Top Items:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
AOL Acquires Personal Profile Startup About.Me — Personal profile startup About.me launched publicly, oh, all of four days ago. And, boom. Today AOL (our parent company), will announce that they've acquired the company. It will become part of the consumer applications group, led by AOL exec Brad Garlinghouse.
RELATED:
Tony Conrad / Tony Conrad's Photo Blog:
Booyah! — Ryan, Tim and I are thrilled to announce …
Discussion:
TECH cocktail, Early Stage Capital, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, SAI and NewEnterprise
Al Franken / The Huffington Post:
The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time — This Tuesday is an important day in the fight to save the Internet. As a source of innovation, an engine of our economy, and a forum for our political discourse, the Internet can only work if it's a truly level playing field.
Discussion:
FM Blog, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, GigaOM and CNN
RELATED:
Cecilia Kang / Post Tech:
FCC expected to pass net neutrality rules
Discussion:
Media Decoder, Forbes, paidContent, PC World, Wall Street Journal, GigaOM, Computerworld, Gawker, CNET News, DSLreports, NewEnterprise and dailywireless.org
Robin Schriebman / Gmail Blog:
Free calling in Gmail extended through 2011 — When we launched calling in Gmail back in August, we wanted it to be easy and affordable, so we made calls to the U.S. and Canada free for the rest of 2010. In the spirit of holiday giving and to help people keep in touch in the new year, we're extending free calling for all of 2011.
Tim Bray / Android Developers Blog:
It's not “rooting”, it's openness — “Nexus S has been rooted, let the madness commence!” proclaims Engadget. “This is only possible because Android's security is crap and it's exploited easily to gain root priviledges [sic]” adds a commenter. You'll have to excuse me if I strongly disagree.
Discussion:
Electronista, PC Magazine, Droid Life, pocketnow.com, PreCentral.net, Android Community, 901am, Android Phone Fans, IntoMobile and parislemon
Surur / WMPoweruser.com:
IDC: Windows Phone 7 marketplace ramping up “faster than Android” — The Windows Phone 7 marketplace is ramping up faster than Android, and even when compared to the iPhone App store (red line) it does not look too bad. (WP7 graph from WP7Applist.com) — We continue to see rather odd stories …
Discussion:
Engadget, The Next Web, eWeek, Neowin.net and Computerworld
Wall Street Journal:
SEC Probes Hurd Exit From H-P — The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the circumstances surrounding Mark Hurd's departure from Hewlett-Packard Co., in a broad inquiry that includes claims that the former chief executive shared inside information about an acquisition, people familiar with the matter said.
Discussion:
Financial Times, New York Times, Computerworld, eWeek, CNET News, Between the Lines Blog, SAI and Electronista
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Is Google In A Dream World? If So, Just How Close To Limbo Are They? — “Well dreams, they feel real while we're in them, right? It's only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.” — Cobb's quote from Inception reminds me of something. Something going on right now, seemingly all around us.
Discussion:
PC Magazine, Otaku, Cedric's blog, parislemon, Evolver.fm and Erictric
Kim-Mai Cutler / Inside Facebook:
After Critiquing Facebook, Google Researcher Paul Adams Joins It — Paul Adams, the Google user experience researcher who critiqued Facebook in a lengthy report over the summer, is leaving the search giant to join them. His report is said to have accelerated the Groups product …
Discussion:
NetworkEffect, paidContent, TechCrunch and internetnews.com
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Title Junk — The recent hubbub about Delicious got me thinking about bookmarking in general, and brought to mind a long-standing irritation: poorly designed web page titles. — Here's an example that I bookmarked last night: Roger Ebert's 1968 review of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The title of that web page is:
Discussion:
Wireless Security Cameras and Chicago Sun Times
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Trulia Acquires Movity — San Francisco real estate site Trulia said it had acquired Movity, a start-up that surfaces and aggregates geodata for home buyers and renters, such as noise, crime and pricing, from a variety of sources. Trulia declined to provide financial details of the transaction.
Joe Maller:
iTunes slowdowns with Google DNS — Last night we tried to rent an iTunes movie on our newish Apple TV. Instead of starting right away, the Apple TV said it would be 2+ hours before we could start watching. I've got a healthy 15-20Mb/s connection and a clean wire to the Apple TV, so this shouldn't be happening.
Discussion:
TUAW, AppleInsider, PadGadget, TiPb, MacStories, Macgasm and The Apple Core Blog
Audrey Watters / ReadWriteWeb:
One of the “Killer Apps for Android,” Swype Opens Its Beta — Oh, the war of words between iPhone and Android fans. How it has preoccupied us this year. I won't take sides now. I own both. (Don't judge.) But I will say this: if you're an Android user, you might want to go now and join Swype's beta.
Discussion:
Droid Life, Android Community, Android Phone Fans and Androinica
Elizabeth Weingarten / The Atlantic Online:
Forget Journalism School and Enroll in Groupon Academy — It's a Friday afternoon and Jane Flotte is getting a little tired of spa treatments. “Today I've written a lot of salon deals,” the Groupon employee said. “And I'm getting kind of sick of talking about facials.”
Discussion:
GigaOM, Gawker and broadstuff, more at Mediagazer »
Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:
Apple will close Mac OS X downloads site on January 6 — Apple has informed developers of applications and widgets on Apple's downloads website that the site will be closing down come January 6th when the Mac App Store opens for business. Apple believes that the Mac App Store will truly …
Discussion:
Business Wire, Macgasm, TUAW, MacRumors and O'Grady's PowerPage
Federico Viticci / MacStories:
Apple Launches iAd Producer - HTML & CSS Layout App for iAds — A few minutes ago Apple launched a new app for the Mac called iAd Producer which is aimed at developers and designers willing to create visually rich, interactive iAds. iAd Producer “automatically manages the HTML5 …
Discussion:
MediaPost, Computerworld, AppleInsider, TiPb, TG Daily, Macgasm, 9 to 5 Mac, MacRumors and GigaOM, Thanks:viticci
Thomas E. Weber / The Daily Beast:
Cracking the New York Times Popularity Code — Just how many people does it take to propel a story onto the Times' influential most-emailed list? And can it be gamed? Thomas E. Weber finds the answers. — The most-emailed articles list on the New York Times website …
Discussion:
Geekosystem and The Atlantic Online, more at Mediagazer »
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
1 Billion Peoples' Interests Now Tracked by AddThis — AddThis, one of the leading link sharing services used by sites all around the web (including this one), announced today that it now offers publishers information about the types of interests their readers and content sharers have demonstrated on the other sites they have visited.
Discussion:
The Next Web, AddThis and SocialTimes.com
Ryan Kim / GigaOM:
Nokia and Microsoft Looks Like a Desperate Hook Up — Nokia's new leadership under ex-Microsoft executive Stephen Elop has reportedly met with Microsoft to plan a line of Nokia phones that would run the Windows Phone 7 software. This is according to Russian blogger Eldar Mutarzin, a noted tech writer with connections inside Nokia.
Discussion:
eWeek, Forbes, LAPTOP Magazine, Yahoo! News, mocoNews, 24/7 Wall St., internetnews.com and TechFlash
RELATED:
Staska / Unwired View:
Holy crap! Nokia is in talks with Microsoft about Windows Phone devices?!
Discussion:
PC Magazine, MobileCrunch, PC World, BGR, msnbc.com, Electronista, The Next Web, IntoMobile, WinRumors, WPCentral.com, Gadget Lab, Pulse2, SiliconANGLE, CNET News, I4U News, eWeek, VentureBeat, SAI, Neowin.net, GT Mobiles, Softpedia News, PhoneArena, Internet2Go, 9 to 5 Mac, Gearlog, WinBeta, Phones Review, Geek.com, Examiner, ArcticStartup Posts, GottaBeMobile, Gizmodo, Smartphones … and SlashGear, Thanks:uvstaska
Wall Street Journal:
Hulu Puts IPO Idea on Back Burner, Focuses on Pay Video — Online video site Hulu LLC has taken off the table the idea of going public, at least for now, and may consider other financing options, people familiar with the matter said. — Hulu also is mulling new subscription plans …
Discussion:
Company Town and SAI, more at Mediagazer »
Reed Hastings / Seeking Alpha:
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Responds to Whitney Tilson: Cover Your Short Position. Now. — A great investor and a wonderful human being, Whitney Tilson recently posted an article about why he is short Netflix (NFLX). Whitney, who is a major co-donor with me to charter public schools like KIPP …
Discussion:
Media Money …, ITworld.com, Digits, IR Web Report, GigaOM, TechCrunch, Six Kids and a Full Time Job, SAI, Digital Society and Tech Trader Daily
Dan Frommer / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Foursquare Already Getting Almost One Photo Upload Per Second — Foursquare updated its iPhone app this morning to allow people to upload photos and comment on each other's checkins. — How's it going? Pretty well so far: Foursquare cofounder Dennis Crowley tells us that Foursquare …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Online and Foursquare Blog
