Top Items:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Confirmed: Comcast Bought Plaxo, Deal Closed Today — The rumors were accurate: Comcast will announce their acquisition of social contact list Plaxo today. Financial terms are not being disclosed, but the purchase price is between $150 and $170 million. Plaxo, which was founded in 2002 …
Discussion:
STARTUP CHATTER, ReadWriteWeb, paidContent.org, Between the Lines, bub.blicio.us and Life On the Wicked Stage
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John / Plaxo's Personal Card:
Comcast to Acquire Plaxo; Pulse to Become Central to Creating Unified “Social Media” Experience Across the Web, the TV (and more) — Big doings at Plaxo today! We are really excited to announce some of the biggest news in the history of Plaxo: We have just signed an agreement** to be acquired by Comcast …
Discussion:
Reuters, Associated Press, VentureBeat, Bits, The Inquisitr, Silicon Alley Insider, WebGuild, Valleywag and The Real McCrea
Wall Street Journal:
Icahn Will Launch Proxy Contest To Unseat Yahoo's Entire Board — Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is launching a proxy contest to unseat Yahoo Inc.'s board of directors, according to a person close to the matter — a move aimed at pressuring the Internet company to reach out to Microsoft Corp. to re-start sale discussions.
Discussion:
Tech Beat, Guardian Unlimited, Epicenter, Data Center Knowledge and Silicon Alley Insider
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Reuters:
Financier Icahn to run board slate for Yahoo: sources — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has elected to move ahead with plans to run a dissident board slate at Yahoo Inc (NasdaqGS:YHOO - News), sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
Joseph Weisenthal / paidContent.org:BREAKING: Icahn To Launch Proxy Fight, Nominate Full Yahoo Board Slate: Report
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:Yahoo: Can Icahn Get MSFT Back To The Table?
Discussion:
New York Times, Coop's Corner, BoomTown, CNET News.com, paidContent.org, Deal Journal and Silicon Alley Insider
Arn / MacRumors:
Intel Confirms Atom-based Larger iPhone (Mini-Tablet)? — According to ZDNet.de, Intel Germany CEO Hannes Schwaderer confirmed that Apple would be using the Intel Atom processor in a future version of the iPhone. The new model will reportedly be a larger model with a larger display …
Discussion:
Electronista, Crave, Valleywag, 9 to 5 Mac, Boing Boing Gadgets, Gizmodo, CrunchGear, Ubergizmo and Byte of the Apple
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Ionut Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Spreadsheets Become Wikis — Google Spreadsheets added an option in the sharing dialog that allows anyone to view or edit the spreadsheet just by knowing the URL. Until now, you had to send an invitation URL that contained a secret code and the people you invited had to login using a Google account.
Discussion:
diversity.net.nz, Smallbiztechnology.com, VentureBeat, Webware.com, Web Worker Daily and Mashable!
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Mark Cuban / Blog Maverick:
Beating Google ? — Is there anything more fun than sitting around, growing your hair, drinking a Bud while listening to Jethro Tull and pondering how to change the balance of power in the search world and unseat Google ? — Better search ? Too subjective. Better monetization ? After the fact.
Discussion:
The Gong Show
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Stealth Search Engine Blekko Gets Money From Marc Andreessen, SoftTech — 2008 is the year of the search engine startup. Hot on the heels of Powerset's partial launch earlier this week, stealth search engine Blekko (no logo, no website, just this and, apparently, some technology) raised a second round of financing.
The Boy Genius Report:
AT&T limits iPhone purchases to one per customer — A “breaking news” bulletin was just sent out to all AT&T Retail employees today stating that they have started limiting iPhone purchases to one per customer. The email isn't exciting, but the inventory is definitely starting to dry up.
Discussion:
CrunchGear, AppleInsider, Unwired View, Just Another iPhone Blog, The Unofficial Apple Weblog and Electronista
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
AT&T to boost 3G speeds more than fivefold by 2009 — AT&T said Wednesday it plans to boost the speed of its 3G wireless network to speeds of 20 megabits per second in 2009, paving the way for over-the-air downloads that are more than five times faster than what customers can achieve today.
Discussion:
Apple 2.0, VentureBeat, IntoMobile, Unwired View, TECH.BLORGE.com, dailywireless.org, Gizmodo, DSLreports, Sidecut Reports, MuniWireless and Macsimum News
Richard Wray / Guardian:
O2 hints at 3G iPhone launch date — The 3G version of the iPhone will be unveiled “in the coming weeks”, the boss of Apple's exclusive mobile phone partner in the UK and Ireland hinted today. — Speculation is rife that Apple will reveal the 3G version of the phone at its Worldwide Developers' Conference …
Discussion:
Unwired View, Electronista, Just Another Mobile Phone Blog, 9 to 5 Mac, Engadget and Macsimum News
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Saul Hansell / Bits:
Overstock.com Throws New York Affiliates Overboard to Avoid Sales Tax — There were two predictable fallouts from New York State's move to force online companies to collect state sales tax: There would be a lawsuit. And some online merchants would cut off their affiliates in the state.
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eMarketer:
Social Networking Ad Spending Update — eMarketer has revised its US social network ad spending projections, estimating that advertisers will spend $1.4 billion to place ads on online social networks this year, down from the previous projection of $1.6 billion.
John Biggs / CrunchGear:
Microsoft TouchWall can inexpensively turn any flat surface into a multi-touch display — Bill Gates will demo a new multi-touch computer and interface today called TouchWall at the Microsoft CEO Summit in Redmond. — TouchWall refers to the touch screen hardware setup itself …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Tech Blog, Full of I.T., News at About Projectors, Guardian Unlimited, VentureBeat, GottaBeMobile and dailywireless.org
Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:
Cellphone Headsets With Less Bulk, Background Noise — Wireless cellphone earpieces can make people look faintly ridiculous as they stroll down the street or around the office, seemingly talking to themselves with ugly appendages sprouting from their heads. The pulsing blue lights on these things can make people look like robots.
Daniel Terdiman / Geek Gestalt:
Xbox 360 hits 10 million sold in U.S. — Microsoft said on Wednesday that its Xbox 360 has become the first next-generation video game console to hit 10 million units sold in the United States. — Further, said Aaron Greenberg, director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live …
Andrew Chen / Futuristic Play:
Social network marketing: Getting from zero to critical mass — (above is a picture of fun San Francisco tradition called Critical Mass in which cyclists take over the street! Thank god I don't drive much around the city) — What does it mean to hit critical mass?
