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:
BGR, AnandTech, LAPTOP Mag, SAI, Product Reviews, CNet News, parislemon, Fortune, Newlaunches.com, ongoing, netbooknews.com, IntoMobile, Popular Science, Electronista, ITworld.com, Liliputing, @loic and Crave
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:
CrunchGear, Engadget, SlashGear, Technologizer, USA Today, Liliputing and Crave
Kellex / Droid Life:
Official Details of the 4G LTE Upgrade Process for the Motorola XOOM — For those of you heading into a Best Buy or Verizon store early tomorrow morning to pick up a Motorola XOOM, you are probably wondering how the upgrade process to 4G LTE will work and we have you covered.
Discussion:
SlashGear, Electronista, Phones Review, msnbc.com, wirelessgoodness.com, MobileWhack, PhoneArena, Engadget, Know Your Cell and Motorola Mobility, Inc.
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Motorola Xoom tablet hit with trademark lawsuit right before launch
Discussion:
SocialTimes.com
Richard Lai / Engadget:
Motorola Xoom now available for purchase straight from Verizon, no data activation required (updated)
Discussion:
SlashGear and MobileWhack
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) …
RELATED:
Tom Warren / WinRumors:
Got a “bricked” Samsung Omnia 7 Windows Phone? Here's the fix … Microsoft continues to investigate the issues some Samsung Windows Phone 7 users are experiencing but WinRumors has an unofficial fix that will get you up and running until Microsoft can address the problems fully.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Naked Security, GeekSmack, Windows Phone Secrets, The Next Web, internetnews.com, msnbc.com, Digits, SAI and BetaNews, Thanks:the_pc_doc
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:
A good demonstration of Light Peak/Thunderbolt — What I don't immediately understand is how this is going to work with my current MacBook Pro/monitor setup. It would seem that if I got a new MBP and a Thunderbolt external hard drive that the hard drive would have two thunderbolt ports …
Discussion:
PC World, GottaBeMobile, Geek.com and ITProPortal
RELATED:
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:
TechEye, TechCrunch, MacRumors, CNET News, Techie Buzz, iClarified, SlashGear, iLounge, thinq_, 9 to 5 Mac, The Apple Core Blog, MacStories, Engadget, InformationWeek, techeblog.com, AppleInsider, TechnoBuffalo, iPhone in Canada Blog, SlashGear, GigaOM, DisplayBlog, Mashable!, 9 to 5 Mac, Phones Review, iThinkDifferent, 9 to 5 Mac, Ars Technica, I4U News, O'Grady's PowerPage, PC World, Electronista, Electricpig.co.uk, AOL News, TiPb, parislemon, Erictric, DailyTech, iLounge, everythingiCafe, ITworld.com, Crave, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, ITProPortal, MacDailyNews, Faster Forward, The Register, Neowin.net, Digital Trends, GigaOM, Pocket-lint, AppleInsider, Digital Daily, Gadget Lab and TUAW
Josh Lowensohn / CNET News:
Join us Thursday for Intel's ‘Light Peak’ event
Discussion:
AppleInsider, Digits, MacRumors, MacNN, Fast Company, MacStories, TechSpot and PC World, more at Mediagazer »
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:
Chromium Blog and ReadWriteWeb
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:
CNET News, MacNN, E-Commerce Times, L.A. Times Tech Blog, AppleInsider, Guardian, Fortune, Inquirer, GMSV and The Register
SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
CHART OF THE DAY: The Utter Collapse Of MySpace — We knew MySpace was dying, but we didn't know it was this bad. MySpace had 45 million unique visitors in January, down from from 70 million the year prior, according to comScore data. — This is why MySpace is up for sale.
Discussion:
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
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 »
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Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
Clayman: The Daily's Free Trial Run Will Continue
Discussion:
ThinkMobile, TeleRead, Fortune, BetaNews, New York Magazine, Download Squad, Techie Buzz, Electronista, Pulse2 and Poynter, more at Mediagazer »
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 and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
Seth Weintraub / Fortune:
Android activations visualized — Here's a great little video which shows the phenomenal rate of increase in Android activations. — At last count, Google (GOOG) was activating 300,000 devices per day. It is hard to imagine Android has grown in just about two and a half years.
Discussion:
Engadget and IntoMobile
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Disney Acquires Social Network For Kids Togetherville — Disney has just acquired Togetherville, a social network for kids 10 years of age or younger, we've confirmed with the company. Terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed at the moment. — Togetherville, which exited beta last year …
Discussion:
paidContent and SAI
Sebastian Anthony / Download Squad:
WordPress 3.1 released, features massive writing workflow and admin overhauls — With over 2,000 code commits and 820 bug and feature fixes, WordPress 3.1 has been released. You can download the new version in its entirety, or simply log into your WordPress.org installation and update via the Dashboard.
Discussion:
WordPress News, ThinkMobile, Skatter Tech, Mashable!, Techie Buzz, Softpedia News and BloggingPro
ifixit:
Samsung Galaxy S 4G Teardown — Introducing the Samsung Galaxy S 4G. Not to be confused with the Samsung Galaxy S, Galaxy S II, or Galaxy Tab, the Galaxy S 4G is Samsung's newest entry to the smartphone arena. Join us today as we unravel the mysteries of the Galaxy S 4G.
Discussion:
PhoneArena and SlashGear
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:
Foursquare's SXSW Plan: “NEW APP + NEW BADGES + PARTIES + CONCERT + MOAR” — We're now just over two weeks away from this year's SXSW event in Austin, Texas. And just as is the case every year, there will be several startups jockeying to be the one that is the breakout hit.
Discussion:
Rocky FU and The Huffington Post
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
How TheFacebook Used To Woo Advertisers Back In The Early Days — I'm not sure exactly how easy (or difficult) it is to come by stuff like this, but I for one thought it was pretty cool. — Eli Feldblum and Mayer Reich, co-founders of RankAbove, emailed me a number of documents this morning …
Thanks:robinwauters
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
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, msnbc.com, New York Magazine, PC World, The Daily What, AppScout and JSYK
Scott Austin / Venture Capital Dispatch:
JP Morgan Raises $1.2 Billion For Digital Growth Fund — J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has quickly rounded up $1.2 billion for a new digital-growth fund, furthering Wall Street's bold push to capture stakes in fast-growing private tech companies such as Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc.
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.
