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2:55 PM ET, August 4, 2011

Techmeme

 Top Items: 
MG Siegler / TechCrunch:
Google Threw A Punch, Microsoft Fires Back With A Missile  —  Earlier today, Google came out swinging.  Seemingly sick of being continuously slapped in the face by the patent issue, Google's SVP and Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond, wrote a blog post calling out several of Google's rivals …
RELATED:
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Google: Patently Absurd  —  David Drummond, Google senior vice president and chief legal officer, “When Patents Attack Android”: … So if Google had acquired the rights to these patents, that would have been OK.  But when others acquired them, it's a “hostile, organized campaign”.
Mary Branscombe / TechRadar.com:
How Microsoft makes money from Android  —  In Depth: And more secret Microsoft patent profits revealed  —  The recent revelation that Microsoft makes a packet from Android might come as a surprise.  —  But Android isn't the only competitor Microsoft makes money from - and more often than not, the competition is happy with the deal.
Discussion: Electronista
Mark Douglas / The Big Blog:
Skype 2.1 for Android enables video on majority of Android devices  —  We promised to add support for additional handsets when we launched our new Skype for Android app with video a couple of weeks ago.  Today we are pleased to announce that with the release of Skype 2.1 for Android …
Jack Purcher / Patently Apple:
Apple's Inductive Charging Patent Finally Surfaces  —  On August 4, 2011, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals two specific concepts of an “Inductive Charging System” for use with iOS devices.  The first concept involves an oddly designed charging tower.
John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:
iPhone 5, “Simplified iPhone 4” Headed to China Telecom in October?  —  If Apple hasn't yet signed an agreement to bring the iPhone to China Telecom, it must be very close to doing so.  In July, Reuters reported that long-running discussions between the two companies were moving toward a deal …
Seth Weintraub / 9to5Mac:
Lion USB sticks now available for $69 through AppleCare, free to some  —  Our good friends in Applecare alerted us to the fact that Lion USB keys were now available and in stock at Apple.  While officially they will cost a lofty $69, it appears, at least from the wording above …
Bloomberg:
Sony's Debut of PlayStation Vita Player in U.S., Europe to Miss Christmas  —  Sony Corp. (6758) plans to begin sales of the PlayStation Vita portable player in the U.S. and Europe next year, missing the key Christmas-holiday shopping season.  —  The product will initially launch in Japan …
Ben Parr / Mashable!:
Google To Revive Realtime Search, Thanks to Google+  —  Google Realtime Search is coming back soon, and it will include data from Google+ and other social sources.  —  Realtime Search was, until last month, the search giant's method of delivering relevant data from Twitter, Facebook and other social media services in real time.
Alex Sirota / Yahoo! Developer Network:
Introducing Yahoo! WebPlayer  —  Today we're announcing the first beta version of Yahoo! WebPlayer.  At its core, Yahoo! WebPlayer is a powerful Web based media player written in HTML and JavaScript.  It supports a variety of video and audio media formats and services, for example Yahoo! Video, YouTube, MP3 or WMA.
Discussion: WebProNews and @jason
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Security researchers hack Google's Chrome OS  —  When Google first started talking about its Google Chrome OS software a few years ago, one of the selling points was the promise that it would come with much better built-in security than other operating systems.
Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
FYI Google, Facebook's Former CTO Says It Would Take Two Years For ~250 People To Build A Clone  —  As the fruits of Google's rush to build a social network are now achingly public, someone has asked a pretty apropos question on Quora, “How long would it take to build Facebook as of July 2011?”
Discussion: ZDNet, All Facebook and Quora
Ben / Carrypad:
Exclusive: Eight Leaked Sony S1 and S2 Screenshots Reveal Honeycomb 3.2, Chumby App, Proprietary Adapter and More  —  Today I went snooping around Sony's support site where I was able to uncover some support documents for their upcoming S1 and S2 tablets that have gone public before they were supposed to.
Ryan Paul / Ars Technica:
Study: Android is least open of open source mobile platforms  —  Market research firm VisionMobile has published a report that evaluates the openness of eight major open source software projects.  The study—which was partly funded by the European Union—focuses largely on open governance …
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Warner Bros. Pulls Back the Curtain on Flixster Collections, Its Ambitious Digital Video Bet  —  Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes spent a lot of yesterday's earnings call discussing the company's future in digital video.  Here's one of his focal points: Flixster Collections …
Seth Weintraub / 9to5Mac:
Jailbreak hotspot-ers: AT&T is moving you to a tiered data plan involuntarily  —  We've gotten word from some readers that AT&T is moving forward and removing unlimited plans for users who jailbreak iPhones to tether or hotspot off of AT&T's unlimited data plans (for those grandfathered):
Ryan Kim / GigaOM:
New York can't and shouldn't try to rival Silicon Valley  —  New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, envisions his city wresting the title of “technology capital” of the U.S. from Silicon Valley and has embarked on an ambitious plan to build or expand a science and engineering campus in New York.
Justin Rubio / IGN:
Leaked Verizon Document Reveals New Galaxy Tab, 4G Curve, and More  —  Provider's 2011 smartphone and tablet roadmap revealed.  —  This year's holiday season is just a couple of months away and it looks like Verizon has quite a lineup prepared for your shopping needs.
Bill Pardi / Windows Phone Blog:
Look who's talking: Speech in Mango  —  On a recent run around town with my wife to grab dinner and pick up one of the kids, a text message came in from my son.  Not an unusual event in itself, but what made this message interesting is that my phone read it aloud to me — and I replied back with my voice.
Mark Gurman / 9to5Mac:
Vonage releases Time to Call iPhone app with low-cost international calling over 3G/WiFi  —  Vonage has released a new application for the App Store called Time to Call.  The application is free to download and offers low-cost international calling to users.
Frederic Lardinois / SiliconFilter:
Jimmy Wales: Wikipedia is Losing Contributors  —  Few websites have changed the way we access knowledge as much as Wikipedia.  Now, however, it looks like the online encyclopedia is hitting some snags, as the number of volunteers who write and edit its articles is getting smaller.
Kevin Michaluk / CrackBerry.com blogs:
Do Not Panic PlayBook owners... Android App Player still looking to be on schedule  —  A rumor hit the internet yesterday in regards to the much-anticipated Android App Player for the BlackBerry PlayBook stating that the feature won't arrive until “late fall” despite RIM previously stating that it will arrive late summer.
Discussion: Electronista
The Daily Groupon:
We call it Grouptiva (Groupon Acquires Obtiva)  —  Today, Groupon is announcing that it is acquiring Obtiva (www.obtiva.com) the largest Ruby on Rails software development firm in Chicago.  —  We've been working side-by-side with our Obtiva colleagues since way back in 2009, when Groupon had a handful of engineers.
Eliot Van Buskirk / Evolver.fm:
Former Google Engineer Builds Turntable.fm Clone: Rolling.fm  —  One good turn(table) deserves another, one might say.  —  Hot on the heels of Turntable.fm's big reported round of funding comes Rolling.fm, a Turntable.fm clone that does just about everything the original service does.
Discussion: Techdirt, Pulse2 and All New Musings
Bing:
Mall Maps and Map Search come to Bing for Mobile  —  Today, we're happy to announce that we have added mall maps and map search to Bing for Mobile Browse.  You may recall that we initially announced mall maps for the desktop last December.  Since then we've been listening to your feedback …
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
French online deal firm wants EU probe into Google  —  (Reuters) - French online daily deals company Deal du Jour has complained about Google's business practices to EU antitrust regulators, the latest company to take its grievances about the web search giant to the European Commission.
Killian Bell / Cult of Mac:
Apple Already Approving App Updates for iOS 5 — Launch Next Month?  —  Although its public release isn't scheduled until this fall, Apple has already begun approving apps for its upcoming iOS 5 software for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch — suggesting the firmware could launch as early as next month alongside the iPhone 5.
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
Meltwater Acquires Mark Cuban-Backed Realtime Search Engine IceRocket  —  Social media monitoring company Meltwater Group has acquired IceRocket, a realtime social search engine.  Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.  —  IceRocket is a real-time search engine that crawls over 200 million blogs …
 
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 More Items: 
Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Pirate Pays Up: Warner Music Cashes $12 Million LimeWire Check
Sara Forden / Bloomberg:
VeriFone Cleared to Buy Hypercom in Settlement With U.S.
Discussion: Network World and Reuters
Leena Rao / TechCrunch:
LocalResponse Buys Social TV Advertising And Check-In Platform Philo
Discussion: VentureBeat, GigaOM and VatorNews
Amar Toor / Engadget:
T-Mobile loses 50,000 customers in Q2 2011, revenue dips slightly
Jack Kim / Reuters:
North Korean hackers hired to attack South Korea game network
Discussion: Guardian and Inquirer
Joseph Volpe / Engadget:
Microsoft Research's .NET Gadgeteer steps out into the light, shoots daggers at Arduino (video)
Discussion: Computerworld, SlashGear and TechCrunch
 Earlier Items: 
John Cook / GeekWire:
Why Zillow insiders want to keep the stock above $25 per share
Discussion: The Business Insider, Thanks:toddbishop
Alyson Shontell / The Business Insider:
THE BILLION-DOLLAR CLUB: 12 Startups With Skyrocketing Valuations
 

 
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
 
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