Techmeme: Scammers Swap Google Images for Malware (Brian Krebs/Krebs on Security)

5:50 PM ET, May 6, 2011

Top Items:

Breaking Bin Laden: visualizing the power of a single tweet — A full hour before the formal announcement of Bin-Laden's death, Keith Urbahn posted his speculation on the emergency presidential address. Little did he know that this Tweet would trigger an avalanche of reactions …

Discussion: Betabeat, The Wire, techPresident, MediaShift, BetaNews and Paul Kedrosky's …, more at Mediagazer »

Krishna Bharat / Google News Blog:
Google News and the Coverage of Bin Laden

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, WebProNews and Google Earth Blog, more at Mediagazer »

Patrick Seybold / PlayStation Blog:

A Letter from Howard Stringer — Please see below for a letter from Howard Stringer:

Erica Ogg / CNET News:

Exclusive: Third attack against Sony planned — A group of hackers says it is planning another wave of cyberattacks against Sony in retaliation for its handling of the PlayStation Network breach. — An observer of the Internet Relay Chat channel used by the hackers told CNET today …

Financial Times:
Hackers admit Anonymous likely behind Sony attacks

Discussion: CNET News

Arn / MacRumors:

Apple to Move from Intel to ARM Processors in Future Laptops? — SemiAccurate claims to have heard that Apple will be transitioning from Intel processors to ARM processors in the not too distant future. — The short story is that Apple is moving the laptop line, and presumably desktops too, to ARM based chips as soon as possible.

Devindra Hardawar / VentureBeat:

No, Apple won't be dumping Intel chips for ARM, you crazies — Here's your latest crazy Apple rumor: Sources say that Apple is looking to move towards ARM processors in its laptops, which will replace the Intel chips its been relying on for the past few years, SemiAccurate reports.

Discussion: eWeek, Computerworld, GigaOM, MacRumors Page 2, Between the Lines Blog, ExtremeTech, Business Wire and Tech Trader Daily

Ina Fried / Mobilized:

AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Apple and Google all Scheduled to Appear Before Congress Next Week — There will be no shortage of tech companies speaking in Washington next week, as separate Senate subcommittees hold hearings on two major issues in the tech industry.

Discussion: PC Magazine, CNET News, GigaOM, CNET News, I4U News, MacRumors, The Next Web, iPodNN and Electronista

Jim Dalrymple / The Loop:
Apple's Bud Tribble to testify before Judiciary Subcommittee on Mobile Privacy

Discussion: TUAW, 9 to 5 Mac and Pulse2, Thanks:jdalrymple

Ed Bott / Ed Bott's Microsoft Report Blog:

Why malware for Macs is on its way — Oh, the rationalizations people come up with to explain away what they don't want to hear. — Last week, when I wrote Coming soon to a Mac near you: serious malware, I expected to get an earful from Mac partisans telling me how wrong I was. They didn't disappoint.

Discussion: Pulse2, Neowin.net and blog.chron.com

Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:

56% of Americans have Internet data caps; FCC asked to investigate — Two prominent Washington DC tech policy groups have asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate Internet data caps in the US—with a special focus on AT&T. — New America Foundation and Public Knowledge say in a letter …

Discussion: DSLreports, Hillicon Valley, Macworld, Electronista and Epicenter

Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:

Researchers Say WSJ's WikiLeaks Copycat Is Full Of Holes — The Wall Street Journal wants a WikiLeaks of its own: a conduit for sources to securely submit large caches of data to the site's reporters. But some security researchers say the Journal has yet to learn a basic rule of digital whistleblowing …

Discussion: MediaFile, Mediactive, Techdirt, Digital Trends, Pulse2, The Blog Herald, Gawker, Fast Company, Softpedia News and Mixed Media, more at Mediagazer »

Declan McCullagh / CNET News:

Bin Laden's computers will test U.S. forensics — For the U.S. government, the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan represents a unique opportunity to test advanced computer forensics techniques called “media exploitation” that it's developed over the last few years.

Discussion: The Register

Liz Gannes / NetworkEffect:

Flipboard Triples Daily Usage in Two Months After Speed Improvements — Flipboard, the leading social news app for iPad, has tripled daily usage in the last two months, CEO Mike McCue said in a chat on Thursday. The app now sees eight to nine million daily “flips.”

more at Mediagazer »

Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:

T-Mobile loses 471,000 contract customers, cites ‘competitive pressures’ — T-Mobile USA saw a spike in contract customer losses as it struggles to compete with other carriers. — The company said Friday that it lost 471,000 net contract customers in the first quarter compared to 318,000 in the fourth quarter and 77,000 a year ago.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Business Wire, GigaOM, CNET News, GottaBeMobile, BGR, Mobilized, TmoNews, IntoMobile, Electronista, TechEye and Pulse2

Nicole Scott / netbooknews.com:

ASUS HQ Makes Official Statement on Transformer Tablet Shortagea — Living in Taipei we've often noticed that marketing people overseas don't really know what's going on with their products, not like the head quarters does anyways. There have been a lot of rumors floating around …

Discussion: Electronista, Android Community, MobileWhack, GottaBeMobile, Between the Lines Blog, TG Daily, Computerworld, TechSpot, SlashGear, CrunchGear, Android Phone Fans, PhoneArena, Liliputing, Digital Daily, The Tech Report, Engadget and Softpedia News

Daniel Eran Dilger / AppleInsider:

IDC says smartphones grew 79.7%, Apple takes #2 spot behind Nokia — Apple outpaced the smartphone industry's average growth of 79.7 percent in the first calendar quarter of 2011 to edge out RIM as the second largest producer of smartphones behind Nokia. — Apple sold 18.7 million iPhones …

Christian Zibreg / 9 to 5 Mac:
Apple now #2 smartphone maker globally, ranked 35th on the Fortune 500 list

Discussion: Wired In Blog| BNET, App Advice, iLounge, Neowin.net and AppleInsider

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

Scammers Swap Google Images for Malware — A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a single tainted digital image may be worth thousands of dollars for computer crooks who are using weaknesses in Google's Image Search to foist malicious software on unsuspecting surfers.

Discussion: PC World, Help Net Security, Unmask Parasites. Blog., I4U News, NBC Bay Area and Black Web 2.0

Irina Slutsky / AdAge:

Rising Costs Leave Facebook Developers in the Lurch — Small Developers Move to Other Markets As Ad Prices and Revenue Splits Make Environment Tougher — As Facebook heads toward 700 million users, one thing seems clear: the gold rush for Facebook app developers is over.

Discussion: ZDNet and All Facebook

Heather Knight / San Francisco Chronicle:

S.F. puts cell phone radiation law on hold — San Francisco has rarely shied away from a legal fight over its cutting-edge laws - be it Walgreens suing over the ban on selling cigarettes in drug stores or restaurants taking the city to court over its requirement that employers provide health care coverage.

Discussion: GottaBeMobile, IntoMobile, PhoneArena and Engadget

Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:

Facebook Quietly Fixes its Original Privacy Problem, 5 Years Later — Facebook has quietly enabled a new privacy feature that allows users to hide certain types of updates from their walls and from the newsfeeds of friends. Make a new friend? Planning on going to an event?

Sara Forden / Bloomberg:

Google Seeks Antitrust Lawyer as It Faces Regulatory Scrutiny — Google Inc. (GOOG), with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said to be preparing an investigation of its dominant position in the Internet search industry, is seeking to hire an antitrust lawyer, according to an online job posting.

Discussion: CNET News and @jason

Matthew Humphries / Geek.com:

Game developer David Braben creates a USB stick PC for $25 — David Braben is a very well-known game developer who runs the UK development studio Frontier Developments, but is just as well known for being the co-developer of Elite. — Over his career his studio has brought us …

Discussion: PC World, TechEye, VoIP & Gadgets Blog, IGN Gear, Pulse2, Bruce Clay Blog, VentureBeat, CrunchGear, ARMdevices.net, Slashdot, DailyTech, SAI, Liliputing, Softpedia News, TechSpot, lalawag, SlashGear, Digital Trends, Edge Online and Neowin.net

Dan Sabbagh / paidContent:

UK Journalists' Tweets To Be Regulated — Reporter and newspaper Twitter feeds are expected to brought under the regulation of the Press Complaints Commission later this year, the first time the body has sought to consolidate social media messages under its remit.

Josh Ong / AppleInsider:

Apple's iPad 2 launch in China draws crowds, scalpers — Apple's launch of the Wi-Fi iPad 2 in China on Friday drew customers and scalpers alike, with anecdotal evidence suggesting that the white model is significantly more popular. — The iPad 2 went on sale at Apple Stores in China at 8 a.m. Friday.

Discussion: BGR, SAI, M.I.C. Gadget, Xinhua News Agency, PC World, Agence France Presse, MacRumors, TUAW, PC Magazine, Bloomberg, iLounge, MacNN, MobileBurn.com, everythingiCafe, 9 to 5 Mac and Reuters

David Meyer / ZDNet:

Researcher: Skype for Mac has ‘dangerous’ vulnerability — Skype's Mac client has a serious zero-day vulnerability that the company is yet to fix, a security researcher has said. — Writing on the blog of security firm Pure Hacking, researcher Gordon Maddern said on Friday that the vulnerability means …

Discussion: purehacking.com, The Register, The Next Web and Disruptive Telephony

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Swears He's Not Going to Kill HBO: “We Compete Like Football and Baseball” — So we've heard what Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes thinks about Netflix. What does Reed Hastings think about Time Warner? — He's full of good will, too!

Discussion: GigaOM, more at Mediagazer »

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