Techmeme: Skype Says China Services Are Working Amid Crackdown (Bloomberg)

6:55 AM ET, December 31, 2010

Top Items:

Myspace Mulls Significant Layoffs, With Potential Sale Looming — Myspace-the long-troubled social networking site turned social entertainment hub-is in the midst of planning that could soon result in significant layoffs of its staff, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.

Discussion: The Next Web and SlashGear

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Google As A Carrier. It's Not A Question Of “If They Will”, But Rather “When They'll Try” — CNNMoney published an interesting piece by David Goldman this morning entitled, Google: Your new phone carrier? In it, Goldman lays out what he sees as the preliminary steps Google has taken …

Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land: How Cool Would It Be If Google Became A Carrier?

David Goldman / CNNMoney:
Google: Your new phone carrier?

Discussion: CNNMoney.com, IntoMobile, Examiner, SAI, Search Engine Journal, SlashGear, dailywireless.org and Faster Forward

Bloomberg:

Skype Says China Services Are Working Amid Crackdown — Skype Technologies SA, the world's largest carrier of international phone calls, said its services in China remain operational after the country said it's cracking down on “illegal” Internet phone companies.

Discussion: Inquirer and TechEye

Malcolm Moore / Telegraph:
China makes Skype illegal

Ty McMahan / Venture Capital Dispatch:

Why Groupon, Twitter & Other Hot Private Companies Are Cashing Out — Early shareholders in the hottest privately-held technology companies are increasingly finding liquidity without an acquisition or a public offering, with Groupon Inc. being the most recent example.

Help Net Security:

The significant decline of spam — In October Commtouch reported an 18% drop in global spam levels (comparing September and October). This was largely attributed to the closure of Spamit around the end of September. Spamit is the organization allegedly behind a fair percentage of the worlds pharmacy spam.

Discussion: Inquirer and The Mac Security Blog

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:

Clearwire Chair Craig McCaw to Quit Today — Cash-strapped Clearwire says no disagreement prompted McCaw's resignation. The company's survival is now in question as it struggles to build a nationwide high-speed wireless 4G network — (Bloomberg) — Clearwire Corp. …

Discussion: FierceWireless, Mobilized, SlashGear, Wall Street Journal, mocoNews and Sidecut Reports

Evelyn M. Rusli / DealBook:

Is 2011 the Year of the Blockbuster Tech I.P.O.? — For technology start-ups, the initial public offering has long lost the sheen of the dot-com era, when it seemed like anyone with an idea could go public. At the peak of the bubble, the Silicon Valley factory was in overdrive, pumping out hundreds of I.P.O.'s. a year.

Dan Primack / Fortune:
Big sale: Groupon discloses $500 million investment

Discussion: TechCrunch, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, VentureBeat, PC Magazine, SAI, Mashable!, DailyFinance, VatorNews, PE Hub Blog and Tech Musings

Dana Mattioli / Wall Street Journal:

For Apps, Profit Picture Is Blurry — Firms Seek Business Models as They Release Slew of Photo Software for Phones — Companies in recent months have launched a slew of photography applications for the iPhone and other smartphones, but many of these start-ups are still trying to figure …

Dylan Winter / Duckworks:

Adsense, no sense at all - what it's like being sacked by a computer... I have worked for the newspapers, magazines, radio stations and TV stations. One of the things you get used to as a freelance is being sacked. After all, that's why they take us on - we are easy to sack.

Discussion: Techdirt, Guardian, Examiner and Search Engine Roundtable

Donald A. Norman / Gizmodo:

Living with Complexity: How Apple Reinvented Music Distribution — iTune's dominant position atop the digital music market is not happenstance. Donald A. Norman discusses how, through the integration of its products, design and service, Apple became a media distribution juggernaut.

Erica Naone / Technology Review:

The Year in Mobile — Apple invented a new category of mobile device, consumers want faster connections, and the spectrum is more crowded than ever. — Insanely Popular — Companies have introduced tablet computers before, but the technology never took off until 2010 …

Discussion: ThinkMobile

Evan Blass / PocketNow:

“HTC Scribe” Is HTC's Upcoming Android Tablet? — HTC has just filed a trademark application for “HTC Scribe,” suggesting that this will be the name of its upcoming Android tablet. As if the name alone wasn't suggestive enough, HTC has listed the good seeking protection as a “handheld wireless device, namely, a tablet computer.”

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Parsing Pew: What The Latest Online Content Buying Numbers Really Say — You are about to see a host of references to a new batch of numbers from the Pew Internet & American Life project pop up all over the place. The headline is tantalizing: 65 percent of those surveyed this fall paid for online content.

Discussion: Agence France Presse, Twist Image, L.A. Times Tech Blog, WebProNews, TeleRead, MediaPost, Electronista and ReadWriteWeb, more at Mediagazer »

Jim Jansen / Pew Internet:
65% of internet users have paid for online content

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CIO challenge 5: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs? — Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series! After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …

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