Top Items:
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Microsoft Said to Stop Releasing New Zune Models as Demand Ebbs — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) will cease introducing new versions of the Zune music and video-player amid tepid demand, helping the company shift its focus to mobile phones, according to a person familiar with the decision.
Discussion:
Inquirer, PC World, Brave New World, Mashable!, RazorianFly, TUAW, Black Web 2.0, VG247, TechSpot, BetaNews, 9 to 5 Mac, CrunchGear, Ars Technica, Product Reviews, MacDailyNews, PC Magazine, X-bit labs, ThinkMobile, Appletell, GeekSmack, LiveSide.net, Ubergizmo, Guardian, Gadgetell, SAI, Gearlog, Yahoo! News, hypebot, @methodshop, Technologizer, GottaBeMobile, Electricpig, VentureBeat, LAPTOP Magazine, Liliputing, Erictric, DailyTech, Digital Daily, WPCentral.com, Hardware 2.0 Blog, Gadget Lab, ITworld.com, The Seattle Times, The Next Web, The Huffington Post, AppleInsider, @dannysullivan, Edible Apple, @dinabass, SAI, mocoNews, The Sly Oyster, Crave, Microsoft Watch, Geek.com and Pulse2
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Joanna Stern / Engadget:
Internet Explorer 9 launches tonight, we've got your early look (update: it's live) — Yes, we know it's PI day, but don't tell the guys and gals at Microsoft — we hear they're celebrating something a little different. That's right, the long-awaited IE9 browser is finally coming out of its beta …
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MSDN Blogs:
IE9 Release Globally Available for Consumers and Businesses — The final, consumer-ready Internet Explorer 9 is available for download starting at 9:00 PM PDT at www.BeautyOfTheWeb.com in 39 languages. With this set of browser releases, the best experience of the Web is on Windows.
Discussion:
WinRumors, blogs.chron.com, TechNet Blogs, Disruptors, GottaBeMobile, Softpedia News, ITworld.com, Geek.com, Delimiter and @ie
Matthew Rothenberg / updates @ m.blog:
On Leaving Flickr — So uh, yeah... I know these sorts of personal departure posts are a bit trite, and I certainly have mixed feelings about posting one. However, as Yahoo-bashing is apparently quite de rigueur in the tech press these days, I wanted to make sure my reasons for leaving Flickr …
Discussion:
SAI
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MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Flickr Burning As Yahoo Fiddles: Head Of Service Walks Away — When you ask Yahoo who is in charge of Flickr, they always point to one man: Matthew Rothenberg. Well, technically, there are people at Yahoo above him in charge of the group of products that Flickr is in (Applications Division).
Discussion:
Thomas Hawk Digital Connection, @mroth and ReadWriteWeb
Kevin Rose Blogg:
Apple's Role in Japan during the Tohoku Earthquake — Wow, this email is from a friend of mine that works for Apple in Japan... makes me happy Apple went the extra mile here, check out his story below: — Dear Alex L, David, & Kevin, — Hi this is XXXXX in Japan.
Discussion:
IntoMobile, AppleInsider, Neowin.net, RazorianFly, Edible Apple, TUAW, ifoAppleStore, MacStories, PhoneArena, MacHackPC and Softpedia News
Cade Metz / The Register:
Apple handcuffs ‘open’ web apps on iPhone home screen — Three ‘bug’ App Store ‘conspiracy’ — Exclusive Apple's iOS mobile operating system is running web applications at significantly slower speeds when they're launched from the iPhone or iPad home screen as opposed to the Apple Safari browser …
Discussion:
SlashGear, Mobile Entertainment, MobileCrunch and The Next Web
Carolyn Penner / Twitter Blog:
#numbers — Five years ago this week, a small team of people started working on a prototype of the service that we now know as Twitter. On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey (@jack) sent the first Tweet. — Today, on every measure of growth and engagement, Twitter is growing at a record pace.
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Liz Gannes / NetworkEffect:
Twitter Numbers: Cool, But How Many Users Does It Actually Have?
Discussion:
FM Blog
Apple Bitch:
Apple Stores To Open Early On Tuesday For iPad Sales (Updated) — We've received reports this morning that Apple will be opening Retail Stores one hour early tomorrow for iPad sales. While no official announcement has been forthcoming from Apple, anecdotal reports from shoppers across …
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, CrunchGear, AppleInsider, Appolicious Advisor, Bloomberg, MacRumors, SAI, Techland, Technologizer, TUAW, ThinkMobile, GottaBeMobile, Cult of Mac, RazorianFly and Product Reviews, Thanks:applebitchcom
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Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:
iPad 2 shortages continue: now shipping in 4-5 weeks from Apple's online store
Discussion:
AppleInsider, SAI, Gearlog, GottaBeMobile, RazorianFly, MacStories and Gadget Lab
Bloomberg:
Google Is Said to Plan Payment Test in New York, San Francisco — Google Inc. (GOOG) plans to start testing a mobile-payment service at stores in New York and San Francisco within four months, letting shoppers use their phones to ring up purchases, two people familiar with the project said.
Discussion:
Engadget, Gizmodo, Android Phone Fans, Electronista, SAI and SlashGear
Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:
Google Relaunches Street View Website — Google is revealing more about its sometimes controversial Street View product with an expanded web site that just launched today. — The new site continues to show where Street View vehicles are currently active and educates people on how to use Street View's features.
Discussion:
Google LatLong, @google, Electricpig, The Next Web and Softpedia News
Jeremy Horwitz / iLounge:
An Open Letter to Jon Bon Jovi On What's Really “Killing The Music Business” — When my wife—a huge and long-time Bon Jovi fan—asked me to spend over $300 for two floor seat tickets to your Valentine's Day show in Toronto, there were two reasons that I said yes.
Discussion:
Cult of Mac, Engadget, @shawnking, Mac|Life, Gizmodo, @gartenberg and 9 to 5 Mac, Thanks:horwitz
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Report: Piracy a “global pricing problem” with only one solution — A major new report from a consortium of academic researchers concludes that media piracy can't be stopped through “three strikes” Internet disconnections, Web censorship, more police powers, higher statutory damages, or tougher criminal penalties.
Discussion:
TechEye
Chris Chang / M.I.C. Gadget:
Facebook Is Not Happy With The Poking Inventor Action Figure — We're the big fans of the man who makes the world more open and connected. So we introduced the “Poking Inventor” action figure. Everyone likes the social network, but we never thought Mr. Mark Zuckerberg would be unhappy …
Discussion:
Electricpig, Thanks:jeremyfranklin
Macworld:
Tablet camera tests: iPad 2 vs. Motorola Xoom vs. Samsung Galaxy Tab — Odds are, if you ask anyone waiting in line for an iPad 2, they'll list plenty of reasons why they're lusting after Apple's latest camera-equipped tablet. — According to our lab tests, image quality isn't going to be one of them.
Discussion:
eWeek, CrunchGear, PC World, Electronista, RazorianFly and TUAW
Matt Rosoff / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Google's 15 Biggest Acquisitions And What Happened To Them — Google has a reputation as an innovative company, but in fact it owes a lot of its success to acquisitions. — Google basically bought AdSense, the paid search platform that made it a financial powerhouse, from Applied Semantics in 2003.
Ina Fried / Mobilized:
The Sidekick is Dead. Long Live the Sidekick. T-Mobile Aims to Reinvent the Original Smartphone — Just a couple weeks after announcing plans to kill-off the old Danger-based Sidekick service, T-Mobile is ready with some details on its first Android-based model.
Discussion:
Engadget, eWeek, TmoNews, Electronista, Phones Review, Gizmodo, GigaOM, Product Reviews, CrunchGear, GottaBeMobile, LaptopMemo, The Seattle Times, Fortune, LAPTOP Magazine, GeekWire and IntoMobile
Miyoung Kim / Reuters:
Chip prices jump as Japan disaster hits tech supplies — (Reuters) - Prices for key technology components spiked and global supply disruptions were expected to last for months as the toll on Japan's infrastructure mounted after Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami.
Discussion:
Telegraph, Product Reviews, VentureBeat, PC Magazine and Fudzilla
Joe Mullin / paidContent:
Will Congress Push Google To Tweak Its Algorithm To Punish Pirate Sites? — Judging by today's hearings, some members of Congress are willing to consider radical measures to rid the internet of “rogue” websites accused of piracy. Among them: getting search engines like Google (NSDQ: GOOG) …
Discussion:
Music Ally, Bloomberg, All Headline News and Tech Daily Dose
Tim Chaten / App Advice:
iPad 2 Beats Out MacBook Pros In iMovie Speed Tests! — Now that iMovie has made its way onto our iPads, you may be curious to see just how well it performs. We were just as curious. The question we want to answer is this: If I am going to be shooting video on the road, what portable machine do I bring to edit/encode videos?
Discussion:
Gizmodo, iClarified and GottaBeMobile
Martin Bryant / The Next Web:
Google teases slick new Blogger interface, mobile themes and content discovery tool — Google's Blogger is one of the grand old daddies of blog platforms and while remaining widely used, there's no doubt that the interface itself is looking a bit tired these days.
Discussion:
Mashable!, The Official Google Blog, Techland, TechCrunch, Ubergizmo, Erictric, Pulse2, Techie Buzz and Download Squad, more at Mediagazer »
Anthony Morganti / Gadget Daily News:
Apple Creating a Magazine Publishing Tool for Developers? — Since the iPad was announced over a year ago, one of the uses that seemed to be natural for it was that of a Magazine and Newspaper reader. Real life results, unfortunately have been mixed. Many magazines such as Wired …
Discussion:
Fast Company, SlashGear, App Advice, TUAW and Electronista
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Former Myspacers Build Link Curator ‘Tagging Robot’ — Former VP of Product at Myspace Todd Leeloy and Myspace Product Manager Joe Munoz have launched a semantic tagging network and link curation service today called Tagging Robot. Tagging Robot currently crawls your Facebook newsfeed …
