Techmeme: In The Race To 10 Billion Downloads, Apple Uncovers The Top All-Time Apps (MG Siegler/TechCrunch)

4:20 PM ET, January 19, 2011

Top Items:

Cold Water on the iPad 2 Retina Display Hype — Rumors are rampant that the upcoming iPad 2 will feature a higher-resolution retina display. Long story short: No, it won't. — The current iPad has a 1024 × 768 display; a double-resolution retina display iPad would have a 2048 × 1536 display.

Discussion: CNET News, Pulse2, Electronista, IntoMobile, MacStories, SlashGear, MacRumors, SAI and Pocket-lint

Avery Pennarun / apenwarr:
Moore's law and iPad-sized “retina displays”

Discussion: TiPb and MacStories

Richard Gaywood / TUAW: iPads and Retina Displays: Doing the math

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

In The Race To 10 Billion Downloads, Apple Uncovers The Top All-Time Apps — If you had to guess what the top downloaded iOS app of all time was, what would you say? You'll probably get it. It's an obvious one. It's Facebook. Number two is fairly easy too: Pandora.

Discussion: SAI, Datamation, CNET News, Pulse2, Gizmodo, Appolicious Advisor, TiPb, The Next Web, msnbc.com, SlashGear and Inc.com

Andru Edwards / Gear Live:

Leaked: New ATT text messaging plans in preparation for Verizon iPhone — AT&T customers, get ready for new text messaging rates to go into effect starting next week. As the Verizon iPhone approaches, the company is looking to make their plans look a bit more attractive, and not so different from what Verizon will be offering.

Discussion: TechCrunch, MacRumors, 9 to 5 Mac, BGR, iLounge, MobileCrunch, Electronista, IntoMobile, SlashGear, Geek.com, Gizmodo Australia and Gizmodo

Nick Eaton / The Microsoft Blog:

Microsoft nails down Windows Phone 7 data-uploading issue — A third-party application is mostly responsible for a Windows Phone 7 issue that has caused, for some users, megabytes of mysterious data uploading over 3G, Microsoft said today. — Last week, Microsoft said it was investigating claims …

Discussion: Engadget, IntoMobile, The Next Web, WinRumors, Windows Phone Secrets and WPCentral.com

Allen Stern / CenterNetworks:

LivingSocial Sells Over 700,000 Amazon Gift Cards in 14 Hours — Alright deal hunters of any level, here's a deal you will want to jump on asap. Group buying service LivingSocial is offering a nationwide deal on an Amazon gift card. The deal offers a $20 Amazon gift card for $10.

Discussion: LivingSocial Deals, SAI, BetaNews, VentureBeat, All Facebook, The Huffington Post, Geek.com, Communications …, USA Today, Pulse2 and Mashable!

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
LivingSocial Deal Shows the Power of Amazon Partnership

Discussion: eMoney, TechFlash, TechCrunch, Lightspeed Venture …, ReadWriteWeb and Kindle Review

Thomas Ricker / Engadget:

HP / Palm tablet to feature Touchstone dock, cloud storage, Beats audio and Tap-to-Share smartphone integration — Now that the kitty's out of the gemstone bag, we're slowly starting to connect the dots that obscure the details of Palm's soon to be announced “Topaz” and “Opal” tablets.

Evan Blass / Pocketnow:

What Is the “HP Touchpad”? — Hewlett Packard has just filed for trademark protection on the term “HP Touchpad,” and unless it's poised for a marketing push based around its laptop input devices, we suspect that this will be yet another tablet from the venerable Silicon Valley manufacturer.

Discussion: Engadget, DigiTimes, SlashGear, PalmAddicts and PhoneArena

Wall Street Journal:

Facebook Flop Riles Goldman Clients — It was supposed to be Wall Street's hottest tech deal in years: the private offering of as much as $1.5 billion in shares of Facebook Inc. And it was a coup for the company's adviser, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the most envied firm on the Street.

Discussion: Post Tech, Venture Capital Dispatch, DealBook, Guardian and Deal Journal

Kim-Mai Cutler / Inside Mobile Apps:

Word Lens More Than Pays for Two Years of Bootstrapping With Its Impressive Launch — It was an app two years in the making, but a blowout week more than made up for the time and money Otavio Good spent bootstrapping Word Lens — the first arguably useful augmented reality experience.

Tricia Duryee / All Things Digital:

Nintendo's 3DS on Sale March 27 for $250, Boasting iPhone-Like Features — Nintendo announced the pricing and release date today for the 3DS, which it hopes will rejuvenate sales as its other hardware platforms start aging. — The 3DS will be available in the U.S. on March 27 for a competitively priced $249.99.

Discussion: Guardian, Forbes, Digits, TechEye, Engadget, BGR, Computerworld, L.A. Times Tech Blog, BetaNews, TechCrunch, Ars Technica, GoNintendo, Show Me The Money and Fast Company

Cliff Edwards / Bloomberg:

Sony Said to Plan Networked Portable Game Player, Smartphones — Sony Corp. plans to unveil an updated PlayStation Portable handheld game device on Jan. 27, followed by a game-playing smartphone in February, according to two people with knowledge of the plans.

Discussion: The Seattle Times, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, Android Phone Fans, SlashGear, The Toybox Blog, USA Today, CrunchGear, Techland, GottaBeMobile, Android Community, Electronista and FierceWireless

Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:

Only 66% Use Twitter Profile Location Field as Intended, Says PARC Research Study — The first in-depth user research study on the usage of the “Location” field within Twitter profiles has just been published by the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). With a sample size of 32 million English language tweets …

Discussion: MediaMemo

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:

Microsoft readies more West Coast retail stores — Microsoft is opening another brick-and-mortar retail store in California, company officials said today. — The new Microsoft store will be in Costa Mesa, Calif., at the South Coast Plaza Shopping Center, according to a tweet from the Microsoft consumer-products account on Twitter:

Discussion: CNET News, Electronista, GeekSmack, WinRumors and The Next Web

Vlad Savov / Engadget:

Playboy Magazine coming to iPad in its uncensored form in March, including full back catalog — From its very first issue in 1953 to its latest incarnation, the full catalog of Playboy Magazine is coming to the iPad this March. And not only that, it'll be faithful to its original form by arriving to your Apple slate uncensored.

Dan Goodin / The Register:

Google gins search formula to favor its own services — Gmail, Maps get free ride — A noted Google-watcher has assembled a convincing argument that the site's search results highly favor Google-owned services, despite repeated company claims that they are algorithmically generated and never manipulated.

Discussion: Ben Edelman

Loic Le Meur / Telegraph:

Start-Up 100: Why I ditched Europe for Silicon Valley — Guest columnist Loic Le Meur explains why he chose to build his company on the West Coast — The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. … I left Europe because - to put it plainly - Silicon Valley kicks its butt.

Discussion: Loic Le Meur Blog, Thanks:loic

Katherine Boehret / Wall Street Journal:

A New Social Network Where Inquiring Minds Run Wild — If brief communications like Twitter's 140-character messages, Facebook status updates and text messaging leave you longing for more substantial discourse, you may be in luck. This week, I took a look at Quora, a question-and-answer site …

Discussion: Social Business Blog, Brian Solis, Technology Review, Digits, NevilleHobson.com, DailyFinance, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check and Thomas Hawk Digital Connection

Ryan Kim / GigaOM:

Nuance Releases Mobile SDK To Speechify Apps — Nuance, the company behind the Dragon Naturally Speaking Dictation software, is making a big play to be the main speech technology behind mobile apps. The company has launched the Nuance Mobile Developer Program that gives iOS …

Discussion: Dragon Mobile Apps Blog … and Internet2Go, Thanks:oryankim

Macworld:

Apple COO Tim Cook on Android, Verizon, and more — On Tuesday Apple COO Tim Cook answered questions from analysts following the release of Apple's report of record quarterly earnings. Here's an edited transcript of his responses to several of those questions, covering topics …

Discussion: Computerworld, eWeek, The Huffington Post, TechSpot, 9 to 5 Mac, MacStories and The Atlantic Online

Ina Fried / All Things Digital:
Apple's Really Good Quarter Was Really, Really Good in China

Discussion: Digital Daily

Eric M. Zeman / Phone Scoop:

Samsung: We Are Not Charging Carriers for Android Updates — Samsung Mobile emailed Phone Scoop a brief statement to settle some of the rumors that have been flying about regarding the Android 2.2 update for its Galaxy S smartphones. One report suggested that the delay is being caused …

Discussion: Digital Trends, Macworld, GottaBeMobile, eWeek, Android Community, IntoMobile, DailyTech, ZDNet, Smartphones … and Daring Fireball

Deutsche Welle:

Swiss ‘WikiLeaks’ banker fined for giving away secret client data — A Swiss banker who claims to have helped WikiLeaks reveal details of rich tax evaders, was found guilty on Wednesday of coercion, breaking Switzerland's strict banking secrecy laws and sending threatening letters.

Discussion: BBC, HeraldSun and Reuters

Josh Lowensohn / CNET News:

Pulled iDOS app returns, update if you dare — The controversial iOS app that let users run an emulated version of the DOS prompt has returned to the App Store, more than two months since it was pulled by Apple. — The app, which reappeared earlier this morning, has come back missing one key feature …

Discussion: Mashable!

Ina Fried / Mobilized:

Don't Read This While Driving: T-Mobile Launches Safe Driving App — If technology created the problem of texting and driving, it is only natural that we look to technology to solve the problem. — After all, we can't just put our cellphones out of reach and just not answer the things for five freaking minutes.

Discussion: TechFlash, GigaOM, Engadget, IntoMobile, PhoneArena, Thoughts from the Sidelines, AndroidGuys, MobileCrunch, Electronista, PR Newswire, Know Your Cell and TmoNews

Chris Foresman / Ars Technica:

Goatse Security trolls were after “max lols” in AT&T iPad hack — On Tuesday the FBI arrested and charged two men in their mid-20s for their involvement in last year's attack on AT&T servers that mined over 100,000 e-mail addresses from iPad 3G owners. Andrew “weev” Auernheimer and Daniel …

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