Top Items:
BIZ / Twitter Blog:
Denial of Service Attack — On this otherwise happy Thursday morning, Twitter is the target of a denial of service attack. Attacks such as this are malicious efforts orchestrated to disrupt and make unavailable services such as online banks, credit card payment gateways, and in this case, Twitter for intended customers or users.
RELATED:
Ryan Tate / Gawker:
Twitter Attack Brings a Day Without Social Media — Noooo: Both Twitter and Facebook are flailing this morning. How will people plan their evening drinking sessions? And are they expected to actually put in an honest day's work in the meantime? It's a Thursday in August, for God's sake.
Discussion:
L.A. Times Tech Blog, VentureBeat, Guardian, Telegraph, CNET News, Twitter Status, Digital Daily, The Register, Digits, ReadWriteWeb, Search Engine Watch, Download Squad, Silicon Alley Insider, Graham Cluley's blog, DailyFinance, CNN, Network World, Pocket-lint.com, Twittercism, TechCrunch and Liquidmatrix Security Digest
Andrew Clark / Guardian:
Murdoch plans charge for all news websites by next summer — Times and Sun readers to pay as loss-making Murdoch declares end to free-for-all — The billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch suffered the indignity of seeing his global empire make a huge financial loss yesterday and promptly pledged …
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Erica Alini / Wall Street Journal:
Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptops — They Sit for Hours and Don't Spend Much; Getting the Bum's Rush in the Big Apple — A sign at Naidre's, a small neighborhood coffee shop in Brooklyn, N.Y., begins warmly: “Dear customers, we are absolutely thrilled that you like us so much that you want to spend the day...”
Discussion:
Inc.com, Global Nerdy, CrunchGear, MuniWireless, bub.blicio.us, Wi-Fi Networking News, GottaBeMobile.com and Gawker
Bing / Search Blog:
The Bing Jingle Winner is... We want to thank everyone who submitted their Bing jingles to our Bing YouTube site. We were amazed at the creativity and variety of all the entrants. After much anticipation, a multitude of voting and discussion, we are very pleased to announce that the winner …
Discussion:
AppScout, Silicon Alley Insider, LiveSide, the Econsultancy blog and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
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MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Bing Has Succeeded... In Finding The Worst Jingle Ever — A few weeks ago, we wrote about the contest Microsoft's new search engine Bing was holding to find a catchy jingle for the product. Today, they have announced the winner. “Catchy” is one word for it. Another is “awful.”
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
What's The Google Brand Worth These Days? $100 Billion. Probably Less. — WPP subsidiary Millward Brown Optimor released its highly regarded annual brand ranking BrandZ Top 100 (PDF) back in April. It identifies the world's most valuable global brands as measured by their dollar value.
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Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:Guess Who Is The Top Global Brand Again? You Got It! Google
Discussion:
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
Sascha Segan / AppScout:
Opera Mobile for Android in the Works — Opera Mobile 9.7 is a great alternative browser for Windows Mobile and Symbian, but so far it hasn't been available on other smart phone platforms. In an interview with PCMag.com today, Opera Software CEO Jon von Tetzchner said the browser might come …
Discussion:
BetaNews, Softpedia News, I4U News, Android Central, Android Phone Fans, PhoneDog.com and Gizmodo
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch Europe:
London is the capital of Twitter, says founder @ev — Twitter was featured on the BBC's Newsnight programme last night. There weren't any great revelations about the service, however the confirmation from the CEO that London remains the top Twitter-using city in the world is pretty interesting.
Cade Metz / The Register:
Is Google spending $106.5m to open source a codec? — The price of web standards — After acquiring On2's video compression codecs in a deal valued at approximately $106.5 million in stock, will Google simply turn around and open source them? — It certainly looks that way.
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Jeff Atwood / Coding Horror:
Software Pricing: Are We Doing It Wrong? — One of the side effects of using the iPhone App store so much is that it's started to fundamentally alter my perception of software pricing. So many excellent iPhone applications are either free, or no more than a few bucks at most.
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Sony's Party-shot dock snaps incriminating Facebook photos while you drink — As if your Facebook profile doesn't have enough hard evidence that you're completely unfit for any job you might strike up the courage to apply for, here's a thoughtful accessory for producing even more regret-inducing snapshots.
Discussion:
Sony, Imaging Insider, Geeky-Gadgets, Gearlog, 1001 Noisy Cameras, SlashGear, Electronista, TFTS, Digits, PC World and Gizmodo
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Phil Schiller Responds Regarding Ninjawords and the App Store — Tuesday's piece on Ninjawords was really about two stories. The small story is that of a clever $2 iPhone dictionary app, the developers of which removed “objectionable” words from its dictionary so as to get it published in the App Store.
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Former employee hits Apple with unpaid overtime suit — A new lawsuit accuses Apple of failing to pay its employees proper wages for overtime work, alleging the Mac-maker demanded its employees put in more than 40 hours per week without proper compensation.
Discussion:
InformationWeek
John C. Dvorak / PC Magazine:
What is Happening to Windows 7? — Blame the tricky upgrade process—and, by extension, the Registry—for the backlash against Windows 7. — Why has Windows 7 suddenly fallen off the track with negative publicity? What happened? What changed? — This is one of the strangest developments …
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:
Putting lipstick on Microsoft's pigs — Windows Mobile. Logo: Microsoft — At the end of a long report on the Apple Stores — and the corner he believes they have turned — Needham analyst Charles Wolf turned his attention this week to Microsoft (MSFT) and its plans to launch a fleet …
Discussion:
MacDailyNews
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Meet Sherpa, the Hottest Android App — Sherpa, a location-based services application developed by Santa Monica, Calif.-based startup Geodelic, is among the fastest-growing applications for Google's Android. In the past week, the company claims that it has seen 50,000 downloads from the Android market.
Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
ShoeMoney Reaches Settlement With Google Employee Over AdWords Violations — Over the last few months we've been tracking a lawsuit between online marketing guru Jeremy Schoemaker and a Google employee named Keyen Farrell. This week comes news that Schoemaker has settled the case with Farrell, though details are scant.
Discussion:
Softpedia News
Dan Goodin / The Register:
XML flaws threaten ‘enormous’ array of apps — Java, Python, and Apache - for starters — Free whitepaper - Avoiding 7 common mistakes of IT security compliance — Security researchers have uncovered critical flaws in open-source software that implements the Extensible Markup Language …
W. David Gardner / InformationWeek:
WiMax Versus WiMax In Texas Towns — The battle is likely a harbinger of the wireless future in which different high speed wireless technologies will compete against each other on a wide scale. — Mobile WiMax is still in its deployment infancy, but two providers are already competing …
James Carswell / Periscopix:
Google Testing New PPC Ad Layout in SERPs — With increasing numbers of people throwing out their bulky old CRT monitors and switching to large flat screen monitors with their increased resolutions, this is a very welcome change to the search engine results page (SERP) layout on Google.
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Adobe kills low-end Photoshop, urges users online — Photoshop Album Starter Edition, the lowest rung on Adobe Systems' ladder of image-editing software products, and the company is nudging its users toward the online Photoshop.com site. — Adobe launched Photoshop Album Starter Edition in 2003 as a free …
Zoe Kleinman / BBC:
Computer ‘agents’ take to the web — Artificial intelligence technology could soon make the internet an even bigger haven for bargain-hunters. — Software “agents” that automatically negotiate on behalf of shoppers and sellers are about to be set free on the web for the first time.
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider:
Apple working on device abuse detection technology — Apple has investigated a system where portable devices like iPods and iPhones would detect and store into memory “consumer abuse events” such as exposure to extreme cold, heat or moisture in void of warranty, a new patent application reveals.
Discussion:
MacRumors
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Comcast adopts DNS hijacking, imposes irritating opt-out — Despite knowing the ways in which DNS hijacking can cause problems for non-Web clients, Comcast has rolled it out in an attempt to make money off misspelled URLs. To make matters worse, opting out is a hassle.
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Marissa Mayer On iGoogle's New “Social Gadgets” — This morning Google is rolling out a program in Australia enabling developers to create “social gadgets” that permit sharing, collaboration and groups on the iGoogle homepage. The social gadgets will come to the US and other markets in the future, but the timing is undetermined.
Kathrin Hille / Financial Times:
Google set to take on Apple in China — Google is set to go head-to-head with Apple in China as the country's largest mobile operator prepares to launch a range of customised smartphones based on Google's Android operating system. — China Mobile, the world's largest mobile operator by subscribers …
Rory Maher / Silicon Alley Insider:
Sirius Lives! — Sirius XM (SIRI) reported Q2 ‘09 earnings essentially in-line with consensus estimates, with a subscriber loss that was not as bad as many expected, though still down from last year. — Sirius’ increase in full-year guidance and less-than-expected sub loss may have accounted …
