Roundup: Twitter rumor frenzy, AT&T prepping for a new iPhone, Yahoo Music opening up and more

April 3, 2009 | MG Siegler | Comments | |

Here’s the latest action:

Twitter is selling/no it’s not/but it should/no it shouldn’t — There are lots of rumors flying around out there about Twitter right now. While Google isn’t buying it anytime soon, the two sides are talking. And they should be — or maybe they shouldn’t. There’s no lack of opinions here.

AT&T priming the network pump for a new iPhone? — That’s what AppleInsider is hearing. Specifically, AT&T is rushing to get updates to its network out the door so that it can support faster speeds, which the new device may take advantage of.

Yahoo Music to open up soon — The service, which has been dwindling lately, apparently wants to offer one area for users to find the music they’re looking for. This means it will feature ways to get content from YouTube, Amazon and iTunes, according to The Wall Street Journal.

URL shorteners are all the rage, but be careful — There are no shortage of these services thanks to Twitter’s 140 character limit, but be careful sending all your links through them, Joshua Schachter cautions. And their use may only lead to more spam.

A 3.2 megapixel camera in the new iPhone? — That’s what market sources in Asia are saying. But more interesting may be that a version with a 5 megapixel camera may also be in the works. It’s about time. The current and last generation iPhones’ 2 megapixel camera feels dated.

Broadband is not only a lot faster in Japan, it’s a lot cheaper — J:Com can now offer 160 megabit-per-second speeds in Japan, and it only costs about $20 per household to upgrade to those speeds. Here in the States, it costs several times that for much slower speeds. What gives? The New York Times blames a lack of competition here.

AT&T tweaks its terms of service, then tweaks it back — AT&T changed its TOS to ban video streaming and p2p activity over wireless services. This caused a huge uproar on the web, and the company retracted the changes.

Biz Stone talks Twitter with Colbert — Speaking of Twitter, aside from being in the news for sale rumors, co-founder Biz Stone was on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report to talk about the service. It’s funny stuff. Watch it below.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Biz Stone
comedycentral.com
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical HumorNASA Name Contest

[photo: flickr/saintrain]

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About the Author, MG Siegler

MG Siegler writes about technology trends and new media for VentureBeat, with a focus on mobile topics, social elements and key news stories. Before that, MG wrote about technology on his blog, ParisLemon. Originally from Ohio, MG attended the University of Michigan where he studied film. He's previously lived in Los Angeles where he worked in Hollywood and in San Diego where he did web development. He now lives in San Francisco.

  • I cant wait for the new iphone, now I just need to find a reason to upgrade...
  • Why should Google buy Twitter?
    Don't they have engineers to build a system like that under the Brand 'Google'?
    Why shouldn't they buy Twitter?
    Just to make it easy for everyone who accustomed with Twitter instead of a new API?
  • spryka
    Twitter is like a breath of fresh air on the Social Media scene. I have been on it for just a few weeks now and I have met several interesting people. It is a platform to network with people you would like to meet in real life. Check me out!!

    http://twitter.com/spryka
  • Another interesting week of posting informative infos.. thanks for sharing and more power.
  • AT&T Tweaking: Why do companies try to tweak TOS and sneak in big changes? They always get caught and have to change it back, so why do they try? People these days in the tech sector aren't total idiots.