Top Items:
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Motorola Mobility wins German patent suit against Apple, overcomes FRAND defense — At 9 AM today, the Mannheim Regional Court pronounced its ruling on one of the patent infringement lawsuits Motorola Mobility brought against Apple in Germany in April 2011. This is the first substantive ruling in this dispute.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, London Calling Blog, AllThingsD, Open Source Blog, TechEye, CNET News, TechCrunch, BGR, GigaOM, BBC, SlashGear, 9to5Google, 9to5Mac, Engadget, IntoMobile, mediacenter.motorola.com, Liliputing, Silicon Republic, GMSV, The Verge, iClarified, GottaBeMobile, paidContent, Macgasm, MobileBurn.com, Phones Review, Electronista, iLounge, PhoneArena, Techie Buzz, TUAW and PC Magazine
RELATED:
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Motorola Wins Preliminary Injunction, Could Bar Sales of iPhone and 3G iPad in Europe — FOSS Patents reports that Motorola Mobility has won an initial ruling in Germany that could allow the company to bar Apple from selling the iPhone and 3G-capable iPad models throughout the European Union.
Discussion:
FOSS Patents
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
The New Twitter (R.I.P. Tweetie) — Twitter today unveiled a new UI, debuting first in updated versions of its official iPhone, Android, and web clients. Coming soon: an updated version of their iPad app. (No mention of the Mac app — a sign of the times.) — This is more than an update.
RELATED:
Nick Bilton / Bits:
A Twitter for My Sister — In the early days of Twitter the company's founders repeatedly said that expanding the service was like building a rocket ship in mid-flight. Twitter grew so quickly that it was almost impossible to add new features because engineers spent their time trying to keep …
Dan Frommer / SplatF:
The new, new Twitter: 10 big takeaways
Discussion:
Search Engine Watch, Interactive Marketing, Twitter Advertising, Mashable!, FierceMobileContent, WebProNews, Elezea and AllThingsD
Frederic Lardinois / SiliconFilter:
Twitter's Ryan Sarver Explains New-New Twitter: We Want to Focus on Simplicity
Discussion:
CNET News, Gizmodo, WebProNews, The Register and The Next Web
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:
Video: Thousands queue up for Apple's Grand Central store — And hundreds more crowd the terminal's main lobby to see what the fuss is about — Line-goers (middle left) pushing through the onlookers. Photo: PED — What if Apple (AAPL) opened a new store and nobody came? We may never know.
Discussion:
CNET News, BGR, 9to5Mac, Engadget, MacRumors, Gizmodo, 9to5Mac, NBC Bay Area, AppleInsider and Softpedia News
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
At Apple's Grand Central Store, iPhones Aren't the Only Draw — Fans Collect Company's T-Shirts, Kept in Limited Supply; ‘Star Trek’ Model — When thousands of fans line up for Apple Inc.'s opening of its Grand Central Terminal store Friday, many won't be queuing to ogle iPads.
Discussion:
Digital Trends and All about Microsoft Blog
Matt Lynley / Business Insider:
Sarah Lacy And Mike Arrington Are Starting TechCrunch 2.0 — Former managing editor of TechCrunch Sarah Lacy is doing what many people expected her to do after she left TechCrunch last month — building a brand new version of it. — Lacy is working on starting a new tech news site, according to multiple sources.
Discussion:
Robin Wauters and @hblodget, more at Mediagazer », Thanks:mattlynley
Brent Kendall / Wall Street Journal:
Justice Department Seeks to Delay AT&T Trial — In a setback for AT&T Inc., a Justice Department lawyer told a federal judge Friday the agency wants to postpone its antitrust case seeking to block the acquisition of T-Mobile USA. — The request, if approved by the judge …
Discussion:
The Verge, AllThingsD, Reuters and TmoNews
RELATED:
Thomas Baekdal / Baekdal.com:
Apple Never Designed the iPad - They Undesigned it — You have probably heard about the continual struggle between Apple and Samsung over similarities in their designs. Apple is suing Samsung and asking the courts to block the sale of the Galaxy Tab in many countries (and succeeding).
Discussion:
New Web Order and VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Google nabs Square Enix and other game developers to do native client Chrome games — Google announced today that its three-year effort to create a muscular browser technology that can run heavy duty apps such as console-like games is now ready for prime time.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Supergiant Games, PC World, CNET News, TekGoblin and Softpedia News, Thanks:deantak
Darren Murph / Engadget:
AT&T's 4G LTE network is live in San Francisco — New York City by the end of 2011? How's about San Francisco by the end of December 8th? We can't say for certain that it's lit up for good ("testing," you know), but at least for now it's absolutely screaming on our LTE-equipped AT&T handsets in downtown SF.
Discussion:
DSLreports, PhoneArena, SlashGear, CNET News, Android Life, The Verge, IntoMobile, GottaBeMobile and Softpedia News
Thomas Ricker / The Verge:
Panasonic's 4.3-inch ultra-thin Android smartphone headed to Europe in March — Panasonic said it will launch smartphones in Europe starting this March, five years after abandoning the international phone market. The move confirms earlier Nikkei reports that the Osaka-based company …
Discussion:
Computerworld, Reuters, Engadget, panasonic.co.jp, CNET News, Fast Company, Electronista, Fonehome, TechEye, PhoneArena, T3 News, TechCrunch, Inquirer, Softpedia News and ITProPortal
Courtney Boyd Myers / The Next Web:
Zite, the smart iPad newspaper is now available on your iPhone — When Zite's smart iPad newspaper launched in March, we were all down in Austin waiting in line for the iPad 2. — It was the perfect storm of Twitter adoption, news curation and iPad frenzy for the social, simple and intelligent app's debut.
Discussion:
Bits, Computerworld, MediaPost, AllThingsD, Fast Company and App Advice
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Investor Group Buys Web Security Company Blue Coat For $1.3 Billion In Cash — Blue Coat, which specializes in Web security and WAN optimization solutions, has agreed to be acquired by an investor group led by San Francisco-based PE firm Thoma Bravo in a transaction valued at roughly $1.3 billion.
Discussion:
Market Wire, VatorNews, The Tech Trade, Between the Lines Blog, CNET News and Reuters
Elizabeth Woyke / Mobilized:
BlackBerry Owners Want iPads And So Do Android And Windows Phone Owners: Survey — A new survey provides details on the percentage of non-Apple smartphone users who want to buy iPads. — Nearly two years after its debut, Apple's iPad still dominates tablet sales.
Discussion:
FierceWireless, Electronista, PhoneArena, BGR, TechCrunch and CNET News
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Twitter Bots Drown Out Anti-Kremlin Tweets — Thousands of Twitter accounts apparently created in advance to blast automated messages are being used to drown out Tweets sent by bloggers and activists this week who are protesting the disputed parliamentary elections in Russia, security experts said.
Discussion:
LAPTOP Magazine, Forbes, Boing Boing and TG Daily
Amar Toor / Engadget:
Motorola's Droid Xyboard tablets go up for sale at Verizon, prices start at $430 (update: in stores on December 12th) — Motorola's pair of Droid Xyboard tablets has finally gone up for order on Verizon's site this morning, fulfilling the promise that Big Red made earlier this week.
Discussion:
LAPTOP Magazine, Business Insider, CNET News and Electronista
DigiTimes:
OEM shipments of Nook Tablets to Barnes & Noble reach one million units, say sources — Barnes & Noble should have so far taken delivery of one million units of Nook Tablet PCs from OEM production partners, according to an estimate by sources at upstream suppliers.
Discussion:
9to5Google, AllThingsD, TechCrunch, The Digital Reader, Electronista and Softpedia News
AppleInsider:
Rare Apple '80s MultiServer, '70s Apple II ROM prototypes appear on eBay — A handful of rare, never-before-seen Apple prototypes have appeared for sale on eBay, including an unreleased product from the 1980s called “MultiServer,” and a prototype ROM board from the 1970s.
Discussion:
Gizmodo and Electronista
Cecilia Kang / Washington Post:
Verizon ends satellite deal, FiOS expansion as it partners with cable — Verizon Chief Executive Lowell McAdam said the telecom giant plans to end its wireless partnership with satellite provider DirectTV and will stop its buildout of FiOS television and Internet services in the next couple years.
Discussion:
DSLreports
Paul Sawers / The Next Web:
Spotify Radio gets a big makeover, goes truly unlimited — Spotify has already had a busy year, what with international roll-outs, its Facebook tie-up and its recent ‘Spotify as a platform for apps’ announcement. — Now, Spotify has given one of its earliest features a complete makeover.
Discussion:
VatorNews, Betabeat, GigaOM, TechCrunch, PC Magazine, The Tech Trade, Spotify, Inquirer, Gizmodo, Business Insider, Evolver.fm, BGR, CNET News, Softpedia News, Engadget, SiliconFilter, The Verge, WebProNews and Pocket-lint
Haavard / A Blog From Behind the Trenches:
Apple using patents to undermine open standards again — A couple of years ago, I reported on how Apple was using patents to block a W3C specification. — The end-result was that the patent didn't seem to be relevant to the specification at all, and one or both of them were even rejected by the patent office.
Jaikumar Vijayan / Computerworld:
Google's Schmidt calls Carrier IQ software a keylogger — It actually records keystrokes, he says at a conference in the Netherlands — Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt today distanced his company from Carrier IQ's software, even as he described the technology as a keylogger.
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Register, Telegraph, Inquirer, Reuters, 9to5Google, MobileBurn.com, TechEye, Business Insider, SlashGear and ITProPortal
Jason Del Rey / AdAge:
AOL's Patch Gets a Little Less Hyper-Local — Consolidates Sites in New Jersey, California — At one time, AOL had hoped to reach 1,000 Patch sites by the end of 2011. But now comes word that Patch is slightly scaling back its efforts in some markets, fueling speculation inside …
Discussion:
Business Insider
Koushik Dutta / Google+:
The Unintended Effects of Driverless Cars — Google has been working on driverless cars for a few years now. The obvious selling point is that the cars will be much safer without a human behind the wheel. — Currently, a car spends 96% of its time idle.
Discussion:
TechCrunch
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Apple complains that Samsung's lawyers are stalling and ducking — One of Apple's highest priorities in its litigation with Samsung is the objective of winning a ruling against Samsung in the largest market, the United States. Not only has Apple just appealed to the Federal Circuit …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Inquirer, MacDailyNews, FOSS Patents, Reuters, Guardian, Ubergizmo and Computerworld
Reuters:
China shuts 200 microblogs for porn, vulgar content — Chinese authorities have shut down 206 microblogs for carrying pornographic and “vulgar” content after receiving tip-offs from the public, state media reported on Friday, as the country increases scrutiny of the massively popular medium.
