Top Items:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
The long-awaited DreamScreen tablet computer comes from HP, not Apple — Hewlett Packard has beaten Apple to the punch in coming up with a beautiful tablet-like computer. The company's just-announced DreamScreen products represent a new category of wireless connected screens.
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Twitter Closing New Venture Round At $1 Billion Valuation — Fast growing startup Twitter will soon be joining a select group of startups with private venture round valuations of $1 billion, we've heard from multiple sources. CEO Evan Williams disclosed the round to employees at a recent all hands meeting.
Discussion:
Venture Capital Dispatch, The Register, ReadWriteWeb, The Noisy Channel, the Econsultancy blog, bub.blicio.us, Pulse2, Guardian, Download Squad, Twitterrati, Howard Lindzon, Webware.com, MediaMemo, Maximum PC, TechFlash, paidContent, PE Hub Blog, Screenwerk, VentureBeat, Silicon Alley Insider, Dealscape, The Next Web Blog and Blogspotting
RELATED:
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Source: Insight Venture Partners Is The New Twitter Investor — We've been talking to sources all day about that new $1 billion valuation Twitter financing, and more information is coming in. The big missing part of the story was who was actually doing the investing at that massive valuation.
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
Zune HD apps are here... complete with pre-roll ads — The first batch of apps for the Zune HD can now be freely downloaded from Microsoft, and they come with an unexpected “present”: static and video ads that play during launch. — Apps for the new Zune HD (read our review) are now available …
Discussion:
AppleInsider, Daring Fireball, TechFlash, Maximum PC, MobileContentToday, Edible Apple and MacDailyNews
The Official Google Blog:
Teaching computers to read: Google acquires reCAPTCHA — The image above is a CAPTCHA — you can read it, but computers have a harder time interpreting the letters. We tried to make it hard for computers to recognize because we wanted to give humans the scoop first, but we're happy to announce …
Discussion:
Softpedia News, PC Pro, Webware.com, Search Engine Roundtable, Seth H. Weintraub's blog, NEWS.com.au, The Microsoft Blog, Financial Times, ChannelWeb, InformationWeek, MarketingVOX, The Register, Zero Day, Bronte Media, Wired Campus, Bits, TidBITS, Ars Technica, Download Squad, Digital Daily, Dealscape, Pulse2, bub.blicio.us, ClipperHouse, Google Blogoscoped, Computerworld, Search Engine Land, WebProNews, TechCrunch, Techgeist, ReadWriteWeb, Tech Central, Mashable!, VatorNews, Google Watch, CenterNetworks, TeleRead, Tech Trader Daily, The Next Web Blog, eWeek, silicontap.com, Pocket-lint.com, Silicon Alley Insider, Search Engine Watch, Between the Lines, The Web Life, Seeking Alpha and paidContent
RELATED:
Philipp Lenssen / Google Blogoscoped:By Acquiring ReCaptcha, Google Acquired a Crowd Computer Along the Way
Thanks:atul
Priya Ganapati / Gadget Lab:
Why You Can't Get a Good Phone With Verizon — Why does the U.S. carrier known for the best network have the worst smartphones? — Verizon gets plaudits for its coverage and call quality, but consistently loses out to AT&T, T-Mobile and even Sprint when it comes to getting the newest high-end handsets.
RELATED:
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Google's Schmidt To Book Settlement Critics: What's Your Solution? — As the proposed Google Book Search lawsuit settlement is debated, I've read calls from various critics that everything should go back to “square one” for a solution. Would Google be willing to do this?
RELATED:
Brad Stone / New York Times:
Skype Founders File Copyright Suit Against eBay — SAN FRANCISCO — The founders of Skype are escalating their legal battle with eBay. — Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who became billionaires after selling Skype to eBay in 2005, have filed a copyright lawsuit against Skype in United States district court in Northern California.
RELATED:
Darryl K. Taft / eWeek:
Google Delivers New Java-like Language: Noop — The tireless, developer-centric engineers at Google have come up with Noop, a new language that runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). — The tireless, developer-centric engineers at Google have come up with Noop, a new language that runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
Jon Healey / L.A. Times Tech Blog:
A Zillion here, a Zillion there — It looks like the public will have to wait a bit longer for ZillionTV, but when it does arrive, it will be available in more places. CEO Mitchell Berman announced this morning that Zillion, a TV-on-the-Internet service from the privately held start-up Vaenco …
Lance Whitney / CNET News:
Bing grabs 10 percent of search market — Microsoft's new Bing search service is the fastest-growing U.S. search engine among the top 10, according to a Nielsen report released Monday. — The total amount of searches on Bing rang in at 1.1 billion for the month of August …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google Eyeing 10% Market Share For Chrome. Mac Version Due By The End Of The Year. — As we noted yesterday, version 3 of Google's Chrome web browser is now available for PC users. But in an interview yesterday with Reuters, Google revealed a couple of interesting tidbits about the project.
Discussion:
Asa Dotzler, Reuters, Electricpig, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Maximum PC, PC World and Seeking Alpha
Lee Gomes / Forbes:
Intel's Not-So-Mighty Atom — Netbook computers are cheap and popular, thanks in part to Intel's Atom chip. But the Atom isn't up to the job. — How would you like your dear mom to have to drive herself around town in a cramped, jerky car that sputtered along the roadway …
Walter S. Mossberg / Personal Technology:
Apple's iTunes 9 Makes it Easier to Share, Organize — Apple's iTunes program is one of the most popular software products in the world. The company says hundreds of millions of copies of iTunes have been downloaded, far exceeding the 220 million iPod music players it has sold.
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac
Greg Sandoval / CNET News:
Music publishers: iTunes not paying fair share — Songwriters, composers, and music publishers are making preparations to one day collect performance fees from Apple and other e-tailers for not just traditional music downloads but for downloads of films and TV shows as well. They contain music after all.
Discussion:
Electronista
Jason Kottke / kottke.org:
Your company? There's an app for that. — Few technology and device-making companies probably realize it, but they are in direct competition with Apple (or soon will be). How did this happen? Well, the iPhone1 does a lot of useful things pretty well, well enough that it is replacing …
Michael Masnick / Techdirt:
Michael Robertson Wants To Crowdsource Proof Of EMI's Lies: You Lie EMI Bookmarklet Available — EMI has been involved in a lawsuit with MP3Tunes for a while now. The whole lawsuit seems weird, since MP3Tunes is about creating a storage locker for the songs you already have.
Discussion:
hypebot
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Is a trade battle looming with China over World of Warcraft? — World of Warcraft, one of the most successful fantasy online role-playing games of all time, was recently shut down in China for weeks. On June 7, Activision Blizzard changed its Chinese online operator from the9 to NetEase …
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Socializr Lays Off Staff, On DeadPool Watch — Socializr, the online event organization tool that first went into private beta in 2006, isn't in good shape. — We've heard from a couple of sources that Socializr has laid off most or all of the staff and that the site is running on autopilot.
AustralianIT.com.au:
Conroy rings in new Telstra era — THE Rudd government has given Telstra an ultimatum to split its wholesale and retail businesses or it will be forced to sell key assets and locked out of new broadband and mobile phone opportunities, in the biggest shake-up of the communications sector in a generation.
Discussion:
TorrentFreak
Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:
Taming Your Digital Distractions — Is there any human invention more duplicitous than the personal computer? These machines were manufactured and initially marketed as devices to help us at work. We were told they would perform amazing feats of office derring-do …
Zee / The Next Web Blog:
Phone Calls Come to Twitter. … JAJAH, a VOIP company, will announce the beta-launch of its Twitter calling solution, JAJAH@call tomorrow. — You'll be able to make phone calls via Twitter free of charge to anyone in the world, so long as they follow you back and have JAJAH accounts.
Discussion:
CNET News, Fast Company, PC World, Twilio Company Blog, Mashable!, VentureBeat and stuart henshall
Digital Photography Review:
Pentax K-x brief hands-on — Pentax's K-x offers an awful lot of K-7 features in what is essentially the same body as the K2000 (K-m). In fact, its high specification and low price are most reminiscent of the much-loved K200D, which could make this a welcome addition to the upper-entry-level market.
Discussion:
Business Wire, Photography Blog, 1001 Noisy Cameras, Imaging Insider, Engadget, DVICE and DigiCamReview
Joanna Stern / Gizmodo:
Hands-On With The Redfly That Turns Your BlackBerry Into A Psuedo-Netbook — Turns out the Redfly, that netbook looking device that extends a smartphone to its 8.9-inch display via Bluetooth or USB, is doing all right. So all right that they rolled out support for BlackBerry. I still would rather a netbook.
