Top Items:
Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Why Facebook, why now? — John Battelle asks a compelling question: why Facebook and why now? — Scott Rosenberg of Slate follows up with another point: that Facebook's friends definitions are all messed up. — Over on TechMeme everyone is talking about how Facebook's advertising isn't working.
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Nathan Weinberg / InsideMicrosoft:
Microsoft To Buy Facebook For $6 Billion? — Rumor is that Microsoft is looking to close a deal to buy Facebook for the amazing sum of six billion dollars. Henry Blodget says that while he can't confirm it, he has definitely heard that Steve Ballmer is desperately trying to make a big splash play …
Luke / Reach Students blog:Facebook advertising brings poor results
Discussion:
Insider Chatter, Techdirt, Feld Thoughts, Valleywag, Search Marketing Gurus, Unit Structures, Mashable!, Master of 500 Hats, Oliver Thylmann's Thoughts, Publishing 2.0, CostPerNews, ZDNet, HipMojo.com, All Facebook, Searchviews, broadstuff, John Furrier, hubbub, Portfolio.com and The Last Podcast
Anne Broache / CNET News.com:
Court rejects Webcasters' plea for relief — A federal appeals court has declined to grant a petition by Webcasters to delay the onset of new royalty fees that they argue could imperil their offerings. — In a one-page order filed late Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District …
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Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:
Court declines to postpone Internet radio royalty hike — Internet radio broadcasters' best hope to avoid the onset of higher royalties beginning Sunday, July 15, fell by the wayside as the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit denied a motion to postpone the onset of the new royalty regime.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Contentinople, Mashable!, Copyfight, Zatz Not Funny!, Listening Post and digg
Dennis Sellers / Macsimum News:
Apple patent involves media data exchange and portable electronic devices — An Apple patent (20070161402) is for media data exchange, transfer or delivery for portable electronic devices. It would seem to indicate wireless data sharing features between iPods, iPhones and perhaps other devices Apple has in the works.
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Associated Press:
Sony BMG sues CD software firm — Sony BMG Music Entertainment is suing a company that developed antipiracy software for CDs, claiming the technology was defective and cost the record company millions of dollars to settle consumer complaints and government investigations.
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Eric Bangeman / Ars Technica:Sony seeks closure on MediaMax DRM fiasco by suing developer
Discussion:
CNET News.com, Good Morning Silicon Valley, TechSpot News, Inquirer and Digital Media Wire
Virtual Earth:
Mobile Search V2 released - Improved Navigation, Cache, Movie Searching, GPS, Traffic reporting and more! — The Mobile Search team has released V2 of the rich client application for Windows Mobile, as well as a major update to the browser based interface. Whether you have a J2ME (Java) …
Caitlin Moran / Times of London:
Google faces landmark lawsuit over sponsored links — A consumer watchdog is taking legal action against Google over the way it sells and displays its sponsored links, in a case that could "send shudders down the industry". — The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) …
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Mike / CUPS:
Article #475: CUPS Purchased by Apple Inc. — In February of 2007, Apple Inc. acquired ownership the CUPS source code and hired me (Michael R Sweet), the creator of CUPS. — CUPS will still be released under the existing GPL2/LGPL2 licensing terms, and I will continue to develop and support CUPS at Apple.
Discussion:
The Unofficial Apple Weblog, MacUser, 451 CAOS Theory, Slashdot, The Mac Observer, Macworld, Technovia and digg
Brian Krebs / Washington Post:
Site Plans to Sell Hacks to Highest Bidder — A Swiss Internet start-up is raising the ire and eyebrows of the computer security community with the launch of an online auction house where software vulnerabilities are sold to the highest bidder. — The founders of WabiSabiLabi.com …
Deborah Fallows / Pew Internet:
China's Online Population Explosion — There are now an estimated 137 million internet users in China, second in number only to the United States, where estimates of the current internet population range from 165 million to 210 million. The growth rate of China's internet user population …
Saul Hansell / New York Times:
A Sigh of Relief for Blockbuster: Few People Copy DVDs — It turns out that not every new bit of technology is a nightmare for Hollywood. There are more than 50 programs available that people can use to defeat the copy protection on DVDs. So some fear that Blockbuster and Netflix are turning …
Gijs Hillenius / Inquirer:
Italian parliament bets house on SuSE Linux — Two-year switch to begin in September — ITALY'S parliament is about to undertake Europe's largest governmental migration yet to open sauce. — The IT department of the Italian parliament presented plans on Wednesday to begin migrating …
Discussion:
CNET Blogs
Reuters:
German iPhone gets 1,000 enquiries daily: report — FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's biggest Apple (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) retailer is getting 1,000 enquiries every day about buying the new iPhone, which is expected to go on sale towards the end of the year, the retailer's head told a newspaper.
Phone Scoop:
Motorola Adding a PEBL To The ROKR Lineup — After adding music to the RAZR, SLVR, and most recently the RIZR, a source has confirmed that Motorola will soon announce a PEBL style clamshell for music. The ROKR U9 follows in the footsteps of the Z6 by taking on the ROKR model name and appears …
