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Walmart iPhone on sale the 28th for a lot more than $99 — At this point, it's clear that the $99 iPhone 3G rumor was just that: rumor. We have a letter that we believe to be authentic from a source within Walmart that says the iPhone will launch in the house that Sam built at 9am December 28th.


Politics Not Pancreas the Reason for Jobs' Macworld Exit — The news that Steve Jobs would not deliver the keynote at this year's Macworld Expo in San Francisco next month was hardly a surprise to those of us covering this company. Rumors had been swirling for weeks that Jobs wouldn't attend …
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Apple 2.0, Macworld, Datamation, 9 to 5 Mac, InformationWeek, The Tech Report, Boy Genius Report, Byte of the Apple, Silicon Alley Insider, DailyTech, BloggingStocks, iPhone Savior, TUAW, MacDailyNews, PalmAddicts, p2pnet, Time, Daring Fireball, Valleywag, Obsessable, AppleInsider and Computerworld Blogs
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The Mac is dead (again), pass the Cider — In hindsight, Apple's announcement yesterday that it was pulling out of the Macworld Expo should have come as no surprise. Ever since the 2007 Macworld where Jobs announced the iPhone, Apple's emphasis has clearly been shifting towards consumer electronics and away from personal computers.


Behind Steve Jobs' Macworld exit — Truth is, nobody outside Steve Jobs' inner circle knows why Apple's CEO won't be giving his annual Macworld keynote this year. — The news broke Tuesday afternoon, and by dawn Wednesday just about every reporter who follows the company had filed a story.

Apple at Expo: What went wrong?
Discussion:
Hardware 2.0, The Apple Core, Lockergnome Blog Network, Gizmodo, Computerworld and PC World

Yahoo! Sets New Industry Privacy Standard with Data Retention Policy — With Consumer-Friendly Standard, Yahoo! Sets 90-Day Data Retention — Policy — Today, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) announced a new global data retention policy that sets an industry-leading approach to user data privacy.
Discussion:
Technologizer, GigaOM, paidContent.org, Yodel Anecdotal, Maximum PC all, Profy and MarketingVOX
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Gov. David Paterson unveils dire New York State budget that includes new taxes, layoffs and cuts — ALBANY - Gov. Paterson's proposed $121 billion budget hits New Yorkers in their iPods - and nickels-and-dimes them in lots of other places, too. — Trying to close a $15.4 billion budget gap …
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StockTwits nails stockpicking on Twitter, raises round — StockTwits, a two month-old site that lets you track messages on micro-blogging service Twitter about public company stock performance, has closed a first round of venture funding. The investors, all individuals …
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4 titles, including the newest in the METAL GEAR series will be progressively made available for download for the iPhone and iPod touch from late this month. — KONAMI will make downloads of METAL GEAR SOLID TOUCH, DanceDanceRevolution S Lite, SILENT HILL The Escape and Frogger for the iPhone …
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Upcoming 2009 handsets from Motorola pose for BGR on their way to Verizon — Well lookie here. Motorola apparently has a few tricks up its sleeve that might just surprise us in the coming year. Well they would have any way, if our trusty ninja didn't come through with the goods!
Discussion:
MobileDevicesToday, FierceWireless, Engadget, InformationWeek, Neowin.net, Unwired View, Electronista, techeblog.com, WMExperts, Gizmodo, PalmAddicts and wmpoweruser.com


Nvidia targets Netbooks, Intel with 9400M chip — With Apple under its belt, Nvidia is taking aim at Netbooks. — On Wednesday, Nvidia is launching its GeForce 9400M graphics chipset for Netbooks and small desktop designs. And the Santa Clara, Calif., company is hoping for another coup …
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Nvidia Goes Netbooks: Releases Ion Graphics Platform for Intel Atom
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Liliputing, DigiTimes, SlashGear, Obsessable, Ubergizmo, GottaBeMobile.com, Engadget and UMPCPortal

New in Labs: Turn an email into a Google doc — More than once, I've had a conversation over email and later realized that the information contained in the messages would make a great starting point for a document. So I built an experimental feature for Gmail Labs that does just that …
Discussion:
Webware.com, Download Squad, Google Watch, Lifehacker, WebProNews, InformationWeek and PalmAddicts

Ipods turning up in the afterlife — US FUNERAL DIRECTORS have noticed that there is a sudden demand among Apple fanboys to buried with their favourite gadgets when they croak. — Noelle Potvin, family service counsellor for funeral home Hollywood Forever, said that it is also becoming …
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TeleRead
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Live Search GM leaving Microsoft — We've confirmed another notable leadership change in Microsoft's online business: Live Search general manager Brad Goldberg is headed for the door. But don't add his name to the short list for Yahoo CEO. Goldberg is leaving to become chief executive …
Discussion:
CNET News, Silicon Alley Insider, CNN, Search Engine Watch, The Microsoft Blog, Jobwire and Beyond Search


Ten things I don't like about Google Chrome — Recently I blogged about what I like about Google Chrome, and Philipp Lenssen asked a good question: “What do you *not* like about Google Chrome?” — Normally when I have suggestions or complaints about a Google product …


Tilt-Shift Comes to the iPhone — Tilt-Shift photography (and the faking thereof) is so hot right now. In fact, it will probably date the photography of today in the same way the tobacco-graduated filter dates the pictures of the 1980s. — Now, the technique is set to swarm onto iPhones everywhere …

Number of complaints: 1 — Media: — Sector: — Leisure — Agency: — Freedman International — Ad — A TV ad, for the computer game Tiger Woods PGA Tour 09, showed Tiger Woods swinging a Wii handset. The background showed scenes of a golf course from the game.

Apple ordered to end exclusive iPhone deal with France's Orange — Apple must immediately cease its exclusive relationship with France Telecom's Orange and allow other local carriers to offer the iPhone to its subscribers, the French competition counsel ruled Wednesday.


Online Video Wins the 9-5 Hour, Weekdays — Thanks for taking the time to read this post. I know you're busy and all, watching online videos between 9-5 during the week. It's a pleasure that you took the time to stop by when you could be watching vids of cute cats and dancing humans.

Jaxtr Launches Free Calling Service. Why? — Updated: A few years ago we saw a gaggle of VoIP start-ups pop-up, each claiming to have their unique twist on cheap phone calls. Some offered anonymous calling services as their signature feature. Others labeled themselves as social voice apps.