Top Items:
Tom Neumayr / Apple:
Changes Coming to the iTunes Store — Apple® today announced several changes to the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com). Beginning today, all four major music labels—Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI, along with thousands of independent labels …
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog, TechCrunch, TUAW, Network World, GMSV, iPhone Savior, CrunchGear, iLounge, CNET News, Zatz Not Funny!, Infinite Loop, Macsimum News, Gallop Services Blog, DSLreports and Pulse2
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Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
The Price Of Going DRM-Free: Apple's Hidden $1.8 Billion Music Tax — Nearly two years ago, Steve Jobs published an open letter to the music industry calling for the death of DRM (digital rights management). He convinced EMI to ditch DRM back in April, 2007, but the three other major music labels held out.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:Confirmed: iTunes Going DRM-Free. Unclear: Does Anyone Care?
Discussion:
Slate, Macworld, USA Today, Gizmodo, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Network World, InfoWorld, iLounge, Byte of the Apple and Boy Genius Report
Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo:
Apple Confirms $179 Battery Swap Cost for 17" MacBook Pro — We just confirmed with Apple that swapping out the 17" MacBook Pro's non-removable battery will cost $179. Fortunately, says Apple, the swap might not be needed for a long time: — From a spokesperson at Apple:
Discussion:
Infinite Loop, PC World, SlashGear, DVICE, Network World, Boing Boing Gadgets, TheAppleBlog and CNET News
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Joshua Topolsky / Engadget:
MacBook Pro 17-inch first hands-on (update: video added) — Yep — it looks just like its little brothers! Feels like 'em too, except the obvious bit of heft added by that 17-inch display. Of course, they don't have that sweet, gigantic battery inside, or that matte display option (until we torch Curpertino, of course... in love).
AppleInsider:
Apple unveils 17-inch MacBook Pro with 8-hour battery — Presenting at the Macworld Expo on Tuesday, Apple unveiled the new 17-inch MacBook Pro featuring a durable and precision aluminum unibody enclosure, and a revolutionary new built-in battery that delivers up to eight hours of use …
Discussion:
Boy Genius Report, Gizmodo, Infinite Loop, Gearlog, Between the Lines, Electronista and Digital Daily
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Sony's VAIO P ultraportable revealed — Chicklet keyboard, check. Tiny pointing nub, check. Looks like this is Sony's Vaio P series ultraportable on display at CES. By on display we mean, on display as these shots were taken off the display monitors here at CES.
Reuters:
Apple disappoints-no Jobs, big news at Macworld — (Refiles to delete extraneous words in paragraphs one and three) (Adds analyst comment, product details) — Apple Inc (AAPL.O) said on Tuesday it was dropping copy protection from songs sold on the Internet and debuted its slimmest 17-inch laptop yet …
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Sam Diaz / Between the Lines:Apple's final Macworld: Schiller delivers but announcements disappoint
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Coolest Gadgets
Michael Hirschorn / The Atlantic Online:
End Times — VIRTUALLY ALL THE predictions about the death of old media have assumed a comfortingly long time frame for the end of print—the moment when, amid a panoply of flashing lights, press conferences, and elegiac reminiscences, the newspaper presses stop rolling and news goes entirely digital.
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Jack Shafer / Slate:
How Newspapers Tried to Invent the Web — But failed. — A moment of sympathy, please, for newspapers, whose readers and advertisers have been fleeing at a frightening rate. — It would be easy to accuse editors and publishers of being clueless about the coming Internet disruption …
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
Stevenote? Here's Your Stevenote. Or, More Specifically, Your Woznote. — Call Steve Wozniak the anti-Steve Jobs. He's far nerdier than Jobs ever was; he's not a polished presenter; he has a zillion passions beyond Apple (Segway Polo, anyone?); and nobody's ever going to spend any time worrying that he's looking gaunt.
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Nicholas Deleon / CrunchGear:
Say hello to iWork 09: Like iWork 08, but plus one — Whoever predicted that Apple would introduce iWork '09 today gets a gold star. Keynote, Pages and Numbers all received what I would consider minor updates; no need to run around all willy nilly for these, methinks.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Obsessable, Infinite Loop, SlashGear, Industry Standard, Epicenter and ReadWriteWeb
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Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo:
Apple Revamps iLife for '09 with iPhoto Facial Recognition and More — Today at Macworld 2009, Apple showed off a new iPhoto with true facial recognition, a better iMovie and other iLife updates—$79 solo, $99 for family, requires Leopard, available late January. — It's a good solid upgrade full of very nice features.
Discussion:
Infinite Loop, Apple, TechCrunch, MacRumors, TUAW, gizmag Emerging …, Obsessable and Lifehacker
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Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Pandora Radio 2.0 Lands On The iPhone Tonight — Pandora Radio, the personalized internet radio service that has remained among the most popular iPhone apps on the iTunes App Store since its inception in July (and that I've previously called the iPhone's killer app), will be releasing its most significant update yet later today.
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Report: PC makers to provide free Vista-to Win-7 upgrades starting July 1 — In yet another indicator as to the progress of Windows 7, the Tech ARP site reported that Microsoft plans to allow PC makers to offer customers who buy Windows Vista machines as of July 1 free upgrades to Windows 7 once it ships.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
WebEx on Your iPhone, Finally — If I had to name one collaboration application that I to use on an almost daily basis, with the exception of Google Docs, my answer would be Cisco's WebEx. A lot of companies make pitches to me using WebEx. Despite its patchy performance on the Mac …
Guardian:
The shape of things to come — A self-confessed ‘pretty unlikely early adopter’, the digital guru Clay Shirky still proved to be uncannily prescient about the impact of the web - which is why Tom Teodorczuk is getting his media forecast for 2009 — Clay Shirky, with his bald head and composed manner …
Discussion:
Podcasting News
Jose Martinez / NY Daily News:
Model Liskula Cohen sues Google over blogger's ‘skank’ comment — A Vogue cover girl is suing Google in an attempt to unmask the blogger who trashed her as a “skank” and an “old hag.” — Liskula Cohen, a blond beauty who has modeled for Giorgio Armani and Versace, made headlines last year …
Owen Thomas / Gawker:
The Russian Bear Slashes a Social Network — The bubble in social networking has burst, decisively. LiveJournal, the San Francisco-based arm of Sup, a Russian Internet startup, has cut 12 of 28 U.S. employees — and offered them no severance, we're told. — The quirky site …
Mark Ward / BBC:
The dark side of the flash drive — To most people the USB stick is a humble, innocuous device that does nothing more than help them tote around their most important files. — But to the US Department of Defense (DoD), the USB stick has a dark side - one that criminally-minded hackers are only too eager to exploit.
VMware:
VMware Appoints Tod Nielsen as Chief Operating Officer — Veteran from Leading Software Companies Including Borland, BEA, Oracle and Microsoft Brings Proven Executive Leadership to VMware — VMware Inc., (VMW: NYSE) the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacenter …
Karen Jacobs / Reuters:
Best Buy offers used iPhones at lower price — ATLANTA (Reuters) - Retailer Best Buy Co, seeking new ways to appeal to cost-conscious shoppers, said on Tuesday it is selling refurbished versions of Apple Inc's iPhone 3G at its stores that are priced about $50 less than new iPhones.
Harry McCracken / Technologizer:
Apple's Brilliant Video Engineer: Anonymous No More — My favorite moment at this year's Macworld Expo keynote had nothing to do with any of the products that were unveiled-it was was about the unveiling of a person. — At last year's Macworld Expo keynote, Steve Jobs waxed rhapsodic …
