Top Items:
David Pogue / Pogue's Posts:
Some E-Books Are More Equal Than Others — This morning, hundreds of Amazon Kindle owners awoke to discover that books by a certain famous author had mysteriously disappeared from their e-book readers. These were books that they had bought and paid for—thought they owned.
Discussion:
Boing Boing, Between the Lines, CNET News, MediaMemo, NPR Blogs, Technologizer, TechFlash, Cool Rules Pronto, Daring Fireball, Gadgetwise, GeekTonic, Mashable!, jkOnTheRun, CrunchGear, Techgeist, Gravitational Pull, GottaBeMobile.com, ExtremeTech, Joho the Blog, Talking Points Memo and digg.com
RELATED:
Adam Frucci / Gizmodo:
Amazon Remotely Deletes Legitimately Purchased Books From Thousands of Kindles — Amazon basically guaranteed that I'll never buy a Kindle last night by bending to the wishes of a publisher and deleting every single legitimately-purchased copy of 1984 and Animal Farm from all Kindles remotely.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Amazon, Why Don't You Come In Our Houses And Burn Our Books Too? — So plenty has already been said about this, but we're going to weigh in too because it's just so ridiculous. Amazon began remotely deleting books from Kindles this morning. Illegal books? Nope.
Thanks:gsharma
Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:
Verizon's Handset Concessions Target AT&T, iPhone — Updated: Verizon said today it will offer smaller carriers access to any cell phone model it uses — even those exclusive to Verizon. Carriers who have fewer than 500,000 subscribers will have access to phones after only six months …
Discussion:
Tech Beat, PC World, The Register, VentureBeat, iLounge, Techgeist, Boy Genius Report, FierceWireless, MobileCrunch, CNET News, DSLreports and Tech Trader Daily
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Amy Schatz / Wall Street Journal:
Verizon to Limit Exclusive Handset Deals — Verizon Wireless said it will allow small wireless carriers to use the popular cellphone models Verizon offers exclusively more quickly. — The wireless phone giant announced the change in a letter to key lawmakers on Capitol Hill who have been pressuring …
Discussion:
BetaNews, Bits, mocoNews, IntoMobile, MobileCrunch, Electronista, Between the Lines, Digits, Telecompetitor, Engadget Mobile, GottaBeMobile.com and Phone Scoop
Chris Nuttall / blogs.ft.com:
App stores are not the future, says Google — Apple customers may have downloaded 1.5bn applications from its AppStore in the past year for their iPhones and iPod touches, but the service does not represent the future for the mobile industry, according to Google.
Staska / Unwired View:
Google to monetize Voice via ringback advertising auctions? — The newly announced Google Voice looks like a great service that should ease your communication problems on multiple devices significantly. — And Google is already thinking of the ways of monetizing Voice. In a way it knows best - through advertising.
Sleonard / Windows Home Server Team Blog:
Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 BETA - Includes enhancements for Windows 7-based computers — We are pleased to announce the Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 Beta which improves the Windows Home Server experience with Windows 7 and Windows Media Center by providing the following new features …
Ryan Tate / Gawker:
Slouching Toward a Coddled and Toothless Blogosphere — Remember when blogs were going to be fiercely independent firebrands who, purified of old media insidery stench, would pull no punches against traditional power structures? So much for that. Today's laptop media is shaping up to be nothing but lapdogs.
Jordan Golson / GigaOM:
Fearless Feedback! Tech Workers Dish Dirt on Their Employers — Thinking about making a move to another company? Sure, the economy is in tatters and layoff announcement have become commonplace, but it's always nice to know whether or not people at other companies are as miserable enjoying their jobs as much as you.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Did Your Mom Tell You Not To Talk To Strangers? Don't Show Her FlyChat. — I sat down thinking I was going to write about how FlyChat, a new iPhone app, is kind of creepy. Then I realized it's actually a lot like Twitter in some regards. And that's not to say that Twitter isn't creepy in some ways.
Erica Ogg / CNET News:
Slowing down the Netbook train — Cheaper or faster? — That's going to be the burning question for computer shoppers perusing the aisles of electronics retail stores this fall. That's when the new line of notebooks powered by consumer ultra-low voltage (CULV) chips will start appearing in force.
Discussion:
I4U News, jkOnTheRun, Lockergnome Blog Network, Technologizer, bit-tech.net and SlashGear
IEBlog:
Changes to IE8's First Run — This blog post details a change we're making to IE8's first run experience, previously described in other posts here and here. The goal of the IE setup experience is to put IE users in control of their settings and respect existing defaults.
Discussion:
Technologizer, All about Microsoft, internetnews.com, Computerworld, CNET News, AppScout, Asa Dotzler, Softpedia News and Pocket-lint.com
Michael Jones / TUAW:
App Store Lessons: No promo codes for apps rated 17+ — Developers whose apps meet the criteria for a 17+ rating in the App Store are now running into yet another roadblock, but this time it's not about getting their apps approved, it's about distributing them. Or, more specifically, distributing promo codes for them.
Discussion:
CNET News, Ars Technica, AppleInsider, PC World, Marco.org, App Advice, MacRumors, The iPhone Blog, SlashGear, www.pocketgamer.biz, Engadget Mobile and digg.com
Noah Robischon / Fast Company:
What Would a Facebook Collaboration With Apple Look Like? It Almost Happened... How would Facebook be different today if its social operating system was built into Apple's OS X? The two companies spent a lot of time collaborating early on. But, as Facebook's senior platform manager …
Todd Bishop / TechFlash:
Apple's former real estate chief now working on Microsoft stores — Looks like Microsoft will have some very well-informed assistance as it tries to replicate the success of Apple's retail stores. Former Apple real estate chief George Blankenship, who helped lead the early rollout …
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
How Google Made Its Q2 Numbers: Squeezing Expenses — Google made its earnings numbers yesterday, actually coming in above expectations. Total revenues were $5.5 billion, 3 percent above the same period last year and flat with the first quarter (when sequential revenues actually declined).
Josh Lowensohn / CNET News:
Wikipedia's controversial video player coming soon — Wikipedia users will be getting new tools for uploading, editing, and viewing video very soon. According to a Beet.TV interview with Erik Moller, who is the deputy director of the Wikimedia Foundation, we'll see all of these things shortly.
Discussion:
Beet.TV
Scott M. Fulton, III / BetaNews:
Is Google optimizing Chrome 3 for Windows XP netbooks? — Download Google Chrome 3.0.193.1 for Windows from Fileforum now. — Over the last few weeks, Google has been releasing development builds of its Chrome 3 Web browser in a fast and furious pace. And with each release …
Discussion:
TechFlash
Javier Espinoza / Forbes:
Spotify Looks For A New Tune — The London online jukebox is launching in the U.S. later this summer. — LONDON — The way Americans listen to music online might be about to change. Music-streaming Web site Spotify, an online software program that gives Internet users instant and free access …
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch Europe:
Here's how you make money out of Twitter - charge £495 for a search interface — UK entreprenuer Colin Gilchrist has developed Tweetabits, effecitively a Tweet-deck style interface layered of Twitter search. — Developed for a franchise with 56 offices across the UK (which he won't name) …
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / Hardware 2.0:
Apple/Microsoft sued over iPod/Zune controls — Apple, Microsoft and some 20 other companies are being sued for patent infringement by a Texas firm which claims to have invented the touchpad. — Tsera LLC filed the suit earlier this week at the US District Court, Eastern Texas Division.
Discussion:
The Register
Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:
A Harvard homecoming for Facebook tell-all — CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Ben Mezrich's new book “The Accidental Billionaires,” a dramatic and contested account of the early days of social network Facebook, is on the fast track to Hollywood. — But Thursday night's inaugural public event for the book …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Yahoo Search Ad Deal With Microsoft “Down to the Short Strokes"-But Caution Also Advised — Unless there is some major glitch, there might finally be a search and online advertising deal struck between Yahoo and Microsoft at long last. — Top executives at Microsoft-including SVP …
Discussion:
Ars Technica, MediaPost, Domain Name Wire, Hitwise Intelligence, Bloomberg, Guardian, Network World, Search Engine Watch, PC World, The Microsoft Blog, ReadWriteWeb, internetnews.com, Xconomy, 901am, Bits, TechFlash, Seattle Times, TECH.BLORGE.com, TechSpot, eWeek, Dealscape, I4U News, Epicenter, All about Microsoft, Chris Pirillo, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, VentureBeat, The Mac Observer, Contentinople, Search Engine Land, Gadgetell, Between the Lines, The Register, GMSV, Tech Trader Daily, AppScout, TechVi, Neowin.net, CNET News, Softpedia News, LiveSide, TG Daily, Silicon Alley Insider and 24/7 Wall Street
Rory Cellan-Jones / BBC:
Wikipedia painting row escalates — The battle over Wikipedia's use of images from a British art gallery's website has intensified. — The online encyclopaedia has accused the National Portrait Gallery (NPG) of betraying its public service mission. — But the gallery has said it needs …
Discussion:
Wikimedia blog
Michael R. Blood / Associated Press:
Concerns raised as LA looks to Google Web services — LOS ANGELES — Security and privacy concerns have been raised over a multimillion-dollar proposal by Los Angeles to tap Google Inc.'s Internet-based services for government e-mail, police records and other confidential data.
Marco.org:
Serious doubts — I've never doubted the viability of running a serious business of writing iPhone apps before. For the first time, now, I am. — App Review is problematic when the delays are longer than a few days. Since its inception, having submitted applications about 12 times …
Discussion:
The iPhone Blog
Chris Kanaracus / PC World:
Experts: Oracle Database Option Price Hikes No Accident — Oracle's decision to hike the price of some add-ons for its flagship database by about 40 percent was far from a random act, since the modules are crucial to getting the database to perform at the highest level, a pair of experts said Friday.
Discussion:
ReadWriteWeb
Alex Iskold / ReadWriteWeb:
The Future of Search: Social Relevancy Rank — FriendFeed has recently launched a search feature, and so Facebook search must be coming soon. — Real-time Web search (of streams of activities) is a hot topic right now. Everyone, including Google and Microsoft, recognizes the value of using trusted contacts as filters.
Kimberly Chou / Dow Jones Newswires:
Peek takes on gadget market — Low-cost email device maker under threat from price cuts across mobile handset market. — In a world full of fancy smart phones, a start-up called Peek Inc. last year launched a $100 email-only device as a bare-bones workhorse for the frugal-minded.
