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9:50 AM ET, July 29, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple Passes Nokia and Holds Off Samsung to Become World's Top Smartphone Vendor [Updated]  —  Just hours after research firm IDC released data showing Apple dramatically outpacing the overall mobile phone industry in year-over-year growth for the second quarter of 2011 …
RELATED:
IDC:
Worldwide Mobile Phone Market Grew More Than 11% in the Second Quarter; Feature Phones Decline for First Time in Almost 2 Years, According to IDC  —  The worldwide mobile phone market grew 11.3% year over year in the second quarter of 2011 (2Q11), despite a weaker feature phone market, which declined for the first time since 3Q09.
Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft's latest Google-compete weapon: The Gmail man  —  Microsoft managed to keep its 12,000 or so attendees of its annual Microsoft Global Exchange sales conference from tweeting and blogging company secrets last week.  But at least one enterprising attendee managed to grab …
Cleve Nettles / 9to5Mac:
AT&T to implement data throttling in early October, just in time for iPhone 5  —  A new change for AT&T Wireless' Unlimited Data subscribers will soon be taking place.  Rumored to be starting in the first week of October, we've heard that AT&T will start throttling the data speeds of the network's top data hogs.
Around The World and Back Again:
Airbnb Nightmare: No End In Sight  —  Somewhere around 1:00 am yesterday, my Airbnb.com horror story was picked up by Hacker News; to say this story has gone viral in the past two days would be the understatement of my life.  I sit here now, taken aback and utterly astounded as I witness …
RELATED:
LAUNCH:
Airbnb Confirms Insurance for “in Case Your Pad Gets Trashed”
Electronista:
Samsung's Galaxy S II teaser page for the US goes live  —  Phone expected to ship next month  —  Samsung has given a strong indication that the company's popular new smartphone, the Galaxy S II, will be hitting US shores soon.  Samsung has posted a new live webpage for the phone.
Zach Holman:
Steve Jobs Sometimes Lies to You  —  I love Apple.  I love Apple so much that if someone gave me a bulletproof vest made out of MacBook Airs, I'd strap it to my back and take a bullet to my chest to protect my precious aluminum friends.  —  But Steve's lying to us when it comes to FaceTime.
Discussion: The Business Insider
Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Alibaba, Yahoo, Softbank settle Alipay rift  —  Alibaba, Yahoo and Softbank said they have settled a financial squabble over Alipay, a payment system in China.  —  The companies have dueled over disclosure and legality of Alibaba's move to spin off Alipay and Friday's agreement puts the issue to rest.
Twitter Blog:
Timely Tweets: Now easier to see  —  We all come to Twitter to connect with the latest information on the topics and people we care about.  So when we decide to follow a favorite brand, business or charitable organization, we expect to be among the first to get a special announcement, access to exclusive content or a great offer.
RELATED:
Christopher Trout / Engadget:
Acer Iconia Tab A100 finally available in August for $300  —  It's been a long and twisted road for Acer's 7-inch Honeycomb tablet, but after all the starts and stops, we've finally got an ETA for the Iconia Tab A100.  According to an email sent out to Acer retail partners today …
Ben Parr / Mashable!:
Google+ Gets a Feature Update Center  —  In response to user feedback, Google has launched a new section of the Google+ center dedicated to Google+ feature updates.  —  The “What's new in Google+” section is essentially a list of release notes for the Google+ Project.
Josh Ong / AppleInsider:
Apple's $76B in cash reserves surpasses US government operating balance  —  New figures from the U.S. Treasury Department indicate that the government has a total operating cash balance of $73.768 billion, less than Apple's own war chest of $75.876 billion.  —  As noted by Matt Hartley …
Robert Andrews / paidContent:UK:
Virgin Will Price Spotify ‘Significantly Less’ Than Spotify Does  —  Virgin Media (NSDQ: VMED) CEO Neil Berkett says he will bundle Spotify with his broadband service for a “very, very low monthly subscription”.  —  Spotify charges £9.99 for its Premium service.
Discussion: Fast Company, thinq_ and Music Ally
Matt Rosoff / The Business Insider:
STUDY: Internet Explorer Users Are Dumber  —  A research firm posted an IQ test on its Web site and then compiled the results from more than 100,000 users.  —  It found that there was no substantial difference between users of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera.  —  But Internet Explorer users had IQs below average.
New York Times:
In Baring Facts of Train Crash, Blogs Erode China Censorship  —  BEIJING — “After all the wind and storm, what's going on with the high-speed train?” read the prophetic message posted last Saturday evening on the Chinese microblog Sina Weibo.  “It's crawling slower than a snail.  I hope nothing happens to it.”
Brian Womack / Bloomberg:
Google Buys Batch of Inventions From IBM as It Aims to Build Patent Hoard  —  Google Inc. (GOOG), facing a growing threat of intellectual-property lawsuits, acquired a batch of patents this month from International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) to bolster its portfolio.
Jon Mitchell / ReadWriteWeb:
Cancer Survivors Build Social Network For Social Good  —  The social Web has a tendency to fold in on itself.  Shortly after the launch of Google Plus, for example, users began to complain that it was only being used to talk about Google Plus.  Drew Olanoff, currently the community manager …
Thanks:thatdrew
Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:
Seattle Places Police Calls on Twitter  —  SEATTLE — A flurry of Twitter messages that began early Tuesday morning from the Seattle Police Department puzzled many Twitter users.  Was there a sudden crime wave in Seattle?  Was the city under attack?  Had a computer gone haywire?
Discussion: Gizmodo
Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Why The Atlantic joined up with Pulse — and what the app's usage stats can tell data-hungry publishers  —  Just last week Pulse struck a new partnership agreement, adding The Atlantic, The Atlantic Wire, and The National Journal to its list of featured content providers.
Dan Howley / LAPTOP Magazine:
Hands-On: Skyfire's Flash-Friendly VideoQ App Brings Flash to iOS  —  Skyfire, the people who brought you the flash-capable iOS web browser of the same name, have released Skyfire VideoQ, an app that lets users view flash videos from any iOS browser including Safari.
Jan Ozer / Streaming Media:
WebM Patent Fight Ahead for Google?  —  MPEG LA says that 12 patent holders have stepped forward with patents they believe are essential to the VP8 standard.  A patent pool license could be next.  —  In February, MPEG LA announced a call for patents essential to the VP8 video codec specification as outlined in Google's WebM release.
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Verizon Wireless Approves $10 Billion Distribution to Co-Owners  —  Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. wireless carrier, approved a $10 billion distribution to owners Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc, the first payout of that kind in more than five years.
Discussion: Wall Street Journal
Dante Cesa / Engadget:
‘Official-looking’ pic of white Galaxy S II leaks, unicorns right around the corner  —  Albino Nexus S, meet your better specced, bleached out, dual-core nemesis — the mythical white Samsung Galaxy S II.  The leaked snap is certainly timely, coming in only one day after a UK retailer promised …
 
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 More Items: 
Kim Zetter / Threat Level:
Document: FBI Surveillance Geeks Fear, Love New Gadgets
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple Reinvents How 3D Displays Could One Day Deliver Content
Robert X. Cringely / I, Cringely:
Bandwidth caps are rate hikes
Darryl K. Taft / eWEEK Europe UK:
Oracle Java 7 Looks To Community For Innovation
 Earlier Items: 
Rachel King / Between the Lines Blog:
Motorola Mobility: 440K Xoom tablets shipped in Q2, but earnings outlook weak
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Accused AT&T-iPad hacker Andrew Auernheimer in plea talks
Discussion: DailyTech, 9to5Google, CNET News and TechEye
Declan McCullagh / CNET News:
House panel approves broadened ISP snooping bill
Discussion: eWeek, Digital Trends and The Raw Story
Timothy B. Lee / Disruptive Economics:
The Supreme Court Should Invalidate Software Patents
Discussion: The Business Insider
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
That Didn't Take Long: Spotify Sued For Patent Infringement Just Weeks After Entering US Market