Top Items:
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Zune Apps — In my brief comments yesterday on the new touchscreen Zune HD that is set to debut September 15, I noted: … I mean, why not? The software platform has quickly become a major driving force behind the sales growth of the iPhone and iPod Touch. Microsoft is a software platform company.
Discussion:
MacRumors, Silicon Alley Insider, PC World, TechFlash, The iPhone Blog, Softpedia News, Ubergizmo, MacDailyNews, WMPoweruser.com, iLounge, Engadget Mobile, Electricpig, GottaBeMobile.com, Electronista, FierceMobileContent, Pocket-lint.com, Edible Apple, AppScout, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, CNET News and Engadget, Thanks:atul
Miguel Helft / New York Times:
Netscape Founder Backs New Browser — SAN FRANCISCO — It has been 15 years since Marc Andreessen developed the Netscape Internet browser that introduced millions of people to the Internet. — After its early success, Netscape was roundly defeated by Microsoft in the so-called browser wars …
Discussion:
TechCrunch, MarketingVOX, Lockergnome Blog Network, Mashable!, OSNews, Web Browsers, AppScout, TechVi and WinBeta
RELATED:
Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:RockMelt: Netscape's Andreessen Backing Stealth Facebook Browser
Discussion:
Silicon Alley Insider, @vanelsas, Download Squad, Digits, TECH.BLORGE.com, Marshall Kirkpatrick …, Softpedia News, VentureBeat, GigaOM, Technology Review and Jon Burg's Future Visions, Thanks:atul
Jackie / Qik:
Qik for iPhone 3GS - now live and free from the App Store! — You've been asking for it, and now it's here: Qik for the iPhone 3GS can now be downloaded - for free! - directly from the App Store. — If you already have Qik on your iPhone, you should know that this version is a little different.
Biz / Twitter Blog:
Project Retweet: Phase One — Some of Twitter's best features are emergent—people inventing simple but creative ways to share, discover, and communicate. One such convention is retweeting. When you want to call more attention to a particular tweet, you copy/paste it as your own …
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
A Sad Day. Goodbye, Riya — Facial recognition service Riya will shut down on August 21, 2009, says founder Munjal Shah in an email to users this morning. We are adding it to the TechCrunch DeadPool. — This was one of the original services that defined the early Web 2.0 movement.
Nate Lanxon / CNET News:
Google Chrome 4.0: Fastest OS X browser by 34 per cent — Safari, eat Google's dust — its Chrome Web browser — under its developmental title Chromium — has hit version 4.0 on the Mac, and our tests confirm it's the fastest browser in the world on both PC and now on Mac OS X.
David Pogue / Pogue's Posts:
‘Take Back the Beep’ Campaign: An Update — It's been two weeks since I started “Take Back the Beep,” a campaign to flood the four big wireless companies with complaints. I want them to eliminate (or make optional) those time-wasting, redundant, airtime-eating, 15-second recorded instructions …
Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Sources confirm no Apple tablet at Sept. event, coming in 2010 — Speculation of an Apple event in September broke earlier today, but The Loop has learned the event will not include the introduction of the rumored Apple tablet. — Very reliable sources familiar with the product …
Discussion:
GMSV, TweakTown News, O'Grady's PowerPage, ITworld.com, Edible Apple, I4U News, Electricpig, T3.com News, Pocket-lint.com, The Apple Core, Gearlog, Gizmodo, Technologizer, AppleInsider, internetnews.com, BetaNews, SlashGear, Engadget, MacRumors, DisplayBlog, 9 to 5 Mac, Silicon Alley Insider, Neowin.net, iPhone Savior, The Mac Observer, TUAW and MediaMemo
Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Google's Varian: Search scale is ‘bogus’ — Google's Hal Varian would likely have raised an eyebrow at a term paper submitted by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the search market. — Varian, currently on leave from the University of California at Berkeley to serve as Google's chief economist …
Discussion:
Search Engine Land
Cecilia Kang / Washington Post:
Major Carriers Shun Broadband Stimulus — The Obama administration made a national priority of spreading high-speed Internet access to every American home and offered stimulus money to help companies pay for it, but the biggest network operators are staying away from the program.
Jose Nazario / Arbor Networks Security:
Twitter-based Botnet Command Channel — UPDATED TO ADD STATS — While digging around I found a botnet that uses Twitter as its command and control structure. Basically what it does is use the status messages to send out new links to contact, then these contain new commands or executables to download and run.
The How-To Geek / Lifehacker:
Digsby Joins the Dark Side, Uses Your PC to Make Money — The popular Digsby instant messenger client not only bundles half a dozen “optional” crapware applications, it's also using your computer to crawl the web, do stock market research, and more. It's time to uninstall.
Discussion:
Computerworld, Digsby Blog, Download Squad, TG Daily, Maximum PC all, The Windows Club and digg.com, Thanks:mrinaldesai
Jon Jordan / The Pocket Gamer iPhone gaming podcast:
PSPgo games will be as cheap as iPhone games — Between 1 - 5 Euros — With the rumour mill speeding up prior to Sony's press conference at the Gamescom show in Cologne, Germany, next week, news has been leaked concerning the price of PSP games for the soon-to-be revitalised PlayStation Network (PSN).
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac, Pocket-lint.com, Joystiq, SlashGear, Electricpig, FierceMobileContent, iLounge, GamesIndustry.biz, Kotaku and Gizmodo
Bobbie Johnson / Guardian:
Microsoft: Firefox's billion claim is ‘interesting math’ — Internet Explorer chief ‘encourages people to be somewhat sceptical’ of claims by competitor — A senior Microsoft executive has called into question the claim by rival web browser Firefox that it has been downloaded a billion times.
Heaven Kim / Google Mobile Blog:
The Iterative Web App: Outbox for Emails in Limbo — On April 7th, we announced a new version of Gmail for mobile for iPhone and Android-powered devices. Among the improvements was a complete redesign of the web application's underlying code which allows us to more rapidly develop and release …
Electronista:
Verizon again clearing BlackBerries via promo — Verizon has launched a second and more ambitious Buy One Get One promo to help move BlackBerries in what's likely a sign of a new wave of devices, a tip today reveals. Now called BOGA (possibly Buy One Get Anything), the BGR-discovered deal …
James Sherwood / The Register:
First Samsung Android phone out next week — Exclusive Samsung's first Android-based mobile phone - the Galaxy i7500 - will be launched next week, Register Hardware has discovered. — Samsung's Galaxy: out next week on O2 — Staff at a handful of O2 retail outlets consulted …
Kara Swisher / BoomTown:
Massive AOL Layoffs? Not Imminent-But Top-to-Bottom Cost Exam Definitely in Process — After a while-in a BoomTown mangling of the old cliché-if you are a nail, everything begins to look like a hammer. — So, it is probably inevitable that the next thing for much-beleaguered AOL staffers …
Discussion:
AdExchanger.com
Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Facebook privacy: a guide — Everywhere you look (even here at Ars), there are articles about people making poor decisions about what kinds of info and how much to share on sites like Facebook. The Internet is no longer a place where you can hide out easily—friends, family …
David Sarno / Los Angeles Times:
YouTube to show Sony's “Ghostbusters” this week for film's 25th anniversary — YouTube and Sony are crossing the streams. — Starting tonight at 9 p.m. PDT, YouTube will host a weeklong showing of Sony's comedy classic “Ghostbusters” in honor of the film's 25th anniversary.
Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
Journalism Online Offers Up ‘Letters Of Intent’ From Possible Affiliates—But No Names — Journalism Online, the new make-journalism-pay venture from Steve Brill, Gordon Crovitz and Leo Hindery, has letters of intent from newspaper publishers representing 506 newspapers, magazine and …
Daniel Terdiman / CNET News:
Video game sales in free fall — In a stark reversal of the trend on display just a few short months ago—when general retail sales were plummeting even as the video games industry was still showing growth—cautious optimism in retail is now being offset by many losing months in video games.
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal
Roy Mark / eWeek:
IBM Expands System z Solutions — The IBM System z Solution Edition Series helps mainframe customers deploy new enterprise workloads, adds new programs to help customers migrate from Sun and HP servers to IBM's Linux platform, and builds on IBM's existing SAP offering.
Cameron Wilmot / TweakTown News:
Intel Lynnfield alive and selling in Taiwan — We heard the reports and rumors, so this Friday afternoon we visited the Taipei Computer Market and confirmed them for ourselves. — It does indeed look like Intel has broken its own NDA in Taiwan by selling its full range of Core i5 …
Wall Street Journal:
Apple's Board to Meet to Discuss Replacements for Google's Schmidt — Apple Inc.'s directors are planning to meet next Tuesday and plan to discuss possible replacements to the board seat recently vacated by Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, said a person familiar with the matter.
Discussion:
Ars Technica, Softpedia News, Between the Lines, TheAppleBlog, AppleInsider, Neowin.net, Network World, 9 to 5 Mac, CNET News, Silicon Alley Insider and MacRumors
Richard Waters / Financial Times:
Rebound still unsure despite tech IPOs — Wall Street's jaded appetite for the shares of new technology companies has shown signs of recovery in recent days, with the successful launch of the two biggest tech initial public offerings of the past year. — However, with the overall number …
