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Tim Bradshaw

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Rupert Murdoch has been tweeting his ruminations about the “digital tornado” unleashed by the innovations presented.

The News Corp chairman said the technologies unveiled at CES were more innovative than ever, “some great, all disruptive”, and suggested Facebook might join the “big three” of Apple, Google and Amazon, who were “dominant and now growing… Plenty of others good, but not in same league.”

That seemed to prompt more than a few jibes about MySpace, which News Corp bought for $580m only to sell it for $35m six years later, from Mr Murdoch’s many critics on Twitter.

With typical candour, the media mogul admitted that the company “screwed up in every way possible”:

Tech news from around the web:

Talks between media companies and Microsoft over the software giant’s online subscription service has been put on hold, it was reported on Reuters.

The technology giant had been in intense talks with potential programming partners for over a year and was hoping to roll out the Netflix-style service in the next few months. But it pulled back after deciding that the licensing costs were too high for the business model Microsoft envisaged, people familiar with the discussions said.

David Gelles

Social television startup GetGlue — which lets users “check-in” to TV shows — has raised another round of funding from existing investors, including Time Warner, and a new lead investor, RHO Ventures.

Tim Bradshaw

Google and Twitter have become embroiled in a war of words over the search engine’s new “your world” update, which has raised concerns that it would over-emphasise Google’s own social network over its rivals.

Tim Bradshaw

The latest tweets from Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga could soon be appearing alongside their music in media players such as iTunes or Spotify after Twitter began a new pilot programme to integrate its celebrity users into external services.

Chris Nuttall

While Cisco infamously abandoned in April its Flip unit, which popularised value-priced and easy-to-use camcorders for consumers, Sony has stuck it out with the Bloggie brand that tried to imitate the Flip’s success.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, two new models are being introduced, although the Bloggie 3D, which I liked when I reviewed it last year, is being phased out.

Tim Bradshaw

It’s a moment that many tech industry observers have predicted for the best part of a decade: the US music market is now more digital than physical, by volume at least.

Tim Bradshaw

Tech news from around the web:

Yahoo‘s new chief executive Scott Thompson has a long to-do list waiting for him at the troubled internet company, according to several reports. Bloomberg suggests that Yahoo is interested in acquiring the Weather Channel, WebMD and AutoTrader.com, according to an anonymous source, as part of a “tax-efficient asset swap” with Alibaba and Softbank.

Chris Nuttall

Google has just premiered its TV announcements for next week’s Consumer Electronics Show, where the major television makers will be showing off the latest in “Smart” internet-connected sets.

The addition of LG TV models and replacements for Intel as the processor maker for Google TVs is the new news, although Google revealed its activation rates for its “TV meets the Web” service have doubled since Version 2.0 of Google TV was launched in October, suggesting a boost for sales of Sony devices.

Tim Bradshaw

Notch another win up for London’s Silicon Roundabout. Moo, the online printing service that was one of the first tech companies to set up shop on the Old Street interchange, has beaten international competition to strike a deal with Facebook to become the go-to site for making business cards out of its new Timeline profile pictures.

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About this blog Blog guide
Richard Waters, Chris Nuttall and April Dembosky in the FT's San Francisco bureau share their views - plus tech insights from Tim Bradshaw and Maija Palmer in London and Robin Kwong in Taipei.

The blog includes a separate section on personal technology.

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