Top Items:
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:
Digital Trends, Engadget, AppleInsider, SAI, The Seattle Times, Reuters, Microsoft Watch, Techland, I4U News, Business Wire, Reuters, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, Media Maverick, The Microsoft Blog, DailyTech, GigaOM, MediaMemo, Technologizer, Fast Company, VG247, Mashable!, FierceIPTV, The Next Web, VentureBeat, TechFlash, paidContent, BlogsDNA, eHomeUpgrade, SlashGear, Electronista, Erictric, Eurogamer, Joystiq, dailywireless.org, IndustryGamers and MTV Multiplayer, more at Mediagazer »
RELATED:
John Biggs / TechCrunch:
Microsoft TV: A Bold Move That May Blow Up Broadcast — From what we can tell from a brief Reuters report, Microsoft is in talks with HBO and Showtime to broadcast and sell a la carte video through the XBox. Microsoft already offers ESPN through XBox Live.
Discussion:
Digital Trends
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:
Examiner, John Battelle's Searchblog, Mashable!, CenterNetworks, Tom Foremski, SAI, CNET News, Digital Trends, Telegraph, Neowin.net, SiliconANGLE, VentureBeat, USA Today, Faster Forward, Softpedia News, Silicon Valley Watcher, Network World, ITworld.com, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, alarm:clock, SocialTimes.com, San Francisco Chronicle, The Next Web, Pulse2, Tech Trader Daily, Screenwerk, GMSV, TechEye, Techie Buzz, Jon Burg's Future Visions and Guardian, Thanks:jasonlbaptiste
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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:
TechCrunch and SiliconANGLE
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Google M&A Lead Congratulates Groupon CEO On Um, Something
Discussion:
Epicenter, NBC Bay Area and Gawker
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:
GigaOM, Examiner, Electronista, Android Community, TechSpot, IntoMobile, Internet2Go, The Toybox Blog, TUAW, Fortune, PhoneArena, pocketnow.com, I4U News, Inquirer, AppleInsider, MobileBurn.com, The Next Web, Phones Review and MacDailyNews
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:
Macworld, KPCB, GigaOM, AppleInsider, TechEye, Edible Apple, Pulse2, MacNN, PhoneArena, DailyTech, IntoMobile, SiliconANGLE, PC Magazine, MacRumors, msnbc.com, FierceWireless, SlashGear, iLounge, 9 to 5 Mac, THINQ.co.uk, Tech Report and Xconomy
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 — Venture capital mega-firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has announced that Mary Meeker is joining the firm as a partner, in another sign that the firm is focusing more on this mobile-meets-social-meets-local-meets- global wave of Web disruption.
Sara Jerome / Hillicon Valley:
Government's Internet crackdown was timed to thwart ‘Cyber Monday’ crimes — Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday the government crackdown on websites facilitating copyright infringement was timed to coincide with the holiday shopping season. — The government has shut down 82 websites …
Discussion:
techPresident and Techdirt
RELATED:
Larry Downes / Technology Liberation Front:
Domain Name Seizures and the “Limits” of Civil Forfeiture
Discussion:
DomainIncite.com, Techdirt and Post Tech
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Zuckerberg Interviews Former President George W. Bush At Facebook HQ [Video] — Looks like President Obama isn't the only one resorting to Facebook as a way to reach the American people. In a first for a U.S. President past or present, former President George W. Bush will hold a discussion …
Discussion:
Between the Lines Blog, Gov 2.0, The Next Web and SAI
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:
Examiner, GottaBeMobile, Erictric, The Next Web and Softpedia News
Rand Fishkin / Rand's Blog:
The Algorithm + the Crowd are Not Enough — In the last decade, the online world has been ruled by two, twin forces: The Crowd and The Algorithm. The collective “users” of the Internet (The Crowd) create, click, and rate, while mathematical equations add scalability and findability …
Discussion:
Stage Two
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.
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:
CNET News, Yahoo! News, TechCrunch Europe, All Facebook, MediaFile, THINQ.co.uk, Switched, Pocket-lint and The Huffington Post
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:
Fast Company, VentureBeat, L.A. Times Tech Blog, SlashGear, GottaBeMobile, MarketingVOX, Computerworld, The Tech Report, Inquirer, Pocket-lint, Geek.com and Engadget
Tiernan Ray / Tech Trader Daily:
Level 3 Denounces Comcast ‘Toll’ On Internet Traffic — An interesting wrinkle today in the debate over net neutrality and broadband content accesss: Level 3 Communications (LVLT), which operates thousands of miles of fiber optic networks throughout North America, said this afternoon …
Discussion:
Media Decoder, GigaOM, DSLreports, MarketWatch, SAI, Epicenter, Boing Boing, Electronista and Reuters, more at Mediagazer »
Dharmesh Mehta / The Windows Blog:
Over 500,000 Windows Live Spaces blogs migrated to WordPress.com — We're very excited to be working with WordPress.com to let customers connect the fantastic blogging capabilities of WordPress.com with the leading communications and sharing services of Windows Live.
Discussion:
LiveSide.net, WordPress.com News and The Blog Herald
Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:
WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Wants To Spill Your Corporate Secrets — In a rare interview, Assange tells Forbes that the release of Pentagon and State Department documents are just the beginning. His next target: big business. — Early next year, Julian Assange says, a major American bank will suddenly find itself turned inside out.
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.
Reuters:
News Corp weighs options for MySpace — (Reuters) - News Corporation (NWSA.O) Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said his company is open to a sale of the beleaguered site MySpace although they are pleased with its new direction as a social entertainment destination.
Discussion:
Tech Trader Daily, paidContent and MediaFile
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:
Fortune, Examiner, SAI, Digital Daily, iPodNN, TechCrunch, MacStories, GigaOM, MacRumors and The Huffington Post
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Anti-Piracy Lawyers Sued For Fraud, Abuse and Extortion — The US Copyright Group thought it had found the ideal scheme to turn piracy into profit when it started filing lawsuits against tens of thousands of BitTorrent users this year. But the defendants in the Far Cry lawsuits have now become …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Techdirt, TechSpot, Forbes and THINQ.co.uk
Nick Wingfield / Digits:
Vostu Harvests Funds from Facebook, Zynga Backers — Some well-known investors are placing a bet that Brazil is fertile territory for the spread of social games. — Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management are investing $30 million in Vostu, a startup that has grown quickly in Brazil …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, paidContent, VentureBeat and SiliconANGLE
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:
SAI, TechCrunch, Business Wire and IntoMobile
Tim Hirsch / BBC:
Rio favela tweets create overnight celebrity — A 17-year-old Twitter user gave Brazilians a rare insider's view of events in his favela — For the past few days, Brazilians watched transfixed as scenes more reminiscent of Iraq or Afghanistan than of their own “marvellous city”, Rio de Janeiro, unfolded live on TV screens.
Discussion:
GigaOM
