Techmeme: WSJ, Kobo falling in line in Apple's App Store, Google Books is out (Seth Weintraub/9to5Mac)

11:15 AM ET, July 25, 2011

Top Items:

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Facebook's iPad App Is Hidden Inside Of Their iPhone App — There are things out there all around us that we often miss because we're just not looking. This is perhaps most true in the tech world, where thousands of secrets are out there in the wild, hidden in code.

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Facebook's Secret iPad App Exposed [Pictures]

Discussion: The Business Insider, MacRumors, SplatF, ITProPortal, IntoMobile, App Advice and MacGazette.net, Thanks:srikardhanakoti

Robert Scoble / Google+:

I talked with Google VP Vic Gundotra tonight (disclaimer, he used to be my boss at Microsoft). He is reading everything we have written about names, and such. Both pro and con. — He says he is making some tough choices and that he will be judged over time how those choices turn out.

Discussion: CNET News, Pulp Tech Blog, @jowyang, SlashGear and The Next Web

Jay Freeman / Google+:
In the last couple days, Google has taken to quite actively enforcing its “real name” rule

Discussion: Google Watch, DailyTech, Redmond Pie, iDownloadBlog, @notmattbellamy, Robert Scoble and @dannysullivan

Jon Evans / TechCrunch:
Google Plus Has A Problem. Fear Not: I Have A Solution

Discussion: thinq_, PC Pro, ITProPortal, Examiner, ZDNet, InfoWorld and Pulp Tech Blog

Reuters:

Chinese city orders closures of two fake Apple shops — (Reuters) - Chinese officials in Kunming ordered two fake Apple shops to close, a local newspaper reported on Monday, an apparent reaction to a storm of media attention about an unauthorized and elaborate hoax store in the southwestern city.

Alistair Barr / Reuters:

Amazon's next billion-dollar business eyed — (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's cloud computing unit may be its next billion-dollar business and analysts will be watching for clues on how fast this secretive unit is growing when the Internet retailer reports results next week.

Discussion: The Business Insider and FierceVoIP

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Airbnb Bags $112 Million In Series B From Andreessen, DST And General Catalyst — The scrappy apartment sharing startup has just raised $112 million at a one billion plus valuation led by Andreessen Horowitz. We're hearing that the split is around 60 million from Andreessen …

Discussion: Market Wire, Fast Company, New York Times, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, Venture Capital Dispatch, GigaOM and Techie Buzz

Ben Horowitz / ben's blog:
Meet Our Newest Portfolio Company, Airbnb

Discussion: Financial Times, VatorNews and Social Markets

StreetInsider.com:

Research In Motion Limited (RIMM) Cuts 2,000 Jobs and Announces New Upper Management Positions — Research In Motion Limited (NASDAQ: RIMM) today provided an update on changes in responsibilities amongst the company's senior management team, as well as additional details about the cost optimization program announced on June 16th.

Timothy Williams / New York Times:

Town Turns to iPads in Cost-Cutting Move — While Apple started selling iPads to the public only 15 months ago, the 1.5-pound tablet computers seem well on their way toward ubiquity. This year, Alaska Airlines began issuing them to pilots to replace the 25 pounds of paper flight manuals they were required to carry on flights.

Steve Gillmor / TechCrunch:

The revolution will not be televised — Seems like the Good Old Days are here again as Google+ invites continue to pile up in email. Email is that Y2K technology that jumped the shark in the middle of the decade, back when Twitter introduced realtime direct messages.

Felix Salmon:

The cost of patent trolls — I love This American Life's investigation into patent troll Nathan Myhrvold and his company Intellectual Ventures. You should go read — or listen to — the whole thing, but in a nutshell, they explored what happened if they took Intellectual Ventures at its word.

Matt Rosoff / The Business Insider: Who Does Patent-Trading Firm Intellectual Ventures Work For, Anyway?

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Intellectual Ventures responds to This American Life exposé: ‘We fundamentally disagree’

Discussion: Techdirt and TechFlash

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:

Google engineer Steve Lacey victim of Kirkland car wreck — Google engineer Steve Lacey, 43, a veteran of the Seattle region's tech community who worked for more than a decade at Microsoft, died Sunday in a car crash in Kirkland. — KING 5 News reports that that Lacey was the victim …

Discussion: KING-TV, Robert Scoble and WebProNews

John Battelle / John Battelle's Searchblog:

Looky Here, It's Me, In an Ad, On Facebook! Is This Legal? Allowed? Who Knows?! — In the past 12 hours, about ten friends (and counting) have sent me a copy of this ad on Facebook for a company called “AppSumo.” I have nearly 5000 “friends” on Facebook, a problem I've written about in the past, but seeing this ad threw me.

Jon Gordon / Minnesota Public Radio:

The man who mapped Kazakhstan — Itching to reconnect with his native country a couple of years ago, University of Minnesota graphic design student Kyril Nagoda decided to look up his hometown of Shakhtinsk, Kazakhstan, on Google Maps. He got an unpleasant surprise: His old haunts in the former Soviet republic were largely unmapped.

Seth Weintraub / 9to5Mac:

WSJ, Kobo falling in line in Apple's App Store, Google Books is out — The WSJ is reporting that Apple is laying down the law on apps that try to link externally to other payment systems in the App Store. The WSJ's own app and Kobo, another eBookseller were both forced to remove external links to payment stems from within their apps.

Alyson Shontell / The Business Insider:

Restaurant Discount Site Savored Snags A Partnership With OpenTable — Savored, the restaurant discount and discovery site formerly known as Village Vines, tells us it is partnering with dinner reservation company OpenTable. — Starting today, OpenTable will have Savored 30% Off Deals on its San Francisco Bay Area homepage.

Discussion: AllThingsD and Bits

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Facebook Moves Into Its New Campus [Photos] — Click to view slideshow. — Just like it told us it would back in February, Facebook has started to move its first group of employees into Building 10 of its new Menlo Park campus in the old Sun Building on the Bayfront Expressway. — How do we know this?

John Avlon / The Daily Beast:

The Web's Stealth Presidential Race — Big names have quietly launched an Internet presidential race that will offer the winner a real election ballot spot in all 50 states. Will this be 2012's spoiler? — Imagine what our election system might look like if it were designed today …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, @shawngude and @mmckinnon

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:
Make Way for the Radical Center

Discussion: @timoreilly, Pitos Blog and Victus Spiritus

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