Top Items:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Groupon Closing $950 Million Round, Valued At $4.75 Billion — Lots of excitement today about Groupon's intention to raise a new monster round of financing, with speculation that the valuation of the still-young startup reaching nearly $8 billion. That speculation is only partially right …
Discussion:
SAI
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Erin Griffith / VC Experts:
Groupon Raising Up to $950 million Series G — Fresh off the heels of Groupon's widely publicized Google rebuff, the discount e-commerce company has filed a certificate to authorize a $950 million Series G round of preferred stock. The certificate, which gives Groupon the capacity to raise $950 million, was filed on December 17.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Softpedia News, TechCrunch, Mashable!, Examiner, MediaPost, eMoney, L.A. Times Tech Blog, VatorNews, PE Hub Blog, Venture Capital Dispatch, NBC Bay Area, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, PC Magazine, CNET News, DealBook, Fortune, Screenwerk and SAI
Morgan / P Morgan Brown:
Why Groupon Needs $950 Million More … The blogosphere is abuzz over tech-darling Groupon's proposed $950 million Series G round. Many people have asked “Why do they need all that money?” And while expansion is the obvious answer, it's a bit more nuanced than that.
Thanks:morganb
Kellex / Droid Life:
Exclusive: 12 Photos of the HTC Thunderbolt on Verizon — Take a look at that beauty. Say hello to the HTC Thunderbolt, which will be the first 4G LTE device to land on Verizon after its unveiling next week at CES. As you can see, it really just looks exactly like the Desire HD …
Hilzfuld / Mobile and Social Media:
Peter Vesterbacka, Maker of Angry Birds Talks about the Birds, Apple, Android, Nokia, and Palm/HP — There are many speculations regarding the cause of the recent global economic recession, but we all know the truth. It was the Angry Birds and their affect on the productivity of the work force.
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac, Android Community, Neowin.net, PhoneArena, AppleInsider, IntoMobile and Softpedia News, Thanks:hilzfuld
Brier Dudley / The Seattle Times:
Paul Allen tries again with suit against Apple, Google, Facebook ... Mercer Island billionaire Paul Allen today renewed his effort to sue Apple, Google, Facebook, eBay, AOL and other companies for patent infringement. — Allen's case was rejected on Dec. 10 by a federal judge in Seattle who said it was too vague.
Discussion:
The Register, Wall Street Journal, FOSS Patents, Googling Google Blog, Mobilized, Electronista, Search Engine Land, TechFlash and AppleInsider
Kontra / counternotions:
The Unbearable Inevitability of Being Android, 1995 — According to soldiers of the Android Crusade, 2011 is the year Google will crush iOS to declare its inevitable suzerainty over mobile territories. — Let's meet this week's crusaders: Seth Weintraub (2011 will be the year Android explodes) …
Discussion:
SAI and All About Symbian
Electronista:
Suppliers: Apple may ship 65 million iPads in 2011 — Apple could ship as many as 65 million iPads in 2011 based on the LCD orders it's placing, according to estimates from Tuesday night. LG Display is still said to be shipping the bulk of the tablet's displays, at 35 million …
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac and DigiTimes
Threat Level:
Putting the Record Straight on the Lamo-Manning Chat Logs — Editor's note: This is a two-part article, in which Wired.com editor-in-chief Evan Hansen and senior editor Kevin Poulsen respond separately to criticisms of the site's Wikileaks coverage. — The Case for Privacy
Discussion:
TechEye, p2pnet, WL Central and Boing Boing, more at Mediagazer »
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Q: What Does Quora Mean For The Future Of Blogging? A: Business As Usual — As many of you have noticed, we (and by “we”, I mainly mean “me") have been using Quora a lot as a source of inspiration for story ideas. Some people seem to think this is a great idea.
Discussion:
Elias Bizannes, Wap Review, TeleRead and Stay N' Alive, more at Mediagazer », Thanks:alexia
Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
Disney Tackles Major Theme Park Problem: Lines — ORLANDO, Fla. — Deep in the bowels of Walt Disney World, inside an underground bunker called the Disney Operational Command Center, technicians know that you are standing in line and that you are most likely annoyed about it.
Discussion:
Mashable!, VatorNews, Newlaunches.com, Engadget and GMSV
Peter Lattman / DealBook:
Share Rules Could Push Offering by Facebook — Facebook likes big numbers — it now has more than 500 million users, each one of whom can have as many as 5,000 friends. Yet as a privately held company, its ownership base must remain small, or it will have to disclose publicly its financial results.
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Patton Oswalt / Wired:
Wake Up, Geek Culture. Time to Die — I'm not a nerd. I used to be one, back 30 years ago when nerd meant something. I entered the '80s immersed, variously, in science fiction, Dungeons & Dragons, and Stephen King. Except for the multiple-player aspect of D&D, these pursuits were not …
Serkan Toto / MobileCrunch:
Report: Playstation Phone Is Based On the PSPgo, Will Go On Sale This Spring — We've spent quite a few posts on Sony's Playstation Phone in the last few months, and today the Asahi Shimbun (one of Japan's biggest newspapers) is reporting [JP] that the device will be released in spring next year.
Tim Hornyak / Crave: The gadget blog:
Korean schools welcome more robot teachers — Teacher's pet? An Engkey robot educates kids in Korea — If you thought your English teacher was a robotic bore, spare a thought for kids in South Korea. They're being taught by real robots. — The city of Daegu introduced 29 robot teachers …
Discussion:
PhysOrg.com, joongangdaily.joins.com, AOL News and Engadget
Darren Murph / Engadget:
BMW Connected app hits iOS App Store, ‘Apps’ function hitting vehicles next year — Like son, like father? Evidently that's exactly how things are playing out, with papa BMW following the footsteps of MINI in the run-up to 2011. Just days after the MINI Connected app found itself situated …
Horace Dediu / asymco:
The parable of the the PDA: predicting the smartphone's future — When reading the comments disputing the possible end of the voice-phone era I'm reminded of similar comments disputing the end of the PDA era. — Although the Apple Newton pioneered the market in 1992 and John Sculley came …
Ionut Arghire / Softpedia News:
New Android Market Stats Out, Over 200k Apps Available — Google's Android operating system already attracted a lot of developers on its side, which came up with applications in excess of 200,000, the latest stats on the Android Market show. — Apple's App Store for the iPhone …
Discussion:
BGR, PhoneArena, The Next Web, IntoMobile, Electronista, WebProNews, Techie Buzz, Examiner and Know Your Cell, Thanks:keithdsouza
Shayndi Raice / Wall Street Journal:
Fiber-Optic Networks Regain Some Glow — Data Traffic Turns Regional Operators Into Buyout Targets — After the telecom bubble burst a decade ago, fiber was a dirty word. — Now, the fiber-optic network business is enjoying a resurgence, particularly for metro fiber …
Discussion:
Tech Trader Daily
Donald Melanson / Engadget:
Researchers create ultra-fast ‘1,000 core’ processor, Intel also toys with the idea — We've already seen field programmable gate arrays (or FPGAs) used to create energy efficient supercomputers, but a team of researchers at the University of Glasgow led by Dr. Wim Vanderbauwhede now say that they have …
Discussion:
SlashGear
Enigmax / TorrentFreak:
RapidShare Shows MPAA/RIAA: We Can Lobby Lawmakers Too — Last month RapidShare discovered that they had been reported by the MPAA and RIAA to the US Government for being one of the world's “most notorious pirate markets”. Now, on the heels of reports that the entertainment industries spent …
Discussion:
Deutsche Welle, ZeroPaid.com and Ars Technica
Michael Oliveira / Globe and Mail:
Canadians spend more time online than any other country — Canadians were curating their Facebook profiles long before the rest of the world got hooked, many were experimenting with the limitations of writing in 140-character snippets at Twitter's launch in 2006, and we watch online video more than any other web surfers.
Discussion:
The Next Web and All Facebook
Don Reisinger / The Digital Home:
Netflix said to be planning 2011 international push — After expanding its streaming service into Canada, it seems Netflix is looking elsewhere internationally to build its business. — Speaking to the CBC last week, Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said the company is “talking about other regions in the world.”
Discussion:
Adweek, Softpedia News, ReadWriteWeb and Shelly Palmer Digital Living
Zach Epstein / BGR:
BlackBerry PlayBook battery issues could delay launch, says analyst — According to Kaufman Brothers analyst Shaw Wu, RIM may be forced to delay the release of its first tablet computer, the BlackBerry PlayBook. Wu claims he is hearing that the PlayBook “needs to improve its relatively poor battery life …
Discussion:
CNET News, Softpedia News, PC Magazine, Ars Technica, GottaBeMobile, Phones Review, Electronista, SAI, MacDailyNews, SlashGear, ITworld.com, IntoMobile, AfterDawn.com, Tech Trader Daily, MobileBurn.com and TiPb
