Top Items:
John Battelle / John Battelle's Searchblog:
FACEBOOK: $6 BILLION? NAH. — Look. If you're Facebook, why on earth would you sell to Microsoft for $6 billion if you didn't sell to Yahoo for $1 Billion last year? You just wouldn't. You don't NEED anyone right now. Do you? Mark and his senior team has probably already been …
Discussion:
Business Week, HipMojo.com, Insider Chatter, The Paradigm Shift, Joe Duck, Inside Facebook, Peer Pressure, rexduffdixon.com, Todd Watson and ParisLemon
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Luke / Reach Students blog:
Facebook advertising brings poor results — Facebook is the website du jour, but in Reach Students' experience it delivers appalling ad clickthroughs. — We've run four targeted campaigns this year using its flyer ads, and each time the results have been disappointing.
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 …
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.
Discussion:
Smalltalk Tidbits …
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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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.
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 — Although Sony's rootkit fiasco was arguably the most harmful bit of DRM to ever come from Big Content, the MediaMax copy protection software deployed on other Sony discs also caused problems for consumers.
Discussion:
CNET News.com, Good Morning Silicon Valley, Inquirer, TechSpot News and Digital Media Wire
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
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) …
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 …
Dan Kaplan / VentureBeat:
Yoomba introduces VoIP and IM directly into your email — Updated — Yoomba, a Menlo Park-based company founded in Israel, lets you send and receive VoIP calls and instant messages from your existing e-mail service. — It's a download but requires no sign-up — and so avoids you having …
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 …
David Hirschman / Daily Feed:
AWKWARD PICTURES WINS FIRST YOUTUBE 'SKETCHIES' CONTEST — YouTube has announced that the winner of its first Sierra Mist-sponsored sketch comedy contest is Los Angeles-based Awkward Pictures. Comedy writing-directing team Payman Benz and Sean Becker have been TDR favorites for a while …
