Top Items:
Alexandre Roche / Facebook Blog:
Listen to Music With Your Friends — Music is one of the most powerful and fun ways to connect. Whether it's at a concert with a bunch of people or on a long car ride with your best buddy, we love listening to music with our friends. But what if you could listen to music with your friends …
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Jacob Schulman / The Verge:
Facebook introduces ‘listen with friends’ feature for Spotify users, other services coming soon
Facebook introduces ‘listen with friends’ feature for Spotify users, other services coming soon
Discussion:
VentureBeat
Ashlee Vance / Business Week:
Steve Ballmer Reboots — Cooler tech, more energy, higher profit—the Microsoft CEO is out to prove Steve Jobs wrong and make Redmond relevant again — They had his dining room waiting. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive and one of the richest men in the world …
Discussion:
CNET, Business Insider, ReadWriteWeb, GeekWire, Neowin.net, All about Microsoft Blog, Computerworld, AllThingsD and Slate
Benjamin Edelman / Ben Edelman:
Google Tying Google Plus and Many More — Disclosure: I serve as a consultant to various companies that compete with Google. But I write on my own — not at the suggestion or request of any client, without approval or payment from any client. — This week Google announced Google Search Plus Your World …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, SplatF, GigaOM, Social Media, @dannysullivan, ReadWriteWeb, Slate, TechCrunch, Search Engine Land and parislemon
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Verdi / epic.org:
EPIC Urges Trade Commission to Investigate Google Search — In a letter to the Federal Trade Commission, EPIC has called for an investigation of recent changes by Google to Google Search, the dominant search algorithm on the Internet. EPIC cited Google's decision to include personal data …
Discussion:
Pulse2
Dan Lyons / The Daily Beast:
Google Attempts to Take Down Facebook With ‘Search Plus Your World’ Feature
Google Attempts to Take Down Facebook With ‘Search Plus Your World’ Feature
Discussion:
Nieman Journalism Lab, Uncrunched, Real Dan Lyons Web Site, All Facebook, Inquirer, SiliconANGLE, Technology Liberation Front, eWeek, PC Magazine, Softpedia News, LEWIS 360°, Marketing Pilgrim, Techland, Computerworld, Search Engine Land, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, CNET, Ben Parr's Entrepreneurial …, PC World, Mashable! and SiliconFilter
Christian Robertson / Android Developers Blog:
Introducing the Android Design site — Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) is our biggest redesign yet — both for users and developers. We've enhanced the UI framework with new interactions and styles that will let you create Android apps that are simpler and more beautiful than ever before.
Discussion:
The Verge, Engadget, TechCrunch, Gadget Lab, 9to5Google, The Verge, Pocket-lint and Tip Desk
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
LG signs Android, Chrome OS patent deal with Microsoft — Summary: LG Electronics is the latest Android vendor to license Microsoft patents in order to head off potential legal issues. — It's been a couple of months since Microsoft has touted any new Android/Chrome OS vendors agreeing to license its patents.
Discussion:
LiveSide.net, Inquirer, BGR, Engadget, The Tech Trade, TechSpot, @akovacs, Neowin.net, AllThingsD, MobileSyrup.com, @tim_stevens, WebProNews and Softpedia News
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Miyoung Kim / Reuters:
LG in talks on phone partnerships: executive
LG in talks on phone partnerships: executive
Discussion:
Bloomberg, paidContent, PhoneArena, Electronista, Appolicious Advisor and Mobilized
Curt Woodward / Xconomy:
Microsoft Claims Patent Licenses on 70% of Android Phones
Microsoft Claims Patent Licenses on 70% of Android Phones
Discussion:
PC World, Business Insider, GeekWire, PC Magazine, @fxshaw, Unbiased Tech, Digital Trends, Seattle Times, Microsoft, Ars Technica, TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, eWeek, mocoNews, Business Insider, SlashGear, The Next Web, Android Police, 9to5Google, SlashGear, WMPoweruser, Mercury News, PhoneArena, Techie Buzz, IntoMobile, FOSS Patents, GigaOM and TechCrunch
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
If SOPA's Main Target Is The Pirate Bay, It's Worth Pointing Out That ThePirateBay.org Is Immune From SOPA — In looking over Eric Goldman's excellent “linkwrap” of a bunch of recent SOPA/PIPA stories, it pointed me to a News.com article from last month, about how SOPA was really about going after one single site: The Pirate Bay.
Discussion:
ExtremeTech, WatchingTV Online and PC Magazine
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Stephen Rosenman / Seeking Alpha:
Apple's Foreign Cash Hoard — Apple (AAPL) is piling up boatloads of cash: just not here. — Those boatloads are increasing becoming docked in Apple's foreign subsidiaries and cannot be repatriated without incurring additional hefty U.S. taxes. A whopping $54 billion of Apple's $82 billion cash …
Discussion:
MacNN, Pulse2, Techie Buzz, TUAW and PhoneArena
Dave Stewart / Gmail Blog:
Improvements to the Gmail offline Chrome app — When we first announced Gmail offline last August, we told you that it was only the beginning of our HTML5-powered offline journey. Since then, we've been listening to your feedback and today, we want to let you know about some of the key updates we've made to the Chrome Web Store app.
Discussion:
Between the Lines Blog, Engadget, 9to5Google, Webmonkey, The Next Web and Lifehacker
David Barboza / New York Times:
Foxconn Resolves Pay Dispute With Workers — SHANGHAI — Foxconn Technology, the largest contract electronics manufacturer in the world, said Thursday that it had resolved a pay dispute with scores of workers at one of its factories in central China, following a large protest that involved threats …
Discussion:
The Atlantic Wire, GeekWire, Mashable!, The Verge, PC Magazine, Digital Trends, Bloomberg, InvestorPlace, Softpedia News and The Next Web
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Gambling giant IGT buying DoubleDown for $500M, moving into Facebook games — International Game Technology, a maker of real-world casino games and gambling systems, has agreed to pay $500 million to acquire Seattle-based DoubleDown Interactive, a maker of casino-style Facebook games that don't allow users to gamble real money.
Discussion:
AllThingsD, Thanks:johnhcook
Gregory Lyons / iCrossing:
Facebook to Hit a Billion Users in the Summer — Last summer we took a look at Facebook usage around the world, and with Facebook recently announcing that they're currently at over 800 million active users we thought it would be interesting to extrapolate their current grown rate and estimate …
Bill Rigby / Reuters:
ARM chief not impressed with Intel phone chips — (Reuters) - The head of British chip designer Arm Holdings plc has shrugged off the latest attempt by Intel Corp to muscle its way into the expanding market for low-power processors used in smartphones and tablets, which ARM dominates.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Neowin.net, PhoneArena, SlashGear, TG Daily, PC Magazine, dailywireless.org and Globe and Mail
Rachel King / Between the Lines Blog:
Amazon enables sending documents from the PC to Kindle — Summary: Amazon's new “Send to Kindle” option makes it possible to transfer files from Windows applications to the Kindle. — Amazon just added a huge new piece of functionality to the Kindle, making it more useful for all sorts of personal and business purposes.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Gizmodo, The Verge and Engadget
Jennifer Van Grove / VentureBeat:
Foursquare's mobile recommendation engine, Explore, hits the web — Chances are that the insights gathered from one-and-a-half billion check-ins and 15 million tips are better than your own eyes and ears at sleuthing out the best places to eat, drink and see nearby or afar.
Discussion:
The Verge, Foursquare Blog, Search Engine Land, About Foursquare, Business Insider, Betabeat, Pulse2, TechCrunch, Bits and Mashable!
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Amazon Kindle Owners Are “Borrowing” Nearly 300,000 Electronic Books A Month — Amazon is releasing new data on its Kindle Lending Library, which the e-commerce site says now has over 75,000 books. The Kindle Owners' Lending Library is a collection of books that Amazon Prime members who own …
Discussion:
GeekWire, Business Wire, ReadWriteWeb, Between the Lines Blog, WebProNews, Mashable!, The Next Web and paidContent, more at Mediagazer »
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Target Confirms Plans to Bring Dedicated Apple Shops to 25 Stores — Reuters reports that Target has confirmed its plans to launch “store-within-a-store” concepts for Apple products in 25 of its stores around the United States. The announcement comes alongside a broader effort called …
Discussion:
The Toybox Blog, BGR, The Verge, Reuters, GigaOM, MarketWatch, HotHardware.com News, SlashGear, New York Times, 9to5Mac and AllThingsD
Scott Kveton / Urban Airship:
Update on our plan to integrate location and context services into our push messaging platform — We announced the acquisition of SimpleGeo at the end of October 2011. Since then we've been evaluating how to proceed in a way that benefits all parties involved: SimpleGeo and Urban Airship customers plus both companies.
Discussion:
Spatially Adjusted
Walter S. Mossberg / AllThingsD:
Working In Word, Excel, PowerPoint On an iPad — Although Apple's popular iPad tablet has been able to replace laptops for many tasks, it isn't a big hit with folks who'd like to use it to create or edit long Microsoft Office documents. While Microsoft has released a number of apps for the iPad …
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
MPAA attacks Ars for “challenging efforts to curb content theft” — The Motion Picture Association of America doesn't like us. According to the MPAA blog on Tuesday, “Arts Technica” is a “tech blog with a long history of challenging efforts to curb content theft.”
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Bigger than Google+, MySpace isn't dead yet — MySpace, the grand daddy of social services is still wheezing along, comScore says in its latest social media report. In fact it is bigger than Tumblr and Google Plus. I have no idea where (and why) MySpace is getting so much traffic - still.
Discussion:
hypebot and The Next Web
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple is paving the Way for a new 3D GUI for iOS Devices — On January 12, 2012, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals an exciting new 3D GUI for iOS mobile devices. The new UI will work with proximity sensor arrays and will respond to hovering gestures.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, CNET, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, iClarified and Bright Side Of News*
Macworld:
Forecasting next week's Apple education event — iBooks, ebooks, and iWork could be on the agenda for the January 19 event — All we know for certain about Apple's upcoming press event on January 19 is what it says on the invitation: It's at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, and it's focused on education.
Lucas Mearian / Computerworld:
IBM smashes Moore's Law, cuts bit size to 12 atoms — Instead of just storing all your songs of a drive, breakthrough also will let you store all your videos — IBM announced Thursday that after five years of work, its researchers have been able to reduce from about one million to 12 …