Top Items:
Steven Levy:
Is Too Much Plus is a Minus for Google? — On Tuesday, Google announced something called Search, plus Your World (SPYW). It marked a startling transformation of the company's flagship product, Google Search, into an amplifier of social content. Google's critics—as well as some folks generally …
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John Battelle / John Battelle's Search Blog:
Google Responds: No,That's Not How Facebook Deal Went Down (Oh, And I Say: The Search Paradigm Is Broken) — (image) I've just been sent an official response from Google to the updated version of my story posted yesterday (Compete To Death, or Cooperate to Compete?).
Discussion:
Mashable! and Google Operating System
Dave Winer / Scripting News:
Could Bing seriously challenge Google?
Could Bing seriously challenge Google?
Discussion:
Business Insider and Gizmodo
Christina Bonnington / Gadget Lab:
Why Windows Phones Are the Most Exciting Handsets at CES — LAS VEGAS — There's a curious thing happening in the smartphone space at this year's CES. Two Windows Phone devices — the HTC Titan II and the Nokia Lumia 900 — are the most hyped, talked-about phones at the show. Yeah, that's right: Windows Phones.
Discussion:
IntoMobile, Fonehome, @dannysullivan, @maximbark, FierceWireless and PC World
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Ben Rudolph / Windows Phone Blog:
VIDEO: Windows Phone wins 88% of #smokedbywindowsphone challenges at CES 2012! — #smokedbywindowsphone is a wrap at CES 2012, and it was a raging success! Thousands of people (yes, we had crowds watching the challenges happen) saw first hand why Windows Phone connects them to the stuff …
Discussion:
Neowin.net, Techie Buzz, The Verge, GeekWire and The Windows Blog
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
iPhone 4S Sales Cancelled at Beijing and Shanghai Apple Stores — Apple has decided to postpone the retail availability of its new iPhone 4S at some stores in mainland China after a rowdy crowd disrupted the device's debut at its Sanlitun store in Beijing. — Would-be customers …
Discussion:
TechEye, Fortune, New York Times, Bloomberg, MobileWhack.com, Computerworld, Softpedia News, The Next Web and iLounge
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Zachary Lutz / Engadget:
iPhone 4S launch in China draws large crowds, unnecessary violence and SWAT teams (video) — No Apple product launch is complete without long lines, frustration and utter exhaustion. Unfortunately, the arrival of the iPhone 4S has escalated this reality to a new level in China.
Discussion:
AllThingsD, mocoNews, Inquirer, Guardian, M.I.C. Gadget, Reuters, BBC, Phones Review, Fudzilla, MacRumors, ifoAppleStore, AppleInsider, Neowin.net, iDownloadBlog.com, 9to5Mac, IntoMobile, Digital Trends, DigiCha, The Next Web, Wall Street Journal, TUAW, iClarified and Gizmodo
Jason Kilar / Hulu Blog:
2011, 2012 and beyond. — We just closed the books on a big 2011 for Hulu. As a team, we recently reflected on our 2011 investments in innovation and thought it would be an appropriate time to share some of those thoughts via this post. — First, some results:
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Jennifer Valentino-DeVries / Digits:
Author of Controversial Piracy Bill Now Says ‘More Study’ Needed — The senator who introduced hotly debated legislation intended to shut down pirate websites said Thursday he is backing away from one of the most controversial parts of the bill, amid criticism from Web companies, human rights groups and Internet engineers.
Discussion:
Patrick Leahy, Threat Level, Computerworld, Electronista, ReadWriteWeb, The Domains, VentureBeat, CircleID, GigaOM, Ars Technica, Betabeat, Fox Business, AllThingsD, Techdirt and Forbes
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Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
The Pirate Bay Will Stop Serving Torrents — After half a decade of loyal service, The Pirate Bay shut down its tracker in November 2009. — The Pirate Bay argued that BitTorrent trackers have been made redundant by technologies such as DHT and PEX. In addition, The Pirate Bay team …
Discussion:
Softpedia News, SlashGear and The Next Web
BBC:
Ex-Apple boss Sculley sets record straight on Jobs — Former Apple boss John Sculley said he enjoyed a great working relationship with Steve Jobs during ‘the good times’ — Apple's former chief executive John Sculley is perhaps best known as the man who first mentored and then clashed with Steve Jobs …
Discussion:
paidContent, CNET and The Next Web, Thanks:zackwhittaker
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 …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, WebProNews, LAUNCH, gHacks Technology News, VentureBeat, Redmond Pie, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, MediaPost, Pulse2, VatorNews, Epicenter, The Blog Herald, ReadWriteWeb, PC Magazine, GigaOM, Inside Facebook, The Next Web, Evolver.fm, Engadget, All Facebook, Mashable!, The Verge, TechCrunch, SlashGear, Friending Facebook Blog, SiliconFilter and T3 News
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:
The Verge, parislemon, The Next Web, Business Insider, Neowin.net, CNET, ReadWriteWeb, GeekWire, AllThingsD and Computerworld
RELATED:
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft's Ballmer: If I had it to do all over again...
Microsoft's Ballmer: If I had it to do all over again...
Discussion:
Gizmodo
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.
Bloomberg:
Google, LG Said to Be in Talks on TV Service — Google Inc. (GOOG) is considering giving LG Electronics Inc. (066570) first access to the next version of its Google TV software so the Korean company can build a compatible set, according to two people with knowledge of the project.
Discussion:
E-Commerce Times
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Douglas MacMillan / Bloomberg:
Google Readies Next Version of TV Software for 2012 Release
Cliff Edwards / Business Week:
Beats Electronics Is Breaking Up with Monster — The popular headphone line parts ways with its manufacturing partner — In a Las Vegas hotel a few days before the start of the Consumer Electronics Show on Jan. 10, Interscope Geffen A&M Chairman Jimmy Iovine takes out an iPad …
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:
ZDNet, Softpedia News, Webmonkey, Lifehacker, SlashGear, ReadWriteWeb, 9to5Google, Between the Lines Blog, The Next Web, Engadget and WebProNews
Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:
Xbox Accounted for 40 Percent of All Videogame Sales in 2011 — Microsoft dominated the videogame industry last year, with the Xbox capturing nearly half of all consumer spending from physical sales in 2011. — About $6.7 billion, or 40 percent of consumer retail spending, was spent on the Xbox …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, TechNet Blogs, SlashGear and Neowin.net
Peter Burrows / Business Week:
Map Apps: The Race to Fill in the Blanks — Google, Skyhook Wireless, and startups are mapping airports, malls, and other indoor spaces — Visitors to the sprawling Powell's Books in Portland, Ore., often grab one of the fold-up maps available at the entrances to the four-story, city-block-size store.
Thanks:nfarina
Stephen Totilo / Kotaku:
This is What EA's Up To (On the Day Zynga Hired One of Their Top Guys) — The FarmVille people at Zynga just hired Barry Cottle—former executive vice president of EA Interactive—to be their executive vice president of business and corporate development...
Discussion:
Uncrunched, Business Insider and VG247
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Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:
Zynga Hires Top Digital Executive Away From Electronic Arts
Zynga Hires Top Digital Executive Away From Electronic Arts
Discussion:
Inside Social Games, TechCrunch, Social Markets and VentureBeat
Hayley Tsukayama / Washington Post:
Smart TVs: The next tech war is in the living room — Hawking their wares at the Consumer Electronics Show this week, the world's top television manufacturers are bent on making a splash: They're trying to sell a whole new approach to television. — In a world where the latest gadgets …
Discussion:
The Pondering Primate and Slashdot