Top Items:
Om Malik / GigaOM:
How Much Did Microsoft Pay For Danger? — Microsoft is in some of kind of spending mood. First they offered up $45 billion for Yahoo (not enough for some!). And then there was that Danger acquisition. But how much did they spend on the Palo Alto-based company started by Android leader Andy Rubin?
Discussion:
Between the Lines, Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog, Tech Trader Daily, Web Worker Daily, CrunchGear, Engadget and Danger, Inc.
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Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Microsoft paid $500 million for Danger, and there's got to be a reason — Software giant Microsoft reportedly spent $500 million to acquire Danger, the company that developed software to power the youngster-popular Sidekick. — The figure, while not officially announced, was dug up in reporting by GigaOm's Om Malik.
Joshua Karp / The Boy Genius Report:
Apple TV Take 2 out now — Does anyone out there actually own an Apple TV? If you do, today is your lucky day. Apple has just released the software update promised as a part of this year's Macworld Keynote. The update sports a number of significant enhancements, including set-top HD …
Discussion:
The Unofficial Apple Weblog, Apple 2.0, Podcasting News, Infinite Loop, MacRumors and Zatz Not Funny!
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Bob Sullivan / MSNBC:
A lost laptop, a $54 million lawsuit — How much compensation does a consumer deserve for the loss of a laptop computer loaded with personal information? Raelyn Campbell figures it's $54 million — if you throw in a little extra for lost time and frustration.
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Big Yahoo shareholder: There are few alternatives to Microsoft bid — Legg Mason-which owns 80 million shares of Yahoo, or about 6 percent of the company-said in its fourth quarter commentary that Yahoo will be hard-pressed to find alternatives to Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid.
RELATED:
Dawn Kawamoto / CNET News.com:Yahoo's second-largest shareholder says Microsoft will need to up ante
Discussion:
TechSpot News
Sonia Zjawinski / Wired News:
How Google Got Its Colorful Logo — In just a few short years, Google's logo has become as recognizable as Nike's swoosh and NBC's peacock. Ruth Kedar, the graphic designer who developed the now-famous logo, shows the iterations that led to the instantly recognizable primary colors and Catull typeface that define the Google brand.
Discussion:
Valleywag, Google Operating System, Natural Search Blog, greg hughes and Google Blogoscoped
Ben Worthen / Business Technology:
Bill Gates Quits Facebook — Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has stopped using the Web site Facebook, the most damning indictment in a week full of bad press for social-networking technology. — Social-networking Web sites, which help people share and find information about one another …
Discussion:
Download Squad, Virtual Worlds News, FaceReviews, Web Strategy, A Media Circus, Zoli's Blog, Valleywag, CNET News.com, PDA, All Facebook and VoIP Blog
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Donna Bogatin / Insider Chatter:MySpace To Google: Learn How To Sell Advertising, OMMA Report
Discussion:
WebProNews
Skrentablog:
Amazon is the Google of buying stuff — I went into a little corner non-chain convenience store by my house (the “Devonshire Little Store") for some milk and noticed a big plastic tub of Dubble Bubble at the cash register. — Folks I've worked with know that I have a thing for gum.
Vincent Nguyen / PHONE Magazine:
E28 show working Android cellphone: Video from MWC — You may not have heard of E28, but they have something particularly rare on show at the Mobile World Congress: a current, off-the-shelf handset that's running Google's Android cellphone platform. I stopped by to shoot some video and find …
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CNET News.com:
Yahoo pink slips arrive — As expected, Yahoo lays off more than 1,000, but details are not disclosed. — Senate shields phone companies from spy lawsuits — update Civil liberties groups bash vote as “get-out-of-jail-free card” for AT&T and others accused of illegally opening their networks to the feds.
Discussion:
Tech Beat
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Yahoo's Purchase of Maven Adds Complexity — Yahoo is buying Maven Networks, a company that helps outfits like CBS and Sony put their video online. Its press release is full of all sorts of ways this will help Yahoo: It gets video technology. Yahoo will be able to use its sales force to sell video ads on partner sites.
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times
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Francis Eliott / Times of London:
Internet users could be banned over illegal downloads — People who illegally download films and music will be cut off from the internet under new legislative proposals to be unveiled next week. — Internet service providers (ISPs) will be legally required to take action against users …
Discussion:
TorrentFreak, Financial Times, Slyck, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Digital Daily, GigaOM, Telegraph Blogs, mathewingram.com/work, Teblog, IP Democracy, IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband, The 463, p2pnet, TECH.BLORGE.com, Virtual Economics, BBC, TechCrunch, Techdirt, Geek News Central, CrunchGear, TechCrunch UK, GoNintendo, The Globe and Mail, VoIP Blog and open
Nick White / Windows Vista Team Blog:
Windows Vista SP1 Prerequisites & Non-Security Update coming via Windows Update — Today we have a non-security update scheduled for distribution via Windows Update that you may find of some interest. The non-security update KB947172, a Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista …
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Google Earth Blog:
Twelve New Cities With Google Street View Available — [UPDATE: Ok...according to Google - there are 12 new cities in the collection (they counted the Raleigh area as 3 cities). Originally, I said only six. I've updated the list below.] — Google has not announced it yet …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Yahoo Brickhouse Left Headless — Salim Ismail, who has led Yahoo Brickhouse since since March 2007, left the company today as part of broader layoffs at Yahoo. Layoff packages were being offered, he said, and he left voluntarily. — I've emailed Yahoo for a comment …
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Twittershare Brings File Sharing to Twitter — I love Twitter but even when it's not down it's got its limitations. Enter the API and a world of developers eager to engage with the active community of Twitter users. Twittershare is the newest truly useful development on top of Twitter …
Discussion:
Download Squad
Tina Wood / Channel 10:
Life At Microsoft - The Truth Revealed — People often stop me in the streets to ask “Hey Tina, what's life “really” like at Microsoft? Sometimes I can't even walk outside my house without somebody standing there with a giant neon sign that blinks “What is life “really” like at Microsoft”?
Adam Pash / Lifehacker:
DVD Rip Automates One-Click DVD Ripping — Windows only: Rip and back up any DVD to your hard drive with DVD Rip, a freeware Windows application that automates the entire DVD-to-hard-drive backup process. All you need to do is insert your DVD, run DVD Rip, and let it take care of the rest. Why?
Discussion:
Download Squad
Greg Sandoval / CNET News.com:
Viacom's MTV unveils digital strategy — In some tech circles, Viacom is the symbol of botched digital strategies and uninspired, old-media thinking. — There's little doubt that operating under Viacom's umbrella has hurt MTV's hipster bonafides with tech-savvy youth.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Yahoo's oneConnect: One Mobile App to Rule Them All — Today at the Mobile World Congress in Spain, Yahoo announced a mobile app called oneConnect that will be available in the second quarter as part of the upcoming release of Yahoo Go 3.0. I have not seen a demo of this myself …
Patricia Cohen / New York Times:
At Harvard, a Proposal to Publish Free on Web — Publish or perish has long been the burden of every aspiring university professor. But the question the Harvard faculty will decide on Tuesday is whether to publish — on the Web, at least — free. — Faculty members are scheduled to vote …
