Top Items:
New York Times:
Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class — When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley's top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president. — But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own …
Discussion:
PandoDaily, Business Insider, The Verge, WPRI.com Blogs, Ed Bott, Gizmodo, Daring Fireball, New York Times, Electronista, CNET, PhoneArena, TUAW, 9to5Mac, Fortune, @sacca, @timoreilly, iPhone Savior, The Big Picture, PandoDaily, BJMendelson.com, adafruit industries blog, Slashdot and 9to5Mac
Fred Wilson / A VC:
A Post PIPA Post — On my way from a breakfast meeting to the office yesterday I got a phone call on my cell phone with a 202 area code on it. I picked up the call and on the other end of the line was someone in Congress who I've known for a decade or more.
Discussion:
PC World, VentureBeat, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog, TNL.net and PandoDaily
RELATED:
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought — Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd really does not get what's happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News …
Discussion:
CNET, TorrentFreak, Hillicon Valley, Fox News, Telegraph, @joshconstine, @gaberivera, @jonhenke, @cshirky, @beschizza, parislemon, The Greenroom, @wllegal, Public Knowledge and Kotaku, more at Mediagazer »
Alex Howard / O'Reilly Radar:
The week the web changed Washington — This morning, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), the Senate Majority Leader, said in a statement that he would postpone next week's vote on the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) followed with a statement that he would also halt consideration of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
Discussion:
TPM Idea Lab, @digiphile, Mashable!, VatorNews and VentureBeat
Joel Spolsky / Google+:
Two things about SOPA/PIPA and then I'll shut up :) — Two things about SOPA/PIPA and then I'll shut up :) — The internet seems to ignore legislation until somebody tries to take something away from us... then we carefully defend that one thing and never counter-attack.
Nick Bilton / Bits:
Disruptions: The Sloshing Sound of Tech Valuations — On a recent Thursday night, I stood motionless and perplexed on the dance floor of a San Francisco club. As I looked around, 300 or so people danced and darted back and forth to a free open bar while laser lights shot overhead.
Chester Yung / Wall Street Journal:
Hong Kong Freezes Megaupload Assets — HONG KONG—In an enforcement action Friday, Hong Kong Customs froze more than 300 million Hong Kong dollars (US$39 million) in assets held by the popular file-sharing site Megaupload.com, which was shut down by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Thursday.
Discussion:
HK Customs
RELATED:
Austin Carr / Fast Company:
Inside Megaupload's Megamind: Kim Dotcom's Playboy Bunnies, Russian Nuclear Vessels, And Private War On Terror
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, GigaOM, Ars Technica and Reuters, Thanks:@jengapokers
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Megaupload Details Raise Significant Concerns About What DOJ Considers Evidence Of Criminal Behavior
Discussion:
New York Times and Pulse2
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Apple Just Incentivized Every College Kid To Get An iPad. As For High Schoolers... As I watched Apple's iBooks event in New York City last week, my mind began to race about the ramifications of such announcements. Everyone had a pretty good idea for weeks (or months if you read the Steve Jobs biography) …
Discussion:
MacStories, Macworld and InvestorPlace
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
DLD 2012 - @Jack Dorsey: “Twitter Has A Business Model That Works” — Earlier this fine Sunday afternoon, Twitter and Square founder Jack Dorsey took the stage at the DLD Conference, the annual pre-Davos meeting of minds held in Munich, Germany. — In an interview with not one but two journalists …
Discussion:
AllThingsD, VentureBeat, Reuters, DLD Conference and The Next Web
Joshua Topolsky / The Verge:
Are there too many gadget choices? — At CES last week, I took to one of the many stages upstairs inside the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center for a panel dubbed “Argue The Future.” Joining me for the discussion was our site's managing editor Nilay Patel, alongside representatives from HTC, Samsung Mobile, and Microsoft.
Ernesto / TorrentFreak:
Uploaded.to Blocks US Visitors After MegaUpload Shutdown — Uploaded.to, one of the most popular file-hosting sites in the Internet, has closed its doors to US visitors. The move is most likely a response to the FBI crackdown on MegaUpload two days ago. US visitors of Uploaded.to currently get the following message.
Discussion:
Geek.com and TorrentFreak
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Megaupload Drops Lawsuit Against Universal Music Over Viral Video (Exclusive) — Amid a criminal case that forced the shutdown of Megaupload, the company has dismissed UMG from a lawsuit over a video that showed many stars endorsing the site. But that doesn't mean the case is over.
Discussion:
Electronista, The Next Web, The Verge and WebProNews
