Top Items:
Seth Weintraub / Fortune:
2011 will be the year Android explodes — (Not this kind of smartphone growth.) Image by @boetter via Flickr — Ever-improving networks and a big hardware announcement that will send handset prices plummeting both point to smartphone growth in 2011 that could totally eclipse anything we've seen before.
Discussion:
louisgray.com, TechCrunch, Appolicious Advisor, TeleRead, Howard Lindzon, Examiner and Pulse2
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Horace Dediu / asymco:
The $85 Smartphone and the imminent extinction of non-smartphones — In a recent article I made the claim: … I also showed how pricing has evolved over the last three years. — Two days later an article in Fortune's Google24/7 blog highlighted the possible price points of low-end smartphones:
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Fred Wilson and Fortune are right about Android vs iOS (and …
Thanks:scobleizer
Jon Kalish / New York Times:
Leo Laporte Builds Empire With ‘This Week in Tech’ — Balancing on a giant rubber ball in a broadcast studio and control room carved out of a cottage in Petaluma, Calif., Leo Laporte is an unlikely media mogul. — From that little town in California wine country, he runs his empire, a podcasting network, TWIT.
Walt Mossberg / Mossblog:
Mossberg's Best and Worst Products of 2010 — This week on WSJ Digits, Walt shared his thoughts on his best and worst reviewed products for 2010. Taking Walt's top spot this year was none other than Apple's iPad. For a 1.0 product, the iPad was amazing.
Discussion:
parislemon, Examiner, The Business Insider, TUAW, MacStories, Pulse2, eWeek, Edible Apple, AppleInsider, Electronista, MacDailyNews and 9 to 5 Mac
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Is Quora the biggest blogging innovation in 10 years? — I've now been blogging for 10 years. Looking back we haven't seen all that much innovation for bloggers. You have a box. You type in it. Put an image into it. And hit publish. That's much the same as the tools I had 10 years ago.
Thanks:sidharthdassani
Rosa Golijan / Gizmodo:
What Happens When You Steal a Hacker's Computer — Meet Melvin Guzman. He somehow ended up with a Mac stolen from Zoz, a rather crafty hacker who happens to love that computer “like his firstborn.” Here's a hilarious account of what happened—complete with some poorly censored nudity.
Discussion:
Hack a Day, Examiner and Pulse2
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Why 2011 isn't 1995 for Apple — In 1995 I remember waiting in lines to buy Windows 95. It effectively ended the design lead Apple had for 11 years in personal computers. From then on Microsoft had both the thought leadership and the market share. Apple ended up with less than 10% market share.
Discussion:
MacStories
New York Times:
Banks and WikiLeaks — The whistle-blowing Web site WikiLeaks has not been convicted of a crime. The Justice Department has not even pressed charges over its disclosure of confidential State Department communications. Nonetheless, the financial industry is trying to shut it down.
Discussion:
Pulse2 and Scripting News
Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:
Cambridge university refuses to censor student's thesis on chip-and-PIN vulnerabilities — After the UK banking trade association wrote to Cambridge university to have a student's master's thesis censored because it documented a well-known flaw in the chip-and-PIN system, Cambridge's Ross Anderson sent an extremely stiff note in reply:
Discussion:
Light Blue Touchpaper, Chilling Effects … and MSDN Blogs
Paul Elias / Associated Press:
Man quits job, makes living suing e-mail spammers — SAN FRANCISCO - Daniel Balsam hates spam. Most everybody does, of course. But he has acted on his hate as few have, going far beyond simply hitting the delete button. He sues them. — Eight years ago, Balsam was working as a marketer …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Flickr Should Have Built Instagram. But They Didn't. Here's Why. — Back in June, we reported on the departure of Kellan Elliott-McCrea from Yahoo. While not hugely known outside the developer community, we had received several tips indicating just how important Elliott-McCrea was to the Flickr team …
Discussion:
SAI
TechCrunch:
The Unwelcome Return of Platform Dependencies — Editor's Note: The following guest post is written by a Silicon Valley CEO. Frank Dupree is a pen name — In the late 1990s, the rise of the browser was supposed to usher in an era of unprecedented opportunity for startups.
