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Goldman's “friends” get week to mull Facebook bet — (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs is not giving its multimillionaire clients a lot of time or information to think about investing in a $1.5 billion Facebook private offering. — According to a customer who received a letter from Goldman …
Discussion:
SAI
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Why Facebook won't go public — Miguel Helft explains why Facebook is going to have to go public sooner or later: … This is a classic non sequitur: Helft's first sentence simply doesn't follow from his second. Yes, it's nice for companies not to have to disclose their financial results.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, John Battelle's Searchblog, SAI and Adotas


Five reasons why I'm not buying Facebook
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Opinionator, New York Magazine, ITworld.com, Media Decoder, Business Week and SAI

Facebook, Twitter, & startup valuations …
Discussion:
SAI, All Facebook, Deal Journal, Venture Capital Dispatch and MediaPost, Thanks:denimsmith

What's happening with Windows Phone updates in 2011 — I can finally reveal a number of details about the first Windows Phone 7 update, a future major update, and how Microsoft intends to roll out updates generally. It's not necessarily great news. But here's what's happening.
Discussion:
LiveSide.net, pocketnow.com, Gizmodo, WMPoweruser.com, MobileCrunch, Erictric, MobileTechWorld, The Next Web, ThinkMobile, Neowin.net and WPCentral.com
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Windows Phone 7 ‘NoDo’ update hitting phones in early February, ‘Mango’ coming later with IE9? — Word on the street from Microsoft savant Paul Thurrott is that Windows Phone 7's first update might go gold as early as this week — in time for Ballmer's CES keynote, in fact …
Discussion:
PhoneDog.com

Why Groupon Isn't in Australia — Since Groupon started in 2008, we've grown from one to thirty-seven countries. Australia, however, remains conspicuously absent from our lineup. Australian customers and press have been asking why we still haven't formally launched …
Discussion:
eMoney, WebProNews, Delimiter, metarand and Pulse2
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BlackBerry PlayBook Web Fidelity Video (Multimedia, Games and Social Networking) — Check out our latest BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet video, just in time for CES 2011! When we posted the BlackBerry PlayBook vs. iPad comparison video, many Inside BlackBerry readers posted comments suggesting …
Discussion:
CrackBerry.com blogs, BlackBerry Cool, eWeek, Pulse2, Techie Buzz, Erictric, IntoMobile, PhoneDog.com, The Next Web, Liliputing, Download Squad and Know Your Cell
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Analyst: Flash Could Be Hogging PlayBook Battery Life
Discussion:
BlackBerry Cool, Guardian, PhoneArena and BerryReview.com


US Tablet Sales Will More Than Double This Year — Today Forrester published its revised US consumer tablet forecast, updating its previous forecast from June 2010. When Apple's iPad first debuted, we saw the device as a game-changer but were too conservative with our forecast.
Discussion:
WebProNews, PadGadget, All about Microsoft Blog, ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, Bits, Pulse2, VentureBeat, BGR, SAI, Mercury News, BetaNews, The Seattle Times, Between the Lines Blog, Tech Musings, NewsGrange, SlashGear, GigaOM and Adotas

Steve Ballmer to tease Windows 8 at CES keynote — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is set to take to the stage tomorrow for the opening keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. — Ballmer will detail a number of new announcements related to Windows Phone, Xbox and Windows.
Discussion:
TechFlash, Gizmodo, All about Microsoft Blog and The Next Web, Thanks:bweaton


Two faces of Android — The most remarkable thing about Android is that it is the first widely adopted Open Source client operating system. It's long been clear that Open Source is the best way to preserve infrastructural code from the vicissitudes of corporate and governmental volatility …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Thanks:kevinmarks

In the Works: A Google Mobile Payment Service? — “You'll be able to walk in a store and do commerce,” says Google's Eric Schmidt. “You'd bump for everything and eventually replace credit cards” — Google (GOOG) is considering building a payment and advertising service that would let users buy milk …
Discussion:
Electronista, ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, Fortune, Liquidmatrix Security Digest, SiliconANGLE, Fast Company, PC Magazine, Erictric, Android Phone Fans, BloggingStocks, ITworld.com, Android Community, NBC Bay Area, SlashGear, pocketnow.com, WebProNews, Search Engine Land, PhoneArena, Mobile Marketing Watch, Download Squad, MediaPost, Pulse2, Electricpig.co.uk and SAI


Apache web server hit a home run in 2010 — The World Wide Web would be nothing without web servers, and Apache has been king of that hill for a long time now. Although its market share has been slipping a bit in recent years, Apache came back with a vengeance in 2010.
Discussion:
Techie Buzz


Twitter Math: If Accounts Were Ranked By Followers, This Would Be The Equation — exp(21 - 1.1*log(#followers)) — If you ever wanted to know where you rank among Twitter users in terms of the followers you have, that's the equation. Well, for most of you anyway.


Mac App Store - Sneak Peak — In two days, the Mac App Store will open its gates. — While there is the usual amount of speculation out there on technicalities and its potential overall success, it seems widely unclear what will happen on Opening Day. — So last week I sent …
Discussion:
AppleInsider and MacRumors


Sure, RSS Is Dead — Just Like the Web Is Dead — A brush fire has been swirling through the blogosphere of late over whether RSS is dead, dying, or possibly severely injured and in need of assistance. It seems to have started with a post from UK-based web designer Kroc Camen that got picked up by Hacker News and re-tweeted a lot.
Discussion:
lalawag, A VC, TechCrunch, Techie Buzz, Stowe Boyd and The Business Insider, more at Mediagazer »


Sony's PlayStation Phone finally gets Xperia, PlayStation logos — We've heard of the mysterious, still-totally-unofficial PlayStation Phone running Android 2.2 in the past, but we'd also heard it could run 3.0 — thing is, that was back before we knew Gingerbread would be 2.3 …
Discussion:
BGR, LaptopMemo, Android Community, IGN Gear, PhoneArena, PlayStation LifeStyle, MobileBurn.com, VG247, Eurodroid, Thoughts from the Sidelines, IntoMobile, SlashGear and PhoneDog.com


Boehner to livestream opening day of new Congress on Facebook — Washington (CNN) - Incoming House Speaker John Boehner wants all his friends to see him get sworn in on Wednesday - Facebook friends that is. — For the first time ever, Congress will be broadcast live on Facebook.
Discussion:
gopleader.gov, All Facebook, Pulse2 and ReadWriteWeb


Qualcomm Is Said to Be Set to Buy Atheros for $3.5 Billion — Updated — Qualcomm, the pioneering wireless technology company, is near an agreement to buy the chip maker Atheros Communications for about $3.5 billion, according to two people with direct knowledge of the talks …
Discussion:
PC World, Wall Street Journal, GigaOM, NewEnterprise, Xconomy, Deal Journal and Pulse2


USA Today Buys Tech Products Site Network Reviewed.com — Gannett (NYSE: GCI) USA Today has acquired Reviewed.com, a group of 12 product-review websites. The site provides in-depth, long takes on digital cameras, camcorders and high def televisions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Discussion:
TechCrunch and PR Newswire, more at Mediagazer »


Toyota Entune-Bing and more in your car — Toyota today introduced Entune from CES in Las Vegas, its new built-in hardware / mobile phone application pair that brings Bing, Pandora, Open Table and more to your car's dashboard. — Basically, you'll be able to (after buying a new …


Sales Have Slowed To A Trickle On Google's Chrome Web Store — In December, after months of anticipation and discussions with third-party developers, Google finally unveiled the Chrome Web Store — an online portal that lets users purchase and ‘install’ web applications like TweetDeck, MOG, and hundreds of others.
Discussion:
CenterNetworks


TV Content Check-In App Miso Lands $1.5M From Google Ventures And Hearst — The check-in app for TV content Miso has just announced $1.5 million in new funding led by Google Ventures with Hearst Interactive Media also participating in the round. The startup had previously raised seed funding …
Discussion:
blog.gomiso.com, paidContent, VentureBeat, Mashable! and Lost Remote


HP holding webOS event February 9th; PalmPad line may be revealed — Uh oh, it's definitely going down — in addition to the flood of tablet devices headed to CES and Apple's rumored next event detailing the new iPad around February, HP just sent out invites to a webOS event of its own happening on February 9th.
Discussion:
Engadget, Technologizer, MobileCrunch, Digital Daily, Yahoo! News, TechCrunch, 9 to 5 Mac, PhoneArena, Pulse2, pocketnow.com, CNET News, Tech Check, SAI, Neowin.net and MobileWhack.com, Thanks:techdrew


Lenovo LePad tablet and IdeaPad U1 Hybrid return with Android 2.2 in tow — Remember last year at CES 2010 when Lenovo made a huge scene with the tablet / netbook U1 Hybrid, which ran Windows when docked and Lenovo's Skylight Linux in tablet mode? And then Lenovo killed Skylight in favor of Android and put everything on hold?
Discussion:
Gizmodo, GottaBeMobile, The Seattle Times, Electricpig.co.uk and Inquirer


Facebook Users Uploaded A Record 750 Million Photos Over New Year's — It doesn't come as a huge surprise, but it's still staggering to think about: over the New Year's weekend, Facebook saw 750 million photo uploads from its users. That's a lot of celebrating, and it sets a new Facebook record.
Discussion:
WebProNews, PE Hub Blog and Softpedia News

Warrantless cell phone search gets a green light in California — The contents of your cell phone can reveal a lot more about you than the naked eye can: who your friends are, what you've been saying and when, which websites you've visited, and more. There has long been debate over user privacy …