Top Items:
Faith Merino / VatorNews:
Google buys Groupon for $2.5 billion? — While neither company has confirmed the story, the acquisition follows a week of buyout rumors — Google has just purchased Groupon for $2.5 billion, according to an unnamed insider who spoke with VatorNews. Neither Google nor Groupon …
Discussion:
SAI, ZDNet, Digital Trends, alarm:clock, John Battelle's Searchblog, CNET News, CenterNetworks, Mashable!, VentureBeat, PC World, NBC Bay Area, San Francisco Chronicle, The Next Web, Gawker, Network World, Pulse2, Guardian, Jon Burg's Future Visions, Softpedia News, Tech Trader Daily, Search Engine Land, GMSV, Screenwerk, Telegraph, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Bruce Clay Blog, Techie Buzz, TechEye, Download Squad, The Atlantic Online, Tech Report and The Huffington Post, Thanks:jasonlbaptiste
RELATED:
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Google M&A Lead Congratulates Groupon CEO On Um, Something — Rumors of a Google Groupon acquisition are circling through the blogosphere this Sunday night/Monday morning and for good reason, the scrappy little Vator.tv has come up with a 2.5 billion dollar acquisition price for the deal, according to sources.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
If Google Buys Groupon, It'll Be a Windfall for Investors, Bankers...and Regulators? — If Google does manage to close the deal to buy Groupon-acquisition discussions flagged by BoomTown 10 days ago-it will be at a cost that is likely to be much more than the $2.5 billion price tag being floated in the latest batch of rumors.
Discussion:
SiliconANGLE
Yinka Adegoke / Reuters:
Microsoft in talks for new TV service: sources — (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) has held talks with media companies to license TV networks for a new online pay-television subscription service through devices such as its Xbox video game console, two people familiar with the plans told Reuters.
Discussion:
Microsoft Watch, SAI, Technologizer, TechFlash, The Microsoft Blog, Digital Trends, Business Wire, VentureBeat, Media Maverick, Ars Technica, Engadget, Fast Company, MediaMemo, DSLreports, DailyTech, GigaOM, Mashable!, FierceIPTV, eHomeUpgrade, Joystiq, Erictric, The Next Web, IndustryGamers, paidContent, SlashGear, WinRumors, Electronista and DigitalBattle.com, more at Mediagazer »
Bloomberg:
Apple Lawyers Up for Patent Showdowns With Nokia, Motorola, HTC — Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) — Steve Jobs made Apple Inc.'s iPhone one of the best-selling smartphones on the market with its touch screen, fast Web connection and access to more than 300,000 downloadable applications. Now he's adding lawyers to the mix.
Discussion:
TechEye, GigaOM, AppleInsider, Business Wire, MacRumors, IntoMobile, Pulse2, PC Magazine, msnbc.com, MacNN, Edible Apple, DailyTech, SlashGear, PhoneArena, THINQ.co.uk, 9 to 5 Mac, FierceWireless, Tech Report, iClarified, Xconomy, MacDailyNews and everythingiCafe
Courtney Comstock / SAI:
Morgan Stanley's Legendary Tech Analyst Mary Meeker Moving To Kleiner Perkins — Kleiner Perkins just poached Mary Meeker, Morgan Stanley's star tech analyst, says CNBC, citing WSJ. — Meeker has been a huge name since the .com days, and every year comes out with a hugely influential report/overview of the industry.
RELATED:
Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:
John Doerr and Mary Meeker Speak about their New Partnership
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog and ReadWriteWeb
Graham Cluley / Naked Security:
Can you really see who viewed your Facebook profile? Rogue application spreads virally — Once again, a rogue application is spreading virally between Facebook users pretending to offer you a way of seeing who has viewed your profile. — As we've described a couple of times before …
Discussion:
TechCrunch Europe, MediaFile, All Facebook, THINQ.co.uk, Switched, The Huffington Post, Pocket-lint and Go Rumors
Georgina Prodhan / Reuters:
Few smartphone owners are loyal to their brand: survey — (Reuters) - The booming smartphone market shows no sign of slowing but manufacturers will have to fight hard to keep their customers as smartphone owners show little loyalty to their current brands, a GfK survey shows.
Discussion:
Internet2Go, The Toybox Blog, Electronista, I4U News, MobileBurn.com, Inquirer, The Next Web, Fortune, PhoneArena, AppleInsider, Phones Review, MacDailyNews and FierceMobileContent
Paul Marks / New Scientist:
Microsoft develops shape-shifting touchscreen — Microsoft this week filed a patent application covering a novel way to construct a “tactile” touchscreen - a display that uses technical tricks to convince users they are actually touching the ridges, bumps and textures of a displayed image.
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog, SlashGear, Computerworld, GottaBeMobile, Inquirer, Pocket-lint, Engadget, Gizmodo, WinRumors and PhoneArena
Avery Morrow / Avery's Diaspora News:
I'm Dropping Diaspora, This Site Is Now Closed — This blog was dormant for a while because I didn't want to give Diaspora bad press. There were security and licensing issues; the team claims that they have been fixed. There were issues with the very model of the code; they weren't game-enders.
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
New Google Earth: Better Street View and More — Google is announcing version 6 of Google Earth, its geographical-exploration software for Windows, OS X, and Linux today. The update follows version 5.2, which was released last June, and while the revisions aren't enormous, they look neat.
Discussion:
Google LatLong, Google Earth Blog, Fortune, Search Engine Land, TechCrunch, Google Operating System, Erictric, BBC and silicontap.com
Claire Cain Miller / New York Times:
Now a Giant, Google Works to Retain Nimble Minds — When a product manager at Google told his bosses this year that he was quitting to take a job at Facebook, they offered him a large raise. When he said it was not about the money, they told him he could have a promotion …
Discussion:
SAI, Tech Report and MSDN Blogs
Tiernan Ray / Barron's Online:
Will Tablets Kill the PC Star? — The proliferation of iPads and other tablets is starting to curtail sales of laptops. — THE AGE OF THE TABLET COMPUTER is upon us, and Wall Street stepped up its efforts this week to gauge just how destructive the trend will be to the traditional personal-computer market.
Discussion:
eWeek, MacRumors, CNET News, Tech Trader Daily, TG Daily, dailywireless.org and AppleInsider
RELATED:
Ryan Kim / GigaOM:
Gartner Forecasts: PC Shipments Down, Tablets Up
Discussion:
Insights on the tech industry, Inquirer, Gartner, TechCrunch, Electronista, Dow Jones Newswires, Softpedia News and Reuters
Karol Stosiek / Gmail Blog:
Optional attendees in Google Calendar — Time is one of our most precious resources. Despite their necessity, meetings tend to vary in importance for different attendees. John might be really interested in his team's weekly meeting, whereas Jane, who is working on a unrelated project, may want to skip it.
Discussion:
GottaBeMobile, Softpedia News and The Next Web
Verne G. Kopytoff / New York Times:
For PayPal, the Future Is Mobile — SAN JOSE, Calif. — When Scott Thompson, the president of PayPal, chats with executives at its parent, eBay, he is diplomatic about the size of his business compared with eBay's marketplace. — “I hope — honestly, genuinely — that we never get bigger than you,” he tells them.
Discussion:
IntoMobile and TechCrunch
Donald Melanson / Engadget:
Samsung Nexus S reappears at the FCC with a pair of new antennas — Thinking that the not-yet-announced Samsung GT-i9020T (a.k.a. Nexus S) might be delayed due to a last minute addition of a dual-core processor, as recently seen in the seemingly similar i9100?
Discussion:
AndroidSPIN, Android Australia, SlashGear, IntoMobile, Electronista, TmoNews, PhoneArena, Android Phone Fans and Android Community
AppleInsider:
Apple sees strong iPad, 11-inch MacBook Air sales on Black Friday — Wall Street analysts kept a close watch on sales at Apple stores and authorized retailers on Black Friday, and found a healthy demand for the company's products across the board. — Analyst Gene Munster and his team …
Discussion:
GigaOM, TechCrunch, Fortune, SAI, iPodNN, MacStories, MacRumors, The Huffington Post and parislemon
Dan Nystedt / Computerworld:
Asustek unveils low-cost Eee Note e-reader, notepad — IDG News Service - Asustek Computer on Monday unveiled the Eee Note EA-800, an e-reader with a stylus for taking notes on its 8-inch touchscreen. The device will be available in Taiwan later this week for the suggested retail price of NT$6,999 (US$228), Asustek executives said.
Discussion:
SlashGear, Softpedia News, Geek.com, Engadget, Ubergizmo and Electronista
Gizmodo:
WikiLeaks Diplomatic Bombshell Reveals Strange Tech Snooping Schemes — Today's not a good morning to wake up as an American diplomat. The weekend's WikiLeaks disclosure of covert communications has revealed some strange tech plots surrounding world figures—Bluetooth bugs implanted in prisoners.
Discussion:
Guardian, The Register, TechCrunch, Forbes and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Fox Sues Woman For $15M Because She Aggregated TV And Movie Scripts She Found Online — In the latest example of copyright law gone mad, it appears that Twentieth Century Fox is suing a woman for $15 million, because she aggregated various scripts she found online as a resource for screenwriters (like herself) to learn from.
Discussion:
TorrentFreak
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteMobile:
VB Developers Can Now Publish Windows Phone 7 Apps — Today Microsoft announced that its Visual Basic add-on for Windows Phone Developer Tools is now available in its final RTW version ("Release to Web"). With this add-on, Visual Basic developers who have built Silverlight applications …
Discussion:
Computerworld, The Windows Blog and MSDN Blogs
