Top Items:
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Thomas verdict: willful infringement, $1.92 million penalty — Jammie Thomas-Rasset's federal retrial concluded today as a jury found her liable for willful copyright infringement, awarding the record labels nearly $2 million in damages. — A new lawyer, a new jury, and a new trial were not enough to save Jammie Thomas-Rasset.
Discussion:
The Register, CNET News, GMSV, Gizmodo, TorrentFreak, Threat Level, p2pnet, Techdirt, L.A. Times Tech Blog, TECH.BLORGE.com, SlashGear, Agence France Presse, ZeroPaid.com, Macworld, Associated Press, Techgeist, Smalltalk Tidbits …, GigaLaw.com Daily News, Copyrights & Campaigns, Slashdot and digg.com
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Stan Schroeder / Mashable!:
Ever Downloaded a Copyrighted Song? You Owe Infinity Dollars — In one of the most ridiculous verdicts I've seen, the jury decided that Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the first woman who was charged with copyright infringmenet and offered to settle but decided to fight the RIAA …
Discussion:
p2pnet
Jwchen / CNET News:
Live blog: iPhone 3G S launch day — Apple's iPhone 3G S goes on sale Friday at 7 a.m. in all time zones, and we have a team of people in New York and the San Francisco Bay Area covering the launch. — At Apple and AT&T stores in Manhattan, eager first-day buyers try to get their hands on Apple's upgraded smartphone Friday morning.
Discussion:
Engadget, TUAW, Apple 2.0, Technologizer, The iLife, Sample the Web, 9 to 5 Mac, Mashable!, InformationWeek and The Loop
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Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
iPhone 3G S fizzles out for global retail — What a difference 18 months makes, eh? The relative short line for today's iPhone 3G S launch at Apple's flagship Regent Street store in London could be attributed to any number of factors: the economy, the steep cost of upgrade for iPhone 3G owners …
Discussion:
richardlai's Xanga, Silicon Alley Insider, TUAW, Engadget Mobile, TomsTechBlog.com and Apple 2.0
Franz Och / The Official Google Blog:
Google translates Persian — Today, we added Persian (Farsi) to Google Translate. This means you can now translate any text from Persian into English and from English into Persian — whether it's a news story, a website, a blog, an email, a tweet or a Facebook message.
Discussion:
Google Watch, The Register, Technologizer, Bits, CNET News, PC World, Tech Central, Mashable!, TechCrunch, SiliconBeat, Matt Cutts, Search Engine Journal, Tech Trader Daily and Google Operating System, Thanks:atul
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Eric Kwan / Facebook Blog:
Launching Facebook in Persian — Since the Iranian election last week, people around the world have increasingly been sharing news and information on Facebook about the results and its aftermath. Much of the content created and shared has been in Persian—the native language of Iran …
Michael McWhertor / Kotaku:
Microsoft: There Will Be “No New Console” — Today, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer indicated that the company would be releasing a new Xbox 360 in 2010, one featuring a built-in camera. That seemingly confirmed a new hardware configuration with the company's Project Natal built-in. Microsoft's official word?
Discussion:
TG Daily, CrunchGear, I4U News, DigitalBattle.com, ElectricPig.co.uk, TechVi and Edge Online
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Major Nelson / Xbox Live's Major Nelson:
To clarify what Steve said earlier today.... A few people have emailed me regarding something Steve Ballmer said earlier today about a new Xbox coming in 2010. As the Xbox team stated at E3 two weeks ago, we are not even halfway through the current console generation lifecycle and believe Xbox 360 …
Discussion:
Tech Central, Destructoid, GMSV, VG247, bit-tech.net, Electronista, CNET News, Technologizer, Eurogamer, GamesIndustry.biz and Crave
Craig Labovitz / Arbor Networks Security:
Iranian Traffic Engineering — The outcome of the Iranian elections now hangs in the balance and perhaps, also on the availability of the Internet (or at least Twitter and Facebook according to the US State Department). — Based on significant Internet engineering changes over the last week, the Iranian government seems to agree...
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Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Steve Ballmer Is Making A Bad $10 Billion Bet — Steve Ballmer says he is willing to invest 5%-10% of Microsoft's operating income over the next five years on search. — That's a boatload of money. — Specifically, assuming Microsoft's operating income stays constant (it will likely grow), it's $5.5-$11 billion.
Ed Bott / Ed Bott's Microsoft Report:
How good is Microsoft's free antivirus software? — Microsoft has officially unveiled its long-awaited consumer antivirus offering. Formerly code-named “Morro,” it's now been christened Microsoft Security Essentials, and it will enter public beta testing next week.
Discussion:
Gizmodo
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Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
iPhone 3G S: First peek under the hood — What makes the iPhone 3G S tick, and why is it the “fastest iPhone ever,” as Apple claims. Rapid Repair tears down the iPhone in Paris, providing some clues. — First, a quick glance at Apple's claims for the iPhone 3G S. The ad copy …
Discussion:
Macworld, Tech Trader Daily, AppleInsider, Apple 2.0, Gizmodo, Electronista, CrunchGear, Gear Diary, Gadget Lab, PC World, IntoMobile, 9 to 5 Mac, Engadget and Engadget Mobile
Jolie O'Dell / ReadWriteWeb:
Twitter Censoring Trending Topics? Isn't It About Time? — Tonight, the bored and lonely segment of Twitter users banded together to push three sexy, raunchy, and totally inappropriate terms into the trending topics leaderboard. — Within minutes (as far as we could tell) …
Thanks:atul
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google Flipper Is About To Jump Out Of The Water — Google is about to launch a new Google Labs project it calls Flipper, we've learned. No, it's not a dolphin. As you can see in the screenshot, it looks like the project is a more visual way to read Google News, or to “flip through it,” as it were.
Discussion:
bit-tech.net, Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land, Googling Google and TheNextWeb.com, Thanks:atul
Dan Sabbagh / Times of London:
Sony should beware — Activision chief is not simply playing games — Bobby Kotick and a partner bought the once-struggling Activision for $440,000 in 1991, at a time when it was losing $30 million on $10 million in revenues. Now the world's biggest independent computer games company …
Ryan Tate / Gawker:
Facebook Tell-All Released Into Wild — Facebook's creation myth has left the building, or so we hear: Fortune is said to be readying an excerpt of Ben Mezrich's tell-all book and movie about the social network. And another publication is, naturally, trying to ruin the scoop.
Jeff Bertolucci / PC World:
Why Doesn't Anyone Want a Blu-ray Player? — Blu-ray may have won the war against HD-DVD, but American consumers aren't exactly warming to the high-definition disc format. — According to a new Harris Poll, more U.S. homes have a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player compared to a year ago, but adoption is slow.
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John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Appmodo: Official AT&T iPhone Tethering to Cost $55 Per Month — Appmodo: … That sounds outrageously high to me, unless they mean $55 total, not $55 in addition to the existing $30 data plan. If they want $85 a month for tethered data, that's larceny. What are carriers in other countries charging?
Discussion:
TechCrunch, IntoMobile, SlashGear, MobileContentToday, Gadget Lab, Boing Boing Gadgets, EverythingiCafe, TechSpot and TUAW
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Dwight / Houston Chronicle:
O2 will punish unauthorized iPhone tetherers. Et tu, AT&T?
O2 will punish unauthorized iPhone tetherers. Et tu, AT&T?
Discussion:
MobileContentToday, Lifehacker, Mac|Life all, richardlai's Xanga and MacRumors, Thanks:dsilverman
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
The Pre App Catalog Is Tracking Way, Way Behind Apple's App Store. And It's Palm's Fault. — One month after the launch of the App Store in 2008, Apple had seen over 60 million downloads of its apps. The Palm Pre hasn't been out for a month yet, but it's about halfway there, so how close is it to that number?
Discussion:
Medialets, MobileContentToday, Electronista, Silicon Alley Insider and TUAW, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
Want to Work for the City of Bozeman, MT? Hand Over Your Social Network Logins and Passwords — We have written quite a bit about the pitfalls of disclosing too much in your social network profiles, especially when it comes to employers accidentally stumbling over your party pictures on Facebook and MySpace.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Lockergnome Blog Network, CNET News, PC World, Download Squad, The Register, TechLaw and City of Bozeman Montana …
Eurogamer:
No public beta for Battlefield 1943 — EA DICE producer Gordon Van Dyke has said a trial version of Battlefield 1943 will be offered to compensate for the lack of a public beta - an inevitability on Xbox Live Arcade, but not always so on PlayStation Network. So that's good news.
Rafat Ali / paidContent:
Newser Gets $2.5 Million in First-Round Funding — Newser, the news aggregation site founded by Patrick Spain and professional media provocateur Michael Wolff, has raised $2.5 million in its first official round of funding, we have learned and confirmed from the company.
Nicholas Carlson / Silicon Alley Insider:
Google Cofounder's Wife Gets Another $2.6 Million Investment From Google — Google (GOOG) just told the SEC it's invested $2.6 million in Anne Wojcicki's biotech startup 23andMe. — Wojcicki is Google cofounder Sergey Brin's wife, and he's recused himself from the whole deal.
Kim Zetter / Threat Level:
TJX Hacker Was Awash in Cash; His Penniless Coder Faces Prison — Accused TJX hacker kingpin Albert Gonzalez called his credit card theft ring “Operation Get Rich or Die Tryin.” — He spent $75,000 on a birthday party for himself and once complained that he had to manually count $340,000 …
Tony Stubblebine / Stubbleblog:
The Real Lessons From Twitter — In 2006, I was the director of engineering at Odeo, a podcasting startup notable for birthing a side project now known as Twitter. My major contributions were doing the statistical analysis that showed that our podcasting work hadn't amounted to a hill …
Thanks:chrismessina