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!
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Long Zheng / istartedsomething.com:
Microsoft hands out Ferrari's to bloggers — Microsoft together with AMD gave out some timely Christmas presents (which are officially review PCs) to a bunch of bloggers this year. Brandon LeBlanc got one, Scott Beale got one, Barb Bowman got one, Mauricio Freitas got one, Mitch Denny got one …
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 …
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 …
Discussion:
Guardian Unlimited, Valleywag, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs and The Unofficial Apple Weblog
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Tom Krazit / CNET News.com:
Report: Apple executives faked stock-option documents — update Apple Computer's stock took a hit early Wednesday after a report that company executives had made up details on stock-option administration documents to guarantee profits for certain executives.
Justin Scheck / LAW.com:Faked Docs May Be Core of Apple Case
Discussion:
Infinite Loop, Valleywag, The Mac Observer, Geek News Central, Law Blog, Blogging Stocks, Monkey Bites and Slashdot
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.
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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).
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.
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 …
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Why piracy is still more common than legal video downloads — A recent study conducted by consumer and retail analysis group NPD claims that peer-to-peer (P2P) video downloads (which in the study are synonymous with illegal downloads) are outpacing purchases from legitimate video download services five to one.
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.
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
Techworld.com:
Disabling and degrading — Vista is disadvantaging high-end audio and video systems by openly disabling devices. The most common high-end audio output interface is S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format) which doesn't have any content protection. It must be disabled in a Vista system …
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:
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