Top Items:
The Boy Genius / Boy Genius Report:
Palm Pre First Hands On! — Yes — you're looking at the first site in the world to have a Palm Pre (or at least be able to post it up). There's so much to say but that's going to have to wait for our full review. In the meantime, here's a couple first impressions of the phone and a few more photos after the break:
Discussion:
CrunchGear, InformationWeek, My Pre, Palm WebOS, jkOnTheRun, I4U News, SlashPhone, SlashGear, Gadgetell, Mobilewhack.com, Smartphones and Cell Phones, PreCentral.net, WebOS Arena and Fone Arena, Thanks:fonearena
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Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Apple 2.0:
Scooplet: the Palm Pre syncs with iTunes — It came up briefly at CES in January when a Palm (PALM) representative let the cat out of the bag (see here). Nobody followed up. — But with more and more Palm Pres appearing in the wild — in the hands of Palm employees, Elevation partners …
Discussion:
PC World, AppleInsider, CNET News, MacRumors, Engadget, Gadgetell, TUAW, Treonauts, Edible Apple, Gizmodo, CrunchGear, SlashGear, PreCentral.net, TheAppleBlog, My Pre, tinyComb, The iPhone Blog, Electronista and MacDailyNews, Thanks:johnboot185
Reuters:
Verizon to sell Palm Pre, new BlackBerry Storm — *Verizon to sell Palm Pre, new BlackBerry storm — *Palm shares rise 11 pct, Sprint shares fall 3 pct — Verizon Wireless plans to start selling Palm Inc's (PALM.O) Pre and a new version of the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm in about six months …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Bing! Microsoft Prepares For War With A Revamped Search Engine (Screenshots) — Today, Microsoft publicly unveiled its soon-to-launch search engine Bing. It will become available over the next few days, and be fully launched by June 3. On the surface, Bing has a distinct gloss.
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John Paczkowski / D7 Highlights:
D7 Interview: Steve Ballmer — “Search and advertising, we are a small share....It's all about Google. They have share, we don't have share.” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said that back in February, and according to the latest metrics from comScore (SCOR), it's as true today as it was then.
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Microsoft's Bing Vs Google: Head To Head Search Results — Let's just get it out of the way: no, Bing is not a “Google Killer.” It's also safe to say that Microsoft doesn't see it that way either. My understanding of what Microsoft believes it has in Bing is a much more competitive product than Live Search.
Discussion:
All about Microsoft
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
AOL Spinoff Approved Last Night by Time Warner Board: Here Are the Inside Details (Not in the Press Release) — While there were reports that the Time Warner board was meeting today to approve the spinoff of its AOL online unit, it actually gave the move an “enthusiastic endorsement” last night, according to sources.
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TimeWarner:
Time Warner Inc. Announces Plan to Separate AOL — NEW YORK - Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX) today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized management to proceed with plans for the complete legal and structural separation of AOL from Time Warner. Following the proposed transaction …
Discussion:
Contentinople, GigaOM, Bits, DSLreports, paidContent.org, InformationWeek, Silicon Alley Insider, Telecompetitor, Associated Press and Financial Times
Matt Richtel / Bits:
Google: Expect 18 Android Phones by Year's End — Summer Of '09 Phone War update: By year's end, there will be at least 18 phones on the market worldwide based on the Android operating system, Google disclosed for the first time today. — Andy Rubin, senior director for Mobile Platforms …
Discussion:
Engadget Mobile, mocoNews, Gizmodo, Android Central, CrunchGear, Google Code, Electronista, Silicon Alley Insider, AndroidGuys, The Toybox, Smartphones and Cell Phones, TmoNews, TECH.BLORGE.com, SlashGear, Android Phone Fans, Unwired View, www.pocketgamer.biz, InformationWeek, Google Android News …, geeksugar, Googling Google, TechCrunch, OStatic blogs and Phone Scoop
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Meet GigaOM Pro, Our Subscription-Only Research Service — When I was looking for funding for GigaOM nearly three years ago, I had a very simple, four-slide PowerPoint presentation that I showed to potential investors. Two slides focused on the past, but the other two — the “money slides” — focused on my plan to build the company.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, paidContent.org, ReadWriteWeb, VentureBeat, Internet Evolution, CenterNetworks and Micro Persuasion
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Jeremy Horwitz / iLounge:
Purported next-gen iPhone bezel shows speaker, color changes — Images from Hong Kong depict several significant changes from the bezels of prior iPhones to the next-generation model, if their source is to be believed. Listings pages from Hong Kong-based part vendor China Ontrade depict …
Discussion:
MacRumors, CrunchGear, Gadget Lab, Edible Apple, iPhone Buzz, Apple iPhone Apps and The iPhone Blog
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MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google Wave Drips With Ambition. A New Communication Platform For A New Web. — Yesterday, during the Google I/O keynote, Google's VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, laid out a grand vision for the direction Google sees the web heading towards with the move to the HTML 5 standard.
Discussion:
The Official Google Blog, Bits, Search Engine Land, VentureBeat and FierceMobileContent, Thanks:dwr
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Ben Kuchera / Ars Technica:
Mole: PSP-Go details confirmed, smaller PS3 is on the way — Our trusty inside source spills the beans about Sony's long-term strategy. The PSP-Go! is real, and should be announced at E3. The more surprising news? A slimmed-down PS3 is in fact coming, but not until Sony sells the PS3s sitting on retail shelves.
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Sergey Brin On Newspapers, Breaking “Page's Law” & Bing As Name Of Microsoft's New Search Engine — Google cofounder Sergey Brin turned up at a session for the press at the Google I/O event today and took questions on Google's relations with newspapers, cited hopes of breaking “Page's Law” …
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Jefferson Graham / USA Today:
Economy isn't slowing Apple's building plans — Apple (AAPL) isn't letting the recession slow its retail ambitions. — The company said Wednesday that it plans to remodel 100 of its stores this year, to make more room for customer training and displayed products.
Peter Kafka / D7 Highlights:
D7 Tech DEMO: Plastic Logic — Amazon (AMZN) isn't the only company that wants you to read books and newspapers on a handheld device. The Kindle has a bevy of competitors, some of which already exist-like Sony's (SNE) Reader-and those that have yet to hit the market. Plastic Logic falls in the second category.
Discussion:
Fast Company, PC World, New York Times, LAPTOP Mag, TeleRead, ITworld.com, CrunchGear, SlashGear, Technologizer, Engadget, Bits, TechFlash and Gadget Lab
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Landmark study: DRM truly does make pirates out of us all — It's a well-known story by now: Europe, the US, and plenty of other countries have made it generally illegal to circumvent DRM, even when users want to do something legal with the content. Sure, it sounds bad and Ars complains …
Discussion:
TeleRead
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
New version of HDMI cables brings Internet into consumer electronics — An industry alliance is announcing today a new version of the popular HDMI cables that connect high-definition video appliances to TVs and other appliances. It's just a simple cable upgrade, but it will mean far easier set …
Chris Lynch / Inside Facebook:
Omniture Releases Analytics Tools for Facebook — While marketers understand it's important to build a presence on Facebook by creating custom applications and pages to interact with customers, sometimes they (rightly) hesitate to make a substantial investment if they can't track the success of those initiatives.
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Microsoft Sells 30 Millionth Xbox 360, Grows LIVE Community To 20 Million — Microsoft just announced sales of Xbox 360 consoles have passed the 30 million mark globally, up 28 percent over last year, which it claims is the highest percentage growth in hardware sales of any console so far in 2009.
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
D7 Buzz: Bartz And Ballmer Meeting This Morning — When Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz suggested yesterday at the D7 conference that she would consider doing a deal with Microsoft for “boatloads of money,” she might have been doing more than just answering a hypothetical question. It could have been an opening salvo.
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Semantic technology gains publishing foothold — OpenCalais, a Thomson Reuters project to improve electronic publishing by adding computer-readable labels to content, has attracted the attention of several media publishing organizations, including CNET. — The OpenCalais product …
Emil Protalinski / Ars Technica:
Microsoft launches celebrity Twitter aggregator Celebrifeed — Microsoft has launched a feature on Wonderwall called Celebrifeed, which aggregates celebrity tweets and blog posts. — I'm not really a fan of Twitter, but there's no denying that it's successful. Microsoft realizes this too, apparently.
Discussion:
WebProNews
Joe Mandese / MediaPost:
Nielsen Finds ‘Cord-Cutting’ Is Real, But Cuts Both Ways: Online Video Churns Almost As Much As TV — In a finding that appears to defy some conventional industry thinking, new research released by Nielsen Co. indicates the so-called phenomenon of “cord-cutting” - people who replace a portion …
John Herrman / Gizmodo:
Dell Joins the Budget Ultrathin Party With 14-Inch, $649 Studio 14z — Ok, this trend is really growing some legs. Dell has just announced and made available their Studio 14z, a $649 optical-driveless budget ultralight with a 16:9 HD screen, Nvidia 9400m graphics and a 14-inch screen.
Discussion:
eWeek, DailyTech, Softpedia News, The Toybox, Engadget, Gearlog, Electronista and SlashGear
Ina Fried / CNET News:
Cuban: Internet video progress ‘disappointing’ — CARLSBAD, Calif.—Mark Cuban says that despite the growth of YouTube, the Internet video market over the last decade has actually been a disappointment. — The problem, he said, is that when Google bought YouTube it focused on ubiquity rather than making money.
