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 …
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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:
GigaOM, Reuters, VentureBeat, WebGuild, Bits, Latest Geek Stuff, Valleywag, paidContent.org, The Real McCrea, The Inquisitr and Silicon Alley Insider
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:
Guardian Unlimited, Epicenter, Tech Beat, Data Center Knowledge, paidContent.org 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.
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.
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:
TeleRead, Electronista, Crave, Gizmodo, Valleywag, Boing Boing Gadgets, Unwired View, CrunchGear, Byte of the Apple and 9 to 5 Mac
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Mike Ricciuti / Webware.com:
Adobe set to test new Flash Player — Adobe on Thursday is expected to launch a beta test program for the latest version of its Flash Player software. — Flash Player 10, developed under the code name Astro, includes better support for 3D animation and video hardware acceleration, among other improvements.
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Ionut Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Spreadsheets Can Be Edited by Anyone — 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:
Google Blogoscoped, The Social, diversity.net.nz, DEMO.com, Smallbiztechnology.com, VentureBeat and 901am
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.
Discussion:
VentureBeat, Valleywag, The Social Times, Silicon Alley Insider, HipMojo.com and broadstuff
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.
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.
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
At The Churchill Club: The Top 10 Tech Trends — I'm at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose tonight, for the Churchill Club's annual Top 10 Tech Trends Dinner. This is the club's 10th annual tech trend panel. Making the picks: — Steve Jurvetson, Draper Fisher Jurvetson. — Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures.
Discussion:
VentureBeat
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.
Scott M. Fulton, III / BetaNews:
Android faces a tougher battle, with Verizon and Mozilla backing LiMo — The road ahead for Google's Linux platform for mobile devices just got a little cloudier, with two of the companies whose allegiance it would need to ensure its success, this morning announcing they're backing its principal competitor.
Discussion:
Mozilla Links
Charles Cooper / Coop's Corner:
If Gates is right, how much longer for keyboards & mice? — It wasn't exactly Minority Report but Bill Gates' technology demonstration at the company's CEO Summit earlier Wednesday may be remembered years from now as a harbinger of the end for the keyboard and mouse era. Not today. Maybe not tomorrow.
