• Why Facebook Focused On Platform Growth, Not Monetization
  • FCC Drops Porn Filtering Idea
  • Report: Jobs' Health 'Rapidly Declining'
    A report from tech blog Gizmodo caused a serious stir yesterday claiming that Apple CEO Steve Jobs' health is "rapidly declining." The report immediately sent Apple shares down 4% to around $85. Apple closed the trading session at $86.29. According to the Gizmodo source, Apple's strategy is to "remove the hype factor" by letting the news about Jobs' health out slowly instead of "letting the hype destroy" the company. And the lack of a Stevenote at this year's Macworld conference "means no more hype," the source said, adding: "saying they are no longer needing [Macworld] is the cover designed …
  • Apple: Macworld Decision Had Nothing To Do With Jobs
    Of course, not everyone takes kindly to the Steve Jobs health debate. CNBC's Jim Goldman, for one, isn't happy about the persistent rumors. After speaking with Apple and receiving the exact same response he received when Apple decided to pull out of Macworld two weeks ago, Goldman reminds us that if Apple is lying--that is, "manipulating its own stock by manipulating the truth"-- then "someone--indeed a lot of people--could be going to jail." Meanwhile, as for the Gizmodo report, Goldman says: "unsourced garbage nuking its shares is just that." He adds that the report was "flimsy at best," and that …
  • Obama's Broadband Plan: Bah Humbug
    President-elect Barack Obama has called for improvements to the nation's broadband infrastructure as part of a proposed federal spending plan that would beef up investment in the ailing U.S. economy. Well, don't hold your breath, says Kara Swisher, who likens Obama's plan to "Ebenezer Scrooge making his overnight transformation, except without any soul, sincerity or true intent to actually care about the consumer." Even so, Swisher says that "a whiff of interest" from the new administration is a move that's long time in coming. The U.S. broadband infrastructure lags badly behind that of countries in Europe and Asia "due to …
  • The Web's Six Most Important Innovations Of 2008
    Wired lists its must-have Web technologies of 2008, paying homage to those products and enhancements that are so cool and so important one wonders how we ever got along without them. The first is identity management, which became a must-have innovation for every social network over the past 12 months. And tools like OpenID, Google Friend Connect and Facebook Connect now allow you to take your identity and your connections with you to your favorite sites. The second coolest innovation on the Web this year is HTML 5, which will eventually replace HTML 4.01 as the Web's dominant programming language …
  • Big Music Mulls Digital Options
    The big four record labels (Universal, Warner, EMI and Sony/BMG) are still scrambling to find a solution to rapid declines in CD sales and digital music growth. According to the Financial Times, plans under discussion include: a partnership with Hulu, the successful online television and film joint venture between News Corp. and NBC Universal; the creation of a premium service on YouTube; or a standalone venture, involving all or some of the big four. Just last year, industry members had hailed deals struck with Google's YouTube as a new way to drive profits, but the Times points out that now, …
  • Why Is Texting So Expensive In The U.S.?
    Text messaging in the U.S., which is more expensive than other countries, has recently gotten even more expensive, as each of the four major carriers in the U.S. (T-Mobile, Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T) have doubled per-message rates since 2005. American consumers haven't seemed to mind, as SMS use has skyrocketed, but Kohl's, a big retailer, recently sent a letter to the heads of the big four asking to know why they raised per-message rates from 10 cents to 20 cents. Kohl's called the increase "particularly alarming" because there seemed to be no technical justification for it. The big four replied …
  • Arrington: January Spending To 'Fall Off A Cliff'
    The U.S. may have been in recession for a year now, but TechCrunch's Michael Arrington says the fact is that most Internet-base companies haven't seen their revenues drop yet. Amazon, for example, recently recorded its "best ever" holiday sales period. Of course all that's about to change for content sites, he says, starting this week. "Display advertising revenue is going to fall of a cliff in January according to a number of content sites I've spoken with who rely on advertising for revenue," Arrington says. One sales exec said that sales through December remained strong as advertisers used up their …
  • Facebook And The Angry Breastfeeders
    Mothers across the globe are up in arms against Facebook for deleting photos of women breastfeeding their babies. Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said the site takes no action over most breast-feeding photos because they follow Facebook's terms of use, but others are removed to keep children from seeing photos of fully exposed breasts. "Photos containing a fully exposed breast (which means showing the nipple) do violate those terms (referring to obscene, pornographic or sexually explicit material) and may be removed," Schnitt said, adding: "The photos we act upon are almost exclusively brought to our attention by other users who complain." …
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