Tom Conrad / Pandora:
From the lab: Pandora Desktop Beta  —  We’ve always wanted to find a simple way to deliver Pandora as a desktop application — it’s probably been on our to do list longer than any single feature.  Today we’re dipping our toe into those waters for the first time with the release […]

Brad Stone / New York Times:
Start-Up Releases Smaller Version of Flip Camcorder  —  SAN FRANCISCO — In the last year, Pure Digital, a small San Francisco start-up, has shown the world’s consumer electronics companies how to build a camcorder that regular people actually use.  —  It has sold nearly one million units …

Nicole Maestri / eWeek:
Wal-Mart Pushing Blu-ray Players  —  With the HD DVD format war settled, Wal-Mart Stores is now aggressively promoting sales of Blu-ray players.  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - With the high definition DVD format war settled, Wal-Mart Stores Inc is now aggressively promoting sales of Blu-ray players.

Peter Kafka / Silicon Alley Insider:
Veoh Grabs Another $30 Million; Valued At About $125M  —  Video-sharing site Veoh has raised another $30 million and has brought aboard three brand-name investors: Intel (INTC), Adobe (ADBE)and Capital Research’s Gordon Crawford.  We hear the round values the company in the $120 million- $125 million range, pre-money.

24/7 Wall St.:
The Newspapers: Rating The Top 25 Newspaper Websites  —  The struggle for large daily metropolitan newspapers to stay profitable and survive is based on the race between the drop in their print advertising and the improvement of their online sales.  Newspaper industry costs are rising along with fuel and commodities prices.

Om Malik / GigaOM:
YouTube’s Head of Monetization Quits, Joins Cooliris  —  Google’s senior executive exodus continues.  YouTube’s head of monetization, Shashi Seth, has now left the company to become the chief revenue officer of Menlo Park, Calif.-based startup Cooliris.  In his new job at the startup …

Wall Street Journal:
Icahn Steps Up Yahoo Attack, Seeks Yang’s Ouster as CEO  —  Investor Carl Icahn is stepping up his rhetoric against Yahoo Inc., accusing the Internet company’s chief executive officer, Jerry Yang, and its board of being disingenuous about their willingness to consider Microsoft Corp.’s acquisition offer …

Nick / Rough Type:
Was eBay a fad?  —  We already know that the famously cute story of eBay’s origin - founder Pierre Omidyar launched the site to help his fiancee trade the PEZ dispensers she collected - was a lie cooked up by a PR operative.  We also know that the company’s vaunted “reputation […]

Rafe Needleman / Webware.com:
Wikia Search launches the hackable search engine  —  This morning, Wikia is rolling out cool features on the controversial Wikia Search engine (previous review).  —  Starting today, if you do a search on the engine and don’t like the results, you’ll be able to change them.

Rafe Needleman / CNET News.com:
Wikia Search launches the hackable search engine  —  This morning, Wikia is rolling out cool features on the controversial Wikia Search engine (previous review).  —  Starting today, if you do a search on the engine and don’t like the results, you’ll be able to change them.