Top Items:
Marissa Mayer / The Official Google Blog:
Taking off with ITA — Today, almost half of all airline tickets are sold online. But for many people, finding the right flight at the best price is a frustrating experience; pricing and availability change constantly, and even a simple two city itinerary involves literally thousands of different options.
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Google:
Facts about Google's acquisition of ITA Software — On July 1, 2010, Google announced an agreement to acquire ITA Software, a Cambridge, Massachusetts flight information software company, for $700 million, subject to adjustments. — Google's acquisition of ITA Software will create a new …
Discussion:
Computerworld, GeekSmack, The Register, Fred Destin, Neowin.net, SEO and Tech Daily, Xconomy, Relevant Results, paidContent and Tnooz
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Google Pays $700 Million In Cash For Flight Info Provider ITA — Google is now in the flight information business. The search giant just announced it is paying $700 million in cash for ITA Software, an essential provider of flight information to airlines, travel agencies, and online reservation systems.
Discussion:
Tnooz, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Lifehacker, Erictric, ReadWriteWeb, New York Times, Silicon Alley Insider, Boy Genius Report and Pulse2
Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:
Google Takes On Travel Sites, Courts Regulatory Action With ITA Acquisition
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, ResourceShelf, GigaOM, Tnooz, Daring Fireball, Computerworld and silicontap.com
Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:
Apple PR: Steve Jobs iPhone 4 “conversation” is a fake — Apple's CEO did not tell an angry customer “calm down,” “retire,” “it's just a phone” — An e-mail exchange being attributed to Steve Jobs is a fake, and was not written by him, according to Apple (AAPL) public relations.
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac, AppleInsider, The Loop, IntoMobile, MacRumors, PC World, VentureBeat, Erictric, Engadget, MacNN, InformationWeek, NBC Bay Area, The Next Web, Edible Apple, SiliconANGLE, ithinkdifferent, displayblog, Appolicious Advisor, TUAW, ZDNet, Electricpig, Gawker, CNET News, Ars Technica, MacDailyNews, Fast Company, Silicon Alley Insider, everythingiCafe, MacStories, Neowin.net, SlashGear, DSLreports, Gizmodo Australia, TiPb, TG Daily and Electronista
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Daniel Eran Dilger / AppleInsider:
Exclusive conversations with Steve Jobs up for sale — A Virginia man who apparently posted a YouTube video demonstrating his ability to block signal on an iPhone 4 was contacted by Apple, resulting in an email exchange that was later shopped around to the tech media as a paid story.
Discussion:
Computerworld, Gawker, TechCrunch, MacRumors, IntoMobile, MacNN, MacDailyNews, everythingiCafe, Erictric, Gizmodo Australia and The Next Web
Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Breaking: Tapulous Acquired By Disney — Tapulous has been acquired by Disney. The iPhone gaming startup with several hits on its hands was founded by Bart Decrem, who will join Disney as a VP. Disney is very interested in social and mobile gaming, having recently invested in Playdom's $33 million round.
Discussion:
Mashable!, mocoNews, Business Insider, New York Times, paidContent, Appolicious Advisor, AppScout, 9 to 5 Mac, IntoMobile, App Advice, VentureBeat, CNET News, Macworld, BetaNews, Touch Arcade, MediaMemo, MacRumors, everythingiCafe, Pulse2, TUAW, WebProNews, hypebot, The Loop, silicontap.com and MacStories
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Boy Genius Report:
Exclusive: Apple iTunes in the cloud definitely happening soon, wireless syncing! — One of our reliable Apple sources has just filled us in on some of the company's iTunes plans, and they're exciting. We have been told iTunes will be getting a huge cloud capability that many people have been asking for …
Discussion:
CloudAve, Gizmodo, MacRumors, TechCrunch, NewTeeVee, VentureBeat, Erictric, 9 to 5 Mac, SlashGear, Pulse2, eHomeUpgrade, Electronista, Obsessable, Geek.com, IntoMobile, everythingiCafe, The Next Web, TUAW, Macsimum News, Silicon Alley Insider, iLounge and MacStories
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
Exclusive Video Of Unreleased Google Voice Desktop App — When Google acquired Skype competitor Gizmo5 in November 2009 it wasn't much of a stretch to anticipate a soft phone application for Google Voice to be coming soon. A few months later we heard that Google was dogfooding Google Voice Desktop internally.
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Best Buy Trying To Fire Employee Over Those Hilarious EVO Versus iPhone Videos — By now it seems like just about everyone has seen the iPhone 4 vs. HTC EVO video (and the rebuttal video). The video portrays an electronics store employee trying to convince a person looking for an iPhone 4 to buy an HTC EVO 4G instead.
Kim-Mai Cutler / VentureBeat:
Google CEO Schmidt gives crafty non-denial on forthcoming social network — Google chief executive Eric Schmidt wouldn't publicly deny that the company is set to hatch a rival social network to Facebook during a speech today in London, adding fuel to rumors that the search giant may launch …
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Ryan Singel / Threat Level:
With World Watching, Wikileaks Falls Into Disrepair — Would-be whistle-blowers hoping to leak documents to Wikileaks face a potentially frustrating surprise. Wikileaks' submission process, which had been degraded for months, completely collapsed more than two weeks ago and remains offline …
David Hornik / VentureBlog:
iPads in the Board Room — I don't know about the rest of the country, but Sand Hill Road has clearly embraced the iPad. There was a time when every VC on Sand Hill proudly carried the latest, greatest Palm Pilot. No self-respecting VC would be caught without one. And for good reason.
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple's iAds Slowly Begin to Appear, Led by Nissan Leaf — Last week, we noted that developers had begin incorporating support for Apple's iAd mobile advertisements into updates for their applications, with a few applications starting to show placeholder banners and test ads ahead of the program's official launch on July 1st.
Discussion:
Engadget, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, AppShopper.com, Erictric, CNET News, App Advice, I4U News, WebProNews, techeblog.com and IntoMobile
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Bob Sutor:
Saying it out loud: IBM is moving to Firefox as its default browser — I talk a lot about software in this blog but most of the discussion is at the personal level: I tried this, I experimented with that. I hardly ever talk about what I use for doing my IBM business and more rarely still …
PJ Jacobowitz / PC Magazine:
Is The iPhone 4's LCD the Best? — If you place the latest smartphones side by side the first thing you'll probably notice is that all their displays dazzle—but why? Image quality can be difficult to express but there is a way to measure it. To evaluate and help you understand the strengths …
Kim-Mai Cutler / VentureBeat:
Google researcher says friend groups may give it a window to best Facebook — If there's an opening for Google in the crowded social networking market already dominated by Facebook, it might be in helping users navigate through their many friend groups, according to a presentation from Paul Adams …
Chris Nuttall / blogs.ft.com:
Colour closer with E Ink Pearl on Kindle DX — Amazon's new Kindle DX, available on July 7, is the first eReader to feature E Ink's Pearl technology, enabling a contrast ratio 50 per cent better than the previous DX. The improvement is a necessary upgrade in order for E Ink to produce its first colour screens by the end of the year.
The Guru / Symbian-Guru.com:
Symbian-Guru.com Is Over — As of today, I will no longer be updating Symbian-Guru.com, and will be purchasing an Android-powered smartphone - my new Nexus One should arrive tomorrow. I've been a Nokia fanboy since 1999, and a Symbian fanboy since I got my Nokia 6620 in summer of 2004.
Darren Murph / Engadget:
Starbucks begins offering free two-click WiFi access in US and Canada — Mmm... nothing like the smell of a warm caramel macchiato in the morning being masked by the smell of fresh greenbacks being burned, right? All jesting aside, we're pretty stoked about the world's …
Nick O'Neill / All Facebook:
Facebook Adds Face Detection To Photos — This afternoon Facebook saw the first improvement to its photo application thanks to its recent acquisition of Divvyshot: the addition of face detection to photos. Now when you upload photos to various areas of the site, including the homepage …
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Foursquare Goes iOS 4 Native: Brings A New Map View, But No Background Location — The iOS 4-compatible apps continue to roll-in. The latest is Foursquare which now includes fast app switching and high resolution artwork for the iPhone 4′s retina display.
Discussion:
The Next Web
Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
T-Mobile kills off current Sidekicks, Kin says ‘welcome to the club’ — It's truly remarkable to see almost every trace of a successful, well-established Valley start-up's work wiped out in the span of 24 hours, but here we are: T-Mobile's discontinuing the Sidekick line as of tomorrow …
Discussion:
Gizmodo, Boy Genius Report, Phone Scoop, Phone Arena, CNET News, Erictric, Technologizer, FierceWireless, IntoMobile, WMPoweruser.com and Electronista
Ryan Lawler / NewTeeVee:
Is Hulu Plus Another Nail in the DVD Coffin? — The launch of Hulu Plus earlier this week has many people rethinking the business models for paid video content on the web and what their effect will be on other businesses. Some see Hulu Plus as a potential Netflix killer, or even a cable killer.
