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:
ReveNews, TeleRead, i-boy, Guardian, 901am, Softpedia News, Switched, BetaNews, Gawker, internetnews.com, Mashable! and TheNextWeb.com, 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 …
Discussion:
Fast Company, Bokardo, New York Times, the Econsultancy blog, Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com, WebProNews, SOMEWHAT FRANK, Webbyist, The Social, Search Engine Watch, Lockergnome Blog Network, Doc Searls Weblog, Financial Times, Techdirt, Mashable!, ClickZ, CenterNetworks, AgencySpy, Gear Live, AppScout, Between the Lines, TechFlash, Traffick and Inc.com, Thanks:gsharma
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:
Screenwerk, Venture Capital Dispatch, bijan sabet, MYBLOG by Ouriel, TechFlash and TechCrunch
Amazon.com:
Amazon.com to Acquire Zappos.com — Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Zappos.com, Inc. a leader in online apparel and footwear sales that strives to provide shoppers with the best possible service and selection.
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:Getting the Goods: The New Amazon/Zappos Supply Chain Story
Thanks:phclouin
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines:
AT&T activates 2.4 million iPhones; Second quarter tops estimates — Updated: AT&T's second quarter earnings were better than expected courtesy of a strong launch of Apple's iPhone 3GS. — In the second quarter, AT&T activated 2.4 million iPhones, up 29 percent from a year ago and up 31.8 percent from the first quarter.
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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, All about Microsoft, Digital Daily, Engineering Windows 7, blogs.chron.com, Computerworld Blogs, GMSV, bit-tech.net, AustralianIT.com.au, Maximum PC all, Softpedia News, Geek In Disguise, Lockergnome Blog Network, ithinkdifferent, Windows Live Community, BrandonLive, Windows Server Division WebLog, TechCrunch, The Seattle Times, Electronista, Tech Broiler, Windows 7 Center, Redmond Pie, geeksmack.net, Ars Technica, Global Nerdy, Neowin.net, Technologizer, blogs.ft.com, Seeking Alpha, TechLifeWeb, The Microsoft Blog, Microsoft News Tracker, Pocket-lint.com, IDG News Service, Download Squad, TechFlash, eWeek, The Tech Report, WinBeta, Engadget, virtualization.info, DailyTech, GottaBeMobile.com and ChannelWeb
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Sarahintampa / Channel 10:An Easy Way to Create a Bootable USB Drive for Windows 7
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MobileContentToday
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 …
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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.
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Jim Dalrymple / CNET News:
Apple revamps Logic Studio audio suite — Apple released on Thursday the next major version of Logic Studio, the company's suite of professional audio applications. — I was given early access to the new version and have been using it for some time now. I can say the new features …
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:
Search Engine Land, Screenwerk, Google LatLong, Local Mobile Search, IntoMobile, VentureBeat, MobileContentToday and Google Maps Mania, Thanks:sinkercat
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.
Adobe:
Security advisory for Adobe Reader, Acrobat and Flash Player — Vulnerability identifier: APSA09-03 — A critical vulnerability exists in the current versions of Flash Player (v9..159. and v10..22.87) for Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems, and the authplay.dll component …
Discussion:
eWeek, Symantec, PSIRT, SANS Internet Storm Center …, Softpedia News, Computerworld, Zero Day, threatpost and Security Watch
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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 …
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 …
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, dot.life, TechCrunch Europe, T3.com News, Electricpig.co.uk and TheNextWeb.com
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 …
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.”
David Pogue / New York Times:
The Irksome Cellphone Industry — Never let it be said that Congress never did anything for you. — In recent weeks, the Senate Commerce Committee has been holding hearings about handset exclusivity. That's when a phone maker (like Apple) offers a particular model (like the iPhone) …
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.
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 …
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.
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 …
