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Amazon Plans Music Service To Rival iPod — In recent years, Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos has explained his company's deliberately paced approach to the digital-music business by saying he wants to avoid simply imitating the dominant player in the field, Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes Music Store.
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Joining the Edelman Me2 Revolution — Change is what life's all about. Sometimes it's planned, other times it falls in your lap. — When I first began to dabble with blogs as a communications tool over two years ago I saw change, but I didn't know what it was.
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Customers to Receive Better Solutions and More Product Options With 2007 Microsoft Office Release — New and improved programs, servers and services will give customers unparalleled flexibility. — REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 15, 2006 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the lineup …
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Microsoft's Office-Come-Lately — The software behemoth plans its biggest-ever package of business-productivity apps. The catch: It's behind schedule — Microsoft (MSFT) is readying the next version of its Office suite of products for release later this year.

So where's the VoIP in Office Live? — I have been touring Microsoft's new kind of hosted Office Live beta. — What a waste of server space. Or, as my colleague Phil Wainewright rightly says: … And to that, I add: where's the VoIP? — Seems to me the Office Live Mail feature could really use a click-to-talk button.
Discussion:
Web 2.0 Explorer, Office Evolution, Software as services, Enterprise Web 2.0 and Signal vs. Noise
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Tech's China Policy a 'Disgrace' — Lawmakers blasted four U.S. tech giants Wednesday, accusing them of willingly helping China suppress dissent in return for access to a booming internet market. — Representatives from Microsoft, Yahoo, Cisco Systems. and Google defended themselves …
Discussion:
Mary's Blog
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Chinese Delicacy — WASHINGTON, D.C. - Yahoo!, Microsoft …
Discussion:
InsideGoogle

The First Mac OS X Virus? (A New OS X Trojan) — On the evening of the 13th, an unknown user posted an external link to a file on MacRumors Forums claiming to be the latest Leopard Mac OS X 10.5 screenshots. The file was named "latestpics.tgz" — The resultant file decompresses …

Local Search to Hit $13B by 2010 — The global online local search market, which includes Internet Yellow Pages, local search and wireless, is set to grow from the $3.4 billion it brought in last year to nearly $13 billion by 2010. That's according to a new forecast by the Kelsey Group.
Discussion:
Search Engine Watch Blog

Helio Detailfest 2006: MySpace Partnership and Two New Phones — I've been begging Helio since I first got their number in November to give me a hint about which phones and services they'd be supporting. Today, they are announcing some of what will be available when they launch their service later this Spring.
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Linux boots on Intel iMacs — If you want to run Windows onyour Intel-based iMac, you may havea long wait. However, if your goal is to just run an OS other than Mac OS X, you're in luck. The enterprising teamat the Mactel-Linux project have claimed at least partial victory …

Fakin' It: A Marketer Intends to Tease Consumers — EVEN among the countless bits of gimmickry taking up space on the Internet, the ads for Pherotones did look a little fake. — "Can my ring tones make you sexy?" read one ad posted last month on the Hollywood gossip blog Egotastic.com …

A pause in the action — Studios cut PSP titles — Sony's PlayStation Portable isn't turning out to be the hot new movie platform many in the biz had hoped. — With sales falling below expectations, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, Paramount Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video are cutting back on movie releases for the PSP.

SIPphone Offers Free U.S. Telephone Numbers Which Ring Computer and Mobile Identity; New Area775 Service is First to Link VOIP and Traditional Phone System — SAN DIEGO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Feb. 16, 2006—SIPphone today announced Area775, a new VOIP service where one personal phone number can ring a landline …

Get Concert Info + Music at Podbop — Podbop launched today, and for music lovers it may be the most interesting mashup we've seen yet. They've combined concert events from eventful and mashed the data up with band sites that include downloadable music. — The result? search for any city …
Discussion:
The Unofficial Apple Weblog, SiliconBeat, Rex Hammock's Weblog and The Kelsey Group Blog

LAUNCH: Campfire, easy group chat for business — Jason Feb 16 — Today we officially announce the launch of Campfire, our simple real-time web-based group chat tool for business. We've been using it internally for the last 45 days or so and it's become the most important collaboration tool we have.

Walt Disney World Resort Moves Mountains to Celebrate New Expedition Everest Attraction — NEW YORK, Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/ — New York City's famed Times Square was transformed into the legendary Mount Everest on Feb. 15 by Walt Disney World Resort. A 57-story spectacular brought the Himalayas to life …

Revenge Of Windows Mobile — Will 2006 be the yearwhen Microsoft Mobile finally takes off? It certainly looks like that. Microsoft's mobile ambitions are on display at the 3GSM show in Barcelona. CEO Steve Ballmer gave a big wet kiss to wireless operators in his Valentine's Day keynote address at the wireless mega show.

ESPN Cellphone Has Great Sports Content But Many Trade-Offs — When you think of U.S. wireless phone carriers, the name ESPN hardly leaps to mind alongside Verizon, Cingular, Sprint and T-Mobile. But this month, ESPN joined their ranks, sort of. It leapt into the cellphone business …
Discussion:
Good Morning Silicon Valley

Power lunching with wizards and warriors — "We Know" isn't your father's country club. — Sure, it has about 100 members, some of them wealthy, a few of them wildly wealthy. On the membership roster are at least 10 people who have the letter "C" in their job titles.

Beijing Censors Taken to Task in Party Circles — BEIJING, Feb. 14 — A dozen former Communist Party officials and senior scholars, including a onetime secretary to Mao, a party propaganda chief and the retired bosses of some of the country's most powerful newspapers, have denounced …