Top Items:
Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed:
Netscape, Yelp, and the Tech IPO Boom of 2010 … Yelp may have just turned down a half-billion dollar takeover offer from Google. Zynga does a crazy-big $180m funding. Not long ago, Twitter took another $100-million in financing, and now we learn it's ... profitable.
RELATED:
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Yelp Is Gone - For Now - But Google Has Plenty Of Fish Left to Fry — The Google/Yelp deal, which seemed close just a few days ago, is indeed gone, at least for now. But even if that one doesn't go through, no need to worry. Google has plenty more in the hopper.
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, PC World, Bits, the Econsultancy blog, Tech Trader Daily, Android Phone Fans and Dealscape
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Yelp Walks Away From Google Deal, And Half A Billion Dollars — Jeremy Stoppleman, the CEO of Yelp, has walked away from an all-but-signed deal to be acquired by Google for more than half a billion dollars. — The deal was, as we wrote late last week, in the later stages of negotiation.
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog, GeekSmack, Dealscape, MediaPost, Media Decoder, Screenwerk, Search Engine Land, Venture Capital Dispatch, blogs.ft.com, SFGate, Rev2.org, Electronista, The Social, TechFlash, Gizmodo, Erictric, Silicon Alley Insider, GMSV, Softpedia News, Maximum PC, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, AppScout, VatorNews, Between the Lines and The Huffington Post
The Official Google Blog:
The meaning of open — Last week I sent an email to Googlers about the meaning of “open” as it relates to the Internet, Google, and our users. In the spirit of openness, I thought it would be appropriate to share these thoughts with those outside of Google as well. — At Google we believe that open systems win.
Lars Backstrom / Facebook Blog:
Facebook Memology: Top Status Trends of 2009 — Status updates on Facebook help people understand their friends and the people around them—how they're feeling, what they're doing and what they're thinking. In the United States alone, people on Facebook are sharing hundreds of millions of words every day …
Discussion:
GigaOM, All Facebook, Facebook, The Next Web, AppScout, Mashable!, NBC Bay Area, TechCrunch, Maximum PC and Between the Lines
Wilson Rothman / Gizmodo:
Our 2009 12-City 3G Data Mega Test: AT&T Won — Given carrier reputation and our own iPhone call drops, we were pretty surprised to discover, through careful testing in 12 markets, that AT&T's has pretty consistently the fastest 3G network nationwide, followed closely—in downloads at least—by Verizon Wireless.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Apple May Be On The Verge Of Kneecapping The Cable Industry. Finally. — The cable companies suck. All of them. Some suck less than others. But they all suck. We need someone to whip them into shape. And that someone may be Apple. — Apple may be on the verge of gaining …
Discussion:
Electronista
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Brian Garner / AppleInsider:
Apple's TV subscription plan gains potential partners in CBS, Disney — Both CBS Corp. and Walt Disney Co. have shown interest in offering content for Apple's TV subscription proposal slated for roll out sometime in 2010. — Walt Disney Co. and CBS Corp. are considering participating …
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac, MacRumors, Gizmodo, Wall Street Journal, The iPhone Blog, Edible Apple and Gizmodo Australia
Boy Genius Report:
Motorola Opus One specifications — When we say we have specifications, boy, do we mean it. One of our connects has sent us the full rundown on Motorla's Opus One (their first iDEN Android handset) that we revealed a little while back. The features on the device are actually pretty reasonable …
Discussion:
InformationWeek, AndroidGuys, Gizmodo, Phone Arena, Internet2Go, Techie Buzz, Android Central, SlashGear, Android Phone Fans, Gadgetell, I4U News and Electronista
Mia / YouTube Blog:
Make Way for youtu.be Links — It's all the rage: link shorteners to ensure that those useful URLs you're sharing don't take up too much precious character count while also giving you an inkling of what you're about to click on. Well, we've just launched youtu.be as a shortener for YouTube video links …
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, NewTeeVee, Erictric, Search Engine Journal, The Next Web and Mashable!
Jared Newman / PC World:
New Intel Atom Chips Spell More Trouble for Pricier PCs — Here's a rhetorical question: How are netbooks any less attractive to consumers when Intel improves the Atom chips inside them? — That's a question Intel will have to answer with the launch of its new Atom chip for netbooks, the Atom N450.
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:Will Intel's Atom overhaul fuel another netbook boom?
Discussion:
PC World, Electronista, Fast Company, TechSpot, UMPCPortal, The Toybox, Maximum PC, Liliputing, GMSV, Computerworld, internetnews.com, eWeek, Pocket-lint.com, Guardian, Gizmodo and Softpedia News
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Twitter Captures A Nexus One Unboxing And Another Video — A number of pictures have hit the web now showing the Nexus One, aka the Google Phone, in the flesh. But there haven't been too many showing its packaging, and it getting unboxed. Today, some Twitpics shared by one user show those.
Steve Blank:
The Elves Leave Middle Earth - Sodas Are No Longer Free — Sometimes financial decisions that are seemingly rational on their face can precipitate mass exodus of your best engineers. — We Hired the CFO — Last week as a favor to a friend, I sat in on a board meeting of a fairly successful 3½ year-old startup.
Thanks:atul
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Releases Firmware Update to Address Screen Flickering on 27-Inch iMacs — Apple today released 27-inch iMac Graphics Firmware Update 1.0, addressing recent complaints of screen flickering on the company's newest iMac models. … Installation instructions for the firmware update …
Discussion:
Apple, Computerworld, Engadget, Mobile Whack, Hardware 2.0, Erictric, Gadget Lab, AppleInsider, Macsimum News, TUAW, 9 to 5 Mac, DisplayBlog and Gizmodo Australia
Connie Guglielmo / Bloomberg:
Hewlett-Packard Reviews Claim That Its Facial-Tracking Software Is Racist — Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) — Hewlett-Packard Co. is looking into the facial-tracking software used in its personal computers, after a customer calling himself “Black Desi” said the program was racist because it was unable to follow his movements.
Discussion:
New blog articles …, NBC Bay Area, Computerworld, Gizmodo, Mashable!, Maximum PC, Pulse2, The Consumerist and CrunchGear
Zee / The Next Web:
Firefox 3.5 is Now the World's Most Popular Browser — Site tracking and analytics tool StatCounter Global Statistics now shows that Firefox 3.5 is the most used browser in the world. — Note this is the version of the browser rather than the browser brand but nevertheless an incredible achievement.
Discussion:
InfoWorld, Technologizer, Royal Pingdom, GigaOM, Maximum PC, Slashdot, Download Squad, bit-tech.net and Mashable!
Seth Weintraub / 9 to 5 Mac:
Hurry up and download an NES emulator that slipped into the App Store — We're not sure how this one slipped through, but Nescaline, a Nintendo Entertainment System emulator is in the App Store as we speak. Yes, Apple has prohibited emulators in the past as a security measure although it did eventually approve a Commodore64 emulator.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Why the HTML5 ‘Video’ Element Is Effectively Unusable, Even in the Browsers Which Support It — I seldom post video to DF, but when I do, I refuse to embed Flash,1 I want the markup to be sane and standard, I want the video to play in popular standards-compliant web browsers, and I don't want the video to download/buffer automatically.
Damon Darlin / Bits:
‘Nerd’ and ‘Geek’ Should Be Banned, Professor Says — The Times ran an article Monday suggesting that what America will need in the future are more “cool nerds.” A playful tweak of the nerd stereotype, to be sure, in an effort to alter it. The people described in the piece were ones with hybrid careers …
Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
Obama to name Howard Schmidt as cybersecurity coordinator — Seven months after President Obama vowed to “personally select” an adviser to orchestrate the government's strategy for protecting computer systems, the White House is expected to name a former Bush administration official to the job as early as Tuesday.
Etsy News:
Etsy's New Old Young CEO — As 2010 begins, I will return to Etsy as CEO, and Maria will leave the company. — Maria joined Etsy in the middle of 2008 and led Etsy through an important foundational phase. We are a profitable company now, and Maria helped us reach this major milestone.
Miguel Helft / New York Times:
The Science of Managing Search Ads — MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Cyber Monday had gone swimmingly for Tiny Prints. — Despite the economic downturn, customers streamed into the Tiny Prints online store on the Monday after Thanksgiving, called Cyber Monday because it is one of the busiest days of the year for Web retailers.
Caroline McCarthy / The Social:
Big Facebook privacy void: Controls on Connect — A Foursquare check-in posted to Facebook through Facebook Connect. — (Credit: Facebook) — Privacy on Facebook has been front and center this month as the company has rolled out the controversial revamp of its user privacy settings.
Joanna Stern / Engadget:
ASUS Eee PC 1005PE review — By our count ASUS has released — at the very least — 20 Eee PC netbooks since 2008. Some had 8.9-inch or 10-inch displays, some ran Xandros Linux or Windows XP, and some packed hard drives instead of flash storage. But common to virtually …
Joe Wilcox / BetaNews:
10 Things Microsoft did right in 2009 — The year 2009 was pretty good to Microsoft, even as the weak economy ravaged sales. Microsoft actually did a few things right. The did wrong list will come tomorrow. For today, I present the list of 10 things Microsoft did right in 2009 — in no order of importance.
Discussion:
CNET News
John Cook / TechFlash:
Paul Allen's Vulcan Capital loses president after 7 months — The head of Paul Allen's multi-billion dollar investment arm, Vulcan Capital, has stepped down just seven months after taking on the role of president, TechFlash has learned. — Chris Temple, who originally joined Vulcan last year …
Wired / Magazine:
Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem — How To Fail — Screw ups, disasters, misfires, flops. Why losing big can be a winning strategy. — Accept Defeat: The Neuroscience of Screwing Up — Stay in the Game: The Fall and Rise of Alec Baldwin — • Learn to Let Go: How Success Killed Duke Nukem
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
MySpace Reaches Out To Upset Imeem Users: Your Playlists Will Soon Be Resurrected — In the two weeks since it acquired imeem in a firesale, MySpace has been met with waves of frustration from outraged users who blame the company for shutting down the troubled music service.
