rumors

The latest rumor has it that Pentax plans to announce two new SLR models, the K20D and K200D, on January 24, a week before the Photo Marketing Association trade show that begins.

A now-defunct discussion thread on a Chinese Web site, helpfully archived at DCHome.net and supplemented by postings at Bigbigcar.com and PhotoMalaysia forums, includes a few supposed details about models that would presumably replace the K10D and K100D:

The alleged K20D has a 14-megapixel sensor of the smaller APS-C size, a 14-bit analog-to-digital converter (for better tonal gradations than typical 12-bit converters but leading to larger raw … Read more

Update 4:20 a.m. Wednesday: Information from a Digg representative has been added.

Kevin Rose, founder of social news aggregator Digg, posted a quick blog entry on Tuesday night about his site's new relationship with Rupert Murdoch's latest accessory, The Wall Street Journal.

"The Wall Street Journal online is adding Digg buttons across the entire site, and you'll now have full (free) access to the articles submitted to Digg," Rose wrote. "The Digg buttons have started appearing on WSJ.com articles tonight."

The "full free access" part is key. While … Read more

Several sources close to InterActiveCorp (IAC) have told CNET News.com that, contrary to rumors, the media conglomerate is not purchasing youth-oriented social-networking site MyYearbook. The rumor was originally reported by Valleywag on Wednesday.

The misconception arose, one source said, because MyYearbook was one of multiple start-ups that were invited to do "mock pitches" to IAC chairman and CEO Barry Diller as part of a session at this week's exclusive Quadrangle conference (hosted by the eponymous private equity firm) at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan. Essentially, it was like moot court for entrepreneurs.

MyYearbook was founded by … Read more

This post has been updated with comment from Digg CEO Jay Adelson.

Valleywag reported on Wednesday afternoon that a "major media player" was close to plunking down $300 million to $400 million for social news site Digg. Valleywag editor Owen Thomas wrote that "a source rules out all the big Internet players--not Microsoft, not Google, not Yahoo, not News Corp.," and that CBS had "taken itself out of the running."

Thomas went on to speculate that perhaps the buyer for the Kevin Rose-founded Digg would be the New York Times Company or the Washington … Read more

Our continental brethren at Crave UK have heard from a source at Asus that Apple's plans to build a tablet computer are definitely under way. Yes, the rumor has been around for years, but Asus is one of Apple's contract manufacturers, and we all know that it's all about the touch screen these days down in Cupertino.

According to the source, the tablet will supposedly be based on an entirely new blueprint, though no specs or other details are known. And it's always possible that a prototype is being made without any definite plans for production. … Read more

There are just over 24 hours left until the formal announcement of Facebook's new advertising initiative. Is the site experiencing some jitters in preparation?

Late last week, one of my editors IMed me to ask whether Facebook was down. It was, but within five minutes, it was running again. Over the weekend, I noticed that the site was logging me out periodically. I wanted to check out a friend's new profile photo, but I repeatedly got log-in screens instead.

Then, on Monday morning, the site has slowed to a crawl. When I attempted to approve a new friend … Read more

Silicon Alley Insider editor Peter Kafka had the opportunity for some cocktail conversation with Facebook investor and board member Jim Breyer of Accel Partners on Thursday night, and he had some interesting news to report.

Most intriguing is the fact that Breyer refused to outlaw a Facebook partnership with OpenSocial, the Google-created social networking platform that's managed to steal a whole lot of Valley buzz from Facebook right as it gears up to make a major advertising announcement.

"Jim said that the company isn't philosophically opposed to what Google is trying to do, and that its business … Read more

Remember, right after Microsoft's $240 million stake in Facebook was announced, when a Forbes blogger reported that two New York hedge funds were also contributing $500 million? And how funny was it that Fake Steve Jobs (also known as Dan Lyons, also on the Forbes payroll) proceeded to post the same news, except that he infused it with hilarious FSJ neologisms like "hedgetard?"

At the time, most people seemed to take it as the truth. After all, the $15 billion valuation for Facebook turned out to be true, so Facebook observers were likely in a state where … Read more

The Silicon Alley Insider's Peter Kafka reported Thursday morning that he heard MySpace will be announcing a partnership with Google's new social-networking project, OpenSocial--potentially before the end of the day.

MySpace, which already has its search and advertising functions powered by Google, has not yet responded to requests for comment.

If true, this would probably be a good thing for MySpace, which has lost its place in the social media spotlight to Facebook (though it still leads in traffic and membership) and is struggling to play catch-up by working on a developer platform strategy that may not see … Read more