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Apple hints at lower prices as iPod, notebook refresh on tap — Amid all the chatter about Apple's fiscal third quarter results, which were strong, most concerns about the future revolve around two words: Gross margins. The big takeaway for technology buyers: Those lower margins hint …
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Byte of the Apple, Seeking Alpha, 9 to 5 Mac, DailyTech, InformationWeek, Gearlog and Startup Meme
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What Is Apple's Mystery Product? — I contacted several analysts, looking for sound or even silly speculation about the product. Nobody wants to guess wrong about Apple, so what I got was more sheepish speculation. — Quick recap: During Apple's fiscal third-quarter conference call this afternoon …
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Apple 2.0, One More Thing, PDA, GottaBeMobile, Guardian, Bits, VentureBeat, Startup Meme, Infinite Loop, GigaOM, CNNMoney.com and Gizmodo

Apple plans mystery “product transition” before September's end
Discussion:
Pulse 2.0, Business Week, FierceIPTV, Incremental Blogger, Ubergizmo, Pocket-lint.co.uk and Digg

First hints of Microsoft's “fight back” ads appear — I just noticed this teaser on Microsoft's home page: — If this is going to be the overall message of Microsoft's much-vaunted new $300 million ad campaign, it might be money well spent. According to the folks at LiveSide …
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Microsoft's Vista Mea-Sorta-Culpa — Over at ZDNet, Ed Bott has posted an intriguing item on Microsoft's attempt to reintroduce Windows Vista to a world that seems to have its fair share of Vista skeptics. Ed noticed the image at left, comparing Vista doubters to flat-earth believers, on the Microsoft.com home page.

The Death of Google's Patents — By John F. Duffy* [PDF Version (42 KB)] — The Patent and Trademark Office has now made clear that its newly developed position on patentable subject matter will invalidate many and perhaps most software patents, including pioneering patent claims to such innovators as Google, Inc.
Discussion:
Search Engine Land, WebProNews, broadstuff, Beyond Search, /Message and About Mobility Weblog

TiVo and Amazon Team Up — SAN FRANCISCO — TiVo, the Silicon Valley company that introduced millions to the joy of skipping television commercials, is trying to crack a decades-old media dream. It wants to turn the television remote control into a tool for buying the products being advertised …


Google Maps Walking Directions Now Live — Earlier this month, I reported that Google Maps was testing walking directions on a small subset of users. This morning, I noticed that Google Maps now is offering walking directions for all Google Maps users. — For example, conduct a search …

Has/How/Why tech blogging has failed you — Oh, what a hoot. I've been taking a break from blogging just to relax and invest my time in other places. Like FriendFeed. Or downloading iPhone apps. — Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about Tech blogging and my role in it. I've increasingly become saddened.


Sony Pushes Out Three New Walkmen Phones, the W302, W902 and W595 — It's the third birthday of Sony Ericsson's Walkman phone label, and to celebrate it's launching three new music-based cellphones. The W302 and W902 (left, center in the image) are both candybar cells, with the 302 having an FM radio …
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Sandisk: Windows Vista not optimized for solid state drives — SanDisk said Monday that Windows Vista is not optimized for solid state drives, delaying the delivery of optimized drives until next year. — Solid state drives (SSDs) are used instead of hard disk drives in select high-end notebook PCs today …


Cellphone market poised for shakeup as spectrum auction ends — The government is $4.2 billion richer with the conclusion of the cellphone spectrum auction on Monday, while customers stand to win as five new companies are now well positioned to launch services over the next few years.
Discussion:
Engadget Mobile


Propeller 2.0 Launches: Ditching The Vote Count, Adding A Mascot — Propeller, AOL's Digg-like news site, launches version 2.0 later this morning. The site sports a new design and logo and now has a mascot - described as “part professor, part citizen journalist” (see image below).


New York Times, LinkedIn Enter Content Partnership — In a brilliant move that's sure to make both newspapers and social networks around the web jealous, the New York Times and LinkedIn, the leading US social network for professionals, are announcing a content partnership tonight …


MySpace Music Needs Launch Date, CEO — Last spring, MySpace formally unveilled plans to start a new music site, which it will run as a joint venture with (most of) the big music labels. Close to four months later, two big unanswered questions remain about the proejct: — When will it launch?


Women-focused media site Glam launches developer network — What does a Facebook just for women look like? — Well, if you look closely enough, women-focused media site Glam is is taking on more appearances of that — only without the profile part. — Indeed, taking a leaf from the success …
Discussion:
Mashable!