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Not the iPad 3 or New TV — But Apple Planning Media-Related Event in the Big(ger) Apple This Month — According to sources close to the situation, Apple is planning an important — but not large-scale — event to be held in New York at the end of this month that will focus on a media-related announcement.
Discussion:
PC World, The New Persuaders, LIVEdigitally, BGR, GizmoFusion, The Verge, Macworld, MacDaddyNews.com, Jailbreak | iOS, Edible Apple, MacRumors, PhoneArena, T3 News, App Advice, IntoMobile, 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, Techie Buzz, TechnoBuffalo, TUAW, PopHerald Technology News, SlashGear, The Next Web, Electronista, Engadget, Between the Lines Blog, Neowin.net, Business Insider, Gizmodo, iClarified, MacDailyNews and ifun.de, more at Mediagazer »
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This Month's Apple Event To Focus On Publishing And iBooks — Apple will be holding a product event later this month in New York, Kara Swisher is reporting, and we've confirmed independently with a source. — According to the source the event will not involve any hardware at all and instead …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, MacStories, TUAW and Electronista


Google's Jaw-Dropping Sponsored Post Campaign For Chrome — Google, the company that has been fighting against paid links and “thin” content, seems to be behind a campaign that's generating both on behalf of its Chrome browser. File this under “what were they thinking.” — “This Post Sponsored By Google”
Discussion:
TechCrunch, SEO Book.com, SiliconFilter and New York Times


Mac Pro Build-to-Order Ship Dates Slip as Future Remains Uncertain — Just before Christmas, shipping estimates for Apple's 12-core Mac Pro model increased to 1-3 weeks, and while that specific model does tend to occasionally see some extra lead time, the shipping delays were later noticed …
Discussion:
Macgasm, SlashGear, Electronista and Apple Bitch


PC Firms Bet on Ultrabooks — New Sleek, Thin Laptops Make Stylish Push Toward Mainstream Price Points — Intel Corp.'s crusade to redefine the personal computer is entering a crucial phase, as a new breed of sleek skinny portables jostle with tablet-style devices and smartphones for consumer attention.


Twine project blows by funding goals thanks to Kickstarter — When Supermechanical turned to Kickstarter to crowd source funding of its Twine project, its cofounders were no doubt optimistic. But it's hard to believe that even they would have expected that pledges amounting to nearly a half …
Discussion:
@cdixon


SoundCloud raises $50 million round led by Kleiner Perkins — SoundCloud has raised a new fundraising round led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. The amount was not released but TechCrunch understands it to be $50 million. This would give the company a $200 million pre-money valuation.
Discussion:
CNET, Fast Company, SoundCloud, VentureBeat, Business Insider, GigaOM and @rafat, Thanks:mikebutcher


MSN Direct goes dark, SPOT watches to suffer no more — When the noble SPOT watch was discontinued back in 2008, Microsoft promised the FM service that kept them informed would soldier on. A year later that service too had its days numbered, and now, today, the counter clicks over to zero.
Discussion:
@dannysullivan, The Verge, @maryjofoley, The Next Web, msnbc.com, Neowin.net and Electronista

University explains NYC withdrawal — Stanford University responded to questions about its Dec. 16 withdrawal of StanfordNYC, an ambitious $2.5 billion proposal to build a graduate school of applied sciences and engineering in New York City, in a press release published on Tues., Dec. 27.


Techmeme's biggest stories of 2011, literally, as measured by height — One the best things about Techmeme is how “huge” or “big” stories can literally be that: conveyed through a stack of headlines several times taller than your screen size. (Unless you hate this, in which case it's …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Pulse2, om.co and Business Insider


Microsoft to enable Linux on its Windows Azure cloud in 2012 — Summary: Microsoft is preparing to launch a new persistent virtual machine feature on its Azure cloud platform, enabling customers to host Linux, SharePoint and SQL Server there. — This headline is not an error.
Discussion:
Open Source Blog, OStatic blogs, Neowin.net and Datamation.com


Just Ahead of the Iowa Caucuses, Google Launches its U.S. Election Site — Even though the presidential elections are still nine months away, the political circus in the U.S. is in full swing already (and has been for months), thanks to the impending start of the Republican primaries tomorrow.

Acer, Lenovo to launch Wintel tablet PC in 3Q12 — First-tier PC vendors Acer and Lenovo are set to launch table PCs based on Microsoft's Windows 8 and Intel's Clover Trail platform in the third quarter of 2012, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.
Discussion:
Engadget, Good E-Reader, PC World, WinBeta, I4U News, BGR, PhoneArena, Techie Buzz, Electronista, SlashGear, Neowin.net and Fudzilla


It is now illegal to access any foreign website in the Republic of Belarus — According to the US Library of Congress, The Republic of Belarus has just recently published a law making it illegal for Belarusian citizens and residents access and/or use foreign websites (particularly for commercial purposes).
Discussion:
Forbes, Gizmodo, loc.gov, Engadget, Geekosystem, Electronista and TechSpot

Mobile campaigns to be hot in 2012 presidential race — Social networks played an important role in the last U.S. presidential election, but the explosive growth in smartphone usage and the introduction of tablets since 2008 could make or break the candidates for president in 2012.


Wikimedia Foundation Raises $20 Million From 1 Million+ Donors — Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia and other sites, this morning announced that they've raised $20 million from more than a million donors, shattering a record once again.
Discussion:
Digital Trends, Wikimedia blog, VentureBeat, Neowin.net, ReadWriteWeb, VatorNews and Network World, more at Mediagazer »


EXCLUSIVE: Product picture Galaxy Note AT&T. (NFC) — On December the 30th we received a nice email. — As expected, the Galaxy Note will be hitting the stores in America Q1 or Q2. — However, there were no official pictures of this Galaxy Note. — Until now!