Top Items:
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 (NSDQ: GOOG) has filed its 10-Q quarterly, and some interesting language about how it continues to value its 5 percent stake in AOL: “We review our investment in AOL (NYSE: TWX) for impairment in accordance with FSP SFAS 115-1 …
Discussion:
VentureBeat
Robert Vamosi / CNET News.com:
Black Hat expels reporters in network snooping — Elinor Mills of CNET News co-wrote this story. Updated 6:50 p.m. with more detail. — LAS VEGAS—Three journalists for a French security magazine were kicked out of the Black Hat security conference after they allegedly sniffed the press room computer network on Thursday.
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Brian Prince / eWeek:
How I Got Hacked at Black Hat — A group of reporters from Global Security Mag were kicked out of the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas after stealing password information from another reporter who will remain nameless—we'll call him, me. — LAS VEGAS—So as some of you may have already read by now …
Dan Goodin / The Register:
Black Hat organizers punt totally hackable RFID badges — Black Hat The annual Black Hat conference in Las Vegas has become one of the premier venues for exposing lax security practices that put the unwashed masses at risk. In an interesting twist, a researcher is calling out conference organizers …
L.A. Times Tech Blog:
Apple removes $1,000 featureless iPhone application — Eight iPhone owners have joined an elite clan: Their Apple gadget is running a program that cost nearly $1,000. — When the iPhone first hit the market in June 2007, those who paid the $499 entry price — and signed the two-year AT&T contract — owned a status symbol.
Discussion:
The Apple Core, MacRumors iPhone Blog, 9 to 5 Mac, Dollars and Sense, iPhone Atlas and Digg
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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.
Discussion:
Daring Fireball, TG Daily, PC World, Forbes, Infinite Loop, CNET News.com, The Mac Observer, GMSV and iPod Observer
Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:
A stake through the heart of the has-been Inquirer — What the hell are they thinking in Philadelphia? Inquirer ME Mike Leary just sent a memo saying they are going to hold all but breaking news for the paper and even restrict bloggers from using their blogs to work on stories in progress.
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.
Discussion:
broadstuff, PSFK, TomsTechBlog.com, The Inquisitr, ben barren, Broadband Politics and contentious.com
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 …
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 …
Tracey John / MTV Multiplayer:
Blizzard Confirms Departure of ‘Diablo III’ Art Director, Look Of Game Won't Change — Blizzard has confirmed to MTV Multiplayer that “Diablo III” art director Brian Morrisroe has decided to leave the company. — A company rep says his departure won't change the look of the game.
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David F. Gallagher / Bits:
Rumor Control: Why I Can't Put ‘Tibet’ in My Hotmail Address — A reader wrote in to say he had heard that Microsoft was not letting people choose usernames with the word “Tibet” in them when signing up for its online services. This turns out to be true, technically speaking.
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.
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.
Daniel Scocco / Daily Blog Tips:
Alexa is Becomeing Completely Worthless — Alexa is becoming a joke lately. Some people claim that over the previous two years it was already losing reliability, but lately it went completely nuts. Whatever they did on the last algorithm update, it messed up their rankings badly.
Jeremiah Owyang / Web Strategy:
The Many Challenges of the Social Media Industry — Like every industry, the Social media industry is plagued with problems that for now, are slowly being solved. It's important to note the challenges in our industry in order to first identify them and eventually overcome them.
Discussion:
Media Bullseye
