Top Items:
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
iOS 5.1 beta reveals Apple's plan to soon ship iPads, iPhones with quad-core chips — Speed increases are an expected part of Apple's iOS device hardware upgrades, but what Apple has up their sleeves for speed enhancements is typically up for debate. The first-generation iPad clocked around 1GHz …
Jun Yang / Bloomberg:
Samsung Profit Rises to Record on Galaxy Sales — Samsung Electronics Co. (005930), Asia's largest consumer-electronics company, reported a record quarterly profit on surging sales of Galaxy phones and proceeds from selling its hard-disk drive business. — Operating profit (005930) …
Discussion:
Bits, VatorNews, VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal, Engadget, Agence France Presse, BGR, AppleInsider, The Register, Inquirer, MobileSyrup.com, SlashGear, GigaOM, Digital Trends, IntoMobile, PhoneArena, DigiTimes, The Next Web, Techie Buzz, BBC, TechCrunch, ITProPortal, Between the Lines Blog and Business Insider
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Tim Culpan / Bloomberg:
HTC Has First Profit Drop in Two Years — HTC Corp. (2498), Asia's second-largest smartphone maker, posted its first quarterly profit decline in two years as competing models from Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co. damped demand for its handsets.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Spaghetti Against the Wall — Jun Yang, reporting for Bloomberg …
Discussion:
Digital Trends
Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:
Samsung/HTC: Two Sides Of An Android Coin. Why's Samsung Winning The Toss?
Discussion:
SlashGear, Thanks:ingridlunden
Daniel Eran Dilger / AppleInsider:
Apple to open new store-within-a-store outlets inside Target this year — Apple will be opening new store-within-a-store locations in select Target locations later this year, enabling the company to expand its retail reach into smaller metro areas. — According to a source familiar with Apple's plans …
Discussion:
Mobile Marketing Watch, Apple Gazette, ITworld.com, Geek.com, Epicenter, GottaBeMobile, MacDaddyNews.com, PC Magazine, Techland, PadGadget, SlashGear, GigaOM, TUAW, MacRumors, The Next Web, MacNN, PhoneArena and iLounge
Jonathan Browning / Bloomberg:
Apple's Voice Recognition Siri Doubles IPhone Data Volumes — Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s voice recognition software Siri has prompted users of the iPhone 4S to use almost twice as much data compared with the handset's predecessor, placing greater pressure on operators, network firm Arieso said.
Discussion:
Arieso, Engadget, GigaOM, PC Magazine, Fortune, PC World, Reuters, Ars Technica, Appolicious Advisor, GeekSugar, Apple Bitch, GSMArena Blog, ReadWriteWeb, DSLreports, Redmond Pie, London Calling Blog, SlashGear, T3 News, FT Tech Hub, GottaBeMobile, AppleInsider, FierceMobileContent, Pocket-lint, Gizmodo UK, Business Insider and VentureBeat
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Kevin J. O'Brien / New York Times:
Top 1% of Mobile Users Consume Half of World's Bandwidth, and Gap Is Growing
Discussion:
dailywireless.org, Betabeat, Technologizer and Memex 1.1
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0 Blog:
iPhone 4S ‘doubles’ data usage ... but is Siri really to blame?
Jeff Roberts / paidContent:
Steve Jobs Doll Legal In Most States, Not Indiana — Apple's lawyers have a fearsome reputation for defending the company's intellectual property. But it sure looks like they're bluffing in the controversy over a new Steve Jobs doll. — A UK newspaper caused a stir yesterday when it reported that Apple …
Discussion:
InfoWorld, Redmond Pie, NBC Bay Area, 9to5Mac, WebProNews, Forbes, MacDailyNews, Inquirer and MacNN
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Al Gore Comes Out Against SOPA/PIPA — Well, check this out. Al Gore has come out strongly against SOPA and PIPA, angrily denouncing the bill and its supporters. It's a quick 2-minute video taken at a CareerBuilder event, and it's in response to an audience question.
Discussion:
Hillicon Valley and @davezatz
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Ben Dimiero / Media Matters for America:
REPORT: News Networks Ignore Controversial SOPA Legislation
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb and WebProNews
Steve Kovach / Business Insider:
WARNING: All That Free Spotify Music You've Been Enjoying Is Going To End Soon — Spotify made its big U.S. debut on July 14, 2011. — In one week, we'll be marking the streaming music service's six-month anniversary. — And in one week, all those users who signed up for the free …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Between the Lines Blog, WebProNews and Evolver.fm, Thanks:jfedor
Mike Lennon / SecurityWeek:
Symantec Confirms Hackers Accessed Source Code of Two Enterprise Security Products — On Thursday evening, SecurityWeek and other news outlets reported on news that hackers claimed to have accessed the source code to an unspecified version of Symantec's Norton Antivirus product.
Discussion:
The Register, Between the Lines Blog, CNET, Infosec Island Latest Articles, TG Daily, Bits, SecurityWeek, TechEye, Computer Business Review, Inquirer, Digits, Softpedia News, eWeek Security Watch, Wall Street Journal, Imperva Data Security Blog, Slashdot, Liquidmatrix Security Digest, Skeleton Key Security, Computerworld and msnbc.com
T.C. Sottek / The Verge:
Dijit universal remote and TV guide app launches for iPad today — Dijit is a media navigation app with a gob of features, and its creators have announced that a universal version of the app with iPad support will launch sometime today. The app allows users to find and filter what's on TV …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, GigaOM, Electronista, PhoneArena and Engadget
Bloomberg:
China Unicom Offers Free IPhone 4S for $45 Monthly Contract — Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) — China United Network Communications Group, the nation's second-largest wireless carrier, will give users an Apple Inc. iPhone 4S if they sign multiyear service contracts costing as little as 286 yuan ($45) a month.
Discussion:
The Register, iDownloadBlog.com, TUAW, SlashGear, Softpedia News, MacDailyNews, AllThingsD, MacRumors, The Next Web, Tech in Asia and 9to5Mac
Matt Alexander / The Loop:
The E-Reader, as we know it, is doomed — The E-Reader, as we know it, is doomed — Matt Alexander is the owner and editor of ONE37.net, a writer, a technology enthusiast and a contributing writer for The Loop. — In November I reviewed the Kindle Touch, and I was a fan.
Discussion:
Digiday, Fortune, CNNMoney.com and ONE37, more at Mediagazer », Thanks:jdalrymple
Himank Sharma / Reuters:
Sony to name Kazuo Hirai president: Nikkei — (Reuters) - Japan's Sony Corp will promote Kazuo Hirai as president replacing Howard Stringer as early as April, the Nikkei business daily reported. — Stringer is expected to remain chairman and chief executive officer, the paper said.
Jennifer Van Grove / VentureBeat:
Facebook and Moo partner to print Timeline photos on business cards — What happens when the world's largest social network hooks up with a beloved social business card maker? The birth of beautiful, Facebook-infused business cards. — Digital print shop Moo, long-celebrated for its ability …
Discussion:
PC Magazine, GadgeTell, Mashable!, TechSpot, TechCrunch Europe, Gizmodo UK, Inquirer, ITProPortal, VatorNews, Telegraph, Ibad.info, Marketing Land, The MOO Blog, Softpedia News, The Next Web, ReadWriteWeb, TrendSlate, MarketingVox News & Trends, WebProNews, All Facebook, Engadget, Gizmodo and The Verge
John Fontana / Identity Matters Blog:
FTC asked to probe Facebook Timeline for privacy violations — Facebook again finds itself in the cross hairs of privacy advocate the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) just about a month after a high-profile settlement between the social networking site and the Federal Trade Commission.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, The Not-So Private Parts, Mashable!, @joshconstine and WebProNews
Zachary Wolff / the dialog:
Twitter: To log or not to log: Is that the question? — As Twitter continues to thrive as the communications tool of choice amongst activists, dissenters and occupiers worldwide it should be no surprise that the San Francisco-based company is drawing heightened attention from US law enforcement agencies.
Carey Gillam / Reuters:
Sprint ousts 4 executives, merges consumer/business — (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel (S.N), the No. 3 U.S. mobile service, is merging sales and marketing for its business and consumer operations as part of a streamlining that includes the departures of four top executives, according to Sprint CEO Dan Hesse.
Discussion:
AllThingsD and Between the Lines Blog
Marco Arment / Marco.org:
The limited world of auto-renewable subscriptions — Apple's In-App Purchase system permits two types of subscription purchases. The documentation suggests that Auto-Renewable subscriptions are the right choice in almost every case: … When developing Instapaper 4.0 …
Peter Bright / Ars Technica:
Windows 8 Storage Spaces detailed: pooling redundant disk space for all — When Microsoft killed Windows Home Server's “Drive Extender” technology, we mourned its loss but held up hope that the company would persevere with the concept. The company has done just that with a new Windows 8 …
Ben Sisario / Media Decoder:
New Lawsuit Means All Major Labels Are Suing Grooveshark — Grooveshark, a popular digital music service that is being sued for copyright infringement by three of the four major record companies, now has problems with the one big label that it has a licensing deal with.
Discussion:
Computerworld, Reuters, Digital Trends, SocialTimes.com, Plagiarism Today, Techland, The Verge, The Pondering Primate, CNET, Inquirer, Gizmodo UK, WebProNews and Guardian, more at Mediagazer »
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft to beef up its entry-level Office 365 offering — Summary: Microsoft is adding new features to its low-end K-plan for Office 365, its cloud suite that competes with Google Apps. — Microsoft is adding some new capabilities — including Exchange ActiveSync support — to its lowest-end Office 365 offering.
Discussion:
TechNet Blogs, The Next Web and Softpedia News
Peter-Paul Koch / QuirksBlog:
The Java ME nonsense story — Earlier this week Net Market Share released numbers that allegedly show the Java ME operating system is gaining ground to the expense of iOS and especially Android. — Unfortunately the story isn't true, and I suspect it's a good example of headline grabbing aimed …
Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:
Nokia Buys Norway's Smarterphone To Spruce Up Its Feature Phone OS — Just as Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is gearing up for a splash at CES to kick off the U.S. launch of its new line of Microsoft-powered smartphones, it has pulled a quick draw to show it is not going to neglect its lower-end devices in the process.
Discussion:
Engadget, MobileSyrup.com, IntoMobile, TechCrunch, ferd.no, CNET, Techie Buzz, SlashGear, VentureBeat, SiliconANGLE, MobileBurn.com, The Next Web, My Nokia Blog and Electronista
