Top Items:
Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:
Motorola's Xoom Starts Tablet Wars With iPad — After months of speculation, the tablet wars begin in earnest this week. Motorola is releasing its Xoom tablet on Feb. 24, and I consider it the first truly comparable competitor to Apple's hit iPad. That is partly because it is the first iPad challenger …
Discussion:
CrunchGear, Engadget, Product Reviews, BGR, Droid Life, Crave, Electronista, Popular Science, @loic and IntoMobile
RELATED:
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
An iPad lovers review of Motorola Xoom — You know I'm an iPad freak. I was first in line to buy one and I've used it so much my screen is cracked. — It is the device that's changed my life more than any other in the past year, which, in a year that Microsoft Kinect shipped, is totally impressive.
Thanks:ipadupdates
Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:
Motorola Xoom With Honeycomb: A First Look Video — The Motorola Xoom arrives in Verizon stores tomorrow, marking the first time a Google Honeycomb tablet will be available to customers. Some may grumble about the $799 price — or $599 with a 2-year contract — but the bigger question is: what do you get for your money?
Discussion:
Technologizer, USA Today and Motorola Mobility, Inc.
Michael Stroh / The Windows Blog:
More answers about our first software update — It's been roughly 48 hours since we hit the send button on our first Windows Phone software update. The rooms around me are buzzing with folks monitoring the rollout, sifting carefully through incoming phone health data (from customers who provide it) …
Discussion:
Microsoft Watch, GeekSmack, Neowin.net, eWeek, Techie Buzz and The Microsoft Blog
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Apple Investors Pass Measure for Bigger Say in Board Vote — Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. investors, gathered today at an annual meeting, passed a measure that gives them more say over which directors get elected, while rejecting another that would force management to disclose executive succession plans.
Discussion:
Fortune, Guardian, AppleInsider, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Bloomberg, E-Commerce Times, Inquirer, GMSV and The Register
Andy Baio / Waxy.org:
How I Indexed The Daily — For the last three weeks, I've indexed The Daily. Now that my free trial's up, I've had an intimate look at what they have to offer and, sad to say, I don't plan on subscribing. As a result, I'm ending The Daily: Indexed, my unofficial table of contents for every article they published publicly.
Discussion:
MediaMemo, more at Mediagazer »
RELATED:
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
Clayman: The Daily's Free Trial Run Will Continue
Discussion:
Fortune, BetaNews, Electronista, Techie Buzz, VentureBeat, Examiner, New York Magazine and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Apple announces iPad 2 event for March 2 — Apple on Wednesday sent an invitation to media inviting them to a special event on March 2 in San Francisco, Calif. — According to the invitation received by The Loop, the event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts at 10:00 am.
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Engadget, Tools, Bits, Digital Daily, AppleInsider, IntoMobile, TG Daily, MacRumors, Insanely Great Mac, Erictric, Covering Web, Black Web 2.0, MobileWhack, PC World, everythingiCafe, TUAW, Epicenter, Mobile Magazine, PalmAddicts, TiPb, Pulse2, Electricpig.co.uk, Digital Trends, I4U News, Apple Bitch, Shoutpedia, Gearlog, Gadgetell, The Register, Examiner, MacStories, iClarified, Fortune, Yahoo! News, AppleInsider, The Next Web, PadGadget, ITProPortal, 9 to 5 Mac, Appletell, MacDailyNews, Gadget Lab, iThinkDifferent, SAI, ThinkMobile, VR-Zone, iHackintosh, Edible Apple, Computerworld and Cisco Blog, Thanks:theloop1
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Zach Epstein / BGR:
iPad 2 could be in short supply at launch
Discussion:
DigiTimes, internetnews.com and GottaBeMobile
Arn / MacRumors:
13-Inch MacBook Pro Specs, Photos, Light Peak Known As Thunderbolt? [Confirmed] — Fscklog posts a photo of what is believed to be from the box of the new 13" MacBook Pro that Apple is planning to release on Thursday. Amongst the features, the name of Apple's Light Peak implementation: Thunderbolt.
Discussion:
Digits, SlashGear, 9 to 5 Mac, Mashable!, TechnoBuffalo, GigaOM, Ars Technica, AppleInsider, DisplayBlog, MacStories, Phones Review, SlashGear, techeblog.com, TiPb, iThinkDifferent, PC World, I4U News, O'Grady's PowerPage, Electronista, 9 to 5 Mac, Electricpig.co.uk, AOL News, Gadget Lab, Erictric, DailyTech, iLounge, everythingiCafe, ITworld.com, parislemon, VentureBeat, MacDailyNews, ITProPortal, TechCrunch, Digital Trends, Crave, GigaOM, Pocket-lint, Digital Daily, AppleInsider, Faster Forward, Neowin.net, SlashGear, TUAW, MacStories, Softpedia News, On Techies and CrunchGear
RELATED:
Jeremy Horwitz / iLounge:
Apple's Macs Bid iSight Goodbye, Welcome FaceTime HD (And Low-Def FaceTime)
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac and iPhone in Canada Blog
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Crush-Stalking App Breakup Notifier Amasses Over 3.6M Users, Is Shut Down By Facebook — Just Monday we were writing about Breakup Notifier, a Facebook app that raked in more than 100,000 users in less than 24 hours and as of 5 hours ago had a more than modest 3,673,484 users in its database ... And then poof!
Discussion:
All Facebook, Techie Buzz, New York Magazine, The Daily What, msnbc.com, PC World, AppScout, JSYK, Globe and Mail, Quick Online Tips, Online Dating Insider and Gearlog
Daniel Bailey / ConceivablyTech:
Chrome OS To Get HW Acceleration, Mac/Linux/ Windows Support — Google's Chrome OS team is rethinking the Chrome OS windowing approach and is developing a multi-window interface for Chrome OS as well as hardware acceleration to support new visual effects and pixel shaders.
Discussion:
Telegraph
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google Details Chrome's Background Feature: Run Web Apps Without Seeing Them — Google has been on a mission lately to outline some of the cooler, newer features coming to Chrome on their Chromium Blog. Today brings one of the biggest yet: Background Apps.
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb and Chromium Blog
David Heinemeier Hansson / Signal vs. Noise:
The end of the IT department — When people talk about their IT departments, they always talk about the things they're not allowed to do, the applications they can't run, and the long time it takes to get anything done. Rigid and inflexible policies that fill the air with animosity.
Chuck Toporek / @chuckdude:
Why Amazon Isn't Worried About Apple's In-App Purchasing Rules — With Apple's recent changes to the rules for In-App Purchasing, a lot of people have been wondering how this might affect the Kindle app for iOS. If you're currently using the Kindle app on the iPhone or iPad …
Discussion:
Fortune, TUAW and MacStories
New York Magazine:
SEC Decides It Might Be a Good Idea to Investigate How Facebook and Twitter Are Trading Shares — We're not sure what exactly prompted the SEC toward investigating secondary markets, which allow private companies like Facebook and Twitter to buy and sell shares without revealing any significant financial information.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, ITworld.com, VatorNews, The Huffington Post and DealBook
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
An Apple Patent Gives us a Peek at Photo Booth for iOS Devices + — On January 12, 2011, BGR reported that a source had revealed to them that Apple's Photo Booth was coming to the iPad. The very next day 9 to 5 Mac added to this news by stating that they had discovered two new iOS 4.3 frameworks …
Discussion:
iPhone in Canada Blog, App Advice, TUAW and MacStories
Matthew Lynley / VentureBeat:
Gamification company GreenGoose raises $100k on stage at Launch Conference — GreenGoose, which slaps accelerometers on everything to turn everyday activities into a game, impressed so many people at the Launch Conference in San Francisco today that it managed to raise $100,000 on stage …
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, Engadget and CNET News
Marc Graser / Variety:
Southwest Airlines partners with Apple's iTunes — Southwest Airlines partners with Apple's iTunes — Southwest Airlines may not have video screens built into the backs of its airplane seats, but that doesn't mean the carrier can't offer its passengers inflight entertainment — and turn it into a new revenue stream.
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac, CrunchGear, SlashGear, iClarified and TUAW
Danilo Campos / Hipmunk Blog:
Hipmunk for iPhone — tl;dr Hipmunk has an iPhone app and building it was a lot of fun. — It started with me bored and pissed off. Pissed that so much of the world just didn't care about doing things well. As therapy, I banged out a blog post about my frustrations.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, VentureBeat, SAI, Tools, Mashable! and Download Squad
Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:
MP3.com founder launches DAR.fm, a DVR for the radio — Michael Robertson, who already participated in one reinvention of the music business by founding MP3.com, is launching a new way to listen to talk radio and music. — His startup is called DAR.fm (DAR stands for “digital audio recorder” …
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Apple's N.C. Data Center Intended for iTunes, MobileMe — Apple's finally getting ready to light up its North Carolina data center. Asked about the facility during the company's shareholder meeting today, COO Tim Cook said it's on track to open this spring, according to reports.
Discussion:
AppleInsider, Ars Technica, Electronista, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacDailyNews, iClarified, MacStories, Gizmodo, Engadget, TUAW and The Loop
Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:
Google Penalizes Overstock for Search Tactics — Google Inc. has penalized Overstock.com Inc. in its search results after the retailer ran afoul of Google policies that prohibit companies from artificially boosting their ranking in the Internet giant's search engine.
Discussion:
SAI
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Judge: Ex-Microsoft GM can't work in his new Salesforce job — A former Microsoft general manager's new job as a senior vice president at Salesforce.com “appears to be a direct violation of his non-compete agreement” with the Redmond company, a King County Superior Court judge said from the bench …
Discussion:
NewEnterprise, The Microsoft Blog and The Next Web, Thanks:seattledonorbiz
Vlad Savov / Engadget:
Sprint renames the HTC 7 Pro the Arrive, launching it tomorrow — Punch sprint.com/arrive into your address bar and the above is what you shall find. Not a generic error marker but a URL-specific “coming soon” message that would seem to confirm the existence and indeed near-future arrival of the HTC Arrive.
Stan Schroeder / Mashable!:
The Mark Zuckerberg Comic Book Has Arrived — The biographical comic portraying the life of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg hits shelves today. — Canadian comic production company Bluewater Productions released the “giant-sized” 48-page issue, which freelance journalist Jerome Maida wrote Sal Field illustrated.
