Top Items:
Microsoft:
Microsoft Unveils Device Customization via New Zune Originals Store, New Zune Players Available Tomorrow — Microsoft partners with 18 renowned artists to fuse high style with portable entertainment. — Tomorrow, consumers ready for a richer, more connected and more personal entertainment experience …
RELATED:
Ami Kealoha / Cool Hunting:
Zune Originals: Interview with Chris Stephenson — Zune's next move takes their support of emerging artists and literally puts it on their sleeve. Zune Originals is a collection of 27 original works by 18 international artists designed to be engraved onto the back of the device. (Click images for detail.)
Discussion:
Crave, DailyTech, Digital Trends, Mobility Site, Gadget Lab, Chris Lanier's Blog, Zune Insider, Podcasting News and istartedsomething
Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
Google's Android OS early look SDK now available — Just like the good folks promised, the early look software development kit for Google's soon-to-be huge phone OS has hit the streets... er, internet. From what we can tell, the OS is as comfortable on larger, VGA devices as it is on more traditional smartphone layouts.
RELATED:
Laura M. Holson / New York Times:
Cellphone Straitjacket Is Inspiring a Rebellion — First come the grumblings, then the torches and pitchforks. — Consumers have never been happy about their cellphone carriers and the services they provide — or refuse to provide. But they also have hardly the means to do anything, except switch from one carrier to the next.
Katie Hafner / New York Times:
Google Options Make Masseuse a Multimillionaire — Bonnie Brown was fresh from a nasty divorce in 1999, living with her sister and uncertain of her future. On a lark, she answered an ad for an in-house masseuse at Google, then a Silicon Valley start-up with 40 employees.
Business Wire:
IBM to Acquire Cognos to Accelerate Information on Demand Business Initiative — ARMONK, N.Y. & OTTAWA, Ontario—(BUSINESS WIRE)—IBM (NYSE: IBM - News) and Cognos® (NASDAQ: COGN - News) (TSX: CSN - News) today announced that the two companies have entered into a definitive agreement …
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
IBM takes out Cognos for $5 billion — Remember that last independent business intelligence company, Cognos? It's now a part of IBM's software unit. — IBM said Monday in a statement that it has acquired Cognos for $5 billion, or $58 a share. In just a month the two leading business intelligence players have been acquired.
James Robinson / Guardian:
Google turns to X Factor's Fuller for push into TV — Internet giant Google is in secret talks with Simon Fuller, the British entrepreneur behind the Spice Girls, about a joint venture that could change the way TV is watched over the internet. — News of the collaboration will prompt speculation …
Computerworld:
Intel launches power-efficient Penryn processors — Processors faster, more power efficient than predecessors — Intel has launched its long-awaited new line of power-efficient microprocessors, code-named Penryn, designed to deliver better graphics and application performance as well as virtualisation capabilities.
RELATED:
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Microsoft to ship Windows Server 2008, over time, in eight flavors — Microsoft is readying eight SKUs of Windows Server 2008, only some of which will include Hyper-V (the new name for Microsoft's hypervisor that was code-named "Viridian"). — According to ActiveWin.com …
RELATED:
Fortune:
Al Gore's next act: Planet-saving VC — The recovering politician is teaming with a legendary venture capitalist and bigtime moneyman to make over the $6 trillion global energy business. A Fortune exclusive — (Fortune Magazine) — It's lunchtime on Sand Hill Road, and Al Gore wants answers.
Noam Cohen / New York Times:
Will Success, or All That Money From Google, Spoil Firefox? — Only a couple of years ago, Firefox was the little browser that could — an open-source program created by thousands of contributors around the world without the benefit of a giant company like Microsoft to finance it.
Discussion:
Between the Lines, Guardian Unlimited, Search Engine Land, Jeffrey McManus, TeleRead and Open Source
RELATED:
Abbey Klaassen / AdAge:
Barry Diller to Time Warner: Name Your Price for AOL — Q&A With IAC Chief in Wake of Spinoffs of Ticketmaster, HSN — Barry Diller is staking his future on the fast-growing, ever-changing online-advertising space. — His company, IAC, is spinning off four divisions into separate …
Jemima Kiss / PDA:
The iPhone - a confession — OK, so I caved in. I could have bought one in the States and knobbled it, I could have waited six months for a 3G version, I could have bought something far better spec'd for far less or I could have ignored all the nonsense and carried on with my beaten up Sony Ericsson.
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:
Glam Media Launches Managed Vertical Network Platform - First Customer Lifetime Network — Glam Media continues to expand; today announcing the launch of its "Managed Vertical Network Platform" (MVN) which looks like a [beefed-up white-label social networking platform] one-stop blog network tool.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Why Are Founders and Execs Leaving Second Tier Social Networks? — Employees generally don't leave hot startups. They lose some or all of their stock options, and they also lose the resume value of being associated with a startup brand. And that's doubly true for executive level employees.
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
AOL acquires question-and-answer service Yedda — Time Warner unit AOL announced early Monday morning that it has acquired Yedda, a question-and-answer start-up that was founded in Tel Aviv, Israel, in 2006. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
RELATED:
Steven Zeitchik / Hollywood Reporter:
Hulu checks out WBTV library — "Friends" could soon be buddying up to Hulu. — Warner Bros. Television is in active negotiations with the News Corp.-NBC joint venture to make a slew of WBTV content available on Hulu, executives said. — "It's more likely than not that we're going to make a deal …
