Check out Mini-Techmeme for simple mobiles or Techmeme Mobile for modern smartphones.
3:55 PM ET, July 5, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Ben Parr / Mashable!:
EXCLUSIVE: Google to Retire Blogger & Picasa Brands in Google+ Push  —  Say goodbye to the Picasa and Blogger names: Google intends to retire several non-Google name brands and rename them as Google products, Mashable has learned.  —  The move is part of a larger effort to unify its brand …
Monica Chen / DigiTimes:
Pegatron receives orders for 15 million iPhone 5s from Apple  —  Taiwan-based notebook maker Pegatron Technology is estimated to have landed orders for 15 million iPhone 5s (iPhone 4S) from Apple and is set to start shipping in September of 2011, according to sources from upstream component makers.
RELATED:
FierceWireless:
Verizon confirms it will ditch unlimited smartphone data plans starting July 7  —  Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) will switch to a new, usage-based pricing model for smartphone data starting July 7, a company spokeswoman confirmed.  —  Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney told FierceWireless …
BackType:
BackType Has Been Acquired by Twitter  —  We're thrilled to announce that BackType has been acquired by Twitter!  We'll be bringing our team and technology to Twitter's platform team, where our focus will be developing tools for Twitter's publisher partners.
RELATED:
Colleen Taylor / GigaOM:   Twitter buys BackType to dig deeper with big data
Emil Protalinski / Friending Facebook Blog:
Facebook blocks Google Chrome extension for exporting friends  —  Facebook Friend Exporter is a Chrome extension developed by Mohamed Mansour, an open source software engineer, that lets you grab all the information about your Facebook friends so you can import them elsewhere.
Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:
New Financing Values Twitter As High As $7 Billion  —  Twitter Inc., the fast-growing Internet messaging service, is privately raising hundreds of millions of dollars in a new financing round that values the company at as high as $7 billion, said a person familiar with the matter.
Bobbie Johnson / GigaOM:
Nokia's $200m secret shows the rot goes way, way back  —  There have been plenty of attempts to pinpoint where Nokia, the struggling Finnish mobile company, really started to go wrong.  Some think it was when the iPhone launched and left it in the dust; some would suggest it was when the board …
Discussion: SlashGear, Thanks:bobbiejohnson
Kate Murphy / New York Times:
iPads Replacing Pilots' Paper Manuals  —  What is in those bulky, black flight bags that pilots carry into the cockpit?  It is not a change of clothes but reams of reference material needed for the flight — about 40 pounds of it.  There are the aircraft's operating manual, safety checklists …
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry / The Business Insider:
“Apple's... Exclusive Supply Chain Of Advanced Technology [Is] Literally Years Ahead Of Anyone Else On The Planet”  —  An amazing take by an anonymous user on Quora on why Apple products sometimes seem so superior.  Because they are.  Because they get them before anyone else.
Anne Tergesen / Wall Street Journal:
When Guests Check In, Their iPhones Check Out  —  When booking a weeklong yoga retreat, Amanda Levy signed up for a special package.  Called “digital detox,” it promised a 15% discount if Ms. Levy, a sales executive at a San Francisco social-networking company, would agree to leave …
Discussion: The Business Insider and GeekSugar
Tarmo Virki / Reuters:
Ailing Nokia cuts smartphone prices to halt slump  —  (Reuters) - Struggling Nokia has cut the prices of its smartphones in Europe, two industry sources told Reuters on Tuesday, raising the possibility of a more intensive price war in the mobile phone market.
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Google Rumored To Launch ITA-Powered Travel Search Product Soon  —  We're hearing that Google is planning to launch an ITA integrated-flight search product as soon as a few weeks from now, according to a well-placed industry source.  In April, the DOJ finally approved Google's $700 million acquisition …
Discussion: The Business Insider
Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Google plans to open Hangouts for interoperability  —  Hangouts, the group video chat component of Google Plus that everyone's been raving about, could eventually be usable with other video chat clients and services as well.  Google Real-time Communications Tech Lead Justin Uberti wrote …
Ryan Kim / GigaOM:
Amazon's Android Appstore, not so amazing  —  Running a successful app store isn't trivial.  Building out the necessary features and services and making it appealing to both consumers and developers can be hard work, something Amazon is learning.  The company has been taken to task …
Francis Tan / The Next Web:
China to deploy huge Big Brother surveillance network with Cisco's help  —  China plans to put a network of 500,000 surveillance cameras in place around Chongqing to keep an eye on its citizens, with the help of Western tech and networking companies such as Cisco Systems Inc. The government claims …
Krishna Panicker / The Big Blog:
New Skype 5.2 Update for Mac Brings Group Screen Sharing and Improved Multi-tasking  —  We are excited to announce that the Skype 5.2 update for Mac is now available for download.  —  With this new update, Skype for Mac users can now share their screen during a group video call.
Samantha Murphy / New Scientist:
Exclusive first interview with key LulzSec hacker  —  It was early May when LulzSec's profile skyrocketed after a hack on the giant Sony corporation.  LulzSec's name comes from Lulz, a corruption of LOL, often denoting laughter at the victim of a prank.  For 50 days until it disbanded …
Discussion: New York Times
Simon Mackie / GigaOM:
Why Google+ could find a home in the workplace  —  Last week, Google rolled out a beta of its highly-anticipated new social networking platform, Google+.  Reaction to the launch so far has been mainly positive, with praise for the app's design and features.
Discussion: AppleInsider and AccMan Pro
Jennifer Valentino-DeVries / Digits:
Traffic App Waze, ABC Team Up to Fight ‘Carmageddon’ in L.A.  —  Later this month, Los Angeles will be facing a traffic nightmare as the massive 405 Freeway closes down in both directions for more than two days.  —  For motorists, this closure — dubbed “Carmageddon” — might be a headache.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Microsoft Bing innovates on iPad with ‘Lasso’ quick search  —  The new “lasso” feature for quick searching in the Bing app for iPad  —  Microsoft today is releasing an update for its well-received Bing app for Apple's iPad, with a new feature designed to streamline the process of conducting online searches on the touch-screen device.
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of Techmeme at 3:55 PM ET, July 5, 2011.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 Techmeme Sponsor Posts: 
Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
CIO challenge 5: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs?  —  Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series!  After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Sponsor Techmeme
 
 See Also: 
Techmeme: site main
Techmeme River: reverse chronological Techmeme
Techmeme Mobile: for phones
Techmeme Leaderboard: Techmeme's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
Techmeme RSS feed
Techmeme on X
Techmeme on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Dancing Queen: After Meeting With Microsoft Last Week, Yahoo Is Next on Hulu's Sales Card
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Netflix plots Latin America expansion, certifies TI for high-def streaming
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
Feature: Unlicensed: Are Google Music and Amazon Cloud Player illegal?
Bill Bishop / DigiCha:
Should We Care If A Chinese Sovereign Wealth Fund Invests In Facebook?
Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:
Amazon's Bid For The Book Depository: User Backlash And Regulatory Inquiry
 Earlier Items: 
Stephen Shankland / CNET News:
Firefox PDF reader passes ‘pixel-perfect’ test
Discussion: Softpedia News
Rocky Agrawal / TechCrunch:
Google Offers Versus Groupon: The Portland Throwdown
Discussion: PSFK
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (@VP) Joins Twitter
Softpedia News:
Hackers Claim to Have Obtained Florida Voter Data
Ben Hirschler / Reuters:
Evidence “increasingly against” phone cancer risk
Discussion: PC Magazine and Examiner
Terrence O'Brien / Engadget:
HTC sales up nearly 88-percent from last year, analysts still skeptical on stock
Brooke Crothers / CNET News:
At retailers, iPad faces new foes
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Mark Zuckerberg Is The Most Followed User On Google+
 

 
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

 
Sister Sites:

Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
memeorandum
 What US political commentators are discussing online right now
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page