Top Items:
Annie Chen / Gmail Blog:
Spice up your inbox with colors and themes — Gmail fans have been building unofficial extensions to spice up their inboxes for a while, but up til now themes haven't been an integral part of Gmail. We wanted to go beyond simple color customization, so out of the 30 odd themes we're launching today …
Discussion:
CNET News, ReadWriteWeb, Google Watch, Google Operating System, geeksugar, sarahintampa, InformationWeek and TheNextWeb.com
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Gmail Themes. That's Totally Ninja. — Apparently a lucky few Gmail users had a “Themes” tab pop up under settings. No longer do you have to suffer through the boring-if-functional standard Gmail interface for the 16 hours a day that you keep the page loaded. Try “Ninja” instead.
Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:
Ziff Davis To Close PCMag Print; Focus on Online; Still Looking For Options For Gaming Division — Ziff Davis, the tech/gaming media company that recently exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is now taking the brave but inevitable step of closing down the print version of PCMag to focus its energy …
RELATED:
Nicholas Carlson / Alley Insider:
PC Magazine Goes Out Of Print — Founded in 1982 and at times so rich with ads its issues reached as many as 600 pages, Ziff Davis's PC Magazine will issue its last print edition this January, thereafter becoming an online-only publication. Ziff Davis, which recently exited bankruptcy will lay off seven print production employees.
Discussion:
Crave, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, SmoothSpan Blog, Valleywag, paidContent.org and Lockergnome Blog Network
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Ballmer: ‘We are done’ with Yahoo acquisition idea — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer threw his daily bucket of cold water on the notion that the software maker will return with a new bid for all of Yahoo. — “We are done with all acquisition discussions with Yahoo,” Ballmer said …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, TechFlash, CNET News, Epicenter, paidContent.org, HipMojo.com, GMSV, Microsoft Pri0 and Valleywag
RELATED:
Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Why Microsoft Should Bid Again — and Yahoo Should Accept — Now that Yahoo co-founder and CEO Jerry Yang has finally stepped aside, removing what many saw as one of the main barriers to bringing the two companies together, Microsoft should re-ignite acquisition talks with the company.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Yahoo Search Suffers Another Blow, as Key Engineer Departs for Microsoft — Yahoo-which has stuck to its guns by staying in the search business, even though many think it is a losing game and should be sold off to Microsoft-has lost a key engineer in that arena to, uh-oh, Microsoft.
RELATED:
Signal vs. Noise:
Why the Drudge Report is one of the best designed sites on the web — A couple weeks ago on Twitter I said: “I still maintain the Drudge Report is one of the best designed sites on the web. Has been for years.” A few people agreed, but most didn't. Some thought it was a joke. I wasn't kidding.
Arik Hesseldahl / Business Week:
Hewlett-Packard Out-Touches Apple — Apple watchers assumed Jobs & Co. would be the first to offer a multitouch laptop, but Hewlett-Packard has beaten them to the punch — From the first time Steve Jobs demonstrated “the pinch”—the two-finger gesture used to zoom in and out of photos …
RELATED:
Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report:
Confirmed: iPhone 3G coming to Wal-Mart on December 28th, select Sam's Club stores as well — Shortly after we posted about the iPhone coming to Wal-Mart this morning, it seemed like all of our ninjas came out of the woodwork to bombard us with info. Rather than post an update, we want to lay out what is now confirmed info.
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Sources: Apple, music labels talk DRM-free songs — A year after iTunes began offering music without copy protection software from EMI, Apple is in discussions with the other three top recording companies about acquiring DRM-free songs, according to two music industry sources.
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch UK:
Updated: BNP member list mashed with Google maps creates a sea of red dots, but dangerously inaccurate — BREAKING NOW: — Creator of the Map, Ben Charlton, removes it from his site. Here's his post explaining why: … [More coverage on this story here and here.] — [Updated: Please see further updates below]
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Intel to launch 65W desktop CPUs for all-in-one PCs — Intel is planning to launch three 65W low-power desktop CPUs targeting small form factor (SFF) PCs and all-in-one PCs in the middle of January next year, according to sources at PC vendors. — Intel will launch the Core 2 Quad Q8200s …
Jeremy Crane / Compete Blog:
Behold the Power of google.com — What would you give for one day of Google eyeballs? What would it be worth to you to have one single ad running on Google's oh so sparse and much hailed homepage? My guess, that for better or worse, many an online marketing department would be more than happy …
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb
Mitchell / Mitchell's Blog:
Sustainability in Uncertain Times — Today we are posting our audited financial statements and tax form for 2007. As in past years, I'll use this event as an opportunity to review both our financial status and our overall effectiveness in moving the mission forward. — Financial
Chris Albrecht / NewTeeVee:
No One Expects... Monty Python on YouTube! — Break out the comfy chair — famed British comedy troupe Monty Python now has a channel on YouTube. And in a very Python-esque manner, they've kicked the whole thing off with an introductory video that calls out YouTube users for ripping them off over the past three years.
Discussion:
Techdirt, Webware.com, Google Blogoscoped, Global Nerdy, paidContent, AppScout and Neatorama
CBC News:
CRTC to rule on Bell's throttling on Thursday — Internet watchers are on the edge of their seats as the CRTC is set to make a landmark ruling Thursday on Bell Canada Inc.'s throttling of speeds. — The regulator will hand down its decision at 9 a.m. after twice delaying the ruling.
Reuters:
Experts: Cyber-crime as Destructive as Credit Crisis — Cyber-crime is likely to wreak as much havoc as the credit crisis in the coming years if international regulation is not improved, according to some of the world's top crime experts. Damage caused by cyber-crime is estimated at $100 billion annually …
Ina Fried / Beyond Binary:
Microsoft hiring could be slow through 2010 — Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told shareholders Wednesday he expects the company's move to slow its hiring will continue beyond the middle of next year. — Headcount, he said, will experience “much, much slower growth for the remainder of this financial year and I suspect into next year.”
Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo:
Windows 7 Touch Control Makes Media Center Interface Awesome — Windows 7 Touch Control Makes Media Center More Awesome — Visiting Microsoft's Media Center posse in Redmond, I just caught a glimpse of the Windows 7 Media Center interface with integrated touch control (no third-party software) on an HP TouchSmart.
Discussion:
GeekTonic
Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report:
Nokia E71 coming to AT&T as E71x; live and in the flesh — There it is people, looking sexy as ever - we can only hope that the “X” doesn't stand for “Xtra crippled”. It looks like we're now pretty close to seeing AT&T formally announce the E71, rebranded as the E71x, as a welcome addition to its smartphone line.
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Microsoft Realizes No One Wants To Pay Microsoft To Fix Its Own Security Flaws — Back in 2005, when Microsoft was first mulling the idea of offering security software, we noted that the company was between something of a rock and a hard place. If it decided to charge for the software …
Chris Albrecht / NewTeeVee:
Sonic Solutions to Buy CinemaNow — Sonic Solutions, maker of the Roxio line of media applications and Qflix DVD-burning software, said today that it has agreed to buy privately held online movie distributor CinemaNow. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but CinemaNow is probably breathing a sigh of relief.
Discussion:
paidContent.org
Serkan Toto / CrunchGear:
Konica Minolta develops a USB stick-sized projector — Not the real thing. — Konica Minolta (or its subsidiary Konica Minolta Opto, to be more exact) has developed what sounds like it's one of the smallest projectors around today. Measuring just 20×40x7mm, the projector is reportedly …
Discussion:
Computerworld Blogs, Electronista, News at About Projectors, Gizmodo Australia, SlashGear, Gizmodo and Engadget
Will Park / IntoMobile:
MMS coming to iPhone 3G! — Now, before you get all worked up in an MMS-frenzy, you should know that MMS is coming to iPhone 3G's on Telia's network. MacWorld has confirmed that the Scandinavian wireless carrier has the distinction of offering the iPhone 3G exclusively in Apple rival Nokia's home-turf …
Discussion:
Mashable!
Agence France Presse:
iPhone sex: Google application baffled by British accents — LONDON (AFP) - A new voice-recognition search tool for the iPhone has problems understanding British accents, leading to some bizarre answers to spoken queries, a newspaper report and users said Wednesday.
