Techmeme: Cloud-based iTunes could be about the video, not the music (Chris Foresman/Ars Technica)

5:40 PM ET, August 3, 2010

Top Items:

Alex Wagner / PhoneDog.com:

BlackBerry Torch for AT&T: available August 12 for $199.99 … It may have been outed early a couple of times this morning, but now the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is officially official, complete with pricing and availability. The Torch will be available on AT&T beginning August 12th for $199.99 with a two-year contract.

Discussion: DSLreports, Techlicious Blog …, MobileCrunch and Pulse2

Boy Genius Report:

BlackBerry Torch 9800 hands on — We wrapped up the RIM and AT&T event with some hands on time with the just-announced though hardly-a-secret BlackBerry Torch 9800. Here are some first impressions: — The hardware (casing, build quality, feel) is typical RIM — it's great.

Discussion: Technologizer, Digital Daily, Silicon Alley Insider, Cult of Mac, Edible Apple, Daring Fireball and Electronista

Katie Marsal / AppleInsider:

RIM attempts to create Apple-like buzz with BlackBerry Torch event — In an uncharacteristic move, Research in Motion held a media event Tuesday in New York City to generate buzz for its new BlackBerry Torch 9800 smartphone, an AT&T handset with a multi-touch screen and slide-out keyboard.

Greg Sandoval / CNET News:

Apple's plan for Lala cloudier than ever — SAN FRANCISCO—A speedy launch of an iTunes cloud-music service hasn't materialized the way many at the large record companies expected. — The thinking among some music insiders was that once Apple acquired the proper music licenses …

Chris Foresman / Ars Technica: Cloud-based iTunes could be about the video, not the music

Alex Chitu / Google Operating System:

Google Multiple Sign-in, Now Available — Google is rolling out a feature I mentioned in a previous post: signing in to multiple Google accounts simultaneously from the same browser. When you go to the Google accounts page, you might see a new option: “multiple sign-in”.

Discussion: The Register, Computerworld, Lifehacker, Startup Meme, Engadget, Geek.com, Gizmodo, ReadWriteWeb, The Next Web, Softpedia News, GeekSugar, Download Squad and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Thanks:arpitnext

John Schwartz / New York Times:

F.B.I., Challenging Use of Seal, Gets Back a Primer on the Law — The Federal Bureau of Investigation has taken on everyone from Al Capone to John Dillinger to the Unabomber. Its latest adversary: Wikipedia. — The bureau wrote a letter in July to the Wikimedia Foundation …

Discussion: Fast Company, BBC, Indecision Forever, Techdirt, techPresident, Mashable!, The Register, Softpedia News, Boing Boing, Gawker and WebNewser

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Check-In On Foursquare Without Taking Your Phone Out Of Your Pocket — Heavy Foursquare users, you have a new app to get immediately. Future Checkin is an app that allows you to check-in to your favorite Foursquare venues automatically when you're near them.

Discussion: App Advice, Telegraph, NewsGrange, TUAW and Silicon Alley Insider

Steve Cheney / TechCrunch:
Why Checking Into Foursquare With Your Phone in Your Pocket Won't Always Work

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Chris Pendleton / Bing Maps Blog:

Bing's Bringing Sexy Maps — Over the last few weeks a few of you lucky ducks got to experience a new map type we were flighting. Around 10% of users were seeing our new maps in all its aesthetic glory. Today, we're releasing it to everyone. The new map type has two experiences …

Discussion: Screenwerk, LiveSide.net, The Microsoft Blog, Search Engine Land, Ars Technica, The Next Web, istartedsomething and ResourceShelf

Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Fortune:

With iPad, Apple is No. 3 in portables — If you count tablets as notebook PCs, Apple just passed Asus, Lenovo, Toshiba and Dell — Click to enlarge. Source: Deutsche Bank — Apple is usually considered an also-ran in the global PC market. — But the chart at right …

Ed Oswald / BetaNews:

Skype founders launch mobile subscription music service — Skype, Kazaa, and Joost creators Janus Friis with Niklas Zennström launched Rdio on Tuesday, aiming to offer an inexpensive way to provide unlimited streaming music from mobile phones. In addition, the service would allow users …

Discussion: paidContent, SiliconANGLE and USA Today

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Spotify Who? Rdio Launches In The US And Canada, Lands More Indie Music Deals

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, Ars Technica, Macworld, Fast Company, Future Tense, Digital Trends, IntoMobile, Pulse2, Technologizer, Mashable!, GigaOM, Lifehacker, VentureBeat, Softpedia News and Rdio Blog

Jesus Diaz / Gizmodo:

Apple Security Breach Gives Complete Access to Your iPhone — Right now, if you visit a web page and load a simple PDF file, you may give total control of your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to a hacker. The security bug affects all iOS 4 devices and the iPad. — The vulnerability is easily exploitable.

Discussion: Between the Lines Blog, ReadWriteEnterprise, CNET News, VentureBeat, Hardware 2.0 Blog, I4U News, MacStories, Cult of Mac and [digdog dig];, Thanks:j0hnstr337

Jon Swartz / USA Today:

‘Start-up King’ Mike Cassidy strikes Silicon Valley gold — SAN FRANCISCO — Entrepreneurs rarely succeed in Silicon Valley— much less repeat success. — Twice was the charm for Steve Jobs (Apple and Pixar) and Marc Andreessen (Netscape and Loudcloud). Jim Clark achieved a trifecta (Silicon Graphics, Netscape, Healtheon).

Discussion: DealBook

Antonio Garcia-Martinez / AdGrok:

New York will always be a tech backwater, I don't care what Chris Dixon or Ron Conway or Paul Graham say — Last Tuesday, legendary tech investor Ron Conway addressed the glop-eating masses at Y Combinator during our usual Tuesday illustrious-speaker dinner.

BBC:

Web attack knows where you live — The attack exploits the way routers handle requests for ID information — One visit to a booby-trapped website could direct attackers to a person's home, a security expert has shown. — The attack, thought up by hacker Samy Kamkar …

Discussion: dantynan's blog, p2pnet, gHacks Technology News, The Next Web and All Points Blog

Financial Times:

Motorola and Verizon team up for TV tablet — Motorola is developing a digital tablet device that will allow users to watch television on it, as the US mobile phone group attempts to chip away at a market established by Apple's popular iPad. — The device, which will have a 10-inch screen …

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider and All Things Digital

David K / Mobility Digest:

Microsoft Continues To Screw Up HTML Email In WP7 — Raise your hand if you've used Windows Mobile and thought that it's ridiculous that every time you get an html email with embedded images that you need to press somewhere to get the content. And of course if you're offline that means no soup for you.

Discussion: IntoMobile, Gadgetell, WMExperts, Mobility Site and WMPoweruser.com

Economist:

The end of Wintel — As Microsoft and Intel move apart, computing becomes multipolar — THEY were the Macbeths of information technology (IT): a wicked couple who seized power and abused it in bloody and avaricious ways. Or so critics of Microsoft and Intel used to say …

Discussion: Cult of Mac and broadstuff, more at Mediagazer »

Om Malik / GigaOM:

How Big is Amazon's Cloud Computing Business? Find Out — It goes without saying that with its array of web services, Amazon has transformed the computing landscape and nurtured what is generically known as the cloud computing industry. By turning expensive storage and computing hardware …

Discussion: VentureBeat, ChannelWeb and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, Thanks:aktiwary

Associated Press:

UAE crackdown on BlackBerry services to extend to foreign visitors — DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — The United Arab Emirates' crackdown on BlackBerry services will extend to foreign visitors, putting the government's concerns over the smartphones in direct conflict with the country's ambitions to be a business and tourism haven.

Discussion: Gizmodo, Obsessable, Erictric, Reuters, Computerworld, DailyTech, IntoMobile, Thoughts from the Sidelines and Guardian

Miguel Helft / New York Times:
For E-Data, Tug Grows Over Privacy vs. Security

Discussion: Post Tech, Bits, Wall Street Journal, FierceWireless, Engadget, pluGGd.in and BloggingStocks

Greg Kumparak / MobileCrunch:

Is Verizon lying about the Droid's capabilities? — Yesterday, Verizon made it clear that while the original Droid would be getting Android 2.2, it would not be getting one of Android 2.2′s most coveted features: WiFi HotSpot. In other words, you wouldn't be able to flip a switch …

Discussion: Gadget Lab

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:

Microsoft's LightSwitch: Building business apps for Web, PCs and cloud — Microsoft's “KittyHawk” — a rapid-application-development tool targeted at fledgling coders who are interested in building business applications — now has an official name: Visual Studio LightSwitch.

Discussion: Ars Technica, Computerworld, The Register, eWeek and MSDN Blogs, Thanks:atul

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Project Vigilant and the government/corporate destruction of privacy — Forbes' technology writer Andy Greenberg reports that at the Defcon Security Conference yesterday, an individual named Chet Uber appeared with revelations about the case of accused WikiLeaks leaker Bradley Manning and government informant Adrian Lamo.

Discussion: Techdirt, TaoSecurity, Gizmag Emerging …, PC World, thecyberjungle.wordpress.com and Help Net Security

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