Top Items:
Thomas Crampton / New York Times:
Paris Approves Law Aimed at Making iTunes Compatible With Rival Devices — PARIS, June 30 — French legislators gave final approval on Friday to a copyright law that could force Apple Computer to make songs purchased from its market-leading iTunes Music Store compatible with music players of its rivals.
Discussion:
A VC
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Dick / Burning Questions:
newTunes for iTunes (Podcast Category Changes) — Apple has launched a streamlined new categorization scheme for podcasts listed in the iTunes Music Store. Somebody wasn't paying attention to our "don't launch changes on a Friday before a holiday" policy, but we'll let it slide this time.
Randall Stross / New York Times:
AOL Said, 'If You Leave Me I'll Do Something Crazy' — "YOU'RE going to listen to me." — This was the taunting command of an AOL customer service representative who sounded like a jailer twirling his keychain. The customer on the phone wanted to complete his business …
Todd Bishop / Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
John Edwards courts tech crowd in Seattle — John Edwards, the former U.S. vice presidential candidate, sought common ground with bloggers and other hard-core techies in Seattle on Friday — conceding, among other things, that he's sometimes too polished for the unvarnished Internet age.
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
I'm a Second Life Lawbreaker — Yes, the rumors are right, I've been banned from Linden Labs' Second Life. — Why? — Because I broke the rules. — I let my son use my Second Life account. I'm not allowed to do that. Only 18-year-olds are allowed to play in Second Life.
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Business Week:
How Failure Breeds Success — Everyone fears failure. But breakthroughs depend on it. The best companies embrace their mistakes and learn from them — Ever heard of Choglit? How about OK Soda or Surge? Long after "New Coke" became nearly synonymous with innovation failure …
Kathleen Craig / Wired News:
Scoble, the Exit Interview — When Robert Scoble quit his job, the news about the man often referred to as "the face of Microsoft" spread through the blogosphere on a weekend, and it was the professional news organizations that were playing catchup. — Scoble is known, and admired …
Blake Ross / Blake Ross on Firefox:
Gnomedex — I just led—or tried to lead—a discussion here at Gnomedex about spreading software through grassroots means. — During the discussion, Dave Winer stood up and asked caustically why I wasn't discussing Firefox's future and how it will help users. The answer is simple: I wasn't leading a Q&A about Firefox.
Dawn Kawamoto / CNET News.com:
Suit over poor Google ranking may go forward — SAN JOSE, Calif.—A federal judge in California hinted that a parenting Web site that's suing Google over a poor ranking in the search giant's massive index would be able to proceed with its lawsuit. — During a hearing here Friday …
Mitch Wagner / InformationWeek:
Accidental Tech Entrepreneurs Turn Their Hobbies Into Livelihoods — InformationWeek interviewed five accidental entrepreneurs, including the founders of del.icio.us and Digg and the author of the blog Dooce, to find out how they freed themselves from the paycheck-to-paycheck grind.
Discussion:
Make Money Online …
Dave Winer / Scripting News:
My talk this morning — I'm going to try to explain how I think about communication, technology, creativity and making money. There are a couple of very very simple ideas that are behind everything I do, RSS, blogging, OPML, outlining, podcasting, unconferences, everything.
Matt Marshall / SiliconBeat:
Mozes, the SMS marketing company, raises angel funding — Mozes, a Palo Alto start-up that lets you send it an SMS (text message) to get information about a person, a band or other product, has raised an angel round of $750,000. Media analyst Paul Kagan is among the investors.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Anaheim Is Now Unwired — Earthlink, the beleaguered ISP which is betting the farm on municipal wireless turned on its Muni WiFi network in the city of Anaheim. Earthlink calls its WiFi initiatives - Feather. The network went live on June 29 at a "wire cutting ceremony".
Doug Coulter / technocrat.net:
The Monster Arrives: Software Patent Lawsuits Against Open Source Developers — I've actually considered getting out of the software writing business because of this. It's probably impossible to write anything meaningful without falling afoul of some patent somewhere anymore.
Dan Mitchell / New York Times:
Apple's Got a Secret — EVERYONE knows about how much iPods cost. But how much does it cost Apple to make them? — Apple will not say, and that bothers Robert Renck, who runs the private research firm R. L. Renck & Company. Since January, Mr. Renck has been advising clients against owning Apple shares.
Discussion:
Randy Holloway Unfiltered
Todd Bishop / Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog …:
Microsoft delivers cease-and-desist order ... in a frame — Funny moment here at the Gnomedex conference this afternoon: As conference organizer Chris Pirillo was wrapping up one session, three Microsoft representatives came on stage to deliver a cease-and-desist order.
