Top Items:
Jessica Guynn / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Google likely to face FTC complaint over ‘Search Plus Your World’ — A privacy watchdog group probably will complain to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that a new Google search feature raises privacy and antitrust concerns. — Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy …
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Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Real-Life Examples Of How Google's “Search Plus” Pushes Google+ Over Relevancy — The new Google “Search Plus Your World” feature — which I'm now simply calling “Search Plus” — has just gone live for me. Huge debate erupted yesterday over whether it somehow favors Google+.
Eric Eldon / TechCrunch:
Google+ Search = A Way To Call The Feds In On IPO-Bound Facebook (?) — Like everyone else, I've been trying to get my head around why Google has force-integrated its Google+ social network into its main search feed at the expense of leading social services like Facebook and Twitter.
Discussion:
John Battelle's Search Blog, parislemon, Mashable! and Ben Parr's Entrepreneurial …
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Apple announces special event in New York on Jan. 19 — Apple on Wednesday sent out an invitation to The Loop and other media outlets to attend a special event being held in New York City next week. — Apple says the event will be about an education announcement and will take place on January 19 at the Guggenheim Museum.
Discussion:
The Apple Core Blog, AllThingsD, 9to5Mac, The Verge, AppleTell, Pulse2, VentureBeat, PhoneArena, Macgasm, iPhone, T3 News, Neowin.net, ZDNet, TUAW, TUAW, BGR, Redmond Pie, Apple Bitch, eCampus News, Mercury News, everythingiCafe, TechCrunch, MacStories, MacRumors, Between the Lines Blog, Engadget, MacNN, Gizmodo UK, The Next Web and Edible Apple, Thanks:kevinmcelligott
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Nick Wingfield / Bits:
Apple Aims to Take On the Textbook Market — Apple is expected to begin a much-anticipated foray into the textbook market at an event in New York next week. — The company sent invitations to reporters on Wednesday for an event at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York on Jan. 19.
Discussion:
Digital Trends, The Register, Mashable!, GottaBeMobile, The Digital Reader, MacRumors, App Advice, Digits, WebProNews, Media Decoder and Epicenter, Thanks:nickwingfield
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Nokia Could Sell 37 Million Windows Phones This Year — If 2011 was the year of Windows Phone's slow slog to market, 2012 may be the year of its breakout. — With a decent selection of handsets in the marketplace — including Nokia's newly announced LTE device, the Lumia 900 …
Discussion:
BGR, The Verge, CNET, NBC Bay Area, WMPoweruser, BetaNews, The Next Web, Communities Dominate Brands, Pulse2, PhoneArena, My Nokia Blog, IntoMobile, Neowin.net, www.pocketgamer.biz and PalmAddicts
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Farhad Manjoo / Slate:
The Year of Microsoft — How the former tech giant can reclaim its throne in 2012. — The old conventional wisdom about Microsoft was that you could never count it out. Sure, the company would always break into new markets with products that looked dead on arrival …
Discussion:
Nokia Conversations, Geek News Central and BrianMadden.com
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Microsoft Said Planning Marketing Shakeup — Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is making plans for a companywide restructuring of its marketing operations, a move that may include hundreds of job cuts, according to people familiar with the matter. — The plans haven't been settled and could change …
Discussion:
LiveSide.net, Neowin.net, All about Microsoft Blog, Tech Trader Daily, Pulse2, TechFlash and GeekWire
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Matt Rosoff / Business Insider:
Hundreds Of Microsoft Employees Could Be Getting The Axe Soon
Discussion:
Computerworld, Google Enterprise Blog, @asymco and WebProNews
Facebook:
Bringing Facebook Comments to Mobile — Today we're launching the Comments Box plugin for mobile to make it easier for media sites to engage people across the web and mobile devices, and for people to comment on news regardless of where they're reading it. — If your website has the Comments Box …
Discussion:
Engadget, Inside Facebook, TechCrunch, The Next Web, WebProNews, Pulse2, ReadWriteWeb, Friending Facebook Blog, All Facebook and VentureBeat
John Biggs / TechCrunch:
Why Samsung Is The Next Apple — For most of the ten years I've been coming to CES, every presentation, every booth, has had one goal: to create an ecosystem in order to encourage consumer to lock in. Year after year, presentation after presentation, someone has come out to show how the phone …
Discussion:
Macgasm, MacStories and Business Insider
Yinka Adegoke / Reuters:
Exclusive: Microsoft Web TV subscription plan on hold — (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp has put its talks with media companies about an online subscription service for TV shows and movies on hold, according to people familiar with the discussions. — The technology giant had been in intense talks …
Discussion:
Home Theater Blog, Engadget, VentureBeat, Kotaku, MediaFile, TechSpot, Neowin.net, The Verge, SlashGear, Business Insider, TechFlash, Electronista and VG247, more at Mediagazer »
Kevin May / Tnooz:
Hotel giants come together to launch Room Key search site — Massive development in the hotel sector with six of the biggest hotel chains on the planet uniting to launch Room Key, a new online hotel search platform. — Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels …
Discussion:
AllThingsD, TechCrunch and VatorNews
Alicia Eler / ReadWriteWeb:
Study: Your Facebook Personality Is The Real You — If you think you're different on Facebook than you are in real life, you've got some explaining to do. — A 2011 study from the University of Texas at Austin's Department of Psychology called “Manifestations of Personality in Online Social Networks …
Discussion:
TechCrunch
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
Grab Your Cash and Warm Up the Wagon — ICANN Domain Rush Kicks Off Tomorrow — The domain name landgrab begins tomorrow. — That's when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — the organization charged with managing the Internet's domain name system …
Discussion:
Bloomberg
Jon Mitchell / ReadWriteWeb:
Google+ Hangouts Add Screen Sharing to List of Collaboration Tools — Hangouts, the versatile video chat that continues to be the standout feature of Google+, got a visual and functional update today. The primary video feed is now bigger and better emphasized.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Christopher Johnson, Techie Buzz, 9to5Google, SlashGear, Pulse2 and Lifehacker
Chris Foresman / Ars Technica:
Will 2012 be Thunderbolt's year? Devices arrive in force at CES — Peripherals that use Thunderbolt, the high-speed interconnect developed by Intel and heartily embraced by Apple, have taken their sweet time coming to market. The options so far include a high-end professional RAID from Promise …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
U.S. PC Shipments Slip 6 Percent In Q4, While Apple's Jump 21 Percent — The PC industry is in decline. Or hadn't you noticed? According to Gartner, PC shipments in the U.S slipped 5.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011. (Microsoft also warned earlier this week that Q4 PC shipments were down).
Discussion:
Digital Trends, Gartner, MacRumors, Gartner, parislemon, IDC, Electronista, Between the Lines Blog, Bits and Computerworld
Mark Hosenball / Reuters:
Homeland Security watches Twitter, social media — (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's command center routinely monitors dozens of popular websites, including Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, WikiLeaks and news and gossip sites including the Huffington Post and Drudge Report, according to a government document.
Discussion:
Boing Boing
Ryan Kim / GigaOM:
Shazam launches new app to replace iOS music player — Shazam has gotten a lot of mileage out of its music tagging application, which has been snapped up by 165 million users since launching in 2008. But now the company is rolling out its first new app called Shazam Player …
Discussion:
The Verge, Pulse2, 9to5Mac, VentureBeat, TUAW, Lifehacker, The Next Web, Fast Company and Softpedia News
Chris Ziegler / The Verge:
Motorola's Sanjay Jha: 'Verizon and AT&T don't want seven stock Android devices on their shelves' — At CES this week, we sat down in a session with Motorola Mobility CEO Sanjay Jha who covered a wide range of topics ranging from the company's newly-announced phones to Webtop and everything in between …
Seth Weintraub / 9to5Mac:
The MacBook Air Samsung SSD is about to get twice as fast — I had a chance to meet with Samsung Storage solutions at CES 2012 this week and got the low down on its new OEM SSDs that Apple tends to buy in large numbers. Samsung and Toshiba are the OEMs that provide the SSDs in MacBook Airs.
Discussion:
Engadget
David Rowan / The Kernel:
It's time to place the web in safer hands — David Rowan, editor of WIRED magazine, launches a fearsome broadside against the internet's global domain registry ICANN, concluding the organisation is no longer fit for purpose. — Sorry, internet: it's time to place your custody in safer hands.
Mat Honan / Gizmodo:
Fever Dream of a Guilt-Ridden Gadget Reporter — I trudge past several million dollars worth of 3DTVs, looking for a good place to take a s**t. The toilets are all filthy. CES attendees are overwhlemingly men. Men are filthy, especially when they've been drinking too much coffee and eating Vegas buffets.
Discussion:
Macgasm
Devindra Hardawar / VentureBeat:
Sony is bringing its Music Unlimited streaming service to iOS soon — Sony's Music Unlimited streaming music service has been available on Android devices and PCs for some time now, but iOS users have been left out — until now. — The electronics company will offer a free iPhone and iPad app …
Discussion:
Digits, CNET, The Verge, PhoneArena, SlashGear, TechCrunch, iDownloadBlog.com, MacRumors, MacNN and AllThingsD
Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:
Research: Small Screens Better For Content; Bigger Screens For Productivity — The tablet market is still in its relative infancy and has been largely dominated up to now—both in sales and basic concept—by the iPad from Apple (NSDQ: AAPL). But that could be changing in the year ahead …
Discussion:
In-Stat
Jenna Wortham / Bits:
Beyond Siri: Voice Recognition Pops Up in More Gadgets — Is the technology industry finally finding its voice? — At the International Consumer Electronics Show, held in Las Vegas this week, the idea of controlling everything from cars to televisions using simple voice commands seems to be all over the showroom floor.
