Top Items:
Google Public Policy Blog:
Cone of silence (finally) lifts on the spectrum auction — For three weeks at the end of January and early February, a small team of us holed up in double super secret “war rooms” in Mountain View, CA and Washington, D.C. to bid on Google's behalf in the FCC spectrum auction.
Discussion:
DSLreports, TechCrunch, IP Democracy, Search Engine Watch Blog, IDG News Service, Wall Street Journal, WebProNews, Silicon Alley Insider, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, localmobilesearch.net, Associated Press, Engadget, mocoNews.net, VentureBeat, CNET News.com, Gearlog, InformationWeek Weblog and Phone Scoop
RELATED:
Om Malik / GigaOM:
AT&T's 700 MHz Strategy: LTE — The open access restrictions mandated by the Federal Communications Commission on portions of the recently auctioned 700 MHz spectrum were among the main reasons AT&T chose not to bid for that spectrum but opted instead to pay more for that of the B-Block …
Anne Broache / CNET News.com:
Verizon's spectrum plans: Speedier wireless broadband — Verizon executives on Friday said that a valuable chunk of newly purchased analog TV spectrum is a “transformative opportunity” that's expected to allow for delivery of vastly speedier wireless broadband service within the next three years.
Miguel Helft / New York Times:
An Auction That Google Was Content to Lose — SAN FRANCISCO — Google had little desire to own a premium slice of the nation's airwaves, but a week into a federal auction for wireless licenses, it found itself at risk of being the winning bidder for the coveted spectrum.
Discussion:
Tech Watch
Loïc Le Meur / Loic Le Meur Blog:
20 reasons why Seesmic acquired Twhirl — As TechCrunch just announced, Seesmic just acquired Twhirl. And here are 20 ways it will benefit the Seesmic community —Staying in touch with your friends using microblogging is much easier using a client than through your browser
RELATED:
Mark Hendrickson / TechCrunch:
Seesmic Acquires Popular Twitter AIR Client Twhirl — San Francisco video/chat startup Seesmic has acquired Twhirl, a popular application created by German developer Marco Kaiser that allows users to access the Twitter service directly from their desktop, and also cross post to other services like Pownce and Jaiku.
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
A SaaSy SAP vs. Salesforce debate: Is Benioff overestimating his platform? — Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff and SAP Chairman Hasso Plattner dueled at the Churchill Club in a debate about the future of software and the generation gap couldn't be larger. — Benioff brought the bluster …
Discussion:
deal architect
RELATED:
Laura M. Holson / New York Times:
Mobile Phone Industry Takes Aim at the iPhone — LAS VEGAS — Last year, the wireless industry obsessed over the iPhone. This year, the industry is buzzing about how to beat it. — Touch screens, the mobile Internet and devices packed with multimedia capabilities dominated the discussion …
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Craigslist to fan blog: Give us your domain, now — You don't mess with Craigslist, apparently. — A fan-run blog called Craigslist Blog has been served a takedown notice from the massive classifieds site, according to a post from blogger Tim White on Thursday.
RELATED:
Fred / A VC:
Something Important Is On The Horizon In The Music Business — Having ceded the file based music opportunity (mp3s and drm'd file formats) to Apple, the recorded labels are now getting hip to the much bigger opportunity, streaming music. — Yes, it's true that listeners will still want to own files for a few more years.
Discussion:
SmoothSpan Blog
Andrew Orlowski / The Register:
MySpace Music leaves creators cold — $10,000 Panda Challenge - are you really protected? — What a pity that while raging against the (dying) major record label, keyboard warriors are content to see them gain more power over creators than ever before. MySpace announced …
Ed Bott / Ed Bott's Microsoft Report:
The Vista license “loophole” that isn't — Software licensing is often hard to understand. But that's no excuse for so-called Windows experts to deliberately publish sensational stories that turn the facts upside-down. — I'm talking about the fuss that Scott Dunn and Brian Livingston kicked …
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Ruling: No safe harbor when the questions discriminate — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has reaffirmed (PDF) a previous decision saying that Roommates.com does not qualify for protection under the Safe Harbor provisions of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) in housing discrimination lawsuits …
Ashish Thapliyal / Ashish Thapliyal's Blog:
Silverlight Roadmap questions — Silverlight is about 7 month old kid but it is already making such a big buzz. One of my colleague Rahul did excellent job in terms of putting up a FAQ regarding the roadmap — 1. When exactly will Silverlight support all the codecs that a standard Windows Media Player support?
Eric Savitz / Tech Trader Daily:
Dell: Goldman Downgrades On Slow Turnaround Progress — Goldman Sachs hardware analyst David Bailey this morning dropped his rating on Dell to Buy from Neutral. Bailey simply thinks it is taking longer than expected to turn the company around. He cut his price target on the stock to $23 from $25.
Discussion:
eWeek
