Top Items:
Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:
The myth of the creative class — As I near the end of writing my book, one lesson that has struck me is about the will of most people to create, and the new possibilities the Google age brings us. — One survey I quote says that 81 percent of us say we have a book in us.
Wired News:
Watch the Olympics Online — The 2008 Beijing Olympics will happen while most Americans are sleeping. While NBC, the games' official media outlet in the United States, will be providing thousands of hours of content on the web, the only way to truly ensure you won't miss too many record-breaking moments …
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Tom Krazit / One More Thing:
Much ado about the iPhone's ‘kill switch’ — The discovery of a “kill switch” inside the iPhone 2.0 software prompted much consternation and little fact-finding. — (Credit: Apple) — Apple's iPhone “kill switch” has prompted much hand-wringing, despite the fact that no one knows exactly what it does.
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Benwilson / iPhone Atlas:
iPhone can phone home and kill apps? — Apple has apparently included a blacklisting mechanism in iPhone OS 2.x via which the device can phone home, check for unauthorized applications, and disable them. The OS includes a URL that points to a page containing a list of unauthorized applications, specifically:
Kevin J. O'Brien / International Herald Tribune:
Facebook and StudiVZ battle over Germany — BERLIN: When Facebook sued the German leader in social networking, StudiVZ, last month, it contended that the company had illegally copied Facebook's “look and feel” with similar graphics and features. — “A great deal, if not all …
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Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:
Did Facebook Try to Buy German Clone StudiVZ? All Stock Offer
Did Facebook Try to Buy German Clone StudiVZ? All Stock Offer
Discussion:
Valleywag
Michael Liedtke / Associated Press:
Google believes $1B investment in AOL is crumbling — SAN FRANCISCO - In an assessment that could lead to a substantial charge against its future profits, Google Inc. believes its $1 billion investment in advertising partner AOL is souring. — The Mountain View-based company disclosed …
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Rafat Ali / paidContent.org:
Google: AOL's Not Worth $20 Billion Anymore
Google: AOL's Not Worth $20 Billion Anymore
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider
Bill Tancer / Hitwise Intelligence:
How Cuil is This? — We received numerous requests to update the daily chart from our last post on Cuil. As expected, as the initial media hype subsided, traffic to the upstart search engine has declined precipitously. — As of this Tuesday, August 5th, Cuil.com ranked as the #1034 …
Tiernan Ray / Tech Trader Daily:
Google GPhone Delayed By HTC Issues, Global Equities Says — The word from Half Moon bay is that Google's (GOOG) “GPhone” cell-phones, being built by various handset makers, could be delayed from an end-of-year introduction to sometime later in the first quarter of next year, according to Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research.
Juan Carlos Perez / PC World:
Google Apps Hit by Prolonged Gmail Access Problem — A technical problem hit an undetermined number of Gmail users, including paying subscribers to the Google Apps hosted software suite, locking them out of their accounts for about 15 hours on Wednesday and early Thursday.
Discussion:
Technologizer, Rev2.org, GigaOM, Software as Services, InformationWeek Weblog, WebProNews and eWeek
Nick / Rough Type:
“Is Google Making Us Stupid?”: sources and notes — Since the publication of my essay Is Google Making Us Stupid? in The Atlantic, I've received several requests for pointers to sources and related readings. I've tried to round them up below. — The essay builds on my book The Big Switch …
InfoWorld:
IBM exec predicts the future of Linux, open source — With LinuxWorld showcasing the popularity of the open source operating system, and with open source in general finding its legs in the enterprise, Bob Sutor, IBM's vice president of open source and standards, made a slate of predictions …
Eliot Phillips / Hack a Day:
Black Hat 2008: FasTrak toll system completely broken — FasTrak is the electronic toll collection system used by the state of California. Motorists can purchase a toll transponder for ~$26 and link the serial number with a debit account to have their tolls deducted automatically.
Christina Clark / Download Squad:
SlingPlayer 2.0 released today — Slingbox from SlingMedia is one of my favorite things to use. Being rather addicted to watching the Food Network and TLC's What Not to Wear it's great to just grab my laptop and check out what's on wherever I am. My favorite time to use Slingbox?
Discussion:
DSLreports, Sling Community, Engadget, jkOnTheRun, Boy Genius Report, Electronista, Gizmodo and Crave
Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:
New software would let iPhones access iTunes libraries from anywhere — A new version of Apple's iPhone Software could provide iPhone and iPod touch users with access to their home computer's entire iTunes media library while on the go without having to first download those media items through …
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Some Mashups Harnessing The Power Of Yahoo's BOSS — Yahoo's Search Blog has posted a list of some of the most promising new web apps being built using its BOSS search platform. BOSS is a radically open API that launched last month that allows developers to utilize much of Yahoo's core search data without …
Tom Espiner / CNET News.com:
At Black Hat, Kaminsky details DNS flaw — Security researcher Dan Kaminsky has offered more details about a fundamental flaw in the Domain Name System and the extent of the vulnerability. — In a presentation at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday …