Top Items:
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.
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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 …
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.”
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
Is Yahoo done with search? — Among the many windmills Jerry Yang tilted at in his brief career as Yahoo's CEO was his devotion to Web search. It veered on an obsession for him. It played into his decision to resist Microsoft's offers to shower him with cash, first for his whole company, then for just its search business.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:Yahoo Search Suffers Another Blow, as Key Engineer Departs for Microsoft
Discussion:
The Noisy Channel
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 …
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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, Know It All and paidContent.org
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.
Discussion:
IntoMobile, Tech Beat, Infinite Loop, Apple 2.0, Tech Trader Daily, CNET News, AppleInsider, Digital Daily, Alley Insider, PC World, InformationWeek, 9 to 5 Mac, Valleywag, CrunchGear, iPhone Buzz, MacBlogz, TUAW and Cellfanatic
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]
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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 …
Don Reisinger / The Digital Home:
Why doesn't anyone care about HP? — In case you missed it, Hewlett-Packard announced today that it will be bringing a multitouch notebook to consumers in the form of the TouchSmart tx2. The device will feature a swivel, LED-backlit display, Windows Vista, and full touch capabilities on the screen.
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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.
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.
Arn / MacRumors:
Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) Due in 1st Quarter of 2009? — Apple's Director of Engineering of Unix Technologies Jordan Hubbard spoke at LISA '08 last week. LISA (or Large Installation System Administration Conference) is a technical conference targeted at engineers and system administrators.
Discussion:
NEWSFACTOR, Computerworld, CNET News, Infinite Loop, AppleInsider, SlashGear, I4U News, VentureBeat, MacUser, TheAppleBlog, Phil Windley's Technometria, Boy Genius Report, Insanely Great Mac, MacBlogz, Obsessable, CrunchGear, Engadget, 9 to 5 Mac, Macworld, Boing Boing Gadgets, Neowin.net, O'Grady's PowerPage and Pocket-lint.co.uk
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, Google Blogoscoped, Webware.com, Global Nerdy, paidContent, AppScout, Neatorama and Mashable!
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Sources: Apple, music labels talk DRM-free songs — A year after iTunes began offering music free of copy protection software from EMI, Apple is in discussions with the other three top recording companies about acquiring open MP3s, according to two music industry sources.
Discussion:
MacBlogz
Heather Hopkins / Hitwise Intelligence:
1 in 10 Brand Searches Led Away from the Brand Website — This week we are publishing a report on online brand protection. This issue is huge for marketers with our research showing that more than 1 in 10 US Internet searches for leading brands is led away from the brand owner's website.
Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo:
Windows 7 Touch Control Makes Media Center Interface 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. All I can say is …
Ellen Byron / Wall Street Journal:
Google, P&G Swap Workers — At Procter & Gamble Co., the corporate culture is so rigid, employees jokingly call themselves “Proctoids.” In contrast, Google Inc. staffers are urged to wander the halls on company-provided scooters and brainstorm on public whiteboards.
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Music Industry Squanders $69 Billion Worth Of Free Promotions In 2007 — from the got-your-attention? dept — Over the years, we've seen so many bogus reports on the supposed “losses” to various industries due to unauthorized file sharing, that it's about time the story was flipped.
Wss / Netcraft:
November 2008 Web Server Survey — The November 2008 survey shows worldwide monthly growth of nearly three million websites, with responses now being received from a total of 185,167,897 sites. — Apache once again tops this month's growth, gaining 1.3 million sites to 93 million …
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
Fred / A VC:
Do You Ever Do Any Real Work? — That's a question I used to get all of the time in the early days of this blog. I don't get it so much anymore. Because slowly but surely people are wising up to the fact that blogging is work and its a very valuable use of my time — Take yesterday for example.
Andrew Lim / CNET News:
LG Prada 2: Hands-on with LG's refitted fashionista — Yesterday we sashayed along to the launch of the chic new LG Prada phone — aka the LG Prada 2 — to find out what the fashion-conscious phone has to offer. The original Prada phone was one of the first touchscreen handsets to hit the UK market …
Discussion:
Engadget Mobile
Wagner James Au / GigaOM:
Obama's FCC Transition Team Co-chair a WoW Player — Last week, President-elect Obama appointed Kevin Werbach, assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton, and Susan Crawford, who teaches communications and Internet law at the University of Michigan, to co-chair his FCC transition team.
