Top Items:
Alex Wilhelm / The Next Web:
Which tech companies back SOPA? Microsoft, Apple, and 27 others — After writing a rather lengthy and somewhat firey post on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) yesterday, I realized this morning that I didn't know Microsoft's position on the matter. As I edit our Microsoft channel …
Discussion:
VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, Gizmodo, dentcat, Techland and Geek.com, Thanks:bradmccarty
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Peter Voskamp / The Wrap:
Online Piracy Act Dead? Nancy Pelosi, Darrell Issa Both Come Out Against (Updated) — The tide seems to have turned against the Stop Online Piracy Act, as both Nancy Pelosi and Darrell Issa have come out against passage. — “Need to find a better solution than #SOPA #DontBreakTheInternet …
Discussion:
GMSV, TorrentFreak, Techdirt, @benhuh, Ars Technica, Threat Level, TechCrunch and TorrentFreak
Rachel Webber / Tumblr Staff Blog:
Yesterday we did a historic thing. We generated 87,834 phone calls to U.S. Representatives in a concerted effort to protect the Internet. Extraordinary. There's no doubt that we've been heard. So just to keep you updated: The well-intentioned, but immensely flawed “Stop Online Piracy Act” is still in the House Judiciary Committee.
Discussion:
@dannysullivan, CNET News, Hillicon Valley, The Next Web, techPresident and Adam Laiacano
Marco Arment / Marco.org:
A human review of the Kindle Fire — I expected the Kindle Fire to be good for books, great for magazines and newspapers, great for video, and good for apps and games. — In practice, it's none of these. Granted, I've only spent two days with it, so I can't share any long-term impressions.
Discussion:
Forbes, @johnolilly, Daring Fireball, parislemon and MacDailyNews
Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
TechCrunch CEO Reported Out After Clashing with HuffPost-ers — The resignations keep coming at AOL. The latest to give notice, according to Business Insider, is TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde. Harde, a former News Corp. executive who joined TechCrunch five years ago …
Discussion:
Digits, Business Insider, WebProNews, Pulse2, Gawker, @sarahcuda, VentureBeat, mediabistro.com and GeekWire
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Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
Permanent Revolution at AOL: Six Months, 50% Turnover
Discussion:
MediaPost, mediabistro.com, TechCrunch, paidContent and The Register
Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:
Wolfram Alpha Offers New Twist On Flight Search: Literal Answers To What Planes Are Overhead — You may not love this as much as I do, but that's okay. Wolfram Alpha has just launched what I'd have to put on any year-end list of the coolest search technologies of 2011: a tool that tells you …
Discussion:
Computerworld, Pulse2, WebProNews, Wolfram, The Verge, SlashGear and The Next Web
The SF Egotist:
The end of an era: The Yahoo! billboard comes down. — It's been a San Francisco icon for more than a decade. It's graced our skyline through the dot.com boom and bust. And it's one of the most recognizable pieces of advertising the city has seen in a long time.
Discussion:
Digital Trends, TechCrunch, Boing Boing, Business Insider, Gizmodo, NBC Bay Area, Laughing Squid, GMSV and ChasNote
David Sarno / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Google+ continues battle with fading user interest, data say — One of technology's big unresolved dramas is whether Google can still cut into the giant social networking lead now held by rival Facebook — or if its Google+ service is already sunk. — Data on the subject have been sparse …
Discussion:
The Register, Search Engine Land, SlashGear and @niemanlab
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Heather Dougherty / Hitwise Intelligence:
Google+ records 3rd biggest week since launch
Discussion:
Digital Trends, Search Engine Watch, WebProNews, msnbc.com, CNET News, Computerworld, Softpedia News and PSFK
AppleInsider:
Apple reportedly prepped AMD-powered MacBook Air, dropped it at last minute — Apple is said to have developed a MacBook Air running Advanced Micro Devices' Fusion Llano processor last spring, but scrapped it at the last minute because of production issues, according to an unverified report.
Discussion:
SemiAccurate, CNET News, Gizmodo, Gizmodo UK, thinq_, SlashGear and MacRumors
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Personal Is A Secure Vault For All Of Your Private, Digital Data — We wrote about stealthy startup Personal earlier this year when the company announced $7.6 million in funding from Steve Case's Revolution LLC, Allen&Company, and others. This week, Personal finally launched its service …
Royal Pingdom:
Apple's iPad owns 88% of global tablet web traffic — There should be no doubt in anyone's mind that Apple's iPad is the biggest seller in the tablet space, but we have seen many iPad competitors come out over recent months, including Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Blackberry PlayBook, Amazon Kindle Fire, and many more.
Discussion:
SlashGear, Newlaunches.com, The Next Web, MacNN, FT Tech Hub, SiliconANGLE and iDownloadBlog.com
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Terrence O'Brien / Engadget:
BlackBerry Playbook gets massive, temporary $300 price cut in Canada — So, PlayBooks haven't exactly been flying off the shelves... anywhere. Not even in RIM's native Canada. But that might actually change over the nex few days as BestBuy, Walmart, Staples and Future Shop have chopped $300 off the price of the QNX-based slate.
Discussion:
AllThingsD, Techland and Softpedia News
David Goldman / Edible Apple:
Apple asks to see Samsung's call center records — By David Goldman: — Samsung and Apple are currently in the pre-trial phase of litigation known as Discovery. During the discovery process, each side asks the other for documents and other materials it feels will help its case.
Discussion:
Softpedia News, iClarified, The Next Web and TechCrunch
Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
Kindle Fire Costs About $203 to Build, Teardown Finds — Amazon.com's Kindle Fire tablet appears to cost about as much to make as it sells for — maybe a little more. That's about $202, according to a teardown analysis by IHS iSuppli. — This essentially confirms what everyone has suspected …
Discussion:
9to5Mac, iSuppli®, Gizmodo, Retrevo, iSuppli®, Edible Apple, TUAW, Examiner, Between the Lines Blog, IntoMobile, PC Magazine, CNET News, Electronista, GeekWire and Android Phone Fans
Steven Millward / Tech in Asia:
Apple Launches Local Currency Payments For its China iTunes App Store — Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iTunes App Store has rolled out a major upgrade this morning in China, and now, for the first time, it actually accepts payments in the local currency, the renminbi (RMB).
Discussion:
MacRumors, MacStories, GigaOM, TUAW, iPodNN, paidContent and The Next Web
David Pogue / Pogue's Posts:
Nook's Specs Are Exaggerated, Again — I had a lot of fun reviewing Amazon's new Kindles in my Times column this week. (Yes, I had a Times column this week — it's just that it appeared on Monday, a few days earlier than its usual Thursday spot, thanks to Amazon's release schedule.)
Discussion:
Hack Education
Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:
Facebook Employees Go Nuts As Zuckerberg Tells Them The IPO Is Coming — A source close to Facebook employees emailed us yesterday to say that the rumor flitting from employee to employee is that “a Facebook S1 filing is coming really soon. Possibly as soon as next month.”
Discussion:
WebProNews
Violet Blue / Pulp Tech Blog:
Major Porn Sites Sue ICANN Over .XXX — The company behind major porn sites including YouPorn, PornHub, Brazzers, Xtube and Playboy.com have been joined by adult industry powerhouse Digital Playground to file an anti-monopoly lawsuit against ICANN over the dot-XXX TLD.
Discussion:
PC Magazine, The Register, Gizmodo UK, CNET News, Wall Street Journal and The Domains, Thanks:violetblue
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Motorola fairly likely to win German patent injunction against iCloud in February — Apple demands 2 billion euro ($2.7B) bail — The German city of Mannheim is slowly but surely giving Cupertino some serious headache. — After a default judgment against Apple Inc. over two patents …
Discussion:
Business Insider
David Kaplan / paidContent:
Major Newspaper Publishers Band Together On Social Shopping Portal — A group of eight newspaper publishers—Advance Digital, A. H. Belo Corporation, Cox Media Group, Gannett (NYSE: GCI), Hearst, MediaNews Group, The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI), and The Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) …
Discussion:
Venture Capital Dispatch and Local Onliner, more at Mediagazer »
Motorola Mobility Media Center:
Motorola Mobility Stockholders Approve Merger with Google — Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI) ("Motorola Mobility") today announced that at the Company's Special Meeting of Stockholders held today, stockholders voted overwhelmingly to approve the proposed merger with Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) ("Google").
Discussion:
MobileSyrup.com, Between the Lines Blog, PC World, Techie Buzz, PhoneArena, 9to5Google, Gizmodo UK, SlashGear, The Verge, Neowin.net, CNET News, Engadget, Android Phone Fans, AllThingsD and @paidcontent
Michael Kan / PC World:
US Committee to Investigate China's Huawei, ZTE — A U.S. House Intelligence Committee is launching an investigation against Chinese telecommunication equipment suppliers Huawei and ZTE to find whether the companies pose a security threat to the country. — The investigation will examine …
Discussion:
Inquirer, Mike Rogers, Bloomberg, FierceWireless and The Next Web
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
3D Printing Startup Shapeways Raises $5.1 Million, Plans NYC Production Facility — Of all the cool things going on in technology, one of my favorites is 3D printing. It's got such a futuristic quality to it: input a digital schematic, and you get a physical product custom cut to your exact specifications.
Discussion:
Shapeways Blog and Betabeat
