Top Items:
YouTube Blog:
Bigger Isn't Always Better... But in This Case, We Believe It Is — Over the years we've heard a lot of feedback from you about what you'd like to change about YouTube, and the size of our video player is always top of mind. That's why today we're excited to announce a bigger YouTube player.
Discussion:
Podcasting News, Between the Lines, TheNextWeb.com, WebProNews, ReadWriteWeb, NewTeeVee, CNET News, Profy, Gizmodo, AppScout, Mashable! and The Utube Blog
RELATED:
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
YouTube Defaults Videos In HD Format: But Forgets Embed Feature — YouTube announced that all videos on their web site will now be in the wider format HD format, 16:9 ratio. The YouTube player is now 960 pixels wide, as opposed to the standard format of 4:3 ratio.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
YouTube Goes Wide — YouTube has apparently changed all videos on its site to play in widescreen format. Because most videos on the site were originally uploaded in a ratio closer to 4:3 (the standard size used on non-HD televisions), most videos are playing with horizontal black bars on the side.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Amazon Kindle 2 Slated For “Early Q1″ — Update on the Kindle 2: It was scheduled to be released in October in time for this holiday season, but Bezos himself reportedly pulled the plug for last minute changes to the software. Our sources now say it's tentatively scheduled to go on sale in “early next quarter.”
Twitter Blog:
Meet Rael Dornfest — Rael Dornfest is a famously talented engineer, author, and entrepreneur. Before founding Values of n, Rael served as Chief Technology Officer at O'Reilly Media and is known for his pioneering work on RSS as well being the series editor of O'Reilly's celebrated Hacks books.
Discussion:
WebProNews, Twitterrati, TechCrunch, Furrier.org, Jobwire, mocoNews.net, Alley Insider, ReadWriteWeb, TheNextWeb.com and Susan Mernit's Blog
RELATED:
Steven Levy / Wired News:
Ray Ozzie Wants to Push Microsoft Back Into Startup Mode — The keynote speaker at this past summer's TechReady conference—a gathering of 6,000 or so Microsoft engineers from around the world—was the company's chief software architect, Ray Ozzie. This was not a routine appearance.
Eric Horvitz / Microsoft Research Home:
Cyberchondria: Studies of the Escalation of Medical Concerns in Web Search — Available Documents: — The World Wide Web provides an abundant source of medical information. This information can assist people who are not healthcare professionals to better understand health and disease …
RELATED:
DigiTimes:
Acer to launch 10-inch Aspire One as early as February next year — Acer plans to launch 10-inch Aspire One netbooks in February or March next year, according to Scott Lin, Acer Taiwan president. — As for its 8.9-inch netbooks currently available, the 3.5G module-based Aspire One netbooks …
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Google cutting contractor workforce — Google is in the process of paring back a contractor workforce that numbers about 10,000, the company confirmed Monday. The news, though, isn't as fresh as it might appear at first blush. — The contractor cut story made the rounds Monday …
Discussion:
Alley Insider, MarketingVOX, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Tech Ticker, Beyond Search, VentureBeat, Tech Beat, Profy, TechFlash, Technologizer, ChannelWeb, PC World, Enterprise Irregulars, Google Watch, RyanSpoon.com, TECH.BLORGE.com, Brier Dudley's blog, TheNextWeb.com, UMBC ebiquity, Valleywag and Search Engine Land
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Was Ebay's BillMeLater Acquisition A Huge Blunder? — When eBay paid $945 million for BillMeLater in October, we blinked. The business assigns credit at the point of sale to ecommerce customers who can't use credit cards because they don't have them, have maxed out credit limits, or choose not to.
Esteban Kozak / The LinkedIn Blog:
Announcing LinkedIn's New Search Platform — I am writing today to announce the full release of LinkedIn's new search platform to over 31 million LinkedIn users. — The new search platform at LinkedIn is redefining the way professionals go about finding talent, business partners, customers or a former colleague.
Adobe:
Camera Raw 5.2 update — This new version of the Camera Raw plug-in replaces the original one that was installed with Adobe® Photoshop® CS4; Adobe Photoshop Elements 7.0; and Adobe Premiere® Elements 7.0 software. Visit the Camera Raw page for a complete list of supported cameras.
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Will Apple launch a netbook? And other burning questions — Apple has said “it doesn't do cheap,” but one analyst reckons that Steve Jobs & Co. will address the netbook market at some point-either with an 11-inch MacBook Air priced between $800 and $1,000 in 2009 or a tablet Mac in 2010.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Cisco To Shut Down For 4 Days At Year End — If you want to know how bad it is going to get for all of us in Silicon Valley, just look at Cisco Systems. For first time in its history the company is going to shut down for four days at the end of the year, according to a report by UBS Research.
Peter Ha / CrunchGear:
Review: Samsung Omnia for Verizon Wireless — First off, someone at Verizon Wireless must have been drunk or asleep at the wheel when they gave the Omnia the green light because it has Wi-Fi. Isn't Verizon notorious for stripping that feature from every single phone in its lineup?
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
PlaySpan raises $16.8 million for gaming virtual goods platform — Virtual goods sales are looking better than real world goods sales. PlaySpan announced today that it has raised $16.8 million for its virtual goods platform and online payments business for online games.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
HP's outlook for next year unchanged despite tough economy — Hewlett-Packard reported its fourth fiscal quarter earnings this afternoon for the quarter ended Oct. 31 that were consistent with the company's upbeat preliminary results. The surprising thing is that the world's biggest …
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Blockbuster joins the movie set-top-box game with 2Wire MediaPoint player — We've rubbed our eyes four or five times now, but the factual heat remains: Blockbuster — of all companies — has decided to dive headfirst into the movie set-top-box arena. We wanted to believe the rumors were false …
Discussion:
last100, Podcasting News, NewTeeVee, Associated Press, TechCrunch, L.A. Times Tech Blog, paidContent.org, Gearlog, WebProNews, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, broadstuff, Home Media Magazine and Crave
Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Web Suicide Viewed Live and Reaction Spur a Debate — For a 19-year-old community college student in Pembroke Pines, Fla., the message boards on BodyBuilding.com were a place to post messages, at least 2,300 of them, including more than one about his suicidal impulses.
Meera Selva / Associated Press:
Negotiations to put Beatles on iTunes stalled — Paul McCartney says negotiations to put Beatles songs on iTunes have stalled — LONDON (AP) — Paul McCartney said Monday negotiations on a long-awaited deal to make the Beatles' catalog available on the online music service iTunes have stalled.
Discussion:
Distorted-Loop.com, MacBlogz, MacDailyNews, MacNN, iPhone Savior, CNET News, VentureBeat, Edible Apple, Engadget and Macsimum News
Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:
Student Writes to Steve Jobs, Gets Free Final Cut Studio 2 — Sometimes Xmas comes earlier and when you less expect it: A Greenwich High School student wrote a letter directly to Mr. Jobs himself asking politely for an student discount on Final Cut Studio 2.
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Musical Chairs at MSN: Here's a Partial Scorecard of What's What — Here's part of an internal memo BoomTown obtained about some small, but interesting, changes at Microsoft's MSN unit, sent out by the GM of its Global Media Group, Greg Nelson, which is under the leadership of-well, frankly-a confusing panoply of execs.
Discussion:
paidContent.org
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Web 2.0 Music Pioneer iLike Looking for Buyers — iLike, the Web start-up that made a name for itself by becoming Facebook's de facto music service, is looking for a buyer, according to multiple sources. I'm told that iLike is actively soliciting a list of buyers that include RealNetworks and Ticketmaster …
Discussion:
Tech Confidential, paidContent.org, Distorted-Loop.com, VentureBeat, Alley Insider and TechFlash
John Leyden / The Register:
Facebook wins record $873m fine against smut spammer — Junk mailer poked but unlikely to pay — Facebook has won a $873m judgment against a Canadian sued for spamming users of the social networking site with “sexually explicit” messages after hacking into the profiles of its members.
Paddy Maguire / BBC:
Compulsive gamers ‘not addicts’ — Ninety per cent of the young people who seek treatment for compulsive computer gaming are not addicted. — So says Keith Bakker the founder and head of Europe's first and only clinic to treat gaming addicts. — The Smith & Jones Centre in Amsterdam …
