Top Items:
New York Times:
The iEconomy: Apple's iPad and the Human Costs for Workers in China — A staggering manufacturing system in China has made it possible for Apple and other companies to make devices almost as quickly as they can be dreamed up, but for workers, it can be dangerous.
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Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Apple's labor practices come under fire from former executives
Discussion:
New York Times
Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:
Nokia Q4: Scrambling For A Grip, But Still Falling; 1M+ Lumia Phones Sold — Nokia's earnings came out just moments ago, and the numbers are not pretty. The handset maker confirmed analyst estimates it has sold over a million Lumia Windows Phone handsets - but that didn't stop …
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eWeek, BGR, Guardian, SlashGear, Wall Street Journal, Inquirer, Gizmodo, PandoDaily, Mobiledia, HotHardware.com News, Phones Review, Engadget, The Tech Herald Technology …, The Appside, Tech in Asia, ITProPortal, MobileSyrup.com, Gizmodo UK, The Next Web, Electronista, Examiner, Softpedia News and L.A. Times Tech Blog
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Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
AT&T's Q4: 7.6 million iPhones activated, 9.4 million smartphones sold — Summary: AT&T is upbeat on 2012 following a strong fourth quarter in smartphone sales. AT&T, however, reported a big net loss. — AT&T reported strong sales of the iPhone 4S and Android devices …
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paidContent, VentureBeat, Tech Trader Daily, The Verge, AllThingsD, The Verge, Business Insider, VentureBeat, MacRumors, AllThingsD, The Next Web, GigaOM, Gizmodo, DSLreports, Business Wire, TechCrunch, Engadget, BGR, everythingiCafe, Bloomberg, IntoMobile, TUAW, SlashGear and Electronista
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Dan Rowinski / ReadWriteWeb:
AT&T CEO Randall Stevenson Blasts FCC, Hints At Higher Prices and Data Restrictions — AT&T has a bone to pick with the Federal Communications Commission. In the mobile operator's quarterly earnings call this morning, CEO Randall Stevenson blasted the FCC over its leadership …
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Tim Cook at today's Town Hall: Starting in June, Apple employees get $500 off Macs, $250 off iPads — Among the many topics discussed by Tim Cook at today's Town Hall session with employees, the Apple CEO revealed some new Apple employee benefits. Giving a little more back to the people …
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The Apple Core Blog, PC World, CNET, Electronista, Macgasm, WebProNews, SlashGear, Softpedia News, PhoneArena, MacRumors and App Advice
Olivia Solon / Wired.co.uk:
The EU signs up to Acta — The EU and 22 of its member states have signed up to Acta — the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement — in Tokyo today (26 January). — Acta — which is supported by many rights owners — has been met with widespread criticism from open rights activists …
Discussion:
Inquirer, ZDNet, The Next Web, WebProNews and Daily Dot
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Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Poles Take anti-ACTA Protests to the Streets
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Agence France Presse, BBC, Associated Press, rt.com and Softpedia News
Alexei Oreskovic / Reuters:
Analysis: Wall Street puzzles over Google's new direction — (Reuters) - Google Inc, which revolutionized Internet searches with an easy-to-use website, has itself become an increasingly tricky business to grasp. — That issue leapt to the fore last week when the company stunned Wall Street …
Discussion:
TechCrunch and Marketing Pilgrim
Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:
Larry Page's “Beautiful” New Google — Yesterday, we wrote about Larry Page's Search-Plus-Your-World ultimatum and much of the buzz was around the “or work somewhere else” part. But our source emphasized another word he used. “Beautiful.” — According to sources …
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Android Reaches 39% Tablet OS Market Share (Standing On Amazon's Shoulders) — Apple's iPad reigns supreme from whatever angle you choose to look at the tablet market (profits, apps, quality, market share, mindshare, you name it), but research firm Strategy Analytics this morning said Android …
Seth Weintraub / 9to5Mac:
Foxconn employee tells us that the next iPhone is ready for production, indicates likely summer launch — We received word from a reliable source at Foxconn in China that the iPhone 5, as it is currently being called, is now gearing for production. The source said various sample devices …
Discussion:
Inquirer, Pocket-lint, Gizmodo, Computerworld, blog.chron.com, ITProPortal, Washington Post, Phones Review, Digital Trends, Electronista, Mashable!, T3 News, The Tech Herald Technology …, Mobile Entertainment, mocoNews, MCV: Home Stream, PC World, VR-Zone, iPhone, HotHardware.com News, Pocketables, Gadget Lab, Geek.com, PandoDaily and BGR
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Horace Dediu / asymco:
Price competition — Apple's products are often seen as being priced “at a premium”. This is mostly a matter of perception, but in certain categories Apple's products are priced above the industry average (though probably still affordable to sufficiently large populations).
Greg Lamm / TechFlash:
RealNetworks sells patents to Intel in $120 million deal — Seattle's RealNetworks has struck a $120 million deal with Intel to sell off a trove of patents and patent applications, as well as its next-generation video codec software. — Under the deal, RealNetworks is selling about 190 patents …
Discussion:
AllThingsD, GeekWire, BGR, The Tech Trade, TechCrunch, Electronista, silicontap.com and Softpedia News
Jenna Wortham / Bits:
Is iMessage Starting to Take a Bite Out of Standard Texting? — When Apple introduced iMessage, a service that lets people with its mobile devices send each other free text messages over data networks, many analysts predicted that it would take a substantial bite out of the profits …
Discussion:
Daily Patricia and The Next Web
John Battelle / John Battelle's Search Blog:
Google+ Spreads to AdSense, Will It Spread to the Whole Web? — Seen in the wild (well, OK, on this very site): — The “Recommend this on Google” hover box at the bottom is new, I've never seen it before (then again, my ads are usually from FM). It's what we in the biz call a …
Vlad Savov / The Verge:
Nintendo to make a loss of $835 million in 2011, despite selling 15 million 3DS units — Alongside Satoru Iwata's pronouncement that the Wii U will be on sale by the holiday season this year, Nintendo has had to report some ignominious news about its financial situation.
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CNET, TechCrunch, Reuters, Bloomberg, Digital Trends, Electronista, PC World, The Register, MacDailyNews, PandoDaily, VentureBeat, Engadget, SlashGear, The Next Web and Kotaku
Brad Stone / Business Week:
Amazon's Hit Man — Larry Kirshbaum was the ultimate book industry insider—until Amazon called — Larry Kirshbaum, Vice-President and Publisher, Amazon Publishing — In November 1997, on a night of pounding rain in midtown Manhattan, Rupert Murdoch threw a party for Jane Friedman …
Discussion:
paidContent, Fortune and GalleyCat
Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:
The best and brightest from 500 Startups' third demo day — Dave McClure has very quickly become a major force in Silicon Valley, by making investments in more than 250 companies since launching his 500 Startups fund. In Mountain View, Calif. Wednesday, 32 companies from the third class …
Christopher Lawton / Wall Street Journal:
Inside SAP's Skunkworks as It Takes Aim at Oracle — POTSDAM, Germany—Hasso Plattner, who 20 years ago designed a computer program that supercharged SAP AG's growth, has been pursuing another breakthrough that could determine the software giant's fate. — Now SAP's chairman …
Discussion:
Digits
Walter S. Mossberg / AllThingsD:
Real Bonding With Family Around the TV Via Skype — As you read these words, millions of people are conducting video chats using the popular Skype service, now owned by Microsoft. Most of these calls are low-resolution encounters between two individuals, conducted over personal computers.
Jim Giles / New Scientist:
FBI releases plans to monitor social networks — The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has quietly released details of plans to continuously monitor the global output of Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, offering a rare glimpse into an activity that the FBI and other government agencies are reluctant to discuss publicly.
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Airbnb: 5 Million Nights Booked, Opening 6 New International Offices In Q1 2012 — Airbnb is growing like a weed. — The young company is today releasing a ton of statistics about its business to showcase its growth, accompanied (of course) by a fancy infographic.
Discussion:
AllThingsD, GigaOM, VentureBeat and Business Wire
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Netflix Bounces Back With a Q4 Beat, But Says Amazon Is Coming — First look at Netflix Q4 earnings: Earnings of $0.73 per share and revenue of $876 million. Wall Street was expecting around $0.54 a share and $857 million. — But at least as important are the company's subscriber numbers and guidance …
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Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Netflix abandons video game rental plans
Discussion:
VentureBeat, PandoDaily, paidContent, VG247, GenGAME.net and Gizmodo
