Top Items:
Joshua Topolsky / The Verge:
The truth about Microsoft and CES — There's been a bit of back and forth today over Microsoft's announcement that it would be ending its long-standing CES keynote role, and will no longer have a booth at the show as it's done for many years. Head of Microsoft's corporate communications …
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MG Siegler / parislemon:
F**k Me? No. F**k You. — This morning, Microsoft made waves with a big move: they're pulling out of CES. Frank Shaw, Microsoft's head of communications, made the announcement on the company blog, noting that this year's CES (which is in a few weeks) would be the last one featuring …
Discussion:
Bits, TechNet Blogs, PhoneArena, VG247, SlashGear, WinRumors and Geek News Central
Barb Darrow / GigaOM:
Mystery: Who killed the Microsoft CES keynote? — So, just who nixed future Microsoft keynotes at the big Consumer Electronics Show? It's a sticky question. — Microsoft said Wednesday that Steve Ballmer's keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show next month will be the company's …
Discussion:
eWeek, Neowin.net, memeburn, PhoneArena, msnbc.com, Pocket-lint, iPhone, The Next Web, VentureBeat, CNNMoney.com, PC World, The Verge, PC Magazine, TechSpot, Mashable!, @parislemon, Electronista and Business Insider
John Markoff / New York Times:
Jacob Goldman, Founder of Xerox Lab, Dies at 90 — Jacob E. Goldman, a physicist who as Xerox's chief scientist founded the company's vaunted Palo Alto Research Center, which invented the modern personal computer, died on Tuesday in Westport, Conn. He was 90. — The cause was congestive heart failure, his son Melvin said.
Discussion:
Computerworld, Fast Company and GMSV
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Sam Biddle / Gizmodo:
All the Companies Supporting SOPA, the Awful Internet Censorship Law—and How to Contact Them — Who's officially on the record backing what could be the worst thing to ever happen to the internet? All of these companies listed below. Don't take our word for it—this list comes straight from Congress.
Discussion:
CNET News and Neowin.net
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Declan McCullagh / CNET News:
How SOPA's ‘circumvention’ ban could put a target on Tor
Discussion:
Dennis Fisher, The Next Web, The Firewall and Boing Boing
Adam Savage / Popular Mechanics:
MythBuster Adam Savage: SOPA Could Destroy the Internet as We Know It
Discussion:
A+K, @dannysullivan, Techdirt, WebProNews and TechCrunch, more at Mediagazer »
Tarmo Virki / Reuters:
New iPhone? No thanks, say cash-conscious Europeans — (Reuters) - Weakening economies and falling prices of rival smartphones are hurting sales of Apple iPhones across Europe, data from research firm Kantar Worldpanel ComTech showed on Thursday. — The October roll-out of Apple's iPhone 4S boosted …
Discussion:
Fortune, PhoneArena, Electronista, The Next Web and Phones Review
T.C. Sottek / The Verge:
Exclusive: a look at Kinect Fusion and Lightspace from Microsoft labs — As you might have seen in our second episode of On The Verge, our own Joshua Topolsky recently toured Microsoft's Building 99, where the company conducts a variety of wild research. Today we're pleased to share a look …
Discussion:
TechNet Blogs
Anton Troianovski / Wall Street Journal:
How the iPhone Zapped Carriers — Americans are glued to their mobile devices, obsessively calling, texting, emailing and downloading applications. So why is the U.S. wireless industry in such straits, as shown by AT&T Inc.'s crucial but failed plan to buy T-Mobile USA?
Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:
Kindle Fire no longer blocks Android Market website — Earlier this week, I grilled Amazon for attempting to control web browsing activities on its Kindle Fire. Any attempts to browse Google's Android Market website were redirected to Amazon's own AppStore on the tablet.
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Hasbro sues Asus over Transformer Prime tablet — Don't say we didn't tell you so: Hasbro sued Asus over the name of its Transformer Prime tablet last week, in a Los Angeles court. The toymaker is no doubt worried that the name could be confused with that of its Transformers franchise …
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Aol Shareholders Freak Out Over Exec Departures — As They Should — More than a fair amount of business success hinges on telling stories about the future. The reason Yahoo's market cap is down to $19.83 billion from a high of $55 billion is because shareholders don't believe that it has a future.
Discussion:
@evelynrusli, Betabeat, Tech Trader Daily and Deal Journal, more at Mediagazer »
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Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:
Here's The Damning Letter A Massive AOL Shareholder Just Sent Tim Armstrong
Discussion:
paidContent, AOL Corp, VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal, WebProNews and Reuters
Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:
Surprise — The Most Popular Facebook Game of 2011 Wasn't Made by Zynga — Facebook has released its list of the 10 most popular social games for 2011, and while the chart was dominated by Zynga titles, other companies received the top two slots. — The list revealed some other surprises, too.
Discussion:
Mashable!, Facebook, @joshconstine, TechCrunch, WebProNews, VentureBeat, Business Insider, All Facebook and Inside Social Games
Vlad Savov / The Verge:
Radeon HD 7970 official: 28nm, 2,048 Stream processors, and a $549 price for January 9th — AMD today launches the Radeon HD 7970, its first graphics card built at a 28nm production process and the first member of its Southern Islands family of GPUs. As its name suggests …
Discussion:
AnandTech, Softpedia News, Engadget, VentureBeat, SlashGear, Electronista, Neowin.net, Icrontic, The Register and Gizmodo
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Actually, Searches For “Google+” Are Petering Out — Just last week, Google was promoting the fact that “Google+” was the No. 2 fastest-growing search term of the year in its annual Zeitgest list. And it did have an amazing pop when it hit “10 million members” a couple weeks after launch last summer.
Bloomberg:
Silver Lake Founders Said to Cut Stake — Glenn Hutchins, David Roux and Jim Davidson, who co-founded Silver Lake 13 years ago and built it into the largest technology-focused private-equity manager, will reduce their ownership as part of a broader leadership transition, according to two people briefed on the matter.
Discussion:
Deal Journal
Shayndi Raice / Wall Street Journal:
Facebook's Goal: To Be a Blue Chip — As Company Readies 2012 IPO, It's Getting All Grown Up: Zuckerberg Swaps Flip-Flops for Real Shoes — Mark Zuckerberg spent Facebook Inc.'s early years trying to keep it cool. But the founder and CEO of the social-networking giant has spent …
Discussion:
CNET News, the Econsultancy blog and Business Insider
Reuters:
German patent firm sues retailers to halt HTC sales — (Reuters) - Patent firm IPCom said it sued about 100 German retailers for patent infringement, saying they continued selling phones made by HTC beyond a deadline it had imposed earlier this month. — IPCom said in a statement on Thursday …
Discussion:
Bloomberg
Matthias Inverardi / Reuters:
Apple nears German court rebuff in row with Samsung — (Reuters) - A German court rejected Apple's claims that Samsung Electronics' reworked tablet PC still looks like a copycat version of the iPad, in a preliminary assessment. — Apple is fighting several rival makers of smartphones …
Discussion:
BGR, 9to5Mac, GigaOM and Electronista
Tony Hicks / Contra Costa Times:
People: Steve Jobs awarded a Grammy — Steve Jobs has won a Grammy. — Which makes sense, since he revolutionized the music industry by managing to shrink everyone's record collection into something that will fit in their pocket, among other achievements.
Discussion:
GRAMMY.com, GRAMMY.org, CNET News, Mashable!, AppleInsider, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Silicon Republic, MacStories, SlashGear, iPodNN, The Next Web and Gawker
Jon Mitchell / ReadWriteWeb:
Evernote's ‘Clearly’ Clean-Reading Extension Comes to Firefox — Evernote has expanded its read-later browser extension, Clearly, to Firefox. The extension first launched on Chrome in November. Clearly slides in a cleaned-up view of Web articles without ads or navigation, making content more pleasant to read.
Discussion:
Evernote Blogcast and TechCrunch
High Gear Media Network Feed:
In-Car Video Chat And 4G Streaming From OnStar — Detroit's North American International Auto Show is typically thought of as the kick-off of the year's major auto shows. — As automakers continue to integrate technology more and more into their vehicles, however, the Consumer Electronics Show …
Discussion:
GottaBeMobile, Engadget, Pulse2, SlashGear, Electronista and Gizmodo
Chris Dixon:
The TripAdvisor IPO — Great startup story. Raised a total of $4.2m in venture capital, sold to IAC/Expedia for $210M, and had some interesting adventures and pivots along the way. They started out by trying to aggregate reviews from other websites and white label their product to Expedia and other large travel websites.
Discussion:
Business Insider and TechCrunch
Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:
The Facebook “Frictionless” Sharing Apps Trickle Out: Digg Is Next — Facebook took its sweet time this fall; now, in winter, it's launching two interlinked products: Revamped profile pages, now called Timelines (which are being deployed this week), and “frictionless” open-graph apps that share user activity to Facebook automatically.
Discussion:
The Verge, ReadWriteWeb, Mashable!, Business Wire and TechCrunch, more at Mediagazer »
Christina Bonnington / Gadget Lab:
Study Shows AT&T's LTE Network Is Faster Than Verizon's — For Now — 4G LTE provides significantly improved download speeds over 3G, AT&T's slightly faster than Verizon's. Image: Metrico Wireless — Verizon has been touted as having the biggest, baddest, fastest 4G around.
Discussion:
Metrico Wireless, FierceBroadbandWireless, Electronista and Android Phone Fans
Eric Goldman / Techdirt:
Court Indicates Facebook May Be Violating Your Publicity Rights With Sponsored Stories — Because Facebook does so many things that aren't in users' interests, their “Sponsored Stories” program barely registers. Nevertheless, Sponsored Stories demonstrates why many people are burned out on Facebook.
