Top Items:
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Time to Say Good-bye, and Thanks — Three years ago, when John Battelle and Chas Edwards met with me for a cup of coffee across the street from the old Business 2.0 offices in downtown San Francisco, their company, Federated Media, was still in its infancy, and our company, Giga Omni Media, was little more than a dream.
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Reuters:
Hundreds wait at Verizon stores for BlackBerry Storm — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hundreds of people lined up at some Verizon Wireless stores on Friday to buy the BlackBerry Storm, the first touch-screen phone from Research In Motion that aims to compete with Apple's iPhone.
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Zach Epstein / Boy Genius Report:
Samsung Omnia begins landing at Verizon Stores, BGR readers begin drooling over live pics — Ok, so the BlackBerry Storm might not be the perfect handset for every touchscreen fiend out there but that doesn't mean Verizon customers should despair just yet. Just lookie here …
Don Reisinger / The Digital Home:Is Apple scared of RIM?
Discussion:
Datamation, IntoMobile, Engadget, Computerworld, MacDailyNews, MobileDevicesToday and CNET News
Benwilson / iPhone Atlas:
Users Face Serious iPhone OS 2.2 Problems — Users who have updated to iPhone OS 2.2 are facing some significant issues, including problems with third-party apps, Internet connection issues, problems deleting email and more. — Third-party Applications broken Some third-party applications …
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Jesse David Hollington / iLounge:
Instant Expert: Secrets & Features of iPhone 2.2 (Updated) — Early this morning Apple released the much-anticipated iPhone 2.2 firmware update, adding significant new enhancements to the Maps application and podcast downloading capabilities, as well as a few other bug fixes and improvements.
Zach Honig / Gearlog:
Apple Notebooks Take Huge Performance Hit without Battery — Ever run your MacBook or MacBook Pro without the battery installed? Most people don't, but some notebook users pop them out when their systems are running on AC with hopes of extending the life of their battery by a few months.
Clive Thompson / New York Times:
If You Liked This, Sure to Love That — THE “NAPOLEON DYNAMITE” problem is driving Len Bertoni crazy. Bertoni is a 51-year-old “semiretired” computer scientist who lives an hour outside Pittsburgh. In the spring of 2007, his sister-in-law e-mailed him an intriguing bit of news: Netflix …
Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:
HuffPo Raises $15 Million Third Round From Oak Investment Partners; $100 Million Valuation Ballpark — Update: We have confirmed from our sources that the investor is Oak Investment Partners, the big money investment firm. Oak has invested in other digital media related companies like Federated Media …
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Grzegorz Czajkowski / The Official Google Blog:
Sorting 1PB with MapReduce — At Google we are fanatical about organizing the world's information. As a result, we spend a lot of time finding better ways to sort information using MapReduce, a key component of our software infrastructure that allows us to run multiple processes simultaneously.
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
Apple's 2008 ad budget: Nearly a half billion dollars — There's been a lot of talk recently about how much money Microsoft is spending (and some would say wasting) on its new advertising campaigns to promote its brand. Of course you know the ones: The Bill Gates/Seinfeld ads and the newer “I'm a PC” ads.
Brian Krebs / Security Fix:
Spamhaus: Microsoft Now 5th Most Spam Friendly ISP — Microsoft is rising quickly on a running list of the Top 10 Worst Spam Service ISPs as maintained by spamhaus.org, a group that tracks unsolicited commercial e-mail. — The software giant debuted on the list earlier this month at number 9 …
MG Siegler / VentureBeat:
The revenge of the $9.99 iPhone apps — When Apple's App Store first launched back in July there was a wide range of prices for individual applications. While many were free, quite a few of the early games were $5 or $10. But as time has passed, there's definitely been a trend of the paid apps …
Eric Krangel / Alley Insider:
Rock Band Creator Eyeing iPhone Music Game, Says Tapulous Not A Threat (VIA) — Rock Band and Guitar Hero co-creator Alex Rigopulos scored part of a $300 million-plus payday when he sold his gaming company Harmonix to Viacom (VIA) in 2006, but he's not resting on his laurels.
Taylor Buley / Forbes:
When Everyone Can Mine Your Data — Maltego's open-source software brings data mining to the masses. — Roelof Temmingh has a knack for stirring up trouble. The 35-year-old South African electronic engineer has fought legal battles with financial institutions, developed theoretical models …
Joseph Tartakoff / The Microsoft Blog:
Ballmer ordered to testify in ‘Vista’ case — A federal judge ordered Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to testify in a class-action lawsuit revolving around Microsoft's marketing prior to the launch of its Windows Vista operating system. — Plaintiffs allege that Microsoft misled consumers …
Spencer E. Ante / Business Week:
Facebook Gets SEC Stock Exemption — The social networking giant received a waiver from the Securities & Exchange Commission so it can keep handing out equity to new employees — Earlier this year the social networking site Facebook grew concerned that an obscure securities regulation might force …
Discussion:
Valleywag, Between the Lines, CNET News, Business Week, Alley Insider, All Facebook, VatorNews, TechCrunch and WebProNews
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google SearchWiki 101: An Illustrated Guide — Google SearchWiki — a new feature that allows you to move and comment on search results — has been out for less than a day, and it's amazing to see how much confusion (as well as commentary) there is already developing.
Owen Thomas / Valleywag:
Palm, smartphone maker, in worldwide layoffs — A tipster tells us that Palm, the troubled smartphone maker, is laying off 10 percent of its staff. I called a spokeswoman at the company, who confirmed the layoffs but not the number of employees affected; Palm, at last count, had about 1,050 employees.
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Jordan Robertson / Associated Press:
Engineers sentenced to 1 year for espionage case — Two engineers from China were sentenced to a year in prison Friday for stealing computer chip designs from their Silicon Valley employers and trying to smuggle the secrets to their homeland to launch a government-backed startup there.
