Top Items:
John Hanke / The Official Google Blog:
Dive into the new Google Earth — As you read this, I am at the beautiful California Academy of Sciences, announcing the launch of the newest version of Google Earth. This launch is particularly special to me because it marks the moment when Google Earth becomes much more complete — it now has an ocean.
Discussion:
Search Engine Land, Brier Dudley's blog, L.A. Times Tech Blog, VentureBeat, Google LatLong, Tech Central, Google Blogoscoped, blogs.ft.com, Times of London, Computerworld, GMSV, ReadWriteWeb, AppScout, InformationWeek, The Map Room, Ogle Earth, Between the Lines, MacDailyNews, TheNextWeb.com, Lifehacker, Pulse2, Pocket-lint.co.uk, Macworld, WebProNews, Neowin.net and dailywireless.org
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Bobbie Johnson / Guardian:
Google Earth, Google Ocean: mysteries of the seafloor are mapped for the first time — Since Google Earth launched in 2006 millions of people have used its virtual globe to “travel” around the planet without leaving home, climbing a digital version of Mount Everest and even flying into space thanks to the website.
Discussion:
Tech Beat, CNET News, eWeek, Digits, 9 to 5 Mac, Mashable!, Search Engine Land, The Lede, VentureBeat, Obsessable, Electronista, Google LatLong, Gizmodo and GigaOM
Saul Hansell / Bits:
Google Executives Face Jail Time for Italian Video — Four executives of Google begin trial Tuesday in Milan on criminal charges of defamation and privacy violation in regard to a video posted on Google's Italian site. — The case involves a three-minute cellphone video …
Alexander Wolfe / InformationWeek:
Apple Planning Video-Call iPhone — Recent stories on Apple's iPhone patent have focused on Cupertino's threatened legal action against Palm, which is launching the iPhone-like Pre smartphone. But a closer examination of the Apple patent yields much more interesting news.
Discussion:
CrunchGear, Gizmodo, The Apple Core, Gadget Lab, DSLreports, The iPhone Blog, Boy Genius Report, tinyComb, jkOnTheRun, Furrier.org, 9 to 5 Mac, Neowin.net, GMSV and TechCrunch
Tom Espiner / CNET News:
IE slips further as Firefox, Safari, Chrome gain — The amount of market share commanded by Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser has dropped for the seventh consecutive month. — Internet Explorer now has 67.55 percent of global browser market share, a drop of over seven percentage points in a year …
Discussion:
Digital Daily, PC World, The Microsoft Blog, VentureBeat, Computerworld, The Toybox, SitePoint, The Tech Report, TechFlash and AppScout
RELATED:
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Soon, Majority of Web Users Will No Longer Use IE — It might take a few more years, or it might happen suddenly, but trends appear to indicate that the time when Internet Explorer is used by the majority of people on the web will soon come to an end. — New numbers from analytics firm …
Discussion:
Download Squad
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Yahoo PR Head Jill Nash to Depart the Company — Jill Nash, Yahoo's chief communications officer, has told CEO Carol Bartz and other Yahoo staff this afternoon that she is leaving the company. — Yahoo has not made Nash's resignation official, but is likely to do so quickly as Bartz tries …
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Jessica Vascellaro / Digits:
Yahoo's Bartz Vents as Exec Departs — Carol Bartz has been CEO of Yahoo for only few weeks. But she's already working through a to-do list of changes to push. (Nothing yet about Microsoft deals or asset sales or cost-cutting, we're afraid.) — In the most recent of what's shaping …
Tim Arango / New York Times:
Despite iTunes Accord, Music Labels Still Fret — Last month the music industry and Apple, long uneasy partners, seemed a picture of harmony when they agreed on new terms for pricing on iTunes, Apple's online music store. — Behind the scenes, however, the relationship remains as tense and antagonistic as ever.
Discussion:
Network World, Neowin.net, Gizmodo, Macworld, Apple 2.0, AppleInsider, iLounge, The iPhone Blog, CrunchGear, Edible Apple, Insanely Great Mac, MacNN, 9 to 5 Mac, TUAW, MacRumors and MacDailyNews
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft:
Windows XP still powering 71 percent of business PCs — More than two years after the Windows Vista launch, XP is still the dominant business PC operating system in North America and Europe. — Windows Vista “finally appears ready to dethrone XP” as the operating-system choice for enterprise PCs …
Discussion:
Apple Watch, TechFlash, The Register, Computerworld, Microsoft Watch, CNET News and Silicon Alley Insider
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Claire Cain Miller / Bits:
Venture Capital Returns Dip Below Zero — Like almost all investors, those who invested in venture capital funds lost money last year. Venture investments returned -1.6 percent in the year ended Sept. 30, according to new data from the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters.
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Google: “We're Not Doing a Good Job with Structured Data” — During a talk at the New England Database Day conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Google's Alon Halevy admitted that the search giant has “not been doing a good job” presenting the structured data found on the web to its users.
Moira Herbst / Business Week:
Microsoft: Layoffs for Some, Visas for Others — The software giant that has pushed for more H-1B visas faces tough questions as it lays off 5,000 — Even as the economy hemorrhages jobs, many employers continue to advocate for fewer restrictions on importing foreign workers to fill specialized jobs.
RELATED:
Pete Carey / Mercury News:Layoffs mean more than lost wages for H-1B visa holders
Discussion:
Industry Standard
Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch:
Can't afford a G1? T-Mobile will now let you split the bill across 4 months — Whether you only upgrade once every two years or every time a new handset drops, following the latest in mobile hardware can be an expensive hobby. Lookin' to keep sales up in the face of an economic slump …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Between the Lines, jkOnTheRun, Boy Genius Report, pocketnow.com and GPS Obsessed
Fareastgizmos.com:
While in Korea download a 120-minute film in just 12 seconds! — Korea is to acquire the world's fastest wired and wireless Internet service at 10 times the speed of the current service by 2012. The government and the communications industry plan to invest some W34 trillion over the next five years in the project.
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Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
Analyst now says iMacs likely in both dual- and quad-core — A Wall Street analyst who recently reported that Apple was torn between using dual-core processors and quad-core processors in its next-generation iMac line now believes the company will adopt both.
RELATED:
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:Analyst: iMac update “within a few weeks”
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
TechCrunch Interviews Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg At Davos — We saved the best for last. Below is our interview with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week. Sandberg, who says this is her first video interview since joining Facebook in March 2008 …
Discussion:
Beet.TV
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Yahoo Shuts Down Publisher Network RSS Ads — The next Yahoo program to be discontinued are the Yahoo Publisher Network RSS ads. Here is an email I just received from Yahoo: … Yahoo launched the RSS ads back in November 2005. I assume it never took off and they have now decided to drop that portion of the overall product.
Adam Frucci / Gizmodo:
Crackulous Allows for App Store Piracy — Crackulous, a program for pirating apps from the iPhone App Store, was just released. Great for cheapskates, terrible for independent developers trying to make a living. Updated: 4:35pm — You'll need to jailbreak your phone to get in on the fun …
Chris Kanaracus / PC World:
Study: Certain IT Skills in Demand Despite Economy — Thirty-eight percent of U.S. companies are planning to trim IT staff this year, but certain skills remain hot, according to a new study by the IT staffing company Veritude. — The poll, taken in the fourth quarter of 2008 …
Seagate Technology:
Seagate® Introduces Constellation™: All-Star Enterprise Hard Drives With The World's Highest Capacity And Power Efficiency — The Constellation family includes 2.5-inch nearline hard drive with lowest enterprise power consumption and record-setting 3.5-inch 7200-rpm 2TB hard drive for nearline Tier 2 enterprise applications
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman: “We Can Go Public Any Time We Want To” — Next up in my series of interviews recorded at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last week is Reid Hoffman, the founder and CEO of LinkedIn. I spoke to Reid for more than twenty minutes in the lobby of our hotel …
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Michael Bolin / Gmail Blog:
Tasks: Paper vs. iPhone — Among the world's leading productivity tools is an advanced technology known as paper. Many of the world's top corporations and most active internet users have adopted paper as a method of organizing their daily lives. When they think of something they need to do …
Matt Buchanan / Gizmodo:
AT&T Data Outage in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana — It's not your imagination. There's an AT&T data outage currently smiting parts of Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. Yep, AT&T is headquartered in Texas, so insert irony tag here. UPDATED. — Update 2: Everything should be cool now.
Phil Carson / RCR Wireless News:
Analyst: Apple's IP battle over iPhone's multi-touch capabilities is ill-advised — FIRM REVIEWS APPLE'S PATENT FILINGS FOR WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY — Apple Inc.'s threat to sue competitors over multi-touch capabilities that violate its patents, a warning made during the company's earnings call last month …
Matt Rosoff / Digital Noise:
Live Nation can't keep up with Phish demand — Music forums were abuzz all weekend about Live Nation's inability to handle the millions of simultaneous online requests for Phish tickets. The fabled jam band is reuniting for a summer tour after several years off, and is playing …
