Techmeme: Forget About 99 Cents, What If You Could Rent Mobile Games for 25 Cents? (Tricia Duryee/AllThingsD)

5:20 PM ET, June 8, 2011

Top Items:

Monica Chen / DigiTimes:

Microsoft reportedly considers launching own-brand tablet PC — Microsoft is reportedly considering to launch an own-brand tablet PC that features Windows 8 by the end of 2012 with cooperation from Texas Instruments and Taiwan-based OEMs/ODMs, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:

A Microsoft-Branded Windows 8 Tablet? Doubt It. — Microsoft is considering another run at the hardware business, this time with a tablet PC of its own making. — That's the rumor, anyway. — Supply chain sources tell occasionally reliable Taiwanese trade mag DigiTimes that the company …

Discussion: The Microsoft Blog, Microsoft Watch, SAI and I4U News

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Could and should there be a Microsoft-branded Windows 8 tablet?

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and ZDNet

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Jobs To Cupertino: We Want A Spaceship-Shaped, 12K Capacity Building As Our New Apple Campus — After having a banner WWDC start yesterday, Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs humbly presented his idea for a new Apple campus at the Cupertino City Council today.

Sajid Farooq / NBC Bay Area:
We Have No Plan to Let Apple Go: Cupertino Mayor

Discussion: Cupertino

Sasha Gontmakher / The Official Google Blog:

Know when your bus is late with live transit updates in Google Maps — Often when I'm taking public transit, I arrive at my stop on time only to anxiously check my watch and look down the street for my bus, which is running late once again. Those extra minutes I'm forced to wait seem like an eternity …

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget:
Google Maps Navigation to get offline mode? Garmin and TomTom on notice

Discussion: Gizmodo, 9to5 Google and Android Phone Fans

Stephanie Bodoni / Bloomberg:

Facebook to Be Probed in EU for Facial Recognition in Photos — Facebook Inc. will be probed by European Union data-protection regulators over a feature that suggests people's names to tag in pictures without their permission. — A group of privacy watchdogs drawn from the EU's 27 nations …

Alexei Oreskovic / Reuters:
Facebook gives regulators info on facial recognition

Discussion: DailyTech, USA Today, Drew B's take on tech PR, Disruptors and Adotas

Justin Mitchell / Facebook Blog:
Making Photo Tagging Easier

Discussion: Mashable!, eWeek, PC World, Fast Company, Guardian, Tools, Geeky-Gadgets, Mobile Marketing Watch, DailyFinance.com, Shelly Palmer Digital Living, Gizmodo and OUT-LAW News

Dave Caolo / TUAW:

iOS 5 hints at iPhone, iPad updates — TUAW sources inspecting the USB device files in yet-unreleased iOS 5 firmware have discovered suggestions of two future iPad 3 models as well as a pair of iPhone 5 models. What's most surprising is a big omission: no mention of an iPod touch 5.

Steve Kovach / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
iOS 5 Is Amazing — You Have To See It To Believe It!

Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac and App Advice, Thanks:alleyinsider

Arild Moen / Dow Jones Newswires:

Samsung Declines Comment On Nokia Bid Speculation — HELSINKI (Dow Jones)—Samsung Electronics Co. (005930.SE) Wednesday declined to comment on market speculation that it could be preparing a bid for ailing Finland-based handset maker Nokia Corp. (NOK). — “It seems like a market rumor …

Discussion: I4U News, The Next Web, TechEye, Electronista, CNET News, SAI, IntoMobile, Between the Lines Blog, The Nokia Blog, TechSpot, Neowin.net, MobileSyrup.com, VentureBeat, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, Android Phone Fans, Pocket-lint and MobileBurn.com

Parmy Olson / Disruptors:

Why Copyright Holders Love iTunes Match And Pirates Hate It — Steve Jobs presented a web storage service called iCloud this week that marked cloud computing's transition to the mainstream. But a debate is already raging about what some of iCloud's features could mean for the future of digital music and video.

Discussion: GigaOM, AllAccess.com, Fast Company and PlagiarismToday

Nick Bilton / Bits: How Apple Can Make Money From Higher-Quality Songs

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

Evernote Peek: The First Smart Cover App That Could Make You Smarter — One of the best parts of the iPad 2 is the colorful, magical smart cover that comes as a peripheral. Lift the cover and your iPad turns on, drop it and it goes to sleep. It's kind of addictive.

Discussion: MacRumors, Evernote Blogcast, Tools, Tech GadgetX, MobileBurn.com, TUAW, GottaBeMobile, MacStories, iClarified and TechSpot

Darren Murph / Engadget:

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 review — When we met with Samsung in late May, company representatives didn't seem entirely sure that the company would meet the rumored June 8th ship date here in the US, but lo and behold, it's done just that. The tablet's launching at noon today at the Best Buy …

Discussion: BetaNews, Computerworld and GottaBeMobile

Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:

Android's App Attrition Rate Much Higher than iOS: 32% vs. 19% — 95,000 of the roughly 300,000 mobile applications that have ever appeared on the Android Market are no longer available - an app attrition rate of 32%. In comparison, 80,000 apps out of approximately 500,000 (or 16%) …

Discussion: GigaOM, AppsFire.com blog and PhoneArena

Tricia Duryee / AllThingsD:

Forget About 99 Cents, What If You Could Rent Mobile Games for 25 Cents? — T-Mobile USA is teaming up with WildTangent to test out a Netflix-like model for renting mobile games on Android smartphones. — Instead of having to purchase a game without knowing if it's any good, users will have the ability to rent the game for a day.

Discussion: PC World, Guardian, GeekWire, GigaOM, IntoMobile, TechSpot, TmoNews, VentureBeat, MobileBurn.com and Electronista

Matt Hamblen / Computerworld:

Verizon confirms sales of its Galaxy S II ‘superphone’ start in July — Other major carriers are also expected to have the hottest new smartphone, made by Samsung — Computerworld - Verizon Wireless Wednesday confirmed that it plans to start selling the Samsung Galaxy S II “superphone” …

Discussion: Engadget, The Toybox Blog, Hong Kong, Droid Life, Android Phone Fans, AndroidSPIN, Android and Me, IntoMobile, PhoneNews.com, MobileBurn.com, Geeky-Gadgets, GottaBeMobile and PhoneArena

Robert X. Cringely / I, Cringely:

iCloud's real purpose: kill Windows — Apple's announcements yesterday about OS X 10.7 pricing (cheap), upgrading (easy), iOS 5, and iCloud storage, syncing, and media service can all be viewed as increasing ease of use, but from the perspective of Apple CEO Steve Jobs they perform an even more vital function — killing Microsoft.

Discussion: GigaOM and GMSV

Brett Wolf / Reuters:

Senators seek crackdown on “Bitcoin” currency — ST. LOUIS (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - Two senators are pressing federal authorities to crack down on an online black market and “untraceable” digital currency known as Bitcoins after reports that they are used to buy illegal drugs anonymously.

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:

Apple, Google cloud can help curb online piracy: U.S. — (Reuters) - Services developed by Apple Inc and Google for people to store photos, music and data online may do more to combat online piracy than regulation can, a U.S. official said on Wednesday. — Victoria Espinel …

Discussion: Technology Liberation Front

Dan Frommer / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

Flipboard's Traffic Just Quadrupled: Now At 400 Million “Flips” Per Month — Flipboard has been on an impressive growth streak lately, thanks in part to Apple's iPad 2 launch this spring. — Flipboard CEO Mike McCue tells us that Flipboard is doing about 400 million “flips” per month now …

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

The Stars Align For Spotify (Really This Time, Maybe) — Music streaming service Spotify (more convenient than piracy!), long enjoyed in Europe and long longed for in the U.S., may finally finally have its ducks in a row. If a number of interdependent deals come together …

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Vidyo launches low-cost HD video chat for up to 20 people at once — Vidyo is seeking to disrupt the market for “telepresence” systems that sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It will do so with the launch of Vidyo Panorama, a video conferencing system that delivers high-speed …

Discussion: PC World, Reuters and Venture Capital Dispatch

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