Top Items:
Mark Milian / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Google quietly rolls out Dictionary [Updated] — What does “googling” mean? Google can tell you. — The search giant has quietly rolled out Google Dictionary, which presents definitions and synonyms. Exactly what you'd expect from a dictionary. — In addition to Google's own database …
Discussion:
MediaPost, PC World, Fast Company, CNET News, ZDNet, Google Watch, Search Engine Land, Google Operating System, Mashable!, MediaMemo, Erictric, TECH.BLORGE.com, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Electricpig, Gear Diary, ResourceShelf, Search Engine Watch, The Next Web, Softpedia News, Computerworld, Pocket-lint.com, Lifehacker, TechCrunch, VatorNews, Screenwerk, Techland, Tech Central, AppScout and Gizmodo, Thanks:electricwaffles
Andre Lebedev / The Official Google Blog:
Now on Google Finance: streaming news — Ever since we launched real-time and streaming quotes on Google Finance last year, we've heard from users how vital that up-to-date information has been. Especially in today's volatile financial environment, current information can be the difference between …
John Leyden / The Register:
Spyware threat haunts squeaky-clean iPhones — Research finds rogue app privacy risks to regulation models — Apple's line that iPhone users who toe the line and resist any temptation to jailbreak, unlock or otherwise desecrate their smartphone are protected from threats has been called into question by new research.
Patrick Hoge / bizjournals:
CrunchPad partner plans media event — The man whom TechCrunch blog network founder and editor Michael Arrington blamed for killing his CrunchPad hardware project has scheduled a video call with reporters and industry analysts for Monday, according to a Silicon Valley public relations firm.
Discussion:
Gizmodo, PC World, Fast Company, Geeky-Gadgets, SlashGear, Erictric, CrunchGear, BayNewser, Silicon Alley Insider, Electronista, GottaBeMobile.com, Techdirt, Gadgetell and Gearlog, Thanks:arulprasad
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Microsoft is making progress on search: You noticed Bing's glitch — It's a happy day for Microsoft's search team. Bing had a half hour outage late Thursday and a few folks actually noticed. — Bing went down for a half hour between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. PST over a configuration glitch.
Discussion:
LiveSide
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Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Vendors to launch Atom N450-based netbooks on January 11, 2010 — Asustek Computer, Acer, Lenovo and even Micro-Star International (MSI), which originally planned to launch in December, are all set to launch their Atom N450-based netbooks on January 11, 2010, complying with their agreement …
Discussion:
Softpedia News, Maximum PC, jkOnTheRun, Gizmodo, I4U News, The Tech Report, Engadget, TechSpot, SlashGear and Netbooked
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Apple sued for infringing digital camera patent with iPhone — St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants filed a lawsuit against Apple claiming the company is violating several of its digital camera patents. — Filed in the United States District Court in Delaware …
Discussion:
App Advice, Macworld, Gizmodo, 9 to 5 Mac, MobileCrunch, The iPhone Blog and Pocket-lint.com
Randy Abrams / ThreatBlog:
PayPal Admits to Phishing Users — Yes, it is true, I am not making this up. I do not believe that PayPal has stolen anything from users, but they have told me that their own email is phishing. — Here's what happened. I sent them one of their own legitimate emails and told …
Leland / Twitter Blog:
Takeout dogfood — Hi all, this is @leland, user experience lead on the @twittermobile team. I wanted to share a little bit of what we've been working on and thinking about. — It's probably no secret that Twitter has an active developer community, using our APIs to create fantastically innovative apps.
Discussion:
eWeek, PreCentral.net, PC World, Download Squad, Gizmodo, the Econsultancy blog, IntoMobile, Softpedia News, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, The Next Web UK, TechCrunch, Electricpig.co.uk, The iPhone Blog, Technologizer, Mashable!, ReadWriteWeb, App Advice, Internet2Go, TUAW, VentureBeat, Pocket-lint.com, ProgrammableWeb, The Next Web, AppScout and PalmAddicts
Matt Wilson / L.A. Daily News:
Apple clears first hurdle in bid for new Cupertino campus — Apple Inc. is one step closer to building a second campus in Cupertino after waiting eight months for city planners to rezone its 7.78-acre property on Pruneridge Avenue to allow office use. — The planning commission …
Kevin Rose / Digg the Blog:
Five Years of Digg...and counting — Five years ago today, Digg.com went live. What started as a simple idea has certainly come a long way. From a vision of a new way to surface news, and a team of three, to 40+ million monthly visitors and 80+ passionate employees...well, suffice it to say that I'm very proud of what we've become.
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Quietly Adds 3.33 GHz Quad-Core Option to Mac Pro [Updated: Xserve] — Apple has quietly upgraded its Mac Pro offerings, adding the option of a 3.33 GHz quad-core processor and adding the ability to configure both the quad-core and 8-core models with 2 TB hard drives …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Hardware 2.0, PC World, 9 to 5 Mac, Engadget, The Apple Core, AppleInsider, The Loop, SlashGear, TUAW, Electronista and Gizmodo
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Source: Google Is Acquiring AppJet, The Company Behind EtherPad — We're hearing whispers that Google is in the process of acquiring AppJet, the small startup that builds the popular collaboration tool EtherPad. A number of ex-Googlers are AppJet executives, including CEO Aaron Iba, CTO J.D. Zamfirescu, and COO Daniel Clemens.
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Apple Told To Pay Patent Troll OPTi $21.7 Million — Apple was told to pay $21.7 million in a patent case against OPTi Inc., a semiconductor vendor-turned-patent troll. — The patent (no. 6.405,291) regards “pre-snoop” cache memory technology. — The decision was made in the plaintiff …
Om Malik / GigaOM:
FCC Wants to Know Why Verizon Increased Termination Fees — Updated with Verizon's response: The Federal Communications Commission wants to know why Verizon decided to double its early termination fee (ETF) for new customers who sign on to the wireless service using advanced devices...longhand for smartphones.
Discussion:
DSLreports, Wall Street Journal, eWeek, Between the Lines, Post Tech, Engadget, Epicenter, FierceWireless, Gizmodo and Phone Scoop
Chris Matyszczyk / CNET News:
New Droid ad: iPhone is ‘digitally clueless’ — Perhaps you have already become used to Verizon's Droid tossing names at the iPhone like an 8-year-old boy behind his teacher's back. — However, the latest ill feelings directed at Apple's little cutey seem beyond even anything heard in an elementary school.
Discussion:
PC World, Engadget, Electronista, Digital Daily, Brainstorm Tech, 901am, Technologizer, Mashable!, Gizmodo, Silicon Alley Insider, Screenwerk, Pocket-lint.com, TeleRead and 9 to 5 Mac
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
FCC admits CableCARD a failure, vows to try something else — The Genachowski-led Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seems to delight in dropping bombshells on a weekly basis, but we didn't see this one coming: the FCC admits that its CableCARD mandate has been an abysmal failure.
Discussion:
Bits
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
An In-Depth Look At Pivot, Microsoft's Newest Data Visualization Tool — At Microsoft's PDC event a few weeks ago, Microsoft Live Labs introduced a new technology, called Pivot, to make sense of interconnectedness between objects on the web. The underlying premise of Pivot is to view relationships between …
Discussion:
Microsoft
Bloomberg:
Apple Said to Be in Talks to Buy Online Music Service Lala — Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. is in talks to acquire online music service Lala, according to two people familiar with the matter. — The terms of the deal for privately held Lala weren't known.
Discussion:
CNET News
Eric Zeman / InformationWeek:
HTC Droid Eris To Get Android 2.0 Update — Verizon Wireless has said that the HTC Droid Eris will receive a significant system update at some point in the fist quarter of 2010. The update will boost the Eris' version of Android to at least 2.0, and possibly even 2.1.
Discussion:
IntoMobile, Android Developers Blog, Android and Me, MobileCrunch, Boy Genius Report and Android Phone Fans
Ryan Singel / Threat Level:
Geez, Google Wants to Take Over DNS, Too — Google now wants to be your browser's phone book, launching a DNS service Thursday in hopes that users will let the ad and search giant take over yet another part of their net experience. — Browsers ask Domain Name System (DNS) …
Discussion:
eWeek, PC World, Google Operating System, Open Source, The iPhone Blog, blogs.chron.com, Geeky Gadgets and louisgray.com
iSuppli:
Acer Takes No.-2 PC Rank in Q3; Market Returns to Annual Growth — Marking a major milestone in the history of the computer industry, an Asian OEM has captured the No.-2 position in the global PC market on a quarterly basis for the first time, according to iSuppli Corp.
Discussion:
DigiTimes, Electronista, Digital Trends, The Tech Report, InformationWeek, Gizmodo, TechSpot, CrunchGear, Computerworld and EE Times
Jonny Evans / 9 to 5 Mac:
Apple announces free iTunes Christmas give-aways for Europe — Apple UK has announced the ‘iTunes 12 Days of Christmas’ promotion, offering free songs, music videos, apps, TV episodes and films on a daily basis during the promotion. — The promotion run from December 26 to January 6.
Clint Boulton / eWeek:
Google Visual Search Coming for Android Phones — Table of Contents: — Google is working on Google Visual Search, a mobile application that lets users take a picture of a location from their Android-powered smartphone and trigger a Google search that pulls up information associated with the image.
John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Cisco Closer to Closing Tandberg Deal — Looks like Cisco's proposed acquisition of Tandberg will move ahead as planned, though perhaps not as smoothly as the networking giant had hoped. In a filing with the Oslo stock exchange today, Tandberg said 91.1 percent of its shares and voting rights …
Discussion:
GigaOM
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
First commercial tool to crack BitLocker arrives (Updated) — BitLocker Drive Encryption can now be successfully cracked with Passware Kit Forensic version 9.5, though it will set you back $795. — Passware, a software firm that provides password recovery, decryption …
Zoe Kleinman / BBC:
Technology boosts literacy skills — Children who blog, text or use social networking websites have better writing skills than those who do not, according to the National Literacy Trust. — A survey of 3,001 children aged nine to 16 found that 24% had their own blog and 82% sent text messages at least once a month.
