Top Items:
Jonathan S. Geller / BGR:
Exclusive: Apple will remove home button on next iPad and iPhone; Photo Booth and iLife coming? — We just got some pretty wild information from one of our Apple sources and while it's hard to believe at first, it does make sense. We have exclusively been told that the reason Apple …
Discussion:
Daring Fireball, SAI, BlogsDNA, The Next Web, RazorianFly and Apple Headlines
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Federico Viticci / MacStories:
Apple Releases iOS 4.3 Beta — A few minutes ago Apple releases iOS 4.3 beta to developers. It's available now in the iOS Dev Center. The beta is available for iOS devices and the second generation Apple TV. Supported iOS mobile devices are iPad, iPhone 4 and 3GS, iPod touch 2nd, 3rd and 4th gen. Build number is 8F5148b.
Discussion:
MacRumors, Engadget, BGR, 9 to 5 Mac, SlashGear, App Advice, LAPTOP Magazine, The Next Web, Edible Apple, Download Squad, RazorianFly, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, PhoneArena, Gizmodo and everythingiCafe, Thanks:i6laswegian
AppleInsider:
Apple issues iOS 4.3 beta with Personal Hotspot, new multitouch gestures [u] — Apple on Wednesday released the first beta of iOS 4.3 for the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV, bringing support for Personal Hotspot, new multi-touch gestures, the ability for third-party applications to use AirPlay …
Discussion:
MacRumors, Daring Fireball, MacStories, Redmond Pie, GottaBeMobile, Neowin.net, iLounge, Geek.com, BGR and SAI
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
iOS Wifi Hotspot? It's in the Next Version, If Your Carrier Turns it On — The iOS version 4.3 will not include a wifi hotspot feature by default, contrary to hopes and reports this morning, but the feature can be turned on if carriers choose. The Verizon iPhone announcement …
Discussion:
Internet Evolution
Federico Viticci / MacStories:
Apple Brings Hardware Rotation Lock Back in iOS 4.3 for iPad
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Crave, Macworld, Redmond Pie, RazorianFly and Gadget Lab
Federico Viticci / MacStories:
With iOS 4.3, Apple Drops iPhone 3G Support (and iPod Touch 2nd gen)
Discussion:
RazorianFly and everythingiCafe, Thanks:ljamesmcdonald
Jason Perlow / Tech Broiler Blog:
Google's H.264 decision: It's all about YouTube costs — Everyone wants to boil down Google's decision to remove H.264 support from Chrome to be a religious one. To me, it's obviously infrastructure-related. — Ah, the smell of religious fervor in the morning. Do you smell it? That flame-war smell.
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, Adaptive Path, Ed Bott's Microsoft …, parislemon, VideoJS, OStatic blogs, Faster Forward and SAI
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Tim Sneath / MSDN Blogs:
An Open Letter from the President of the United States of Google — The world's ability to communicate with one another is a key factor in its rapid evolution and economic growth. The Esperanto language was invented last century as a politically neutral language that would foster peace and international understanding.
Discussion:
MediaPost, Forbes, TUAW, Geekosystem, Geek.com, Computerworld, SocialTimes.com, Fortune, WebProNews, Search Engine Watch, Electronista, Code Zen, Macworld, TechEye, Hardware 2.0 Blog, FarukAt.e, Digital Trends, WinRumors, Just Browsing, Web Browsers, dailywireless.org, TechCrunch, Inquirer, Download Squad and ConceivablyTech
Bloomberg:
Apple, Verizon Took Years to Clear IPhone Differences — Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) — Verizon Communications Inc. President Lowell McAdam works a few miles from the New York auditorium where he announced yesterday's deal to offer Apple Inc.'s iPhone. It took him four years to get there.
Discussion:
AFL-CIO NOW BLOG, Computerworld, L.A. Times Tech Blog, MacStories, AppleInsider, Engadget, Edible Apple, Electronista, MacNN, TUAW, RazorianFly, MacRumors, SAI, Inquirer, Post Tech, Startup Meme and Mashable!
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Steve Kovach / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Verizon Ending Upgrade Discount Program Before iPhone Release — Verizon is ending its “New Every Two” discount program on January 16th, just three weeks before it releases the iPhone on its network, Smart Money reports. — The program gave subscribers up to $100 every two years towards a new phone upgrade.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, AppleInsider, SlashGear, Examiner, FierceWireless, Thoughts from the Sidelines, Android Phone Fans, Techland, Gizmodo and IntoMobile
Royal Pingdom:
Internet 2010 in numbers — What happened with the Internet in 2010? — How many websites were added? How many emails were sent? How many Internet users were there? This post will answer all of those questions and many, many more. If it's stats you want, you've come to the right place.
Discussion:
Soshable and All Facebook
Greg Blevins / Google Mobile Blog:
Now available: Google Places with Hotpot for iPhone — We recently released Google Places with Hotpot in Google Maps for Android, and starting now, you can have that same great experience as an iPhone app. We realize the importance of finding places you'll love while you're out and about, no matter what mobile device you use.
Discussion:
eWeek, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Gizmodo, Bits, ReadWriteWeb, Appletell, Erictric, Apple Headlines, Between the Lines Blog, IntoMobile, Thoughts from the Sidelines, BGR, AppScout, Search Engine Land, Computerworld, GigaOM, WebProNews, Pulse2, MacRumors iPhone Blog, Crave, MacNN, Download Squad, The Next Web, TechCrunch, MacStories, Know Your Cell and Google Maps Mania
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Google Acquires eBook Technologies — Google has just acquired eBook Technologies, according to a notice that is currently appearing on the company's homepage. Google confirmed the acquisition, with a spokesperson giving us this statement: “We are happy to welcome eBook Technologies' team to Google.
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb and SlashGear
Conrad Saam / Search Engine Land:
Google vs. Bing: The Fallacy Of The Superior Search Engine — I can still remember when my when I first switched over to Google on the recommendation of my brother's girlfriend. She's literally a rocket scientist and carries a lot of intellectual weight with me; her endorsement was fairly simple - “it returns great results”.
Discussion:
SAI
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
OnSwipe Raises, Like, A Million Dollars — PadPressed, the WordPress plugin that makes your blog look like a native app is branching out, with a new one million seed round of funding, a new name (OnSwipe) and homebase (New York). The round, which was completed in a marathon 30 days …
Katherine Noyes / PC World:
Mozilla Exec: Firefox 4 Will Arrive in February — Firefox 4 is nearly ready for release, a recent post on Mozilla's developer mailing list suggests. — “Team, we've worked tremendously hard on Firefox 4, and it's time to ship it,” wrote Damon Sicore, Mozilla's senior director of platform engineering, on Tuesday.
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, The Next Web, Download Squad and WebProNews
Tom Connor / Ars Technica:
Peep show: inside the world of unsecured IP security cameras — If you're in public, you're on camera. If you walk into a coffee shop, the owner gets you at the register. Visit a larger store, and chances are they have your face as soon as you cross the threshold.
Discussion:
MOTHERBOARD
Patrick Garratt / VG247:
Source - Sony to announce PSP2 in Tokyo on January 27 — VG247 has learnt that Sony it to hold a “business overview and strategy meeting” in Tokyo on January 27, and has been told that Sony will use the event as a reveal platform for PSP2. — Nothing is known of the meeting's content …
Discussion:
SlashGear, mcvuk.com, Digital Trends, T3.com News, GameLife, Newlaunches.com, CrunchGear, Geek.com, Pocket-lint, Electricpig.co.uk, TechEye, Joystiq, Electronista, ITProPortal and Crave
Pete Warden / ReadWriteWeb:
Secrets of BackType's Data Engineers — How do three guys with only seed funding process a hundred million messages a day? I sat down with the BackType team to discover how they built a service relied upon by companies like bit.ly, Hunch and The New York Times.
Discussion:
O'Reilly Radar
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
Samsung GT-i9023 hits FCC: a new version of the Nexus S with Android 2.4? — FCC filings have a curious tendency to launch us into far-reaching bouts of speculation, but hear us out — we think we're onto something here. A Samsung phone with model number GT-i9023 just passed the FCC with AWS 3G — T-Mobile's band.
Discussion:
pocketnow.com, Electronista, TmoNews, GottaBeMobile, Android Phone Fans and Android and Me
Tiernan Ray / Tech Trader Daily:
Q4 PC Sales Miss Gartner Est.; Apple Up 24% In U.S. — Global personal computer shipments in Q4 rose 3.1%, year over year, in unit terms, to 93.5 million PCs, Gartner reported this afternoon. That was below the 4.8% growth the firm had projected for Q4. — Holiday PC sales were weak, said analyst Mikako Kitagawa.
Discussion:
The Seattle Times and Electronista
Nicholas Carlson / SAI:
$50 Billion? Hah! Insiders Say Facebook's Goal Is To Be The First TRILLION Dollar Company — Goldman Sach clients are buying $1.5 billion worth of Facebook stock at a $50 billion valuation. — Yesterday, Wedbush analyst Lou Kerner said that if Facebook were a public company, it would be valued closer to $100 billion right now.
Discussion:
Sramana Mitra and Gawker
Bloomberg:
MySpace Sale, Merger or Spinoff Being Weighed by News Corp., Official Says — News Corp. is considering a possible spinoff or sale of MySpace, a day after cutting almost half of the social-networking website's workforce. — Mike Jones, the Internet unit's chief executive officer …
Discussion:
Mashable! and PE Hub Blog
David Kaplan / paidContent:
Adknowledge Raises $200 Million In Debt, Equity Financing — Ad network Adknowledge has raised a huge $200 million in a combination of debt and equity financing with a particular goal in mind: buying more companies as it seeks to build up its ability to tap into inventory across mobile, video, content sites, and display.
Discussion:
Market Wire, TechCrunch, VentureBeat and EngageDigital
Matt Asay / The Register:
HTML5: An antidote for Apple App Store-itis — Imitation not the sincerest form of flattery — Open...and Shut To the man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Or in the case of our idea-starved tech industry, an app store. — The tech world is increasingly awash in app stores.
Discussion:
FierceMobileContent and ZDNet
The Local:
Google Analytics targeted by data protection officials — German web companies could face hefty fines for using Google's online metrics service after data protection officials broke off talks with the US internet giant this week and threatened to pursue a precedent-setting court case.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, Inquirer and TechEye
Walter S. Mossberg / All Things Digital:
Skype Does Better With Group Calls Than Mobile — Making audio and video calls between computers over Skype is now so common that the company's name has become a verb. People ask others to “Skype me” or say they are “Skyping.” — [ See post to watch video ]
