Top Items:
Marshall Kirkpatrick:
Now Microsoft Wants Its Laptop Back — Microsoft and AMD sent out a pile of very expensive (yet trashy looking) laptops to a number of bloggers over the past week. We were told we could keep them - now after a day of minor outrage by some people they are emailing us back with the following request that we not keep them after all!
Discussion:
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, CrunchGear, notgartner, Paul Mooney, Technically Speaking, ALLIED and Chip Griffin
RELATED:
Mike / CrunchNotes:
The Microsoft "Scandal" — So we received one of the Microsoft computers the other day that everyone's been screaming about. I don't think this is much of a scandal, because Microsoft is being pretty open about exactly what they are doing - giving away computers loaded with Vista to bloggers …
Discussion:
NevilleHobson.com
BL Ochman / B.L. Ochman's weblog:
Edelman Has New Ethics Scandal Brewing With Microsoft's Blogger Bribe Campaign — Edelman PR, the folks who brought you Wal-mart flogs, has a new ethics scandal brewing. And this time they're in bed with Microsoft and a group of high-profile bloggers. — Edelman, is handling the launch …
Richard Waters / Financial Times:
Apple 'falsified' files on Jobs' options — Steve Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computer, was handed 7.5m stock options in 2001 without the required authorisation from the company's board of directors, according to people familiar with the matter. — Records that purported to show …
RELATED:
Tom Krazit / CNET News.com:Report: Apple executives faked stock-option documents
Discussion:
Seeking Alpha, The Mac Observer, Tech Trader Daily, Between the Lines, Geek News Central and Macsimum News
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Full disclosure... I am sitting in an airport in Houston. I see a lot of people are wondering who is paying for the trip. I wasn't supposed to announce what I was doing until I got to New Orleans, but since news schedules have been moved up (John Edwards announced he's running for President today) I'm sure the campaign won't mind.
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
ProfileLinker Takes Meebo Approach to Social Networking — There are clearly too many social networks, and if you belong to one you likely belong to many. Boston based (soon to be relocated to San Francisco) ProfileLinker's aim is to help you stay organized across those networks.
Discussion:
Zoli's Blog
lasagna.pbwiki.com:
lasagna — nyMeetupDec2006 … Note from Sanford Dickert — Wollmann Lounge (at Cooper Union Engineering Building, next to Starbucks on corner of 3rd Ave and Astor Place) — Subway Map — 51 Astor Place, 8th Street between Third and Fourth Avenues Official Directions — 5:30pm til 7pm
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
PayPerPost In The News Again — PayPerPost, the controversial startup that pays bloggers to write about advertisers' products, will be in the news again tomorrow. They will be announcing the acquisition of blogging tools and services company Performancing (see our earlier coverage of Performancing).
Jim Tharpe / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Busy travelers snap up iPods from Hartsfield vending machines — Concourse A machine sold $55,000 worth of electronics in a month — Anita Leopold has a little surprise for anyone who thinks vending machines were created to dispense lightly salted snack food and sugar-laced temptations.
Kotaku:
Games Make You Drive Like an Idiot — FoxTrot Cuts Back to Weekly Reaffirms Love of WoW — FoxTrot cartoonist and World of Warcraft enthusiast Bill Amend recently announced that he would be cutting back from producing his excellent newspaper strip on a daily basis to a weekly one.
PC World:
The 20 Most Innovative Products of the Year — Always intriguing, often useful, and sometimes surprising, these 20 products showcase some of the best in tech this year. — A PC that's half desktop, half notebook. An operating system that runs entirely on the Web. A radically made-over office suite.
Ryan Block / Engadget:
AACS DRM cracked by BackupHDDVD tool? — Can it be? Is Hollywood's new DRM posterchild AACS (Advanced Access Content System, see more here) actually quite breakable? According to a post on our favoritest of forums (Doom9) by DRM hacker du jour muslix64, his new BackupHDDVD tool decrypts and dismantles AACS on a Windows PC.
Discussion:
Slashdot
John Liu / Bloomberg:
Google to invest in Chinese video Web site — Google Inc., owner of the world's most-used Internet search engine, will invest in Shenzhen Xunlei Network Technology Ltd., a Chinese Web site that helps users download videos from the Internet. — The investment will probably be disclosed next month …
Michael McWhertor / Kotaku:
Contra 3 Headed To Wii VC Soon? — Rumor Smash: Capcom Doesn't Love The 360 THAT Much — Two Capcom-Xbox 360 rumors have been crawling around the internet for the past couple (slow news) days, so before we get too many more tips about these non-stories, let's smash 'em!
Seth Mydans / International Herald Tribune:
Earthquake knocks Asia back to phone age, and beyond — BANGKOK: It was a tsunami for the digital age, a collapse of the virtual world that radiated through much of Asia and beyond after an undersea earthquake late Tuesday off the coast of Taiwan. — People woke Wednesday …
Discussion:
The Tao of Zen
Chris Howard / Apple Matters:
Apple and Nintendo Should Play Together — Hope the festive season has rewarded your hard labors this past year with lots of cool toys. In the Howard house, Santa left a Nintendo Wii, which was quite appreciated and ha nearly been worn out already. Well, it's users have, says I flexing aching muscles.
Discussion:
digg
Xeni Jardin / Boing Boing:
Google "disappears" sex blogs? Something's broken. — A number of bloggers who cover topics related to human sexuality say they've suddenly disappeared (or at least been deeply demoted) in Google search results. Popular "indie" blogs that deal with nonfiction sex ed or indie alt-erotica fare …
