Top Items:
Jack / Twitter Blog:
Taking a bite out of the big apple — First, Twitter was a fun side project, then it was cared for lovingly at Obvious until it was time to form Twitter, Inc. Today, we're excited to announce an important moment for Twitter. We've raised funding from our friends in New York City at Union Square Ventures.
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Fred Wilson / Union Square Ventures:
Twitter — The Internet is largely a communications medium. It's also used for content distribution, commerce, and a number of other things. But the thing I do most on the Internet is communicate. Via email, Skype, instant messaging, blogging, commenting, and twittering. It makes sense.
Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed:
The Twitter Lesson: No Business Plans Please — Seeing that Twitter closed a funding round, and spotting the associated incredulity about Evan's company not having a business plan, reminded me of something: Whatever your feelings about Twitter, business plans are overrated, and profits perhaps even more so.
Steven Zeitchik / Variety:
HBO comedy site shut down — This Just In offered celebrity riffs, comic videos — This Just In, the comedy site HBO envisioned as both a brand extension and a potential development pipeline, is being shut down just six months after launching. — Time Warner will unwind the venture …
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, paidContent.org, Media 3.0 with Shelly Palmer, TechCrunch, Podcasting News and HipMojo.com
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BBC:
Google 'the most improved brand' — Google is the brand that has gained the most in value over the past year, according a survey of global brands. — The report from Interbrand found that Google's brand value had risen 44% in the past 12 months to $17.8bn (£8.8bn), which put it in 20th place.
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Marc Gunther / Fortune:
Washington Post's survival fight — Newspapers are dying. At the Washington Post Co., CEO Donald Graham is banking on the Internet to save serious journalism. If he can't figure this out, nobody can. Fortune's Marc Gunther reports. — (Fortune Magazine) — Barry Svrluga …
Discussion:
New York Times, Beet.TV, Lost Remote, mathewingram.com/work, yelvington.com and Romenesko
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I, Cringely . The Pulpit | PBS:
Is Google on Crack? — This week I was supposed to explain why U.S. broadband prices are so much higher and U.S. broadband speeds are so much lower than in most other developed countries, but then Google made an unexpected reckless move in the wireless bandwidth market and here I am trying to explain it.
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John Markoff / New York Times:
Microsoft Offers a Web-Based Strategy — Microsoft executives said Thursday that they intend to respond to the growing threat to its software posed by new rivals like Google that offer Web-based versions of its applications. — The executives said Microsoft would add similar Internet services …
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AOL:
Think You Might Be Addicted to Email? You're Not Alone — New AOL Survey Reveals that More Americans are Using Portable Devices to Email Around the Clock from Virtually Anywhere - in the Bathroom, While Driving and Even in Church — 83% of Email Users Checking on Vacation; Many Plan Getaways Around Access
Duncan Riley / TechCrunch:
Now We're Not Talking: Telstra Bans Facebook — Telstra, Australia's largest telecommunications company, has banned its approximately 49,000 employees from using Facebook. — As Cameron Reilly at G'Day World puts it, "This would be a retarded move for ANY company, let alone a company …
Discussion:
CenterNetworks
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BBC:
BBC online player launches — The BBC's flagship online TV service is being launched, offering viewers the chance to download their favourite programmes from the last seven days. — For director general Mark Thompson, the launch of iPlayer is as big a milestone as the arrival of colour TV.
Greg Eden / PR Newswire:
VMware and Cisco Announce Investment — PALO ALTO, Calif. and SAN JOSE, Calif., July 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — VMware, Inc. today announced that Cisco Systems will acquire an equity stake in the company. — Cisco will purchase $150 million of VMware Class A common shares currently held …
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
Is this the new iMac keyboard? — See that? That's the rumored, "super slim," brushed aluminum keyboard said to be accompanying Apple's new iMac computer. It certainly appears to share the key design of the MacBook like we heard but seeing "Photoshop" in the exif data doesn't give us a high degree of confidence here.
Discussion:
Byte of the Apple, CrunchGear, Gadgetell, Gadget Lab, Gizmodo, Apple Gazette, The Unofficial Apple Weblog and digg
Robert Andrews / paidContent.org:
Earnings: BSkyB Profit Drops Nine Percent On Broadband Costs; Revenues Rise 10 Percent — BSkyB's profit fell 10 percent to £815 million ($1.7 billion) from £877 million ($1.8 billion) for the first half of 2007 due to the cost of building out a broadband network …
Discussion:
The Register
Miguel Helft / New York Times:
With Tools on Web, Amateurs Reshape Mapmaking — On the Web, anyone can be a mapmaker. — With the help of simple tools introduced by Internet companies recently, millions of people are trying their hand at cartography, drawing on digital maps and annotating them with text, images, sound and videos.
