Top Items:
Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:
Amazon Buys Zappos; The Price is $920m., not $847m. — News has just broken that Amazon.com has purchased hot ecommerce up-and-comer Zappos for 10 million Amazon shares or $880 million. (The Amazon release said it was $807 million, but that was based on a trailing 45-day estimate of its share price.
Discussion:
Contentinople, TeleRead, i-boy, ReveNews, 901am, Guardian, Softpedia News, Natural Search Blog and Switched, Thanks:gsharma
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Tony Hsieh / Zappos.com:
CEO Letter — Please set aside 20 minutes to carefully read this entire email. (My apologies for the occasional use of formal-sounding language, as parts of it are written in a particular way for legal reasons.) — Today is a big day in Zappos history. — This morning …
Alexander Haislip / PE Hub Blog:
Zappos CEO Wanted To Stay Independent, Sequoia Wanted Liquidity—Sources — The decision to sell hot online shoe retailer Zappos to Amazon.com was more in line with the interests of Sequoia Capital than the company's CEO, according to two sources close to the company.
Discussion:
Xconomy, Screenwerk, Venture Capital Dispatch, MYBLOG by Ouriel, bijan sabet and TechFlash
Joe Wilcox / BetaNews:
Apple has 91% of market for $1,000+ PCs, says NPD — Move over Microsoft. Apple can claim big, big market share numbers, too. According to NPD, in June, nine out of 10 dollars spent on computers costing $1,000 or more went to Apple. Mac revenue market share in the “premium” price segment was 91 percent, up from 88 percent in May.
Discussion:
AppleInsider, TUAW, Digital Daily, MacRumors, The Loop, 9 to 5 Mac, Electronista, Daring Fireball, I4U News, Electricpig.co.uk and MacDailyNews
AT&T:
Strong Wireless Growth, Continued Cost Discipline, Solid Free Cash Flow Highlight AT&T's Second-Quarter Results — * $.54 diluted EPS compared with $.63 for the year-earlier second quarter and $.53 in the first quarter of 2009; incremental noncash pension/retiree benefit costs reduced second-quarter 2009 EPS …
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Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Where in the world are those 18.6 million iPod touches? — Apple (AAPL), for reasons known only to itself, does not report the number of iPod touches it has sold. — But it lets you do the math, and on Tuesday COO Tim Cook casually mentioned, in response to a question about the App Store …
Discussion:
Boy Genius Report, VentureBeat, Cult of Mac, 9 to 5 Mac, ReadWriteWeb, Softpedia News, PalmAddicts, IntoMobile and Electronista
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Google Mobile Blog:
Layers of fun in Google Maps for mobile 3.2 — Just as the world itself can be viewed through many lenses, the latest version of Google Maps for mobile allows you to view many layers of information on your map at the same time. Layers make it easier and more useful to find and interact …
Discussion:
eWeek, Google Watch, Search Engine Land, Screenwerk, Google LatLong, Mashable!, GPS Obsessed, Pocket-lint.com, IntoMobile, FierceMobileContent, MobileContentToday, VentureBeat and Local Mobile Search, Thanks:sinkercat
Brandon LeBlanc / The Windows Blog:
Windows 7 Has Been Released to Manufacturing — I am pleased to announce that Windows 7 has RTM'd! — As I mentioned previously, RTM officially happens only after sign-off occurs. What happens is a build gets designated as a RTM contender after going through significant testing and meeting our quality bar for RTM.
Discussion:
PC World, Computerworld Blogs, Engineering Windows 7, All about Microsoft, Softpedia News, blogs.chron.com, GMSV, Digital Daily, ithinkdifferent, Maximum PC all, bit-tech.net, Geek In Disguise, Windows Live Community, Lockergnome Blog Network, BrandonLive, Tech Broiler, TechCrunch and Electronista
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Sarahintampa / Channel 10:An Easy Way to Create a Bootable USB Drive for Windows 7
Discussion:
MobileContentToday
Jim Dalrymple / CNET News:
Apple releases new Final Cut Studio — Apple introduced on Thursday a new version of Final Cut Studio, the company's high-end video production suite. — The suite comes with six applications in all, including Final Cut Pro 7, Motion 4, Soundtrack Pro 3, Color 1.5, Compressor 3.5 and DVD Studio Pro 4.
Discussion:
eWeek, AppleInsider, Apple, PC World, Computerworld, 9 to 5 Mac, Macworld, MacRumors, BusinessWeek, Engadget HD, The Mac Observer and TheAppleBlog
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Jim Dalrymple / CNET News:Apple revamps Logic Studio audio suite
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Macworld, AppleInsider, Computerworld, 9 to 5 Mac, Apple, MacFixIt, Softpedia News, The Loop and Macgasm
Rory Cellan-Jones / BBC:
Voice technology firm under fire — A UK firm that turns mobile messages into text faces questions over its privacy standards, technology and finances following a BBC investigation. — Spinvox's service aims to convert voice messages into text messages using advanced speech recognition software.
Discussion:
blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Guardian, IntoMobile, TechCrunch Europe, Electricpig.co.uk and TheNextWeb.com
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Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
AOL May Spin Bebo Off Into Independent Company — Interesting off hand comment by AOL CEO Tim Armstrong at the Fortune event this morning. Bebo, the social network AOL paid $850 million for in 2008, wasn't mentioned on the list of AOL's core product goals going forward.
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Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
Facebook Relents, Lets You Change Your Username — Last month, Facebook finally announced that they would allow users to pick out custom usernames for use in vanity URLs that read www.facebook.com/username. At the time, users were advised to “choose wisely” because the username they selected would be stuck with them for life.
The New York Times Company:
The New York Times Company Reports 2009 Second-Quarter Results — The New York Times Company announced today second-quarter 2009 operating profit of $23.3 million compared with $40.3 million in the second quarter of 2008. Excluding depreciation, amortization, severance and a pension charge as noted below …
Bryan Lamkin / Yodel Anecdotal:
Xoopit + Yahoo! Mail = Moving beyond that massive digital shoebox — If your email inbox is anything like mine, it's turned into a “digital shoebox” over the years. It's full of hundreds or maybe thousands of special photos that have been shared by close friends and family members, but they're not organized in any particular way.
Discussion:
internetnews.com, PC World, Xoopit Team Blog, BetaNews, CNET News, Softpedia News, BoomTown, The Register, ChannelWeb, paidContent, Search Engine Journal and VentureBeat
Ben Fritz / Company Town:
Video game publishers Microsoft, Ubisoft invading Hollywood's turf — For decades, Hollywood's relationship with video games has come down to one word: licensing. Game publishers have been licensing and adapting movies all the way back to 1984's “E.T.”, and studios started doing the opposite with 1993's “Super Mario Bros.”
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Los Angeles Times, Digital Joystick, Kotaku, VG247, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Joystiq, Destructoid and GamesIndustry.biz
Erica Ogg / CNET News:
Instant search comes to Splashtop — Computers loaded with Splashtop will soon be able to do very quick searches as soon as the pre-boot phase of the machine starts. — Starting in September, notebooks and Netbooks with Splashtop will have instant access to a search bar on the instant-on desktop …
Camille Ricketts / VentureBeat:
How-to video site 5min scores $7.5M for wider syndication — 5min, a site that syndicates instructional videos to a host of other web sites reaching 200 million viewers a month, has raised $7.5 million in a second round of funding. — The 5min site itself has built a library of more than 100,000 short …
Discussion:
NewTeeVee, alarm:clock, HipMojo.com, MediaMemo, TechCrunch, Beet.TV, paidContent, PR Newswire and Xconomy
Aaron / YouTube Blog:
More statistics coming to a video near you — When you discover videos on YouTube, we try to provide you with useful information about what it is you're watching — like total views, the number of ratings, and other metrics that make the site more transparent and the videos themselves more interesting.
Gavin Clarke / The Register:
Microsoft opened Linux-driver code after ‘violating’ GPL — Traded credibility for kudos? — Microsoft was in violation of the GPL (General Public License) on the Hyper-V code it released to open source this week. — After Redmond covered itself in glory by opening up the code …
Discussion:
Bill Snyder's blog, All about Microsoft, Microsoft Watch, OSNews, The Open Road, OStatic blogs and Pass the Source
Ginny Mies / PC World:
Hands-On With the Samsung Mondi — Samsung's mobile Internet device has much to like, but it has flaws, too—both in performance and design. — Recommends — When I first got my hands on the WiMax-enabled Samsung Mondi back in April at CTIA, I was impressed by its slick design …
Jonathan Fildes / BBC:
Artificial brain ‘10 years away’ — Professor Markram said he would send a hologram to talk at TED in 10 years — A detailed, functional artificial human brain can be built within the next 10 years, a leading scientist has claimed. — Henry Markram, director of the Blue Brain Project, has already built elements of a rat brain.
Discussion:
Fudzilla
Ellen Messmer / Network World:
America's 10 most wanted botnets — Botnet attacks are increasing, as cybercrime gangs use compromised computers to send spam, steal personal data, perpetrate click fraud and clobber Web sites in denial-of-service attacks. Here's a list of America's 10 most wanted botnets …
Discussion:
PC World
