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12:40 PM ET, July 23, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
iOS 5′s Siri-like system navigation is called ‘Assistant’, uses device-info to handle actions  —  Apple's purchase of Siri in early 2010 and their partnership with Nuance in 2011 has many hoping that Apple has something like speech-to-text or voice-navigation up its sleeve for iOS 5.
Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:
A Norwegian National Tragedy That Unfolded on the Web (Updated)  —  What's being described as the most violent day in Norway since the Second World War unfolded today for so many via social media.  —  Having seen early reports concerning an afternoon bombing attack outside government offices in Oslo …
RELATED:
Nicholas Jackson / The Atlantic Online:
A Bomb in Oslo?  What Google Lost by Ending Real-Time Search  —  I had a sense that something was wrong pretty quickly.  In between checking my email and finishing up a story for the site you're reading right now, I was casually watching some tweets stream in through TweetDeck — as I almost always am.
Discussion: Technology Review
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry / The Business Insider:
Facebook Investor Roger McNamee Explains Why Social Is Over  —  Elevation Partners and Facebook investor Roger McNamee, who is also a rock musician, gave an amazing talk recently where he goes over some of the biggest trends affecting the technology industry.  —  The talk was spotted by our friend Dan Frommer at SplatF.
Alex Heath / Cult of Mac:
Apple Releases iOS 5 Beta 4 With Over-the-Air Updates  —  Apple has proved once again that Fridays are still work days by dropping iOS 5 Beta 4.  Developers can now download the latest iOS 5 beta in Apple's dev channel, and, for the first time, through the miracle of over-the-air updates.
RELATED:
Arnold Kim / MacRumors:
iOS 5 Over-the-Air Update Video, Documents on iCloud, and Other Notes  —  InsanelyGreatMac posts the above video showing the new iOS 5 Beta 4 over the air (OTA) updating in action.  As we noted the OTA update also saves bandwidth as it only sends changes rather than the entire OS image.
Jay Greene / CNET News:
Scoop: Oracle scrubs site of embarrassing Java blog  —  The beginning of Sun's Jonathan Schwartz's 2007 blog post praising Google's use of Java in Android.  —  In the midst of its nasty legal battle with Google, Oracle seems to have resorted to a bit of Web site scrubbing.
RELATED:
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
On Succeeding Steve Jobs  —  On Wednesday, less than 30 minutes before Apple announced another record-breaking quarter of financial results, the Wall Street Journal published a story by Yukari Iwatani Kane, Joann S. Lublin, and Nick Wingfield regarding the issue of Apple CEO succession.
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
VideoInbox, Another Google/Slide Production, Brings Viral Videos To Your Inbox  —  We've come across the latest in Slide's series of projects developed within Google, VideoInbox - a combination daily newsletter/Facebook app that basically centers around the viewing, sharing and cataloguing of viral videos …
Discussion: Softpedia News
Jolie O'Dell / VentureBeat:
Google+ business profiles to include analytics & more  —  If businesses can contain themselves for just a few more months, they'll have much better Google+ tools than the ones that currently exist.  —  In fact, Google will be unveiling specially tweaked profiles with analytics …
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Apple expands the App Store to 33 new countries and territories  —  As Apple expands its businesses, with the iPhone and iPad reaching more nations, and their upcoming iCloud service, Apple has opened up the iOS App Store and Mac App Store in 33 new countries.
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
Feature: Big Content's latest antipiracy weapon: extradition  —  As major American copyright holders continue their long war on file-sharing, the focus of the debate has increasingly shifted overseas.  Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has begun seizing the domain names of so-called rogue sites based overseas.
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Google Acquires Facial Recognition Software Company PittPatt  —  Google has just acquired facial recognition software company PittPatt (Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition), according to an announcement on the startup's site.  —  PittPatt, a project spawned from Carnegie Mellon University …
M. Zinoune / Unixmen:
Lightweight Portable Security (LPS)-A Linux distro from the US Department of Defense  —  Lightweight Portable Security (LPS), created by USA's Department of Defence, is a small Linux live CD focusing on privacy and security, for this reason, it boots from a CD and executes from RAM …
Discussion: InformationWeek, Geek.com and Slashdot
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
How MySpace Tom May Have Inadvertently Triggered The Google/Facebook War  —  Gotta love Tom Anderson.  Newly reinvigorated by the launch of Google+, “MySpace Tom” has become a social power user (and regular TechCrunch contributor!).  As a man at the forefront of the early days of the social wars, he's obviously full of information.
Discussion: TechCrunch
Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:
Google Bows to Web Rivals  —  Internet Giant Removes Outside Customer Reviews From Search Results  —  Google Inc. has made changes to the way its search engine displays information about local businesses, a move that follows the disclosure of a U.S. antitrust investigation of its business practices.
Discussion: eWeek
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Confirmed: Bing Tests Ads Within Organic Search Results  —  The RKGBlog blog posted a screen shot of Bing testing search ads directly in the organic results.  Honestly, I almost cannot believe it - but more on that later.  Here is a cropped picture of the screen shot.  —  Why is this so shocking?
Discussion: RKGBlog
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
What's next for Kinect?  Next week, avatar meetings; Later, PC and phone integration  —  During this week's Microsoft Research Faculty Summit, Microsoft Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie confirmed what was already largely suspected: Avatar Kinect will be available worldwide as of next week.
Discussion: Softpedia News and Neowin.net
Jordan Golson / MacRumors:
Apple Recalls Some iMac Seagate 1TB Hard Drives  —  Apple has begun sending emails about a new hard drive recall, called the iMac 1TB Seagate Hard Drive Replacement Program: … Apple encourages owners with affected computers to go to an Apple Retail Store, an Apple Authorized Service Provider or contact 800-APL-CARE.
 
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 More Items: 
Greg Sandoval / Media Maverick:
Music publishers file copyright suit against Grooveshark
David Barboza / New York Times:
Former China Mobile Official Sentenced in Bribery Case
Discussion: PC Magazine and ITworld.com
Nicholas Carlson / The Business Insider:
Here's The Presentation That Inspired Google+
Christopher Breen / Macworld:
Farewell Front Row
Discussion: SlashGear
Evan Blass / pocketnow.com:
LG's Remaining 2011 Smartphones Revealed (Images)
 Earlier Items: 
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Ticket To Ride: Uber Testing Reduced Pricing In San Francisco
Discussion: Inside Facebook and Uber Blog
Zach Epstein / BGR:
T-Mobile says G-Slate is 200% faster than iPad 2, 300% faster than XOOM
Discussion: PadGadget and 9to5Mac
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
The next-generation iPod touch's white front revealed?
Sue Megrund / App Advice:
T-Mobile Now Selling iPhone And iPad Compatible SIM Cards
Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:
Apple Laptops Vulnerable To Hack That Kills Or Corrupts Batteries
 

 
From Mediagazer:

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

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

 
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