Top Items:
Jeff Clavier / Jeff Clavier's Software Only:
AOL acquires Userplane to expand AIM network — A brief interruption of my holiday schedule to announce a great news: portfolio co Userplane has been acquired by AOL LLC a couple of weeks ago, and I just heard that the official press release is now up there.
RELATED ITEMS:
Black Voices:
AOL Acquires Userplane — Company's Industry-Leading Web-Based Chat & Instant Messaging Services Will Expand the AIM Network, Serve Social Networking Audiences and Emerging Online Communities — AOL LLC today announced that is has acquired Userplane (http://www.userplane.com) of Los Angeles …
Marshall Kirkpatrick / TechCrunch:
Userplane purchased by AOL — Web messaging services company Userplane has been acquired by AOL, it was was announced this morning. This company powers the interactive features (chat, video chat, video profiles, etc.) on most online dating and many social networking sites. — Terms remain undisclosed.
Microsoft:
Microsoft Invites the World to Create Its Own Xbox 360 Console Games for the First Time — More than 10 esteemed universities to add XNA Game Studio Express and Xbox 360 game development into their curricula starting this fall. — In the 30 years of video game development …
RELATED ITEMS:
Ina Fried / CNET News.com:
Play your own Xbox game — Microsoft is trying to turn hard-core gamers into Xbox programmers. — The company plans to show off on Monday a new set of developer tools that will let college students, hobbyists and others create their own games for the Xbox 360 console, for a Windows PC or both.
Todd Bishop / Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
Software Notebook: Xbox offers do-it-yourself games — ONE OF THE HOTTEST online trends is to get people to create and contribute their own material — things like reviews, photos and videos. — But will user-generated content work for video games? Microsoft plans to find out.
Robert Levine / New York Times:
Microsoft Has a Starter Kit for Aspiring Game Designers — During the last decade, the cost of recording and producing music and video has plummeted, giving amateur auteurs a chance at stardom. But at the same time, the expense involved in making video games has gone up …
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News.com:
Microsoft blogging software available in beta — Microsoft has released a beta version of Windows Live Writer, a new blogging software designed for users with no HTML skills. — Most blog-authoring services—including Blogger, LiveJournal and WordPress—assume a bit of HTML knowledge on the part of users.
RELATED ITEMS:
Joe Cheng / whateverblog:Windows Live Writer Released
Discussion:
OakLeaf Systems, Digital Inspiration, Paul Kedrosky's …, The Blog Herald, Elliott Back and Mathew Ingram
Ouriel Ohayon / TechCrunch:
Netvibes secures a $15 million investment — NetVibes, a Paris/London based company, will announce a $15 million round of financing on Monday. Index Venture (which is a prior investor) and Accel ventures lead the investment operation which certainly is one of the largest in European internet this year …
RELATED ITEMS:
Matt Marshall / SiliconBeat:
NetVibes, the slick "homepage" company, raises $15 million — NetVibes, the Paris based company that lets you personalize your home page with cool little modules that you can drag across the screen, has raised $15 million in more financing. — If you go there and play …
Discussion:
paidContent.org
Ken Belson / New York Times:
Verizon Is Rewiring New York, Block by Block, in a Race for Survival — It's 9 in the morning, and a team from Verizon has been stringing fiber optic cable along a residential side street in the Bronx for three hours. In a basket about 20 feet in the air, James DeMattia guides the cable …
Discussion:
Techdirt, VoIP & Gadgets Blog, TechEffect, Mark Evans, CNNMoney.com and broadbandreports.com
Guy Kawasaki / Signum sine tinnitu:
Everything You Wanted to Know About Getting a Job in Silicon Valley But Didn't Know Who to Ask — Many people ask me for advice about getting a job in Silicon Valley, so here's the inside scoop. Not everyone will agree with this advice, and some will outright deny what I'm saying …
Discussion:
Chris Pirillo, Lifehacker, Search Engine Journal, Andrew Lark, The Bb Gun, ben barren and digg
Sara Ivry / New York Times:
Segway Plans 2 New Models of Transporter — The Segway Human Transporter was introduced in late 2001 after a flood of anticipation, a barrelful of venture capital and a promise from its inventor, Dean Kamen, to revolutionize the way cities worked. Since then, the two-wheeled vehicle …
Discussion:
Valleywag
RELATED ITEMS:
Marshall Kirkpatrick / TechCrunch:
Browster 2.0 makes MySpace easier to use — Browser plug in Browster released version 2.0 of its product this weekend and is aiming to make MySpace profiles easier to view. A Windows download for IE and Firefox, Browster preloads pages from search results and provides a live minibrowser when inserted lightning bolts are hovered over.
RELATED ITEMS:
Jeremy Toeman / LIVEdigitally:
10 Tips on Maximizing Laptop Battery Performance — I am on the planes a decent amount of the time (100,000 miles by late May) and tend to spend a chunk of my flights using my laptop. Most of the time it's productive, but it can also include a DVD or the occasional game …
USA Today:
HSN to offer point and shop by TV remote — See something you like on Home Shopping Network? Point your remote at the TV. Hit "select." And buy, buy, buy! — At least, that's what HSN (IACI) hopes its viewers will do. — On Monday, HSN is announcing the nation's first shop-by-remote system for digital TV customers.
Jason Clarke / Download Squad:
Getting Things Done Software Systems (Part 1 of 2) — Native Windows (offline-capable) software — Scope — While there are a great number of ways to put a Getting Things Done system into action on a Windows PC, I'd like to compare and contrast the benefits of using native Windows software like Outlook …
Nicole Girard / CNET News.com:
Second Lifers get first look at new hotel chain — Avatars looking for a stylish place to mingle and get a cocktail will soon be able to check out a trendy new hotel—months before their fleshy counterparts. — Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, which oversees such well-known hotel brands as Sheraton …
