Top Items:
Mike / Techdirt:
Amazon's Video Downloads About As Me Too (Read: Not Interesting) As You Can Get — It's no secret that Amazon has been preparing its own video download store, and with most people believing that Apple is going to announce their own offering early next week, it looks like Amazon tried …
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Marshall Kirkpatrick / TechCrunch:
Amazon Unbox goes live — Amazon's movie download site, called Unbox, appears to have gone live today. There's no link yet on the front page of Amazon, but the direct link at unbox.com works. We covered early previews of the site last month. Shows may be purchased or rented.
Discussion:
Scobleizer, CrunchGear, Paul Colligan's …, CyberNet Technology News, I4U News, Frank Barnako and digg
Dave Zatz / Zatz Not Funny:
Amazon "Unbox" Video Downloads Launched — Amazon has jut launched their video download service, consisting of both movies ($10 - $15/ea to purchase) and television shows ($2/ea). Purchased shows can be archived to DVD, but are not playable on set-top boxes.
Bob Sullivan / MSNBC:
HP investigators hacked reporters' phone data — 'Pretexting' scandal at high-tech firm extends outside board room … CNBC TV — Bob Sullivan — In an effort to track down the source of information leaks by Hewlett-Packard Co. insiders, private investigators working …
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CNET News.com:
Reporters' records hacked in HP probe — update Two CNET News.com reporters' personal telephone records were accessed by a contractor hired by Hewlett-Packard to uncover the source of boardroom leaks to the media, according to the California attorney general's office.
Zephoria / apophenia:
will facebook learn from its mistake? — As Fred Stutzman noted, Facebook Broke Its Culture this week. In an attempt to provide something that would make people's lives easier, they created a privacy trainwreck. Earlier this week, they unleashed a feature that notified all of your "friends" of EVERY update that you make.
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Cameron Marlow / Overstated:Privacy and transparency — Recently Facebook has introduced …
Discussion:
digg
Bob Sullivan / MSNBC:
FTC fines Xanga for violating kids' privacy — $1 million penalty against social networking site is largest under 1998 law — Xanga.com, a rival to the popular MySpace.com, allegedly permitted creation of 1.7 million accounts by users who submitted birthdays indicating they were under 13.
Yuriko Nakao / Newsweek:
Such Were the Joys — How do I love thee, Vodafone 905SH? Let me count the ways. — The Vodafone 905SH — We're back from a summer in Japan, with fond memories of new friends, shopping bags full of cheap plastic Gundam action figures and several bottles of fine sake.
Richard MacManus / Read/WriteWeb:
Discussion: Webified Desktop Apps — Already there's some great discussion happening regarding Ebrahim Ezzy's post on Read/WriteWeb entitled Webified Desktop Apps vs Browser-based Apps. As I noted in the intro to that post, in some ways Ebrahim's views contradict my own.
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Ryan Stewart / The Universal Desktop:Rich Internet Applications are the bridge between the web and the desktop
Discussion:
Read/WriteWeb
Bruce Schneier / Wired News:
Quickest Patch Ever — If you really want to see Microsoft scramble to patch a hole in its software, don't look to vulnerabilities that impact countless Internet Explorer users or give intruders control of thousands of Windows machines. Just crack Redmond's DRM. — Security patches used to be rare.
Discussion:
Techdirt, Ed Burnette's Dev Connection, Paul Colligan's …, InsideMicrosoft, Boing Boing, digg and Slashdot
Gizmodo:
Battle-worn Xbox 360 Casemod — This Xbox looks like it's straight from the set of the nonexistent Fallout movie. Post-apocalyptic scratches, dings, and peeled paint make you feel like this Xbox 360 has seen more than just the inside of your home theatre cabinet.
Zephoria / apophenia:
lonelygirl15 — Over the last week, i've gotten innumerable emails about lonelygirl15. Folks were wondering if i was behind it or if i knew who was. They wanted to know my opinion, if i thought it was fake. — I did. I thought it was fake but i expected that it was a TV or movie organization.
Discussion:
Mathew Ingram
Oliver / MobileCrunch:
Treemo Launching Today: New Mobile Content Network Opens Public Beta — Treemo, a new mobile content network with a socially responsible twist has officially come online with their public beta. — Much like Mobango which I profiled in early August, Treemo lets you upload music or ringtones …
David Pogue / New York Times:
In a Sea of Cellphones, a Pearl — EVERYONE knows that the perfect cellphone doesn't exist, and it's mostly because of physics. You know: You can't have a huge screen on a tiny phone, or a fat battery on a slim phone, or top-of-the-line construction at a rock-bottom price.
Discussion:
Engadget, Gizmodo, MobileWhack.com, CNET News.com, CNNMoney.com, CrunchGear and Mark Evans
Business Wire:
AOL to Launch AIM Phoneline Developer Initiative — Will Show Examples of New APIs for Call Personalization, Untethered — Devices and Incoming Call Management at Fall VON 2006 (Booth #449) — Call for Entries: Open AIM Phoneline Developers' Challenge Invites
Discussion:
Mathew Ingram, Jon Arnold's Blog, Alec Saunders .LOG, Skype Journal, VoIP Watch and 21talks
Tarmo Virki / Reuters:
Nokia to baptize phones by name rather than number — HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia (NOK1V.HE), the world's top handset maker, said on Thursday it will give new phone models a name rather than a number, following the success of rivals with model names like RAZR and "chocolate."
Valleywag:
Clip: Dude gets fat air dirtbiking over Google — Normally we're not ones for corporate promotion, but it looks like Google put this dirtbike video on their home page a week back. Another user caught it in the wild. — Can't find any coverage or explanation of this stunt, but it beats the hell out of those holiday doodles.
Discussion:
InsideGoogle
Erica Ogg / CNET News.com:
SanDisk MP3 seizure order overturned — A seizure order that would have barred SanDisk from showing its MP3 devices at a German trade show was overturned this week, allowing the company to display its digital audio players after all. — A German prosecutor issued the seizure order for the MP3 players on Friday, Sept. 1.
