Top Items:
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.
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Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Apple in ‘advanced’ acquisition talks with Lala — Apple is close to acquiring digital music service, Lala, according to two sources with knowledge of the discussions. — Talks are very advanced said the sources. One of the sources said that the sides have already agreed on terms and have only to sign a final agreement.
Discussion:
Between the Lines, App Advice, MacRumors, GigaOM, MacDailyNews, Electronista, Engadget, Mashable!, The Loop and hypebot, Thanks:mrinaldesai
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 …
Discussion:
CNET News, Bloomberg, Maximum PC, Search Engine Journal, VatorNews, TechCrunch, Mashable! and Erictric
The EtherPad Blog:
Google Acquires AppJet — We are happy to announce that AppJet Inc. has been acquired by Google. The EtherPad team will continue its work on realtime collaboration by joining the Google Wave team. — For Current Users and Customers: — What will happen to my account? Will I still be able to use EtherPad?
Discussion:
TechCrunch, PC World, MediaMemo, Google Operating System, CNET News, GigaOM, VentureBeat, Download Squad, Silicon Alley Insider, paidContent, Search Engine Journal, InformationWeek, TidBITS, TeleRead and Mashable!, Thanks:atul
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Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Confirmed: Google Acquires AppJet, The Maker Of EtherPad — That didn't take long. Less than half an hour ago we broke the news that Google was in the process of acquiring AppJet, the startup behind the powerful real-time document editor EtherPad. The official EtherPad blog has just been updated confirming the news.
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb
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.
Yahoo!:
Yahoo! and Microsoft Finalize Search Agreement — Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corporation today announced that the companies have finalized and executed the definitive Search and Advertising Services and Sales Agreement and License Agreement in accordance with the letter agreement announced in July.
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:
Gizmodo, App Advice, Maximum PC, Macsimum News, EverythingiCafe, MobileCrunch, The iPhone Blog, 9 to 5 Mac and Pocket-lint.com
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:
SlashGear, PC World, Ars Technica, Hardware 2.0, TechSpot, AppleInsider, The Loop, Engadget, 9 to 5 Mac, ChannelWeb, The Apple Core, TUAW and Electronista
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.
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:
Guardian, MediaPost, Search Engine Land, PC World, Mashable!, Fast Company, Google Operating System, ZDNet, Geek.com, CNET News, Erictric, ResourceShelf, Google Watch, TECH.BLORGE.com, Maximum PC, Gear Diary, MediaMemo, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Electricpig, Search Engine Watch and Lifehacker, Thanks:electricwaffles
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 …
Lee Brodie / Fast Money Rapid Recap:
CEO Eric Schmidt Reveals ‘Centerpiece’ Of Google's 2010 Strategy — On Thursday President Obama summoned Corporate America to the White House in an attempt to help tackle the problem of unemployment. — And among the many corporate leaders who answered the President's call was Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
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 …
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.
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.
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, Fast Company, PC World, Erictric, SlashGear, CrunchGear, BayNewser, Geeky-Gadgets, Electronista, Silicon Alley Insider and GottaBeMobile.com, Thanks:arulprasad
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 …
Discussion:
Lockergnome Blog Network
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.
Eric Eldon / Inside Facebook:
Sources: Facebook Connect Will Be “Everywhere” on MySpace Next Year — Yahoo announced that it will be making Facebook Connect a deeply-integrated part of its site earlier this week. The move surprised some people, because Yahoo itself has historically been the largest social site on the web.
Discussion:
Mashable!
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
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.
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 …
Rich Miller / Data Center Knowledge:
DoD: Cloud Will Save Us ‘Hundreds of Millions’ — Moving the U.S. military's IT operations to a cloud computing model hasn't been easy. But the payoff is clear, according to Henry Sienkiewicz, who oversees the Department of Defense's cloud computing platform, known as the Rapid Access Computing Environment (RACE).
Ben Fritz / Los Angeles Times:
Redbox blames studios, stores for DVD shortage — A lawsuit says studios are leaning on retailers to curtail bulk sales of DVDs to the rental kiosk firm. — Redbox is having trouble stocking DVDs from the three studios it is battling in court — 20th Century Fox, Universal and Warner Bros. …
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Sharon Vaknin / Countdown to CES:
Maplock drives off GPS thieves — GPS sales have risen more than 700 percent in recent years, according to Who-Rae, an Australian company that develops and manufactures a range of consumer products. With increased popularity and usage comes crime, however—GPS are now the most commonly stolen item from vehicles, the company says.
