Top Items:
The Official Google Blog:
Here comes Google Voice — We've just started to release a preview of Google Voice, an application that helps you better manage your voice communications. Google Voice will be available initially to existing users of GrandCentral, a service we acquired in July of 2007.
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, The Equity Kicker, Gizmodo, Tech Beat, Open Gardens, Lifehacker, Between the Lines, BetaNews and Mashable!
RELATED:
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
GrandCentral To (Finally) Launch As Google Voice. It's Very, Very Good. — GrandCentral, a phone management service that first launched in 2006 and was acquired by Google for $50+ million in 2007, hasn't been in the news much lately. Other than a few good natured jabs at their marketing gimmicks and coverage of outages, that is.
Discussion:
Google Operating System, Google Blogoscoped, New York Times, CNET News, Tech Trader Daily, Reuters, Forbes, Technologizer, VentureBeat, SiliconAngle and Pat Phelan, Thanks:atul
David Pogue / New York Times:
One Number to Ring Them All — If Google search revolutionized the Web, and Gmail revolutionized free e-mail, then one thing's for sure: Google Voice, unveiled Thursday, will revolutionize telephones. — It unifies your phone numbers, transcribes your voice mail, blocks telemarketers …
Discussion:
Computerworld Blogs
John Battelle / John Battelle's Searchblog:
Can Google Find Its Voice? — This is going to be a very big deal. Or forgettable. — I am not sure which. — I had a conversation with a NYT reporter about this today. (Story here, but I was not quoted). It made me think. First off, this product was not launched by Eric, Sergey, or Larry.
Peter X. Deng / Facebook Blog:
Welcome to Your New Home Page — Last week, we shared our philosophy behind the new updates and changes on Facebook to give you a better understanding of why we make certain product decisions. We explained how we've been mapping out the Social Graph, or the network of connections that exist in the world …
Discussion:
Technologizer, ReadWriteWeb, eWeek, RotorBlog.com, Search Engine Journal, Technology Live, Pocket-lint.com, Inside Facebook, CNET News and Mashable!
RELATED:
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
Spoon feeding: Facebook redesign brings feeds (and ads) to the masses — Facebook began rolling out a new design of its homepage today, with a number of subtle features intended to make feed-based social networking more intuitive to the typical user. When the company first showed off its plans last week …
Jenna Bilotta / Google Reader:
Google Reader is your new watercooler — One of the things that we love best about Reader is the ability to easily share interesting items with your friends. In fact, we like it so much that we've been adding bunches of new sharing features over the last year including choosing friends to share with …
Discussion:
The Official Google Blog, louisgray.com, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, Google Blogoscoped, Pocket-lint.com, TechCrunch and Mashable!, Thanks:atul
Ronald Grover / Business Week:
MySpace: A Playbook for Beating Facebook — CEO Chris DeWolfe outlines his strategy for expanding profits, luring advertisers with “hyper-targeting,” and keeping MySpace's U.S. edge over rival Facebook — Hunched over a small conference table, MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe is in full spin mode.
RELATED:
Eric Krangel / Silicon Alley Insider:
Worlds.com CEO: We're ‘Absolutely’ Going To Sue Second Life And World Of Warcraft — Worlds.com CEO Thom Kidrin is putting the entire virtual worlds industry on notice: His company claims the idea of a scalable virtual world with thousands of users is its patented intellectual property …
Douglas MacMillan / Business Week:
Mozilla Contemplates a Future Without Google — Mozilla Chair Mitchell Baker says the Chrome browser is making the foundation behind Firefox rethink its reliance on revenues from Google — From the head offices for Mozilla in Mountain View, Calif., executives can see Google (GOOG) in several directions.
John Timmer / Ars Technica:
Lithium breakthrough could charge batteries in 10 seconds — A new version of lithium battery technology can either provide a higher storage density than current batteries, or can charge and discharge as fast as a supercapacitor, emptying its entire charge in under 10 seconds.
RELATED:
Kurt / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Google Begins Behavioral Targeting Ad Program — Today Google launched its behavioral targeting ad program, which it calls “interest-based advertising.” This move has been widely expected once Google completed its $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick one year ago today.
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
Fusion-io touts ‘fastest’ solid-state drive — Fusion-io also claims Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak as its chief scientist. — Targeted primarily at business applications, such as database servers, capacities range from 160 gigabytes to 640 gigabytes. And by the second half of this year, this will increase to 1.28 terabytes.
Zach Spear / AppleInsider:
Apple releases iTunes 8.1, Front Row Update 2.1.7 — As anticipated, Apple on Wednesday evening delivered iTunes 8.1 with performance enhancements, support for CD imports to iTunes Plus, and new Genius features. Separately, the company also updated its Front Row media application.
Chris Anderson / The Long Tail:
My Two Cents on Charging for Content — Time, the New York Times and others with their back against the economic wall are now reconsidering that whole free thing. — Ann Moore, the CEO of Time Inc, told a British newspaper: … And so on... My take: I actually don't think it matters …
Discussion:
Gawker
Saul Hansell / Bits:
The Broadband Gap: Why Do They Have More Fiber? — This is the third in a series looking at the lessons for the United States from broadband deployment in other countries. Read the first and second posts. — In the paradises of broadband — Japan, South Korea and Sweden …
Discussion:
Broadband Politics
Stuart Miles / Pocket-lint.com:
G1 “cupcake” update coming April … T-Mobile has confirmed that it will be bringing the “cupcake” software update to the G1 mobile phone in April. — The news will mean users of the Android handset will get an onscreen keyboard as well as a host of other features to improve the performance of the handset launched last November.
Discussion:
Android Phone Fans, Google Android News …, MobileCrunch, AndroidGuys, PhoneNews.com and Engadget Mobile
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
The Digital Divisions Are Dead At Big Media — Big Media's love affair with the Internet ebbs and flows with the markets. When they see money pouring into Web startups, they feel threatened and rush to do the same. They ramp up their digital divisions, which usually are no more than venture arms, and hope to strike it rich.
Thanks:mrinaldesai
Leo Ting / Google Mobile Blog:
New Image Search Results for Android and iPhone — Today we launched a new Image Search results page for Android, iPhone, and iPod touch in the US, the UK, and Japan. — With the new Image Search results, you can easily scan up to 20 images on a single results page and get the details for images that interest you.
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Can Media Take Tips from Twitter? Techmeme's Experience as Case Study — Can media organizations leverage the social web to get story tips faster than they could through traditional methods? A number of news aggregators believe so and are looking to Twitter for tips.
Thanks:mrinaldesai
Jessica Mintz / Associated Press:
Meltdown 101: Can tech industry save the economy? — SEATTLE (AP) — Technology helped fuel the economic boom of the 1990s. Then the dot-com bust caught some of the blame for the recession of the early 2000s. If technology is so tied to the national economy, and the current recession started …
Amazon Web Services Blog:
Announcing Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances — Earlier in my career, I thought that innovation was solely about technology. If you wanted to address a new market or to increase sales, writing more code was always a good option. Having gained some wisdom and experience over the years …
Wall Street Journal:
Nortel Is in Talks to Sell Key Units to Rivals — Nortel Networks Corp. is in talks to sell its two main businesses to rivals, a sign the firm could break itself apart rather than emerge from bankruptcy as planned. — Much remains in flux at the Toronto maker of telecommunications equipment …
Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:
Truemors: The Rumor Is No Updates in a Month — Truemors is a place to share rumors that you hear. We reviewed the service when it launched nearly two years. Trumeors was started by very popular web personality Guy Kawasaki and was sold to NowPublic for an undisclosed sum.
Thanks:atul
Steve Johnson / Mercury News:
National Semi chopping 1,725 jobs — National Semiconductor said Wednesday it will slash about a quarter of its worldwide workforce because of fast slumping sales and profit. — And the situation isn't getting better. The company said it expects its fourth quarter sales to be down 5 percent …
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Is Apple About To Shuffle The Headphone Industry Again? — Is Apple (AAPL) in the process of reinventing the way mainstream headphones are designed for the second time this decade? — Ten years ago, I was the only guy on the train wearing earbuds. Thanks to Apple's iPod, now everyone is.
Discussion:
Apple
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Valley Exec Twitters Through Home Break-In — (See also: Jon Stewart On Twitter: “I Have No Idea How It Works, Or Why It Is") — A strange man broke into Revision3 COO David Prager's home last night. — Did David call the police? No, he updated Twitter and turned on a live video stream at Ustream.
