Top Items:

The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years — Here's PC World's official (and entirely idiosyncratic) list of the top tech gadgets of the last half century. — We're living in the golden age of the gadget. Don't believe it? Check your pockets. Odds are you're carrying a portable music player …
Discussion:
michael parekh on IT, Alice Hill's Real Tech News, Guardian Unlimited, Newsome.Org, Dvorak Uncensored and PVRblog

2006 predictions — 1. Apple will ship two generations of iPods. The first new generation, released in April, will have a satellite receiver built-in. The second will have a low-power FM transmitter built-in. — 2. Jason Calacanis will stay at AOL though Easter 2006, and then will resign to spend more time with his family.

Microsoft Quits MSNBC TV, but Web Partnership Remains — Ending a partnership that soured long ago, Microsoft and NBC announced yesterday that they would dissolve their joint ownership of the cable news channel MSNBC, with NBC taking control. — NBC has completed a deal to assume majority control …

The Computer Geeks Who Saved Christmas — Home for the Holidays Often Means Work for Tech Professionals — Stan King is going to Pittsburgh and then Los Angeles to visit family for the holidays; he has already gotten word that he needs to fix computers belonging to his cousins, his nieces and nephews in both places.

Google Will Have the Right to Sell Its 5% Stake in AOL by 2008 — Google will have the right to sell its new 5 percent stake in America Online as soon as July 1, 2008, according to regulatory filings yesterday by both Google and Time Warner, AOL's parent. — On Tuesday, the companies announced …

Warner subpoenaed in music download probe — LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Warner Music Group Corp. (NYSE:WMG - news) has been subpoenaed by the New York Attorney General in connection with an ongoing antitrust investigation into the pricing of digital music downloads, the company said in a securities filing on Friday.
Discussion:
robhyndman.com

Correction to story about Staples processing fees — Mylissa Tsai, the program manager for public relations at Staples emailed the following to us today: "As a frequent reader of BoingBoing, I wanted to make sure to reach out to you and your readers regarding your post this week, "Staples Charges for 'virus scanning'".
Discussion:
raving lunacy

My 2006 predictions — I've seen several good posts ([1] [2] [3] [4]) already with predictions for 2006. I thought I'd throw my thoughts out there too. — My predictions for 2006: — After putting Google on a pedestal, the press will start knocking it down.

Slyck Interviews the MPAA — Without compromising our position on P2P, we took the view that perhaps it was time we heard what the MPAA had to say for themselves instead of only reading their views in court submissions. At the direction of Dan Glickman and with the kind assistance of Kori Bernards …