Top Items:
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Yahoo Finally Rolls Out New Homepage to the Masses-and, Drum Roll, It's Good (Plus Screenshots) — Although it's not news that Yahoo has been readying a new version of its homepage and has spent a lot of time doing so-in fact, it's gone all Handy Manny with a whole lot of test renovations …
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Maggie Shiels / BBC:
Yahoo's front page makeover — Yahoo has unveiled sweeping changes to its front page aimed at shoring up its position as the main portal to the web. — Consumers in the US are the first to benefit from a new, customisable format which lets them link to third parties like Google and Twitter.
Discussion:
The Register
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
What's Up Next For Yahoo? Better Search, Customizable Content (How Fluffy Do You Want Your News?) — Yahoo showed off a couple of new upcoming features during my briefing today on the new home page to launch tomorrow. — The first is a tool, called Customizable Content for now, to dial how “fun” or “serious” you like your news.
Eliot Van Buskirk / Epicenter:
Apple Preparing iPod Touch With Camera, Microphone: Source — Rumors have swirled about Apple readying a new version of the iPod Touch with a camera and microphone, which, combined with a Skype account, would pretty much obviate the need for a home phone line once and for all.
Eric Eldon / VentureBeat:
iPhone prototype goes missing; Chinese worker investigated, commits suicide — Last Thursday, 25 year-old Sun Danyong committed suicide after a fourth-generation iPhone prototype he was responsible for went missing. It's a story, from what tech-industry friends in China tell me …
Discussion:
Fast Company, Silicon Alley Insider, 9 to 5 Mac, SlashGear, IntoMobile, DailyTech, Pocket-lint.com, CrunchGear, EverythingiCafe, Gizmodo, Softpedia News, Fone Arena, Neowin.net and The Raw Feed, Thanks:atul
JBC / Nokia Conversations:
Nokia 6760 Slide unveiled — GLOBAL - Finger tappers everywhere will soon have new buttons to press as the Nokia 6760 slide messaging device is coming to Europe. The Nokia 6760 slide shares many (but not all) traits with its US sibling, the Nokia Surge, announced in the US last week.
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John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:
Barnes & Noble to Amazon: Mine is Bigger Than Yours — Six years after shuttering its first e-book effort, Barnes & Noble (BKS) has embarked on another one. On Monday afternoon, the bookseller announced what it describes as “the world's largest eBookstore,” an online storefront that boasts 700,000 titles.
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Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
Barnes & Noble partners with Plastic Logic; Opens up; Targets Kindle
Barnes & Noble partners with Plastic Logic; Opens up; Targets Kindle
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PC World, ITworld.com, Barnes & Noble, Inc., Brainstorm Tech, IDG News Service, Los Angeles Times, Gadgetell, PC Magazine, Softpedia News, Technologizer, IntoMobile, Engadget, VentureBeat, Tech Beat, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Electronista, Shooting at Bubbles, paidContent, Gizmodo, Silicon Alley Insider, TeleRead and The Seattle Times, Thanks:mager
Fred Vogelstein / Wired News:
Why Is Obama's Top Antitrust Cop Gunning for Google? — “I think you are going to see a repeat of Microsoft.” — Christine Varney's blunt assessment sent a buzz through the audience at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Varney, a partner at Hogan & Hartson and one of the country's …
Michael Learmonth / AdAge:
Conde Nast Says Goodbye to Men.Style.com, Hello to GQ.com, Details.com — Publisher Decides Magazine Brand Is Better Web Brand, Too — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Conde Nast will shut down one of its web-only brands, Men.Style.com, when it gives two of its titles, GQ and Details, their own websites in October.
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Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Adobe Unveils New Open Source Initiatives Targeted Towards Media Companies — Adobe has rolled out two new open source initiatives aimed specifically towards developers for media companies and publishers. Adobe's Open Source Media Framework lets developers build more robust …
Ben Thompson / BBC:
UAE Blackberry update was spyware — Middle East business reporter, BBC News, Dubai — An update for Blackberry users in the United Arab Emirates could allow unauthorised access to private information and e-mails. — The update was prompted by a text from UAE telecoms firm Etisalat, suggesting it would improve performance.
Rebecca Buckman / Forbes:
Khosla Bucks VC Fundraising Drought — He's set to close $1 billion in new funds—though some new deals may pass through a “conflicts committee.” — BURLINGAME, Calif. — It's a tough time to raise a venture-capital fund. But not if you're superstar investor Vinod Khosla …
Vogue:
Machine Dreams — Before I meet Marissa Mayer, the 34-year-old megamillionaire, Oscar de la Renta-obsessed, computer-programming Google executive who lives in a penthouse atop the Four Seasons, San Francisco, I of course Google her.
Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:
Wonga: How the Net Should Kill the Finance Industry — What's awesome about the Internet is how it breaks up monopolistic markets where middlemen unfairly gobble up outsized fees, leaving us little choice but to keep paying them. It happened with software, it happened with music, and it's happening now with media.
Douglas Quenqua / Wired News:
Hotseat: The Creator of Facebook's Most Annoying App Explains Himself — By now, you probably know your Facebook friends' five favorite albums, TV stars, and sodas. Blame Tim O'Shaughnessy, creator of LivingSocial, the site's most-used and most-annoying application ever. We asked him to explain himself.
DigiTimes:
Digitimes Insight: Intel Pine Trail launch to delay — Intel showcased its next-generation netbook CPU, the Atom N450, at Computex Taipei 2009, with plans to launch it later this year. But since then nothing much has been heard from major PC vendors about developing new systems based on the 45nm CPU, codenamed Pineview.
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
From Closed To Open: iPhone App Developer Skepticism Highlights Platform Trajectory — I've been getting into some interesting discussions with people lately concerning open vs. closed platforms — especially in light of the supposed “success” of Apple's iPhone app store, which is a very closed platform.
Discussion:
Marco.org
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
People Are Using Google Reader “Likes,” But Some Hate It. And It's Flawed. — As we expected, the new “like” functionality in Google Reader seems like it's seeing some good usage. Certainly, given that “likes” are fully public, we're seeing much more social activity on feed items …
Discussion:
Shooting at Bubbles
Chris Ziegler / Engadget Mobile:
Verizon's HTC XV6975 turns out to be the Whitestone: 5 megapixels, no keyboard — Remember way back in March when HTC's 2009 lineup first started to come apart at the seams? You might recall that there was a “Whitestone” in there, rumored to be packing a wide VGA display, 5 megapixel camera …
Adam Ostrow / Mashable!:
Sharing on Facebook Now More Popular than Sharing by Email — How do you know which social sites are most popular? Aside from looking at the raw traffic numbers, a good indicator is data about which sites are seeing the most content shared on them. — Among the companies with access …
Andrew LaVallee / Digits:
The Gap Widens in Online Population — Asia's share of the world's online population will swell to 43% in four years, while North America will represent just 13% of Internet users, according to a new report by Forrester Research. — Associated Press — 2.17 billion by 2013
Discussion:
Between the Lines
Aaron / YouTube Biz Blog:
YouTube myth busting — One of our favorite shows at YouTube is MythBusters, the Discovery Channel's popular science program in which hosts Jamie and Adam bravely attempt to debunk urban legends. For those of us who thought you could jump start a car with a defibrillator, we consider this show a public service.
Jeff / Venture Chronicles:
Cloud Computing and the Morning After — I just read a very interesting op-ed about the opportunities and hazards of cloud computing and it resonated with me on several levels. … In recent weeks we have seen the downside of relying on third party hosted application services …
John Markoff / New York Times:
New Technology to Make Digital Data Self-Destruct — A group of computer scientists at the University of Washington has developed a way to make electronic messages “self destruct” after a certain period of time, like messages in sand lost to the surf. The researchers said they think the new software …
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Elias Bizannes
Joe Sharkey / New York Times:
A Race to Provide Wi-Fi (but Not the Voice Part) — THOUGH it is not yet clear how extensive the market is for in-flight Wi-Fi service, the competition to provide it is heating up. Row44, a California company whose in-flight Wi-Fi technology uses satellite connections …
Brad Reed / Network World:
Five technologies Iran is using to censor the Web — Government uses both blunt and surgical tools to stifle dissidents, hacker says — One month after a disputed presidential election sparked widespread unrest in Iran, the country's government has initiated a cyber-crackdown …
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ZDNet Government