Top Items:
Richard Jones / Last.fm:
Free the Music — A few days ago we sent out some cryptic invitations to a press conference in New York that Felix and Martin are presiding over. We've had fun in the office reading the rumors and speculation, but it's time to spill the beans: — As of today, you can play full-length tracks …
Discussion:
Epicenter, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, CrunchGear, Listening Post, mathewingram.com/work, Download Squad, Mashable!, Lifehacker, gHacks technology news, Online Fandom, Orbitcast and Digg
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Joseph Weisenthal / paidContent.org:
@ Last.fm Announcement: Free On-Demand Music Platform; CBS To Ramp Up Promotion — I'm here at Studio 19 at CBS (NYSE: CBS) headquarters, as Last.fm unveils its new direction: a free on-demand music streaming platform. Some quick details, from a press release that's just been passed around:
Discussion:
TechCrunch UK, Telegraph Blogs, AppScout, ReadWriteWeb, Bits, AdAge, p2pnet, 901am, Electronista and Lost Remote
Jon Fortt / Big Tech:
Apple turns tech stocks sour — Apple reported earnings that beat analyst estimates on strong sales of iMacs, laptops and iPhones. But its cautious outlook led investors to slam the stock Wednesday morning, and take much of the Nasdaq down with it. — Why?
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Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Microsoft Joining DataPortability.org — Chris Saad, Chairman of the Data Portability Working Group, confirmed to me this morning that Microsoft's David Treadwell, a VP at Windows Live, will be joining the organization. Microsoft is expected to make a formal announcement in the coming days.
Discussion:
The Social Web, Download Squad, Financial Times, LiveSide, The Social Times, bub.blicio.us, Changing Way, Mashable!, The Real McCrea, Wikinomics and Digg
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Om Malik / GigaOM:
WordPress.com Creator Raises $29.5M — Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic and creator of open-source blogging system WordPress, stopped by my apartment earlier this week. Matt, who is one of my closest friends, brought his Texan sense of humor and all-around good cheer …
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Matt / Photo Matt:
Act Two — You've probably seen the news on GigaOM, Automattic has raised a new “series B” round of funding. We're entering what I consider Act II of the Automattic story. I'll talk about where we're going, but first some history. — In 2005 Automattic was small.
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
What to do if you're laid off in 2008 recession — It's sad to hear about layoffs at companies like Yahoo. Right now it seems like a bad time to be laid off. I'm here to offer some hope. — I laid myself off in February 2002. Remember that time? It was far worse than what we've seen so far in the economic turmoil of 2008.
Discussion:
Deep Jive Interests
Donald Melanson / Engadget:
Southwest Airlines to test in-flight WiFi via satellite — It's taken a while, but it looks like Southwest Airlines is the latest (and no doubt far from the last) to jump on the in-flight WiFi bandwagon although, as with most, it's still quite a ways from rolling out the service across the board.
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Robin Sidel / Wall Street Journal:
Cheer Up, Ben: Your Economy Isn't As Bad as This One — In the Make-Believe World Of ‘Second Life,’ Banks Are Really Collapsing — In the real world, banks are reeling from the subprime-mortgage mess. In the online game Second Life, a shutdown of the make-believe banking system is causing real-life havoc for thousands of people.
Justin Pope / Associated Press:
MPAA admits mistake on downloading study — Hollywood laid much of the blame for illegal movie downloading on college students. Now, it says its math was wrong. — In a 2005 study it commissioned, the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that 44 percent of the industry's domestic losses came …
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Motorola:
Motorola Announces Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year Sales and Earnings — Fourth-quarter sales of $9.65 billion — Fourth-quarter GAAP earnings from continuing operations of $0.05 per share, including net charges of $0.09 per share from items highlighted below
Discussion:
CrunchGear, eWeek, Computerworld, IntoMobile, GigaOM, mocoNews.net, Seeking Alpha, dailywireless.org, Apple, Phone Scoop and Technology Live
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Box.net offers easy storage, amid increasing competition — Box.net, a company that lets you store and access files online, said it raised $6 million more in a second round financing. — The round of financing comes at a crucial time for the company, because a host of tough competitors have emerged to make online storage de rigueur.
Charles Cooper / CNET News.com:
Take your tech recession and stuff it — newsmaker Like a lot of technology CEOs these days, Seagate's Bill Watkins finds himself frequently asked whether the world as we know it is coming to an end—or something like that. — What with regular triple-digit losses on the Dow Jones …
Tony Dennis / Inquirer:
Iphone sales are at around a tenth of early estimates — The INQ may have been playing with sales figures but someone (cough!) may also have been bamboozled by zeros. Any fule with a calculator knows that 4,000,000/200=20,000. Our apologies, dear reader.
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Ars Technica
AT&T:
AT&T Boosts Bandwidth Choices and Speed with 10 Mbps Offer for U-verse Customers — Millions of consumers now have a new option to keep them surfing in the fast lane with the nation's leading provider of broadband services. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) has announced plans to offer AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet Max in February 2008.
Laurel Wentz / AdAge:
Publicis, Google to Exchange Execs — Companies Plan to Share Talent, Collaborate to Develop New Products — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Publicis Groupe and Google are collaborating to develop new products and tools and exchange talent by embedding executives in each others' companies.
Discussion:
Search Engine Watch Blog, Insider Chatter, Reuters, MediaBytes with Shelly … and WebProNews
Steven Hodson / WinExtra:
Why is email stuck in the 80's? — Email is screwed up. — Not that email as a method of communication is screwed but more the fact that the software we use to manage the ever increasing amount of email we get is brain dead and next to ineffectual in letting us control our information flow.
