Top Items:
Sam Oliver / AppleInsider:
Apple tweaks App Store layout amid developer unrest — Faced with criticism over the way it's been grouping applications on the digital shelves of the App Store, Apple this week is making some changes to the store's layout aimed at showcasing a broader range of top offerings in each category.
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Arn / MacRumors:
Apple Broadens App Store Acceptance, Approves ‘Pull My Finger’ — One of the major criticisms of the App Store has been a seemingly arbitrary rejection policy on the part of Apple. Air-o-Matic was one of the developers rejected by Apple for the reason of “limited utility” for his humor app “Pull My Finger”.
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Your New Agreement With Google, Chrome Users — When Google released its browser called Chrome this fall, there was an unusually loud controversy about its End User Licensing Agreement (EULA). The company responded quickly to those complaints. — Now the contract with users has been changed again …
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Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:
Google Chrome, the Default Browser in Google Pack — Now that it's no longer in beta, Google Chrome has been added to Google Pack. Firefox bundled with Google Toolbar is still available, but you need to explicitly select it. Adding Chrome to Google Pack means that existing users …
Discussion:
Google Watch, Lifehacker, eWeek, Silicon Alley Insider, Lucas Gonze' blog and VentureBeat
Christopher MacManus / Sony Insider:
Sony's First Touchscreen Walkman Revealed — Sony is set to debut a new 16 and 32GB drag and drop Walkman during CES 2009, according to trusted inside sources. This will be the most advanced music, video and photo Walkman music player ever released by Sony to date.
Discussion:
Engadget, Crave, Maximum PC all, Technologizer, Gizmodo, Electronista, CrunchGear, Obsessable and OLED-Info
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Key data center architect leaves Microsoft, headed for Amazon — James Hamilton, one of the big brains behind Microsoft's data center strategy, has left the company, according to a note on his Microsoft home page. And we just confirmed that he's headed across town to Amazon.com …
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Aidan Malley / AppleInsider:
EFi-X USA to sell pre-made PCs capable of running Mac OS X — Leveraging an internal adapter that lets many generic PCs run Mac OS X, a company called EFi-X USA now plans to offer a solution that potentially allows customers to create their own Mac systems.
Discussion:
Infinite Loop, Engadget, Gadget Lab, SlashGear, The Mac Observer, The Toybox, Electronista, TechSpot, TUAW, Insanely Great Mac and Macsimum News
myfoxdc.com:
McCain Campaign Sells Info-Loaded Blackberry to FOX 5 Reporter — Exclusive FOX 5 Investigation — ARLINGTON, Va. - Private information at bargain prices. It was a high-tech flub at the McCain-Palin campaign headquarters in Arlington when Fox 5's Investigative Reporter Tisha Thompson bought …
Jeff / Venture Chronicles:
Advertising in Applications — Few things elicit the visceral reaction that advertising inserted in applications does. Just the mere mention of the word brings out a stream of critics who decry the intrusion that ads impose on usability and express dismay at the treasonous behavior of the developers and companies in question.
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Kevin C. Tofel / jkOnTheRun:
Acer's $99 netbook can actually cost you $1,540. Should you get it? — For those of us already accustomed to the lifetime cost of a subsidized device, this isn't news. But netbooks are a relatively new market so there's bound to be many folks new to mobile tech and subsidization plans.
Discussion:
Boy Genius Report, LAPTOP Magazine, I4U News, Alice Hill's Real Tech News and Technology Questions
Martin LaMonica / CNET News:
Andy Grove urges Intel to build car batteries — Intel CEO Andy Grove has joined other Silicon Valley elites who are advocating for an industry shift into energy technology. — In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Friday, Grove said he is urging Intel to invest …
Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:
Apple iPod Touch, New MacBook Selling Like Crazy (AAPL) — Daring Fireball blogger John Gruber is one of the best-sourced Apple (AAPL) writers on the planet. So when he declares something, we listen. And he seems to be carrying good news for Apple, whose rivals in the PC industry aren't having the best year.
Jessica Guynn / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
V is for this user's vendetta against Facebook — Everyone knows you on Facebook. The problem is, Facebook doesn't know you. — At least that was V Addeman's problem when he tried to sign up for the social networking site. — Recently laid off as a category analyst for convenience stores …
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
November game market a bloodbath — Nintendo's Wii may have run away with the U.S. console hardware market for November, but two titles for Microsoft's Xbox 360 were solidly atop the NPD Group's rankings of video-game sales for the month. Yet Microsoft won't exactly be citing these results …
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
Lenovo's Android phone for China hotter than a G1 with a defective battery — What if we told you the most beautiful phone in the world was a Lenovo? Reactions to that statement are likely going to oscillate between “Lenovo doesn't make cellphones” and “impossible, considering this is the country …
Matt Raymond / Library of Congress Blog:
Library Releases Report on Flickr Pilot — In January, the Library embarked on something that took the online community by storm. In conjunction with Flickr, we loaded a few thousand images from the Library of Congress' vast collections and asked the user community to get involved …
Pthurrott / SuperSite Blog:
How to fix Windows Mobile — This is an interesting if misguided article and, coincidentally, I met with the Windows Mobile folks just this week, so it's good timing as well: … Yep. This is bad. Microsoft is working on a number of things before that major update, Windows Mobile 7.
Kevin C. Tofel / jkOnTheRun:
I'm taking my phone off “the grid”, who's with me? — It's about time for another crazy mobile experiment. Last time was my 60-day “web-challenge” where I tried to use only a browser for my daily computing tasks. It went quite well, but indicated to me that web services still have plenty of room to mature.
Discussion:
Gear Diary
Rita Chang / AdAge:
Mobile Ad Rates Begin to Drop as Inventory Increases — CPMs for Some Categories Have Hit Single Digits — SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) — It's getting cheaper to advertise in mobile as cost-per-impression ad rates hits single-digit pricing in some cases. — The economy isn't the only factor …
Discussion:
Epicenter, mocoNews.net, FierceMobileContent, Local Mobile Search and Silicon Alley Insider
Arn / MacRumors:
iPod Touch Gaming Ad Shakes Things Up — Adage points to a major new ad campaign from Apple which is currently running on http://games.yahoo.com/. Apple's latest web ad goes outside the usual bounds of traditional banner ads by affecting other portions of Yahoo's page (the ad must be initiated by the visitor).
BBC:
Can a Russian entrepreneur really cash in on the emoticon? — A series of punctuation marks used to convey a wink in text messages - known as an emoticon - has been trademarked in Russia, says a local businessman. — Entrepreneur Oleg Teterin said the trademark for the ;-) …
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Sarah Palin, Please Come Back! Hulu Traffic Drops in November — File under “interesting, but understandable”: After a flurry of election-related interest in October, traffic to red-hot Hulu fell off in November. Blame Sarah Palin-or the lack of her. — ComScore says that traffic …
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
John Mahoney / Gizmodo:
Hands On: Pastebud Copy and Paste Trick For iPhone's Safari and Mail — Pastebud—the Javascript-based copy and paste framework that lets you move text from Safari to an email or a form on a web page—is the cleverest solution yet, but still doesn't quite hit the mark.
Mark Drapeau / Mashable!:
Do Brands Belong on Twitter? — Dr. Mark Drapeau is a biological scientist, government consultant, and regular contributor to Mashable.com and other venues. — Behind every Twitter account is a person. But some of these people ‘hide’ behind organizational brands, obscuring their persona …
Gerald Magpily / Dealscape:
Could the stars be aligning for a Google-N.Y. Times merger? — As the New York Times Co. is negotiating with lenders over its debt, speculation has been floating around the blogosphere, pushing the premise that Google Inc. should acquire the beleaguered Gray Lady.
Discussion:
Tech Trader Daily
