Top Items:
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
It's official: Saudi Arabia bans BlackBerries — The rumors are true: Saudi Arabia has become the second country inside of a week to block access to Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices on grounds of national security. — The ban goes into effect on August 6 after a “grace period” …
Discussion:
Fast Company, Aljazeera, Inquirer, Tech Eye, Computerworld, BBC, The Register, Mashable!, CNET News, GottaBeMobile, Wall Street Journal, ArabCrunch English, Post Tech and Engadget
RELATED:
Reuters:
U.S. authorities able to tap Blackberry messaging — (Reuters) - The BlackBerry — renown for the security of its messaging — doesn't offer 100 percent protection from eavesdropping. At least not in the United States. — U.S. law enforcement officials said they can tap into emails …
Discussion:
V3.co.uk, Fast Company and New York Times
Jenna Wortham / New York Times:
BlackBerry Maker Resists Governments' Pressure
Discussion:
Guardian and Agence France Presse
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:
eWeek, Computerworld, DSLreports, Inquirer, Liliputing, ITworld.com, Google Android News …, Electronic Pulp, Fortune, SlashGear, Pocket-lint, ChannelWeb, Laptops and Desktops Blog, Gizmodo, CrunchGear, Engadget, Erictric, IntoMobile, AndroidGuys, Android Phone Fans, Silicon Alley Insider, The Next Web, Electronista, TG Daily, GottaBeMobile, Tech Trader Daily, Technologizer, eHomeUpgrade, Digital Daily, Crave and Gizmodo Australia, more at Mediagazer »
Josh Nguyen / Flickr Blog:
Welcome to your new photo page — After a few weeks in public preview, we're rolling out the new Flickr photo page to 100% of the Flickrverse. Our effort in this release focuses on two areas that will continue to make Flickr the very best place for your photos.
Discussion:
Search Engine Land, Softpedia News, Teens in Tech, The Next Web and 1001 Noisy Cameras, Thanks:rawmeet
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Tim Mayer, Who Worked For Practically Every Search Engine, Leaves Yahoo — Earlier I wrote about the depature of Yahoo's Srinija Srinivasan. Yahoo's lost another person, and another big figure in search, that of Tim Mayer. — Tim just tweeted, as shown above, that he's enjoying his first “post-Yahoo” day.
Discussion:
Search Engine Watch
RELATED:
Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
Once The Most Powerful Person In Search, Srinija Srinivasan Leaves Yahoo
Discussion:
ResourceShelf and Yodel Anecdotal, Thanks:atul
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 …
RELATED:
Dan Nosowitz / Fast Company:
Bing Maps Re-Routed to Look Smarter and Calculate Your Cab Fare
Discussion:
Techi.com, Gizmodo, Ars Technica and Lifehacker
Mike Schackwitz / The Windows Blog:
The new Hotmail is now available to everyone! — Here at Hotmail, we've had quite a busy week! All of our customers are now upgraded. The majority of you got the new Hotmail just this past week, as we completed the rollout to over 350 million people in more than 220 countries around the world.
Discussion:
Download Squad, Inquirer, The Register, Techie Buzz, ReadWriteWeb, V3.co.uk, LiveSide.net, Softpedia News, Neowin.net, Lifehacker and The Next Web
Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
iPhone 4 unlock available now (update: video!) — It's the moment that many of you have been waiting for: the Dev-Team's ultrasn0w carrier unlock for iPhone 4 is out. You'll find version 1.0-1 of ultrasn0w in Cydia on jailbroken devices. If not, just add the repo666.ultrasn0w.com repository.
Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:
Facebook Gains an Android Facelift — Facebook for Android (s goog) got a long overdue update tonight (perhaps the final push was Mark Zuckerberg's installing the Android app himself last week?), after playing second fiddle to the iOS version for far too long.
Discussion:
TechCrunch, Boy Genius Report, EuroDroid, MobileCrunch, Inside Facebook, Redmond Pie, Phone Scoop and Black Web 2.0, Thanks:bobcaswell
Google Mobile Blog:
Introducing the new Search History link on Google — Have you ever tried to remember how to get back to a website that you found from a recent search? Today in the US, we're launching a new search history feature which helps you quickly get back to sites you've been to and see items …
Discussion:
Google Operating System, Pocket-lint, V3.co.uk, Search Engine Journal, Erictric, CNET News, ReadWriteWeb and The Next Web
Brian Womack / Bloomberg:
Facebook Advertisers Boost Spending 10-Fold, Sandberg Says — Aug. 4 (Bloomberg) — Facebook Inc.'s biggest advertisers have boosted spending by at least 10-fold in the past year as the social network crossed the half- billion user mark, becoming more alluring to marketers that want to reach a broad online audience.
Discussion:
VatorNews, TechCrunch, Erictric, Startup Meme and bizjournals
Staska / Unwired View:
Samsung thinks about putting touchscreen on a tablet's back — Now that Apple showed how a real tablet device should look and work, everyone else is scrambling to make their own tablet that will be at least on par with the iPad. — Samsung is no stranger here, and has already confirmed …
Discussion:
CrunchGear, Fonehome.co.uk, The Next Web, Electronista, SlashGear, Liliputing, I4U News, GottaBeMobile, Gizmodo and Gizmodo Australia
Ryan Singel / Epicenter:
FOIA Denial All But Confirms FTC Probe of Apple's Anti-Adobe Rules — The Federal Trade Commission has nearly 200 pages of records related to a purported complaint by Adobe against Apple for banning iPhone developers from using its authoring tools to make iPhone apps.
Discussion:
TeleRead, 9 to 5 Mac, Electronista, MacDailyNews, Computerworld and Boing Boing, Thanks:atul
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
WAR! It's Patton v. Rommel: Vic Gundotra Will Lead Google To Victory In Social War With Facebook — Google has chosen a General in their War With Facebook - VP Engineering Vic Gundotra, we've heard from multiple sources. This is the person who will control overall product strategy …
Discussion:
Scripting News
Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
LinkedIn Acquires mSpoke For Its Recommendation Technology, Team — Professional social network provider LinkedIn has acquired mSpoke, a small startup that aims to make content more relevant through recommendation technology. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Discussion:
Yahoo! News, Business Wire, Between the Lines Blog and Forbes
Brad McCarty / The Next Web:
Chrome users: you can now drag and drop Gmail attachments to your desktop! — For quite some time, Gmail users in Chrome and Firefox have been able to drag and drop multiple attachments into the window to be sent, but that's where the fun stopped. If you wanted to download attachments …
Discussion:
Gmail Blog, Mashable!, Startup Meme, GottaBeMobile, blogs.chron.com, WebWorkerDaily, Softpedia News, Erictric, Covering Web, Google Operating System and Ubergizmo
Joseph Radford / Reuters:
Sharp plans to launch 3D smartphone this year — (Reuters) - Sharp Corp plans to take on Apple's iPhone by the end of the year, with the international launch of a smartphone featuring a 3D panel that can be viewed without special glasses, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Discussion:
Newlaunches.com, MobileCrunch, Guardian, Engadget, Neowin.net, Mobility Digest, SlashGear and MobileContentToday
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.
RELATED:
Wilson Rothman / msnbc.com:
Underwhelming BlackBerry spells doom for RIM
Discussion:
Fast Company, Gizmodo, LAPTOP Mag, PhoneDog.com and AppleInsider, Thanks:wjrothman
MrK / AlienBabelTech:
[ABT Exclusive]TMobile's “Project Emerald” is HTC Glacier, has a dual-core Snapdragon CPU, three times faster than EVO 4G and benchmarks! — With the evidence that we present to you below we can safely say now that TMobile's fabled “Project Emerald” is in fact the rumored HTC Glacier.
Discussion:
Boy Genius Report, Gizmodo, IntoMobile, Androinica, I4U News, Engadget, Android Phone Fans, Electronista, Softpedia News, Electricpig.co.uk, SlashGear, Mobility Digest, TmoNews and Ubergizmo
Michael's Minute:
Apple Quietly Enables Online Streaming To iPhones, iPad and iTouch — Buried in the release notes of an updated iPhone app is significant new functionality which lets Apple devices stream music from its online storage in a useful manner for the first time. This is in defiance …
Discussion:
The Register, Jonny Evans's blog and Music Ally
Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
True Ventures Invests In 19 Year Old Entrepreneur Brian Wong — When Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg took venture money from True Ventures in 2005 and others he was just 21 years old. Now the firm has invested in someone even younger - 19 year old Brian Wong.
Discussion:
Teens in Tech
Kyle VanHemert / Gizmodo:
Vonage Mobile App Lets You Call Facebook Friends From iPhone or Android For Free — Vonage, the VoIP company with the head-whacking commercials, has a new app for Android and iOS that lets users make free calls to Facebook friends over 3G and Wi-Fi. Finally, your reward for cultivating that extensive friends list.
Discussion:
Guardian, GigaOM, The Register and 9 to 5 Mac
Michael Kan / PC World:
IPad Clears Government Hurdle in China — Apple's iPad has received a safety certification mark from Chinese regulators, putting it on a path that could see the future release of the popular tablet computer in China. — Apple has made no announcement about the iPad being sold in China at this time …
Discussion:
9 to 5 Mac
