Top Items:

Google Copies Your Hard Drive - Government Smiles in Anticipation — Consumers Should Not Use New Google Desktop — San Francisco - Google today announced a new "feature" of its Google Desktop software that greatly increases the risk to consumer privacy.
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Nicol to 'bring out the soul' of MSN — John Nicol was on sabbatical with his teenage daughter delivering computers to schools in Uganda last September when he got a phone call from a top honcho at MSN asking him to be general manager of Microsoft's portal.
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MSN won't rebrand itself — Though the new head of Microsoft's (Profile, Products, Articles) MSN division has been calling the company's MSN portal "MSN Media Network" internally, Microsoft has no formal plans to rebrand the site, a Microsoft spokeswoman said Thursday.

This PlayStation May Play Too Much — Sony's new super-packed PS3 handles a lot more than games. That, some say, could confuse buyers — Picture this: you plug your TV into a box the size of a phone book and go online to check headlines. You get bored and click over to a Giants game.
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Can Sony's Kutaragi Score Big? — Once pegged as CEO material, the outspoken exec was bounced back to the games unit. Now his fortunes are tied to PlayStation 3 — Things have been unusually quiet for Ken Kutaragi lately. This time last year, the genius behind Sony's (SNE) …

WSJ on FON, disclosure, and my friends — [I'm posting this reluctantly. Ultimately I decided I don't want the WSJ article to be googled without a response.] — The Wall Street Journal today ran an article by Rebecca Buckman that raises an interesting question but fails to generate an interesting answer.
Discussion:
Mark Evans, robhyndman.com, Martin Varsavsky, Darwinian Web, Escapable Logic and John Cook's Venture Blog
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Oracle's Open-Source Shopping Spree — The database giant is in talks to purchase at least three software companies that would help it shift customers to a subscriber-based model — The open-source community may be in for a jolt. Oracle (ORCL) is plotting what could be the biggest endorsement yet …

RIM's workaround revealed — update BlackBerry maker Research In Motion on Thursday announced details of how its new software workaround, designed as a backup if U.S. courts impose an injunction later this month, will be released to customers. — The specifics of the workaround come days …
Discussion:
Alice Hill's Real Tech News
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BlackBerry Work-around: Too Little, Too Late For IT Departments
Discussion:
Gizmodo, MobileTracker, Mobile Analyst Watch, Engadget and IP Telephony, VoIP, Broadband

Lionhead back in acquisition talks with key publishers — Ubisoft and Microsoft both linked to possible acquisition talks at UK developer — Sources close to British developer Lionhead Studios have revealed to GamesIndustry.biz that the company behind Fable and Black & White …

True video iPod to sport 3.5-inch display, touch-screen click wheel — February 9, 2006 - Think Secret can confirm recent rumblings that Apple is nearing completion of a completely revamped video iPod that will shed the ubiquitous mechanical click wheel for a touch screen and will sport a 3.5-inch diagonal display.

Edgeio could become like Craigslist 2.0 — In addition to running the very influential Web 2.0 site TechCrunch.com, and writing a blog called CrunchNotes.com, Mike Arrington has been working on a startup of his own called Edgeio (when does this man sleep?) - which Rob Hof of BusinessWeek got a demo of recently.

Borland plans separate company for Delphi, JBuilder, C++Builder, InterBase, JDataStore and other developer products... To our loyal developer community: — Today, Wednesday February 8, 2006 at 1am Pacific Time, Borland announced plans to seek a buyer for our IDE product lines that include Delphi …

OH MY GOD - Microsoft Live is Hailstorm 2.0 — ... ..but in a good way. Assuming they allow us to mesh into it - and vice versa. — As I sat in the etribes.com/mashup last night (near the Savoy Theater, off the Strand) - I was honored to listen to Sam Seshi rap out Microsoft's Live.com platform.

The New Gatekeepers — A recent article in the Wall Street Journal claims that there is a level of conflict of interest for bloggers who have advised FON and are writing about it. While the Journal's story, in itself, is probably more of a tempest in a tea cup, I do believe that it raises …

Incentives won't make Yahoo or MSN #1 search — On the heels of saying they were not going to focus on being #1 search and then taking that back, Yahoo is now flirting around with an incentive plan for users who switch to their search. What a cliche this "incentives to do XYZ thing" is and for them it's a sign of desperation to me.

Korea Develops Running Robot — South Korea has developed a robot that is capable of running. The feat is the second in the world after Japan and was accomplished by a local venture start-up working on a small budget. — Robotis Thursday took the wraps off the network-based humanoid …

HBO wants its programming to be off-limits for DVRs — Although the courts shot down the FCC's attempt to enforce the broadcast flag, the networks are moving full steam ahead on getting the flag written into law one way or another. So far, one bill has been introduced that would plug the so-called …