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A new tune of iTunes: new prices and DRM-free. [Portfolio.com]
Macworld coverage via Brad Stone of the New York Times, who is there in case you are not. [Bits]
AOL's Kevin Conroy has left to join Univision. [SAI]
Not satisfied with fake Facebook pages and Twitter posts, hackers have moved on to create fake celebrity profiles on LinkedIn. [Cnet]
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Macworld coverage via Brad Stone of the New York Times, who is there in case you are not. [Bits]
AOL's Kevin Conroy has left to join Univision. [SAI]
Not satisfied with fake Facebook pages and Twitter posts, hackers have moved on to create fake celebrity profiles on LinkedIn. [Cnet]
... Continue
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Steve Jobs may not be at Macworld this week, but that doesn't mean Apple didn't hope to make a splash in other ways. In addition to releasing new versions of iLive and iWork, the company also announced radical changes to ...
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Ars Technica reports: Comcast says that, as of December 31,
it has turned over a new leaf, network management practices-wise. The
new-and-hopefully-improved "protocol agnostic" system the company
unveiled to the Federal Communications Commission in September is now
in effect ...
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The government-mandated switch to digital TV has hit a snag as the government has run out of money to subsidize the cost of converters. [WSJ]
Venture investors are finding few exits for their portfolio companies. [NYT]
The new possibility of porting Android from phone to desktop have some wondering about Google's OS plans. [Ars Technica]
Apple is moving toward DRM-free music downloads. [Cnet]
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Venture investors are finding few exits for their portfolio companies. [NYT]
The new possibility of porting Android from phone to desktop have some wondering about Google's OS plans. [Ars Technica]
Apple is moving toward DRM-free music downloads. [Cnet]
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Even Twitter is vulnerable to hacks and attacks. [Ars Technica]
Kara Swisher has ended her relationship...with her BlackBerry. [AllThingsD]
Rumors are flying that Meg Whitman, who today resigned from all corporate board posts, plans to run for governor of California. [Tech Crunch]
We can hear them now: Verizon will surpass AT&T this week as the largest wireless carrier when its acquisition of Alltel closes. [SAI]
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Kara Swisher has ended her relationship...with her BlackBerry. [AllThingsD]
Rumors are flying that Meg Whitman, who today resigned from all corporate board posts, plans to run for governor of California. [Tech Crunch]
We can hear them now: Verizon will surpass AT&T this week as the largest wireless carrier when its acquisition of Alltel closes. [SAI]
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Ars Technica reports: It has become popular to say that the gaming industry has become recession-proof, simply because the overall sales for 2008 are up year over year... but those numbers only tell part of the story. Other sources are starting to report some troubling trends in gaming sales; not the least of which is the plummeting price of used games. These trends could lead to some troubling times for gaming in 2009 ...
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Intel Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc. said on Monday that the semiconductor giant's CE 3100 system-on-a-chip for TV set-top boxes will be optimized to run Flash software. The first devices will offer San Jose-based Adobe's (NASDAQ:ADBE) Flash Lite that ...
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Does the health of a C.E.O. matter? With rumors about Steve Jobs' health mounting again after it was announced he wouldn't appear at Macworld this week, Apple has decided it does. This morning, the company and its C.E.O. put out a statement about his health, saying he would stay on as C.E.O. through treatment.
In the letter included in the release, Jobs wrote, "As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my No. 1 priority. Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause -- a hormone imbalance that has been 'robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis."
Jobs says recovery is expected to last through the spring and signed off with some exasperation: "So now I've said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this."
The market responded favorably, sending Apple shares up 3 percent in early morning trading.
... Continue
In the letter included in the release, Jobs wrote, "As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my No. 1 priority. Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause -- a hormone imbalance that has been 'robbing' me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis."
Jobs says recovery is expected to last through the spring and signed off with some exasperation: "So now I've said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this."
The market responded favorably, sending Apple shares up 3 percent in early morning trading.
... Continue
Why is Steve Jobs skipping Macworld this year? He's not saying it's because of his health, but he is saying something about his health: hormone imbalance has caused him to gain weight. [WSJ]
One analyst proclaims Macworld will help bolster confidence in Apple, saying the absence of Jobs is irrelevance. [AP]
But at Microsoft, the C.E.O. will attend the big show, as Steve Ballmer is on his way to speak at the massive trade event Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday. [Ars Technica]
Silicon Alley Insider asks what's the point, since consumers don't plan to spend much on gadgets in 2009, anyway. [SAI]
... Continue
One analyst proclaims Macworld will help bolster confidence in Apple, saying the absence of Jobs is irrelevance. [AP]
But at Microsoft, the C.E.O. will attend the big show, as Steve Ballmer is on his way to speak at the massive trade event Consumer Electronics Show on Wednesday. [Ars Technica]
Silicon Alley Insider asks what's the point, since consumers don't plan to spend much on gadgets in 2009, anyway. [SAI]
... Continue
John Malone quietly dumps IAC shares: Is his feud with Barry Diller heating up again? [The Wall Street Journal] For reasons still unclear, 30 gigabyte Zune MP3 players all over the world fail en masse. [TechCrunch] The newsstand that spawned ...
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Kevin Maney writes: After today, I'll no longer be blogging for Portfolio.com. I'm still a contributing editor at Portfolio magazine, so you can find my stories there. I will soon be blogging elsewhere -- on my own, for someone else, or maybe both. Hope we'll find each other again. You can always follow me on Twitter. I'm kmaney.
Hope you have a wonderful 2009. If it's not way better than 2008, we're all in trouble...
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Hope you have a wonderful 2009. If it's not way better than 2008, we're all in trouble...
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Ars Technica reports: Creative Commons, one of the most prominent organizations involved in the free culture movement, brought in big bucks through its latest fundraising campaign. The organization met its lofty $500,000 goal despite the current economic downturn. Creative ...
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Michael Dell is expected to shake up management at the top of his company. [WSJ]
Online holiday sales fell 3 percent this year, the first time online retailers have seen negative growth in eight years. [Cnet]
High-end retail sites were hit up 12 percent. [SAI]
China locks up 11 for counterfeiting Microsoft products. [NYT]
Gigaom has tracked the layoffs that occurred at companies backed by Sequoia Capital, the VC firm that told its portfolio companies to pare back. [GigaOm]
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Online holiday sales fell 3 percent this year, the first time online retailers have seen negative growth in eight years. [Cnet]
High-end retail sites were hit up 12 percent. [SAI]
China locks up 11 for counterfeiting Microsoft products. [NYT]
Gigaom has tracked the layoffs that occurred at companies backed by Sequoia Capital, the VC firm that told its portfolio companies to pare back. [GigaOm]
... Continue
Apple's trendsetting ways fall short when it comes to the environment. [WSJ]
How much are hot domains going for? YellowPages recently paid $3.85 million, in cash, for YP.com. But AT&T, YellowPages' parent, paid $100 million for YellowPages.com in 2006. [TechCrunch]
Seems Kara Swisher's more antsy about getting a new CEO into Yahoo than its board is. [AllThingsD]
Lots of hullabaloo around a report by Gizmodo that Steve Jobs' health is in fact behind the cancellation of MacWorld appearance. Here's the original report. [Gizmodo]
Marissa Mayer is planning to leave Google next year. Stop the presses. [Valleywag]
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How much are hot domains going for? YellowPages recently paid $3.85 million, in cash, for YP.com. But AT&T, YellowPages' parent, paid $100 million for YellowPages.com in 2006. [TechCrunch]
Seems Kara Swisher's more antsy about getting a new CEO into Yahoo than its board is. [AllThingsD]
Lots of hullabaloo around a report by Gizmodo that Steve Jobs' health is in fact behind the cancellation of MacWorld appearance. Here's the original report. [Gizmodo]
Marissa Mayer is planning to leave Google next year. Stop the presses. [Valleywag]
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The first beta of Windows 7, Microsoft's coming replacement for Windows Vista, is due to arrive at January's Consumer Electronics Show, but already leaked version are circulating on popular BitTorrent sites. Early reports suggest that there is little difference ...
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Ars Technica reports: CBS wants an online presence and community ...
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Content sites bracing for 50 percent revenue slowdown [TechCrunch] Cisco's misguided foray into the living room [GigaOM] Internet providers join broadband push [Wall Street Journal] How long can Wikipedia sustain its ambitions? [Wall Street Journal] Martin drops porn filtering from ...
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