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3:35 PM ET, August 6, 2010

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
David Glazer / The Official Google Blog:
Google and Slide: building a more social web  —  We're excited to announce we've acquired Slide, a social technology company with an extensive history of building new ways for people to connect with others across numerous platforms online.  —  For Google, the web is about people …
RELATED:
Liz Gannes / GigaOM:
How Slide Pushes Google's Open Social Strategy  —  Google this morning confirmed what had already been widely reported — that it has bought Slide, the social application maker.  (In fact, it's already been reported who made what from the $182 million sale, with an additional $46 million paid in retention bonuses.)
Discussion: TechCrunch and E-Commerce Times
Dean Goodman / Reuters:
Beatles, iTunes deal still at impasse — Yoko Ono  —  * Widow unveils John Lennon commemorative projects  —  Don't hold your breath waiting for Beatles songs to go on sale at iTunes or other online retailers, Yoko Ono said on Thursday.  —  The Fab Four have long resisted the allure of digital downloads …
Mark Gurman / 9 to 5 Mac:
Apple opens “Try Before You Buy” section in App Store, Step to fight app piracy  —  Apple seems to be adding to and changing up their App Store's featured sections quite frequently.  Today Apple added a new section dedicated to promoting free applications on the App Store.
RELATED:
Devindra Hardawar / VentureBeat:
Controversy erupts over Apple software patent “copying” existing app's home screen  —  Today's Apple controversy: Apparently, a recent mobile app patent filed by Apple is blatantly copying the home screen of an existing application — the local search app Where To — reports GigaOm.
Om Malik / GigaOM:
Not a Joke: An Apple App Patent (Pic) That Looks Like an Actual …
Gizmodo:
Apple Should Enable 24-Hour Trials for All Paid Apps
Discussion: MobileWhack.com and TUAW
Brandon Miniman / pocketnow.com:
New ASUS Windows Phone 7 Device Appears in Pakistan  —  We don't have much information on this (yet) but it looks like an ASUS device running on Windows Phone 7 has been spotted in Pakistan.  Unlike the LG Panther and Samsung Taylor devices that are only intended to be development devices …
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
BlackBerry Torch 9800 Teardown Photos and Video of Slider Mechanism in Action!  —  Tear down posts of a new smartphone don't normally happen until the new device is available for commercial purchase and somebody is crazy enough to sacrifice it to the tech gods.
Kelvin Soh / Reuters:
Apple in talks to buy China's Handseeing  —  (Reuters) - Apple Inc is in takeover talks with Chinese software maker Handseeing, an executive of the Chinese company said on Friday.  —  The deal would be the iPhone maker's first major acquisition in the country.
Oleoleolson / AlterNet Blogs:
Massive Censorship Of Digg Uncovered  —  A group of influential conservative members of the behemoth social media site Digg.com have just been caught red-handed in a widespread campaign of censorship, having multiple accounts, upvote padding, and deliberately trying to ban progressives.
RELATED:
Josh Halliday / Guardian:
Digg investigates claims of conservative ‘censorship’
Souhail Karam / Reuters:
BlackBerry maker and Saudis working on fix: source  —  (Reuters) - The makers of the BlackBerry were looking into the possibility of using servers in Saudi Arabia on Friday to avert a threatened ban on its Messenger services by Saudi government, which wants access to its encrypted network, a source said on Friday.
Discussion: Associated Press and Reuters
RELATED:
Andrew Webster / Ars Technica:
Machinarium suffers 90% piracy rate, offers $5 amnesty sale  —  When World of Goo came to the PC with no DRM, it eventually turned out that 90 percent of the people who played the game did so by pirating it.  Now it looks like Machinarium—an excellent point-and-click adventure game …
Discussion: Blue's News
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple Introduces us to the Smart Bike  —  On August 5, 2010, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals various concepts behind a newly advanced Smart Bicycle System in development.  The premise is rather like Apple's Nike + iPod system for runners except for cyclists.
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Kinect patent detailed; American Sign Language supported  —  The patent for Microsoft's Kinect console has been unearthed, describing the “gesture keyboarding” system that's tracked by the special PrimeSense-developed depth camera.  Kinect builds a dynamic wireframe representation - or …
Discussion: Edge Magazine and Gizmodo
RELATED:
Rebecca / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Court Rejects Warrantless GPS Tracking  —  Washington, D.C. - The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit today firmly rejected government claims that federal agents have an unfettered right to install Global Positioning System (GPS) location-tracking devices on anyone's car without a search warrant.
Discussion: Boing Boing, Thanks:atul
Dan Goodin / The Register:
Private browsing modes in four biggest browsers often fail  —  You've been warned  —  Features in the four major browsers designed to cloak users' browser history often don't work as billed, according to a research paper that warns that users may get a false sense of security when using the built-in privacy settings.
Wall Street Journal:
Google Loses Discrimination Ruling  —  The California Supreme Court ruled that an age-discrimination lawsuit filed against Google Inc. should proceed to trial, potentially paving the way for more lawsuits that previously were blocked under a theory that crude and possibly discriminatory workplace comments were merely “stray remarks.”
 
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 More Items: 
Bloomberg:
AT&T, Verizon May Pick Texas, Utah for ‘Mercury’ Test
Discussion: Electronista
Kip Kniskern / LiveSide.net:
Yahoo! organic search results powered by Bing “as early as late August”
Janko Roettgers / NewTeeVee:
Hadopi Gone Wild: France Plans Spyware for Three Strikes
Discussion: ZeroPaid.com
Adam DuVander / ProgrammableWeb:
Gowalla Officially Released Write API, the Right Way
Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:
PayPal on Android Lets You Bump Phones to Send Money
Discussion: Teens in Tech
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft begins adding single-sign on support to its Azure cloud
Discussion: Softpedia News, Thanks:rawmeet
Paul Carr / TechCrunch:
Rdio Gaga: How Spotify's Inferior Rival Is Playing America Like A Violin
Discussion: Newsome.Org
 Earlier Items: 
John Siracusa / Ars Technica:
Can you buy me now? Apple and the war for the mobile market
Discussion: Daring Fireball and MacDailyNews
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Zynga Confirms Unoh Acquisition
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Caitlin Huston / The Hollywood Reporter:
Internal memo: Hearst Magazines president announces layoffs as part of a decision to “reallocate resources” to “continue our focus on digital innovation”

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced she will leave the agency on January 20; she was the first woman to be confirmed to lead the agency

Lachlan Cartwright / The Ankler:
Sources: MSNBC renewed Rachel Maddow's contract early this fall, but with a pay cut; MSNBC bosses' plan to shake up daytime and weekend programming

 
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