Top Items:
Robert X. Cringely / I, Cringely:
Why Microsoft bought Skype — There is so much to write about but I'll begin with Microsoft buying Skype for $8.5 billion. The pundits are debating whether this move by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer makes good business sense, but that's the wrong way to look at it.
Discussion:
@jason, Telegraph, Scotland on Sunday, Launch and Guardian
RELATED:
Jean-Louis Gassée / Monday Note:
Ballmer's latest acquisition — In a bold move, Microsoft acquires Nokia and catapults itself to the top of the smartphone world. The full integration of Windows Phone 7 software into Nokia hardware will result in a better user experience for customers, a zero-fragmentation platform for developers …
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Honeycomb Has A Fighting Chance Against The iPad — If you'd asked me a week ago what I thought about Honeycomb, the tablet version of Android, I would have said that it was in very bad shape and that it would be several months before it could even hold a candle to the iPad 2.
RELATED:
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Nvidia CEO: Next wave of Android tablets address first-gen shortcomings — Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said concerns about the first wave of Android tablets “have been largely addressed” and the next generation of Honeycomb 3.1 devices will be vastly improved.
Discussion:
Engadget, CNET News and The Mobile Gadgeteer Blog
Launch:
L019: Bitcoin P2P Currency: The Most Dangerous Project We've Ever Seen — by Jason Calacanis and the LAUNCH team — A month ago I heard folks talking online about a virtual currency called bitcoin that is untraceable and un-hackable. Folks were using it to buy and sell drugs online …
Discussion:
gd0t.com and Boing Boing, Thanks:hunterowens
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Bing Maps To Be Powered (Replaced) By Nokia? — I had a chance lunch with a person with close connections to Nokia about a week ago. Naturally we began talking about the outlook for the Microsoft-Nokia Windows Phone deal. He was hopeful but mindful of the risks for both companies.
Discussion:
WMPoweruser.com
Erik Sherman / Wired In:
New Privacy Laws in India and China Could Make IT Outsourcing Ugly — Think privacy issues are a pain when they affect consumers? Get ready for the grandfather of all corporate computing headaches. Big privacy-law changes in India and China are about to turn data-processing outsourcing …
Discussion:
Slashdot
Shea Bennett / AllTwitter:
Another Milestone For Twitter As @LadyGaga Becomes First User To Reach 10 Million Followers — Last month I wrote about how Justin Bieber had become the second Twitter user to reach 9 million followers, with Lady Gaga being the first. — I speculated on which of them would be the first to reach 10 million.
Discussion:
BBC, Neon Limelight, Examiner, Digital Spy and Metro.co.uk
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Full text: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's advice to USC grads — Yesterday we offered a few highlights from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's commencement address Friday at the University of Southern California, via media coverage of the ceremonies. Since then we were able to get ahold of the full transcript.
Discussion:
@petecarroll, GeekWire, Seattle Times and USC News
Sean Hollister / Engadget:
RIM recalls 900 faulty BlackBerry PlayBooks, here are the serial numbers (update) — We found the BlackBerry PlayBook to be a pretty solid piece of hardware, but it seems there was a problem batch — an inside source tells us that nearly 1,000 faulty tablets were shipped to Staples, and now they're being recalled.
Discussion:
CrackBerry.com blogs, SAI, It's All Tech, IntoMobile, MobileWhack, Yahoo! News, PhoneArena, Gadgetell, Electronista and The Loop
David Zax / Fast Company:
How Viral PDFs Of A Naughty Bedtime Book Exploded The Old Publishing Model — The party line on piracy is that it's bad for business. But what to make of the case of “Go the F**k to Sleep,” the “children's book for adults” whose viral-pirate PDF launched the book to the number-one spot on Amazon.com a month before its release?
Wyatt Buchanan / San Francisco Chronicle:
Social-networking sites face new privacy battle — (05-15) 04:00 PDT Sacramento — California could force Facebook and other social-networking sites to change their privacy protection policies under a first-of-its-kind proposal at the state Capitol that is opposed by much of the Internet industry.
Discussion:
PR Newswire and SocialTimes.com
Damon Poeter / PC Magazine:
Sony PSN Back Online, Just Not Everywhere — Sony Online Entertainment brought its PlayStation Network back online in parts of Europe and the U.S. Saturday, but some 12 hours after the announcement many PSN customers were left wondering when it would be their turn.
RELATED:
Daniel Ionescu / PC World:
Green Light is On — Sony PlayStation Network Returns in US
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Geekosystem, PC Magazine and PlayStation Blog
