Techmeme: Call It ‘Creating Apps for Dummies’ (David Pogue/New York Times)

9:40 PM ET, August 12, 2010

Top Items:

Just speak it: introducing Voice Actions for Android — (cross-posted with the Official Google Blog) — Our mobile phones have become modern-day Swiss Army knives. An Android phone is a handheld computer, a music player, a notepad, a GPS navigation unit and more, all rolled into one sleek device that fits in your pocket.

Dave Burke / Google Mobile Blog:

Instantly zap links, maps and phone numbers to your Android phone with Chrome to Phone! — (Cross-posted from the Google Chrome blog.) — Ever wanted a way to quickly and easily send links and other information from your desktop or laptop to your phone to view on the go?

Discussion: YouTube Blog, ReadWriteWeb, AndroidSPIN, Search Engine Land, TechCrunch, Google Operating System, Droid Life, VentureBeat, Erictric, CNET News, mobiputing, Android Phone Fans, The Next Web and EuroDroid

Om Malik / GigaOM:
For Google, the Cloud Is Its Mobile Future

Discussion: NewTeeVee, CNET News and Computerworld

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
Google: 25% Of Queries From Android 2.0 Devices Use Voice Search

Discussion: Mashable!, BoomTown, Gizmodo and VatorNews

Carolyn Penner / Twitter Blog:

Pushing Our (Tweet) Button — Twitter is great for sharing interesting things you find on the web. In fact, close to a quarter of all Tweets include a link in them. Despite the high volume of sharing, there is plenty of room to make it easier. Copying and pasting, link shortening …

Nick Halstead / TweetMeme Blog:
Twitter Tweet Button

Discussion: Technologizer, Financial Times, MediaPost, Brian Solis, ReadWriteWeb, Silicon Alley Insider and Techie Buzz, Thanks:hornokplease

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
Twitter Takes Over The Tweet Button From TweetMeme

Discussion: Boy Genius Report, Digital Inspiration …, Digits, Scobleizer, The Next Web, creativebits and HEXUS.channel

Erica Naone / Technology Review:

Can Google Get Social Networking Right? — The company has many social projects, but may struggle to improve on Facebook. — Rumors that Google is building a new social network have persisted since late June, when Kevin Rose, CEO of Digg.com, posted on Twitter that the Web giant was working on a challenger to Facebook.

Discussion: MediaPost

Richard Whitt / Google Public Policy Blog:

Facts about our network neutrality policy proposal — Over the past few days there's been a lot of discussion surrounding our announcement of a policy proposal on network neutrality we put together with Verizon. On balance, we believe this proposal represents real progress on what has become …

Discussion: BetaNews, MediaPost, savetheinternet.com/blog, The Register, A VC, ReadWriteWeb, CNNMoney.com, Continuations, Computerworld, Telegraph, Ars Technica, TIME.com, DSLreports, The Precursor Blog, Light Reading, Ubergizmo, Financial Times, Post Tech, GigaOM, blogs.ft.com, MediaMemo, Epicenter, Hillicon Valley, ZDNet, Gearlog and ZeroPaid.com, Thanks:atul

Gartner:

Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Device Sales Grew 13.8 Percent in Second Quarter of 2010, But Competition Drove Prices Down — Android Became the World's Third Most Popular Smartphone Operating System and Claimed Top Spot in the U.S — Worldwide mobile device sales to end users totaled 325.6 million units …

Vlad Savov / Engadget:
Gartner and IDC agree: the Android invasion's accelerating around the world

Discussion: PC World, MediaPost and FierceWireless

Dan Frommer / Silicon Alley Insider:

Oracle Sues Google For Patent And Copyright Infringement — Software giant Oracle is suing Google for patent and copyright infringement based on Android's use of Java. (Oracle acquired Java-maker Sun last year.) — No details in the release, via Marketwatch, but we assume Google was given …

Discussion: VentureBeat, MarketWatch, BoomTown, CNET News, Associated Press, Between the Lines Blog, Computerworld, Reuters, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, Market Wire and The Next Web

Vlad Savov / Engadget:

Exclusive: Dell Thunder prototype rumbles into the wild (video) — Did it get hot in here all of a sudden or is it just this extremely sexy prototype we're looking at? Yes, the Dell Thunder that boomed onto your internet screens back in April is back, and this time we've got video of it too.

David Pogue / New York Times:

Call It ‘Creating Apps for Dummies’ — The founding of the iPhone App Store set off an earthquake in the tech world. Suddenly, the humble cellphone could be just about anything — a game, a store, a musical instrument, a strobe, a pet, a database, a medical tool.

Discussion: Daring Fireball

Andy Dolan / Daily Mail:

A body caught on Google Street View? Don't worry it's just me playing dead, says girl, ten — It is a suburban scene much like millions of others on Google's Street View site... apart from one chilling addition. — Lying face down on the pavement with her shoe inches away from the gutter appears to be the body of a young girl.

Discussion: CNET News and Hillicon Valley

Lizette Chapman / Fast Company:

Burning Man Defeats PayPal — Burning Man veterans—including top VCs, entrepreneurs, and the founders of Google—have an extra reason to celebrate today. Not only is it less than a month until they get to go camp in the Nevada desert again, but the Burner community just got a Silicon Valley giant to back down.

Thanks:rawmeet

Richard Barley / TweetDeck's posterous:

TweetDeck on Android - Come And Get It! — You begged. You pleaded. You offered us all manner of enticements, some of which we think may be illegal in some countries. We took this to mean that you really wanted TweetDeck on your Android device, and we agreed!

Discussion: Redmond Pie, Mobile Tech Addicts, BlogsDNA, Lifehacker, AndroidGuys, Androinica, EuroDroid, mobiputing and Download Squad

Chris Davies / SlashGear:

Notion Ink Adam: Pricing and more — In part one of our Notion Ink feature, we looked at the reasons for the delay in production of the Adam slate. Happily the company didn't rest on their laurels while investor and ODM issues were ironed out. After the cut, details of hardware and software changes …

Discussion: Technologizer, Notion Ink, Engadget, GottaBeMobile, Techie Buzz, The Toybox Blog, Electronista, Gizmodo, Android Phone Fans, Go Rumors, Liliputing and CrunchGear

Peter Bright / Ars Technica:

Windows Phone 7 secret sauce: developers, developers, developers — Windows Phone 7 is entering a tough market. Apple's iOS and Google's Android have become well-entrenched, widely used platforms, and both have application stores boasting tens or hundreds of thousands of applications.

Discussion: MobileCrunch

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

January Jones — Regarding the idea that Apple may be preparing to launch a CDMA iPhone 4 on Verizon in January, DF reader email suggests there are two aspects to the story that lead to skepticism. First, the timing. Why launch in January? Second: the network technology. Why CDMA?

Thanks:atul

David Sarno / L.A. Times Tech Blog:

Apple iAd partners say they're happy with early results — Apple's iAd mobile advertising platform is getting favorable reviews from the companies whose advertisements were the first to run on the new system, including Dove soap-maker Unilever and Nissan. App makers like Dictionary.com …

Discussion: Mobile Marketing Watch, Silicon Alley Insider, AppleInsider, MacRumors, MacStories and iLounge

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:

Microsoft: IE9 beta coming September 15 — Microsoft is inviting selected members of the press and “VIPs” to a September 15 event in San Francisco where it will launch the beta of Internet Explorer (IE) 9. — Company officials said in July that Microsoft would be launching the IE 9 beta in September …

Discussion: The Register, TechCrunch, Computerworld, The Microsoft Blog, windowsteamblog.com, Neowin.net, Beyond Binary, Network World, Engadget, Erictric and Electronista

Austin Carr / Fast Company:

Hackers Hijack Gmail in China — Here in the U.S., we've been complaining about Gmail for its new design (Why do we need a “Mail” button and “Inbox” button only an inch apart!?!). In China, they're complaining about Gmail too, but for a very different reason.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Voice of America, Rewrite Tech and Techie Buzz

Dan Goodin / The Register:

Attack reads smudges to retrieve Android password patterns — Oily residue ‘surprisingly persistent’ — Smudges left on Android touch screens leave tell-tale signs that can often be used to recover password pattens used to lock the phones, according to research presented earlier this week.

Discussion: Gadgetwise, Switched, DailyTech, PC Pro and Internet Evolution

Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:

Facebook SDK for iOS Now On Par with Android — Facebook today matured its SDK for Apple iOS, adding authentication support for OAuth 2.0 and an updated API for Facebook's social graph to make it easier for developers to read or write data to Facebook. These updated features are available …

Discussion: Facebook Developer Blog and Inside Facebook

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