruling which found infringement of TiVo's DVR patents.
Discussion:
Reuters, paidContent, CNET News, PC Magazine, BetaNews, TiVo, Silicon Alley Insider, Associated Press, Zatz Not Funny!, SlashGear, Gizmodo, Engadget and silicontap.com
AndrewM / Yahoo! Mail Blog:
Facebook Friends: Meet Yahoo! Contacts — You might have heard that Yahoo! announced plans in December to integrate Facebook Connect across a variety of our popular sites and services. While we're still early in the partnership, we wanted to let you know about one new thing you can do with Facebook today.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Huffington Post Still Growing Like a Weed — Another step in the Huffington Post's relentless march toward world domination: The company attracted a staggering 40 million unique visitors in the last month. — That's per Huffpo's own numbers, served up by Google Analytics (GOOG).
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Silicon Alley Insider
Bobbie Johnson / Guardian:
Lords copyright change ‘could block YouTube’ — One of the most contentious parts of the controversial digital economy bill was voted down by the House of Lords last night - only to be replaced by a clause that campaigners say is even more draconian. — The Liberal Democrats forced through …
Discussion:
Bits, panGloss, BBC, Boing Boing, Telegraph, The Register, OUT-LAW News, Tech Eye, ZeroPaid.com and Open Rights Group, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Joanna Stern / Engadget:
ASUS CEO talks tablets, smartbooks and Windows Phone 7 Series phones — Ever wonder about the man behind the insane amount of ASUS products we cover? We do too, which is why we jumped at the chance to sit down with ASUS CEO Jerry Shen here at CeBIT. Our lengthy discussion covered …
Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:
Ballmer: Microsoft ‘Betting Our Company’ On The Cloud — Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is still most closely associated with its desktop software (Windows, Office etc.), but on Thursday CEO Steve Ballmer said Microsoft was “betting our company” on the cloud. About 70 percent of Microsoft employees …
Lance Whitney / CNET News:
Intel expands Atom to home servers — Intel's Atom chip is moving up in the world, from Netbooks to home and small-office servers. — The chipmaker on Thursday launched its first Atom processor optimized for the SOHO (small office/home office) market. Intel's new platform marries …
Tumblr Staff:
Now testing: Pages — You can now add static pages to your blog, with a few very useful options. Head to your blog's Customize page and click the “Pages” menu to get started. There are currently three types of Pages you can create: — Standard Layout. Create a simple page with a title and body using your current theme.
Brad Stone / New York Times:
Facebook Ads Strike Some as Off-Key — SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook, the world's biggest social network, is selling more ad spots to big companies like Wal-Mart Stores, Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo. — But the site's pages are also home to countless ads from smaller companies that can be funny …
Eric Eldon / Inside Facebook:
Bing's Facebook Page Gets 400,000 New Fans in a Day Through Ad Offer in Farmville — In the latest example of brand advertising integrated into social games, Microsoft ran an advertising offer for Bing within Zynga's hit game FarmVille on Tuesday. If users became a fan of Bing's Facebook Page …
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Joost Starts Second Life Under The Adconion Flag — Joost, the failed video venture started by Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström, was put out of its misery in November 2009 when Adconion Media Group decided to pick up the remains of the company for an undisclosed sum.
Eric A. Taub / Gadgetwise:
Selling 3-D TVs Without 3-D Programming — When high-definition televisions first went on sale in the 1990s, there was no high-def programming. Retailers hooked up hard drives to their $10,000 sets so that potential early-adopter customers could at least see what high-def would look like once broadcasters got up and running.
