Fox News et al.
Forget all this Nexus One nonsense. Apple would like you to know it has much more than any mere phone in store. It is offering a life-changing experience. Sources within the Cupertino company is saying it will be ready to announce its tablet device in January and the blogosphere, predictably, is abuzz. Sources inside Apple
have confirmed a "big" event in January. And you can bet it won't be a moderate improvement to the iPhone.
Mashable speculates that the Mac-World team will be none-too-happy about the January 26 announcement, since it was told by …
The Next Web
You will pay attention to the Nexus One. You will. Look at this new leaked video. Holy cow, it's 10 minutes long. Look at it.
New York Post
"Kim Kardashian tweets with one hand and collects cash with the other," writes The New York Post. Not so shocking. What is shocking is that that the erstwhile Maxim covergirl and reality TV star gets upwards of $10 grand per tweet to keep her 2.7 million followers in the know. She is signed to "in-stream advertising" company Ad.ly. One of her latest gems: "The Carl's Jr grilled chicken salads came out yesterday!! I'm on my way to Carl's Jr for lunch now . . . have you tried them yet?" All of which begs the philosophical question: If …
San Francisco Examiner
Shockingly, businesses complain that time-sucking social networks hurt their productivity, according to a new survey conducted by Robert Half Technology. "It takes away from primary responsibility," Dave Knapp, regional vice president for Robert Half told the San Francisco Examiner. "When socializing on sites such as Facebook, we lose track of time."Besides just wasting time, companies are also worried about employees leaking sensitive information. Of course, there is always the option of blocking the sites, and according to the survey, 54 percent of businesses do just that.
New York Times
It seems that Google's YouTube, has only one really competitor: television. So says the New York Times. YouTube is 10 times as popular as its nearest online competitor. Hunter Walk, director of product management at YouTube, says that the average user spends about 15 minutes a day on YouTube, but five hours in front of the television.And though the endeavor is still not yet profitable, Google looks on the bright side, and has hopes for the promise YouTube holds for search, which is why the tech giant bought YouTube in the first place. With 20 hours of video …
BBC
Sure the real global economy may be tanking, but the future is looking very rosy indeed -- if you are a Facebook crime boss or a farmer, perhaps. The virtual economy, already worth around $5 billion in Asia, is set to rake in billions in the U.S. in the next five years -- despite the fact that neither you, nor anyone you know has ever spent a dime on these games."This is just an exploding part of the gaming business right now," venture capitalist Jeremy Liew told the BBC. The sale of virtual goods are crucial to the …
The New York Times
People were happier than ever with online shopping this holiday season, according to a new study released by ForeSee Results. The research firm found customer satisfaction increased 7% to 79 out of 100, the highest level since it began its E-Retail Satisfaction Index in 2001. Last year, only Amazon and Netflix received "excellent" ratings by those surveyed. This year, 11 sites were given excellent ratings including Apple and electronics retailer Newegg.com. Circuity City and Neiman Marcus -- at opposite ends of the retail spectrum--were among the lowest performers, at 73. The most improved sites …
The Wall Street Journal
Since Jeff Weiner took the helm as CEO a year ago membership in the social network for professionals has surged, but is still dwarfed by that of Facebook. But, more important, says The Wall Street Journal, "the amount of time people devote to LinkedIn is a fraction of the time people spend on some other social sites. Visitors spent about 13 minutes on average at LinkedIn during October, while Facebook users logged about 213 minutes and MySpace users spent 87 minutes, according to research firm comScore, which measured the behavior of global users 15 years and older." Brigantine …
Gadget Lab
Remember when you'd travel down to your grandparent's musty basement to flip through shelves and shelves of glossy National Geographic mags? Well that experience has just been replaced by a hard drive (you can bring it to the basement if you wish, though). The $200 NatGeo branded 160GB hard drive contains every issue of the magazine ever, starting with 1888. The 160GB leaves plenty of space for the next 120 years of issues, since the back catalog takes up only 60GB (500MB per year as Gadget Lab points out). And the issues even include the old ads. …
Gizmodo et al.
As has been
previously stated, Google either unwittingly stumbled onto the most effective low-cost advertising campaign in the history of telecom (sorry Apple), or is stupid like a fox. The tech blogs and press follow every slow hiss of leaked info about the forthcoming Nexus One phone from Google as if it were a miraculously discovered stone tablet that Moses neglected to bring down from the mountain. OK, so it is an excruciatingly slow news week; but imagine if, say, Motorola tried to place a press release about the price of a new phone? Mark that …